Players, Please Board the Train

The rain was falling, but it wasn’t poisonous. Teacher Pan and Gao Xiaoyue, who reacted the fastest, immediately jumped into the alley, intending to hide inside a shop. However, the moment they landed on the ground, both were frozen in place and couldn’t move. Teacher Pan quickly shouted a warning to Sun Bo and Peng Fengnian, who were coming up behind them. They reacted just as swiftly, changing direction mid-air and charging into the shop ahead.

”Teacher Pan!” Sun Bo turned back to pull Teacher Pan and Gao Xiaoyue, but by then, Xu Huo had already closed in.

”Get out of here first!” Gao Xiaoyue slapped Teacher Pan, pushing him out of the Counting Squares trap, then drew her gun and fired at Xu Huo!

A battered iron door fell to the ground, and Xu Huo’s figure immediately ducked behind it. As he landed, he braced one hand on the doorframe, and the item tangled with the photo rope transformed into a sharp rope-blade!

Meanwhile, Sun Bo, who was dragging Teacher Pan toward the window, realized that the rope blocking their path was a game item when he failed to cut it with one swing of his knife. But they were moving too fast and were too close to dodge. At the critical moment, Sun Bo shoved Teacher Pan out of the way and crashed into the ”Hurt Others, Not Yourself” himself.

Sun Bo was wearing protective items, but they weren’t perfect. The impact didn’t cause a fatal wound, but it sliced open his side. If the blade hadn’t caught on his items, it would have nearly cut halfway through his belly.

At the same time, Teacher Pan, who had been pushed out, was trying to climb out the window under Peng Fengnian’s protection. The light was too dim, and neither of them paid much attention to the liquid smeared on inconspicuous surfaces—like the table piled to the side, the overturned cabinet, the old window frames... By the time Peng Fengnian smashed the window open and saw two wax figures outside, instinct made him hesitate. But that split second was all Xu Huo needed. Having already killed Sun Bo, he was now right behind them!

”Anomaly from Another Land!” Teacher Pan shouted, holding up a diamond-shaped crystal. But the item didn’t activate. Xu Huo swept his sword across and slashed Teacher Pan’s throat—it should have been a clean cut, but perhaps some item or characteristic had dulled the blow. As Teacher Pan collapsed to his knees, clutching his neck, he could still speak. ”Don’t kill Peng Fengnian... He means you no harm...”

Xu Huo kicked him aside and turned to meet Peng Fengnian’s thrust with a small knife.

”Extreme Fatigue” and ”Important Call” were used simultaneously. The weariness was visibly spreading across Peng Fengnian’s face, and he raised one hand to press against his ear. But in exchange, the ”Crimson Sword” fell to the ground, and a sharp, piercing pain erupted in Xu Huo’s arms, nearly making it impossible to lift them...The two faced off. Xu Huo, who had ”lost the use of both hands,” was clearly at a disadvantage against Peng Fengnian, who still had one hand free. But at the last moment, Peng Fengnian’s knife veered slightly to the right, aiming away from Xu Huo’s heart.

”Like Repels Like” activated instantly. Peng Fengnian was sent flying into the window frame and then rebounded back. Xu Huo followed up with a kick to his abdomen, sending him tumbling out the window. Then he turned to face Gao Xiaoyue, who was sneaking up on him.

Gao Xiaoyue had used a soundproofing item, moving from the doorway without making a single sound. She was confident she hadn’t been detected. So when Xu Huo turned around as if he had expected her all along, her surprise was especially pronounced.

But her hands didn’t stop. A body bag materialized out of thin air beside Xu Huo, its zipper wide open, swallowing him up like a gaping mouth!

Gao Xiaoyue, standing right next to him, drew her steel cable and was about to lasso it around him. But before even a second had passed, a long sword stabbed through the body bag from top to bottom and slashed it open with a loud *shrrrr* sound.

Even items made of paper or cloth aren’t easily destroyed, but that sword cut through the body bag like it was cutting through paper. Seeing this, Gao Xiaoyue knew she was outmatched. She grabbed Teacher Pan and quickly retreated.

Teacher Pan, slung over her shoulder, spotted the person coming out of the shop a moment later. He immediately hurled the green syringe as hard as he could into the distance!

Xu Huo, in hot pursuit, instantly changed direction and reached out to catch the potion. But the moment he grabbed it, the glass vial exploded. The potion instantly vaporized into a pungent, acrid gas, spreading across several cubic meters in the blink of an eye.

Gao Xiaoyue, who had been sprinting away, stopped and turned to look at the cloud of smoke. ”Is he dead?”

Teacher Pan didn’t need to answer. Xu Huo provided the answer himself. He burst out of the smoke like a bolt of lightning, appearing in the blink of an eye on a rooftop less than a hundred meters away. In another blink, he was right in front of them. As he brushed past them, the poison gas clinging to his clothes hadn’t even fully dissipated... Unaffected by the poison, catching up in an impossibly short time, and predicting his opponent’s escape route and direction—any player who witnessed such ability would have to offer a word of praise. Unless, of course, they were the prey being hunted.

Two bodies rolled off the rooftop. Xu Huo finally got his potion back. After confirming it was the same one he had taken from the puppet’s arm earlier, he shook the lingering poison gas off his clothes and turned to head toward the Museum City gate.

Leaning against the wall in a small alley, Peng Fengnian watched his retreating figure and dialed Lin Zhenhuai’s phone. ”Teacher Pan is dead. Find somewhere to hide.”

Even if they cleared the dungeon, they couldn’t get out anyway.

Lin Zhenhuai and Eagle had originally been responsible for drawing Xu Huo’s attention, and they had also brought the gravely injured He Xue with them. They hid him first, planning to take him out of the dungeon after dealing with Xu Huo. But when they reached the gate, they couldn’t leave. They didn’t see Xu Huo following them either, so they went back to get their companion.

After several attempts to figure out why they couldn’t leave Museum City, the two sensed something was wrong. They were about to contact Teacher Pan when Peng Fengnian’s call came in.

Eagle was shocked and enraged. ”He dared to kill Teacher Pan!”

Lin Zhenhuai was much calmer. ”What’s wrong with a player killing another player? When you kill, you have to be prepared to be killed.”

”But Teacher Pan is different...” Eagle’s words were cut off.

”He’s no different. Sooner or later, everyone who enters the game will have this day. Don’t even think about going out to avenge him. If Teacher Pan was killed, Gao Xiaoyue is probably dead too. We’re no match for Yu Huo. Let’s hide first and regroup with our people.”

After settling their companion, Lin Zhenhuai and Eagle split up to find hiding spots. But Xu Huo didn’t immediately set off to hunt them down. Instead, he found a place to carefully examine the documents about the Corpse Hotel that he had taken from Teacher Pan’s luggage compartment.

The fact that people who entered the Corpse Hotel would mysteriously vanish had caught the attention of some scholars. From the initial paranormal investigations to the appearance of the game world, these people realized that the Corpse Hotel might have been connected to the game for a very long time. It could have been a naturally formed overlapping space, or an accidentally created item. Either way, it was of great research value.

The local government had suppressed the news and conducted its own research. After sending in plenty of people who died in the process, they finally got some results.