CHAPTER 1576: CHAPTER 1576: UNLESS SHE CAN’T HELP HERSELF

There’s no doubt that those players who rushed to the meeting room were also controlled by Spatial Blades. Most of them were still standing, though their postures looked somewhat strange. Some were looking up, some were running, others piggybacking, standing on one foot; each looked like a wax figure with rotating eyeballs, stuck in the air.

The meeting room was surrounded by relatively wide corridors, at least thirty meters wide. Beyond the corridors were training rooms. Arranging players nearby was supposedly a safety measure, but it obviously didn’t work well, only adding dozens more hostages.

"You’re so dumb I don’t even feel like killing you." Xu Huo looked at the man across the table, "If the numbers alone could win, I wouldn’t be here alone today."

After saying that, he swiftly completed the other’s heroic sacrifice.

Although blood was shed, none of the players in the meeting room exited Zone 014 to enter the game, their faces merely turned uglier, revealing an unnoticeable fear—they didn’t even have the courage to enter the game alone.

Every player has a limited number of Low-Level Copies they can enter each year. The people sitting in the meeting room quickly rose to above Rank-C with the help of companions and strategies, without having enough experience, and with each level, the copies became harder. Even after advanced dungeons, not every copy provided a strategy, and even if there was a strategy, copies are never static. For them to enter the copies solo was far more pressure than what Xu Huo brought today.

Moreover, these people held a position on the meeting table, so their focus couldn’t be entirely on mastering copies.

Some indeed managed both instances and affairs, but such elites often wouldn’t appear at today’s meeting table. Even if they did, they’d know some words can’t be spoken bluntly.

Separated by a wall, the people on both sides fell silent.

Xu Huo allowed those inside the meeting room some room to move, yet no one acted. Outside the meeting room, some players did have spirit, but they couldn’t move either; the props or devices they wore targeting Psychic Power and Spatial Power were cut earlier. After being trapped by blades formed from Spatial Rays, strong emotional fluctuations made them more susceptible to illusion traps. Although rapid consumption of Evolution Potions increased their Evolution Rate, time was limited; compared to players who upgraded normally, their Evolution Rate was generally lower, making interference easier than expected.

Up to now, no one had come for support, and Xu Huo stabilized the situation. Along with his previous words, it’s conceivable that this incident was well-prepared. An elder at the top, with eyes clouded by anger, scanned the people in the meeting room, finally resting on a few seniors, "You’re a Super Evolver, and the government has always been generous with White Notes and Props. What exactly do you stand to gain from participating in this? Do you want power? Or some other exchange conditions?"

"Apparently you didn’t listen to a word I said just now." Xu Huo pushed his chair forward, allowing him to sit stably, "The main reason I’m here is because I want to be."

"The government has trained many Advanced Players too. Don’t they understand that a player’s personal will can sometimes decide many things?"

Finally, not needing to support laboriously as before, the elder laughed, "I believe you have the ability to control the players arranged around the meeting room in advance, and I believe you have the ability to kill anyone present. But, do you know how many players are there in the R1 Base?"

"After the meeting room starts, every ten minutes a safety report is sent to the entire base; the last ten minutes have already passed, now everyone in the base should know!"

"Even if you kill all of us, like-minded people will continuously fill in..."

The elder’s slightly proud words were interrupted by the monitoring equipment Xu Huo produced. He watched as Xu Huo gently tapped on the metal ball the size of a dove egg, the shell expanded and revealed a smaller core inside. A ray of light projected into the air, displaying six surveillance screens above the meeting table.

The moment the screen appeared, everyone in the meeting room was shocked.

"This is surveillance taken over from the base," Xu Huo said.

The elder certainly knew these were surveillance screens of the base, showing six places: the main control room, equipment room, training ground, storage depot, and the two large corridors close to the meeting room. He had checked these screens numerous times, so he could identify the positions just from some settings, but he was not shocked by the stolen control of these monitors; he was shocked by the flying white paper all over the base!

An A4 paper is neither big nor small, but when it’s fluttering under the camera, it appears particularly obstructive, periodically blocking the camera thoroughly; one can only guess the happenings through sound.

As the elder said, the whole base had indeed known the meeting room was held hostage, not because of a missing safety report, but due to Xu Huo’s entry just before this.

Nie Xuan had cut off the base’s external communication channels and closed the safety exits; controlling this base’s space transitioned to the Girl in the Painting. After several incidents of information theft, the government now handles certain affairs internally, using paper files, which are destroyed after use. Thus, they didn’t even need to bring materials here.

When the papers flew, the Girl in the Painting had already warned people in the base via internal broadcast. To make the performance more true-to-life, she wore a special mask—however, to prevent more information leaks, Xu Huo sternly refused her appearing in person on the scene, only allowing her to use her phone or communicator to play sounds.

Though she felt a little regretful, the Girl in the Painting was still thrilled, manipulating the white paper to fly chaotically throughout the base, wrapping the non-cooperative ones and suspending them in the air until they were near suffocation before letting them down. For uncooperative players, it was easier; the paper’s edges could cut, slashing wrists and feet wasn’t a problem. Whether an unruly person got limited cuts or severed muscles depended on their luck!

Those who could enter R1 Base for work underwent stringent identity and background screenings; their abilities were top-notch. After entering, regardless of being a player or not, they had to study player’s battle cases. The game involving Super Props in Sea City was a must-study case. Who wouldn’t recognize the widely flying paper across the city? Such an impactful scene was unmatched even against player battle scenes today.

More importantly, it symbolized Super Props.

Yearning for and fearing Super Props, admiration and worship of the holder, plus some factional acceptance and spectatorship, and some "small" warnings, meant the Girl in the Painting progressed smoothly—for, after all, she said at the outset that she would not kill easily.

Unless she couldn’t resist.