Players, Please Board the Train

In the end, they concluded that Zone 009 might have had players much earlier, and the representative figure was that Shang descendant who rebuilt Museum City. Otherwise, it would be hard to explain his near-flawless alibi that could rival a clone.

So many people had gone missing, yet their bodies were never found, but their death videos were clearly recorded. Given that someone was frequently moving living people or corpses in and out of a certain location, the scholars believed the videos were actually filmed in the hotel—just in that invisible space not visible to the surface.

Since the Shang descendant could enter and exit, this place could very well be an independent small space. Such a stable small space wasn’t common, and it might even become a standalone dungeon—that’s right, Zone 009’s government already knew the secret that players could also become dungeon holders. If they could obtain a dungeon, it would be far more valuable than any high-grade item.

But they never succeeded even until Zone 009 fully integrated into the game world. During that time, more people chose to give up, especially after the game world fully opened. This stubborn, unyielding place became a chicken rib—tough to crack yet not worth the effort. Only a few people persisted.

So many people had died before them. Teacher Pan and his group came fully prepared, at least ensuring they could return alive even if they got no results. Unfortunately, they never expected that even holding train tickets to enter would be useless.

According to Teacher Pan’s latest diary, the moment they entered with tickets, they cleared the dungeon first. After getting trapped in the corpse-hiding space, all other train tickets and return tickets became invalid.

On this point, Teacher Pan speculated it might be due to the space’s peculiarity. After all, the game world was so vast—anything could exist there, and it wouldn’t be surprising.

Xu Huo had a slightly different opinion.

When he found the potion, a strange device had appeared on the puppet’s wrist. Although that thing self-destructed, being placed together with the potion was unusual in itself.

If Dr. Wu had deliberately left the potion there, this was undoubtedly a lifeline specifically for the player who found it. The evidence was that even train tickets couldn’t escape the space, but when that device activated, all players were thrown out of the space. This couldn’t be mere coincidence.Moreover, that space could receive game notifications yet couldn’t use train tickets, which clearly contradicted game rules. If the game could connect to a place, train tickets should pass through without obstruction.

From the hints in the psychological therapy room, to the corresponding puppets, to the potion hidden inside them—this nearly told him a fact: someone had indeed painstakingly distributed potions, even using this method to screen players.

Some potions could be found in certain dungeons, but they wouldn’t be hidden this deep. Besides, if this really was an S-version Potion, it proved Dr. Wu had been traveling through various worlds long ago—not just for escape. Being able to evade Stellar Group’s tracking wasn’t surprising if he had some special skills. Game rules were also made by people; turning a space into a special zone that could only receive signals one-way wasn’t hard to understand.

But for now, he couldn’t verify any of this.

Teacher Pan and the others hadn’t left the dungeon even after getting out and facing life-threatening crises, which meant at least half of Xu Huo’s earlier guess about the dungeon’s daily cycle was correct. Because the final clearance information didn’t mention whether the time puzzle was solved, his guess wasn’t entirely accurate, but the fact remained that Lin Zhenhuai and the others couldn’t leave.

Putting away the materials, he headed to the Doll Clothing Store before dawn.

The Doll Clothing Store was the only place besides Corpse Hotel that had puppets. If Dr. Wu had really appeared here, perhaps he had hidden more than just one potion.

No more players blocked his way this time. When Xu Huo arrived at the Doll Clothing Store, he found at least half the dolls had been torn to pieces. The remaining dolls were still stubborn—as soon as he entered, he was ”welcomed” by steel needles.

After kicking away the two dolls that rushed at him, he closed the door, put on the Invisibility Cloak, and walked inside.

The dolls with poor vision and hearing lost their target, randomly threw a few steel needles, then collapsed to the ground one after another. Xu Huo rummaged through the scraps of fabric and found a doll holding a smaller doll in the pile of old, abandoned-looking dolls in the corner.

He didn’t see any with a knife, but this one fit the child’s appearance described in that nursery rhyme.

He tore off the doll’s limbs and finally discovered a slot in its abdomen. Unfortunately, when he opened it, it was empty.

The potion had already been taken.

Letting out a slight sigh, Xu Huo put the broken doll into the luggage compartment, searched a bit more, and then left.

When he walked out, it was already broad daylight. Not far away, several players were fighting, among them Xiao Ling and Yu Guangnan. He glanced over, withdrew his gaze, moved from the entrance to a shop dozens of meters away, walked in slowly, then came out a few minutes later, tossing the dead body of Eagle he was carrying to the ground.

”At least there’s still one smart person.” Out of Teacher Pan’s group of three who had scattered, only Eagle came. Lin Zhenhuai and the injured Peng Fengnian hadn’t followed him again.

Time was about right. Xu Huo didn’t plan to linger any longer. With a few quick accelerations, he stopped and appeared at the exit of Museum City, pushed open the gate, and walked straight out.

He didn’t plan to leave Zone 009 for now, so he first used Sun Bo’s phone to check the nearby map, found the nearest car rental place, got a vehicle, and drove along the ”No Random Dungeon Safe Route” published on the official platform.

The arrival of large numbers of players wasn’t a good thing. Those who came early had already cleared or failed the dungeon and come out. Although Zone 009 had been in the era of universal players for some time, it still couldn’t fully control the players. There were quite a few troublemakers, and plenty of bloody incidents could be seen along the way.

Driving onto a national highway, Xu Huo found the road ahead blocked. Looking out, it stretched endlessly with no end in sight. He walked over to a large bus parked on the side and knocked on the window.

The driver cracked the window open and asked warily, ”What do you want?”

”I just wanted to ask what happened up ahead? Why is it backed up this far? My phone’s dead, so I can’t get any messages,” Xu Huo said.

”Go away, go away! I don’t know either!” The driver waved impatiently. Just then, a muffled thud came from the back seat. One of the tightly drawn curtains was yanked open, a woman’s face pressed against the glass, urgently trying to say something, but she was quickly pulled back by her hair.

The curtain fell shut again. The driver stared at him, ”Kid, I’d advise you to know your place...”

Before he could finish, a deep groove suddenly appeared around his neck, and he was lifted backward. Xu Huo raised his index finger to his lips and made a shushing gesture, then said, ”Please open the door. I’d like to take the bus.”

The driver, struggling weakly, frantically pressed the button next to the steering wheel. The door on the side of the bus opened with a ”hiss.” Xu Huo smiled, ”With the current situation, I can still hitch a ride. There really are still good people out there.”