Players, Please Board the Train

”This guy has been tailing us for two days now.” Huang Junjie stood at the KFC entrance, subtly eyeing the bespectacled young man who had pretended to be a passerby circling them three or four times, saying with puzzlement: ”What exactly does he want?”

For these two days, that black shadow had been harassing Xu Huo every night, not doing anything else—it would disappear the moment it was touched.

They hadn’t taken the bait at the haunted house, thinking this matter was over, but unexpectedly this suspected mastermind hadn’t planned to let them go. It crawled out of computers at night and loitered around the residential area during daytime, making it impossible not to notice.

Yuan Yao came out carrying a bag and, seeing Huang Junjie about to remove his mask to eat, quickly said: ”Eat when we get back.”

The white crust on his face was peeling off. When he entered the store earlier, people thought he had a skin disease and automatically kept their distance. Yuan Yao didn’t even dare stand too close to him, afraid of being mistaken for a disease carrier.

”How long until that thing on your face gets better? It looks pretty creepy.” Yuan Yao took a sip of his soda.

”Another couple days.” Huang Junjie said vaguely, glancing toward the intersection across the street where the bespectacled young man who had been following them had disappeared.

He paused, turned to scan Yuan Yao and Painting Woman, and asked: ”Where’s Xu Huo?”

Xu Huo had already followed the bespectacled young man onto the subway, maintaining a distance of over ten meters.

At this distance, with his vision, he could still clearly see the words on the other’s phone screen:”Got a clear look at what they look like. One ugly freak, one big idiot, and a quite pretty woman. These three don’t seem right. The remaining one should be him.”

After sending the message, he pocketed his phone and got off the subway.

Xu Huo followed behind, not bothering to hide his tracks, tailing him all the way to the outside of the haunted house they had visited two days ago. Seeing him climb over the wall and enter, Xu Huo lit a cigarette and stopped by the roadside.

”Has he come in?” Wang Chaoqing, the moment he entered the villa, hurriedly messaged the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man, watching the person on the surveillance feed just standing by the roadside smoking with no intention of entering the haunted house, called him and said: ”Make some noise and see.”

Wang Chaoqing deliberately shouted inside the house and smashed a few bowls and plates, but this didn’t lure Xu Huo inside. He checked the time on his phone and whispered: ”Brother Nian, time’s almost up. If I don’t get out soon, I’ll be in danger!”

”Then come out first.” Nian Hong’an said: ”This guy is cunning and won’t take the bait. Probably not easy to deal with. Hurry and leave from the other side, don’t worry about him...”

Before he finished speaking, he suddenly saw the person on screen look up directly toward the camera’s direction, making him jump.

”What’s wrong, Brother Nian?” Wang Chaoqing grew nervous too, then heard him say: ”Nothing, come out.”

Wang Chaoqing breathed a sigh of relief. The moment he climbed over the wall from the other side, someone suddenly spoke behind him: ”In such a hurry to leave?”

Wang Chaoqing jumped in fright. Turning around, he saw the man they’d been tailing for two days standing at the corner staring at him.

”What do you want!” Wang Chaoqing immediately cowardly retreated backward.

”Weren’t you the one who lured me here? Deliberately hanging around near my place these past two days, that shadow was your handiwork too, right?” Xu Huo tossed his cigarette butt and crushed it underfoot. ”Thanks to you, I haven’t slept well these past few days.”

”Too bad that shadow can’t actually kill anyone.”

”After thinking it over, if I can’t solve the problem, then I’ll just have to eliminate the person creating the problem.”

Seeing Xu Huo’s aggressive approach, Wang Chaoqing didn’t say another word and immediately turned to run. As he ran, a black shadow of similar size separated from behind him, claws bared as it pounced toward Xu Huo!

Xu Huo dodged the shadow, hooking the shadow’s calf with his toe, making it tumble to the ground and vanish into nothingness.

Just like the shadow that crawled out of the computer, it had no offensive capability whatsoever.

He crossed his index and middle fingers, and the piano wire lingering around Wang Chaoqing moved forward to strangle his neck, dragging him back upside down by the neck!

”Brother Nian, save me!” Wang Chaoqing screamed in terror.

Xu Huo lifted him into the air, took the phone from his pocket, found Brother Nian’s number, and called: ”You’re the one hiding behind the surveillance, right? You come out, or I’ll come find you.”

Nian Hong’an, seeing Wang Chaoqing hanging there, was terrified too. He stammered: ”Brother, don’t be impulsive. Killing is illegal!”

Nian Hong’an suddenly remembered he had replied to someone on the forum and immediately said: ”It was us, it was us. See, this is a misunderstanding. I wanted to trade an item for a train ticket, but was worried about being scammed, so I did some preliminary checking. Please don’t take offense.”

Wang Chaoqing, hanging nearby, had good hearing. Upon hearing Nian Hong’an’s words, he frantically kicked his legs. What trading for an item? This person was clearly here to kill someone. Mentioning a transaction was just to lure people out.

Unfortunately, Nian Hong’an didn’t grasp this hint. He hung up the phone and hurried out of the security room.

Xu Huo soon saw a middle-aged security guard running over from across the street. He lowered Wang Chaoqing to the ground a bit, giving him some space to breathe.

Seeing he seemed willing to release the person, Nian Hong’an pulled out a corner of something red from his pocket. ”This is it. How about we trade somewhere else? It’s not safe being seen on the main road.”

Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. ”Enter the haunted house?”

”Of course not.” With Wang Chaoqing in the other’s hands, Nian Hong’an didn’t dare try any tricks, just wanting to complete the trade quickly and be done with it. Anyway, this glove was useless—perfect for sending this plague god away.

Xu Huo pointed to a side alley. ”Talk over there?”

Nian Hong’an nodded repeatedly, and the three of them walked into the alley together.

Three minutes later, Nian Hong’an and Wang Chaoqing knelt on the ground, bruised and battered. Xu Huo stood before them, toying with that colorful glove: ”Now, let’s talk. What exactly is inside the haunted house?”

Nian Hong’an, furious but not daring to speak up, hemmed and hawed. Wang Chaoqing, however, was stubborn. ”What’s inside what? Bro, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Xu Huo put away the glove, grabbed Wang Chaoqing’s head forcing him to bend down, and with his other hand, dislocated his jaw. ”If you don’t want to talk, then don’t.”

Tossing the person aside, he looked at Nian Hong’an. ”What do you say?”

Nian Hong’an trembled. ”I’ll talk, I’ll talk... This haunted house is very strange. People disappear a few minutes after entering, and a few days later, things inexplicably appear.”

”What kind of things?”

”Personal items, like wallets, keys, and items...” Nian Hong’an, feeling guilty, spoke softer and softer. ”We didn’t do anything else, just picked up some things.”

”The glove was obtained this way too?”

”Yes... but only this one item is usable. The others can’t be used.”

”How many people have you tricked so far?”

”Just a... a few...” Nian Hong’an said anxiously. ”We just wanted to get some items, didn’t mean to harm anyone. They only lost things, the people might have left safely.”

”You believe that?” Xu Huo retorted, then added: ”What’s the range? Have there been any special changes these past few days?”

”Just this villa. Doesn’t seem to have changed...” Before Nian Hong’an finished, Wang Chaoqing started making urgent muffled noises, as if wanting to say something. Xu Huo reset his jaw, and he hurriedly said: ”It got bigger! The range got bigger! At first it was only inside the villa, but these past two days, the front and back yards can swallow people too!”