Chapter 2369: Chapter 2369: Prop’s True Form

"Could it be we just don’t have enough of them?" the little girl asked. "I still have a ton of bombs, but I need other people to throw them with me."

"All the window holes are blocked now. Even if we throw them, it’ll be hard to aim. If we break those threads, I’m afraid they’ll just come back even fiercer," Ai Jiangping said.

"Those threads look alive," Shi Shuai suggested. "Why don’t we try poisoning them?"

Tang Xian thought he was out of his mind. "I’ve never heard of objects being poisoned."

"If they can’t be poisoned, then we try something else." Shi Shuai said as he took out a bucket of Potion, chuckling. "This stuff’s great—there isn’t a single thing in the world that’s not afraid of it."

When he opened the lid, a subtly pungent smell spread out. Zuo Lei, who was closest, seemed to recognize what it was. Her expression changed and she hurried to stop him, but before her hand even reached out, Shi Shuai had already tipped the bucket over.

The liquid poured out with a rushing sound, accompanied by a harsh sizzling of corrosion. It did sever and melt some of the threads, but at the same time, the remaining ones snapped back at high speed as if they were sentient, then whipped madly through the air!

A second later came a rare scene even in the game: acid pouring down from above. Wherever that stuff splashed, it sizzled, the Defensive Barrier included. The group had no choice but to retreat, but as more and more threads were eaten through and snapped, the bundle that had just been tangled together unraveled and surged toward them without mercy!

"Look at the mess you’ve made!" Tang Xian shouted at Shi Shuai.

The middle-aged man put on an exaggeratedly innocent act, striking a playful pose. "It’s not like I did it on purpose."

"I’m gonna kill you!" Tang Xian couldn’t take it anymore. He was just about to fall back when he bumped into the little girl who hadn’t dodged in time. Her Defensive Barrier was a bit special and had some offensive power to it—his barrier shattered the moment it crashed into hers, and two drops of Potion splashed onto Tang Xian’s arm. His skin was immediately eaten through, leaving two holes.

"Why do I keep running into people like this?"

The others wanted to ask the same. The culprit, Shi Shuai, ran faster than anyone, dumping them all behind as meat shields. That little girl who looked a bit scatterbrained was even quicker—every time they were attacked, she would dart behind someone else and scream at the top of her lungs.

Xu Huo activated a Defense Prop and moved with the Girl in the painting, dodging the white threads while also dodging the other players around him. No one wanted to be a shield. In the cramped space, the players started a quiet brawl, both overt and covert.

He sidestepped Shi Shuai, who had been knocked back by Tang Xian, and only when he saw him hit the ground did he say, "We’re blocked front and back. Let’s seal both ends."

Zuo Lei used a large Defensive Barrier and instantly covered everyone in one dome, but that also meant they were now completely sealed inside the corridor by the white threads.

"Well, this isn’t much better than before," Tang Xian leaned against the wall and cast a cold glance at Shi Shuai and the little girl.

"Might as well just blow it up," the little girl had stopped shrieking by now and made a suggestion.

"Give it a rest. You planning to have us all die with you?" Zuo Lei cut her off impatiently. "And can you stop yelling at the top of your lungs? It’s been this long and you still haven’t gotten used to it?"

"You’re not scared when you run into danger?" The little girl didn’t think she was in the wrong. "Everyone has their own way of venting emotions. Mine is very healthy."

Zuo Lei couldn’t be bothered to argue with her.

In the end, the little girl didn’t say anything else and just curled up in a corner counting her bombs.

The Girl in the painting patted Xu Huo’s arm; on the Communicator she wrote that she would go into the window hole to take a look.

Xu Huo shook his head slightly. It wasn’t necessary. Their goal wasn’t to destroy the sealed Prop. If this place was a one-way trip with no exit, then there’d be suspicion that they were secretly killing players. If too many players went missing here, outsiders wouldn’t think Fish Banquet was a hunting ground for players, but a private hunting ground. Since Fish Banquet had existed for so long without these issues blowing up, it meant there were certain internal rules.

Just like this locked-up Prop.

But since they’d already checked everywhere outside and found no exit, the inside of the window hole had to be inspected too.

He took out a few miniature recorders, smeared some glue on them, and shoved them directly into the window hole in front of him.

This window hole sealed by a Defensive Barrier had always been closed. He only opened it for an instant, and his luck was good—he didn’t run into a situation where the threads happened to surge out.

Once he tossed the devices in, he watched the incoming footage from outside.

Masses of white threads covered almost the entire view, but the good thing was that it looked better inside than outside. Apart from the jam-packed area near the window, the threads inside hung loose and slack, like a drying yard.

"Isn’t this a Silk Cave?" Shi Shuai leaned over for a look. "Gotta be a spider Prop!"

The space inside the window hole was also quite large. For now they didn’t see anything besides the threads. The recorders didn’t capture the Prop itself, but they did pick up a door not far away.

Zuo Lei roughly estimated the position. "That’s exactly where we came through just now. I remember there wasn’t any entrance or exit there."

"Which just proves it’s an exit leading outside, doesn’t it?" Shi Shuai clapped his hands. "Only problem is getting in there is a pain."

"We don’t know if it’s an exit yet," Tang Xian, who had just suggested going in earlier, was now the one against taking the risk. "That might not be a Space Portal; it could be a trap. If they really wanted us to get out, why seal the door in the first place? I think it’s more likely a maintenance passage inside Fish Banquet Building."

Meaning only staff might be able to use it, mainly to check the Prop’s condition.

"There’s something here," the little girl pointed at the corner of the screen.

Xu Huo zoomed in and saw that a patch completely covered in threads had a few abnormal folds in it, as if something fairly large was hidden underneath.

The miniature recorder shifted angle, and everyone more or less made out the object’s outline.

"Is that... a piano?" Ai Jiangping said uncertainly. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"Not a piano, it should be a loom," Xu Huo said. "A very old one."

"A loom?" The little girl had never seen one and couldn’t picture it. "Aren’t looms all mechanical? I’ve seen them in my dad’s factory—they’re huge and fully automated. Just one Mechanical Being can manage the whole thing..."

The others didn’t want to listen to her anymore. Most of the Props born in the game were based on the cultural and historical background of different zones. An antique loom was nothing special.

"Then that loom’s actually pretty impressive," Shi Shuai voiced what everyone else was thinking. "Why don’t we just steal it while we’re at it—two birds with one stone?"

A nice juicy Prop sitting right there with no one guarding it; even if it had an owner, just toss it into the luggage hold and leave it there. Given enough time, its original owner would die sooner or later, and they’d have scored a good Prop for free.

Everyone was very tempted.