Chapter 904: A Good Deal Delivered to Our Door

The effect that kept him from closing his eyes still hadn’t worn off, and now madness clouded his vision again. Xu Huo shouted, “I want a discount!” The first things to greet him were two long knives, one from the front and one from behind.

He had already tried using the Crimson Sword. It was forced back as soon as it touched the wind. It seemed this wind only allowed attacks from outside to strike those inside, not the other way around. Of course, it was hard to dodge in such a narrow space. The air barrier also seemed to conflict with the properties of this item, and he had failed twice to compress the air into a barrier.

Concentrated Air had spatial properties, so Xu Huo guessed this item probably had similar properties. After Mobile Metal blocked the attacks from the front and behind, he reached out and grabbed at the space around him, passing straight through the storm and appearing fifty meters away.

This storm item seemed to have something to do with “compressing space.” Xu Huo had experienced compressed space in the botanical garden in Sea World, and without any obstacles in his way, getting through it wasn’t difficult for him.

Once out, he immediately doubled back. In less than a second, he reached one of the players from behind and brought his blade down, cleanly severing the man’s neck.

The storm item’s effect had already vanished. Xu Huo looked up and saw the other player kneeling in front of Shangguan Xi with his hands twisted behind his back, his head lowered as if he were lying across a chopping block. A moment later, an invisible force cut him in half at the waist.

Shangguan Xi himself didn’t seem to have expected the man to be cut in half. He had been bracing himself to dodge the spraying blood, only to get a footful of the corpse’s entrails instead.

“Holy crap, that’s disgusting!” He immediately shook his foot and backed away, then called to Xu Huo, “Brother Xu, you’re done too. Let’s get ready to go.”

Up above, the Teenager and Teacher Ai were pushing the iron door open just a crack to look down. Xu Huo kicked the sand off his shoes and flew up, saying, “We need transportation to get to W19.”

“Transportation?” Shangguan Xi climbed up the Protective Wall with a Suction Cup Item and squeezed through the iron door before continuing, “With wind this strong, we can’t use a flight device. There may be cars in the city, but we can’t drive them out either. The moment we start the engine, the Mutants will swarm us. I already checked. There aren’t any quiet-running vehicles at W37 Base Station.”

And items were out of the question. For one thing, their range was limited, and for another, there wasn’t enough time.

“It’ll be difficult to cross this desert area on foot,” Xu Huo said. “Transportation would be better. Besides, we’ll need it to leave W19 too.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to look for one when we get to W19?” Shangguan Xi said. “Even if we drove a car there, too many things could change by the time we arrived, and we might not be able to use it. We’d also have to protect the car on the way from W18.”

He had a point. Xu Huo explained his reasoning. “We’re taking people with us. Using a vehicle to get there from W18 would be more convenient. We don’t know what the situation will be like at W19, and we’ll have things to bring back too. By then, we might not have the energy to look for another car or flight device. Having a car waiting outside gives us a backup plan.”

If he were traveling alone, it would be easier for him to go by himself.

“What’s W19 like?” Shangguan Xi looked at Teacher Ai. “You came from there.”

The middle-aged man pressed his hands against his withered legs. “W19 is worse than here. You’d be better off following Mr. Xu’s plan, if you’ve decided to take me with you.”

“Where in the city can we find a car?” Shangguan Xi asked.

Xu Huo, however, kept his eyes on Teacher Ai. “How did you get to W18?”

“By car,” Teacher Ai replied calmly. “You know W37 Base Station. You should know that almost every base city has manually operated off-road vehicles. They’re made from the same material as the Protective Wall, so they’re hard to corrode or damage. They also have a sinkhole warning system and a defense system, which let them handle difficult terrain. Their only drawback is that they consume a lot of power.”

Shangguan Xi frowned, gradually catching on to what he meant. “You know where there’s a car?”

They had already been able to get a general idea of the city’s layout when they passed through it yesterday. There couldn’t be many of the manually operated off-road vehicles Teacher Ai had described. Most of the vehicles they’d seen were better suited to flat ground. If they could find one of these cars, it would most likely be at a factory or at the former W18 Base City management’s residence. But it went without saying that when the outbreak happened, those people would have fled.

“The gateway-opening device in W18 has already been destroyed,” Xu Huo said. “If you drove here from outside to escape, your car should still be out there.”

Shangguan Xi looked at the endless expanse of yellow sand ahead. “That doesn’t seem very likely.”

“My car was buried in the sand long ago, but I know where there’s another one,” Teacher Ai said. “I have one condition, though.”

“Go ahead,” Xu Huo said.

“You have to take me to W37 Base,” Teacher Ai said in an even tone. “I’m the only one in W18 who knows where the car is. Torture won’t work on me.”

“Is that so? I don’t believe you.” Shangguan Xi fiddled with the item on his wrist, but Teacher Ai continued, “Those three used items and potions on me earlier. I only told them where there were cars in the city, and as soon as they heard, they gave up on driving out.”

“Try it if you don’t believe me.” Teacher Ai raised his head in the darkness and looked at Xu Huo. “And don’t think you can use the people in the city to force me to comply. They have nothing to do with me.”

After saying that, he gestured for the Teenager to step forward. The Teenager, not understanding why, moved in front of him, only for Teacher Ai to shove him!

“Teacher Ai!” The Teenager’s reflexes let him grab the iron door beside him as he fell backward. The door gave a dull thud, and the Teenager stared in disbelief at the man sitting on the ground.

In the light from outside, Teacher Ai’s gaunt face showed no emotion.

“Were you a player before?” Xu Huo asked, slightly surprised.

Someone with a firm enough mind might be able to resist an item’s effects, but potions acted directly on the body. Willpower alone was useless, unless the person’s body had been modified.

An ordinary evolved person couldn’t reach that level.

“Whether I was a player or not makes no difference to you,” Teacher Ai said, patting his legs. “I can’t stand up, and I don’t have any items.”

“Then aren’t you afraid we’ll kill you after we get what we want?” Shangguan Xi clearly disapproved of Teacher Ai’s ruthless act of shoving the Teenager toward the wall below, and his tone was none too pleasant.

“You’re going to W19. Don’t you need to go to W37 afterward?” Teacher Ai countered.

“Looks like those idiots just now gave away most of the story,” Xu Huo said. “But there’s still one problem. You’ve been in W18 for quite some time. The climate outside has changed, and the terrain has probably changed too. How are you going to prove your value during the second half of the trip?”

In other words, they could take him along, but not for nothing.

“I used to be an engineer, responsible for designing item-related projects between bases,” Teacher Ai said. “I know every road, whether it’s marked on the map or not.”

That was quite a trump card. It was practically a good deal delivered to their door, but Shangguan Xi was the first to doubt him. “That’s a pretty big boast. Aren’t you afraid you’ll choke on it?”