Players, Please Board the Train

”Time is just a concept defined by humans, who can truly explain it clearly?” Jin Chao said: ”My biggest realization after entering dungeons is that previous common sense no longer applies as common sense, so I’m not surprised by any strange phenomena that occur. Anyway, I’m not a scientist—I can’t understand it, I can only accept it.”

Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu exchanged glances, then Xu Huo said: ”I’m Xu Huo, also a D-level player, my profession is magician.”

Yan Jiayu also introduced herself, similarly concealing her true profession, ”I’m a weightlifter.”

Jin Chao nodded, ”I have another companion.”

At that moment, another player approached, precisely the long-haired woman who had been holding hands with Yan Jiayu in the maze earlier.

”Thank you for earlier.” The long-haired female player smiled at Yan Jiayu, ”I’m Peng Ru, my profession is kindergarten teacher.”

Yan Jiayu looked at her in surprise, ”Kindergarten teacher can be a profession too?”

”Of course,” Peng Ru said with a gentle expression, ”Professions in the game are similar to real life—all industries are represented, so kindergarten teacher is naturally included.”

Yan Jiayu said with considerable interest, ”I’m really curious what characteristics a kindergarten teacher would have.”

”The kindergarten teacher’s characteristics aren’t as strong as other players’, mainly focused on affinity, since we need to take care of children.” Peng Ru said.Yan Jiayu pointed at the puppets in the distance, ”Can you get discounts when buying things?”

Peng Ru didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, ”How could a teacher take advantage of children? But the puppets here really dislike me—they won’t even sell me candy.”

Xu Huo looked up at her, ”The puppets might be immune to characteristics.”

”That’s what I think too.” Jin Chao said: ”Not all children like teachers.”

”You’re all wrong.” Yan Jiayu said seriously: ”There’s another ability that no one can be immune to.”

The three people present all looked at her, only to hear her say: ”Money power.”

Peng Ru chuckled, ”That doesn’t work either. Whether I offer double the price for candy or want to buy limited edition candy, the puppets refuse to sell to me. Jin Chao has no problems though.”

”The puppets in the amusement park are all quite greedy, they’ll even stage accidents for compensation. Peng Ru’s situation is quite strange.” Jin Chao said.

”Do they target her during games?” Xu Huo asked.

”Not really.” Jin Chao said, ”But just to be safe, I usually play the games while she assists.”

”Let’s go to the next game point first.” Peng Ru said.

Since nothing unusual was happening, the four of them traveled together. When they reached the next game point, Jin Chao and Peng Ru went in first while Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu waited outside.

”They’re not lying,” Yan Jiayu said while staring at the camp tent, ”It’s so strange, why would the puppets dislike Peng Ru? She doesn’t seem any different from other players.”

”And I can also sense the affinity radiating from her.”

She paused and lowered her voice, ”Do you think the dungeon might be hiding children inside the puppets? To prevent Peng Ru from influencing them, that’s why they specifically avoid her.”

Xu Huo shook his head, ”That wouldn’t be necessary. The puppets genuinely dislike Peng Ru, and whether they target her in games is another matter entirely.”

”Additionally, the possibility of children being inside the puppets is very small. I’m more inclined to believe that the dungeon boss is controlling these puppets.”

”There’s a very strange rule in the amusement park—the transfer of small hats must be voluntary. How do they determine whether a player is transferring or accepting small hats voluntarily or under coercion?”

”Could it be an item effect?” Yan Jiayu said: ”Once these small hats are taken by players, they’re essentially registered to them, right?”

”If the first person’s small hat is destroyed by a second person, then the second person who destroyed the hat will die immediately. After death, their hat is inherited by the first person. Therefore, targeting players with fewer hats, capturing them alive and making them destroy their own hats to reduce the hat count seems like the more feasible method currently.” Xu Huo continued: ”But this also carries high risks—neither side dares to fight without restraint, so the result is usually both sides suffering losses without much gain.”

”However, the rule about voluntary hat transfers leaves room for manipulation.”

”Human consciousness is uncontrollable—how do they determine whether someone is acting voluntarily or under coercion?”

Yan Jiayu’s eyes lit up, ”You mean this is determined by the puppets? So if we can completely avoid the puppets’ line of sight, couldn’t we directly steal others’ small hats or force others to take our small hats?”

Xu Huo nodded, ”This is just my speculation. Whether we can avoid the puppets’ sight, or whether transactions conducted outside their vision count, remains to be verified.”

”But this points to another issue—is the dungeon boss playing games with us?”

”If the puppets we encountered earlier at game points were all the dungeon boss, then the information they revealed becomes very important.”

”Tang Xiao said players generally assume that collecting fifteen small hats is needed to clear the dungeon, and any extra hats require matching sets. Since so many players haven’t found the fifth question-and-answer game point, how did this matching clearance information spread?”

Yan Jiayu reached into her hat and scratched her head, ”I think players like Tang Xiao spread it themselves, because they want to mobilize more people to find hats.”

But Xu Huo shook his head, ”Do you remember the game mission?”

”Play one zone according to the route provided by the amusement park.” Yan Jiayu sounded puzzled, ”What hint is there in that?”

”The route map provided by the amusement park only has ten game points, no question-and-answer game points.” Xu Huo said: ”But the Travel Guide states that fifteen small hats are needed. There’s a contradiction between this task and the task mentioned in the game—the dungeon boss is giving players misleading information.”

”The dungeon task definitely wouldn’t trick players... could the Travel Guide be fake?” Yan Jiayu understood, ”So which is fake—the route map or the requirement to collect fifteen small hats?”

”If the small hat collection requirement is a red herring, then completing ten game points should clear the dungeon. Many players should have reached ten game points by now, right? So the route map is fake? But didn’t they say players can’t find the fifth random question-and-answer location?”

Xu Huo thought briefly, ”We can’t determine that yet.”

Dungeons operate according to certain rules. If the dungeon boss could directly remove a key element, then this game wouldn’t be playable—no one would be able to clear it at all.

So regardless of which of the two pieces of information is fake, at least one game point or random question-and-answer location is very difficult to find. It’s not that it doesn’t exist, but rather that it avoids most people’s normal line of thinking.

Quickly filtering through the places they’d visited since entering the dungeon in his mind, aside from the Fairy Tale Castle where they stayed last night, there didn’t seem to be any other place that matched the characteristics of a random location or game point. But the castle had too many players coming and going—if it were a hidden route, it shouldn’t have remained undiscovered until now.