"Will this cause trouble for you?" The Girl in the painting asked about the matter again.
"Not exactly trouble," Xu Huo said. "Anyway, we’ve already run away and disguised ourselves..."
No sooner had he finished speaking than a group of employees wearing shark masks suddenly appeared ahead. They locked onto the two of them and charged forward, attempting to block the corridor with their devices.
Unfortunately, disconnecting from the ga wasn’t an option here. There were many ways to break the barrier when props could be used. However, with pursuers on their tail, they didn’t have ti to open a new room, so they had to stick to the corridors and stairs.
Clearly, it wasn’t just one group chasing them. They hadn’t run far before being intercepted by two groups approaching from different directions, forcing them to head upstairs.
Running made it difficult to type, but the Girl in the painting still tried to find a chance to understand how they were discovered. It was a question that the Fish Banquet certainly wouldn’t answer, so she could only ask Xu Huo.
"Maybe we’re just too distinctive," Xu Huo said, stabbing through the barrier in front of them with a swift move, releasing the spiritual world to send two approaching players away, and using a materialized item to drive back three more, successfully reaching the fifty-sixth floor with the Girl in the painting.
The number of players chasing them hadn’t decreased. However, as they arrived, they happened to see soone opening a door to leave a room. The door was open, and it was clearly safe inside. Seeing them coming from afar, the player who was about to leave retreated back into the room but did not close the door.
Xu Huo dashed inside without hesitation. As soon as the door closed, it completely isolated the pursuers outside.
There was more than just the buzz-cut player who was about to leave inside the room, including the disheveled man they had seen before and five others.
"You’re quite sothing, haven’t been gone long, and already chased down by the Fish Banquet." The buzz-cut player clearly recognized Xu Huo. He kept a distance from them and pointed at the Girl in the painting, "This woman’s face always looks stupidly charming, way too recognizable."
Their disguises had no evident flaws, but the Girl in the painting wasn’t a real person, so her emotional expressions were fundantally different from those of a human. A keen observer could easily notice her lack of emotional fluctuations; her facial expressions were all fake, but subtle details like her eyes were hard to disguise. Over ti, or after seeing her a few tis, it beca apparent.
"Next ti, let’s pretend to be blind," Xu Huo suggested to the Girl in the painting with a tilt of his head.
The Girl in the painting glared angrily at the buzz-cut man.
"You spared once, I’m returning the favor now," the buzz-cut man said. He was the player whom Xu Huo had caught when they last agreed to et and who had inford Xu Huo about the rmaid Ga.
"Have you been to the rmaid Ga? Or did you refuse to admit loss and that’s why they’re chasing you?" he asked maliciously.
"Might as well have won too much," Xu Huo replied helplessly. "The owner of the Fish Banquet doesn’t play by the rules."
The fish obviously wasn’t his prop, but rather it was him who fell into crisis due to the Fish Banquet managent’s reckless behavior. The owner of the Fish Banquet didn’t compensate him and even chased him down. He didn’t ask to go to the conference room, nor was it his desire to know that the woman nad Zhai was referred to as the "Governor." It was a bit unreasonable.
After hearing his patched-up story, the buzz-cut man and the others in the room couldn’t help but look impressed. They were less impressed by how Xu Huo had stirred trouble and more by how he so confidently believed that the Fish Banquet people should play fair.
"Shouldn’t they?" Xu Huo retorted. "They open their doors for business, not even following basic rules. Is this a hunting ground where big fish eat small fish or a gambler’s table where the house always wins?"
The buzz-cut player scratched his chin. "You make a point, but talk is cheap; you need to back it with strength, or who’ll listen to reason?"
Xu Huo arched an eyebrow. "The more people, the easier it is to reason, right?"
The buzz-cut player looked at him in disbelief. "What makes you think I’d go with you to argue?"
Xu Huo smiled. "What makes you think I’m asking you to join ?"
The buzz-cut player was stumped for a mont before saying, "Hearing you speak so boldly, I thought you were planning sothing big. Turns out it’s just talk."
Xu Huo said no more. With just him plus the people in front of him, or even more players, it still wouldn’t be enough. The Fish Banquet could clamp down on any player by cutting off the ga channels. The only way to stir up the Fish Banquet Building was to release those dungeon props trapped in the small spaces.
Not all dungeon props were inherently smart, but judging by the Tentacle Tool, even with the ga channels cut, if it’s an animal zoo it can still move freely, indicating it, or rather, its naturally smart kind, doesn’t need the ga as a dium to function.
Similarly, it’s possible, even with the ga channel cut, so places might still be under ga control, like near train tracks, chaotic spatial waters, and non-ga simulation sites created by humans. They all seem to have escaped the ga, can’t use tickets, and props don’t work, but the boundary between can and can’t isn’t entirely clear.
Regardless of naturally smart tools being different from other tools, or seeming escape from the ga while actually just conditional player restrictions, as long as beings like the Girl in the painting, Tentacle Tool, and Prop Fish can indeed act normally when the ga channel is artificially severed, it’s enough.
"Do you know of any Pocket Doors nearby that contain dungeon props?" Xu Huo asked. "Preferably the kind that can act freely?"
The buzz-cut player had heard about the Tentacle Tool and said, "That’s a good idea, but even if there are, they’re locked in small spaces. Without directional cross-space instrunts, it’s hard to get them directly into the Fish Banquet."
"I bet you’re not the first to think that. Fish Banquet will have defenses ready. The ga channels with such tools are probably sealed off; even tickets can’t be used, cutting off player attempts to bring them into the Fish Banquet Building."
"That makes sense," Xu Huo nodded. The Tentacle Tool was released because Miss Zhai’s team forcibly swapped rooms causing a spatial collapse, and they only managed to enter and exit the animal park with ga channels cut due to being able to traverse with the Prop Fish.
It wasn’t clear if that fish was similar to the Tentacle Tool or had space attributes that prevented its capture, but its existence indeed offered a breakthrough. They just didn’t know where it might have gone now.
Just then, Xu Huo noticed soone on his communicator talking about a strange fish moving through spaces on the sixty-ninth floor.
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