Blood mixed with rainwater streamed down; the hallucination did not fade. C wiped his face with his hand, but the palm of his left hand also quickly became tainted.
"It’s really poison..." he began, but he spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed, barely clinging to life. As he lay there, he looked toward an unknown place and asked, "Who exactly are you... What grudge do you have with us..."
"I know... You’re from the Special Defense Department... Do you want to know how this rain came about... It’s God’s punishment for Country X..."
Xu Huo stood on a tree five zhang away, motionless and silent, with no intention of going over to deliver the final blow, watching as C weakened from the poison.
C realized it was impossible to draw the person out now. Turning back to look at his two companions, whose faces were turning black, he struggled to reach for the mini bomb behind his waist.
A glint of light sliced through his wrist; almost simultaneously, a sharp light flashed in C’s eyes, and he leaped up from the ground, diving toward the direction from which the object had come. Without seeing the person, he threw a sizable metal barrel: "If I die, you’re coming with me!"
The metal barrel exploded on cue, and flames instantly surged, leaving the three People in Raincoat at the blast center completely disintegrated, the nearby trees were also leveled, and the airflow knocked down and burnt all trees within dozens of meters, turning the vast woods into a sea of fire in an instant!
The sudden explosion and the flames brought the attention of the players guarding near the depression and those from the Special Defense Department who had rushed to provide backup on both sides of the forest.
"What’s C doing, making such a big commotion? It’s bound to attract the attention of the Special Defense Department," Player D communicated with others through a liaison device.
"The opponent must be very tricky. Otherwise, C wouldn’t choose to die with them. His doing so means all three have been sacrificed," Player A said.
"Three cars are coming, and there are ten armed helicopters in the sky," Player E reported.
"U’s baiting mission might have failed. The Special Defense Department has noticed that the high-level items are with us. Their first target is the items. We can only hold them off for twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, whether or not the Special Defense Department has snatched the items, Country X will definitely bomb this area. B, stay behind to recover the items, everyone else follows me to lead them up to Wen Mountain," A concluded and was the first to enter the densely vegetated jungle.
Meanwhile, the players from the Special Defense Department who had arrived bypassed the area of the fire and passed through the woods on the side near Wen Mountain.
"Xu Huo’s phone is unreachable. Could he have died in the explosion?" a good-looking female player said after several failed attempts to call.
"Most likely, with that big a fire, players from Country Y probably left nothing to chance," another player wearing a cartoon mask said, "Bad luck for him. If he had waited a littler longer, the situation would have been different."
"He had no reason to provoke those players, perhaps he wanted to hog the items," the tall, thin player walking in the middle speculated.
"If he’s dead, then he got what he deserved," a man in the group with an earring said with a smile as he moved up two spots, "This is what you get for biting off more than you can chew."
"Who got what they deserved?" a small, skinny short man, fiddling with the hood of his protective suit, retorted, "Zeng Tai, don’t talk nonsense. My Brother Xu wouldn’t die even if others did. Haven’t you seen when he became a Level D Player? He doesn’t have a nation backing him up, providing endless money and resources for grinding dungeons!"
The female player turned around, "Weren’t you very dismissive of him when you first arrived, Wang Chaoqing? Why are you speaking up for him now?"
Wang Chaoqing was the shadow player who had previously spied on Xu Huo and mistakenly brought him to Fenbei Town; later, after being poisoned by an Alien in Sea City, he followed Chief Wu to Jing City. After using an Antitoxin that delayed the toxicity, he shamelessly stayed at the Special Defense Department Headquarters.
"Times have changed. My Brother Xu is too capable. He brought back the Antidote Fungus; sooner or later, he will save my life. He’s my lucky star; of course I’m in the same trench with him!" Wang Chaoqing argued.
"Ignore him. I’ve never seen someone so afraid of dying," said Zeng Tai, the earring man, rolling his eyes. "The poison he contracted was not serious to begin with, and using the Antitoxin wouldn’t harm his body in the short term. Despite that, he still shamelessly runs to the research institute applying for the trial of the Detoxifying Fungus Medicine."
The other players said nothing about this, but Wang Chaoqing was undeterred by their cold demeanor. Instead, he argued vigorously, "What’s wrong with fearing death? If you are not afraid of dying, then don’t wear protective clothing!"
The tall, thin player interrupted them, "Wang Chaoqing, stop running your mouth. Have you looked at the underground cable map of the Wen Mountain Area? Are your shadows out there?"
"They’re out, they’re out," Chaoqing replied: "They’ve all entered the mountains, eight in total."
"What about near the depression?" the female player inquired.
"It seems there are none near the depression..." Wang Chaoqing paused, "Maybe the other four were killed by my Brother Xu."
"Then did you find Xu Huo?" Zeng Tai asked sarcastically.
Wang Chaoqing’s shadow couldn’t forcibly enter the inferno, and he responded irritably, "Maybe Brother Xu entered a dungeon."
"Should we divide up and search for him?" the female player asked, "Xu Huo is someone the higher-ups specifically ordered us to protect."
"No need, he may not be in trouble," said the tall, thin player. "We’re short on manpower as it is. Those lurking players must have come well-prepared. We also have to guard against the high-level items they carry."
A group of twenty-three people emerged from the woods and reached the foot of Wen Mountain. The tall, thin player pressed the timer on his watch, "Total action time is thirty minutes; we must retreat from outside Wen Mountain before the twenty-seventh minute. Everyone synchronize your watches. Wang Chaoqing, you stay at the mountain’s base."
The players dispersed into the forest. Armed helicopters from afar started to hover over Wen Mountain and the depression, their ultrabright searchlights occasionally sweeping through the forest, searching and reporting any players that might appear.
The existing thermal imagers and sensors weren’t very effective against the players, mainly because with the increase in Level D Players, many had brought items from other game zones that were specially designed to counter such devices. With the current level of technology in Zone 014, there was little that could be done. Therefore, when dealing with mountain incidents , manpower was primarily relied upon, supplemented by intense firepower upon completion of the players’ mission.
However, for players who could escape into dungeons, the final coverage with firepower seemed somewhat helpless.
Two minutes after the players entered the mountains, three helicopters split off and headed toward the woods.
These three aircraft were sent to find Xu Huo. Since his phone had been unreachable, the Special Defense Department was not sure whether or not he had entered a dungeon and decided it was safer to search the woods just in case.
But with the fire and smoke being too thick, even the helicopters couldn’t get through.
At the center of the firestorm, where the ground had been cleared by the flames, stood a substantial metal house, unscathed and with no traces on its surface, which didn’t seem to conduct heat. In the red glow of the fire, it radiated a cold, metallic luster.
Xu Huo opened the door and walked out, catching a phone call that came in just in time.