Players, Please Board the Train

Tao Chengxin felt the sting of offense. ”Fine, don’t believe me if you don’t want to!”

Xu Huo didn’t argue with her. Instead, he said, ”Let’s go find the item first.”

”Does the thing in the drawing refer to the teeth?” Sun Jirou tentatively asked. ”You seem to doubt what they just said.”

”I believe my trait. What they said is true,” Tao Chengxin emphasized.

Xu Huo had no intention of explaining himself to the two women. Returning to the bustling street, he casually stopped a passerby to ask about lost and found locations.

After he bought two bags of fruit, the shopkeeper became extremely enthusiastic. Not only did he mention several lost and found offices, but he also told them that if they wanted to find something, they could pay to hire the guard team, or check a specialized auction platform.

”People in Fairytale City are very honest; they won’t take things that aren’t theirs. If you can’t find it at the lost and found, it was definitely picked up by a tourist and sold. Check the auction platform. We locals never buy things listed there. If it hasn’t been long since it was lost, it might not have been purchased yet.”

”Would you like to try some fried Algae Shells, guest?”

”No need,” Xu Huo said, leaving with his purchases.

Sun Jirou, standing to the side, couldn’t help but give the shopkeeper an extra glance. Seeing him happily eating a bowl of fried Algae Shells himself, she remarked, ”I’ve been to several dungeons, but this is the first city I’ve seen like this.”Hospitable and friendly, appearing honest and kind, yet they consume products derived from their own kind without any psychological barrier.

”This is a sick city,” Xu Huo stated. ”That might be the real reason they have no next generation.”

Sun Jirou looked surprised, but Xu Huo had already quickened his pace, so she didn’t say anything more.

Tao Chengxin, walking beside her, asked, ”You don’t believe them either? Why?”

”Have you forgotten who tricked us into going to Building Block Buns and Bear Claw Restaurant?” Sun Jirou glanced at Xu Huo’s retreating back and continued, ”Even if we don’t actively look for her, that tour guide will come find us.”

Seeing the coldness in her eyes, Tao Chengxin pursed her lips and fell silent.

Xu Huo, ahead of them, had certainly heard their conversation. He didn’t interrupt, instead first finding a place to log into the auction platform.

The online platform of Building Block Fairytale City was quite different from Zone 014’s, clearly far more technologically advanced. In less than a second, he not only found similar items, but the system also analyzed that the patterns on them resembled the emblem of a mysterious organization that once existed in Building Block Fairytale City, albeit with minor variations.

”It seems the auction platform doesn’t have it,” Tao Chengxin said disappointedly. ”Should we try the lost and found offices?”

”Of course we should,” Xu Huo said. ”We only have one day left. If the game requires completing all three tasks to clear the dungeon, and the first two are done, we must find a way to complete the last one no matter what.”

”Regardless of what the item The Storytelling Woman wants actually is, giving it to her can’t be wrong.”

Tao Chengxin shared the same thought. ”The lost and found offices are a bit spread out. We’ll have to split up.”

Sun Jirou instinctively looked at Xu Huo but didn’t speak.

Xu Huo looked up and stared back at her.

”What are you looking at? Obviously, we don’t dare trust you because you’ve tricked us before,” Tao Chengxin said with a sarcastic tone. After saying it, she herself became serious. ”Honestly, you’re not messing with us this time, are you?”

Instead of defending himself, Xu Huo asked, ”If earlier, when we went together to find the female tour guide, she had told us there were a few shops where we could find the original elderly residents of Building Block Fairytale City, would you have gone?”

Both women paused. It was a clue; of course they would have gone.

”The game carries risks. Be careful yourselves,” Xu Huo didn’t elaborate further. He pointed to two specific locations on the map. ”I’ll take these two. You search the remaining ones. We’ll meet back here in three hours.”

After he left, Sun Jirou pressed her lips together and calculated a direction for herself.

Tao Chengxin, holding the map, rolled her eyes. After Sun Jirou had walked some distance, she turned and began following the direction Xu Huo had taken.

”Stop following me.” As soon as she reached a corner, a voice suddenly spoke up from the side. She pushed off with her foot to create distance, only then seeing Xu Huo leaning against the wall as if he had been waiting for her specifically.

Tao Chengxin relaxed her combat stance, stood up straight, and smiled. ”Who’s following you? Can’t I walk in this direction if I want to?”

Xu Huo’s expression didn’t change, but his cold eyes made his attitude clear.

”Fine, I won’t follow you,” Tao Chengxin said after a moment’s hesitation, then asked anyway, ”I just don’t really understand. Since you don’t believe the female tour guide, why are you out here helping her look for this thing? It might not even be part of the task, and we might not even find it.”

”I gave the reason already,” Xu Huo said. ”If you have so much free time, you’d be better off checking a few more lost and found offices.”

”Impenetrable!” Tao Chengxin glared at him angrily, then turned and walked away.

Only after confirming she wasn’t tailing him did Xu Huo head to a nearby carving shop. He handed the pattern he had memorized from the network to the craftsman. ”Can you make this in an hour?”

The craftsman didn’t even look up. ”It’ll cost extra.”

Xu Huo paid half the deposit upfront. After leaving, he turned towards a pet training shop not far away.

”Sir, if you’re planning to tame and keep a Mutant, it’s best to purchase a full set of equipment.”

”The most popular item in our shop right now is this five-piece set.”

”One adhesive net, one extendable high-voltage telescopic rod, a folding cage made from imported, high-tensile metal, and a light-proof cover.”

Xu Huo glanced at the instruction manual the clerk produced. The adhesive net was made from a special metal that could withstand being pulled by three Mutants simultaneously. The white bubbles on the net knots were a mutated resin-based adhesive mucus with extremely high viscosity. If the Mutant was truly disobedient, the bubbles could be detonated remotely. However, this mucus required a special cleaning solution to remove; it was impossible to get off by hand or by cutting.

Additionally, the metal folding cage could expand and contract. At its smallest, it could become the size of a cat carrier; when expanded, its volume could increase fivefold.

”Can it still contain a Mutant when expanded?” Xu Huo asked, tapping the cage’s outer shell.

”Rest assured, sir, these are tested products. Our Government Hall uses these exact cages for all their Mutant handling operations. There hasn’t been a single incident of a Mutant breaking out yet,” the clerk said enthusiastically. ”If you plan to keep multiple pets, you might want to get some hypnotic agent. It helps make them more obedient.”

”However, we don’t sell the potion in this shop. You’ll need to go to the shop on the street corner. They also have the cleaning solution for the adhesive net’s mucus there.”

Xu Huo paid promptly. The clerk even threw in a bottle of spray that could temporarily blind Mutants.

After packing the equipment, he went to the shop on the corner to purchase the potions.

This potion shop primarily sold potions for daily life. Besides the mucus cleaning solution, he also bought some insect repellent and special ground stickers designed to deal with stray cats and dogs, which supposedly made it impossible to walk properly once stuck.

With his supplies ready, he finally headed towards the Bear Claw Restaurant.