Players, Please Board the Train

The person was wearing a patient gown and holding something behind his back.

”I want to go in, can you open the door?” Xu Huo asked him.

The man grinned from ear to ear, skillfully entering the passcode while saying, ”Once you come in, you can’t leave. You have to stay here.”

As soon as Xu Huo stepped inside, the man immediately closed the door, leaning against the iron door while panting excitedly, his eyes fixed intently on Xu Huo. Then he suddenly let out a strange roar and swung the object in his hand forward to strike.

The knife made of glued-together toilet paper struck Xu Huo’s neck, and the man laughed heartily, ”I killed a Player-Eater! I killed a Player-Eater! I get a reward now!”

After saying this, he didn’t bother checking whether the person he had ”killed” was actually dead, hopping and skipping as he ran deep into the corridor, his sounds soon disappearing into the darkness.

The fourth floor returned to tranquility.

The layout of the fourth floor was clearly different from the third floor—both its length and width were at least twice that of the floor below. Because the building was so deep and long, standing inside made one feel particularly oppressive.

Xu Huo turned and entered the corridor. As he passed the first room, a figure suddenly lunged from the shadows against the door, making a loud noise as it slammed against it, then pressed its face hard against the glass window, mashing its nose and mouth together until only a pair of sliding eyeballs remained distinctly clear.

Xu Huo didn’t stop, glancing briefly before withdrawing his gaze. When he reached the second room, the door creaked open, and a thin, withered hand reached out from the darkness, beckoning him to come inside.Then came the third door, the fourth door, the fifth door. When he reached the sixth door, he turned the doorknob and entered. Sima Xiao Er was trapped on the bed, already awake, twisting around trying to bite through the restraints binding him.

Xu Huo turned on the room’s light.

Sima Xiao Er was startled at first, but when he saw Xu Huo, tears of excitement welled up in his eyes, ”Brother Xu, it’s really you!”

Xu Huo sat down by the bed, calmly watching him.

The delight on Sima Xiao Er’s face gradually turned to unease, ”Brother Xu, say something.”

”Do you know who my cousin is?” Xu Huo asked.

”Yu Qingqing,” Sima Xiao Er quickly replied. ”She’s your cousin, but not by blood. She dropped out of college to become a celebrity!”

”Did you see the person standing next to me upstairs today?” Xu Huo asked again. ”It was a nurse.”

Sima Xiao Er thought for a moment, ”I really didn’t pay attention at the time.”

”Didn’t she look like Yu Qingqing?” Xu Huo continued.

Sima Xiao Er’s expression went blank for a moment, then a glimmer of recognition slowly returned to his eyes, ”It does seem like it was Yu Qingqing. Did she enter the dungeon too?”

Xu Huo fell silent and began examining the person on the hospital bed.

Sima Xiao Er looked bewildered, struggling as he said, ”Hurry up and untie me! Let’s escape while it’s dark. I don’t want to stay in this damned place for another minute.”

”How do we escape?” Xu Huo said. ”Several doors downstairs are locked.”

”Only idiots take the stairs. Can’t you see those huge windows? We can make a rope from bed sheets and curtains and climb down,” Sima Xiao Er said matter-of-factly.

”Where are there windows?” Xu Huo pointed forward.

”Are you joking...” Sima Xiao Er strained to turn his head, but his rebuttal abruptly stopped. His pupils contracted as he jerked in shock, ”How is this possible! The windows are gone!”

The place where Sima Xiao Er had climbed out the window to escape during the day had now become a concrete wall.

Not only that, everything in the room was slowly changing. Although the fourth floor environment wasn’t as good as the third floor, the wall paint and furnishings had utilized colors beneficial for mood. But now the walls, items, and floor tiles were rapidly fading, transforming from a warm, bright style to a gloomy gray-black tone. The walls turned into bare concrete, and the storage shelf in the corner became an operating table cluttered with various dirty medical instruments.

Xu Huo looked around, then untied Sima Xiao Er’s restraints and patted his forehead, ”Don’t just stand there dumbfounded. Weren’t you going to escape by jumping out the window?”

”Where are there any windows now...” Sima Xiao Er reflexively followed his words and looked to the left, nearly biting his tongue in shock. The place that had just been a concrete wall had returned to how it looked during the day—the window wide open, curtains gently swaying in the night breeze.

”I knew it! How could good windows just disappear? I must have been seeing things. It must be the injections those fake nurses gave me causing problems!”

Sima Xiao Er muttered to himself, his expression noticeably lightening.

The room’s layout had returned to its original state.

”Then let’s hurry up and go!” He scrambled up and began tearing the bed sheets, but just then they heard whistle sounds coming from downstairs. He quickly crouched by the window, furrowing his brows as he said, ”Someone’s escape was discovered. There are so many security guards downstairs. Looks like it won’t work tonight. Which bastards were so careless? After this mess, they’ll definitely tighten security, making it even harder to escape later.”

”Do you think if they escape, they can really leave this place?” Xu Huo suddenly said.

Sima Xiao Er turned his head in astonishment, but Xu Huo didn’t elaborate further. Instead, he patted the bed, ”Come on up, I’ll tie you back up. Behave these next few days, and maybe they’ll transfer you to the third floor.”

Sima Xiao Er looked extremely reluctant, but he cooperatively lay back down.

”By the way, more than ten people from the Special Defense Department also came in. Have you seen any of them? What about Captain Nie?”

”Haven’t seen Nie Xuan, and I don’t know the others. You’ll have to come down tomorrow and identify them yourself.” After tying him up, Xu Huo left the fourth floor.

He didn’t encounter anyone on his way back to the third floor. The nurse in the third-floor duty room was still asleep, and the commotion downstairs gradually quieted down.

Early the next morning, several vehicles arrived at Seventeenth Hospital one after another, bringing back the few people who had escaped last night.

Among them, the severely ill, emaciated player was sent to the fourth floor, while the other three were locked back in their own rooms.

While taking a walk, Xu Huo passed by the entrance and overheard a bit. The one called Little Gao was clearly heavily traumatized, repeatedly muttering one phrase: ”Aren’t they dead? Aren’t they dead? Aren’t they dead...”

The doctor gave him a sedative injection.

Xu Huo went downstairs and sat on the lawn to sunbathe. Before long, Sima Xiao Er came down.

He wandered over to Xu Huo’s side, lowering his voice as he said, ”The ones who were caught after escaping are from the Special Defense Department. What exactly is going on? Why are they saying there’s no such place as Ting City?”

”Little Gao’s parents actually called to have him brought back!”

Sima Xiao Er’s face showed disbelief and shock, ”Didn’t Evolvers kill his parents? Could it be that this dungeon’s range extends beyond just one hospital?”

He didn’t seem to care whether Xu Huo responded or not, continuing, ”It must be like this. When the heavy fog covered the eastern district, maybe the dungeon’s territory is larger than we imagined. Running away won’t work—even if you escape, you’ll just get caught and brought back.”

Xu Huo interrupted him, ”What do you plan to do next?”