Chapter 188 A Simple Method of Persuasion

Words : 1401 Updated : Sep 30th, 2025

Chapter 188: Chapter 188 A Simple Method of PersuasionXu Huo had just finished inspecting the first office. As he walked out, he came face-to-face with the flower-selling girl and another person, whose appearances and builds were starkly contrasting — yet their expressions were strikingly similar. The burly man immediately stretched out his hand to protect the flower-selling girl behind him, "If there’s an issue, come at me!" Xu Huo looked up at him, "You speak Mandarin quite well." The burly man and the flower-selling girl exchanged puzzled glances, but Xu Huo had already turned and walked away. The floor wasn’t small in area but had a simple layout — overall, it was an irregular "T" shape. Horizontally ran the corridor, facing fifteen elevators. The position where he had first entered the game was merely separated by a wall from the restrooms, with the entrance on this side of the open office area. Past the office area, there was a pantry and several private offices. In these two places, aside from some day-to-day living and office items, there were no personal belongings or research materials whatsoever. There were no false walls, secret rooms, or hidden safes, and not even a decorative painting on the wall — this floor had been thoroughly cleaned. Xu Huo walked to the window at the end of the corridor and looked up, seeing sparse vine leaves peeping over the edge of the rooftop. After standing there for a few seconds, he turned back to look at the person who had quietly approached him from behind. Zheng Liang, who had deliberately lightened his footsteps, stopped and looked at him coldly, "Xu Huo, you always have to stand out wherever you go. Let me tell you, in a crisis, those people outside will only drag you down." Xu Huo raised an eyebrow, "Other than being physically stronger than those outside, in what way do you think you’re better than them?" Zheng Liang forcefully suppressed his anger and turned to leave, saying as he went, "A dog bites Lu Dongbin!" Xu Huo started walking towards the open office area. Gu Yu and her group had already returned, and they were gathered together discussing how to deal with what was coming. Since there were no clues in the offices, they had to figure out how to prevent potential dangers. "It’s best to seal up the elevator doors," the bespectacled player suggested. "Whether it’s mutant plants or moving creatures, there are only two ways they can come in: the windows or the elevators." "Wei Bin has a point, the elevators are easy to handle, but how do you seal a floor-to-ceiling window?" Skull head short sleeves said. "The windows are too large, all in one piece, and there are no fixtures. Even if we emptied the desks and chairs from here, it wouldn’t block them." "I can use my props," Zheng Liang said from the side, "but they don’t have much killing power, I’m afraid they won’t hold much off." "And what about the elevator doors?" the player with a mole asked. "We don’t want to end up able to defend the front but not the back." The rest of the players were in a dilemma. Although they all had some defensive props, the range was limited. "This is damned weird, how can this place have so many elevators?" Bald Head complained. "Fifteen elevators on one floor!" "It might have something to do with the game," Gu Yu commented. "This is the fifteenth floor, and there are fifteen elevators. There might be some special significance." The rest of the players also looked puzzled. Compared to the number of office desks on the fifteenth floor, fifteen elevators seemed a bit eerie. "Could it be that this building has been invaded by mutant plants a long time ago, and the researchers opened up new elevators?" a player with a square face proposed. Zheng Liang rolled his eyes, "Who would live together with such ferocious mutant plants? Researchers are here to conduct research, not to go insane." "You can’t be sure of that," the square-faced player turned to the bespectacled player, "Wei Bin, what do you think?" Wei Bin shrugged his nose and pushed up his glasses, speaking slowly, "Hard to say. What kind of normal behavior can you expect from people who can raise such ghastly things?" "Let’s set aside the questions we can’t figure out for now and deal with the immediate issues," Gu Yu said, looking down at her phone with no signal. "First, let’s seal the windows." At this point, the middle-aged man with the backpack said, "We found some rolls of tape. Do you think we can use them?" Gu Yu glanced at the people holding the items. Besides tape, they had also fashioned weapons by wrapping pens or small utility knives with tape around the legs of chairs they had taken apart. The office furniture was modular, and some of the parts could be used as sticks. "What good is tape?" the player with the mole waved his hand impatiently. "Can it stop the Man-Eating Flower or the mutant animals? It can’t even stop a person." "The tape might be worth a try," Xu Huo examined the durability of the tape. "Even if it can’t stop the Man-Eating Flower, it can still cause an obstruction. As long as you don’t get bitten in the head right away during an attack, there’s still a chance of survival." The few people holding the tape were invigorated and immediately said, "Then shall we use the tape to seal the elevator?" "Not the elevator. Seal the windows," Xu Huo turned to look at Gu Yu and the others, deciding to make things clearer. "There are a total of fifteen elevators, each with a normal capacity of thirteen people. The fact that there are almost two hundred people here, including the players, is probably not a coincidence." "The elevator doors can hold back the Man-Eating Flower; we don’t need a second line of defense for now." "You talk as if it’s easy. What if the elevator doors suddenly open?" the player with the mole argued back. "If someone dies then, will that be on you?" It was merely a question of probability. The elevator doors were made of metal and were better than any other defense. In other words, if there was something in the elevator shaft that could shatter metal, then setting up any defense would be useless. As for whether the elevator doors would open automatically, that was unpredictable, and considering the bloodstains around the elevator doors, they seemed to be in working order. If danger came through the windows and they couldn’t handle it, the elevators would be the only possible escape route. So sealing or not sealing the elevators posed an extra risk for them, but Xu Huo was inclined not to seal them. However, he used a simpler method to persuade them: "Ninety hours of time, do you think the game will let you idle on the fifteenth floor?" The player with the mole was taken aback. "I also think it’s better not to seal them," said the middle-aged man with the backpack. "Fifteen elevators, surely there can’t be mutant plants under every one of them, right?" "Even if there are, the elevators would actually keep those mutant plants separated. It’s easier to deal with one than with fifteen." Thinking it over, Gu Yu and the others found the reasoning sound, so they agreed not to seal the elevators and just seal the windows. "Be careful, and don’t drop anything down there," she warned, then called for help from her companions, "Xiao Ba, Zhang Biao, keep an eye out." The young man in the Skull head short sleeves and the player with the mole went to help, while the rest went to the elevators, trying to figure out what was going on. "It’s no use. There’s no response from inside either." After a while, Zheng Liang said in a deflated tone, "Just like before, that thing might silently reach the other side of the door." "Can’t smell anything either." Wei Bin pressed his face to the elevator crack and took a deep breath, turning back to say, "But that’s also good news, at least there’s no poison gas inside." Sёarch* The nôvel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Chapter 188 A Simple Method of Persuasion

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