Players, Please Board the Train

Shi Youzhi had finished his call. After informing his team members, he prepared to take Ai Jia into the station city outside the desert.

Only after the two had left did She Ping start complaining. ”Repairing the station benefits everyone. Some people just insist on stirring up trouble for no reason.”

The female team member tossed him a pack of crackers. ”Eat something first. Who knows when the Captain will be back. You can grumble after you’re full.”

Wan Tingfang went over to get some food and seized the opportunity to ask, ”Aren’t we allowed to enter the station city?”

While relations between the two sides weren’t great, base personnel were generally free to enter and exit major cities.

The female team member shook her head. ”It’s best not to go if you can avoid it. You saw it yourself. The repair device has a self-destruct mechanism. If we bring the machine inside and it inexplicably self-destructs, all our rewards will be docked.”

”I see,” Wan Tingfang said, simply sitting down beside her to chat.

”You’re quite nimble,” She Ping remarked as he walked over, handing Xu Huo a bottle of water.

Xu Huo thanked him and took it, striking up a conversation. ”Does the Supply Department often run into this kind of thing?”

”Not too often, but not rarely either,” She Ping replied with an air of calm. ”Some players aren’t even after the device; they’re just here to cause trouble.”It wasn’t strange for players, trapped in the game with no way out, to develop hatred towards game personnel under extreme emotions.

Xu Huo steered the conversation away from that topic and asked, ”What area were you originally a player from?”

”I’m not a player,” She Ping glanced at him. ”You’ve probably heard of the Game Government’s grey players.”

Xu Huo nodded.

”While some grey players are converted from regular game players, most weren’t players originally. They were just Evolvers. After joining the Game Government, they received a grey player status, which allows them to use items.”

She Ping paused here before continuing, ”We’re far inferior compared to real battle-hardened players.”

Xu Huo could guess the rest without it being said. Working for the Game Government offered security but also came with high risks. A small number of players might become dungeon holders through other means or even join the Game Government, but the vast majority stood on the opposing side. The conflict was fundamentally irreconcilable.

”Even if a regular player joins a base, they usually can’t obtain grey player status,” She Ping reminded him. ”Or perhaps, they don’t live long enough to see it.”

”For me to gain a firm foothold in District 011, whether or not I get grey player status isn’t that crucial,” Xu Huo said after taking a sip of water.

This being their first meeting and with no established rapport, the conversation remained surface-level.

The other team members weren’t in the mood to show friendliness to potential new comrades. They took turns resting and keeping watch, barely communicating.

Shi Youzhi and Ai Jia didn’t return until dusk fell, looking grim as they brought back two transport vehicles. After loading the device, they called everyone to head back to the base city, telling those who couldn’t fit in the back to squeeze into the front.

On the return journey, Xu Huo gathered from the exchanges between Ai Jia and the others that recently, more than one station in District 011 had been damaged. Stations under two other partitions accessible via the dimensional train had also reported needing repairs. After capturing the blood mutant, Shi Youzhi had taken people to handle it, but the situation was similar to today’s. A group of players had sabotaged things, leading to two days of bureaucratic wrangling with the local government before they could return.

What should have taken less than a day to resolve was deliberately delayed by the local government. They probably wouldn’t be able to go repair it for the next month or two.

Unexpectedly, just half a month later, the main District 011 partition where their base city was located encountered the same situation.

”Have other stations in this partition been shut down?” Xu Huo suddenly asked.

”There’s one more, in a different direction, about the same distance from the base city,” Shi Youzhi stared at him. ”Why do you ask?”

Xu Huo smiled. ”I don’t know what signs precede a war breaking out in a game partition. But back in my hometown, sabotaging key transportation routes before a war is a common tactic.”

The people present were momentarily stunned. Ai Jia reacted quickly. ”Impossible. There are several stations in the main District 011 partition. Besides, the city where our base is located is the core station here...”

Before he could finish, his own expression changed.

”The Garden Castle Station is located in the bustling city center. Even if someone wanted to sabotage it, it wouldn’t be easy. Moreover...”

”Moreover, if someone is looking for trouble, the base city at the forefront of the main District 011 partition is an excellent target,” Shi Youzhi finished his sentence.

”I’ll contact Uncle Sanyang immediately,” She Ping said.

Both Shi Youzhi and Ai Jia stopped him simultaneously. ”If something major is really about to happen, communicators might not be safe either.”

”It might not actually be anything. I might just be overthinking it,” Xu Huo added. ”I just found the motives of those people earlier a bit strange.”

Shi Youzhi and the others were used to players picking fights. They treated hit-and-run tactics as routine, a standard script: fight according to procedure, then everyone goes home. They hadn’t considered there might be another reason behind it.

For a major game district, especially one with a high degree of gamification, a war wouldn’t erupt so mildly. At this level, a war would either be between two equally matched partitions or involve a super player taking action. Otherwise, large-scale warfare wouldn’t form.

Xu Huo’s words were shocking at first, but upon calm reflection, the probability was very small.

However, that didn’t mean there was definitely nothing going on behind the scenes.

She Ping was fuming. ”We’ll investigate thoroughly when we get back. If someone is deliberately sabotaging stations, I won’t let those bastards get away with it!”

Xu Huo’s objective was achieved.

The return journey was uneventful. Since the vehicles were heading back to the base, and Xu Huo and Wan Tingfang didn’t live nearby, they got off early.

An obvious benefit of technological advancement was increased speed and saved time. It wasn’t too late when the two got off. Wan Tingfang invited him for a drink at a bar.

She hadn’t been in the same vehicle earlier, so she hadn’t heard Xu Huo’s shocking remarks. She was in a good mood now. ”This time we contributed somewhat. Probationary personnel should be able to become regulars soon.”

”Didn’t they say even if you join, you might not get grey player status?” Xu Huo said. ”Besides, they don’t seem short-staffed to me.”

”How are they not short-staffed? I heard through the grapevine that the base dismissed quite a few players recently. They’re short on people right now. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have called us in temporarily today.” Wan Tingfang spoke with confidence. ”Actually, calling us indicates they have that intention. They just want to assess us.”

She let out a long sigh. ”Even if I can’t become a grey player, joining the base is still good. Much better than joining the District 011 Enforcement Department. At least applying for items would be much easier. Good items are ridiculously expensive now. You couldn’t afford them even if you didn’t eat or drink. To save up for an item, I’d rather eat two meals a day than three.”

Xu Huo just smiled and listened to this. No money for food, but there was money to participate in a simulation dungeon game with limited usefulness.

”Are you a C-level player?” Wan Tingfang stopped her complaining and started inquiring about him instead.