Players, Please Board the Train

Things weren’t looking good for Gu Yu. She and some other isolated players were trapped inside a large building.

The Mutants weren’t mindless Zombies restricted to the ground. They possessed incredible climbing and leaping abilities, and even knew how to search floor by floor, following the scent of humans. Their only option was to hide in rooms with smaller windows, like restrooms.

Now that the Special Defense Department was tightening the Blockade Perimeter, more and more Mutants were gathering in the area. They had already missed their best window for escape.

“The Special Defense Department’s rescue helicopter has been circling nearby, but it can’t find a place to land. The Mutants will chase after the helicopter,” Gu Yu said. “For some reason, they aren’t shooting at the Mutants.”

Xu Huo didn’t tell her that those mutated people could still be saved. After asking for her exact location, he drove over.

The car’s engine noise attracted nearby Mutants, so they kept closing in along the route. Fortunately, their numbers weren’t large—a single charge was enough to plow through them.

But as time passed, the Mutants began clustering together. Xu Huo drove while scanning his surroundings. There were too many buildings blocking his view. He asked the Painting Woman, “Is anyone following us?”

The Painting Woman tilted her head in confusion and pointed outside, as if to ask, *Aren’t those Mutants people?*

Xu Huo paused for a moment, then casually took out a sheet of paper and placed it on the steering wheel.

After using his “Finalized Script” characteristic, writing began to appear on the paper out of thin air:“…Xu Huo didn’t notice the one-eyed owl perched in the tree as he drove away. Its other eye had been hollowed out and replaced with a fake one.”

“The owl followed the car until Xu Huo drove his new vehicle past the Checkpoint, then it flew away.”

…

“More and more Mutants gathered around the car. Xu Huo realized this was abnormal, so he searched the surroundings but failed to notice a player hiding among the Mutant crowd. That player had just climbed onto the roof…”

“Ssskrrrk!”

Before the words could fully form, a long sword pierced through the roof, stabbing straight toward the driver’s seat! Metal screeched against metal, accompanied by flying sparks!

“Skreech—!” Xu Huo dodged the sword and slammed on the brakes, using the inertia to fling the attacker off. But the man’s palm stuck to the hood as he fell—adhesive mucus coating his hand stopped his drop and let him vault back onto the car, swinging his sword straight at the Painting Woman!

The man looked no different from a Mutant. If there was any distinction, it was the slight difference in his eyes at that moment. Although he attacked the Painting Woman, his focus was on Xu Huo. With his other hand, he tossed out a miniature bomb.

He probably assumed Xu Huo would try to save the Painting Woman first, creating a timing gap that might not kill him but would at least injure him.

Unfortunately, Xu Huo didn’t play by the rules. The moment the sword came down, he kicked the door open without hesitation and leaped out.

The player’s expression froze, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes. Just as he was about to follow, the sword got stuck on the car window!

“Boom!” The miniature bomb blew the Carriage apart, sending the player flying backward. As he stumbled, he saw the Painting Woman, who had been sitting in the passenger seat, dragged out along with the tip of his sword!

The man retracted his long sword and switched to a gun. But after firing several shots, the bullets sank into her like sponges without any effect. The next second, he was slammed to the ground and ground into the dirt by a combination of knee strikes to the chest and slaps to the face.

After eating a few slaps, he came to his senses. Enraged, he flipped the woman straddling him over. She went over his head, but the next moment, he felt his hair yanked. That woman grabbed his scalp like a brawling fishwife, shaking his head and fake-crying at the same time, her mouth stretched wide open without a single sob.

“Son of a bitch!” The Mutant-looking man grabbed her arm and twisted, pulling out a dagger. But just as he raised his hand, it was severed at the wrist! As he screamed, a shadow suddenly slammed into him from afar. With two crisp snaps of breaking bones, the man was sent flying several meters, rolling onto the ground before being swarmed by a horde of Mutants!

“Borderline!” A visible shockwave blasted the Mutants away. The bloodied Mutant-looking man tried to flee, but after two steps, his face changed—a thin thread had somehow pierced his chest!

The line was connected to his heart.

Instead of using a train ticket to escape, the Mutant-looking man turned around to face Xu Huo. “Don’t you want to know where your little brother is?”

Xu Huo’s expression froze for a moment, but the man continued, “Do you dare to let me die? If I die, that little brother of yours will be handed over to human traffickers. He might be sold to some pervert with special tastes, or raised as an organ donor. I heard you used to love gambling—wanna take a gamble?”

The Mutant-looking man stood still, raising both arms high, closing his eyes with complete confidence as the Mutants swarmed toward him.

Xu Huo’s face darkened. He yanked the kite string, lifting the man and sprinting toward the tallest building nearby.

Instead of worrying about his own situation, the Mutant-looking man goaded him: “That’s right, keep running. Better yet, run out of the Blockade Perimeter. As long as I’m safe, your brother will live!”

Xu Huo kept silent. Using the piano wire, he scaled the building several times and landed on the roof. But instead of pulling the Mutant-looking man up, he hung him outside the two-hundred-meter-high railing, letting him swing in the wind.

The Mutant-looking man dangled in midair, face up, just barely able to see Xu Huo standing on the railing. He laughed heartily. “You think you can force a player to submit with this kind of trick? As soon as my signal disappears, that kid will be handed straight to the traffickers…”

The man standing on the railing suddenly raised his hand and let go. The thin thread in his hand disappeared with it.

The remaining threats were swallowed by the wind before they could finish. The Mutant-looking man plummeted in shock, then erupted in fury. He tore a button from his clothes and crushed it, shouting into the sky, “Then go find him in hell!”

“Looks like that was the signal,” Xu Huo’s voice suddenly sounded behind him.

The Mutant-looking man twisted his head desperately, only to find Xu Huo falling right alongside him. Strangely, Xu Huo seemed unaffected by the airflow—though he was falling, the corners of his clothes didn’t stir at all.

In comparison, the Mutant-looking man, whose face was being twisted by the wind, looked especially pathetic. He also saw that the signal transmitter, which should have turned to ash in his own hand, was now completely intact in Xu Huo’s!

His face changed again. He reached into the air and grabbed—nothing. After repeating the motion several times, panic gradually crept onto his expression.

“Can’t escape into the game anymore?” Xu Huo maintained the same falling speed, smiling as he spoke. “You didn’t really think a player’s abilities would never run out, did you?”

The Mutant-looking man became terrified. “It was you who messed with me!”

Xu Huo’s expression didn’t change, but his voice turned icy. “I find you people hilarious. Threatening someone with such low-rent tactics like kidnapping a kid, and you’re even proud of yourselves. What, did you think you wouldn’t die?”