Players, Please Board the Train

Ran Ying tore off her disguise and leaped onto the liner’s flag, took out a megaphone and shouted at the transport plane: ”You are surrounded. Either abandon the aircraft and flee, or surrender. I’m giving you five seconds to decide! Five!”

”Black Epaulets!” The scar-faced player standing in the sea retreated to avoid the exploding foam flying from the liner, flipped up onto the transport plane and shouted to his teammates in front: ”Go, now!”

”But not all the cargo has been loaded... what are you doing!” The teammate’s sentence twisted halfway and he stopped him in astonishment.

”We’ve been set up!” The scar-faced player kicked one cargo crate overboard, and the heavy box surprisingly floated directly on the sea surface.

”Move, move!” the teammate yelled.

”One!” Ran Ying finished counting. The player who had been manipulating the sea wind rolled up a wave and struck the transport plane directly. The white-haired player who had just appeared flashed behind the storm, touched it with one hand, and the soaring seawater froze the transport plane solid!

”Boom! Boom! Boom!” Several explosions occurred outside the transport plane, breaking the ice pillars as it tried to break free.

At that moment, a pair of identical twin robots appeared in front of the transport plane, their palms spitting firearms, spraying the transport plane with furious gunfire!

”It’s that crippled walking machine from Enforcement Department, Cheng Bing!” Two players tumbled out of the transport cockpit; one fell into the sea, the other hovered midair while suddenly becoming blurred, then the next second cleared again. He shouted to the scar-faced player who had also jumped down: ”Spatial items are disabled!”

Spatial items being disabled meant that besides the liner’s stabilizers, Black Epaulets had also set spacetime item limiters in the sea.”Boom!!!” Under continuous strafing from the robots, the transport plane exploded completely. The surge of wind and waves pushed the liner backward. The scar-faced player used the seawater to send the liner away, but just as he started to move, a short-haired man slammed down onto the aft deck, pressing the whole liner’s stern down. He grabbed two crew members caught in the mêlée and hurled them at the scar-faced player in the sea!

”Chef’s knife skills!” The scar-faced player raised a hand, and two kitchen knives materialized ten meters away, pierced the chests of the two players disguised as crew and flew back into his hands.

One unlucky player, pierced through the heart, rolled into the sea. The other was only wounded and fled when things turned bad.

”Chef Shen Liang.” The short-haired man stood on the deck railing, ”You waded into this mess too? Seems the lesson last time wasn’t enough!”

Shen Liang, the scar-faced player, signaled to his companions to escape into the game while saying, ”Black Epaulets are really sneaky. Zhao colluded with Lower City players to rob Rongxin Group’s arms shipment. I thought I could grab a quick profit, didn’t expect you were waiting here.”

Ran Ying appeared beside the short-haired man and glanced at the captain already imprisoned in an interrogation cage by her teammates, then turned to Shen Liang. ”Rongxin Group has made indelible contributions to District 011’s economy. They are law-abiding good citizens. The Enforcement Department has the duty and responsibility to protect their life and property from infringement... Today I only want to deal with Zhao and this Municipal Hall’s mole, and to cut down the arrogance of those lawless Lower City players. I didn’t expect a big fish like you to crash in yourself.”

She clenched a split cigar between her teeth. The short-haired man, Guo Yingguang, offered her a lighter.

Ran Ying took a deep drag and continued, ”To be honest, I don’t like this kind of fighting. Players who dare to come will definitely bring cheating artifacts. The smarter ones run when things go wrong. Killing a few small fry yields nothing and is boring. All the fuss in the end just gets you a commendation, nothing practical.”

Shen Liang frowned, and then heard her laugh. ”Now it’s simple: will you leave the other two transports and go, or do you want me to make you leave?”

Shen Liang said nothing. Ran Ying raised her hand, and a circular red arc of light swept over from several kilometers away in the sea. Anyone or anything hiding in that sea area using items or instruments became visible. A few hundred meters off, two transport planes floated silently in the sky, their muzzles aimed at Ran Ying and the others on the ship.

”People can go, but you won’t be taking the transports,” Ran Ying said. ”Leave the goods, and I won’t trouble you afterward.”

Black Epaulets had already taken control. The Municipal Hall’s leaker Zhao had been killed, half the players gathered from Lower City were dead or fled, and now only two or three stunned players remained on the ship trapped in item cages.

On Shen Liang’s side, his people had only sustained light injuries, but fighting prepared Black Epaulets head-on would be costly. He was unwilling to give up two expensive transport planes without resistance.

”One plane, I’ll give you one, then we go,” Shen Liang gritted out.

”Shen Liang!” A companion behind voiced disagreement.

Ran Ying exhaled smoke, ”Two planes, or you don’t leave.”

”An ultra-fast boat squadron is approaching!” a player on the transport observed in the distance.

”Damn it, I don’t believe this woman can kill us all!” A player aboard the transport fired angrily at Ran Ying!

Special bullets striking special metal meant neither side’s true strength could be revealed, but it was an undeniable declaration of war on Black Epaulets. Before the volley ended, Ran Ying vanished from the liner and appeared on the transport. She plunged one hand through the cockpit roof, her entire arm thrust into the cockpit, and her five fingers sank deep into the skull of the player shooting. There was a crisp ”crack” as the skull cap and scalp were ripped off and slapped onto another player’s face!

Her speed was so fast that by the time the other players reacted, their comrade was already dead.

”You bitch!” The player with the skull cap smeared on his face threw out a diamond-shaped chip. The device flew out and immediately formed a wide field of diamond crystals, sealing the corpse and Ran Ying’s half-embedded body inside.

”Break!” He struck the chip again and the crystals shattered apart with a clatter, turning the corpse into a pile of diamond fragments, and the fragments continued upward, smashing into Ran Ying’s arm.

Yet she did not disintegrate like the corpse. Veins bulged in her arm, and the crystal overlay collapsed all at once. A layer of transparent gel-like substance that had adhered to her arm flew out and wrapped around the attacking player’s face, pulling him toward the cockpit hole.

”Bang!” The man’s body got stuck in the hole. Ran Ying added a kick that snapped his neck.

The transport emitted a faint hum, and in the next second several players appeared around Ran Ying in a surrounding formation...

”Nothing worth watching.” From a nearby flying vehicle, Madame Butterfly looked away from the projection and signaled Xu Huo to drive away.

”Move, move!” the teammate yelled.

”One plane, I’ll give you one, then we go,” Shen Liang gritted out.

”Shen Liang!” A companion behind voiced disagreement.

Ran Ying exhaled smoke, ”Two planes, or you don’t leave.”

”An ultra-fast boat squadron is approaching!” a player on the transport observed in the distance.

Her speed was so fast that by the time the other players reacted, their comrade was already dead.

”Bang!” The man’s body got stuck in the hole. Ran Ying added a kick that snapped his neck.