Players, Please Board the Train

A sharp shriek echoed through the empty streets. Wu Qiuyi and her two companions stood ready for battle. In less than ten seconds, a white silhouette shot out from an intersection, moving so fast it nearly left an afterimage. Despite its incredible speed, the slender, lightweight creature came to a perfect stop beside the noise-making toy, then slashed it into several pieces with a single swipe of its claw, its nails even leaving deep gouges in the ground!

This was Wu Qiuyi’s first direct encounter with a Mutant. A strange expression crossed her face—something between grief and fury. ”The things that eat people... they were once human too.”

”Shhh.” Lin Pei pressed a hand on her shoulder, signaling her to stay silent.

The Mutant hadn’t detected their presence. It circled the area, accidentally triggering several other toys that set off a chorus of piercing screams. In a furious rage, it clawed wildly at everything around it, alternately devouring and spitting things out in its frenzy before suddenly leaping onto the rooftop and darting back in the direction it came from.

”Let’s go!” Lin Pei and Wu Qiuyi vaulted through the window one after another, scaling the building to give chase from the rooftops.

The two leaped across roof tiles, tracking the Mutant’s movement based on Ke Liang’s directions.

Surprisingly, even though the Mutant lacked eyes, it rarely collided with obstacles while navigating the streets. Conventional wisdom suggested only sounds above 60 decibels could attract their attention, and their hearing was supposed to be weakened. Yet this particular Mutant paused briefly at regular intervals, tilting its head as if listening for something.

”What is it listening for?” After several instances, Wu Qiuyi grew less concerned about being discovered and more intrigued by the meaning behind its behavior.

Lin Pei didn’t understand either, but they soon located where this Mutant was heading—a church. They watched as it slipped into the hollow base beneath the religious statue. Risking a closer look, they discovered a passageway below with circular holes in the metal walls, exactly as Xu Huo had described.

After measuring the dimensions, the two retreated from the church and searched the surrounding area for any potential puzzles before moving on to the next district.The night passed, and when the bus returned to town the next day, all three looked exhausted but noticeably more relaxed.

”Good news—there aren’t as many Mutants in town as we thought,” Lin Pei announced. ”After testing so many locations yesterday, we only found two, and we’ve already covered two-thirds of the town.”

This news lifted everyone’s spirits on the bus. Xu Huo said, ”I’ll go search for safety puzzles near Master Nise’s residence later.”

”I’ll come too,” Gu Yu added.

”Then we three will cover the remaining areas,” Wu Qiuyi said.

”Can you handle it?” Shen Yi asked with concern. ”Maybe we should switch roles today.”

”We rested during the night, we’ll be fine,” Wu Qiuyi assured him. ”Our trio has good coordination and familiarity with the town—no need to complicate things unnecessarily.”

”You could join Xu Huo and Gu Yu to search for puzzles.”

”What about us if you all leave?” Wang Chaoqing interjected anxiously. ”The bus isn’t necessarily safe either! We should keep at least one or two people here!”

Shen Xin shot him a contemptuous look before turning to her brother. ”Big brother, we should stay on the bus to prevent them from holding us back.”

No one objected, but then someone’s stomach growled loudly.

All heads turned toward the sound. Gu Yu said with slight embarrassment, ”What’s so strange about people getting hungry? If you’d been eating like a rabbit like me every day, you might be worse off!”

Xu Huo crushed the remaining lollipop and opened it, distributing small pieces to everyone.

After nearly two days without proper food, Xu Huo felt the gnawing hunger too. He washed down the sugar with two bottles of water.

”After we get back from this, I’m never dieting again,” Gu Yu declared, her face pale as she clutched her water bottle mournfully. ”I’m going to eat fried chicken and drink cola.”

”Since we’ve become players, do you still need to work?” Shen Xin looked at her strangely. ”Shouldn’t our first priority be finding ways to survive in the game?”

”Why wouldn’t players need to work?” Gu Yu retorted with a smirk. ”Have you seen how few items we have? Who would want to trade those precious things for money? But people need money to live! Besides, with money you can buy items.”

”Who would actually sell their items?” Shen Yi chuckled. ”Usually people trade them. Wouldn’t buying and selling be rather foolish?”

”Everything has its price if you’re willing to pay enough,” Gu Yu said with the confidence of experience.

The other financially challenged passengers fell silent. Shen Xin said with obvious envy, ”Must be nice to be rich.”

”You have no idea,” Gu Yu flipped her hair casually before adding, ”With enough money, you can even hire people to help you clear dungeons.”

Lin Pei looked surprised. ”But capable players are mostly allocated by the government now, aren’t they?”

”You pay to communicate with the government,” Gu Yu explained. ”The government needs massive funding to research players and the game, and they want to learn more about dungeons too. If your offer is attractive enough, they can arrange their own train tickets.”

Xu Huo looked up at this. ”Are there many tickets for the same station?”

”From what I know, it’s rare for players from the same area to meet in dungeons,” Lin Pei commented.

”It’s difficult within a city or province, sure,” Gu Yu said. ”But looking nationwide, finding one or two tickets for the same station isn’t that hard. You’re not from Capital City, are you? What I’m describing is already common knowledge there. Some well-funded corporations have even started hiring players to explore dungeons for them. They call it future prospects—staying ahead of the times.”

The others felt like they’d received a revelation. While they were still struggling to conceal their identities and desperately fighting for train tickets, some people had already begun organized dungeon exploration.

To Xu Huo, this actually made perfect sense.

Evolvers had only emerged in the last month or so, but sharp-witted government agencies and well-connected powerful individuals would have launched investigations immediately. The game world held significant exploration value—if nothing else, the physical enhancements of Evolvers alone were enough to make people rush headlong into it. For thousands of years, humanity had continuously evolved but never fundamentally transcended the concept of ”ordinary people.” The emergence of Evolvers would likely drive those with capital and power to absolute frenzy.

Though Gu Yu acknowledged the value of monetary transactions, she scoffed at the idea of becoming a hired player. ”Those people don’t understand that players risk their lives every time they enter a dungeon. Only low-level players would be tempted by their offers. Once player ranks rise higher, we’ll see who’s really calling the shots.”

”That’s true,” Lin Pei suddenly smiled. ”The world belongs to the strong, and the strong of the future will definitely be players.”

Gu Yu wholeheartedly agreed. ”So those big corporations putting on airs now—they’ll be begging players later.”

This thought balanced everyone’s emotions, but Xu Huo had different perspective. As long as Evolvers remained dependent on evolution agents, it was uncertain whether they would be controlled in the future, let alone reverse the power dynamic.

Still, some deeply entrenched aspects of society were bound to change.

”What’s your evolution rate?” Gu Yu suddenly asked.