Players, Please Board the Train

While taking a taxi back to the city, Xu Huo found himself stuck in a residential area. The road was packed with people, car horns blaring incessantly, yet the crowd kept growing. Some who had pushed through from the front were vividly recounting something to others.

Rolling down the window, he caught fragments like ”corpses” and ”dismemberment” drifting through the air.

”These are troubled times,” the taxi driver sighed. ”People just living their lives, bothering no one, ending up dead with their bodies in pieces.”

”There were deaths inside?”

”Several households wiped out overnight,” the driver said. ”Five families, fourteen people, killed without a sound. Only heads, limbs, and guts left behind—everything else gone! What kind of deranged killer could do something so monstrous? And all in one night! Nobody noticed anything, and no one knows how the bodies were taken...”

As the driver continued, Xu Huo considered a far more disturbing possibility. After Evolvers and Players, game dungeons were now manifesting in reality—indiscriminately killing. From this moment on, ordinary people would face the same risks as Players.

”...And it’s not just this one case,” the driver lowered his voice. ”Three or four similar incidents just in the southern district. Even the big shots came down to investigate. The whole neighborhood’s emptied out—like a ghost town now.”

Xu Huo had spotted familiar uniforms in the crowd—the same outfits worn by the special operatives he’d seen with Nie Xuan outside the hotel.

”Do you know which neighborhoods were affected, driver?”

The man rattled off several names, even providing approximate times. Xu Huo mentally mapped the locations—no discernible pattern in geography or timing.Checking his phone, he browsed local news and trending posts. Most blamed Evolvers, as the crimes’ timing and methods exceeded human capability. Others viciously attacked government officials, venting their fury. Finding little useful information, he logged into the forum.

As expected, the government was recruiting Players to handle the situation in Ting City, releasing some case details. Victims included men, women, and children—adults typically missing everything but heads, limbs, and organs; children only feet remaining. The most chilling detail: all remains had been returned in bags, deposited exactly where they’d vanished from.

Targets weren’t exclusively Players. These random occurrences required no tickets, showed no warning signs, and appeared nationwide in varied forms. Authorities termed this phenomenon ”Random Dungeons.”

Despite exhaustive searches for dungeon triggers, officials had found nothing—hence the Player recruitment. Over just a few days, disappearances had surpassed a hundred, with all locations thoroughly investigated yielding zero clues. Their only hope was that any Player accidentally entering a dungeon might retrieve the missing.

Closing his phone, Xu Huo shook his head. Under these circumstances, not only would no Players come, but local ones would likely flee.

”Young man, we’re here.” The taxi stopped.

After paying, Xu Huo exited to find Yu Qingqing’s agent waiting anxiously at the building entrance. Spotting him, the man hurried over with an ingratiating smile. ”Brother Xu! You’re here! Please, come upstairs.”

They took the elevator to the twenty-eighth floor. A secretary politely ushered Xu Huo into a meeting room. ”President Zheng is in a meeting that should wrap up shortly. Please make yourself comfortable with some tea.”

Noticing the agent nervously wiping sweat, Xu Huo said, ”Five minutes.”

The secretary quickly excused herself.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent room, the Zheng brothers—major and minor executives of the entertainment company—observed Xu Huo through surveillance cameras alongside special operatives.

”Is this the man?” asked a red-haired young man with cold arrogance.

”That’s him!” President Zhu, his neck bandaged, exclaimed. ”He nearly strangled me yesterday! Definitely an Evolver—probably a cannibal too! Arrest him now!”

The redhead frowned at the documents before him. ”He’s killed three people?”

”Yes, but investigations confirmed all three were murderous Evolvers,” interjected Zhao Biao, who’d previously dealt with Xu Huo. ”And the bodies were intact—”

”It’s in the file. No need for commentary,” the redhead cut him off. ”Regardless of who he is, disrupting social order warrants arrest.” Turning to his team, he ordered, ”Exercise extreme caution. This man’s experienced, adept at disguise, and possesses special items. Prevent hostage situations during apprehension.”

”He’s standing up!” shouted Vice President Zheng.

”Move out!”

A dozen special operatives stormed the meeting room armed with anti-Evolver electric nets and tranquilizer guns. But as they breached the door, the lead operative vanished mid-stride!

His stunned teammates raised their weapons toward the figure across the table—only for another to disappear before firing, his gun clattering to the floor.

”What’s happening?”

”People are vanishing!”

Though trained to handle Players’ abilities, the operatives had never encountered instant disappearance powers. How could they counter this?

As they retreated warily, Xu Huo—who should have been confidently in control—suddenly paled and sprinted toward the floor-to-ceiling windows.

”Don’t let him escape!” The redhead’s shout mingled with shattering glass as Xu Huo leaped through the window—but pursuers found no trace of him outside.

”He got away?!” President Zhu burst in, immediately assessing their failure. ”Useless! All that gear, all those men, and you can’t catch one guy!”

The redhead’s icy glare silenced him, reinforced by a fist smashing the solid wood table in half. ”Search floor by floor. This is the twenty-eighth story—he couldn’t have jumped all the way down. He’s still in the building.”

Thud!

Crash!

Before the words fully left his mouth, two more operatives disappeared amid heavy impact sounds.

”This...how is...” President Zheng stumbled backward mid-sentence—then vanished before their eyes.

”It’s Xu Huo! He’s doing this! He’ll kill us all!” Zhu shrieked, bolting for the door only to disappear at the threshold like his colleague.

”Not Xu Huo’s ability—a Random Dungeon!” the redhead realized with horror. ”Evacuate the building! Now!”

Pandemonium erupted as people stampeded for exits, vanishing one after another—operatives, company staff, assisting police officers. None made it off the twenty-eighth floor. The redhead’s phone slipped from his fingers mid-call to the research institute.