City of Sinister Mist (Black Death) Chapter 142: Turbulent Waves

Wu Hui got out of the vehicle just in time. If he had been two minutes later, he truly would have been trapped inside.

A laser beam descended, blasting the vehicle apart.

“Very alert. Although you are only a group of fourth-level players, you are worth my personal attention. You should indeed feel honored.” Smiling Face claimed he would act personally, yet he still sent a controlled player forward first, carrying a laser weapon.

A man like him would never act personally if he could avoid it. He would always send two fifth-level players ahead to test the waters.

The situation facing Wu Hui and the others was genuinely dire.

It was true that they had previously killed fifth- and sixth-level opponents without suffering much injury, but that had only been possible because they were prepared in advance and their enemies had underestimated them, allowing them to be wiped out in a single wave.

Now they were facing opponents with abundant combat experience, one or two levels above them, without any preparation. Even if they brought out every trump card and somehow won, they would inevitably pay a terrible price.

Thus, after enduring this attack, Wu Hui had only one response.

“Run! Spread out and take the side roads!”

Wang Xiaodie had always been half a beat slow. She had not broken free from the influence of the black mist. The moment Ren Yin stopped soothing her, the girl immediately lost control, which was extremely troublesome.

In fact, Ren Yin herself was nearly losing control as well.

She had remained wary throughout her hypnosis of Li Xiaoyue. Even though she understood rationally that the likelihood of Li Xiaoyue betraying her was very low, Ren Yin still felt hostility toward her.

As a result, the hypnosis was clearly not as effective on her as it had been on Wu Hui.

Li Xiaojing was even worse. She had temporarily freed herself from the black mist by venting her emotions, but that was no different from drinking poison to quench her thirst.

Her sister, whose mind was linked with hers, was in the same condition.

As for Wu Hui, the headache caused by the mental exhaustion of summoning chess pieces yesterday had still not completely subsided.

All five of them were in poor condition. They had originally set out to seek refuge with Round Spider and the others. They could not hold out on their own.

At present, they could barely deal with one or two fifth-level opponents. After all, they had numbers on their side.

But against a sixth-level player, they had no chance at all.

Another laser beam descended. Its power was astonishing, melting a large section of the asphalt road, though its accuracy was less impressive. None of Wu Hui’s group was struck.

The attacker was probably a fifth-level player, but he was unlikely to be the enemy’s main force.

Once he had calmed down, Wu Hui’s judgment became extremely precise. He turned toward the direction from which the attack had come. He saw no one, yet it felt as though a gaze had met his own.

Smiling Face stared at Wu Hui from a great distance.

“Not bad,” Smiling Face said. “If we weren’t in this situation, I might have tried to recruit you. Perhaps I could take control of this fellow’s mind and turn him into a chess piece?”

He ordered the laser gunner to continue attacking while sending a burly warrior clad in black heavy armor charging ahead.

At the same time, at the headquarters of the Judgment Court, Round Spider finally restored the data.

He had stunned several of the Judgment Court members who had remained behind, leaving them sprawled across the floor. He had originally intended to kill them, but in the end, Round Spider restrained himself.

He could not allow the black mist to influence his decisions.

The person originally left behind here had been Smiling Face Luno. That fellow’s skills were truly impressive; he had erased the records with great thoroughness. Fortunately, Round Spider possessed an item capable of reversing an object to its previous state.

Now that Round Spider had identified the enemy, he would not remain here any longer.

Wu Hui’s distress signal had arrived long ago. Round Spider simply had no intention of rushing to his rescue. The enemy had certainly set their sights on him as well.

Sure enough, bursts of gunfire made the already chaotic area around the Judgment Court even more disorderly.

Round Spider led everyone into the darkness, with no intention of confronting these people head-on. They might be able to fight, but there was no point.

They could not ignore the distress signal either. There were hardly any forces left that were still capable of fighting. It would be enough to have Ma Fushao lead Guan Shanting over, take the others, and flee. They must not become entangled with the enemy.

The enemy was splitting up as well. So their task was to find Smiling Face and kill him.

They would never have a better opportunity.

Round Spider looked toward the city center.

A burst of fire flared up, then went out. It seemed Liao Yuan and Gao Cheng could no longer hold on.

They had to hurry.

Round Spider activated a shadow node and attempted to traverse through it.

Yet he discovered that he had not moved.

A light suddenly blazed in the distance, as though dispersing the darkness over the entire city.

Perhaps the connection between light and hope was not as close as people imagined.

“Can’t leave?” Zhao Xingluan asked.

“Ha. That suits me perfectly.” A local member of the Mantis organization drew his blade. He had long been dissatisfied with Round Spider’s overly cautious manner.

As a sixth-level player, he had tolerated taking orders from Round Spider because he knew he was not particularly clever.

But fleeing whenever they encountered an enemy—wasn’t that ridiculous?

“Let’s go.”

A flash of steel erupted, and the bullets flying toward him were cut from the air.

Dozens of bullets were struck down by a dozen slashes, leaving shattered metal scattered across the ground.

“Over here.” The Mantis member stepped forward with his blade in hand, moving like a swordsman from an ancient tale.

Round Spider secretly cursed him for his recklessness, then joined Zhao Xingluan in confronting the enemy from opposite sides.

Although Round Spider rarely participated in battle personally, he was still a fifth-level player and could not possibly be weak. It was simply that close combat was not his forte.

His abilities belonged to the realm of a mage.

Shadows spread like a net. Anyone who stepped into them would be trapped.

As for Round Spider himself, he could appear at any point within the net.

A fifth-level player cultivated as heavily as he had been, armed with various items, was absolutely no weaker than an ordinary sixth-level player. It was much like Guan Shanting, who had previously believed that he could unleash enough power to kill a sixth-level opponent.

At that moment, Guan Shanting and Ma Fushao were riding horses at high speed.

Mounts granted by military tallies were not particularly common. They generally appeared only when the original historical figure associated with the tally had been famous for a celebrated horse or had been a renowned cavalry commander.

Ma Fushao’s military tally was modeled after Ma Chao, while Guan Shanting’s was modeled after Guan Yu. It was quite a coincidence. Along with Zhao Xingluan’s Zhao Yun, three of the five great tiger generals of Shu-Han had gathered in this city.

Of course, perhaps it could not truly be called a coincidence. Military tallies seemed to possess a certain power of attraction. Many tallies from the same era would be drawn together, much like the law of convergence governing extraordinary characteristics in a certain novel.

Perhaps one or two pairs among the Five Tiger Generals had not gotten along particularly well. But to people living two thousand years later, obtaining military tallies from the same series inspired only a sense of familiarity.

“Reinforcements really have arrived?” Smiling Face watched from atop a high-rise building. “Well, then, I’m the only one who can go.”

He drew out a book imbued with the classical character of the East Asian region and opened it.

According to the rules of the game, it was a spellbook. But the players felt that the word “magic” sounded too Western, and they had never found a particularly suitable term for books in the Eastern style. More specifically, they called it by its title; in general usage, they simply called it a book; its full designation was a spell codex.

Yet none of those names was as natural as “spellbook.”

The name did not matter to Smiling Face. He merely activated the spell within it.

Currents of black and white air began to whirl across the battlefield.

Then they flew toward Guan Shanting and Ma Fushao.

Both were exceptionally powerful fifth-level players. Once they revealed all their trump cards, ordinary sixth-level opponents would be defeated.

But Smiling Face was anything but ordinary. He had nearly toyed two seventh-level players to death. What chance did these people before him have?

P.S. This is the second update today. This volume is actually nearing its end.