Players, Please Board the Train

”Forcible escape!” B slammed a fist-sized plastic sphere onto the ground. The item popped out and quickly expanded into an air mattress, forcefully launching him out of the Counting Squares trap.

”Boom! Boom! Boom!” Before B could even land, a barrage of shots came his way. He tucked his arm under his armpit, and when he extended it, it transformed into a bat-wing-like barrier. Not only did it block the water jets, but three short arrows also flew out from it!

”Clang! Clang! Ssh!” Only one of the three arrows hit its mark. A pained cry came from not far away. B’s face lit up with joy, but he didn’t rush to check it out himself. Instead, he laid a rope on the ground.

The moment the rope left his hand, it began slithering across the grass on its own, moving like a snake toward where Xu Huo was hiding. After a slight struggle, a bound figure toppled out from behind the tree.

B raised his gun, but stopped abruptly when he saw the person’s face. The man who fell from behind the tree had the exact same face as him!

After an extremely brief moment of confusion, he still pulled the trigger, blasting two massive holes in the other’s chest!

Blood and flesh splattered everywhere, but before the smell of blood could even disperse, the things that had scattered into the grass began flowing back into the fallen man’s body, as if time was reversing. The freshly killed man came back to life, now wearing a different face as he stared at B. ”Are you going to kill me again?”

B’s expression shifted violently. He pulled out a smoke bomb and hurled it, then turned without hesitation to flee. But the moment he took a step, a ray of light suddenly appeared right in front of him...

”Servant lean back!” His body, which had been leaning forward, arched backward in a motion that defied human physics. B used the momentum to backflip, but when his feet hit the ground, they didn’t touch grass. Instead, they landed on a set of steps.

He stumbled twice on the steps to regain his balance. Looking back, he saw the staircase rotating and shifting, gradually extending into the depths of darkness. As the steps grew narrower, the surrounding walls began rapidly closing in on him!”Emergency exit!” A green arrow-shaped evacuation sign suddenly appeared in B’s hand. The moment he grabbed its tail, the sign shot forward like a rocket, dragging him along as it blasted out of the woods, crossing the entire hollow to reach the opposite bank!

It all happened in less than the blink of an eye!

By the time Xu Huo turned his head, the man was already on the other side!

The more stable one’s mind and the stronger one’s mental power, the harder it is for others’ mental strength to influence them. So even when being pulled into a Mental World, there’s a process of gradual immersion.

Against a player, the first step is to make them think their items have failed, or make them believe they’ve used an item when they actually haven’t. Until this process is complete, the player can still forcibly break through, especially if they have a suitable item in hand.

That foreign player had chosen to flee the moment he entered the Mental World, and coincidentally, he happened to have a long-range mobility item. Although Xu Huo could barely open his own Mental World in reality, his control range was limited and its intensity wasn’t very strong, especially against players with powerful mental strength. It came with considerable risk.

Rubbing his throbbing temples, Xu Huo walked to the edge of the woods. Bracing himself against a tree with one hand, he stared across the bank. This was the first time he’d experienced the backlash from having his Mental World forcibly broken through.

”So the Mental World isn’t that hard to crack after all,” he muttered, his expression dark as he watched the numbers changing back and forth on the other side. ”All it takes is a fast movement item.”

While he was figuring out how to deal with the man across the bank, the man on the other side was also scheming against him.

Seeing the person reappear at the edge of the woods, B decided this was a deliberate decoy sent by the Special Defense Department. There were actually plenty of players hiding in the forest—it’s just that they couldn’t form an absolute advantage, so they were using this method to lure them over one by one.

”Beware of Special Defense Department ambushes. Items not yet exposed.”

A message was transmitted through his communicator to the other players in Wenshan. At the same time, the helicopter over the hollow began its second round of indiscriminate strafing.

Using the gunfire as cover, A burst out from the tree where he’d been hiding. In one second, he charged to the tall, thin player’s back. As he swung his arm, a massive grim reaper’s scythe appeared in his hand, sweeping forward!

”I’ve been waiting for you!” The tall, thin player spun around, spreading his ten fingers as if playing a zither before pressing them downward. A control line appeared on each of his fingers, and at the other end of those lines was connected a giant mechanical puppet. The puppet stood behind him, and as the player’s index finger moved, it rapidly flung its palm out, blocking the black scythe while extending its other hand to smash down on A’s head!

”Weight-reducing foam!” The scythe vanished as A leaped backward, a life-sized doll appearing in his hand. He yanked the zipper on the doll’s rear, and foam gushed out from inside, sticking to everything it touched. The mechanical puppet took the brunt of it, and as the foam piled up and enveloped it, it actually began to feel lighter and started to float upward.

”Snap!” The puppet disappeared. The unattached foam scattered everywhere. The tall, thin player, covered in something like thin paper, ran out from under the foam and circled around from the outside.

At the same time, Code Name A predicted the tall, thin player’s movement trajectory and intercepted him from the front. The two engaged in close-quarters combat, their movements fierce and sharp. Sparks continuously flew from their weapons as they clashed, with occasional uses of item characteristics that caused brief pauses during the fight. But as their speed increased, neither had any spare energy left to grab new items.

This high-speed battle lasted nearly a minute. Suddenly, a dark shadow shot out from Code Name A’s side. He reflexively stepped back, but a long knife stabbed up from underground, slashing his calf!

”Whoosh!” Another mechanical puppet burst out from the ground, mud flying everywhere. It swung its spiked chain and hammer at A’s scythe. The two weapons collided, and electric currents sprayed from the mechanical puppet. The scythe, along with A, began to tremble violently!

At that moment, the Female Player appeared behind A, about to ensnare him with an anesthesia net, when a grenade suddenly dropped at A’s feet!

”Watch out!” The Female Player shouted a warning, then ducked behind the mechanical puppet. A deafening boom followed, shaking half the mountainside. The shockwave overturned the mechanical puppet, not only pinning the Female Player to the ground but also scattering Wang Chaoqing’s shadow form!

By the time the explosion’s blast subsided and they looked back at the hillside, A was nowhere to be seen.

The tall, thin player pulled the Female Player up and frowned as he contacted Wang Chaoqing. ”Where did he go?”

”No idea where he ran off to,” Wang Chaoqing complained. ”Can you be more reliable for once? You knew the guy might have lethal weapons on him, so why didn’t you prepare earlier? And your puppets nearly knocked me out cold!”

”Then find him,” the tall, thin player said without wasting words.

”Hold on,” Wang Chaoqing quickly added. ”I saw something green fly across the hollow just now. Might be an item, but I looked around and still couldn’t find anyone. Be careful—it might be some kind of invisibility item.”

The tall, thin player ended the call. Just as he was about to request backup from the Special Defense Department, a message came in: Reinforcements are on the way.

He breathed a sigh of relief and continued searching the mountain with the Female Player.

The reinforcements the Special Defense Department referred to were none other than the Painting Woman. She drove all the way from headquarters into the mountain roads, then turned into a piece of paper and flew through the forest, effortlessly landing behind Xu Huo.