Players, Please Board the Train

Over the next while, the two of them visited the remaining game spots. The ten game locations matched those listed in the amusement park’s Travel Guide.

”Which of these game spots is fake?” Yan Jiayu shifted her gaze from the map to the person beside her. ”None of them look fake to me.”

”The location of Black Maple Valley overlaps with one of the game spots,” Xu Huo said. ”However, the map’s marking is too broad. Let’s enter the valley first before deciding.”

The position of Black Maple Valley was quite cleverly placed.

The main environment of the entire Rabbit Bear Paradise consisted primarily of primitive forests and grasslands. Black Maple Valley was located within a mountain range. From a game spot not far from there, one could purchase a simple map of the mountains, which showed there were roughly seven mountains in the area.

The entrance passage ahead was squeezed between two mountains. After passing through, there was a lake with rivers connecting to both sides. This lake was quite large, with a dilapidated ancient castle situated on it. According to the Puppets, this place was considered a high-risk structure, and generally no one went inside.

Of course, some players had entered before, but the interior was ruined and eerie, with no Puppets present, so it didn’t qualify as a game location.

The two of them hid in the forest not far from the entrance, watching the constant stream of people entering and exiting the canyon mouth.

”There’s only one entrance. Should we try entering from above instead?” Yan Jiayu suggested.

”We already exposed our items when we escaped earlier. If those six people are waiting for us here, they’ll definitely be prepared in advance,” Xu Huo said after merely glancing at the Puppets mixed within the crowd, then proposed returning to the previous game spot.The two of them re-entered the game, successfully eliminated two Puppets and slipped inside their costumes. Then they used child-safe needle and thread sold at the stalls to sew the Puppet costumes back up, after which they swaggered openly behind other people into the canyon.

Outside the ancient castle in the canyon, a surprisingly large number of gathered players were waiting idly for the question-and-answer game to begin. The castle had already been searched by players, but since staying inside really didn’t feel pleasant, most people had simply taken a quick look around before coming back out.

On the lawn in front of the ancient castle, Puppets were moving about selling candies, toys, and other items. Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu weaved through the Puppets and easily entered the ancient castle.

The castle’s structure was divided into two sections, front and back, connected by a straight bridge spanning the lake. However, the middle section had collapsed. The building at the back was even more dilapidated, with some places where the walls and roof were broken, allowing an unobstructed view of the interior.

Besides the straight bridge in the middle, the two buildings were also connected by an elevated structure resembling an arch bridge at the top. At the center was a small building similar to a lighthouse. This arch bridge originated from the tops of both buildings, but the bridge arches that could have allowed passage from the front had all broken and fallen off. The lighthouse-like structure was now supported only by the bridge arches from the back, looking as if it could crash down at any moment.

”This place is so broken down,” Yan Jiayu murmured softly, but then suddenly noticed someone walking toward them from the opposite side of the broken bridge—it was the twins.

”Split up,” Xu Huo said, turning around and returning to the front building.

The two of them separated, going left and right respectively. The twins chasing from behind also split up to follow each of them after entering the ancient castle.

Xu Huo quickened his pace and entered the second floor. Seeing his clearly abnormal movements compared to other Puppets, the taller of the twins revealed a faint smile and directly pulled an air cross-section into existence mid-air, sending it to trail after Xu Huo instead of going himself.

Xu Huo glanced back, then suddenly accelerated and ran down the corridor ahead.

”Don’t think you can escape!” the tall twin immediately manipulated the air cross-section to speed up, but unexpectedly, two people walked out from around the corner ahead and bumped right into the air cross-section.

After spending enough time in the amusement park, one naturally started to ignore the NPC Puppets. So when a Puppet ran past them, Jin Chao and Peng Ru paid no attention at first. Instead, after being bumped into by nothing visible, they quickly reacted, immediately stepping back to maintain distance.

”Get out of the way!” the tall twin found the two obstructive and tried to control the air cross-section to push them aside. However, by this time Peng Ru had already taken out a laser pointer the length of a palm. When activated, the laser beam resembled an elongated lightsaber, slashing diagonally forward!

The tall twin had just avoided the laser pointer’s attack when he found himself surrounded by several paper airplanes continuously thrown by Jin Chao. He flipped onto the wall to gain leverage, but one paper airplane shot straight into the wall and, upon impact, exploded like a grenade!

Following that came successive explosions. Stone fragments flew through the corridor, and the air cross-section was also shattered by the blasts. The tall twin scanned through the dust and smoke but didn’t find the Puppet’s figure. After a moment’s hesitation, he quickly erected multiple air cross-sections in front of himself, blocking Jin Chao and Peng Ru, then turned and ran toward the stairs.

”Stop him!” Jin Chao and Peng Ru simultaneously chased after him without prior agreement. But before the two could break through the air cross-sections, a semi-transparent barrier flew from behind them, passed through the air cross-sections, and diagonally sliced off the tall twin’s neck.

The head fell to the ground, blood spraying out. Jin Chao and Peng Ru immediately turned around defensively, only to see a Puppet walk out from around the corner and pull off its head.

”It’s you!” Even after seeing Xu Huo’s real face, the two didn’t relax their guard. Instead, they asked, ”Did you lead this player here?”

”Wanted to kill for loot. Chased me all the way here,” Xu Huo said, placing the Puppet head to the side. He took a body bag out from his luggage compartment, quickly walked over, bundled the head together with the body, and then stored it in his luggage compartment.

The twins’ characteristics worked quite well in coordination, but when fighting alone... While the air cross-section could indeed trap people, and ordinary items were ineffective against it—making it seem powerful—the fact that attacks were ineffective also meant that for some items, it was still just air. A sword could pass through the cross-section, and he had previously been able to manipulate piano wire through it, which showed it couldn’t completely block item effects. Therefore, long-range attack items could still affect the player.

Peng Ru looked somewhat disgusted. ”After putting a corpse in there, can you still use your luggage compartment?”

Her luggage compartment was used for daily necessities and food.

”The luggage compartment has an automatic cleaning function,” Xu Huo said without looking up.

Peng Ru moved her lips but didn’t say anything more. Seeing the matter was settled, Jin Chao asked, ”Did he have any companions? To avoid being targeted, we should leave this place first.”

Xu Huo poured a bottle of cleaning solution on the ground, cleaning off most of the blood stains from the floor and himself. Then he followed the two into another corridor.

”Why haven’t we seen Miss Yan?” The three of them found a relatively secluded room to stop in. Peng Ru said, ”This ancient castle is quite strange. I think it’s better to move in larger groups.”

”She went to the other side,” Xu Huo said. ”There’s a separation in the middle of this building. To find her, we’d have to go back downstairs. I’m probably being watched, so it’s not convenient for me to go look for her.”

”No need to go downstairs,” Jin Chao walked to the left wall of the room, pressed on a decorative painting, and a small door popped open on the wall covered with dense square patterns.