Players, Please Board the Train

The smoke hadn’t fully cleared, yet the silhouette illuminated by the bright light had vanished. Team Leader Wu’s face changed drastically when he saw this, and he shouted to Sima Xiao Er and the others, “Quick, we’ve been tricked. Back to the hospital, Xu Huo is still there!”

They had been coming for Xu Huo, and when they struck they left no mercy. They clearly didn’t care whether Xu Huo lived or died. If they really intended to level the hospital, they could have simply attacked; there was no need to waste time threatening the Special Defense Department. Giving a three-minute deadline was nothing more than a ploy to lure Xu Huo out!

The Special Defense Department’s bait had failed, and yet the triangle-masked players had walked away on their own. The only plausible explanation was that they had actually found Xu Huo!

This uncertainty gnawed at Team Leader Wu and the others. It was possible that while they were retreating, Xu Huo and his group had returned to the hospital!

But when Special Defense personnel re-entered the hospital, they found that the triangle-masked players had already withdrawn, and there were still no signs of Professor Lan or the others around the warehouse.

“What’s going on?”

“What’s going on?!” At the same time, the triangle-masked players were asking the same question.

After being lured out of the hospital, some Special Defense members had scanned the inpatient building with items; there were no signs of life. In other words, if Xu Huo hadn’t hidden in an ambulance to escape and hadn’t stayed concealed in the hospital, he should no longer be here. What surprised them, though, was that during their retreat they unexpectedly discovered Xu Huo alone less than five hundred meters from the hospital!

Without hesitation they followed. Xu Huo seemed injured and moved slowly, which only spurred them on. Several players split up to encircle him and trapped him inside a shopping mall.

Before entering, it had indeed looked like a typical mall. Once inside, it turned into a nest of snakes: countless serpents crowded above and below, frenziedly coiling and biting at their limbs. Screams erupted.Someone threw a grenade at the snake wall, but the blast failed to create an opening and instead roused an enormous python!

The giant constrictor flicked its tongue and reared its head, swallowing players whole one by one!

Watching their comrades die one after another, the survivors began to crack. They used every item they had, but facing such a massive swarm of snakes, a few items couldn’t turn the tide. With nowhere left to run, two players vanished from where they stood.

“They escaped into a dungeon,” Xu Huo said, standing nearby. His gaze moved from the giant python’s head to the rear. Under his influence, the giant serpent illusions that Zhou Ning’s characteristic had created became not only more lifelike but also physically larger. Illusions couldn’t kill, though. Players swallowed by the python only lost consciousness briefly before tumbling to the ground, where Shen Xin and two others proceeded to harvest them.

For the triangle-masked players, this battle went extremely smoothly. The fight ended within about ten minutes. Hu Wenhu exclaimed to Zhou Ning with delight, “Sister Ning, your characteristic has improved so much!”

“It should be the effect of the game space,” Zhou Ning said, surprised. “I didn’t expect my characteristic to be doubled here.”

“If this space could be carried with us,” Hu Wenhu said cheerfully, “then going into dungeons would be a piece of cake.”

Xu Huo didn’t speak. This space was indeed anomalous, but it wasn’t targeting Zhou Ning—it was targeting him.

Previously in the Fog Zone hospital, he had been able to manipulate the hospital’s portal to bring players out because everyone’s consciousness was trapped; the strength of his evolved mental world had been enough to affect other players, which allowed him to succeed. But that influence was limited to the mental world. Now, however, he had appeared outside the hospital and affected people in the real world.

This suddenly descending dark space seemed custom-made for him, a perfect medium that allowed him to externalize his mental power.

Without delving into the reasons, he hurried to explore and control this power. Cooperating with Zhou Ning had been a successful experiment; the effect was good, though not as extraordinary as he had imagined.

Xu Huo stood at the mall entrance and looked up toward a building a kilometer away, at its twelfth floor: at least his mental power’s effective range wasn’t that large.

The hooded man on the twelfth floor hesitated instinctively when his binoculars accidentally met Xu Huo’s eyes, then muttered in disbelief, “How could he possibly spot me!”

“Who are you?” a voice called from behind. The hooded man and several companions turned around hurriedly, and saw Xu Huo standing only a few meters away, calm and looking straight at them.

“How could this be…” The hooded man quickly raised his binoculars again to look back, but Xu Huo still stood at the mall entrance in his view, maintaining the posture of looking back at him.

After blinking hard, the image of Xu Huo in his sight finally disappeared.

He turned, removed his mask, revealing an androgynous face, and said, “We mean no harm.”

Xu Huo glanced at him once, then dropped his gaze onto the man beside him, “Huang Junjie?”

The scarred man tore off his hat and mask and smiled, “Xu Huo, long time no see. Let me introduce you—this is our Players Association vice president, Tan Yang, and the others are our companions.”

“A players’ association formed by civilians?” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow.

“Not exactly,” Huang Junjie said. “Aside from the Special Defense Department, other player groups are scattered—there are dozens of small teams of ten to twenty, and dozens to hundreds of larger organizations… Let’s sit down and talk.”

Xu Huo and Tan Yang sat facing each other. Huang Junjie sat to one side; several other players either sat or stood behind Tan Yang.

“Do you mind if I notify the others to come back?” Tan Yang asked.

Xu Huo nodded, and a player behind him took out a phone and left.

“You might not fully understand the current domestic player situation,” Huang Junjie said after the others had walked away. “In just a few months, the number of players has exploded. Most sided with the Special Defense Department, but quite a few didn’t want to take government-backed jobs. These people spontaneously formed teams.”

“More teams have benefits and drawbacks. You just ran into the Iron Triangle people; that group has backers and hunts players everywhere, stirring up trouble, and their ranks keep growing. Such infighting does no good for new players with weak foundations…”

“You want to consolidate new players and form an authoritative association, and you came to see if I would join you,” Xu Huo stated bluntly.

Since his evolution, Xu Huo had spent most of his time in dungeons, mostly training when he came out, occasionally checking online news. Player organizations sprang up everywhere; the wealthy and powerful wanted to recruit more people, which produced negative side effects. There were also some unclear forces at play.

Ting City’s environment was relatively stable—no player groups were brawling in the streets—so he hadn’t paid those reports much mind. He hadn’t expected his own actions this time to attract so many players and almost trigger a turf war.

Huang Junjie couldn’t read his reaction, so he turned to Tan Yang.

Tan Yang took the cue. “We’re here to ask you to serve as president of the Players Association.”

“Mr. Xu, you’re formidable and willing to stand up for players. If you become president, you’ll bring many more players into the association. Once established, the association would be good for both players and ordinary people.”

“Many players don’t want to listen to the Special Defense Department, but the Special Defense Department has its rules. We must establish order among players too, to protect ourselves and our families.”

He spoke passionately, but Xu Huo’s eyes drifted to the players standing behind him.

They were spread at various distances, forming a solid protective ring around Tan Yang. When facing Xu Huo their posture still had the flavor of a tense negotiation.

“I don’t think you need me as president.” Xu Huo took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it.