Players, Please Board the Train

The black-clad player who had been sent flying was caught by his companion, who set the severely injured man down in a corner before charging at Xu Huo:

Two layers of jelly-like substance attacked Xu Huo from both sides, bubbling violently as if boiling, and the splashing liquid was highly corrosive, even capable of melting the building materials on the ground!

Xu Huo walked forward, and ”Like Repels Like” knocked the black-clad player away, dragging the unstable ”jelly walls” backward with him until they collapsed on the spot.

The flashy but useless trick seemed to satisfy neither the host nor the guest. The black-clad player put on his gloves and raised his hand, causing the surrounding debris to be pulled up by gravitational force!

A mess of random objects clumped together into what was nearly a thick wall, but the charging time was too long. Before the thing could even be hurled, Xu Huo had already flashed to the black-clad player’s side. Through the layer of diamond gloves, he grabbed the man’s face with a chopping motion and slammed him hard against the exhibition wall behind him!

”Bang!” The wall caved into a large hole, and the black-clad player’s skull split open. Giving him no time to react, Xu Huo loosened and tightened his grip, smashing the man’s head into the wall again and again until blood splattered everywhere and the sound of a snapping neck bone echoed through the air.

Dropping the corpse, Xu Huo’s rage did not fade. He pulled out the ”Eye of the Dead” and turned to face the several black-clad players closing in around him.

After killing six in a row, someone called out to stop the others who were still charging forward, shouting in furious panic: ”Are you all blind? This guy’s just passing through! Go after that group that blew up the building—don’t let a single one escape!”

The building bombers he mentioned were Chi Nan and her crew. By now, Chi Nan and two of her companions had vanished without a trace, leaving only Old Zhou. He was surrounded by black-clad players and already badly wounded, glancing toward Xu Huo more than once as he retreated.

Unfortunately, Xu Huo didn’t spare him even a sidelong glance. Since no one was actively attacking him anymore, he stopped his rampage, turned around, and dug the Awakening Doll out from the rubble.The Awakening Doll was currently in use as the medium for opening the dungeon, so he couldn’t just take it away at will. The thing specifically meant to restrict Jiangjiang hadn’t come in handy at all, and now he had to waste time retrieving it. Xu Huo’s expression soured as he stood before the doll and said, ”I’ll be back in three days.”

Random dungeons generally took a long time to complete, but he had no intention of lingering in Zone 009. Whether he could recover the Awakening Doll was up to luck.

After unilaterally announcing his intent, he turned and left the building.

”Save me...” Just as he stepped out the main entrance, Old Zhou, who was nearly spent, couldn’t help but call out for help, adding: ”The people we killed were politicians who raised Evolvers as test subjects! Over the past year, they’ve killed nearly two hundred Evolvers!”

Xu Huo paused mid-step, released the kite string to pull the man in, and used his characteristics to swiftly leave the building!

Some players might excel in speed, but even they couldn’t keep up with him indefinitely, since using characteristics for acceleration didn’t drain much stamina.

After confirming the black-clad players weren’t chasing them, Xu Huo found a relatively hidden spot, set the man down, and left.

Old Zhou wanted to call out to him, but when he saw the look in Xu Huo’s eyes as he turned away, he instinctively swallowed his words.

By now, there was no lodging left to be found in the safe area, so Xu Huo casually picked a residential building rooftop as a place to rest. Unexpectedly, someone was already there when he went up.

The person was clearly a player too, sipping some liquor and grilling barbecue. Seeing Xu Huo, he proactively offered a drink: ”Want a sip?”

Xu Huo politely declined and ate the dry rations he’d brought along.

The man didn’t seem keen on small talk, so after being turned down, he just continued eating by himself.

After finishing his meal, Xu Huo leaned against the railing to rest, idly playing with Jiangjiang’s paintbrush in his hand.

What she said about giving it to him was genuine. Before entering the game world, she voluntarily gave up the item, and now that it was in his hands, it was his.

[The Painter’s Brush: A magical brush that can turn any person or object into a painting model. Who could resist the chance to be hung on a wall? Note: Users must comply with employment regulations and maintain a healthy work-life balance.]

Worth mentioning, this was a C-grade item.

The reply on the bounty platform came from Jiangjiang herself, which was unexpected to Xu Huo, but it also revealed a few things. Judging by her actions, this woman was probably teetering on the edge of sanity and insanity.

Foreseeing her own death had made her somewhat self-destructive. ”Being unable to change a predicted future” was likely a conclusion she’d arrived at through countless experiments. Knowing she would die but still staying in Zone 009, even actively seeking him out—it was clear that the prolonged ”waiting for death” had taken a heavy toll on her mentally.

It was precisely because this pressure had nowhere to vent that she showed such blatant disregard for the lives of those around her—even actively pushing them toward death, like the players who died in the gallery earlier.

But everyone has survival instincts, which was why she fled after her mutual-destruction attempt failed.

On the bad side, Xu Huo had missed a golden opportunity to exploit her ”give-up-everything” mindset.

But on the good side, someone on the verge of madness had found a reason to live and was willing to return to normalcy.

At this point, he didn’t hold much hope for Jiangjiang. She might be hiding something, but it probably deviated significantly from what he expected. At the very least, the person who raised her couldn’t have been the doctor from the Seventeenth Hospital—her mental state was too unstable.

Returning the paintbrush to his item slot, Xu Huo closed his eyes to rest.

About ten minutes later, a dozen or so players trickled onto the rooftop one after another.

These people were with the barbecue player. After exchanging greetings, they used a sound-dampening item.

A few minutes later, someone finally took two steps toward him. ”Brother, mind moving over a bit?”

”Sure.” Xu Huo stood up, took a running start, and leaped onto the rooftop of the adjacent building—the distance between residential buildings wasn’t far. It might not have been possible before, but after his characteristics evolved, it was no problem.

Only after putting three buildings between them did he sit back down to rest.

As luck would have it, someone was on this rooftop too. The person gave him a thumbs up. ”Brother, impressive moves!”

Xu Huo looked up at the still-bright sky: Better find an underground parking garage instead.

He nodded at the man and headed into the elevator lobby, planning to take the elevator down.

Ignoring the people lying in ambush on the lower floors, he reached the first floor and left the residential complex at top speed.

But although he had no intention of joining someone else’s fight, certain people weren’t willing to let him go. After he came down, two players started tailing him.

Xu Huo searched for directions on his phone and lured the two into a sealed-off road. Unexpectedly, someone else was inside ”handling urgent business.” He’d barely taken a stand outside when a female voice came from far to near: ”A person doesn’t have to be good, but they absolutely must not be bad. Do too many bad things, and there’ll surely come a day when you get beaten black and blue!”

As the words faded, Yan Jiayu, with her short hair and boundless energy, came crashing down in front of him, kneeing a man into a barrier panel that flew off, while her stone-staff-like Demon-Subduing Pestle knocked out a mouthful of the man’s teeth: ”Doesn’t matter if it’s not voluntary—being forced to change is still change. Looking at the results, there’s no difference!”