Chapter 808: New Clues

That player had quite a few good items on him, and with Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu working together, they still could not gain the upper hand for a while.

The three of them were stuck inside the building, but since the pursuing player had sealed off the entire structure with items in advance, no one, including the government player, managed to get out.

The neighboring floors had already been riddled with holes from the fighting. The pursuing player had no interest in getting tangled up with Xu and Yan. After using defensive items to force the two back, he suddenly accelerated and lunged at the government player who seemed to be fleeing with important items!

The government player could not leave the building, so he had been hanging around nearby. He had wanted to join forces with Xu Huo and the others but could not find an opening, so he had deliberately moved aside. Now, seeing the enemy charging at him, his face drained of color. He quickly tossed down two or three items to buy time before turning to flee.

"Distance does not exist!" The pursuing player used an item, and the escaping man was dragged back against his will. Just as he was about to take the man's life, a thin thread suddenly coiled around his wrist!

The pursuing player frowned and used a cleansing item, but it failed to remove the thread. He could not help but glance back at Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu in distraction, but the very next second, his hand was cleanly severed!

The pursuing player's face changed drastically. He immediately retreated and rolled up his sleeve, only to find that the protective clothing he was wearing was completely useless. The same thin thread had appeared on his arm... In the following few seconds, his hands and feet dropped off segment by segment like soft butter!

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu backed away at the same time, while the government player who had been panicking moments ago twitched his fingers and cleanly sliced off the pursuing player's head!

This development caught everyone off guard. However, they then saw gliding threads fly out from the corpse and crawl back to the government player's hand like snakes.

"Thanks for buying me time. Otherwise, killing him would have been a bit tricky." This player smiled at the two. "Is there anything I can help you with?"

Quite a few players had gathered outside the building. Xu Huo put away his sword before speaking. "We want to know this man's identity, and about the killing paper in his hand."

"Let me take a look." The government player was straightforward. After checking, his expression darkened slightly. "The paper he used to kill people isn't in the item slot."

"Then again, a powerful item like that is likely one-time use."

"As for his identity, I found this in his luggage compartment."

He tossed over a thin booklet. Xu Huo caught it and took a look. It was actually a rule manual of the Holy Sword Society.

"So he's from the Holy Sword Society." Yan Jiayu glanced at it.

Xu Huo was not the only one present who had dealt with the Holy Sword Society before. The government player across from them said, "If he's from the Holy Sword Society, that's not surprising. It's always been an organization that straddles good and evil. If you two want to cause them trouble, it might be difficult, because the few players who showed up here today weren't particularly strong."

With that, he collected the corpse on the ground and left.

After he was far away, Yan Jiayu tore off the sticker on her face and said, "Was that guy telling the truth? Is the manual his, or does it belong to the dead player?"

"Hard to say." Xu Huo replied. "This whole setup today feels like a trap, possibly specifically meant to lure these people out."

Yan Jiayu nodded slightly. "But no matter what they're trying to grab, dying this many players isn't worth it."

"That paper definitely isn't a one-time item. Either it was transferred in advance, or that guy was lying."

"That's not hard to figure out." Xu Huo said. "We didn't know the killing method before, but since it's a paper you can write names on, and it might be connected to the Holy Sword Society, finding relevant information shouldn't be too difficult."

"Besides, back in Zone 014, the Holy Sword Society did come around to join in the fun."

"That's true, but I feel like if it were the Holy Sword Society, would they hand such a powerful item to a few players with mediocre strength?" Yan Jiayu said.

After all, she and Xu Huo were only D-level players.

"There's no need to dig too deep into the reasons," Xu Huo said. "Whether these people were released as decoys or it was pure coincidence doesn't matter. We didn't come away empty-handed."

Yan Jiayu smiled. "That's true."

With that, she turned to look at the stone lion that had long since gotten comfortable lying on the ground taking a nap. She whipped it with a stick!

The stone lion was struck and jumped up. The two had a subdued exchange of blows before Yan Jiayu finally put it back into the item slot.

"If I don't hit it once a day, it stops listening." She explained.

Xu Huo understood. After all, any item should be "diligent and conscientious." This was the first time he had seen one that slacked off during battle.

Although this trip hadn't achieved its goal, at least they had gained some leads. As they were leaving, Yan Jiayu asked if he still had any bounty platform slots left this month. Hers were all used up.

"I've used mine too." Xu Huo said. "We'll figure it out when we get to District 011. That district has more information."

A series of explosions sounded from the direction of the Government Building. Two buildings wobbled and came crashing down. Now not just ordinary citizens, but even players were scrambling to escape for their lives.

Yan Jiayu looked over there. "Even with players using rescue buffer skills, those buildings are still going to fall. I need to go help."

"I'm with you." Xu Huo said.

The two rushed quickly toward the scene.

The players in Zone 009 did their best. Some used high-grade items to hold the two buildings up mid-way, but that couldn't stop the sustained attacks. The damaged buildings shifted from the middle and began to topple in different directions.

Even elite players found it hard to charge in and rescue people at this point. After all, the buildings could collapse in just a few seconds, nowhere near enough time to pull people out. So their first choice was to dodge, planning to start rescue operations after the buildings came down.

Fortunately, evacuations had been ongoing since the incident first started. Otherwise, the death toll today might have been more than a hundred.

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu were quick. They grabbed two people from the closest positions before the buildings hit the ground. Then came a series of thunderous crashes. Massive clouds of dust instantly rolled outward with debris in all directions, blotting out the sky!

Xu Huo retreated to the side of a nearby building to take cover. Once the sound of collapsing structures died down a bit, he put on his protective suit and jumped onto the rubble.

Finding people wasn't hard, but those buried deep weren't easy to dig out. They would need heavy machinery for that.

Yan Jiayu handed him a handful of small flags. "Use these. Mark the spots where people can't be extracted, and Zone 009 players can come back to rescue them later."

These were small items. Each flag had "Person Here" written on it. Xu Huo stuck one into the ground at his feet, and the flagpole immediately scrolled with the text "Person ten meters directly below."

After he made the marks, Yan Jiayu brought Da Mao over to dig. Soon they had rescued nearly thirty people from the rubble. Some passed away shortly after being pulled out, but most were still alive.

For those who could move, Yan Jiayu would give them some food and water, asking them to help take care of the severely injured.