This grab naturally caught nothing, and he returned to reality from the illusion, still standing in front that solitary chair, except the words "Please Sit" on the armrests had vanished.
"So from the moment I entered this basement, I've been trapped in an illusion."
Xu Huo inspected the cramped room, but no real potion materialized.
He felt somewhat disappointed. When he entered the illusion, he thought this might be a "clue" left behind by Dr. Wu—after all, the design aesthetic was completely out of place in Museum City. But the potion that had appeared on the chair was just an ordinary evolution potion, useless even if it were real.
After going through all that trouble, the only result was a common evolution agent... That left him a bit frustrated.
Returning to the ground floor, he had just crawled out from under the desk when he ran straight into Long Aotian, who was coming in through the door. He was badly injured—his head and torso were wrapped in gauze, and his nose was crooked.
Seeing Xu Huo suddenly, he was first on guard, then grinned. "Running into you here—man, am I lucky!"
He said that, but he didn't take a single step closer, instead eyeing the doorway.
"How did you end up like this?" Xu Huo asked directly.
Xu Huo couldn't help but glance at him again.
"That's normal, right? Everyone wants to look good. And being a player is basically a high-risk profession for getting disfigured." Long Aotian sighed. "Gotta spend more money to fix my face when I get back."
"But those bastards didn't get off easy either—I made every single one of them bleed!"
Given how badly beaten he was, Xu Huo doubted the truth of that statement. He didn't press further, instead asking, "Where's Liu Chengyi?"
"We split up. How the hell should I know where he went?" Long Aotian said, heading for the door as he pulled out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. He patted himself down, then turned back: "You got—"
Before he could finish, Xu Huo, who was already standing right behind him, neatly sliced his throat.
This "Long Aotian" clutched his spurting throat, collapsed to the ground, and turned into a puppet. At the same time, someone rushed past the entrance outside.
Xu Huo chased them to the entrance of the River Styx Ferry, but the moment he stepped inside, he was surrounded by several players.
These faces were ones he hadn't seen yesterday.
Checking the time and seeing it was already two in the afternoon, he realized these people were new arrivals today. "You guys train ticket players?"
They grinned at him. "Smart move. You gonna hand over your items yourself, or do we have to send you off?"
Xu Huo watched them tighten the circle around him. "You've been in dungeons long enough. You should know better than to talk in your sleep."
The moment the words left his mouth, the Crimson Sword sliced a clean cut through the air. A faint light extended straight ahead, stopping only when it hit a defensive item.
And in the next second, he was already standing right in front of that player. But just as he raised his hand, the guy teleported to the left and warned his companions, "Watch out—this kid can destroy items. Don't get too close!"
In an instant, Xu Huo mentally listed a few prime suspects who might have sold him out on his item's abilities. But that wasn't important right now. He casually tossed a few smoke bombs, put on the Oxygen Supply, and began darting rapidly through the corridor.
These players all had items and characteristics to protect themselves. Even if they couldn't see clearly for the moment, they could still hear movement. Concentrated Air blocked other people's characteristics, but it also hindered his own ability to act. So rapid movement was Xu Huo's best advantage in a one-versus-many situation. Using the Sound-Muffling Figurine and the Murmuring Sphere at the same time, he killed two people in less than half a minute.
But only one of them actually died. The other turned back into a puppet when he fell.
Then the other players started fighting back. As he moved, he felt the ground go soft under his feet, and then a powerful spring force launched him into the air. He blocked with Concentrated Air, but immediately felt water splash onto his back.
His coat was dissolving. Even though Xu Huo tore it off immediately, his skin still developed burn spots.
"He's been hit!" someone from the direction of the potion laughed.
This wasn't ordinary potion. Besides being corrosive, it was also toxic.
Xu Huo threw on the Protective Suit, and the next second, he charged straight toward the sound. In just a few breaths, accompanied by the thud of a heavy object hitting the ground, the fighting stopped. As the surrounding players approached, a corpse was kicked out from the depths—it was the player who had used the toxic potion!
"He's poisoned! He won't last long!" one player roared, and at the same time made a handshake gesture toward Xu Huo. "Pleased to meet you!"
Hidden in the smoke, Xu Huo was forcibly pulled toward this player. They were still several meters apart when an invisible blade sliced through Xu Huo's throat!
The player watched the head fly off, but he didn't feel a hint of satisfaction—because he hadn't received a game prompt. That meant Xu Huo hadn't been killed. So whose head was that flying off?
But his confusion didn't last long. The killed "person" suddenly vanished, and he felt a chill at his neck—Xu Huo, who had cleanly chopped off his head, turned and vanished back into the smoke to hunt down his next target.
Low murmuring began echoing through the underground passage. At first, it wasn't noticeable, but after a few minutes, the sound felt like it was whispering right next to everyone's ears, becoming harder and harder to ignore, and more and more irritating.
Even Xu Huo couldn't escape its effect.
The Murmuring Sphere had a mental interference effect, but not at this intensity. Sensing something was wrong, he lowered his head to look at the sword in his hand and found that its originally closed eye had unknowingly opened a slit.
Like a real eye. Just that tiny gap made Xu Huo feel an unprecedented danger. He immediately stowed the sword back in his item slot, broke away from the smoke area, and retreated deeper into the River Styx Ferry.
Those players didn't chase him. Xu Huo made sure he wasn't caught in another illusion before relaxing slightly. He boarded the ferry boat nearby and proceeded along the underground waterway.
The dim waterway reflected faint ripples of light. In the silent space, the only sound was the scraping of the boat against objects beneath the water. Glancing over, he could see things floating in the water that looked like human bones.
They really were human bones. Below them was a moving track, making the bones appear as if they were drifting underwater.
Not far ahead, a large patch of red surfaced from the water. There was no smell of blood—just ordinary dye, creating the illusion of a river of blood. At the same time, some stone steles appeared on the surrounding walls—all tombstones, inscribed with specific names, birth and death years, and the names of those who erected them.
It wasn't surprising to find names from the Infectious Disease History Museum here. What surprised Xu Huo was that among these steles, as many as twenty bore the surname Shang, and most of them had died in the same year.
Different ages but all dying in the same year—that wasn't natural disaster or human tragedy; it was both.