An Unexpected Performance
As he began dismantling the monster costume, players in several other places also managed to catch "performers." Their situations were just like his: beneath the monster costumes was nothing but a skeleton, completely unlike the performer he had beheaded earlier.
Unfortunately, with the monster costumes as disguises, it was hard to tell at first glance whether they were real people. The real performers also seemed able to predict the players' actions. Every time they launched a surprise attack, they killed a player—and almost none of the players who encountered a real performer survived.
Xu Huo walked out of the alley. The middle of the parade had yet to pass. The four- or five-meter-tall monsters muttered to themselves, their voices distorted by some device. He couldn't make out what they were saying, but the sound suited the atmosphere perfectly.
"Over here, over here!" A tourist jumped up and down, trying to take a picture with the huge monster with a black face and fangs. Her flying Communicator followed her movements, filming from every angle, but she was still dissatisfied because she was too far away from the monster.
"Ha!" The parade crept forward. The huge monster let out a long sigh, then bent down and lowered its head, squeezing its massive face behind the tourist's waist.
"Quick, take the picture!" the tourist squealed happily, waving to her friends.
After playing along for a few seconds, the monster began spraying thick clouds of colored mist. Its wide robe flickered in and out of sight, and the tourist beside it vanished beneath the robe.
A few young people panicked slightly when their companion disappeared, but the next moment, the female tourist's shrill laughter came from farther ahead in the parade. She had suddenly appeared on the back of a little