Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 386: Battle in the Sandstorm

"The transport vehicle is missing one!" Xu Huo quickly turned around—the transport vehicle that had just landed on the ground was gone!

"They couldn't be targeting the vehicles, could they?" Wan Tingfang's face showed shock and suspicion. "Going to so much trouble just to steal a vehicle?"

"Not the transport vehicle!" Xu Huo immediately said, "Can the repair device be stored in an item or the game's luggage compartment?"

"It cannot." Shi Youzhi caught on, leaping down from the transport vehicle himself and saying at the same time, "Defend the station!"

"You two stay in the vehicle." Ai Jia instructed Xu Huo and the other before getting off the vehicle with the rest of the team. But before they could enter the station, a sandstorm suddenly swept across the desert. A black, oppressive mass of sand blotted out the sky and engulfed the entire station!

The scale of this sandstorm was far beyond what Xu Huo's Desert Windmill could produce. Protected by the soap bubble, he wasn't struck by the sandstorm, but the transport vehicle beneath his feet began drifting from its original position!

"Sea-Calming Needle!" Wan Tingfang, who also remained in the vehicle, took out a stone stele engraved with the words "Sea-Calming Needle" and placed it on the vehicle. The drifting, floating vehicle immediately stabilized within the sandstorm.

The space outside the soap bubble was almost completely packed solid with sand. Not only was it impossible to see the situation outside, but even sounds were barely audible.

Wan Tingfang, pressing down on the stone stele with slight unease, turned to Xu Huo, only to see his gaze wandering over the sand.

"What are you looking at?" She followed his line of sight.Xu Huo didn't answer. Instead, he took out the Crimson Sword and slashed toward the left front!

"What are you doing!" Wan Tingfang's expression changed drastically. She pushed the "Sea-Calming Needle" aside and tried to grab the sword, demanding, "Are you in cahoots with the ambushers?!"

Xu Huo dodged her, then took a few steps forward and slashed several more times in succession, moving from the left front all the way to the right. With the final slash, blood suddenly gushed from the sand!

"There's someone!" Wan Tingfang also saw this. She immediately pulled out a metal sphere and tossed it into the air. "See the bones through the flesh!"

A fluorescent green light radiated from the sphere, instantly dyeing the entire soap bubble green. And right where the light shone, on their direct right side, the skeletal frame of a person actually appeared, though missing the left hand.

Xu Huo knew this was probably the person he had just struck. This person had been circling the transport vehicle mixed within the sand. He had originally intended to feint a few slashes to close the distance, but he hadn't expected the sword energy to pass through the soap bubble and directly hit the person in the sand.

Logically, with a layer of sand in between, sword energy shouldn't be able to harm a person. But the opponent's hand was severed, indicating that either this sand, like the soap bubble, didn't constitute the "first object touched" required to trigger the Crimson Sword's condition, or the sand *was* that player!

Now, exposed by the item's light, the opponent had nowhere to hide. But instead of leaving, he began circling outside at an abnormally fast speed!

Seeing this, Wan Tingfang said, "What does he want to do? Could he be trying to break the soap bubble?"

Injured and not leaving—isn't the intent obvious enough? Of course, it's to seek revenge!

Xu Huo stood on the vehicle's roof, continuously swinging his sword, chasing and slashing at that player!

"Aren't you afraid of cutting through the soap bubble?" Wan Tingfang tried to stop him. "There's a sandstorm outside. I don't have suitable defensive items. If we go out, we'll have to use train tickets!"

"Didn't you see She Ping and the others using items just now? It shows this soap bubble can withstand external item attacks, but using items inside doesn't affect their power." Xu Huo didn't pause his actions, continuing, "If it has a time limit or a durability limit, it will break whether I act or not. Better to take the initiative."

Wan Tingfang glanced at the one-armed man outside who was doing who-knows-what, her face darkening. "You're right. Even if we don't move, others won't let us off! I'll try to catch him!"

With that, she took out a toy centipede about the length of a forearm and tossed it outside. The centipede passed through the soap bubble and stuck to the outside, chasing in the direction of the one-armed man.

"Foot-Biting Centipede. Once locked on, the target gets bitten every ten seconds, but each bite only causes half a second of stiffness."

Xu Huo nodded, then moved ahead based on the moving trajectory of the player in the sand to position himself for a slash.

One, two, three... ten!

Counting the time, he swung his sword down. The sword energy reached the soap bubble, drawing a trail of blood on the sand just beyond it. But this strike only caused a flesh wound;

the bones under the fluorescent green light remained unchanged.

"Venomous Snake Fang!" Taking advantage of this opportunity, Wan Tingfang beside him fired a miniature dart from a tiny launcher. The extremely small dart disappeared into the sand—it must have hit the opponent, because the player's figure clearly paused. However, the next second, he vanished from the sand.

But before Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang could catch their breath, the soap bubble was deeply indented by sand shaped like a rapidly spinning drill bit, pushing all the way to their faces!

Both reflexively stepped back. However, this move by the opponent wasn't to attack them, but to destroy the item that could reveal human bones. When the soap bubble rebounded, the metal sphere floating in the air was knocked off the vehicle roof!

Watching her item disappear into the sand, Wan Tingfang cursed, then fired two more venomous fangs at the sand drill. She turned back and asked Xu Huo, "Did it hit?"

Xu Huo shook his head. He could only see the "friendliness values" when the opponent moved close to the soap bubble. The opponent had learned and simply didn't approach.

The first sand drill was like a charge signal. Immediately afterward, dense sand drills began to spin and gather, instantly deforming the soap bubble!

Xu Huo retreated to the middle of the transport vehicle and tried another slash, but with no visible effect.

Noticing cracks appearing on the stretched soap bubble, he warned Wan Tingfang, "The sandstorm is coming!"

As the words fell, the soap bubble burst. A surging wave of sand followed. Xu Huo put on his protective face shield, then quickly threw out the Dual-color Magic Cube and the Fair Wallet. He then picked up the Desert Windmill and opened the Umbrella of Justice!

The Fair Wallet could cause a target to randomly drop one item. Although Xu Huo hadn't spotted the player's trail around them, he still chose to throw the wallet, purely gambling on luck.

The Desert Windmill's fatal weakness was rain. This sand-manipulating player clearly had a characteristic. Utilizing the Umbrella of Justice's rain feature might counter it. If that didn't work, he'd have to use the Desert Windmill.

The opponent's characteristic was sand. The Desert Windmill could release a sandstorm. Characteristic power and item power might be incompatible. But if the windmill's sandstorm became an aid to the opponent, the opponent might come closer. Only at close range could he do something.

However, to his surprise, the moment the Umbrella of Justice opened, the sandstorm became sluggish, then fell in large patches. The player mixed within the sand also revealed his trail. The Fair Wallet and the Dual-color Magic Cube were both at his feet, with a lasso beside them.