Chapter 1645: Chapter 1645: Lock-on Target and Moving Mosaic
Liao Jie isn’t part of the top tier among Rank-B players, at least not when it comes to spiritual strength, so when he frowned and looked at the inquiry desk on the first floor, Xu Huo knew his downfall in the hospital was just a matter of time.
Still waiting for other players from Hope City to join, Xu Huo first contacted Cong Yu, who was hiding in a locked room.
Since Tan-skinned City Dweller was hijacked, Cong Yu had neither the time nor the mood to watch Beneath the Dimension. Now, he was hiding behind the door of a hospital ward, looking at a window sealed shut with iron bars. He instinctively tested its hardness, but the next second, he heard footsteps coming from the direction of the stairs, as if they were approaching him.
Cong Yu quietly returned to the door, listened attentively to the sounds outside, and when he lifted his eyes, he suddenly saw a person sitting on the bed opposite him. He was startled, but seeing the person waving their hands in the air calmed him down. Listening to someone opening doors one by one, he tightened his nerves and opened his game panel.
Originally preparing to contact other companions, he suddenly saw Xu Huo’s message and instinctively clicked on it.
It contained several antitoxins, stating that these were specialized gene potions obtained from Midsummer Night’s River of Stars, specifically aimed at the people of Zone 013 to quickly eliminate the parasites on them.
Seeing the words above, Cong Yu’s eyes became moist, not because he believed the potion could completely save the Tan-skinned City Dweller, but because he felt the potion came too late, as those children who suddenly fell ill had already died the day before yesterday.
He then read a new message, after which he had a moment of perplexity. He patted his head, unsure whether what he saw was real.
Is there truly such a coincidence in the world?
But now he had no other choice. He could only quickly respond to the message and pass the message to other companions about to reach Tan-skinned City according to Xu Huo’s agreed code.
After doing all this, he nervously stared at his personal panel until Xu Huo’s side replied, at which point he slightly relaxed, then felt a bit self-mocking, yet also carried a hint of hope, hoping someone might fall from the sky to save Tan-skinned City’s fate.
Meanwhile, the footsteps outside drew nearer.
Cong Yu gripped a short knife in his hand, lightly resting his hand on the door handle, focusing his gaze outside, ready to surprise his opponent when they opened the door. However, the handle merely turned slightly without further movement, followed by the sound of the door being pushed open from upstairs.
He wasn’t sure what was going on. After waiting quietly for two seconds, he opened the door to find the corridor empty.
"Tap, tap, tap..." Footsteps sounded again above him.
Cong Yu glanced up and immediately withdrew his gaze, preparing to hide back in the room, but as he turned, he saw another person on the bed behind him, looking identical in appearance and attire.
The person originally waving their hands in the air suddenly turned their head, staring at him as he stopped moving.
Cong Yu frowned, exited the room, and went across, but he didn’t notice that the instant he closed the door, the "twins" on the bed became "triplets".
The Seventeenth Hospital is a special area capable of interfering with a person’s spirit. While Xu Huo’s psychic power couldn’t yet influence others externally, entering this area could achieve external interference effects. Similarly, the spiritual world that only oneself could see could be displayed in others’ eyes here, making it a powerful auxiliary.
Xu Huo had just completed the realization from "Mental Interference" to "Spiritual Control." Achieving immediate "control" by compressing the "interference process" wasn’t effective; his forced command could only impact players with moderate spiritual strength for a short time, and its effect weakened as the evolution rate of those being interfered with increased. Therefore, all he could manage now were minor "controls," merely making opponents dazed, unlike Dou Shengnan of the Guile Sound Knights, who could directly command others to die.
When the instance holder stayed in the hospital, all he could do was leverage the site’s special nature paired with his psychic power to interfere with incoming players. There’s also inherent risk in this process because interference requires gradual escalation and can’t be achieved in one go. However, for now, the risks and time involved in "psychological treatment" would be minimized, though sadly still several hours short of the prescribed treatment time.
Timing wasn’t favorable when they entered, so Xu Huo messed around with the Building Two, moving the position of the "important pathogen sample" to prevent Liao Jie and others from clearing it quickly. As for the hospital’s front doors, those are just a diversion; if luck is particularly good, rapid clearance might be possible. Nonetheless, he had Cong Yu stir things up to lure Liao Jie and others into moving about in the hospital, preventing them from clearing it, for as time stretches, the hospital becomes increasingly dangerous.
During this time, Xu Huo checked the yields from this instance.
Besides the fixed potion, White Notes, and Tickets, he added a primary characteristic.
[Lock-on Target: A passerby with the persistence of trekking and determination in pursuit of the truth also possesses extremely high tracking talents. Once this characteristic is used, a tracking chain forms between Passerby A and the tracked individual. When both appear in the same zone, this tracking chain automatically shows before Passerby A.]
[This characteristic remains valid despite changes in appearance or removal props used by the tracked individual. But changing the tracking target requires the completion of the previous track.]
The effect of this characteristic slightly resembles the special item "Thousand-Mile Fate Thread," which also forms a line on the tracked individual. However, it is capable of a certain level of danger prophecy. Whether the tracked person can bring benefits can be foreseen from the color of the line. However, this item can only be used within the same zone, and only once per person, becoming invalid if crossing zones.
The range of "Lock-on Target" is much wider, able to maintain target tracking for up to half a year. As long as both appear in the same zone, he can receive notifications, making tracking others or evading pursuit quite convenient.
It’s somewhat regrettable that he can only lock onto one person at a time.
A new extension characteristic was added under the main characteristic "Forgetting Switch":
[Moving Mosaic: Passerby A is only the center of attention during interviews; any other time, he should remain unnoticed. Since it’s best not to be noticed, he shouldn’t be noticed by machines either. But as machines lack autonomy, when Passerby A activates this characteristic, a special force covers his entire body, affecting all surveillance equipment and props, turning him into a moving mosaic on camera.]
[Note, this characteristic is only effective against surveillance equipment and props, not human eyes. Passerby A should beware not to use it to sneak into places like bathhouses and toilets.]
[Effective for three minutes, with a twenty-four-hour cooldown.]