Players, Please Board the Train

”Does anyone mind if I take a few photos?” Along the way, Wu Xiaonan took out a camera and asked for everyone’s opinion.

”What’s there to take pictures of?” He Chunsheng said unhappily, ”What are you planning to do with our photos?”

Wu Xiaonan explained with a smile, ”Just collecting some material. Usually, once a dungeon starts, you can’t contact the outside world, so the only options are taking photos and recording videos. If everyone doesn’t like it, I won’t take any.”

”I don’t mind,” Ge Pan said amiably. ”It’s all for making a living. I used to be a director with no fame, and when filming, I had to beg people everywhere. That feeling isn’t pleasant.”

”Thank you,” Wu Xiaonan said playfully, blinking at him before taking his picture.

Aside from a few people, the others were still quite wary of Wu Xiaonan and did not agree to let her take photos. She herself was sensible enough; after taking a few simple pictures, she turned to photographing the scenery elsewhere.

Following the path trampled out by previous players through the forest, after a journey of over two hours without encountering any surprises, they arrived at the surface building of Deep Blue Laboratory marked on the map.

The surface building was a massive hall adjacent to a waterfall cliff, covering an area of over 100,000 square meters. The exterior of the building was entirely made of solar energy-gathering materials. Even though the laboratory had been abandoned for so long, the electrical facilities inside the building were still functioning normally.

Inside the hall’s lobby was a layout map of the laboratory. According to the map, the hall had three entrances. Taking the entrance Xu Huo and the others used as the standard, the other two entrances were one separated by the waterfall and another requiring passage through a forest with many poisonous insects. The main body of Deep Blue Laboratory was buried underground.

Taking the elevator from the hall down a depth of one hundred meters led to the laboratory. The laboratory’s area was larger than the hall, and the layout map also showed areas under expansion.The players looked around the hall but found no game prompt.

”The topic board should be in the laboratory,” Ge Pan said. ”Let’s go down first.”

The group then headed towards the elevator.

”Speaking of which, the technological development here is pretty good. It’s been so long, and this place is still in working order,” Chu Yuan said, looking around. ”Compared to this, my hometown is a very backward place; they haven’t even developed intelligent robots.”

”The technological level here isn’t that great either,” Wu Xiaonan said. ”You saw it on the coast yesterday; the level of intelligence isn’t high. Deep Blue Laboratory must have investments from other game partitions.”

”The hall being so tidy is probably because the cleaning robots are still operating.”

”That’s true. We haven’t seen any human or small animal corpses here,” Gan Qing said.

The twelve people entered the elevator, pressed the start button, and began slowly descending.

”Ding!” Upon reaching the first underground floor, the elevator doors slowly opened. A rush of musty air surged from the darkness. The players waited three seconds before cautiously stepping out.

”Look for the light switch,” Miao Yu said, holding up her phone. As soon as she finished speaking, the lights in the corridor on this floor gradually lit up. Walls and rooms entirely sealed with metal appeared in everyone’s view.

The laboratory could be considered tidy. In some rooms, cabinets and chairs were placed messily but not overturned. Aside from some damage marks left by fights, there were no stains or rotting things. The musty smell came from books and some daily necessities in the rooms.

Apart from that, the laboratory had been cleaned very thoroughly. The instruments and cabinets storing samples contained no glass containers, and most of the relevant experimental materials had been cleared out. Only some seemingly unimportant papers were piled up in the corners.

”There’s nothing here,” Miao Yu said, slightly disappointed. ”I thought I might be able to pick up some potions or something.”

”This dungeon has probably been done countless times. If there were potions, would they be waiting for you to pick them up?” He Chunsheng mocked.

Miao Yu glared at him but didn’t speak.

”If you’re a man, be more generous,” Chu Yuan said sarcastically beside them.

He Chunsheng had a bad temper and was about to explode when Xu Huo interrupted them, ”Has anyone seen the topic board?”

”Not yet. Let’s go further in. There are two paths ahead,” Zhu Rumin stepped forward, looked left and right, and her gaze fixed on the right side. ”The path on this side is blocked.”

The group walked over and saw that the metal cladding on both sides of the corridor had been forcibly stripped off by some unknown force and twisted together in the middle of the corridor. It was then sealed with thick patterned metal bars. At a glance, it was at least thirty centimeters thick.

”There’s writing,” Wan Yunrong pointed at the metal bars and read, ”Don’t open it no matter what... What does that mean? Telling us not to go this way?”

Only after she said this did the others realize that the so-called patterns on these metal bars were actually densely packed words, and the handwriting was not from a single person. Clearly, multiple people had written on them. Just from these distorted characters, one could tell how terrified the writers were at the time.

Everyone couldn’t help but feel a chill down their spines. Wan Yunrong took a step back and said, ”There aren’t really ghosts, are there?”

”Isn’t catching ghosts your specialty?” Chu Yuan glanced at her.

”My skills are lacking. Buying some talismans is one thing, but actually catching ghosts? No way,” Wan Yunrong said, rubbing her arms. ”Let’s not stand here. We should hurry up and leave.”

Miao Yu, however, was eager to try, ”How about we dismantle it and take a look?”

”Don’t,” Ge Pan quickly said. ”Since it’s sealed here, there must be a reason. What if it affects clearing the dungeon?”

”In horror movies, the people with itchy hands are usually the first to die,” Gan Qing said. ”We should learn from the wisdom of filmmakers. If they say don’t touch it, then definitely don’t touch it.”

It’s better to avoid trouble. The players all shared this mindset and unanimously decided not to touch this metal wall. Soon, they found the topic board in a room down the other corridor.

Scrawled on the topic board were the rules for the ”Humans Catch Ghosts” game.

”First, on the first night, draw lots to decide who is the ghost. If the ghost cannot be killed, the number of ghosts will double randomly the next night until everyone becomes a ghost. Unless all existing ghosts are killed on one of the days.”

”Second, the probability of being attacked by a ghost increases by 20% in non-enclosed areas.”

”Third, ghosts can only appear after the lights are turned off at night.”

”Fourth, a ghost who kills a person can regain human identity. A ghost who kills another ghost to regain human identity is exempt from being randomly selected as a ghost once.”

”Fifth, maintaining human identity when the game ends constitutes victory.”

In simple terms, the players must draw lots before the lights go out to decide who is the ”ghost.” If the ”ghost” is not killed, the number of ”ghosts” will increase. This means that even if a ”ghost” kills someone and regains ”human” identity, the number of ”ghosts” the next night could become two.

Moreover, if the ”ghosts” are not completely killed, their numbers will keep increasing.

And ”ghosts” can also kill each other, with greater benefits than killing humans.

”This is basically forcing us to turn on each other.”