Players, Please Board the Train

Xu Huo was in a good mood, so he returned the money he had won back to her. The joy of regaining what she had lost doubled the Painting Woman’s happiness. When she discovered the car the Special Defense Department players had left outside the woods, she voluntarily offered to drive so he could rest.

Xu Huo didn’t object. The Painting Woman learned on the fly, pulling up a tutorial and watching it as she drove. She was jerky and awkward at first, but within a few minutes she was driving smoothly. The car wobbled its way all the way to the Sealed Zone. However, when she tried to park, she mistook the gas pedal for the brake and slammed straight into a military truck blocking the road.

Quite a few cars were parked near this road, their occupants clamoring to get into the city. The crash immediately drew not only the attention of the Special Defense Department players and armed police, who raised their weapons, but also a swarm of journalists who had come for the Special Defense Department incident.

”SMACK!” The Painting Woman slapped the half-hanging door off its hinges, sending it flying several meters. She swept her gaze across the gun barrels surrounding her, finally locking onto a rocket launcher. She pulled out her phone, tapped a few times, and started playing a video on how to operate the weapon.

The approaching Special Defense Department player’s expression shifted. He had already gripped his item in his hand. ”Who are you people—!”

Before he could finish, a flash of white light shot through the air, heading straight for his face!

The player instinctively retreated, raising a defensive item in front of him as he ducked down. But after evading, he didn’t suffer the attack he expected. He looked up to find everyone around him had their guns aimed squarely at him!

More accurately, they were aimed at the person in front of him.

Xu Huo had intercepted the paper knife the Painting Woman had thrown. He turned to the few players and said, ”Xu Huo. I need to pass the checkpoint. Contact Team Leader Wu.”

The player who had been attacked couldn’t save face. ”So what if you’re Xu Huo? Special Defense Department orders: no one gets through right now. And since you attacked checkpoint personnel, I suspect you’re enemy spies!”The Painting Woman was a sentient item. Xu Huo had no obligation to control her, nor did he have the authority. There was no responsibility between them either way. The Painting Woman could do whatever she wanted, and it was her freedom. He couldn’t ”command” her to do or not do something, but he could intervene.

However, the Special Defense Department wanted to borrow the Painting Woman’s power. In fact, they had already benefited from her help. It was impossible for them to completely avoid the risks that came with that. Even a player was a double-edged sword, let alone a sentient super item. The Special Defense Department’s rules could only bind those who were bound by rules. The Painting Woman didn’t play by them, and neither did Xu Huo.

His eyes turned cold.

The journalist standing nearby shouted loudly, ”Xu Huo! Are you really Xu Huo? Online, they say you caused such a huge mess for the Special Defense Department and then went into hiding without showing up. Is that true?”

”Are you coming back from outside the city now because you know the Black Rain incident is nearly over? You made a show of preparing to fight Player-Eaters like the Double Snake organization, but so far, you’ve made zero progress. Do you have anything to say about that?”

”You claim you provided antidote fungus to the Special Defense Department, but it probably wasn’t much, was it? With so many people undergoing Mutant transformation, will you tell the Special Defense Department how to get more antidote fungus?”

”...”

The journalists trapped outside clamored, thrusting their microphones forward as they fired off one sharp question after another. They seemed determined to pry some explosive scoop from Xu Huo to make up for their wasted trip.

”They’re so noisy.” The Painting Woman came up behind Xu Huo, holding up her phone with a displeased look. ”Can I kill them all?”

Her phone’s text-to-speech wasn’t easy on the volume control, but it was great at controlling the atmosphere. The clamor came to an abrupt halt.

”Buzz!” A player standing in the back of the crowd felt his phone vibrate. He glanced down at it before greeting the other players. ”Team Leader Wu’s orders. Let the two of them in.”

The person relaying the order was Zeng Tai. He and the others had scattered to guard different checkpoints after returning. Here, it was him and Zhu Yuchan.

The two shouted for the people around them to step aside as they walked into the encirclement. Zeng Tai smiled without warmth at Xu Huo. ”Mr. Xu, maybe you should get going? I don’t think these people have good intentions.”

”They said they’d kill all of us, and you say *we* don’t have good intentions? What the hell are you Special Defense Department people thinking?” One journalist indignantly raised his camera at him.

Zhu Yuchan snapped her fingers. The lenses of all the camera equipment on-site cracked simultaneously from an electric charge. She scowled. ”Did anyone here say anything? Have you been exposed to the black rain and started hallucinating?”

The journalist tried to say something more but was held back by a companion. The Special Defense Department’s threat was obvious: they had the authority to round up and detain anyone suspected of contamination. A war of words was one thing, but getting locked up, with no idea when they’d be released—that was another matter entirely!

The armed personnel dispersed. Zhu Yuchan found Xu Huo another good car and added, ”The Mutants are all concentrated within the Blockade Perimeter now. It might be tough going by ground. If you’re not going in on official business, you could wait for a helicopter.”

”No need. Thanks.” Xu Huo got into the driver’s seat and gestured for the Painting Woman to get in.

But the Painting Woman’s eyes were fixed on the journalists. Two seconds later, she lightly pressed her lips together. As she turned, several flashes of cold light streaked out. The heads of the journalists who had been so aggressive moments ago exploded on the spot!

Screams erupted. The Special Defense Department players and armed police all raised their weapons in alarm at the same time. But the Painting Woman didn’t even look back. She clasped her hands behind her back and skipped over to the car. Only then did the others notice she was still wearing a dress and high heels in the dead of winter. She put one foot up on the car, let the other foot swing in a lazy arc through the air, gave them a smile, and then sat down inside.

The car started up and drove off quickly. But behind them, Zeng Tai, Zhu Yuchan, and the others were slick with cold sweat. They turned to look at the journalists still sobbing and wailing. ”In the age of players, saying the wrong thing can come with a heavy price.”

The car drove down the empty road. Xu Huo listened to the nonstop game music from beside him. After a while, he asked, ”Why did you kill them?”

”They were really annoying,” the Painting Woman said, tilting her head to look at him. ”Don’t you think they were annoying? It sounded like they were cursing you.”

”Yeah, they were pretty annoying.” Xu Huo lit a cigarette and took a drag. ”Does hating someone mean you have to kill them?”

The Painting Woman hadn’t reached that level of philosophical depth yet. She looked a little confused. ”I *can* kill them.”

So she did it, just on a whim.

Capriciousness without motive, that was what was truly terrifying.

Xu Huo exhaled a stream of smoke. ”You’ve been with a lot of people before. Did you ever think about killing them?”

The Painting Woman shook her head. ”They were all nice to me. They just liked to talk big. But I saw on my phone: a man’s promises can’t be taken seriously... Are you telling the truth about giving me that house?”

Xu Huo let out a helpless laugh. ”Have I ever lied to you?”

The Painting Woman thought about it for a moment and brightened up again. Then she pointed at the Mutants charging out ahead of them. ”So many of them!”

Xu Huo floored the gas, swerving into a side road. At the same time, he reached for his phone to call Gu Yu. ”Where are you? I’m coming to pick you up.”