Players, Please Board the Train

”Are those... plants?” Wan Yunrong spoke with uncertainty.

A mere few meters away from them stood a ”mound,” with tall-stemmed plants arranged like trees, varying in height. However, all these ”trees” were completely white, including their crowns. At first glance, they looked like mushrooms growing on top, but a closer look revealed that those ”mushrooms” were actually overlapping, petal-like structures. As the ”mound” breathed, white powder would drift down from the ”mushrooms.”

”Everyone, don’t move!” Ge Pan said. ”These must be the plants that were spewing that powder earlier!”

The players moved with increased caution, only daring to slowly walk along the edges of the ”mounds.” And such ”mounds” occupied almost the entirety of the third underground floor.

Xu Huo followed the plant roots and stems down to the ”mounds” below. After scrutinizing them for a moment, his expression changed slightly. These so-called ”mounds” were actually filled entirely with corpses!

Wearing gas masks, they couldn’t smell the outside air, so it took a moment longer for someone else to catch on. ”Unless I’m seeing things, that should be a human head, right?”

As Chu Yuan spoke, he focused his light on the spot he mentioned. Everyone followed his gaze and indeed saw a black, hairy, round object grasped by the roots and stems of a plant near the outer edge. The black hair was clearly human hair. Looking more carefully, they could make out the face beneath it—turned downward, purple, and slightly desiccated.

”The person hasn’t been dead long, but a lot of flesh and blood has been sucked out,” Miao Yu said.

”Hey, it looks like all these plants have corpses underneath them!” Chu Yuan exclaimed in shock, pointing at the ”mound.”

Just from what they could see right now, there were at least seven or eight ”mounds.” Estimating thirty corpses per mound, that meant a minimum of over two hundred.Even for those accustomed to frequent killing and being killed in the game, seeing so many corpses piled together and decomposing was enough to send a chill down one’s spine. The first two floors were fine, but who would have thought the atmosphere would shift so drastically here, turning directly into a corpse repository!

”With so many corpses, could they be former staff members?” Wan Yunrong asked.

”Doesn’t seem like it,” Xu Huo said, squatting in front of one of the mounds for a closer look. ”Judging by their clothing and the state of decay, they should be players.”

”Players?!” The players’ hearts skipped a beat.

”Other than players, who else would come up here?” Xu Huo countered.

That made sense. Dead players were brought here to be used as fertilizer. The upper two floors were unnaturally clean. So, who was it that moved the corpses here?

”Could there really be ghosts?” This time, it was Gan Qing who spoke.

”No wonder there are no walkthroughs for this dungeon online. It turns out the players who came here never made it out alive,” Mao Wei said, shaking his head slightly.

”So, do we still go in?” Wan Yunrong asked.

Ahead were more stretches of ”mounds,” also composed of players. Everyone present felt a cold dread creeping up their spines.

”I think we should still take a look,” Xu Huo said. ”Whoever moved the corpses here definitely isn’t a player. It might be someone hiding within the dungeon.”

This theory wasn’t baseless. The dungeon was on an island, and the island wasn’t completely sealed off. Anyone could come. Hiding in the woods would make them hard to find. For safety’s sake, it was best they confirmed in advance if anyone was hiding on this floor.

However, that wasn’t Xu Huo’s real purpose.

The possibility of someone hiding here was very small. He wanted to confirm if this floor, like the ones above, also had passages that were sealed off.

He also took the opportunity to release two small flying surveillance devices.

Carefully traversing the territory of the mutated plants with the others, they reached the end only to find the corridor ahead completely blocked by corpses and mutated plants.

Xu Huo moved closer to observe the state of those corpses. Unlike the area they had just passed, the bodies in these ”mounds” spanned a wide range of time, but the ones in this corridor were all relatively old.

From top to bottom, all three floors were sealed at this same position.

The deliberately cryptic warning texts on the metal walls of the upper two floors were insignificant, but because of this blockage, the Deep Blue Laboratory was split into two halves. That meant the players were currently exploring only one half of the laboratory.

The layout plan showed the other half had a similar layout to this side. There was also a main gate over there. The three gates of the laboratory were separated from the outside. Now, with the internal passage blocked, the only way to the other side was to go around from the outside.

Xu Huo wasn’t the only one who wanted to check out the other half of the laboratory. Qiu Xiangdong said, ”We can now confirm there’s no one else on this side besides the players who entered this time. This dungeon doesn’t just involve us. That person might be hiding next door. This so-called game might just be messing with us. The dungeon requires participation in the game, but it doesn’t require winning.”

Setting that aside, the nature of the game shifted from ”killing ghosts” to ”catching ghosts.”

”He has a point,” Ge Pan said. ”Simply failing to catch the ghost just means failing the stage. But if we end up killing each other, probably not many will survive.”

”Let’s set aside the game rules for now. Since we know there are people here besides players, it’s better to find them first,” Miao Yu agreed.

Withdrawing from the third underground floor, they went back up. Ge Pan explained the group’s thoughts to the other three players. In the end, everyone decided to temporarily pause the game and head to the other half of the laboratory.

On the first underground floor, Miao Yu, Ge Pan, and a few others took turns using items, but none could break through the walls, floor, or ceiling. They also searched the vicinity for any possible hidden mechanisms or secret passages. Finding nothing, they had no choice but to give up. They returned to the ground floor via the elevator, planning to go around from outside the laboratory.

However, the main gate was blocked by an invisible force, making it impossible to exit.

Gan Qing punched the unseen wall. ”Why can’t we get in or out, while non-dungeon players can?!”

”Not necessarily that others can. They might just need to wait for the dungeon to end and then come in to collect the bodies,” Miao Yu shrugged.

This brought things back to square one. They had to continue playing the ”Humans Catch Ghosts” game.

”How about a gentleman’s agreement?” Ge Pan proposed. ”The game on the topic board is Humans Catch Ghosts, with victory tied to maintaining a human identity. But the dungeon task doesn’t require that. Maybe we can ignore the outcome of this game and completely avoid a fight to the death.”

”That proposal of yours only works if the ghosts aren’t players,” Mao Wei poured cold water on the idea.

The dungeon doesn’t require winning or losing. Since they’re participating in the game, winning is naturally better under normal circumstances, and they might even receive dungeon rewards.

”Then it’s simple. We just catch the ghosts,” Wu Xiaonan said. ”Catch one at random and we’ll know if it meets the dungeon requirements.”

”We can try it tonight,” according to Miao Yu’s suggestion. Tonight, everyone stays in one room. They can try testing each person one by one.

Anyway, there are two ghosts. As long as a ”ghost” isn’t completely killed, a new ”ghost” will appear. That also eliminates the worry that if only one person clears the stage and the ”ghost” disappears with them, a new ”ghost” might not appear.