Chapter 833: The Center of Battle
This was not a killing move that could be dodged by simply pressing oneself against the ground. Xu Huo, who had just crouched down, immediately realized this fact. He turned and retreated, leaping directly off the hotel building!
Jumping down alongside him were Yan Jiayu and the players originally responsible for security. They were not the main combat force, so once the situation became irreparable, they were the first to withdraw from the main battlefield.
And just as they jumped, the distorted space directly sliced through the entire floor. The upper floors hung suspended in the air for a brief moment before collapsing downward, but before the upper and lower halves of the building could close together, Jin Feixue, Ahsis, and the others also flew out from within!
The banquet hall had been located on the middle floor of the building. If the upper half came crashing down, Jin Feixue and the others emerging from different directions would certainly have obstructed views. However, someone had apparently tampered with things, because the building did not close shut. Instead, after touching, it floated back upward.
Half a building now hung suspended in midair, and flight devices streamed out of it one after another. This was Stellar Corporation property, though the Stellar Corporation staff members had no complaints about it, because in the end, the bill would be distributed to every player's account. Nobody could stop them from collecting debts, and they merely needed to take shelter in time to avoid becoming names on the list for survivor benefits and funeral expenses.
Not everyone had run, but everyone who could leave had left. At that moment, the suspended building moved, shifting laterally before smashing down toward Jin Feixue. At the same time, several surrounding players coordinated to restrict his movement. First, throwing darts flew out from all directions as if carrying trackers, attacking repeatedly to buy time. Then several flashes of light rapidly moved along the perimeter, their high-intensity brilliance nearly blinding anyone who looked, making it impossible to see clearly even with eyes open. Finally, a polygonal spatial box enveloped the outermost layer, completely sealing off the paths beneath the building.
In other words, for Jin Feixue to escape from the sides or bottom of the building crashing down on him, he would first have to break through these layers of blockade, as well as the players beyond them.
However, he did not choose to go through the players. He kicked off with his feet and shot upward, passing straight through the building!
From the outside, one could hear the floors exploding one after another, but the District 011 players had deliberately left this opening. Of course, it was not to give him an easy way out.
A white-haired man stood atop the building. He pressed his pitch-black palms against the structure, and half the building seemed to be recolored, instantly turning black from top to bottom. Both walls and glass appeared coated in something like a thin film, imbued with a certain elasticity!
"Boom!" A force broke through from within, but it only punched a sharp protrusion into the outer wall before quickly retracting. The black outer shell was not breached!
"Compression technique!" The player standing on the roof pressed his palms together, and the black substance on the building's exterior began to squeeze and contract. Though not particularly fast, one could clearly see the building shrinking toward its center!
Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu had already landed safely by this point. They could tell that the District 011 players intended to narrow the combat zone, but this was only the warm-up. What came next might not be so controllable, so staying nearby was not safe either.
In other words, for Jin Feixue to escape from the sides or bottom of the building crashing down on him, he would first have to break through these layers of barriers, as well as the players beyond them.
Additionally, countless intelligent analyzers hovered through the air, rapidly assessing the types of items and characteristics, as well as their potential range of effect, by analyzing the battle scene. These reports were transmitted directly to the temporary strategic command room, where professionals and cutting-edge technology quickly analyzed them to decide which suitable players to dispatch and how to coordinate.
They even issued impact warnings to city residents, telling them not to panic and to take shelter at home.
After Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu were protected by robots into compartments and transported to a distant refuge, they looked back at District 011's arrangements and could not help but feel impressed.
Rapid response, thorough preparation, excellent integration of players and advanced technology. Just looking at such a scene, no one would feel uncertain, after all, they were only facing an A-rank player.
So, without interfering with the battle, dedicated media conducted real-time broadcasts, with large screens projecting to every corner of the city.
Xu Huo and the others also saw the battle footage.
The half building, wrapped in the black substance, had already shrunk to less than half its original size. Under such conditions, the interior space should have been mostly compressed by now, but this item could not simply make matter disappear, so it just hung there in midair.
Jin Feixue could not possibly die from building compression, so the District 011 players covered the building with several layers of items to transport him away.
The turn of events came precisely at that moment. A white light beam pierced through the black sphere, slicing it cleanly in half. The black substance wrapped around the building debris rebounded first, blasting the player controlling the item flying, and only then did the building's remains begin to fall.
Jin Feixue was shielded by a light arc, calmly moving out of the wreckage. Wielding the short sword barely two spans long in his hand, he shattered the two barriers blocking his path and returned to the building.
Although the banquet hall floor had been scraped clean, the platform remained. The moment Jin Feixue stepped onto it, that strange music even traveled through the broadcasting equipment into every listener's ears. As the music suddenly soared to a piercing pitch, everyone was stimulated into covering their ears!
And at that moment, Jin Feixue raised a violin.
The ground beneath his feet transformed. Pale golden light spread out like a thin carpet, covering not only the building's area but also expanding in a circular pattern outward, blanketing everything within District 011's first defensive barrier, as if constructing a massive banquet venue in midair.
The players hovering in the air simultaneously lost control and fell onto the golden "floor," and as Jin Feixue drew his bow across the strings, the golden ground split into several fan-shaped sections that began to rotate alternately.
The players forced to stand on it started moving along with it. In less than a second, two players suffered shredding attacks. Unlike those whose faces had been mangled in the banquet hall earlier, these two were as if placed inside a fan-shaped meat grinder. Despite wearing protective suits, their entire bodies began to tremble violently, caught in the force and unable to break free!
"He cannot leave a ten-meter range from the center of the venue. Force him out!" Ahsis Vilner issued the command.