Players, Please Board the Train

Xu Huo remained motionless, his breathing unchanged, simply locking eyes with the wooden puppet.

After about ten seconds, the wooden puppet finally twisted its head and clattered up the stairs to the second floor. Soon, the rhythmic thumping of meat chopping echoed from above.

Xu Huo silently returned to ground level and ascended the stairs, glancing up at Tao Chengxin clinging to the ceiling at the turn before gesturing for her to come down.

Tao Chengxin landed as lightly as a cat, studying Xu Huo’s expression in the faint light from the window. Finding his emotions completely unruffled, she couldn’t help but curl her lips in a self-mocking smile.

The two avoided the meat-chopping wooden puppet on the second floor and returned to the fifth level. Xu Huo walked directly to one of the rooms and kicked the door open. The room was empty, with no signs of the bed having been used.

Tao Chengxin went inside, tapping and knocking around before emerging from under the bed. ”There’s a secret passage here.”

Xu Huo moved the bed aside and lifted the floor ring, revealing a staircase beneath.

”Should we go in?” Tao Chengxin asked. ”There might be more wooden puppets down there...”

Before she could finish, Xu Huo had already taken the lead down the stairs. She paused briefly before quickly following.

Surprisingly, the tunnel led to an exceptionally well-appointed dining room.Walls made of casually arranged red bricks were adorned with various building-block shaped scented candles or flower baskets. Warm-toned downlights illuminated the four corners of the room, each containing a skull-shaped decoration with a scroll clenched in its teeth.

A massive chandelier hung above the center of the room, beneath which stood a roughly ten-meter-long dining table covered with a red cloth. At the center of the table sat a three-headed candle holder, with a single chair at each end.

”What is this place?” Tao Chengxin instinctively asked, while Xu Huo turned to look behind them, frowning. ”The door disappeared.”

They had just emerged from the tunnel, and the door should have been about two meters behind them, but in the blink of an eye, it had transformed into a solid wall!

Tao Chengxin stepped forward and struck the wall, only to discover it had become completely solid and impenetrable.

”Search around,” Xu Huo said.

The two then began feeling their way around the room. After extensive tapping and knocking, even using items, they confirmed one undeniable fact: they were truly trapped.

All the walls, including the ceiling and floor, were solid. The passage they had just descended through had completely vanished as if it were an illusion.

”Is this an advanced player’s ability or some kind of item?” Tao Chengxin’s eyes scanned the room. ”Not even a window opening. How do we get out?”

Xu Huo wasn’t sure either, but the White-Dressed Girl had specifically lured him here—it was unlikely she simply wanted to trap him.

”We need to figure out the rules of this place,” he said, looking around before his gaze settled on the scrolls in the skulls’ mouths at the corners.

”Don’t touch them!” Tao Chengxin immediately stopped him when she saw his movement, her expression serious. ”You dare mess with dungeon items? What if it’s a trap?”

”Do you have any other ideas?” Xu Huo countered.

”Still not worth the risk!” Tao Chengxin insisted. ”Let’s think some more. We might come up with another way. Unless absolutely necessary, we shouldn’t touch anything here!”

Xu Huo didn’t argue with her. He acquiesced silently and withdrew his hand, but at that moment, his vision suddenly blurred, and he found himself seated at the dining table.

He instinctively tried to stand up, but his body was restrained by some inexplicable force, preventing him from leaving the chair. Even his arms were fixed to the armrests, with only his fingers able to move.

Tao Chengxin across from him was in the same predicament. Struggling, she looked over and said, ”I can’t move!”

”Same here,” Xu Huo said, his gaze darkening as he manipulated piano wire with two fingers, hiding it beneath his chair, and tossed the Dual-color Magic Cube near his feet.

Seeing his actions, Tao Chengxin focused momentarily, and an oversized realistic frog materialized in front of her. The frog, the size of a human head, emitted a ”ribbit” sound before beginning to swim around her as if in water.

”Ribbit!”

Three frogs appeared in succession. After each one croaked, it opened its mouth wide and joined the swimming procession circling around her.

With basic defensive measures in place, Tao Chengxin still attempted to break free from the chair’s restraints, but it proved utterly futile.

”You can still stay calm?” she asked, looking at Xu Huo. ”Aren’t you afraid someone might take advantage of our immobility to attack us?”

”I am,” Xu Huo replied succinctly, though his expression showed no change.

Tao Chengxin muttered a curse under her breath before turning her head to look around and shouting, ”Is anyone breathing out there?”

”You’ve tied us to chairs—are you trying to starve us to death?”

”Whatever you want to do, just give us a clear signal!”

...

”Got the guts to act but not to admit it? Are you too ugly to show your face?”

”This lady has strong mental resilience! I’m not afraid of ugly people! Come out and I definitely won’t laugh at you!”

”Coward! Chicken...”

She continued shouting and cursing for five full minutes without receiving any response before finally sighing and returning to her normal tone. ”I knew this dungeon wouldn’t let people clear it that easily.”

She shot a glare at Xu Huo across from her. ”I really shouldn’t have followed you in here!”

”You wanted to take advantage of the situation yourself. Now that you’ve been tricked, don’t blame others,” Xu Huo said with a faint glance before nodding toward the skulls. ”Any way to get those scrolls over here?”

”So you knew I was following you,” Tao Chengxin said irritably. ”I don’t understand—why did you come to Bear Claw Restaurant?”

”You didn’t even stay here yesterday.”

”Same as you—I was following someone else and got tricked,” Xu Huo replied before repeating, ”The scrolls.”

”Quite good at giving orders, aren’t you? I can’t do it,” Tao Chengxin said without hesitation.

”Use that equipment you used to hang outside the window yesterday,” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. ”Don’t tell me you don’t even have a remote item.”

Tao Chengxin started in surprise before her expression darkened. ”How did you recognize me?”

That’s right—she was the ”female ghost” who had harassed Xu Huo in the middle of the night.

”Recognizing you wasn’t difficult. Get the scrolls over here and I’ll tell you,” Xu Huo proposed as a condition.

Tao Chengxin stared at him silently, her eyes flashing with dangerous light.

Xu Huo acted as if he didn’t notice and added, ”We’re allies now.”

Actually, he had recognized her when they met at the entrance of Yongxing Club that morning. She carried the same distinctive scent as the ”female ghost”—likely something she used on her face that the cleaning solution hadn’t completely removed.

”I know you’re short on funds,” he said. ”Otherwise you wouldn’t have been too afraid to even enter the room during your robbery attempt.”

”Worried Yongxing Club might come after you for compensation?”

Since Yongxing could manage the train’s kitchen and open shops inside dungeons, they certainly weren’t afraid of players defaulting on payments. Even if players had no money, they probably had their own methods of debt collection.

”Yongxing may be ruthless about overcharging customers, but you’re not much better,” Tao Chengxin retorted. ”Why bother being a player? You should change careers and go into business instead.”