Players, Please Board the Train

After the Host made his announcement, he vanished from above the Plaza. Subsequently, the lights throughout the entire Friendship Garden dimmed.

”He’s just leaving us like this?” Someone shouted toward the sky. ”He went on about friends from afar, but at least give us a place to sleep.”

Unfortunately, the program crew didn’t treat them as human at all. With the audience gone, these front-stage and backstage personnel disappeared without a trace.

In fact, the Host had spent most of the day interacting with the audience and rarely paid any attention to the game participants.

Xu Huo walked to the edge of the Plaza and tested the thickness of the surrounding wall.

What appeared to be only a thin layer of white paneling was actually backed by a nearly solid partition space, roughly five meters thick. It seemed to be made of metal. Even if one destroyed the inner paneling, it would be very difficult to penetrate this metal wall directly.

”People have been messing with this wall all day.” Xiao Xianglin had also returned. He looked far worse for wear, with at least two serious wounds on his body and the appearance of someone who had lost too much blood. He pressed one hand against his stomach while talking to Xu Huo and the others. ”The Host doesn’t care at all. It’s probably very hard to destroy with items, and even if we did destroy it, we still couldn’t leave.”

”Are you okay?” Xu Huo noticed he had to stop and catch his breath mid-sentence, so he asked.

”I’ll live.” Xiao Xianglin poured more healing potion into his mouth, downed several gulps, then wiped his mouth. ”This damn show is way too cruel. It’s obviously set up to make players fight each other to the death. How could friendship possibly form when everyone’s competing against each other?”

Xu Huo paused, then asked him, ”Are you willing to be my friend?””Of course I am.” Xiao Xianglin answered without hesitation.

Xu Huo waited a moment, then asked again, ”Then are you willing to share friendship with me?”

Xiao Xianglin understood his intent. After a brief hesitation, he gave an affirmative answer.

”Unfortunately, we didn’t clear the dungeon,” Xu Huo said, not particularly surprised.

Xiao Xianglin smiled awkwardly.

”The difficulty of this dungeon lies in not knowing the game’s criteria for judging friendship,” Shajia said. ”Going through life and death together? Mutual honesty? Or a bond where you’d trade lives for each other?”

”It has to be that extreme?” You Si was astonished. ”Then we might as well just declare the dungeon a failure.”

”Maybe we’re overcomplicating this,” Xu Huo said. ”Going through life and death together doesn’t necessarily require both parties to complete it mutually.”

”You mean two people doing a task together, and as long as I save someone’s life, the other person counts as having gained my friendship?” You Si pondered for a moment, then added, ”Unfortunately, too few players chose to act together during the day.”

Generally, it was players bringing non-players along, all following the Female Player’s route of protecting non-players to complete tasks. This was also the normal path to gain friendship, by showing goodwill first.

However, several players who had done the same as the Female Player had already returned to the Plaza, indicating this path didn’t work.

”Now I get it!” Xiao Xianglin slapped his thigh. ”No wonder the task I drew was plastic surgery. We were two players together. If your method works, then players cooperating should have someone clearing the dungeon!”

”Don’t get excited. This is just a guess,” Xu Huo said.

There were many ways to express friendship, but the dungeon prompt specified pure friendship.

If saving someone’s life alone could clear the dungeon, then this dungeon wouldn’t be considered difficult.

”We’ll know if it works by trying next round,” Xiao Xianglin said excitedly. ”I wonder who we’ll draw next round. Tomorrow should be mostly players.”

”The more I think about it, the more possible it seems! The real key to this dungeon is probably helping others clear it. Even if someone thought of this method, who would be willing to let others clear the dungeon first?”

Xu Huo understood his thinking well. If it worked, the weaker party would actually hold the advantage.

Clearing this dungeon definitely required interaction between two or more people. First, killing people definitely couldn’t earn friendship. Regardless of the angle, the stronger party would most likely choose to save the weaker party. The one being saved was more likely to gain ”friendship.”

The premise being that this counted as the ”friendship” the dungeon meant.

”But right now, most people definitely equate clearing the dungeon with the show’s final scoring. Should we warn them?” Xiao Xianglin’s mind was racing.

”I suggest you find a player to test it with first,” Shajia said. ”If it doesn’t work, others might take their anger out on you.”

Xiao Xianglin hesitated before saying, ”I’ll see tomorrow.”

That was what he said, but after Xu Huo and the others rested in place, Xiao Xianglin left on his own.

”That idiot, he’s not thinking of making money off the dungeon-clearing method, is he?” You Si glanced over.

Xu Huo closed his eyes to rest and said nothing. Beside him, Shajia, who was meditating, shook his head. ”I hope he doesn’t bring trouble on himself.”

Before dawn, people trickled back one after another. By the time the lights in the Plaza brightened again, the number of people remaining in the Plaza was two hundred seventy-four.

Excluding those who hadn’t randomly drawn a task in the first round, more than half of those who entered other venues to complete tasks had died.

”The final surviving number after the first round of the Three-Color Showdown is two hundred seventy-four. Unfortunately, while we were resting, quite a few more people died in adventure tasks.” The Host’s figure reappeared above the Plaza. His regret lasted only a second before he announced with high spirits, ”But fate is truly wondrous. What’s within easy reach may not be what you truly want. That’s why on the path of friendship, so many people press forward one after another. Time waits for no one. Now let’s begin our second round of the Three-Color Showdown!”

Generally, it was players bringing non-players along, all following the Female Player’s route of protecting non-players to complete tasks. This was also the normal way to gain friendship, by showing goodwill first.

Walking toward the large screen, he said to Player 64, ”I’ll still choose the white ball this time.”

If Player 64 also chose the white ball, then this time it would be Player 64’s turn to complete the adventure task.

But if he chose the yellow ball or black ball, then this round Xu Huo would still be the one doing the task.

Player 64 said nothing. After standing before the large screen, he first touched the black ball.

”Holy crap!” Someone cursed.

Xu Huo didn’t even twitch an eyebrow, and still chose the white ball.

When the selection results were announced, You Si couldn’t help asking, ”You knew he wouldn’t choose the white ball, so why did you still pick white? Even if you’d picked black, it would still be his turn this round.”

Xu Huo wore a smile, enunciating each word clearly. ”To make friends, of course you have to show sincerity. The white ball is my sincerity.”

”Impressive!” A player cheered.

Xu Huo’s upright, honorable conduct made Player 64 seem like he was engaging in petty behavior. Under the somewhat peculiar gazes around him, Player 64 smiled without any warmth. ”You think you can buy people’s hearts this way? Save the hypocrite act for when you make it out alive.”

”It seems our Number 313 Guest isn’t very popular. Despite repeatedly extending goodwill, he hasn’t received any response from his teammates.” The Host shook his head. ”Let’s see what task he draws next!”

”Tsk tsk, perhaps the path of friendship is unusually difficult for him.”

”The location Number 313 Guest has drawn is the aquarium!”

”The task is coloring mutant man-eating sharks!”