Players, Please Board the Train

The opening of the carriage door brought with it a thick, heavy smell of blood. The two men walked back to their original seats one after the other, tidied up with some cleaning solution, and then lay down, as if they had just gone out for a stroll.

In the darkness, Dr. Deng reached out and grabbed Xu Huo. ”Let me squeeze in with you.”

Xu Huo kicked him out with one foot.

The night passed, and the train’s lights came back on.

The quietly moving train looked no different from yesterday, the only exception being a few small, fine cracks on the train windows.

The players in the carriage swept their gazes over the cracks, then looked towards Xu Huo’s area in twos and threes.

Xu Huo hadn’t slept all night, but his mental state was still quite good. He ordered breakfast for Dr. Deng. ”Rest during the day.”

After saying that, he got up and went to the connecting carriage. Through the door and window, he saw the situation in the carriage behind.

Surprisingly, there were still three players sitting inside.

His gaze lingered on them for a moment before Xu Huo entered the restroom.This time, luck was truly not on his side. Those Player-Eaters in the rear carriage were already nothing to worry about.

These players in the first-class carriage were most likely a group. The fact that just two of them had nearly cleared out an entire carriage of players showed their considerable strength.

Using the threat of turning on the lights could only buy time. If they cleared out the carriages behind, turning on the lights wouldn’t threaten these people either.

Standing there for a few seconds, Xu Huo opened his personal panel.

After this dungeon run, the game had rewarded him with a ”Frequent Movement” characteristic, a speed-boosting trait that allowed for rapid, frequent changes of position within a single space.

The three items were respectively ”Strangers Though Familiar,” ”Misplaced Capture,” and ”Damage Discount.”

”Strangers Though Familiar” was a forced-forgetfulness item with a very short duration of only three minutes. It could be used on a single human target, but it had only one use.

To give an example: if you used this item on a player who was attacking you, the other party would immediately lose their target, like someone with face blindness. The maximum duration was three minutes, though it was a different story if the target identified you beforehand.

This item could only be used once per day, and it was best used when there were many people around.

The effect of ”Misplaced Capture” was similar. If the holder did something when many people were present, like launching an attack or something else, it would cause the opponent to lock onto the wrong target.

After all, Extra A and Extra B had the same face; they were pretty much indistinguishable if you weren’t familiar with them.

”Damage Discount” was self-explanatory; it could weaken an incoming attack by twenty percent.

They were all auxiliary items, not directly increasing combat power.

After a brief hesitation, Xu Huo took out the P1S evolution agent he had obtained from the Deep Blue Laboratory and injected it into his arm.

Before this, he had doubts about this potion. He had originally planned to buy some equipment in District 011 to conduct a component analysis. However, the current situation was special. Since starting his perfect evolution, he had developed a certain resistance to toxins, so he decided to inject the potion first.

Last time, he had seen the S-version Potion in the chaos. Its color was only slightly lighter than the P0 version, hard to distinguish if you didn’t look carefully. This potion was the same color as the one last time, and coincidentally, it was also P1, exactly what he needed.

”Thump! Thump!” His heartbeat suddenly became violently intense. Xu Huo experienced dizziness. He braced himself against the wall with one hand, watching his reflection in the mirror split into multiple overlapping images.

Several layers of shadows sometimes merged and sometimes separated, each wearing a different expression. When they overlapped, they became completely unlike him.

Suddenly, everything went black before his eyes, like an unstable light flickering on and off. In the mirror, within his shadow, appeared the figure of a child with its back to him.

An unknown force compelled him to reach out and grab her, but the child ran away without looking back, her thin legs and oversized patient gown creating a visually jarring impact.

”Bang!” Xu Huo slammed both fists against the wall to steady himself. When he opened his eyes again, the previous phantom images and double vision had disappeared, and his heart rate slowly decreased.

[Congratulations, player Extra. Your evolution rate has reached 30%.]

Receiving the game notification, he felt a slight surprise. The S-version Potion’s promotion of evolution rate actually had no relation to quantity. One dose could increase it by 10%. Compared to the evolution agents provided by the game, which required multiple doses, this was far superior in both effect and the time needed for the potion to be digested and utilized.

For a single scientist to surpass a massive game institution and develop such a potion, one that was nearly perfect, inevitably raised another doubt: was this potion truly that perfect?

The image of the child’s back he saw just now was definitely not his hallucination and should have come from the potion. Either something else was added to the potion, or there was a characteristic or item effect attached to this potion itself.

A little girl in a patient gown. From the two pages of information he saw from Miao Yu, there was speculation that Professor Wu should have a daughter. The two details just happened to coincide.

Placing potions in different locations and tampering with them, providing both guidance and hints.

Professor Wu must have a purpose for resisting the Game Government in this way. The phantom seen after injecting the potion was likely somewhat related to this purpose, perhaps even containing clues pointing to the next dungeon.

”Are you okay?” Dr. Deng knocked on the door from outside.

”Coming out now.” Xu Huo put away the syringe and opened the door. After his evolution rate increased, his five senses were enhanced again. The range and intensity of his hearing and sight were noticeably strengthened.

For example, he could perceive the changes in Dr. Deng’s heartbeat as the man stood before him.

The door was open. Dr. Deng saw the fist marks hammered into the wall, a subtle change flickering across his expression before he said, ”You used an evolution agent? You got it?”

Dr. Deng wasn’t a fool either. With what was said so plainly in the Deep Blue Laboratory, it was normal for him to be suspicious.

”Dungeon completion reward.” Xu Huo wasn’t fixated on completely dispelling his suspicions. A little suspicion was a good thing, preventing him from running off after reaching District 011.

The two returned to the carriage. The other seven players were, like yesterday, sitting in their seats drinking tea, eating, and chatting. Only the girl named Vivi looked somewhat weak.

Xu Huo thought for a moment, then walked over and asked, ”Do you need help? I have painkillers here.”

Vivi hugged her stomach, skeptical of his kindness. ”Uncle, is your medicine any good?”

”You can try it.” Xu Huo gave her a handful of candy. ”Works every time. When a child is sick, they have to eat this.”

Vivi couldn’t muster a smile, her expression blank. ”Uncle, is it fun to treat people like fools?”

”It is fun.” Xu Huo said with a smile. ”You can try it too in the future.”

Vivi reached out to take it, but Xu Huo withdrew the candy. ”Forget it if you don’t want it.”

Vivi pouted. ”I want it.”

”I don’t feel like giving it anymore.” Xu Huo turned his head and had the train attendant bring her a large cake.

Vivi stabbed the cake randomly with her knife. The woman beside her stopped her. ”Vivi, don’t make a mess of the table.”