Chapter 145: Ten Seconds of Combat

Chapter 145: Chapter 145: Ten Seconds of CombatThe three members of the Holy Sword Society didn’t waste words. The leader stretched out his hand, and the poisonous gas swirling around was wiped away like it was erased by a rubber, creating a clean, straight path leading to the Girl in the painting.

At the same time, Dou Shengnan was also standing in the midst of the poison gas. Her red pupils slightly glowed as she shook her pocket watch, commanding the Girl in the painting, "Cut off your own throat."

The Girl in the painting turned her head and looked at her, puzzled.

Dou Shengnan was momentarily taken aback, then immediately turned to look at the three members of the Holy Sword Society. They were intimidated by her gaze and quickly returned to the edge of the rooftop. At this moment, the balloon boy stretched his legs straight and stepped towards her head. Dou Shengnan had to move out of the way!

The clash between them was over in an instant, and when they retreated to the edge of the dome, the hotel building began to collapse. The smoke and dust that shot up into the sky obscured the entire building, blocking the players’ line of sight.

While the players, including the drones, were searching through the ashes for the silhouette of the Girl in the painting, the fluttering papers around the building suddenly came to a halt. They fell like they had lost their power, and soon after, a figure shot out from the dust, like a cannonball piercing through a nearby building, drilling through several structures before being buried in the rubble!

"The one who flew out just now is a female player from Zone 014!"

She was buried under the rubble and couldn’t come out again, and the drifting papers also landed on the ground one after another, signifying only one thing—the Super Prop had changed hands!

Who killed her?!

The three members of the Holy Sword Society cleared the dust from the air, only to catch a glimpse of a hooded figure wearing a black mask dashing past, and then they were driven away from the Pearl Hotel area by an overwhelming barrage of paper and intermittent shelling.

At the same time, papers from all over the city converged on the location of the hotel like doves, twisting in the air into an almost solid column that rapidly rose. It quickly surpassed the area covered by smoke and dust, and standing atop it was a person wearing a hooded shirt, long pants, and a mask!

The swirl on the black mask made it impossible to discern his features, but the shape of his body suggested he was a man. The only visible part, his eyes, seemed to be covered by a white membrane, making him appear to be an emotionless object.

"I command you! Commit suicide!" Dou Shengnan appeared right in front of him, her eyes emitting a bright red light.

Unfortunately, the person on top of the paper column ignored her command. Not just hers, even the few members of the Holy Sword Society were disregarded as if they were nothing. He only turned his head to glance in the southwest direction before disappearing from the paper column.

From his appearance to his disappearance, the entire process did not last more than ten seconds!

This mysterious and unnamed player baffled everyone, powerful enough that Dou Shengnan’s hypnosis was ineffective, he did not regard even the Sacred Sword Society Gold Disciple with any concern, casually collecting the fiercely contested Super Prop and then leaving, sparing only a little attention towards the Guile Sound Knights’ group battle. But who dared say that his attention was directed at the Guile Sound Knights? Lawrence Lee was an S-rank player, after all!

"Could he be an S-rank player?" Everyone inevitably harbored such suspicions in their hearts.

But he had already left, and not even several Rank-A players could keep him there. What could the others do?

The situation changed in an instant; the battle among the high-level players for the Super Prop had ended before it even started, abruptly concluding the war for the Super Prop that had caused a sensation at the E27 Wormhole Point.

The three members of the Holy Sword Society were the first to leave, followed by Dou Shengnan and the balloon boy heading in the southwest direction of Sea City. Seeing the outcome, the players trapped in life-or-death situations from other zones began to leave one after another, and those who hadn’t left were watching the Guile Sound Knights’ group battle.

Similarly, the Hai City Command Center couldn’t quite believe that everything had ended so abruptly.

Despite the shock and inevitable fury, it was maddening that after so many had died, the Girl in the Painting had still been killed by a player from another area, and the Super Prop had fallen into the hands of outsiders!

"Right now, the most important thing isn’t to dwell on our losses," said an elder from Jing City. "The priority is to rescue people!"

Thus, the command center quickly ordered a cease to the bombardment, searched for the Girl in the Painting’s body, and formulated a rescue plan.

The Super Prop was gone, and the players were mostly dead. Now, Zone 014 had nothing left to make it worthwhile for players from other areas to stick around. The only thing left to wait for was the end of the battle with the Guile Sound Knights. Sёarch* The Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

The command center didn’t have the energy to deal with them either, just evacuated the people of Hai City, clear the area for them to fight. Once they had fought enough and determined the victor, they would leave of their own accord.

"We must find the body of the Girl in the Painting," the elder from Jing City emphasized repeatedly. "We can’t let a hero die in vain!"

The Black-White Roulette had not yet disappeared, and aside from doing their best to protect the ordinary citizens caught in the middle until the situation resolved, the only thing the rescuers could do was to search for the Girl in the Painting’s body.

However, by this time the Girl in the Painting had already snuck away quietly. She had changed her face and clothes and was hiding in a hotel, happily hugging the Medal of the Radiant Gentleman, eating snacks, and texting Xu Huo, "I’m waiting for you to come back."

Of course, Xu Huo couldn’t receive her text; he had already reached the station. The moment he arrived, he removed the Twisted Mask, the thin film over his eyes, and the earphones blasting deafening music, and tossed them along with his hooded shirt into the "Stingy Suitcase" to place in his item bar.

Then, he checked the time. Just perfect.

There were still four players in the station. Seeing him, they approached subtly.

He didn’t devote his main attention to these people.

Things had progressed more smoothly than he had anticipated. High-ranking players constraining each other had given him an excellent opportunity. To guard against hypnotic players from the Guile Sound Knights, he had simply disguised himself as a blind and deaf man. In actuality, for those ten seconds, he couldn’t hear or see anything around him.

The paper pillars seemed to be moving under his control, but in reality, it was the Girl in the Painting who had been playing dead, remotely assisting from afar. All he had to do was stand there and, at the last moment, cast a plausible look towards the southwest—the direction where an intense battle was raging—to divert the players’ attention.

Successfully entering the station meant his plan had largely succeeded. His only worry now was being followed.

Just by witnessing the brief skirmish the Girl in the Painting experienced when she was surrounded at the Pearl Hotel, he knew that there definitely were high-ranking players who had mastered certain space-related traits or Super Props. He wasn’t sure if the other side had accurate tracking or positioning items, so he couldn’t breathe easy until he was on the train.

"Young man, have you got tickets?" asked one of the approaching group, a gaunt but kind-faced old man who was swallowing hard. "Could you sell us two? We’re willing to trade items with you for them."

Only then did Xu Huo look up and scan the group. "Are two tickets enough to go around?" he asked.

Their eyes lit up, "If you have extra, that’d be even better!"

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, "Are you starved of common sense too? You dare to rob someone who managed to get four or five tickets?"

The men exchanged glances, their expressions turning vicious, "I’ve been starving here for two or three days; even if I die, I want to have a bite of meat first!"