Players, Please Board the Train

“Not yet, but I prepared a document specifically about the random dungeons that appeared near headquarters. Everyone can take a look at one of the mental-type dungeons,” Nie Xuan said as he placed the file on the big screen. “Seventeenth Hospital, D-grade Random Dungeon. This is also the first D-grade mental-type random dungeon to appear inside our country. The dungeon existed for roughly over four hours, but it caused the most deaths among all the random dungeons this time. Between Player-Eaters and Ordinary Players, nearly eighty people died.”

The screen cut to photographs: the moment after the dungeon vanished and the corpses suddenly surged out. Dozens of bodies were piled together, each with different death poses, a horrifying sight.

“The first to leave the dungeon were a pair of siblings with the surname A. According to them, the Seventeenth Hospital combined illusion and virus mechanics, making it extremely difficult. Many players went mentally unstable under the dungeon’s interference.”

“There are two points here. One, Xu Huo also entered that dungeon. Two, he previously underwent a mental evolution in Flower City.”

“Are you saying Xu Huo used his advantage to kill a large number of players inside the dungeon?” Team Leader Chang said incredulously. “This is a random dungeon. No matter how strong he is, he couldn’t have killed so many players by himself in one go!”

“Not necessarily his direct handiwork, but he should be able to interfere with others.”

“Could that female player have secretly helped?”

“When the dungeon opened, Lichun was not near headquarters. Also, the dungeon’s name is interesting: Seventeenth Hospital,” Nie Xuan said. “The hospital where Xu Huo received childhood treatment for mental illness was also called the Seventeenth Hospital.”

The conference room fell suddenly silent. Only Nie Xuan continued speaking. “Whether the two are directly related is not yet certain. However, judging from the appearance and trigger characteristics of the Seventeenth Hospital, it’s very similar to the overlapping space that transferred from Ting City to Flower City. That overlapping space also contained a psychiatric hospital, but no one triggered a dungeon at the time. This time the random dungeon that appeared became the Seventeenth Hospital.”

“My hypothesis is that Flower City’s overlapping space was an unformed dungeon space. Due to interference from the entering players, it shaped into the current Seventeenth Hospital dungeon. According to Sima Xiao Er, at the time everyone saw different hospital names. Why it eventually became the Seventeenth Hospital, I can only boldly speculate it has something to do with Xu Huo.”Team Leader Wu couldn’t help swallowing. “You mean a D-level player can own a dungeon?”

It was no longer a secret that a random dungeon boss could be a player, but how to control a dungeon remained a blind spot in Zone 014. After all, the birth of a dungeon was rare and unpredictable; it shouldn’t conveniently fall into someone’s hands.

But the Seventeenth Hospital dungeon may have been born in Flower City, and the “efficiency” with which it opened in Capital City makes it hard not to suspect foul play.

Everyone’s expressions varied, but worry outweighed excitement. For low-level players, possessing a random dungeon was like a dimensional downgrade crush — it completely destroyed the ticket system’s absolute advantage.

“Not necessarily,” Nie Xuan said again. “Maybe he only obtained the dungeon’s entrance pass.”

Like the dungeon entrances brought in by Y Country, Xu Huo may have obtained an item in the overlapping space that could open a dungeon. Given his mental evolution, this dungeon suited him perfectly. Using the dungeon to kill players wouldn’t be difficult.

The room’s mood swung like a roller coaster. Team Leader Lü said, “Even just having the dungeon entrance is enough to make people nervous. What Nie said makes sense—he didn’t move the dungeon to Y Country, so he did show restraint.”

“In any case, we must increase our effort in dungeon research,” Team Leader Chang said. “Otherwise one day the Special Defense Department truly might not be able to handle a single player.”

People are fickle and hard to trust; strength is everything.

No one raised objections. Minister Fan handed interference work to Nie Xuan, with a firm condition that Xu Huo’s name must not appear in connection with this attack. How others chose to brainstorm didn’t matter.

After the meeting, Team Leader Lü called Nie Xuan aside and bluntly asked, “Do you think the holder of the Seventeenth Hospital is Xu Huo?”

“I already said in the meeting,” Nie Xuan smiled faintly. “It’s very difficult for a single player to own a random dungeon. I lean toward this being an autonomous dungeon controlled by a Special Item. The dungeon boss is not a living person.”

Lü fixed his gaze on him for a moment. “Are you telling the truth?”

“I only say what I’m confident about,” Nie Xuan replied. “But eventually a player will obtain dungeon ownership. If it’s going to be held by anyone, I’d rather it be one of our own than someone from another country.”

“That makes sense.” Lü rubbed his chin. “Once headquarters’ matters are settled you’ll need to move faster. We can’t let the Special Defense Department be outpaced.”

“I’ll hand over my work to other colleagues tonight and enter the dungeon first thing tomorrow morning,” Nie Xuan said as he changed the file to his other hand.

“Leave the trivial stuff to us. It would be a shame for your talent to be wasted on these things,” Lü volunteered to take the rest of his workload.

Nie Xuan accepted without argument and left with the file.

Back in his office, he sat at his desk, pulled out the last page of handwritten notes from the folder, stared for a few seconds, and then used a lighter to set it on fire.

*

“What are you staring at? Never seen a man moon his butt?” On the bus heading to the county town, a tall, burly male player who had just boarded covered his bare lower body with a scant shirt and shouted angrily at the uniform heads that all turned to stare.

“I’ve seen bare butts, but I’ve never seen one that’s walking a bird,” teased a young woman with many small braids sitting in the last-row corner, arms folded.

“It’s you!” The burly man clamped his legs together and rushed over. “You bitch, you dare play me!”

The young woman toyed with her sleeve and replied calmly, “Don’t get impulsive. Impulsiveness is the devil. The devil might not even give you the last scrap of modesty.”

The burly man indeed stopped, not because he was cowed but because the woman’s props were ridiculously uncanny.

“Find a seat. What are you standing for?” the driver shouted.

The burly man scanned the bus. Only three empty seats remained. Aside from passengers who looked like NPCs, the vacant spots were occupied by players who clearly seemed dangerous.

He flared his nostrils and ordered the player sitting directly opposite him, “Get up!”

The player with a hat covering his face didn’t respond, though a steady smell of blood wafted from him, showing he had been badly wounded on the train.

Soft targets were easiest to bully. The burly man didn’t want to pick a fight with anyone else, so he tried to coerce this one into giving up the seat.

After a few seconds with no movement, the burly man reached to grab his shoulder. A young player nearby immediately shouted to stop him, “Fighting will affect… how others view us…”

Before he finished speaking, the burly man’s action was suddenly halted, as if a pause button had been pressed.