Players, Please Board the Train

“What’s the situation now?” Nie Xuan hurried back to the research institute and asked the others about the situation.

Although the redhead didn’t say a word after answering the phone, it was enough to alert the institute staff. They immediately sent people to lock down the building.

“Currently, forty-six people have gone missing. The entire twenty-eighth floor was wiped out, half of the twenty-seventh floor’s personnel disappeared, and the dungeon entrance is now closed,” Team Leader Wu, the person in charge, explained the situation to him. “Our player, Xiao Er, who was originally on the twenty-eighth floor, was the only one who entered.”

“I remember Sima Xiao Er was supposed to go to Happiness Residential Area today. How did he end up in Golden Light Building?” Nie Xuan said while looking through the missing persons’ profiles. Before Team Leader Wu could answer, he looked up and asked, “Are they going to capture people?”

Team Leader Wu nodded and pulled up a photo. “We received a report this morning. Zhu Tao, general manager of Karen Building Materials Company, reported a Player-Eater Evolver. Xiao Er led twelve people and cooperated with the criminal investigation team to capture him. This is the person they caught.”

Nie Xuan stood up as soon as he saw the photo. “Xu Huo? He’s a player, and he’s the one I’m trying to recruit.”

“Of course I know,” Team Leader Wu gestured for him to calm down. “There have been so many disappearances recently, and with the dungeon entrance inspection going on, the matter of capturing Evolvers was never reported to me. So I had no idea until now.”

“But this is good news. Look at this.”

He handed over a document. “Freshly released. Over in Luo City, based on clues provided by Xu Huo, they captured a Player-Eater named Liu Mei. Liu Yuanyuan was her alias.”

Nie Xuan flipped through it and exclaimed in surprise, “Rated B-class, and she even obtained an item from the dungeon boss?”“That’s not all. According to Liu Mei’s confession, Xu Huo was the first to find stranded players, and it’s speculated that Hot Springs Villa used to be a non-closed dungeon, which aligns with the documents sent by Jing City,” Team Leader Wu said.

“In other words, the Dimensional Rift game really existed long before the Evolvers appeared.” Nie Xuan slowly sat down.

“The Headhunter Demon dungeon is evidence of that,” Team Leader Wu said, feeling heavy but somewhat relieved. “So Xu Huo accidentally entering the game is an opportunity for us and for those who disappeared.”

“On your 301st Preliminary Trial Train, only one player survived in the third-class seats and is still in intensive care. Two people came out from the first-class seats, including you. The special-class seats were completely wiped out. Only the second-class seats not only had four survivors but also saved a third-class player.”

“Although Han Ming, Liu Jia, and Wang Xiaohui are reluctant to say more, since you were on that train, it’s easy to identify Xu Huo. Based on his performance on the trial train, if conditions allowed, he would save people.”

Nie Xuan frowned tightly. “What worries me now is that troublemaker Sima Xiao Er. He bribed the chef to get through the trial train, has no dungeon experience, and is young and reckless. I’m afraid he’ll cause trouble.”

Team Leader Wu patted his shoulder. “All we can do now is wait.”

*

Darkness engulfed him.

When the special operatives disappeared, Xu Huo knew he had encountered a dungeon. The moment he jumped from the window, his vision dimmed. Then, his body felt wrapped in an airtight layer of fur, and he rolled down a sloping ramp.

His nasal cavity was filled with the stench of animal fur. His hands stiffened, legs bent backward, and all four limbs were bound, unable to move. His mouth and eyes were also sealed shut. Without any sense of light, he rolled for several minutes before stopping.

After he landed, more than a dozen heavy objects continuously fell on top of him. They were crowded in a narrow space, struggling to emit muffled whimpering sounds.

Unable to open their eyes or mouths, and cramped in such a small space, Xu Huo ignored the kicks around him and listened carefully to the surrounding noises.

About fifteen minutes later, footsteps approached. Then someone opened the door and let out a hoarse laugh. “This batch is pretty fresh. Let me count... Forty-six in total.”

“Can’t finish them in one day, better raise them first.”

Then came dragging sounds. Amid overlapping whimpers, the sound of knives cutting leather rang out rhythmically, three cuts per group. Each time a cut sounded, a clearer tone of crying, anger, or pleas emerged. These no longer sounded muffled but high-pitched and bright, more like animal howls than human voices!

There was one interruption when the person took away all the previous victims. After a wait, he returned to continue the process.

Finally, it was Xu Huo’s turn. A hand lifted him up. With three sharp snips, his eyes and mouth suddenly felt cold—he could open his eyes!

Before him was a tall, muscular red-nosed foreign man. He shook Xu Huo by one hand, muttered “Mute,” and threw him aside.

With his legs tied behind his back, Xu Huo had no choice but to bend his knees and land. His vision dropped to the man’s waist. The man grabbed a fat pig, swiftly sliced around its eyes and mouth, and the pig immediately opened its eyes and cried out, then was thrown back down.

Only then did Xu Huo clearly see that he was in a warehouse-like place. The area where they landed had a square pipe exit. Everyone must have fallen from there.

Everyone who fell was wrapped in pigskin and enclosed within a fence, their eyes and mouths tightly shut. Only when the red-nosed man cut open their eyes and mouths could they see and make sounds again—but not normal speech, only howls like pigs!

Wrapping them in pigskin actually turned them into pigs?

Xu Huo noticed the black apron on the red-nosed man bore the words “Delicious Fresh Meat Supply Factory,” which made his eyelids twitch uncontrollably.

Not only were they turned into pigs, but they were about to be slaughtered!

At that moment, the red-nosed man finished his task and drove everyone outside.

Xu Huo followed the panicked crowd moving forward. As soon as they stepped out, two people tried to escape, but wrapped in skin, they lay flat on the ground, unable to stand, let alone run past a healthy person.

“Spirited bunch,” the red-nosed man laughed loudly, caught up, and punched a pig’s head into a pulp. Before the red and white liquid could flow out, he grabbed it and hung it on a hook.

“Fresh brains tonight to spice up the menu.”

Two people in the group vomited. The red-nosed man frowned. “Don’t tell me they’re sick pigs. Nobody buys sick pork.”

Everyone was shocked, and even those vomiting held their breath. Just then, a pig beside Xu Huo collapsed and wailed pitifully, looking as if it was dying from illness.

The voice was that of the former Zhu Tao.

Following that, two others imitated and lay down. The eyes beneath the pigskin of the others shone brightly, seemingly hopeful.

Sick pork doesn’t sell, so maybe they could escape death?

But before they could act, the red-nosed man dragged the three of them away. “You’re getting slaughtered today to avoid dying of disease and becoming inedible.”