Chapter 2591: Entering the Forbidden Zone
A trip to the forbidden zone?
The Player from the Law Enforcement Team thought he must have misheard. Does he think the forbidden zone is a place you can just enter on a whim?
"Is there?" The person in front of him didn’t care about what others thought and repeated the question.
The Law Enforcement Team Player was unsure if this person was naïve and fearless or genuinely skilled and courageous. He hit the emergency button on the instrument while stalling for time, "Please wait a moment, our captain will be here soon. You can discuss with him if you have any issues."
Xu Huo nodded. He already sensed more than a dozen players approaching him from different directions, and the players in front of him and scattered around seemed to want to stop him.
"Never mind, I’ll surely run into your people if I go in." He said calmly, and the next second, he disappeared through the barrier.
The nearby instruments sounded alarms, showing on the monitors that someone had appeared on the ninth floor, the same location as their stranded colleagues inside the building.
The people outside immediately signaled the ones inside, but it was too late. Xu Huo had already pinned them in place and said calmly, "I need to go into the forbidden zone to find a friend. Can your people go in?"
This pioneering search team wasn’t very strong, primarily sent to scout. Scouting meant they were prepared for sacrifice, a tactic of trade-offs where experienced Rank-A Players are precious resources in any district. Even if they need to clear an instance, it’s impossible to send all of them at once for the vanguard.
A reasonable setup would involve players of various Advanced Levels conducting separate investigations.
The four players were pressed down by gravity, unable to lift their heads. One struggled to say, "Currently, we haven’t figured out a consistent path... Sometimes we can go in... but we need to wait."
"There’s no use in putting us in a difficult position if you want to enter the forbidden zone..."
Xu Huo released them and said calmly, "What’s the point of troubling you? I just wanted to give you a heads-up, to avoid trouble like those outside."
The few players stood up, dared not express their anger, and informed their companions outside that there was no problem.
"How often does the forbidden zone consume people?" Xu Huo asked again. "Be more detailed."
"Every hour, it absorbs a certain number of people, ranging from a few to a dozen or even several dozen. The zone isn’t completely closed during other times, and people occasionally disappear irregularly," one player truthfully answered after receiving instructions from a superior.
Xu Huo glanced at the clock on the building’s ground floor, "It’s about time for the next round of people being taken."
"Do any support teams enter the forbidden zone from here? How many of your captains are missing inside the building?"
"The support team is in the Natural Park’s forbidden zone. We originally split into three groups with four people each; eight were lost, and the remaining combined," said the player. "Every time someone disappears, there’s a spatial fluctuation, but it’s usually one person at a time, even if holding hands, it’s impossible to bring a second person in."
Xu Huo slightly raised an eyebrow, "So entering relies on luck?"
The four players remained silent, which evidently meant yes.
"The consumption speed here in the horror theme is slower than in the religious theme." Xu Huo said slowly, then added, "Let’s wait for twenty minutes. If I still can’t get in, I’ll ask Xia City’s government to open a door to send me to Lanshui Town. Coordinate with Lanshui Town, or I’ll find my own way."
This was a notification, not a negotiation.
The four Law Enforcement Team members had no choice but to report his requests.
For players from the Outer Zone wanting to enter the forbidden zone, the local government probably wouldn’t stop them, as most are Ticket Players, and stopping them was futile. Moreover, if Ticket Players survive, it would benefit District 001, providing ready experience.
Xu Huo didn’t seem like a Ticket Player; his attitude suggested he was there to cause trouble.
With matters of varying urgency, as long as no one intended to cause serious trouble in District 001, it wouldn’t take significant effort to handle him.
Indeed, the government quickly responded, agreeing to his requests but telling him not to do anything outrageous, or District 001 would thoroughly investigate.
With twenty minutes to spare, the old man, being an Artifact Maker, likely had enough instruments to last a while.
Soon, the Law Enforcement Team’s tracked forbidden zone activity began, with people disappearing around them. Even one Law Enforcement Team member accompanying Xu Huo disappeared, yet Xu Huo didn’t seize the chance to enter.
The Law Enforcement Team member vanished just two meters away from him. The instant Xu Huo sensed a spatial shift, he grabbed the person’s arm, but only managed to touch their sleeve before they disappeared, slipping into the space seam in a strange state, completely beyond grasp.
This bizarre spatial state appeared only for a moment, and fast as Xu Huo was, he couldn’t keep up.
It was a peculiar state: calling it a spatial seam wasn’t accurate, like two sheets of paper partially overlapping, flawless from the front or back, but with a gap on the side, untouchable unless it appeared and swallowed someone.
More than ten minutes had passed, and Xu Huo was still in the Yangming Building. Just as he prepared to try Lanshui Town, the entire dungeon restricted area pulsed with intense power fluctuations. The zone swiftly expanded, tripling in size in a blink, with further increasing tendencies.
Simultaneously, more people disappeared in the expanded zone, more violently than when it first emerged, with multiplied screams heard. Players near the forbidden zone, including Xu Huo, found out that evacuating people wasn’t enough to avoid being consumed—the expansion depended not on area size, but on the number of people. Sufficient numbers could delay expansion.
Perhaps due to the rapid consumption, Xu Huo and the remaining three Law Enforcement Team players were enveloped by a force and vanished in an instant!
Sliding through the narrow space seam was incredibly fast. Xu Huo maintained his walking posture, and with just a step, found himself in a different place. Dust and the scent of blood floated in the dark space, and before he could stand steady, a wind rushed at him!