Thornflower's Strange Movement

"Get out of the car!"

Lun Tai had already skidded to a stop by the side of the vehicle. With one hand, they yanked open the car door and forcefully dragged Qimu Xi out, shouting, "Leave this place! Quickly!"

Qimu Xi's face had turned pale with fear. After being pulled out by Lun Tai, she hurriedly got up from the ground and was fortunate that Xia Xiaolei had come over to pull her towards the corner of the wall by the roadside.

"Remember what I've taught you on regular days!" Lun Tai ran low and breathed a sigh of relief as he quickly said, "We need to leave this place immediately! Head inside!"

He pointed towards the narrow alley beside them.

Lun Tai wasn't sure if the warring parties had noticed their group, but in this situation, leaving was undoubtedly the wisest choice.

Just as the three were leaving the vehicle and about to enter the alley, suddenly, Lun Tai's peripheral vision seemed to catch a glimpse of blue arcs flashing on the Thunderstorm Battle Tank at the intersection.

He instantly lunged forward, diving between two young men, and pinned them both to the ground!

Behind them, a blue arc of light spewed from the Thunderstorm Battle Tank's flat cannon muzzle and streaked across the long street...

After a deafening boom, at the other end of the street where the warring parties were engaged, the building on the left side of the street exploded!

In the midst of the blue light, the wall shattered, orange flames soared into the sky, debris scattered everywhere!

Two charred corpses fell from the wall, landing on the street, their bodies disfigured beyond recognition.

The sounds of gunfire abruptly ceased, and from the shattered wall, there were several sharp screams. Soon after, people were seen frantically rushing out from the ruins of the building, with two or three individuals leaping onto the rooftop and swiftly fleeing.

But at this moment...

Bang! Bang! Bang!

A figure descended from the sky!

A soldier clad in powered exoskeleton armor, wielding a beam blade, landed on the rooftop. With a single slash, the first escaping individual had no time to defend himself and was cleaved in half. The remaining two individuals, one of them roared and raised a futuristic-looking gun, opening fire recklessly. The other turned and fled.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang...

Bullets struck the exoskeleton armor, causing it to recoil, but the formidable armor deflected all the bullets!

The enraged awakened one tossed aside the gun and drew a peculiar military blade to charge forward. However, the exoskeleton suddenly crouched down... with a deafening crash, the rooftop of the top floor collapsed, and the exoskeleton plummeted to the level below.

The awakened one was momentarily stunned, then noticed an oval-shaped metal object on the ground in front of him, emitting a pulsating blue light...

"Ah!!!"

He let out a wretched scream.

Buzz~~~

A spherical blue arc of light erupted instantly on the rooftop! And within this arc of light, the awakened one was shattered into pieces!

...

Lun Tai had already dragged the two young people behind a garbage bin for cover. The alley wasn't very deep, but this garbage bin conveniently blocked the view from the street.

"Hush." Lun Tai's expression was tense, and he lowered his voice, gesturing to the two.

Xia Xiaolei managed to maintain some composure, but Qimu Xi had tears in her eyes, though she fought hard not to cry.

"Slowly get up and follow me!"

Right beside the garbage bin was a side door of a nearby building.

Lun Tai reached for the doorknob, giving it a strong twist, tearing the lock apart.

Lun Tai crouched on the ground, exchanged a glance with Xia Xiaolei, and immediately pulled Qimu Xi inside through the door. Lun Tai then rolled inside as well and shut the door behind them.

Just as the door closed, on the opposite side of the street, the single soldier in powered exoskeleton armor had already jumped down from above and landed at the mouth of the alley. Turning his head, his eyes gleaming, he scanned the alley.

"Team C, eliminated a target, currently searching the nearby area."

"Be careful; I think I saw something a moment ago."

"Call in the SkyEye System for another scan of the vicinity."

...

Inside the room, Lun Tai initially pressed against the door, carefully listening to the sounds outside. Then, he turned and made a gesture to Xia Xiaolei and Qimu Xi, leading them further inside.

It was evidently the back door of a restaurant's kitchen. The three of them rushed in, crossed the kitchen, and reached the restroom area.

Lun Tai opened the door and saw a window in the restroom.

"We'll go out from here."

Xia Xiaolei nodded and went over to forcefully twist the handle on the window...

Lun Tai held a gun in his hand, standing at the door. He kept one ear tuned to the outside commotion and simultaneously called Chen Xiaolian on the team channel.

"We've successfully left the combat zone and are heading north along XXX Street. We've identified one of the warring parties as the Thornflower Group. Be cautious. They seem to be deliberately targeting participants in the Instance."

On the other end, Chen Xiaolian received Lun Tai's message, sighed in relief for a moment, and then became alert again. "Thornflower Group?"

"Yes, it's them," Lun Tai gritted his teeth.

Within seconds, Chen Xiaolian made a decision.

He parked the car on the side of the road, then, with Qiao Qiao and Soo Soo, he let Qiao Qiao pull Soo Soo along, while Chen Xiaolian himself took Will and entered a shop by the roadside. From there, they entered the building through the shop's back door.

"Lun Tai, let's regroup in a different location. Roddy, I need a safe spot! Hurry!"

A minute later, Roddy sent a message, "About a kilometer from your location, there's a crossroads. I've scoped the nearby area; it's clear, no activity for now. Lun Tai, you guys need to move faster. I spotted a group of Thornflower Group's Thunderstorm Battle Tanks converging in your direction."

...

A few minutes later, at the crossroads Roddy had mentioned.

Chen Xiaolian and his group saw Lun Tai and the others emerge from the alley on the opposite side of the street. Chen Xiaolian immediately waved to them, signaling for Lun Tai and his team to come over.

After the two groups converged, Chen Xiaolian scanned the surroundings and pointed to a nearby place, saying, "Go there!"

Chen Xiaolian was pointing at a small motel.

They all hurriedly ran over and entered the motel.

Due to the changes made by the system in the Instance area, there was no one inside.

The lobby was deserted, and Chen Xiaolian and the others went straight upstairs to the second floor, then broke into a room.

Inside the room, everyone finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Lun Tai looked at Chen Xiaolian and the others, and his gaze finally landed on Will. "Is it him?"

Will, intimidated by Lun Tai's presence, shrank back slightly. Chen Xiaolian smiled faintly, patting Will's shoulder. "Yes, it's him."

Soo Soo tugged on Will's shoulder and then leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Will's face turned red, but he mustered the courage and faced Lun Tai. "I... I'm Will Rez Belia. Are you... are you Uncle Lun Tai?"

Lun Tai was momentarily surprised, looking at Chen Xiaolian and Qiao Qiao with confusion. Chen Xiaolian shrugged, "Now he's Soo Soo's friend."

Lun Tai chuckled and then smiled, extending a large hand towards Will. "Alright, I'm Lun Tai, but... I don't like being called 'Uncle.' It makes me sound old."

"Yes... Mr. Lun Tai," Will quickly corrected himself.

"You're a clever kid," Lun Tai smiled and then turned to Chen Xiaolian, his expression becoming serious. "The situation is a bit strange; we need to discuss it."

"Yes," Chen Xiaolian nodded, his expression also serious.

He took a deep breath and immediately contacted Roddy through the team channel.

"Roddy, we need more information."

"Alright," Roddy's response was swift. "I just checked the city's surveillance system... Well, the situation is quite chaotic."

"Be more specific," Chen Xiaolian frowned.

"Unfortunately, we've identified some individuals, as Lun Tai mentioned, Thornflower Group. And I've seen at least five or six Instances of combat in the surveillance... There might be more actual battles, but due to the intense nature of the fights, it may have disrupted the municipal security surveillance systems in some areas, causing me to lose a lot of 'eyes.'

For now, it's clear that Thornflower Group has joined this Instance. Their actions are peculiar; it seems they dispatched many individuals in the first phase specifically to hunt down other participants in the game.

Every fight I monitored had Thornflower Group involvement, meaning Thornflower Group is deliberately slaughtering participants in this Instance!

So far, I've seen over a dozen deaths... The real number could be much higher."

Chen Xiaolian's expression turned grim.

A [B] class Instance, encountering Thornflower Group!

A super-sized team like this participating in a [B] class Instance was already quite unusual.

Moreover, they had brought so many members!

In the entirety of Jerusalem, hunting down other participants showed that Thornflower Group had a substantial number of participants in this Instance.

What was even more baffling was... why were they doing this?!

"For now, it seems like we have too little information to draw any effective analysis," Lun Tai shook his head. "However, the difficulty of this Instance may have surpassed our earlier estimations."

Chen Xiaolian looked at everyone, furrowing his brow in thought. "The first phase is about to end... four minutes left. If we want to understand Thornflower Group's intentions, we might have to wait until the second phase. But... we need to discuss whether it's necessary to change our operational objectives for this Instance."

The meaning was clear, and the others immediately grasped Chen Xiaolian's intent.

This Instance participation by the Meteor Rock Guild was aimed at training and strengthening their team.

Originally thought to be a low-difficulty [B] class Instance, the addition of Thornflower Group, a super-sized team, and their clear disregard for the Instance task in favor of hunting down other participants from the start made this situation very dangerous!

For the Meteor Rock Guild, there was no need to directly confront Thornflower Group.

Now that they had their base as a refuge, even if the Instance failed, they could retreat to their base to evade the penalty Instance.

Moreover, even if they had to enter a penalty Instance, Chen Xiaolian and Roddy had discovered a bug in the previous penalty Instance.

No matter how you looked at it, clashing head-on with Thornflower Group in this Instance would be a meaningless endeavor.

The other team members remained silent for a moment, and it was Qiao Qiao who spoke up.

Qiao Qiao spoke slowly, "I think we can wait until the start of the second phase of the Instance and make adjustments based on the situation. If the conditions favor us, we can continue attempting the Instance.

If the conditions are unfavorable... then we can choose to abandon the second phase task and leave the Instance."

Xia Xiaolei suddenly chimed in, "Maybe... the second phase task could change? Perhaps, Thornflower Group might be on the same side as us within the task? If we're assigned to the same faction in the second phase, we shouldn't have to worry about Thornflower Group, right?"

"That's too optimistic," Lun Tai shook his head. "They've already gone on a killing spree in the first phase! It's clear they want no collaborators. Even if the system assigns factions in the second phase, Thornflower Group might not adhere to it. Killing teammates might not necessarily incur a system penalty."

"Alright," Chen Xiaolian spoke up. "Speculating now is pointless. Let's wait for the second phase to begin and see what the task prompts are... Anyway, there are only three minutes left."

...

The Bentley Continental slowly drove on the road and stopped in the middle of the street near the square not far from the Western Wall.

After rolling down the car window, Chen looked at the Western Wall in the distance, lost in thought for a moment, and then sighed.

"Now, let's report the results of the first phase."

Soon, Chen received the answer he requested.

"The four teams have each found four target individuals. Preparatory personnel have encountered a total of 27 battles in the past 38 minutes, killing 36 other participants in this Instance, injuring four, and nine escaped. We captured six target individuals from other participants, and mistakenly killed four."

"Oh?" Chen smiled slightly. "So, besides our four teams finding four target individuals, we also captured six target individuals from other teams? So, we have a total of ten people now?"

"Yes."

"Good job," Chen chuckled.

Then, he took a deep breath and glanced at the countdown for the first phase Instance mission in his personal system.

There were still two and a half minutes left.

"Starting now, all personnel should gather at the front-line No. 1 staging point. Immediately cease all contact with other participating teams, withdraw from combat, and assemble at the No. 1 staging point. No one is allowed to leave without my orders.

I repeat, no one is allowed to leave without my orders. Regardless of what the second phase task is, all personnel must stay at the No. 1 staging point and not take any unauthorized actions!"

...

There were ten seconds left in the countdown.

Chen Xiaolian suddenly felt a sense of restlessness in his heart. He stood up, walked to the window, and glanced outside.

Starting from two minutes ago, all the gunfire and explosions outside had suddenly ceased, and there was no longer any sound.

The streets were empty, with no sign of anyone.

It was as if the ongoing battles in the city had come to a sudden halt?

Chen Xiaolian took a deep breath, and as the countdown reached its final moments, he turned to look at everyone.

"Time's up," he said solemnly.

At the same time, system prompts appeared promptly in their personal systems.

"System prompt: The first phase of the Instance has ended. Those who have completed the first phase Instance task are eligible to enter the second phase of the Instance. Those who have not completed the task will be forcibly removed from the Instance and receive corresponding penalties.

In addition, based on the comprehensive strength assessment of the first phase participants, which exceeded the original Instance rating, the current Instance rating has been automatically upgraded to B+ level.

At the same time, the corresponding rewards for this Instance have been increased."

Chen Xiaolian and the others all had their expressions change.

The Instance rating was upgraded!

"System prompt: The second phase Instance task is as follows..."

When they saw the first task prompt, the expressions of everyone in the room, except for Will, changed dramatically!