Players, Please Board the Train

”Are these potions really for us?” Hu Wenhu swallowed hard. ”We don’t have any money to give you...”

Zhou Ning smacked the back of his head. ”Even if we had money, potions aren’t necessarily something you can buy.”

She turned to Xu Huo. ”You helped tremendously with rescuing my brother last time, and I still haven’t figured out how to thank you. Now you’re giving us potions too. May I ask why?”

”Consider it an early investment,” Xu Huo said.

He wasn’t just brushing off Zhou Ning—he was genuinely interested in her trait ”Elderly Medusa.”

”Can you tell me about your profession?”

”My profession is Medusa,” Zhou Ning said. ”When the game gave me three options—painter, teacher, and Medusa—I chose Medusa.”

”Professional options are connected to the player’s original occupation, hobbies, interests, or even personality,” Xu Huo noted.

”Exactly. Painting is my hobby, and I usually take commissions. Right before evolving, a client had ordered a set of large Medusa oil paintings that took me a full year to complete, so I chose Medusa.”

Zhou Ning looked rather troubled. ”But the first trait I received was ’Elderly Medusa,’ which has almost no combat effectiveness.”The small snakes transformed from her hair and the phantom images of large snakes only looked frightening—players with enhanced vision wouldn’t be easily deceived.

”I should have chosen a more specific profession.”

She seemed somewhat regretful.

Indeed, among all the players Xu Huo had encountered, regardless of profession, their evolutionary directions mostly related to physical abilities and skills—essentially, it came down to physical evolution.

Hu Wenhu and Shen Xin’s traits appeared connected to animals, but in reality, they enhanced physical strength.

Wu Qiuyi and Lin Pei—one skilled at mimicking sounds, the other expert at tracking—could be seen as skills or as evolution of specific organ capabilities.

Even he was no exception. ”Tireless Legs,” ”Informer’s Perspective,” along with his eye-related traits all fell within this category.

Only when he evolved his third trait—”A Sad Affair”—did his traits undergo a qualitative leap.

This was connected to his profession but represented a special evolution refined and elevated from professional characteristics.

Wang Xiaohui from the Preliminary Trial Train, who generated protective barriers when attacked; Zhou Ning, who could create phantom images; and Wang Chaoqing, who could produce shadow clones—these were all special Evolvers.

This special evolution differed from former Holy Sword Society member Cao Yan, whose body produced toxins. Their traits seemed to skip intermediaries and directly achieved material transformation.

Of course, this might not be entirely accurate, but Xu Huo currently lacked better theories to explain it. Traits like his extended trait ”Friends Come to Score” generated numerical values from the attention others directed at him—this kind of hyper-dimensional brain evolution only appeared in sci-fi movies and was completely inexplicable from a realistic perspective.

”You can view it as special evolution,” he told Zhou Ning. ”Among the people I’ve encountered, players with special evolution are quite rare. Although they might not appear as powerful as other players initially, from another perspective, these special players have tremendous potential.”

”Really?” These words gave Zhou Ning immense confidence. She made a relieved gesture and added, ”I know too little about the game. I really wish someone would create some guides to prevent new players from stumbling around blindly.”

”Is there an Evolver in the room?” Xu Huo gestured with his chin toward the room Zhou Xiao had just emerged from.

The group immediately grew tense. Zhou Xiao froze for a moment before hurriedly saying, ”Who said that? There’s nobody!”

”Mr. Xu isn’t an outsider—it’s fine to tell him.” Compared to Zhou Xiao, Zhou Ning trusted Xu Huo more. She said helplessly, ”He’s a student I taught during my part-time substitute teaching—only fifteen years old. His parents and relatives aren’t around, and the school environment isn’t great. He didn’t dare to approach anyone else, so he came to me.”

”Has he eaten people? Has he taken evolution agent?” Xu Huo asked directly.

”No, neither.” Zhou Ning said seriously, ”If he had eaten people, I wouldn’t have taken him in. As for evolution agent, although we have one bottle, he hasn’t been to the Preliminary Trial Train, so we don’t dare to give it to him for fear of problems.”

Not everyone has the courage to explore and experiment when facing the unknown—caution and conservatism are the norm.

”I’ll ask him myself,” Xu Huo said.

Zhou Ning took him to the room where a teenage boy was shackled hand and foot, curled up in a corner and trembling. When he saw someone enter, intense craving flashed in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it, lowering his head and grinding his teeth audibly.

Zhou Ning didn’t dare get too close, telling him to stand up and answer Xu Huo’s questions.

Xu Huo repeated the questions he had asked earlier and detected no signs of lying. He inquired, ”I’d like to draw some blood from you. As payment, I can give you one hundred thousand yuan. Converted to White Bills, this should amount to about one thousand, enough for three days of meals.”

Beside them, Zhou Ning nodded frantically at the boy.

The boy had apparently learned some things about the trains from them. ”My bank card is in my backpack.”

Hu Wenhu went to buy blood drawing equipment while Xu Huo messaged Yu Qingqing to transfer one hundred thousand yuan. She acted quite quickly, transferring one hundred ten thousand instead.

Looking at the numbers in the transfer notification—110,000—he secretly smiled with satisfaction.

Having made money and completed the blood draw, Xu Huo prepared to leave. He gestured for Zhou Ning not to see him out, but after opening the door and standing there for a few seconds, he stepped back inside and said, ”Have you noticed the resident across from you?”

”Seems to be an unemployed middle-aged man,” Zhou Ning reacted quickly. ”Is there a problem with him?”

”He was behind the door both times it opened—he’s probably been watching you. You should change locations immediately.” Xu Huo offered this friendly warning.

Zhou Ning also realized too many people had been coming and going from her place recently. Given the special circumstances, they couldn’t afford to be careless.

”We’ll leave tonight.”

After leaving Anxin Compound, Xu Huo originally planned to return directly, but halfway there he received a photo showing Yu Qingqing tied up like a pretzel at the foot of the bed, her mouth taped shut, accompanied by the message:

”Not only am I not leaving—I’m going to eat hot pot!”

Xu Huo’s mood improved greatly, and he detoured to the supermarket to buy ingredients.

When he returned, Painting Woman had already been waiting by the door for quite some time. Seeing the ingredients in his hands, the anxiety on her face vanished completely as she happily took them.

Over the past few days, she had learned some life skills, and making hot pot was well within her capabilities.

”Mmph! Mmph!” Yu Qingqing desperately tried to make her presence known from the room.

”She came at me with a knife, so I had to tie her up,” Painting Woman quickly typed. ”I didn’t hit her, and I even helped her with her phone.”

”It’s fine, keep preparing the hot pot.” Xu Huo waited until Yu Qingqing stopped making noise before entering the room. He crouched down and tore the tape from her mouth. ”Having fun?”

Yu Qingqing immediately tried to bite him, but he pressed a hand against her forehead, ignoring her fierce glare as he said calmly, ”Let me teach you another lesson today. Mentally ill people who can be tied up are just ordinary people. Did you think people would be afraid just because you’re holding a knife?”

”When you can frighten people without holding a knife, then it won’t be too late to play mentally ill. Until then, behave like a proper person.”

”Come out and eat.” After untying the knots, just as Xu Huo stood up, Yu Qingqing—with her hands now free—suddenly grabbed the kitchen knife from the floor and swung it at him!

Without even lifting an eyelid, Xu Huo gripped her wrist and pressed hard with his thumb, causing the knife to clatter back to the floor.

”Still playing?” He looked at the person before him. ”Next time, I’ll fight back.”