Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 472: Death and Opportunity

It was unclear whether the train had malfunctioned under the frequent attacks of the Mutants or if it had deliberately slowed down. Wearing his Protective Suit, Xu Huo actually found the current airflow tolerable, partly thanks to the constant stream of Mutants providing some cover.

With "Moving Metal" and "Damage Discount," plus his use of the Crimson Sword for long-range attacks, he had only sustained minor injuries within the first five minutes of the battle.

During this time, he noticed that the escort personnel not far ahead were also injured. However, compared to being bitten by Mutants or having limbs torn off, they seemed more terrified of the blue-black curls appearing at their wounds—not every blood mutant left such toxic injuries, only the larger ones with discolored nails did.

If a wound showed a blue-black hue, the escort personnel's first reaction was to slice off the skin and flesh around the injury, then take a potion under their teammates' cover.

Even under the onslaught of the Mutant tide, the escort personnel prioritized treating such wounds, indicating the fierce toxicity of this blue-black poison.

After that, Xu Huo paid special attention to the individuals with discolored nails within the Mutant horde. Whenever he spotted such a blood mutant approaching, he would use the piano wire to pull it away first. The Mutants' intelligence had degraded; they wouldn't obsessively chase a single target. Often, after being pulled away by the piano wire, they would quickly get swept up in the next wave of attacks.

The Mutants were increasing, almost burying the entire train. Xu Huo completely lost sight of the battle ahead, and the metal box he was on was also crawling with Mutants. For a moment, all he could see were the twisted, crowded heads and bodies of Mutants. Relying solely on his sword was simply not enough to kill them all.

So he threw out his stockpile of alcohol along with the cloth produced by the item textile machine and set it on fire.

The instantly erupting flames expanded the attack range, and these Mutants seemed particularly fearful of fire. After two rounds of charges, about one-third of the Mutants retreated.

But the remaining numbers were still considerable. After the alcohol ran out, Xu Huo began consuming his cloth supply, but that didn't last long either. Fortunately, just then, a frosty wind blew from ahead. Seeing many Mutants frozen in place, he seized the opportunity to wield his sword and reap them.At this point, the Mutants had noticeably decreased. Looking ahead, the area around the escort personnel guarding the Coffin-like Box had been cleared out. Apart from the two players whose hands were fused with the Coffin-like Box, everyone else was injured, and two of them had lost arms.

"Spatial Items actually can't be used!" one of the one-armed players angrily exclaimed, shooting down a Mutant lunging at him. "It must be Laurence Li's doing! His characteristic can restrict Spatial Items!"

However, the player carrying the Coffin-like Box said, "He didn't make a move. Someone here has a Super Item."

Spatio-temporal items are difficult to coexist within the same area. In other words, if a spatio-temporal item of considerable grade appears within a certain range, other lower-grade spatio-temporal items will malfunction or have their effects greatly diminished. This was partly why the escort personnel were in such a sorry state.

Facing a Mutant tide that was difficult to exterminate with just physical strength and bare hands, large-scale attack items were very practical, like the player using ice. However, he could only seal them temporarily, not kill them completely. If spatial lockdown could be performed, the situation would be very different.

"Then it's still him!" the one-armed player insisted, not considering other possibilities.

Yet that player glanced both ahead and behind.

After Vivi blew up the carriage, Carriage One had five players left. After the bloody battle just now, two more had died, leaving only three: Vivi, her father, and another male player. Their situation was also tragic. Vivi's father had lost a palm, the other man had lost his left arm, and his right arm and lower legs were gnawed to the bone in multiple places, a pitiful sight.

Among the three, only Vivi was in slightly better condition, but she didn't seem to have any strength to spare either.

As for Xu Huo in the rear, thanks to the metal box, he only needed to deal with the Mutants directly in front. He had many minor injuries and looked covered in blood, but his combat effectiveness wasn't significantly diminished, and he had no blue-black wounds.

Then there was Dr. Deng, who had actually been sent soaring into the sky like a kite, completely avoiding the Mutant tide. This meant that even in the chaotic situation earlier, Xu Huo had also managed the kite string. After all, with so many Mutants charging, items could potentially be damaged.

A moment later, the player carrying the Coffin-like Box extended a hand toward Xu Huo.

This player had once crushed a Mutant on the carriage roof from a distance inside the carriage. "Seeing is Believing" definitely couldn't counter such a powerful characteristic. So Xu Huo decisively kicked the sealed opening of the metal box to one side. Unfortunately, he was still a step too late. The next second, he felt his heart burst...

His consciousness paused for an extremely brief moment. When his rationality returned, Xu Huo saw that player about to turn his head to look at him!

"Three Seconds of a Life" had taken effect. The time in this space had rewound to three seconds before his death!

So, before that person could truly look at him, he forcibly kicked the metal box to rotate it. When the entrance was diagonally facing the outside of the tracks, he flipped from the box to the back...

Sure enough, the player, unable to see him, still made his move. He crushed the box into a ball of scrap metal from a distance and then knocked the box off the train. This way, only some leaping Mutants stood between them.

"Director Yuan!" the one-armed player suddenly shouted urgently at the person holding the Coffin-like Box.

Director Yuan, who had just attacked Xu Huo, turned his head and directly grabbed at a female blood mutant lunging toward him!

He wanted to use that move again. However, at that moment, a crystallization composed of numerous small diamonds suddenly appeared in the air. Those crystals seemed like shards of a rectangular fracture bursting from the air, growing piece by piece, forming a wall over ten meters high between Director Yuan's group and the female blood mutant!

From the front, this crystalline wall looked like multifaceted transparent crystal, but it reflected lights of varying colors. As the viewing angle changed, these tiny lights seemed to flow.

Director Yuan failed to kill that female blood mutant. Looking at the crystalline object before him, he said, "Laurence Li's characteristic is indeed extraordinary. If someone hadn't used a spatio-temporal item earlier, I probably wouldn't have even noticed the change in the air."

That female blood mutant had long since fled. The unseen Laurence Li didn't speak either. The only response to Director Yuan was the continuously growing crystal shards, which in an instant completely surrounded Director Yuan and his group.

The sudden intervention by the female blood mutant and Laurence Li gave Xu Huo a chance to catch his breath. From the outside, he couldn't see the changes within the crystal shards, but he could discern that the density of the small diamond-shaped pieces composing these air crystals had increased, as if something within was being extracted.

The next second, the air crystal shards retracted and receded. However, the reappearing Director Yuan and his group had already been pierced through their bodies by the crisscrossing, elongated crystal shards.