Players, Please Board the Train

Carmen Fielder was someone Xu Huo had heard about in the Skinner’s dungeon, a very famous political figure, and the Fielder family held an important political position at the E27 Wormhole Point.

Platinum Eye was something he had just encountered in the amusement park dungeon, the largest production site for precision instruments.

Creating an item because of one sentence—it didn’t seem that difficult to make such an item.

However, some items in the game were more like high-tech products with some peculiar abilities. For example, the ”Omnipresent String” seemed like a physical version of Super Evolution, beyond the scope of normal human understanding.

Brother Tu’s words made some sense. Whether it was items or Super Evolution, trying to investigate the principles of such fantastical existences was indeed a fool’s dream.

But there was no need to understand everything so clearly; just try to create the conditions that make it happen.

As for those conditions, he could ask about them later.

*

In the dead of night, Ting City was enveloped by a sudden, thick fog. While the entire city was still asleep, the Special Defense Department had already quietly mobilized, bringing Vanguard Players and special police forces to the East District, where the fog was densest.

A black car stopped before the blockade line. Team Leader Wu and Nie Xuan got out of the car one after the other, both frowning as they looked at the fog wall ahead that seemed almost solid.”Has the tech team arrived?” Team Leader Wu asked, turning his head.

”They’re here,” replied Sima Xiao Er. ”They reported earlier that this fog is just ordinary fog, non-toxic. But communication devices don’t work inside this area, and the internet is down.”

Before coming to the East District, Team Leader Wu had already reviewed some reports about the heavy fog. Although most of Ting City was covered in fog, only this fog wall enveloping the entire East District had detected abnormally active energy. Various electronic instruments malfunctioned upon approaching it, and they couldn’t contact anyone inside. Previously, the Special Defense Department had selected several locations to call out to people from outside, but no one inside the fog responded.

Even if the residents were all deep asleep, the patrol cars wouldn’t be completely unresponsive. With communication cut off and no one coming out by now, he had a bad feeling.

”Could it be another random dungeon?” Sima Xiao Er said.

”Recorded random dungeon entrances are all controlled within a certain range; they’ve never been on such a large scale,” Nie Xuan said, observing the fog wall with a special telescope. Suddenly spotting something, he paused and changed his words, ”Is there a building like that in the East District?”

Team Leader Wu and several core members of the Special Defense Department immediately followed his gaze. A player whose vision had undergone special evolution said, ”That looks like a tall building, with the top two floors fenced off with barbed wire.”

”Get the Planning Bureau on the line immediately, find out what that place is...” Team Leader Wu said, but before he finished speaking, a technician behind them received a communication and abruptly stood up. ”People at the other observation points also say they can see this building!”

”Ask for details: appearance, viewing angle, visible range,” Nie Xuan said immediately.

The several observation points were connected via communication lines. The technician immediately relayed the information about the building seen from other locations. Everyone present fell silent after hearing it, because the building’s exterior seen from the various observation points around the East District was completely identical!

This meant that no matter the viewing position or distance, the building maintained the same form, like a photograph that looked correct from any angle.

”It seems it’s undoubtedly a random dungeon,” Team Leader Wu said. ”The research report sent from Capital City the day before yesterday contained speculation about random dungeons. The reason ordinary people get sucked into dungeons indiscriminately like players is that the dungeon entrance and Zone 014 have undergone spatial overlap. The temperature difference between the area inside the fog wall and Ting City just a line away reaches ten degrees. The speculation is basically correct. The theoretically feasible method to close the entrance is to impact the spatial overlap point with energy.”

”This so-called spatial overlap has surpassed the current technological level of Zone 014. It’s unclear whether the overlapping areas are stable. Even if we could use weapons to strike, we can’t be sure that the impact wouldn’t produce worse results,” Nie Xuan was not optimistic about these profound theoretical knowledge. Gazing at the building in the fog, he said, ”Besides, that’s based on small-scale scenarios. Even if it’s feasible, an area as large as the East District makes it fundamentally impossible.”

”Send people in,” Team Leader Wu said, turning his head.

The Special Defense Department personnel immediately sprang into action. Nie Xuan set down his telescope and took a submachine gun and magazines from Sima Xiao Er.

”Don’t you go,” Team Leader Wu stopped him. ”Your injuries haven’t healed yet, and your mobility is limited.”

Nie Xuan ignored him. ”This situation is clearly different from ordinary random dungeons. It’s hard to say whether they’ll appear on a large scale in the future. The sooner we investigate, the better. I’ll take one team in.”

”I’ll go in with Brother Nie,” Sima Xiao Er said.

Team Leader Wu hesitated for a moment but agreed. However, he said, ”I’ve already requested reinforcements from nearby branches. Be careful.”

Nie Xuan nodded. After the others were fully equipped, he gave a signal, and a team of fifteen players filed into the fog.

However, in less than three minutes, the building in the telescope suddenly disappeared. Then, a person flew rapidly out of the fog and slammed hard onto a vehicle parked before the blockade area!

The sudden sound startled Team Leader Wu and the others. Raising their guns, they saw that the person who had flown out was actually Nie Xuan. His body was dented into the car hood, his eyes half-open, unclear whether he was dead or alive.

”Nie Xuan!” Team Leader Wu hurried over to check his condition. At that moment, a technician urgently said, ”The temperature in the fog wall area is rapidly rising... the temperature difference has disappeared!”

Team Leader Wu couldn’t attend to Nie Xuan now. The disappearance of the temperature difference meant the spatial anomaly in this fog area had vanished. He quickly said, ”Call the vanguard team out!”

But the team members who had entered with Nie Xuan, including players who entered from other points, were already unreachable. Simultaneously, the fog wall began to disintegrate. Patrol cars’ requests for additional patrol personnel were transferred to the operations team, but the feedback they received was that aside from phones not working, nothing else was unusual...

Ting City’s Special Defense Department fell into chaotic busyness. Meanwhile, in nearby Flower City, Xu Huo had a good night’s sleep and unusually slept two extra hours.

After washing up, he went to knock on Yan Jiayu’s door, calling her to eat breakfast together.

Yan Jiayu was clearly not well-rested, scratching her head with one hand and rubbing her eyes with the other, mumbling incoherently, ”You’re up so early.”

”It’s nine o’clock,” Xu Huo said.

”But it looks like it’s just getting light outside,” Yan Jiayu turned to pull open the curtains. ”Oh, it’s foggy. Wait for me a moment, I’ll be ready soon.”

Xu Huo kept her door open while waiting, browsing the Pioneer Forum.

This wasn’t the season for heavy fog, but the weather forecast showed heavy fog in Ting City, Flower City, and several nearby cities—somewhat abnormal.

Sure enough, there was news on the Pioneer Forum. Some players had seen the Special Defense Department personnel mobilize overnight, and the East District had already been sealed off.