Chapter 2603: Return to the Night
Upon hearing Xu Huo’s words, the expressions of those present were not good. A player, who was standing some distance away, said, "How can you be sure that the players who disappeared will definitely join the Night Tour Team? There is currently no evidence to prove this."
What does it mean that the Night Tour Team pulls people in? It’s entirely possible that they kill people and then conjure ghost monster suits out of thin air to confuse the players.
Without concrete evidence, the local government cannot rashly make judgments. The only reason the dungeon venue remains somewhat stable now is due to timely rescue. If the forbidden zone keeps drawing people in, imagine the chaos if people find out the local government has given up on those trapped there?
"Young people don’t know how to be flexible," the old man said, "Why don’t you try with one or two cities, and then you’ll know? The forbidden zone first appeared in Xia City; the Night Tour Team also appeared early in Xia City. It’s either linked to time or to the number of people."
"But the Night Tour Teams are cross-linked," another player said. "Since a horror-themed Night Tour Team can appear in Lanshui Town, sealing cities one-by-one is unlikely to be effective. Anyone who dies in any city can become a member of any Night Tour Team."
In other words, even if one or two cities’ people aren’t enough, they can quickly be supplemented from other cities. Unless all the people from these eight cities are cleared out, the situation won’t change.
In fact, this is not too difficult for District 001 at present. Clearing a few cities is not the same as clearing the entire division. Spend a little time, and it is absolutely doable. However, the residents of these eight cities cannot be sent to other cities willy-nilly. If one wishes to use a spacecraft to leave the division to cut off the instance, the cost would be astronomical.
"Not every division has a spacecraft that can cross divisions," the Metal Token Player said with a cold expression.
This is due to the game’s technical blockade on the subregions of instances. Even ultra-large spatial teleportation devices are made into consumables, let alone spacecraft that can travel between different spaces. The technological development of many game divisions mostly relies on other divisions, trading resources from their own division for advanced technological products to arm themselves, but whether they can understand the core technology depends on luck.
C9-001 excels in making clocks and time calibration, surpassing most game divisions, but it still cannot cover everything comprehensively.
Currently, the information is limited, and the local government must take control of the big picture.
After pausing for a moment, Xu Huo started walking again. When he crossed the spatial gate once more, he quickly molded the "metallic clay" into a cat head, and under the disdainful look of the Girl in the painting, cat heads protruded from the surrounding metal objects.
During this period, the demon head mask almost continuously attacked them. By the time daylight returned, all the players felt exceptionally exhausted. However, Zhang Mu faced a floating head mask, which not only tired him but also made him particularly frantic and irritated!
"Enough is enough!" a player couldn’t hold back and roared. He rushed up to slash his head mask, then grabbed and furiously tore it apart until the mask turned into shreds. Just as he was venting his anger, a silver thread suddenly shot out from the ground, pierced through his foot, and quickly darted towards his calf. After just a few passes, it was sewn onto him like a needle!
Accompanied by a scream, the man was dragged forward by the silver threads hidden underground!
A huge metal plate was embedded straight ahead on the street, halting the dragged man and simultaneously cutting off the silver threads buried underground. But before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, countless silver threads burst forth from underground like water grass swaying and dancing, or like a sharp point on a blade. They crisscrossed, indiscriminately slicing through everything in this space.
Xu Huo promptly led the old man and the Girl in the painting to avoid the first attack, but this time the attack’s range exceeded the scope of his Spiritual World. As they exited the Mental Portal, they were met by silver threads almost forming a white curtain!
The Space Defense Barrier blocked the front, and as he opened the second portal, he activated the Time Force, causing the nearby silver threads to come to a brief halt. It was only an extremely short pause because, as they crossed the second gate, the Time Force also disappeared.
Having left the coverage range of the silver threads, Xu Huo looked back at the white expanse, "This scale should not be an ordinary giant demon."
"Most likely a ghost god headgear," Mr. Xi glanced around, "It’s a pity we didn’t see the headgear appear."
"I wonder if those guys got away...," he paused for a moment and then focused his eyes on Xu Huo, "You’re carrying more than one time-related item, aren’t you?"
"I wouldn’t be mistaken; just now that was the Time Force. If you could lend it to me for research for a while, I wouldn’t rule out considering letting you provide for me in my old age."
Xu Huo gave him a sidelong glance, "You could keep talking and completely make me abandon that thought."
Oblivious, Mr. Xi chuckled, "I’ll exchange it for other props from my store. I have so many props there; there’s bound to be something you want."
"Let’s talk about it if we get out," Xu Huo said as he pulled a player who happened to escape to his side, nodded to the Metal Token Player who successfully exited the siege, and then accelerated his departure along with the Girl in the painting and Mr. Xi.
When they passed through the city center, they crossed a spatial gate once more. He wasted no time and imprinted the precast dog head onto the nearby metal object. But in an instant, a second spatial gate appeared, forcing the group to pass through without any chance to avoid it. In the next second, the surroundings plunged back into darkness.
The headgear that had been chasing them vanished, the darkness swallowed each person’s silhouette, along with all sounds.
"Why has it turned dark again?" the young man following the Metal Token Player hesitated, "Are we still in the forbidden zone?"
"Be silent!" the Metal Token Player shouted in a low voice, "Something is coming?"
To clarify, it was a sound. A faint sound drifted in from afar; it seemed like a bell ringing, but due to the distance, it was mixed with some hoarse, low noise, making the bell sound less distinct. However, these sounds came from a single direction, and those who had witnessed the Cultural Street Night Tour and Lanshui Town Night Tour knew it should be the sound made by the Night Tour Team.
The bell sound is one of the musical props held by the ghosts. Furthermore, the Night Tour Team’s walking style is different from normal; they dance a kind of special dance, not fast in action, taking a few steps forward and then a few steps back. Overall, they move quite slowly. The Lanshui Town Night Tour Team was more like a clipped-frame video; the entire parade didn’t fully proceed but flashed frequently instead.
"Jingle!" Just when everyone thought it was still distant, a crisp bell sound rang almost close to their ears!