Chapter 705: Chapter 474: Sober
Because the threads encasing the stage were destroyed by the rocket, the survivors were amazed to discover that not only was the audience platform shrouded in deception, but the stage performance had always been an illusion as well.
After the threads disappeared, the singers and dancers on the stage still stood in place, but the once radiant and lifelike beauty of the female singer was now clearly not of a living person, but that of a puppet.
Although her joints and facial expressions were incredibly lifelike, anyone’s first glance would reveal that she was not alive.
It wasn’t just the singer on stage, even the dancers, who were still performing, were not living beings. Even after the illusion vanished, they did not stop their ongoing performance.
Some survivors, after seeing the situation on stage, felt something was amiss and halted in their steps, while others, whose friends had been taken into the audience seats, now trapped in tanks, quickly rushed towards the audience area, attempting to rescue their friends from the tanks.
As they approached the tanks, the unknown liquid inside suddenly transformed into threads, instantly ensnaring the survivors who were nearing the audience seats, and then dragged those now cocooned survivors into the tanks.
Zachary, after observing the entire process, immediately associated it with the earlier illusion, where audience members walked out from the audience platform and with no resistance, returned to their seats with the survivors.
It turned out that this whole process was also an illusion. The so-called audience members in the audience platform were actually threads formed by the unknown liquid in the tanks, directly cocooning the survivors, who, being controlled, naturally would not resist.
Zachary noticed that there were five rows of seats in the audience area, each row with eight large tanks. If his guess was correct, to move from the middle courtyard to the back, they would either need a special method or use forty survivors to fill all the tanks, which would allow the remaining people to proceed to the back courtyard unimpeded.
However, now the survivors had already cracked the stage illusion, so the next steps were simple: destroy the stage, and like Skyler breaking the tank, all would be solved.
"Stop the singing, at a time like this, isn’t it annoying."
One of the survivors, noticing changes in his own body, became extremely agitated, and out of frustration, took out a Molotov cocktail, lit it, and hurled it towards the center of the stage.
Without the thread’s protection, the Molotov cocktail thrown by the survivor hit the stage without hindrance.
The bottle shattered upon impact, and the flames spewing from its mouth instantly ignited the liquid splashing in all directions, setting the stage ablaze.
Even so, the singers and dancers on stage did not stop. Although the fire had reached their feet, their performance did not cease but gained a sorrowful beauty under the reflection of the flames.
While some wanted to destroy the performing stage, others wanted to rescue friends trapped in the tanks.
Having seen the fate of those who attempted to save others, yet ended up ensnared by the threads and pulled into the tanks, the rest of the people, though eager to help, dared not approach the audience seats.
Then someone astute thought that although they feared damaging the tanks that held their friends, there were many empty tanks in the audience seating area.
If they just destroyed those tanks, once there were no more empty tanks left, they naturally would not be captured by the liquid in the tanks.
The survivor who had this epiphany did not hesitate. After all, the faces of those trapped showed they were suffering; driven by urgency, they no longer cared about other matters.
Since there had been a loud explosion from the rocket earlier, they were no longer concerned that using guns might attract other monsters to the place.
Because of its experimental nature, the survivor directly fired a burst at an empty tank. After the gun clicked empty, everyone turned their eyes towards the tank.
To their surprise, the tank, full of liquid, had developed dozens of holes, and as it shattered, the liquid spilled out all over the ground.
Seeing this result, the other armed survivors began to assist.
As everyone present had guessed, after the liquid from the tanks that hadn’t captured anyone leaked out, the remaining intact tanks in the audience seats all contained trapped survivors.
Learning from previous lessons, one brave survivor volunteered to risk his own safety and approached the audience seats.
He walked towards the seats, and when he reached a tank’s side, unattacked, he finally relaxed, pulled out his weapon, and smashed the tank in front of him.
As the liquid continued to pour out of the tank, the survivor who had been trapped inside collapsed on the ground and then opened his eyes, emitting a painful howl.
After watching the entire process and ensuring it was safe, a group of survivors quickly rushed to the audience area to rescue those trapped in the tanks.
