Players, Please Board the Train

The hotel’s entrance was made of glass doors, offering a more direct view from here than from upstairs. The outside was completely swallowed by darkness, and aside from the faintly traceable fog, you couldn’t even see two or three meters ahead.

“It’s like being confined to a limited range in an E-rank dungeon,” Wei Xian said.

Venturing into the unknown unprovoked was unwise. Tian Kunwen suggested, “You Jun, we’ll look for him tomorrow.”

“More than one room got knocked on tonight. Xu and the third-floor guest didn’t open their doors and nothing happened. If someone knocks later, whatever you do, don’t open it.”

The players each returned to their own rooms. Fu Danhong joked with Xu Huo, “Man, you’ve got a pretty fiery temper.”

She must have heard that “get lost” from earlier.

“But it’s thanks to that. If you’d opened the door, you might’ve ended up like You Jun too,” Fu Danhong said before heading back to her room.

Tian Kunwen nodded at him and closed his door as well.

Xu Huo turned around and unexpectedly saw a head poking out from a room at the end of the hallway. As their eyes met, the person immediately retreated back inside.

That player had checked in a day ago.The night passed without incident until the next morning. Xu Huo came downstairs early, and the manager was already sitting at the front desk. When he saw him, he grinned and said, “You’re up pretty early, guest.”

“I called the front desk yesterday, but no one answered.”

“Oh dear, look at me.” The manager pulled out White Bills from his bag. “I wasn’t on duty yesterday, I had things to do. Here’s your refund.”

Xu Huo reached out to take it, but the manager seemed reluctant to let it go. He pointed at the handicrafts on the shelf behind the counter. “Why don’t you buy a couple to play with? Our handicrafts here are second to none.”

Xu Huo glanced at them and decisively pocketed the money. “The eyes are carved way too ugly.”

The manager pursed his lips and sat back down.

Not long after, Yi Pei and the others came downstairs. Tian Kunwen said grimly, “Three people went missing last night altogether.”

Aside from Liu Shiyan on the first floor and Fang Penghui on the third, the players who hadn’t shown their faces yesterday also gradually came down for breakfast. The disappearances were discovered by their roommates or neighbors. Some were worried, others gleefully watching the misfortune. After sizing up Xu Huo and his group, these people left the hotel.

“They won’t tell you anything,” Fang Penghui, the curly-haired man, said as he watched Wei Xian constantly trying to strike up conversations with others. “This is a survival dungeon. Everyone here is a competitor. One person being safer means another person being more in danger. Only an idiot would help.”

He shot them another meaningful look.

This plunged Tian Kunwen and the others, who had only formed a temporary alliance, into silence.

After the other players had all left, Yi Pei said, “Let’s each go out and look for clues. We can’t just know nothing and wait for others to dig a pit for us. Let’s also look for You Jun on the way.”

There had been three knocks last night. The two who didn’t open their doors were fine, but You Jun, who did, went missing. The instinctive conclusion was that opening the door was the key difference. Yet two others also vanished, suggesting that the disappearances had little or nothing to do with opening the door, and that the real reason needed to be discovered on their own.

“We were in a rush yesterday, so today’s a good chance to look around,” Fu Danhong said, scanning the group. “We were the last to arrive. If we don’t stick together, we might get targeted by others.”

They agreed to continue their temporary cooperation. After leaving the hotel, they split into two groups: a pair and a trio. Xu Huo paired up with Yi Pei, while Tian Kunwen, Fu Danhong, and Wei Xian formed the other team.

After breakfast outside, Yi Pei grabbed her backpack and voice recorder, posing as a magazine writer planning to write an article about Sifang Palace, and started asking the locals for information.

They didn’t get much substantive intel. Instead, they ended up buying quite a few handicrafts just to win the homeowners’ goodwill.

“They’re all just animal carvings,” Yi Pei said, stroking a small wooden bear. “Just not very refined.”

After going to a few houses, Xu Huo decided he wouldn’t follow along anymore. “I’m going to check outside the city.”

“Outside the city is all woods... Are you looking for You Jun?” Yi Pei was quite surprised. “Why?”

“Dead or alive, he should have left some clues or traces behind. I’ll take a gamble,” Xu Huo replied. He asked her, “Want to come with me?”

In truth, the disappearance itself was already a very valuable clue.

Yi Pei declined. “I’ll keep learning about Sifang Palace’s background. We’ll meet up later and share our intel, sound good?”

“Sure.” Xu Huo headed toward the woods outside the city alone. Just as he was about to enter, he saw the girl they’d met yesterday coming out of the forest carrying half a basket of wild greens.

“What a coincidence! Have you had breakfast yet?” The girl with the long braid smiled sweetly. “Want to come to my place for some wild veggie porridge? It’s delicious.”

“I’ve already eaten.” Xu Huo smiled, looking a bit frail. “The air is nice here. I want to take a stroll. Are there any paths in the woods?”

“There are some paths worn down by foot traffic, made when people go looking for mushrooms and wild veggies.” The girl with the long braid pointed behind her. “But there are a lot of mountains and forests around here. No one usually goes too far out. There might be snakes, so be careful, okay?”

Xu Huo thanked her. Then, noticing a lifelike small cat wood carving hanging from her basket, he said, “Is this one of your family’s handicrafts? It looks better than the others’.”

“This is my brother’s handiwork.” She spoke with a hint of pride. “In this town, if he says he’s second best, no one dares to say they’re first! It sells the best outside!”

“That’s really good,” Xu Huo said. “Can you sell me a couple?”

“Sure!” The girl’s eyes lit up. “I don’t have any on me right now. I’ll deliver some to you later. Where are you staying?”

“How about I go to your place to pick them? I don’t mind buying a few more,” Xu Huo said.

They parted on friendly terms, and Xu Huo continued deeper into the woods.

He wasn’t the only one out here. On the way, he ran into Fang Penghui, who was crouched under a tree examining something. When he sensed Xu Huo approaching, he immediately stood up, kicking some dirt over whatever was on the ground with his feet.

Xu Huo glanced at it. It looked like a piece of stone.

Seeing this, Fang Penghui simply moved aside and walked off. Before leaving, he said, “In this dungeon, it’s better not to be so curious.”

Xu Huo was clearly not one to take advice. He kicked away the dirt covering the thing, only to find it was a broken stone statue. The upper half of the face was missing, while the lower half depicted a somewhat abstract religious figure. Judging by the break, it had been damaged for quite some time, and the area around it showed signs of having been disturbed multiple times.

This was the first religiously-related item he had seen since entering the town.

According to the dungeon’s lore, religious sculptures should have been visible everywhere. But this modernized town showed no traces of any religious remnants whatsoever, and even the handicrafts sold had nothing to do with religion.

From the few homes he had just visited, the public areas like living rooms, kitchens, and small courtyards also had no signs of religious worship. Nothing related at all, let alone any devoutness. It, too, contradicted the background introduction.

The town itself was also strange. It was said the city’s scale had been shrinking repeatedly, but the residential areas were almost entirely overgrown with vegetation, not at all like places people actually lived in. Even if everyone had moved away, there shouldn’t have been no trace at all left in the vicinity.

Changing direction, he was about to continue deeper into the woods when someone suddenly called out to him from behind, “Hey!”