Players, Please Board the Train

Xu Huo lifted the light-blocking cloth from the cage. Inside, besides the corpse of a cat, was a spherical wooden puppet stuck to it.

The other players, including Tao Chengxin, were all looking at him in astonishment.

”Found it in the secret room of the Bear Claw Restaurant. It was poisoned to death,” Xu Huo said to the White-Dressed Girl.

”So that’s what happened,” the White-Dressed Girl sighed and shook her head. ”I’ve warned it repeatedly not to eat random things. The faint toxins present in the corpses of Player-Eaters are lethal poison to ordinary small animals.”

After saying this, she glanced at the wooden puppet and chuckled wryly, ”I have to admire your ingenuity in using this method to deal with the Smiling Puppet.”

”Just got lucky,” Xu Huo replied. ”This puppet seems to have quite a background.”

”In terms of craftsmanship alone, it’s very crude, inferior to even the worst artifact craftsmen in the game. But its master is incredibly powerful. If you plan to use this puppet, you’d better not let the corners of its mouth turn upward,” the White-Dressed Girl said, glancing at the sky outside. ”It’s dinner time. I need to cook. What would you all like to eat?”

”No need!” Sun Jirou immediately responded. ”We’ve all eaten before coming here.”

”Don’t be nervous, little girl. I’m just making some vegetable soup,” the White-Dressed Girl’s voice was slightly hoarse as she stood up and walked outside. There was a small vegetable patch in the yard.

”I’ll help,” Xu Huo followed her out, with Tao Chengxin close behind.As soon as the three of them left, Wang Qiao and Gao Baimei immediately stood up to keep watch, then turned back and nodded to Tang Yuan.

Tang Yuan produced a potion from his hand and quickly dripped two drops into the teapot.

”What are you doing?” Sun Jirou asked in a hushed, surprised tone.

Tang Yuan gestured for her to be quiet. As he returned to his seat, Xu Huo and the other two happened to push the door open and come back in.

The open kitchen was located behind the sofa. Tao Chengxin and Xu Huo helped wash the vegetables while the White-Dressed Girl chopped and prepared the soup.

With her back to the group, she suddenly said, ”Sitting around waiting like this is boring. How about I tell you a story?”

The people behind her exchanged uneasy glances, but Xu Huo responded calmly without changing his expression.

The White-Dressed Girl began telling a story about a king and a knight as she continued chopping vegetables.

Sun Jirou and the others exchanged looks, unsure if her words carried a hidden meaning, but ultimately decided to endure it. Meanwhile, Tang Yuan discreetly slipped the Access Card into a crevice in the sofa.

They had heard the story of the king and the knight during the day, so when Sun Jirou heard her reach the part where the knight, after driving away the external enemies, hesitated about whether to reconcile with the king, she said, ”What good would fighting the king at this point achieve? The ordinary people would be the ones to suffer.”

”They’re still suffering?” Tao Chengxin disagreed. ”When the knight was driven away initially, no one spoke up for him. Instead, they repeatedly reported and attacked him, even colluded with the external enemies to harm their own compatriots. Do these people deserve pity?”

”Why? Because they outnumber others?”

”Are ten lives valuable while a single life is not?”

”That’s true, but what can the knight gain by continuing to resist the king? It will only perpetuate the cycle of hatred,” Sun Jirou argued. ”Enemies and friends are defined by immediate interests. If an era of hatred continues, to put it bluntly, an entire race could face extinction.”

”I have a question,” Xu Huo turned to look at Sun Jirou. ”If you encountered a bear in the wild that had just killed someone and was eating the corpse, what would you do?”

”Of course, kill it,” Sun Jirou answered without hesitation.

”Why?”

”Because the bear killed a person. What other reason could there be?” Gao Baimei interjected sharply.

”There’s a saying that once a bear has tasted human flesh, the instinct that ’humans can be food’ becomes imprinted in its genes. Then its descendants will also prey on humans, so this genetic trait shouldn’t be allowed to continue,” Sun Jirou explained briefly, then understood Xu Huo’s point. ”In this story, most people were swept along by circumstances, not truly intending to do evil.”

Xu Huo neither agreed nor disagreed, turning instead to help the White-Dressed Girl with the soup.

After a moment, Sun Jirou couldn’t resist asking, ”What exactly do you mean? If you have something to say, speak clearly!”

”What do you think of the people in Fairy Tale City?” Xu Huo asked in return.

Sun Jirou was rendered speechless. Although the people of Fairy Tale City didn’t directly consume human flesh, eating things grown from the bodies of Mutants was almost the same as cannibalism. As fellow humans, they showed no compassion for their former compatriots; instead, they even developed tourism around it... They were intelligent beings, making it far easier for them to perpetuate this ”cannibalistic” instinct compared to animals!

Silence fell over the room. After a while, Tang Yuan picked up the teapot. ”We’ve been talking for a long time. How about some tea?”

Yang Sheng went to fetch the cups for the White-Dressed Girl and Xu Huo. But as he approached, he suddenly noticed that the White-Dressed Girl had significantly more white hairs on her head. Puzzled, he saw her turn around and was so startled he stumbled back two steps. ”How did you get so old!”

The White-Dressed Girl, who had originally appeared to be in her early twenties, now looked at least forty or fifty years old. Spots and wrinkles had appeared on her once smooth skin, and her eyes were no longer clear; the whites were bloodshot.

”Player characteristic,” the White-Dressed Girl, whose voice had also aged, pointed to the cup he had dropped and shattered on the floor. ”Clean that up.”

Before the other players could process the shock of her sudden aging, Yang Sheng had already unconsciously picked up a broom and started cleaning as she instructed.

The remaining players watched with nervous apprehension. Tao Chengxin quickly grabbed Xu Huo as he moved forward. ”Don’t go over there!”

Xu Huo showed no particular reaction to the White-Dressed Girl’s ”reverse aging” skill. He touched the teapot, lifted the lid, and poured out the remaining tea. ”It’s gone cold. Let’s brew a fresh pot.”

Tang Yuan and the others in front gritted their teeth in frustration, but the White-Dressed Girl just chuckled and said, ”The soup is ready. Time for soup.”

”Auntie, how should we address you?” Xu Huo asked casually as he helped, making conversation.

”My surname is Bai. You can call me Granny Bai,” the ’White-Dressed Girl’ who was continuing to age said.

”And the elderly man we saw during the day today is?”

”My cousin. He suffered a shock and isn’t quite right mentally. He goes to bed early at night.”

”Is it just the two of you living here?”

”That’s right. All our family and friends are dead. Only us two old relics remain. In about ten days or so, he’ll die too, and then it’ll just be me.”

”I noticed you grow a lot of flowers outside. Did you used to run a flower shop?”

”My husband and I both loved gardening. We used to have a flower shop, but after he passed away, I closed the shop and only grow a few in my own yard.”

”Have you ever thought about traveling outside? Fairy Tale City is too small.”

”I can’t leave this place. I can only move around the nearby area normally.”

Several bowls of soup had been served. When the old woman turned around again, her appearance had changed once more. Sun Jirou abruptly stood up. ”You’re the elderly person from the tour bus!”

Granny Bai smiled as she placed the soup on the table. ”Your eyesight isn’t so good, little girl. The young man traveling with you recognized me long ago.”