Chapter 840: Anomaly

Despite being unable to see the dark zone, Xu Huo still chose a position with a good vantage point, making it easier to use his characteristics afterward.

However, as time passed, he began to feel that something was off.

It had been this long, yet no players from District 011 had come to support, and even the players who had been lured away by the Phantom Sound Knights hadn't turned back.

This was too abnormal.

Equally abnormal was the Game Government base. So far, only Director Sanyang had returned to the base.

Logically speaking, the fifth floor of the base stored important items. After an incident like this, even if they didn't transfer those things first thing, there should have been staff members coming to check on the situation. Could it be that apart from those who went out to complete tasks, the base had no one left at all? Even just to protect the base building, they should have left some players behind.

Shi Youzhi and his team left at too convenient a time.

Xu Huo had traveled to and from District 011 several times, but this was the only time when almost all the squads were out, and they hadn't returned for a long time.

The Phantom Sound Knights and the Holy Sword Society might have come to District 011 because of the primal stone, but whether that primal stone actually existed was still up for debate. If this information was false, then the current situation made sense. This was a trap aimed at the Phantom Sound Knights or the Holy Sword Society. The lack of player reinforcements either meant they were waiting for more people to jump in, or they simply didn't need that many players to help, with players capable of controlling the situation waiting in the background.

The base had been cleaned out completely. It was hard to say they hadn't received advance notice.

"Has the base had any major operations recently?" Xu Huo turned to ask Wan Tingfang. "Like large amounts of items coming in or going out, or perhaps a sudden influx of documents."

Wan Tingfang was taken aback for a moment, then said, "This... I wouldn't know either. But I did notice Director Sanyang hasn't been very busy lately, so probably not."

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes and stared at her for a second before shifting his gaze back to the dark zone ahead. "Shi Youzhi and his team left at too convenient a time. When the incident happened tonight, there were barely any people at the base. Up until now, neither the base nor District 011 has sent more players to reinforce. There's a nine in ten chance this is a setup."

"Have you heard whether District 011 has a super player?"

Wan Tingfang paused. "District 011 actually does have a super player!"

District 011 didn't just have a super player, it also had a super dungeon. If a game partition contained a super dungeon, then that partition would no longer have Random Dungeons, which was why District 011 was so peaceful.

Half of the super players Xu Huo had encountered were wanted criminals, but there were also those who followed the game rules. This super player in District 011 was clearly part of the "establishment." If District 011 had any major moves, there was no way he wouldn't be informed.

Thinking about that weathered zone they had passed earlier, he said, "We can't stay here any longer. We need to leave first."

"Alright." Wan Tingfang nodded. "I'll just go into a dungeon then."

By the time the two came down from the building, Wan Tingfang had already disappeared. Xu Huo knew she hadn't entered a dungeon. He glanced in the direction she had gone, then turned and accelerated toward the Rose Castle.

But just at that moment, a massive explosion suddenly erupted from the dark zone. Looking back, it seemed as though a hole had been blasted through the black canopy. As it receded in all directions, figures flew out from within one after another, rapidly scattering toward every corner of the city. If one looked closely, they would notice that almost all of them were trailing wisps of black smoke.

The next second, Xu Huo heard a player's roar - it wasn't a normal human voice, but more like the howl of a wild beast!

"Bang!"

Several figures slammed into the edge of the Main City District one after another, causing the other players who were still watching the excitement to immediately retreat into the distance. A few players also crept closer to the crash sites. Those players who hadn't come out after so long inevitably made others think there was an opportunity to be seized.

These people were looking for death.

Xu Huo only glanced back once without slowing his pace, but in that single moment of turning his head, screams erupted from behind, followed by even greater chaos. A player shouted in panic: "They're all showing Mutant characteristics!"

Xu Huo's expression remained unchanged. To the base, forcing players to degenerate was an infallible weapon. Once a player showed signs of degeneration, even if they wouldn't turn into Mutants in the short term, the goal of "killing the attackers" had already been achieved. Players who began degenerating would only gradually wither away, slowly losing their capacity for human thought.

No player could accept that reality. Every other goal would take a backseat. Saving their own lives was the top priority.

So at this moment, the afflicted players would find it hard to fight the base to the bitter end - for the base, this was also a way to escape their predicament.

When it came to Mutant research, the most extensive data still belonged to the Game Government. They were enemies now, but perhaps in the near future, these people would also defect to the Game Government.

Of course, this might not necessarily have been done by the base, but the result was the same.

"Save me...!" Someone behind was desperately calling for help from their companion. The high-level player grabbing him was a Red Player. After the degeneration features appeared on his face, it seemed his sanity had vanished along with them, and he bit straight through the player's throat!

Blood sprayed everywhere, but before the victim even stopped breathing, the high-level player had already tossed him aside and charged at the next person.

Judging by the speed at which the other party was using items, he hadn't gone mad. He was simply venting his anger.

Two other players were doing the same thing, but they only killed a few opportunists who had moved in before shifting their attention to the dark zone.

The darkness that had shrouded nearly half the city had vanished. The base building stood tall and unshaken, but almost all the other structures in the city had been reduced to rubble. The floating dust and smoke hadn't fully dissipated yet, and one could barely make out a few figures standing within it. The next second, they disappeared.

The wind in the city seemed to pause for a moment, and then a Light Arc bounced out from the direction of the base, crossing the entire base city in an instant. When it reached the city's edge, time stopped.

Xu Huo wasn't sure if time had actually stopped. With his back to the base, the moment the Light Arc flashed past, he was frozen in place. His body couldn't move at all, and the only thing in his field of vision was a floating advertisement sheet that hadn't yet landed.

Even though he couldn't see, he could sense the space around him. The few players nearby were frozen just like him, and those further away - he couldn't hear a single sound, so they were probably in the same state.

But soon, sounds came from further off again. Xu Huo tried to reach for his train ticket and found that his body was slowly becoming responsive again. After regaining control of himself, he turned around and saw the entire city as if it had been hit by the Pause Button - billowing dust, collapsing buildings, players in mid-stride, all frozen in their motion at a single moment.

At the same time, he spotted a few players like himself who could still move, but there was no time to investigate the reason. He turned and ran toward the old city district.

Just as he started moving, the players standing frozen in place began to burst apart one after another, including several high-level players, like corpses that had been frozen solid, shattering at the slightest touch!