Players, Please Board the Train

Zheng Liang’s figure paused slightly, then he slammed the door and left.

Xu Huo picked up the phone on the table at that moment, scrolling through the illusion of Xu Zhi generated by Zheng Liang’s memories, then loosened his grip, and the phone vanished into smoke.

Just then, he sensed someone entering Building Two, so he stood up and opened a door within the room, appearing directly in the corridor outside the Pathogen Sample Storage.

Two players sneaked past the security guards to reach this floor. They had just passed a pathology room and opened a locked ”No Entry” door to clear the first checkpoint.

Xu Huo noticed they used an item to unlock the door. With a flicker of thought, he added an experimental sample room in the corridor behind the doors on both sides, placing two Mutants conjured from the players’ imaginations inside.

”Boom! Boom!”

No sooner had the two walked past than the door was slammed by the Mutants. One female player jumped in fright, instinctively pulling a short knife from her waistband and assuming a combat stance.

The other male player glanced at the door, which was dented from the impact, and said calmly, ”Relax, they can’t get out. Remember what I told you?”

The female player nodded. ”If you make proper use of the dungeon, even false reality can become a favorable reality.”

”That’s right. It’s not just about saying it out loud—you have to keep telling yourself that even if there are Mutants inside, there’s absolutely no way they can break through the lab door. Otherwise, this hospital wouldn’t be able to keep running.” The male player walked forward as he spoke. ”That’s how you turn disadvantage into advantage.””A lot of things in this hospital are fake. Just look at the difference between day and night. The fighting is so intense at night, how could there be no trace of it during the day? This is actually one of the characteristics of a mental dungeon.” The male player continued. ”Things conjured by players’ imaginations can become real, but only to a limited extent. Plus, the players have lost their abilities, so the damage they can do to the building is minimal. While the contrast between day and night can mess with people’s minds, from another angle, it actually proves this isn’t real.”

”Sis, I’m worried I won’t be able to withstand the dungeon’s power if we stay too long,” the female player said. ”Even though the items I brought out are still usable, I can’t open my personal panel.”

”I’ve looked at the hospital floor plan. The sample storage is just ahead. Just grab any sample,” the male player reassured her.

The female player was still uncertain. ”But how do we know which samples are real and which are fake?”

The male player clearly had no concrete way to tell, so he simply said, ”Then let’s just take them all. We’re bound to hit the right one eventually.”

Xu Huo walked out from the adjacent corridor. The siblings immediately leaped three meters away and stared at him warily. ”Who are you!”

Xu Huo looked them over. ”Are you also players?”

The siblings exchanged a glance. The brother said, ”Besides players, who else would come here?”

Xu Huo gave a slight nod. ”You two seem to be in decent shape. Still clear-headed.”

”You’re here for the samples too, right?” the brother said. ”Let’s just stay out of each other’s way. You look for yours, we’ll look for ours.”

Xu Huo indicated he had no problem with that, then added, ”But there’s only one sample storage on this floor. You’re not going to be that unreasonable as to make me switch spots, are you? I nearly ended up in a lab on my way up. It’s dangerous everywhere here. I don’t want to change locations.”

His words weren’t harsh, but his attitude was firm. In short, he wasn’t budging.

The sister spoke up at that moment. ”The sample storage is bound to be pretty big. We’ll each take what we need, no interference.”

Xu Huo glanced out the window. ”It’s going to get dark again. I don’t want to stay here too long. How about we make this quick?”

The siblings looked outside in surprise. Wasn’t it still before noon!

But in reality, the sunlight outside was already slanting westward.

”Anything can happen in a dungeon. Let’s hurry,” the sister said.

So the three of them wasted no more time and headed straight for the sample storage.

However, the storage was sealed by a reinforced door with a new-style electronic lock. The male player’s item was completely useless.

”Let me try,” Xu Huo said, pulling out the Crimson Sword. In a few swift moves, he cut a square hole in the door.

Seeing him conjure an item out of thin air, the siblings were stunned. The sister blurted out, ”How are you completely unaffected by the dungeon?”

Xu Huo sheathed the sword and stepped inside first. ”I’ve been to a mental dungeon before. I know a few tricks.”

The siblings’ looks toward him immediately changed. The sister shot her brother a meaningful glance, and the brother seized the opportunity to cozy up to Xu Huo while rummaging for samples. ”Actually, I’ve been in one before too. Mental dungeons—they’re not exactly hard, but they’re not easy either. It all depends on how steady your mind is. I thought I was pretty calm, but I still ended up with my personal panel shut down under the dungeon’s influence. Bro, how did you manage it?”

Xu Huo gave him a knowing smirk. The brother quickly added, ”We’re all players here. I get it, I get it. I won’t take your experience for free. I’ll pay for it. How about a hundred thousand White Bills?”

”How can you pay if you can’t even open your personal panel?” Xu Huo had already scanned through all the cabinets in a flash and said with disappointment, ”They’re all empty. Looks like we’ll have to search the next floor.”

”Since the dungeon mentioned there would be samples, there have to be some,” the male player said, patting him on the shoulder and handing him a business card. ”I’m not the kind of person who goes back on my word. I work here. You can come find me anytime.”

”Shenfeng Express?” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. ”Exclusive service for players?”

”We handle deliveries of items, potions, and special goods,” the male player said. ”Shenfeng is my in-game ID. I’m A Yi, and this is my sister, A Ying. The company is a partnership. Naturally, our main clients are players.”

A Yi smiled and continued, ”Sooner or later, Zone 014 will fully merge with the game. Players will become part of daily life, just like courier services today. High-value items can be shipped too. This business is bound to take off.”

”Very forward-thinking,” Xu Huo praised. Though it sounded like a pipe dream now, as players continued to develop, legitimate and reasonable transport channels would inevitably emerge. The only question was whether those channels would operate aboveground or underground.

Aboveground would require the support of the Special Defense Department, while underground would demand a high level of confidentiality and capability from the player teams handling deliveries. He knew there were specialized ”couriers” in District 011, but they weren’t organized as a group—rather, they were individuals with dedicated roles, their player class determining their characteristics.

There were quite a few players engaged in this kind of work.

”So you don’t have to worry about me not paying,” A Yi said generously, handing over the item strapped to his waist. ”If you’re not comfortable, you can keep this as collateral.”

”Let’s be friends,” Xu Huo said, pocketing the card and pushing the item back. ”Actually, the principle isn’t hard. For the dungeon to affect people, it has to go through a certain medium. If you can use an item to block that medium as much as possible, you can minimize the influence.”

”That’s my method. You don’t seem like other players sinking into the illusion either. Are you also using items?”