Chapter 2604: Peril
Everyone’s vision changed. Normally, when an object is too close to the eyes, it becomes difficult for them to adjust to the distance and see the entire object clearly. But as they turned or looked up at the sound of the bell, an enormously magnified ghostly face filled their vision completely. They could feel something pressed against their face, yet the ghostly face in their view twisted and distorted like a shadow in a curved mirror, as if warping their vision along with it!
Among the five present—Xu Huo, Girl in the painting, Mr. Xi, Metal Token Player, and another District 001 player—their first reaction was to retreat, but their hands, feet, and bodies suddenly acted as though disconnected, unable to move according to their own will. Then a darkness enveloped them, something stuck to their faces, while it also seemed something was burrowing into their heads—they had unknowingly been fitted with headgear!
However, understanding the situation didn’t mean they could escape. They were acutely aware of the sensation of wearing the headgear now; not only was something burrowing into their heads, but the seemingly spacious headgear was also tightly bound to their skin, making breathing less smooth.
That wasn’t all. Through the mask of the headgear, their vision was blurry, yet they could see their hands flailing wildly. When they looked down, their feet were doing the same, and as their bodies swayed, suddenly many feet appeared all around them, all dancing, adorned with the ghost costumes of the Night Tour team, wearing ghost headgear.
The ringing of bells accompanied a dancing rhythm, along with indistinct chants emanating from somewhere, and the performers clad in ghost costumes formed a complete Night Tour team.
As Xu Huo involuntarily stepped into the Night Tour team, he was separated from the Girl in the painting and the others. Although he could sense them scattered at different positions within the team, in a state where his hands and feet were unresponsive and he couldn’t speak, his mind seemed to stagnate. His thoughts emptied, with the amplified chanting in his ears, and his only choice was to be controlled by the headgear, continuously dancing forward.
At this moment, players and props felt as distant as memories about to be erased; space and time lost their significance, as if his entire existence was reduced to one purpose...
"Beep beep beep, the hourly intelligent timekeeping system at your service. It’s time to take your medication..."
The cold electronic voice was like a bolt of Lightning splitting the blankness in Xu Huo’s mind, bringing all his memories rushing back. As he danced, he raised his hand to tear off the ghost headgear, but though his mind cleared, he hadn’t regained full control of his body—his movements were clearly delayed, just barely touching the headgear...
At that instant, dozens of white tendrils attacked from different directions at such speed that he had no chance to react. Even as he mobilized Psychic Power immediately, he could only block part of them, and some tendrils even pierced the barrier formed by Materialized Items!
"Bang!" An eerie force pulled at his legs, causing Xu Huo to suddenly kneel on the ground. His rigid body tilted, narrowly dodging the root headed straight for his forehead. In the following moments, his body leaned again, protecting his throat and heart from crucial positions, as his chest, abdomen, and limbs were pierced by several tendrils, avoiding this lethal attack!
"Kitty Grants You Three Lives" and "Lifelike Wax Figure" were exhausted in an instant, but it bought him a chance to catch his breath. As he looked up towards the ghosts that halted and all turned to face him, Xu Huo moved his fingers, and the spinning prop blade automatically sliced through the white tendrils piercing his limbs. With his arm barely able to move, he pressed down with one hand, and the gravity from the sudden tilt pressed all the ghosts surrounding him to the ground.
Of course, the white tendrils that couldn’t be fully cut off were dragged along, pulling Xu Huo’s pinned left leg two meters away. He was freed only by the timely rescue of the returning prop blade tool.
The gravitational suppression was temporary; soon, a few ghosts slowly stood against the force, and simultaneously, the clothing on the ghost actors began to peel off. They tunneled underground following the suppression and in an instant gathered underneath Xu Huo!
When the Water Rubik’s Cube barrier wrapped his entire body, the ghostly clothes emerged like a flock of birds from the ground, one piece after another sticking to him. Countless white tendrils instantly wrapped around him, forming a massive white cocoon. At this moment, a ghostly figure emerged behind the ghosts, wielding an ax far taller than itself, and slashed down toward the cocoon single-handedly!
"Get out!" A roar erupted from within the cocoon. The figure holding the ax paused briefly but quickly returned to its state. In the next second, a precise Time Force fell upon it, and in a flash, this ghostly figure was hollowed out and collapsed. The descending ax swept across the ground, scattering fragments of a small heap of incomplete white bones.
The black blade pierced the cocoon, slicing upward, and Xu Huo leaped out. After tearing off the already broken headgear, he completely regained control of his body, making no stops, he immediately jumped out of the Night Tour team, rescuing the Girl in the painting and several others who hadn’t yet donned ghost costumes, as well as the ghosts that had stalled like the ax-bearing figure under his shout of "Get out."
After sprinting for half the city, the Girl in the painting and the others continuously descended within the Mental Portal until he confirmed they were safe before stopping.
After leaving the Night Tour team, the players’ consciousness seemed to return. Along the way, the Metal Token Player regained clarity and helped remove the headgear from the Girl in the painting and Mr. Xi. The District 001 player who exited the Night Tour team quickly reawakened, likely due to having spent less time in the team.
But the three others he rescued remained sluggish and stiff as if frozen, even after stopping, standing rigidly.
After the Metal Token Player manipulated props to cut away their headgear and clothing, it was discovered that two of them were already dead, while the remaining one—with tendrils puncturing his entire body, sparing no internal organ—remained alive except for his head.
Mr. Xi examined the two corpses, "Just died, very fresh; likely killed by the headgear and clothing after leaving the Night Tour team."
His instrument scanned the living one, "This one has undergone Secondary Evolution twelve times, has strong recovery ability, a hard head, and the tendrils on the headgear never managed to fully penetrate his brain."
In fact, the reason Metal Token Player and the others escaped was entirely due to the tools and instruments they carried, which immediately protected their heads, preventing the headgear tendrils from directly piercing their skulls. But this harrowing adventure still left them deeply shaken.
"Spiritual Items can’t instantly affect while maintaining long-term control over Advanced Players—what kind of instance is this?" the Metal Token Player frowned.