Crackling sounds came one after another. Code Name B retreated while tossing out explosives he carried, but the expected booms never came. He watched in disbelief as the miniature bombs, grenades, and even the bullets he fired all floated in midair as if they had lost all gravity.
"Point Swap!"
"Intermittent Blindness!"
"Suffocating Invisibility!"
...
After trying multiple items and characteristics without success, panic finally appeared on Code Name B's face. He ran blindly forward, only to step into nothingness and plummet into the boundless darkness below.
"Aaaaah!"
Over by the tree, Zeng Tai glanced at Code Name B, who had been motionless in place since earlier. He used his clothes to cover his wound, then looked at the man standing next to B and called out loudly, "Are you Xu Huo?"
Xu Huo finished off Code Name B with one strike from his sword. After claiming his belongings, he found no black rain item and felt a slight disappointment. He picked up the flash device lying on the ground—it was a high-frequency piece of equipment.
If he hadn't misjudged, this player had been trying to put the device into the water. Could there be something else beneath the depression besides the item?
Just as he was about to call out the Painting Woman to ask, the person propped against the tree spoke again. "Hey! I'm asking if you're Xu Huo!"
Xu Huo glanced back at the few stray cats silently creeping closer. With a flick of his hand, he sprinkled a small bottle of Intoxicatingly Good Stuff, and the cats that had been unwilling to leave immediately arched their backs and retched earnestly before fleeing in fright.
Zeng Tai's protective suit was torn, so he naturally smelled the scent too. His keen sense of smell was immediately overwhelmed, and tears and snot streamed down his face as he leaned against the tree to vomit. Between heaves, he managed to point at Xu Huo and say, "Don't... get cocky... my companions will be here soon!"
The scene was unbearable to witness. Xu Huo chose to look away.
Just then, Wang Chaoqing and several Special Defense Department players arrived. The former recognized Xu Huo the moment he saw the sword in his hand and immediately shouted in surprise, "Brother Xu!"
"He's Xu Huo? Doesn't look like his photo at all!" another player muttered.
"Who travels the world without a couple of fake faces?" Wang Chaoqing said cheerfully as he came over to greet him. But before he could get another word out, a gurgling bubble rose from the depression.
Everyone froze. Then a second and third bubble appeared. Sensing something underwater racing toward the shore at incredible speed, Xu Huo kicked Wang Chaoqing out of the way and swung his sword in a single slash.
"Shiiing!" A half-human, half-mud-covered creature was cleaved in two, but it didn't die immediately even after falling. Its upper half struggled, making strange guttural sounds as it dragged itself toward Xu Huo.
Stomping on its head, Xu Huo pinned it down with his sword to get a clear look. It was a mutant that had developed fish-like features. On each side of its neck were three gill-like slits, which kept opening and closing now that it was out of the water.
"Is this a mermaid?" Wang Chaoqing, who had been kicked, walked over rubbing his stomach.
Zeng Tai could barely hide his terror. "Does this mean everyone exposed to the black rain will eventually turn into this?"
Xu Huo kicked the mutant away, then turned toward the depression. "More are coming!"
"Boom!"
This time, it wasn't just one mutant emerging. Though they had grown gills, their running speed was no slower. In the blink of an eye, they had reached the shore.
"Don't let them escape!" Xu Huo shouted a warning. "The black rain items might be in their stomachs!"
Wang Chaoqing and the others were shocked. Without time to ask further questions, they unleashed their items to kill the mutants. Meanwhile, the helicopter in the sky opened fire in coordination.
Water splashed everywhere in the depression, but only a few mutants were actually killed. Instead, several Special Defense Department members sustained serious injuries—these mutants were clearly more ferocious than the ones inside the city!
But this fierce exchange didn't last long. At some point, the rampaging mutants suddenly stopped, all raising their heads in the same direction. Then they abandoned their current prey and sprinted madly in that direction.
"That's the headquarters direction! They're heading toward the city!" Zeng Tai's face went pale. Ignoring his injuries, he gave chase.
The Special Defense Department players and the helicopter quickly shifted their positions. Xu Huo didn't rush to leave. Instead, he called for the Painting Woman by the depression.
After a moment, the Painting Woman slowly emerged from underwater, her head covered in water plants as she dragged a corpse with its belly already ripped open.
"Does it have items on it?" Xu Huo understood at a glance. The Y Country players had hidden the mutants under the depression in advance. Of course, these mutants wouldn't obediently follow orders, and smuggling so many mutants right under the Special Defense Department's nose was no easy feat. So these people had most likely come here before they had fully transformed into mutants.
The earlier player had used the high-frequency device to wake the mutants, but Xu Huo had intercepted it midway. The reason the mutants were now awake was probably because of the Painting Woman.
The Painting Woman pulled out a Rubik's Cube-sized block from behind her back and handed it to him, then pointed at the corpse's stomach to indicate she had taken it from inside.
Xu Huo took it and examined it. It looked more like an electronic device. On the front screen was a cloud icon with heavy rain, and the raindrops on it were still flickering.
Since the item's holder hadn't died yet, the item couldn't be stored in the item slot. He tried putting it into the luggage compartment, but that didn't work either.
"Do you recognize this item?" he asked the Painting Woman. The item itself didn't seem toxic.
The Painting Woman shook her head. Then she reached out to catch the rain, signaling that it was getting lighter.
Xu Huo also noticed that as soon as the item left the depression, the rain had weakened somewhat. The water droplets that had been flowing backward into the air above the depression also decreased rapidly. But the rain was still black rain.
He handed the item back to the Painting Woman and told her to take it back under the depression.
Logically, items were safest when carried by a player, since train tickets could maximize a player's safety. But those players had hidden the item inside a mutant's stomach.
This suggested two things. First, this high-level item required proximity to a large open water source to work. Second, even if their identities were exposed, they couldn't retrieve the item.
The latter had multiple possibilities. Perhaps the item had usage restrictions and couldn't be recalled under certain circumstances—though that was less likely. Alternatively, the player who held this high-level item wasn't here.
The other players had gone to Wenshan. The player left here to guard the depression and wake the mutants wasn't the item's holder. In Xu Huo's view, to protect the item, the holder should have been the one guarding the depression. Even hiding under the depression wasn't impossible. So why hadn't they done that, choosing instead to have mutants carry the item?
Xu Huo's first thought was about the item's restriction conditions, but surely they couldn't be so harsh that even the holder couldn't approach the item. The mutants, once awakened, had quickly been drawn away. The signal must have been pre-arranged. Having the mutants wake up and head toward Capital City was also part of the plan. Now headquarters was in chaos, swarming with mutants. The item holder hiding among them wouldn't be unusual. But using mutants to carry the item was such a flawed method that it struck him as strange.
