Despite the odd taste, Yan Jiayu still finished the jelly potion and popped two fried insect pupae into her mouth, enthusiastically recommending to Xu Huo, "The fried insect pupae burst with juice when you bite into them. They’re sweet and quench your thirst, the flavor is not bad, even my master loves them."
Xu Huo looked at the obviously mutated insect pupae and, without changing his expression, tried one, "Not bad."
Yan Jiayu divided two bags for him, "This is much better than dry food. I’ve heard of people getting stuck in a random instance for ten days or even half a month. Having some tasty food makes it bearable."
Ten days to half a month without clearing an instance, you’d probably lose your appetite for food, let alone care about the taste.
However, Yan Jiayu had no such worries.
The two strolled around the mall, where Yan Jiayu mostly bought snacks and potions, or some inexpensive but quirky props, while Xu Huo followed suit and bought some food, as well as some weapons.
Firearms couldn’t be taken into the station, but they could be used in Zone 009 over these two days.
In less than half a day, they left the mall, and just then, a large screen on the street was broadcasting a sizable player fight. Xu Huo suggested they go check it out, and Yan Jiayu took out a hot air balloon prop. They flew directly toward the location of the incident in the hot air balloon.
Live broadcasting was not the privilege of Player Organizations. Player Organizations would choose to broadcast fights they were confident about, on one hand to demonstrate their power, and on the other to expand their fame and attract more players to their cause. Lone players were much more random; they would flock to video websites to livestream, mostly for fun without clear stances.
The players’ battle was focused on the ground and low altitude; high altitude was still out of reach, hence aside from the hot air balloon, there were also many props released by nearby players or some players simply hung in the air, following the action.
However, it was windy, not as comfortable as in a hot air balloon.
"These players seem to have a low Player Level," Yan Jiayu observed after a while, "At most, there are some Rank-B players."
"Advanced Players either take care of trouble before they exit an instance, or don’t fancy ordinary props, so it’s not strange that they don’t want to waste time on this," Xu Huo paused and focused his gaze on a corner to the left, "Unless they have ulterior motives."
Yan Jiayu noted his glance and followed his gaze, seeing several people who appeared to have received uniform training dispersing with very similar movements from in front of a building, racing through the chaos toward a low building to the north.
"That looks like a government building," she said, "The Capital Safe Zone’s government office locations have almost all their elite players gathered from across the nation. Are these people here to rob the place?"
Soon they knew the answer. The group of people were positioned on all four sides of the building, each releasing a black sphere the size of a human head, flying at an extremely fast speed toward the top of the building.
At that moment, the players inside the government building took action too. Several groups of players split up to intercept the black spheres and kill the Ambush Players. Three of the four black spheres were stopped, but one smashed through the defense prop of the elite players, crashing violently into the top of the government building!
The human-sized sphere, following a trajectory completely defying the laws of falling objects, shattered half the building. As the top cracked open and the sphere plummeted, the ten-plus story building began to collapse layer by layer, crumbling all the way to the ground, even sinking the foundation several meters!
The elite players couldn’t have anticipated this situation. After the initial shock, more than half turned to attempt a rescue. The building fell too quickly, and amid the chaos, only a few players managed to run out with others, with many more, including some players, pressed beneath the rubble.
One sphere had collapsed half of the building; the other half still stood there. As screams and cries for help echoed, the elite players regrouped to defend the building, wary of the Ambush Players continuing to attack with black spheres.
With such commotion, members of nearby Player Organizations promptly came to support. However, the Ambush Players showed no intention of entangling themselves with them. One of them, like Lightning, darted among the players and reached the pile of rubble, throwing out several Darts!
The Darts, like beacon lights, had tails that flashed with different colored lights. Once released, they turned in the air, autonomously flying to different parts of the ruins. Upon hitting their targets, the lights on the lamps stopped blinking and settled on a single color, some yellow, some green.
The Ambush Player glanced once and then moved to the rooftop of the other half of the building.
Five players surrounded him for an attack!
Watching the collapse of the building from high above was a spectacular sight. Yan Jiayu exclaimed in awe, "They must be looking for something, those beacon lights must be detectors."
"There shouldn’t be any highly advanced weapons in Zone 009, they must be after props," she guessed.
"But to kill so many people over a single prop, they certainly can’t be good people."
Xu Huo’s gaze still lingered below, "Seems like some organization."
Although their levels were not high, daring to stroll around the game district on top of clearing instances meant, on the whole, Player Organization wasn’t a term with a positive connotation. Player Organizations instigating trouble and killing innocents were numerous, especially some cult-like organizations that didn’t blink an eye when killing, with motives that could be minor and absurd.
By now, the exceptionally fast player had been knocked down from the rooftop. As a group guarded the government building, three other groups emerged from the other half of the building, spilling out like fireworks, instantly scattering into the streets and alleys.
With so many people involved, the Ambush Players could not possibly chase after each one. It seemed they were placing their bets on the building. As their companions covered them, one of the players drew out a piece of paper and began writing something on it. In the next second, two players on the rooftop collapsed!
"People are dead!" exclaimed the surrounding players in horror, simultaneously employing methods like covering their faces, maintaining distance, and using Defense Props to protect themselves from the player’s prop.
But it was futile; despite the varying distances, two more players fell.
"It’s my real name!" a player used a Prop to clearly see the written words on the paper, roaring furiously, "Who leaked our information!"
As another name was struck off the list on the paper, the speaking player collapsed.
"Let’s go!" The remaining players couldn’t just stand there and wait to die. The key fighters didn’t hesitate to duck into another instance. Other hesitant players died one after another. Realizing that even if the enemy couldn’t see them or they were distant enough, it didn’t prevent the prop’s effect, a large number of players began to enter instances.
After killing more than a dozen people, the assailant stopped. By then, the players around had changed to another group; knowing they had such intimate knowledge of the government elites, the people from other Player Organizations certainly weren’t as familiar!
Indeed, that was the case, and the few Ambush Players were preparing to leave.