Delighted to be able to get so close without any problem and amazed at how beautiful the little black fox's two little eyes were, the priestess of Yao Zenyu's group could not help but unconsciously hurry her steps in an attempt to catch the little furry animal. However, after only one more step, her movements stopped completely and she did not move again.
Even after five seconds the woman in her thirties did not move.
All the other players present looked at each other in consternation without having the slightest idea what was going on. A few moments ago, most of them had assumed that the young woman would be able to get the mascot. After all, she had already come so close but the little black fox had not shown the slightest sign of rejection or discomfort... But apparently things were not so simple.
Xie Feng also had a small frown under his mask. He simply didn't see anything strange and the little black fox's actions hadn't been too exaggerated either for him to draw any conclusions about it. He had never seen an Abyssal Black Fox either so he had no idea what the skills of that type of animal was and, unfortunately, the little black fox's status window was blocked; probably due to the ongoing mission.
"Ah!!!"
After ten seconds of somewhat awkward silence, the woman who had stood still as a statue began to scream in panic as she hastily retreated.
"Spiders! I hate spiders!"
The priestess waved her hands wildly back and forth as she shouted things that no one could understand.
One word automatically popped into everyone's mind.
Illusion!
Yao Zenyu stepped forward and caught the woman running around like a lunatic. He began to try to calm her down but the woman kept waving her hands and their struggles became even more fierce than before.
"Dong He! Calm down!!!"
In the end, Yao Zenyu seemed to lose his patience and began to shake the pitiful woman by the shoulders while shouting her name. Fortunately, his methods were successful.
"E-Eh?" The woman's eyes widened in shock as she looked fearfully at her surroundings. Her teeth clacked steadily as if she was terrified of something. But after seeing that there was nothing wrong around her, the woman named Dong He calmed down and couldn't help but burst into tears.
Everyone had to wait a good ten minutes until the now pitiful-looking woman calmed down a bit. Although they could continue the trial, none of them were foolish enough to throw themselves into a black hole where they didn't know what awaited them at the end; since they could get some clue from the priestess' mouth, they would of course take it gladly.
Besides, seeing a pretty woman cry was not too pleasing to the eye either.
After she calmed down, the woman named Dong He explained that when she got too close to the little black fox, she felt like she was teleported into a different world. In that world, although it was only for a few seconds, thousands of spiders of all sizes crawled over her body with their ugly hairy legs and looked at her with their dozens of eyes. Some had even crawled into her mouth and nose! Worst of all, she could not move, she could only watch helplessly and terrified as the insects crawled over her skin!
Dong He was a woman who was very scared of spiders, so immediately after coming out of that strange world, she started screaming like crazy.
In the end, everyone came to the conclusion that it was definitely an illusion. But even then none of them could be sure how the illusion worked. Would they all experience the same thing as Dong He? There was only one way to find out, and that was to continue the trial.
The next to step forward was Definitive Arrow.
At first, everything was fine, running perfectly smoothly. But just like the woman in his group, the steps of the man known as the best archer in China came to an abrupt halt.
At that moment everyone knew that Definitive Arrow must be experiencing some kind of delusion.
Ten seconds later, Definitive Arrow seemed to wake up and, just as happened with the priestess earlier, began to shout furiously while waving his bow all over the place as if he wanted to hit someone with the weapon.
The major difference with the previous case was that, instead of crying and looking pitiful like Dong He, Definite Arrow looked furious. It was like a bull that had seen a red cape in front of him, wanting to destroy everything in his path.
After a minute or two, Definitive Arrow stopped and began to breathe heavily while looking at the little black fox with hatred... The poor little black fox was looking at him with innocent eyes as if it didn't know what was going on or why the man in front of it was looking at it with such terrifying eyes.
"What did you see?" Yao Zenyu asked in a deep voice.
"I... I..." Definite Arrow seemed to hesitate for a moment before he clenched his teeth. In a furious voice, he said what he saw: "In that illusion, I saw myself in my house. My girlfriend was cheating on me and I could only watch without even being able to lift a finger."
Xie Feng's mouth opened wide and he looked at the man in front of him dumbfounded... Now he finally understood why Definitive Arrow looked so furious earlier! The poor guy had "seen" his girlfriend put a green hat on his head without being able to do anything about it!
Of course, when Definite Arrow managed to move, even though he had already come out of the illusion, he needed to vent his anger and frustration somehow!
In the end, Definitive Arrow was so furious that he decided to log off right there and then... But everyone could see that apart from anger, there was also fear in his eyes.
'That guy is surely going to make sure that his girlfriend isn't cheating on him just like in that illusion.' Xie Feng thought to himself as he felt some pity for the future of that relationship... Mistrust was fatal.
Next on the list was Yao Zenyu.
Just like the previous two cases, his movements stalled and he seemed to fall into a kind of daze.
The strange thing was that ten seconds later, a time that everyone concluded was the duration of each illusion, Yao Zenyu did not move from his place. On the contrary, he stood there while clenching his fists tightly... So hard that it seemed like the metal gloves on his hands might break at any moment.
Just as everyone was wondering what was going on, Yao Zenyu turned his face and looked at Xie Feng with naked hatred. The amount of hatred in his gaze was so great that even Xie Feng himself was shocked.
Although Xie Feng knew that Yao Zenyu hated him and would probably try to vent his anger at him in the virtual world, Yao Zenyu had never shown his hatred as openly as he was doing now... It was as if he wanted to peel his skin, eat his flesh, drink his blood, burn his bones, and scatter his ashes into the wind.
However, just as Xie Feng wondered what Yao Zenyu had seen, the man known as "Prince of China" looked at Mu Wuying and then looked at his younger sister as if to confirm something.... A thought flashed in Xie Feng's mind causing the corner of his lips to curl upwards.
"You must be joking! Hahahaha!"
In the end, Xie Feng began to laugh out loud, scaring everyone as they thought he had gone mad. But he ignored them and continued to laugh good-naturedly, which caused Yao Zenyu to clench his teeth so hard that even from a distance they could be heard gnashing.
...
After the previous little event, everyone came to the conclusion that, somehow, the little black fox dragged them into an illusion in which it made them see something they feared or hated. This along with the ten-second duration of the effect were two important clues for them.
By knowing the duration of the illusion, they could all clench their teeth and force themselves to resist a little longer. While knowing an approximation of the type of illusion they would see would help them mentally prepare for what awaited them next.
But... Knowing one thing and being able to do it were two completely different issues.
Next was Yao Mei, who was the last member of the God of Heaven guild group.
Although Xie Feng wasn't sure if it was an illusion of his, he could have sworn he saw a hint of worry in the red-haired beauty's eyes as she slowly approached the little black fox.
Yao Mei's honey-colored eyes and the little black fox's black eyes met as the distance between them closed ever closer. But unlike the previous cases, Yao Mei's footsteps became slightly heavier and the next one became harder and harder to move forward.
When she was three meters away, the footsteps of the girl known as Empress of Fire finally stopped and her body became static.
Everyone present wondered what kind of illusion she, the young woman known as the most powerful mage in all of China, would see.... But what they were most curious about was to know what kind of reaction she would have at the end of the illusion.
Soon ten seconds passed and everyone got their answer.
BOOM!