Players, Please Board the Train

”Really, it’s fine.” Zhang Biao glanced over and laughed with a ”Ha!”, his anger toward Da Zhi completely vanishing. ”I think Dai Wenqian and that Xu guy were just exaggerating. It’s nowhere near as dangerous as they claimed!”

Gu Yu and Kang Hong exchanged looks, both feeling somewhat incredulous.

”Maybe we were too tense,” Gu Yu said. ”There might be some chance of being attacked from outside the window, but it’s not a guaranteed death scenario.”

”We can only hope for the best,” Kang Hong said, glancing back. ”At least those who stayed behind still have a chance to survive.”

Three hours passed quickly, and everyone brought the unconscious middle-aged man with them as they took the elevators down to the seventh floor.

As for the potted plants that Brother Tie’s group had brought down from the thirteenth floor, aside from the few players with him, no one else received any. The extras were all thrown down to the lower floors by them.

However, Xu Huo’s cart was taken along by Kang Hong and Chen Shu together.

”Wouldn’t having potted plants be safer?” Square-Faced Man said. ”It wouldn’t hurt to give them some.”

”If everyone had potted plants, we’d be in danger,” Brother Tie said. ”Whether these things work or not is another matter, but we can’t increase our own risks.”

As they spoke, the elevator reached the seventh floor. When the doors opened, the first thing they heard was a bone-chilling chewing sound. The players went on high alert, but upon closer inspection found no immediate danger. Aside from some mutilated corpses that had been gnawed on, it wasn’t much different from the upper floors.Chen Shu found the source of the sound—a potted plant in the corner. ”This is what’s making the noise.”

Gu Yu went over to look and recalled carefully, ”There was one like this on the thirteenth floor, I think. I can’t remember the name, but it can record sounds with a maximum memory of one week.”

”There really are all kinds of strange plants,” Chen Shu marveled.

”What’s so interesting about a stupid flower?” Zhang Biao snorted disdainfully, then suddenly noticed something under a corpse nearby. He went over, flipped the body, and retrieved the item beneath it, immediately exclaiming excitedly, ”It’s an item!”

Brother Tie and the others quickly approached, but Zhang Biao immediately stored the item in his item slot, then said, ”This corpse must have been a player. Let’s search around—there might be other items.”

Several players immediately began searching the seventh floor and indeed found two more unclaimed items.

When a player is killed, their belongings including items, potions, and train tickets can be inherited. But if a player dies accidentally or by non-player hands, their items are reclaimed by the game. Only items that were actively being used when the player died become unclaimed items that remain on the spot.

Brother Tie picked up a knife and stored it, saying, ”Pretty ordinary.”

”Be grateful, brother,” Zhang Biao said. ”The best players who can enter this dungeon are D-level players. Many E-grade players don’t even have a single item. How wealthy can D-level players really be?”

Brother Tie looked at the box in Chen Shu’s hand and reached out, ”Yours—let me see it.”

Chen Shu put away the wooden box item. ”Whoever finds it gets to keep it.”

Beside her, Kang Hong, Gu Yu, and the others looked over.

Brother Tie sneered and shifted his gaze away, pulling out a pen. ”Stop idling around. Let’s draw lots.”

Meanwhile, in the small cabin within the glass greenhouse.

”The Man-eating Flower just got agitated,” Jiang Yihua said, looking toward the distant flower crowns. ”Its energy value suddenly spiked.”

”Did something happen outside?” Zheng Liang asked nervously. ”Gu Yu and the others are all out there.”

”Nothing major could happen,” Xu Huo said. ”With Kang Hong’s three people plus her, they’re basically evenly matched with the remaining players. Unless all eighty-two others join forces against the players.”

Jiang Yihua suddenly understood. ”So that’s why you had Da Zhi and the others stay behind.”

”But this probably won’t be very effective,” Xu Huo said. ”They’ve already reached the seventh floor. Reducing numbers is inevitable.”

”Then will Da Zhi and the others be in danger?” Jiang Yihua asked urgently. ”Even a cornered rabbit will bite. No one would willingly go to their death.”

”Those guys like Zhang Biao might look stupid, but they’re actually quite cunning,” Dai Wenqian said indifferently. ”They won’t let non-players kill players. One against ten gives them good odds.”

”Rather than worrying about others, we should worry about ourselves,” Wei Bin couldn’t help saying. ”These lights can only last twelve hours, and more than half that time has already passed.”

”How do we escape?”

Xu Huo had already tested with piano wire—the roof and floor of the glass greenhouse exceeded seventy meters, making the lights unreachable. Besides a single switch button, no other operations were possible in the small cabin, so using the high-intensity lights to create a path wasn’t feasible.

”Target the Man-eating Flower,” Dai Wenqian said succinctly. ”When the Man-eating Flower becomes active, it drives away other mutated animals. It’s not far to the building—if we move quickly, we can make it.”

Jiang Yihua was astonished. ”What about the remaining two people?”

Dai Wenqian shrugged without responding.

The young girl who had been crouching in the corner—daring neither to get too close nor too far from them—started crying again upon hearing this, sobbing, ”Don’t abandon me... my family is very rich, I can give you money...”

”Who wants your measly money!” Zheng Liang interrupted impatiently, then paused and added, ”We won’t abandon you unless it’s absolutely necessary.”

Xu Huo estimated the Man-eating Flower’s approximate position within the entire glass greenhouse and carefully recalled the electrical wiring layout he’d glimpsed in haste, frowning slightly.

The main circuits were too far from both the cabin and the Man-eating Flower, and the wiring was too scattered. Even if they started a fire, it wouldn’t be effective. Unless there were large amounts of flammable material here, recklessly crossing through the dense foliage would be too dangerous without knowing how many Mutants were hiding there.

Plus, that Giant Man-eating Flower didn’t seem very obedient either. They might end up caught between two threats.

If only they could divert the attention of both the Mutants and the Man-eating Flower right now...

Just as this thought occurred to him, the dense foliage suddenly rustled. He looked up sharply and saw the Giant Man-eating Flower beginning to tremble. It unfurled its broad leaves while the flower crowns sprayed out dense clusters of smaller man-eating flowers that surged toward the building like living snakes, avoiding the areas illuminated by the high-intensity lights!

”Perfect opportunity!” Dai Wenqian was the first to leap out of the small cabin.

”Let’s go too!” Xu Huo quickly rushed to the rest area, tied the injured woman and the young girl together, then used piano wire to carry them down via a bedsheet while he himself ran toward the building along the direction the small man-eating flowers were surging.

Something from the building side seemed to be attracting the Giant Man-eating Flower. It didn’t attack Xu Huo’s group or the surrounding mutated animals, but the fleeing mutated animals gave them a perfect escape opportunity. In the blink of an eye, they reached the base of the building!

Ahead appeared two doors—one red and one green. Dai Wenqian in front and Xu Huo catching up from behind almost simultaneously opened the doors before them—except one chose the green door while the other chose the red door!

Before entering, Xu Huo saw surprise on Dai Wenqian’s face. But as their gazes crossed, he found himself already inside the building. Jiang Yihua and Zheng Liang, who had followed behind, caught the two people delivered by the piano wire. Seeing that Wei Bin had entered the adjacent door, they immediately closed their door!