Players, Please Board the Train

The hotel car left from the twenty-seventh floor, and somehow the other party followed them with unerring precision.

Xu Huo got out in the busy shopping district and pretended to be a shopper as he entered a mall. Led by a sales assistant, he went into a VIP room. The player tailing him soon walked in with a glass of wine, leaning over and saying, ”One, two, three, wooden man.”

Xu Huo paused reaching for the glass, then swung his sword and cut at it while throwing out the Fair Wallet.

The other player hadn’t expected him to break free of his characteristic power, but after a flash of surprise he reacted fast. A wooden long sword covered in flowers appeared in his hand. The two swords clashed, and the flowers and vines on the wooden sword immediately grew onto the Crimson Sword. As the opponent pulled back, Xu Huo was pulled along, but this time the Fair Wallet took effect and the wooden sword fell from the man’s hand!

The flowering vines that had wrapped the Crimson Sword retracted in an instant, yet the other player’s speed was incredible — the wooden sword hadn’t hit the ground before he kicked it back into his hand.

Avoiding the opponent’s slash, Xu Huo retreated and tried to loop the piano wire around the man’s neck. Unexpectedly, the wire was knocked aside by a transparent force field before it got close, and as it fell back the man muttered ”wooden man” at it, causing the piano wire to fall to the floor out of control.

Xu Huo frowned. The characteristic can affect items too?

”Who are you?” he asked, but the other clearly had no intention of conversing. His expression darkened and he sprang forward!

Noticing he was reaching as if to touch him, Xu Huo waved and pulled out a roll of cloth soaked in alcohol. As he backed away he set it on fire repeatedly. With several ”ding ding ding” sounds, the cloth spat out by the loom was all ignited and thrown over the player’s head!

He had taken the initiative, and the two were close. The cloth wrapped around the player’s shoulders, and he recoiled in panic. Just as he tore the burning cloth away, he saw Xu Huo a few meters off with a lighter raised!To be fair, against an experienced player with extraordinary combat power, items sometimes barely work. The instant the lighter sparked, Xu Huo realized the figure in his sight had vanished, then in the blink of an eye reappeared to his right rear!

A needle-like chill struck from behind. Without turning, Xu Huo tossed the wallet he had just recalled behind him, grabbed the Umbrella of Justice, pressed the handle and opened the ribs. He only had time to see a wooden man fall and vanish, and then three gunshots rang out!

Bang bang bang!

The bullets did not penetrate the Umbrella of Justice. Xu Huo pulled the umbrella down and raised his lit lighter to set the person across from him on fire!

This time the player was burned, but before the flames could take hold a transparent raincoat appeared on his body, and as it covered him the fire was instantly extinguished.

”The thing I hate most is people who play with fire!” As the flames died, he sneered and kicked at Xu Huo.

Xu Huo hurriedly closed the umbrella horizontally to block, but unexpectedly vines of flowers sprouted under the attacker’s feet and wrapped around the umbrella, bringing the man along with the momentum.

With someone stamped on his chest and impossible to shake off, Xu Huo recalled the Umbrella of Justice into his item slot and gripped a pen in his right hand.

The sword that had been slashing toward his neck stopped, and the player’s eyes involuntarily flicked to Xu Huo’s hand.

Stopping an opponent’s movement didn’t mean Xu Huo could do whatever he wanted. His pen had to move, so while writing he pulled out a hallucinogenic spray and pressed it against the other man’s face.

When the spray released, the player snapped out of his daze. Although he inevitably inhaled some of the potion, it wasn’t much and the effect wasn’t as strong as advertised. Instead of being incapacitated he became enraged and humiliated, then threw out an amber-wrapped bundle of dried flowers: ”Lament of Plants!”

The amber that flew out melted like water but remained weightless, floating in the air. The dried flower at its center swayed, and a painfully sharp sound came from within!

The sound lasted only an instant before vanishing — not because the dried flowers stopped screaming, but because Xu Huo’s ears went briefly deaf. The high-pitched stimulus blacked his vision for a moment and made his skull buzz.

The other struck wildly, swinging his sword in different directions repeatedly. After several blows Xu Huo spun around, but this time he only managed to use his sword to protect his chest before a heavy punch hit him!

Under the force he was launched into the air. Though he could neither see nor hear, he felt the player teleport to his rear again!

Adjusting his position slightly in midair, Xu Huo threw out the Desert Windmill!

A sandstorm instantly swept through the sizable VIP room, and the player was hit first. He was blown to the door and collided with it. A transparent glass dome popped up over his head, immediately blocking the sand.

But inside the storm visibility was nearly zero and hearing was severely impaired. He tilted his head to listen, then suddenly shouted, ”Your fire won’t burn in a sandstorm this big, right? In a room like this, where are you going to hide? I used an item outside the door. No one will come in until I leave!”

There was no sound in the sand, but the next second a gleaming butcher’s knife sliced out of the sand and shattered the player’s protective dome with one strike!

Of course, Xu Huo could use the sandstorm and the Sound-Muffling Figurine to strike, but the opponent could counter the moment Xu Huo acted. The player grabbed the butcher’s knife and with his other hand thrust into the flying sand in the knife’s path!

”An unstoppable straight strike!”

The ”Lament of Plants” effect had already ended. Just as Xu Huo could see again, a black ball the size of a golf ball smashed into his face shield. The ball was covered with porcupine-like long needles and punched countless tiny holes across the visor.

Fortunately that face shield had cost a lot of money and held up. If it had been half an inch more, his eyeballs would have been punctured!

The butcher’s knife vanished and reappeared. Xu Huo slashed at the other’s throat, but cut the empty air. The opponent hadn’t left the room; he could still track the direction of his movement.

Sand blocked sight and muffled senses, and with a half-second advantage the two were evenly matched in physical ability. The difference lay in their items, and the sandstorm seemed to suppress the opponent’s characteristic. After several exchanges, the player couldn’t make those vines explode in growth again.

Knock knock knock! Someone knocked at the door.

Noticing the player moving toward the door, Xu Huo hung the World Within the Painting on the doorknob.

The sandstorm vanished. Xu Huo picked up the piano wire, the amber, and the wooden sword from the floor, walked to the door, then reached out and took back an extra painted human face before opening it.

The person knocking was the store manager. ”Sir, did something happen in the room?”

Xu Huo glanced at the ”Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, peeled it off, and said, ”Something got broken. Count it up.”