Bald Head’s proposal was almost instantly agreed upon by the man with the bald head, who hastily said, "Absolutely no problem, I’ll contact them right now!"
Xu Huo made a welcoming gesture with his hand, "Make it convincing."
Bald Head took out his phone, quickly dialed a number, and as soon as it was picked up, he angrily said, "Hou Song, we’ve suffered huge losses this time. You didn’t tell me Xu Huo’s group was so formidable, half of our people are dead, how do we settle this account?"
On the other end of the line, Hou Song’s voice came through clearly, "If it were that easy to catch, I would have gone myself. Why bother spending money on you? You should have known the risks before going... Alright, did any of us die?"
"Yes," Bald Head replied, still with unreleased anger, "But the price we previously agreed on needs to be renegotiated."
Hou Song was silent for a moment, "Bring the person here, then we’ll talk. You know the place."
"You..." Bald Head wanted to say something more, but the call had already been disconnected. He looked up at Xu Huo with his phone in hand, "I don’t know if he believed it or not..."
Whether he believed it or not didn’t matter, as long as someone took the bait.
The group restarted the car, and Liu Jia handed Bald Head an earpiece, "Now he can’t hear us talking."
"Your ability is really magical," Yuan Yao said, "All it takes is a call, and someone becomes blind."
Liu Jia smiled, "The duration is too short. For experienced players, even temporarily blocking sight and hearing won’t make it easy to get to them."
"That’s still pretty impressive," Shen Xin said, "Actually, in the game, sometimes how you use abilities and items is more important than combat power. If you get your hands on some powerful items, you can kill someone quietly without them even noticing."
As this was said, everyone in the car couldn’t help but glance at Xu Huo in the front seat. If it wasn’t for his timely intervention, taking out a whole car of people, they wouldn’t have won so easily. That’s the ingenious use of items.
"Speaking of which, do we still have to fight with Hou Song’s people?" asked Yuan Yao, "Since they are headed to Ting City anyway, why not leave them to the Special Defense Department?"
Sima Xiao’er didn’t rush to take on the task, but Xu Huo said, "If it was just ordinary players, the Special Defense Department wouldn’t have any problem catching them, but Hou Song is with the Special Defense Department. The paperwork is complicated, and it takes time to get a result."
Hu Wenhao got excited upon hearing this, "We’ve been cooperating quite well, haven’t we? With Brother Xu and Jiayu here, taking on a few players should be easy, right?"
"Sure, sure!" Girl in the painting lifted her phone.
"Working for the Special Defense Department while secretly contacting other players—we just need to watch out in case they come prepared," Zhou Ning said gravely, "Player organizations are emerging like bamboo shoots after rain. We must be careful of potential opportunists."
"Zhou Ning is right," Shen Xin said, "Our manpower is a bit short."
"Brother Xu and Jiayu can handle double," Yuan Yao said nonchalantly, "With them involved, there definitely won’t be an issue!"
"Aren’t you all being a bit overconfident?" Sima Xiao’er couldn’t help but interject upon hearing this, "What if Hou Song brings the Pioneer Players with him?"
A silence fell inside the car, and Yan Jiayu looked at him, "You can bring people too, right? We’ve got a Bald Head here."
The group turned their gaze back to Bald Head, who instinctively looked up, even closing his eyes.
In a factory area to the west of Ting City, Hou Song led three people to the warehouse specified by the bald man.
The place was yet to resume operations, so there were hardly any people around at night. When Hou Song walked in, he raised his voice, "We’re here, come out."
A few seconds later, a figure emerged from deep within the warehouse. The other party spoke, "Have you brought my money?"
Hou Song gestured to someone behind him, who then opened the briefcase he was carrying; inside were gold bars.
"Leave the stuff there, the person is upstairs; go up by yourselves," said the figure.
Hou Song hesitated for a moment, then turned to head upstairs. But as soon as he turned around, several shadows attacked from behind. He and his three companions immediately drew their guns, "Knew you were up to no good, trying to double-cross us?"
Several gunshots rang out in the warehouse, but they hit no one. When they turned back, the briefcase on the ground was gone.
One person quickly ran upstairs, glanced around, and came back saying, "No one’s up there!"
At that moment, the sound of a car engine starting came from outside. Hou Song immediately chased after it, only to see a car speeding away, while their own vehicle had its tires blown out.
"Think you can run?" Hou Song said with an icy expression, dialing a number, "Yes, they’re about to leave the factory area, should be at your position in about two minutes."
After reporting the license plate number, the four of them headed outside, but suddenly heard someone from behind ask, "Would you dare respond if I ’Call You Out’?"
The group instinctively turned around, and in the next second, their vision was engulfed by darkness. Hou Song had the quickest reaction, pulling out a "Do Not Disturb" sign and holding it high, "No Entry for Strangers!"
Yan Jiayu, who was about to strike Hou Song on the back of the head with a stick, was rebounded by an unseen force. She landed, retreated a few steps, pushed another player aside, then caught a tranquilizer net thrown by Zhou Ning and tossed it at Hou Song.
Hou Song heard the noise and dodged to one side, but this took him exactly where Xu Huo had anticipated. With a front kick, Xu Huo knocked him down and simply cut off one of his feet.
"Aaah!" Hou Song screamed in pain. When the grey faded from his eyes and he saw it was Xu Huo who had cut off his leg, a hateful look filled his eyes, "I am a Pioneer Player, Xu Huo, you can’t handle the repercussions of killing me! The Special Defense Department knows I came here!"
"The Special Defense Department is too busy to save you now," Xu Huo said, throwing him into a barrel of glue. Then he tossed a Silent Figurine to the side before turning to deal with the other three men.
Two of the three were Cannibal Players. Seeing Hou Song captured, they fled without a word.
One was rammed by Shen Xin into the warehouse, immediately falling to a short arrow piercing through his temple. Seeing the situation turn dire, the other two hid inside a game instance.
"They run pretty fast." Xu Huo returned to the barrel’s side, glanced at the empty Potion bottle inside, and said flatly, "Entering the instance is also a dead end for you."
Hou Song spit out disdainfully with defiance, "Death means nothing; I just pity you, unaware you’re being used as a pawn by the Special Defense Department and manipulated by the Player Organization. Do you think my goal was to kill you? You’re wrong, I was trying to save you!"
Xu Huo laughed, "Then tell me, how do you plan to save me?"
"Under the current circumstances, whether you join the Special Defense Department or a Player Organization, you can’t obtain true freedom," Hou Song quickly wiped the sweat from his face and continued, "Why could players from other areas invade Zone 014 so openly and why did many countries suffer after that incident? It all boils down to us not being strong enough!"
"Isn’t that normal?" Xu Huo countered, "After all, Zone 014 hasn’t been a game area for long."
"Everyone understands that being backward means being beaten; that’s why we need people to make sacrifices at times ," Hou Song fixed his gaze on him, "If you share the method for second evolution, you would be a hero to all humankind!"