Players, Please Board the Train

After sitting down, Wu Qiuyi continued glaring fiercely at Nian and Wang. The two men quite consciously shrank into the corner, not daring to be in anyone’s line of sight.

”By the way, where did you find the chocolate?” Lin Pei asked.

Wu Qiuyi paused at the question, then explained the whole situation.

Both Lin Pei and Ke Liang looked dazed and bewildered.

”Why didn’t you try to answer the riddles?” Xu Huo inquired.

”Because that’s what the people who came before us told us,” Lin Pei said. ”They warned us never to attempt answering questions, or we’d face catastrophic disaster.”

”Who would have thought answering questions would give you food,” Ke Liang said with a regretful expression. ”If we’d known earlier, we should have risked everything to try. Then Xiao Heng wouldn’t have starved to death!”

”That doesn’t make sense,” Gu Yu said. ”When people are starving to death, why would they be afraid to gamble? Why would your companion choose to starve rather than try?”

Wu Qiuyi and the other two weren’t actually clear about this either. Since Xiao Heng had entered the dungeon earliest, when they arrived there were eight people total, but the rule about not answering riddles had come from Xiao Heng’s mouth to the other seven. According to him, everyone who entered at the same time as him had been killed when they tried to solve the riddles. He himself wasn’t too clear about what happened, having survived through sheer dumb luck.

”Just because of that, you didn’t even dare to try?” Gu Yu said incredulously. ”I’d been dieting for a week before I came in. If I had to starve for a few more days, forget about taking risks to try—I’d be willing to eat people!”Nian and Wang shrank into an even tighter ball.

”It’s not as simple as you make it sound,” Lin Pei said. ”You know someone died trying to break through the gate, but you don’t understand how he died.”

”Wasn’t he killed by Mutants?” Shen Xin interjected.

”You’ll understand in a moment.”

The bus slowly drove out of the town and into the dense forest. After about half an hour of travel, the Mechanical Walls hidden by the tall trees finally came into view.

The massive metal walls with no visible connection points curved in an arc around the outer perimeter of the forest. Only at the center was there a metal square frame about ten meters in both length and width embedded at the base, positioned right against the tracks, yet lacking any conventional concept of a door.

It had neither handles nor switches, nor any carved indications. It looked like someone had simply drawn a few lines on the wall.

Was this supposed to be a gate?

”That’s the east gate,” Lin Pei said. ”Do you see the scratch marks on the door?”

There were several small, inconspicuous marks near the gate’s edge.

”These don’t look like marks left by a vehicle,” Xu Huo examined them carefully.

”Correct,” Lin Pei nodded. ”Back then, Brother Liu found an old car to ram the gate, but the car didn’t leave any marks when it hit. Instead, the noise attracted Mutants. When we came later to inspect, we confirmed those were claw marks made by fingernails.”

His expression showed some fear. After the bus continued along the wall for some distance, gradually revealing piles of debris in the grass, he continued: ”That’s the car Brother Liu used.”

Xu Huo’s expression changed slightly as he slowly stood up.

The pile of junk in the grass bore no resemblance to what had once been a vehicle. All the parts were broken and ragged, not shattered as if cut, but twisted and bent by tremendous force. The broken edges had irregular curls, and some fragments had holes that appeared to have been punched by fingers, with palm prints visible nearby.

”This isn’t the same Mutant as the one from the clock shop,” he said immediately.

The palm and footprints left by the clock shop Mutant were larger than normal humans, but its strength shouldn’t reach this level.

”I’ve actually seen the clock shop Mutant,” Wu Qiuyi said. ”I think it must be a completely different type of Mutant.”

”Calling it a Mutant, but its hands aren’t much different from normal humans,” Gu Yu shuddered. ”Tearing apart a car with bare hands? That’s a human-shaped monster!”

”No wonder some people would rather starve to death than take the risk.”

The atmosphere in the bus grew heavy. Such overwhelming disparity in strength inevitably made people feel despair.

”But why were you able to answer the clock shop’s riddle and come out unharmed?” Shen Yi looked back at Xu Huo. ”This might be a breakthrough point.”

Lin Pei and the others perked up, looking at Xu Huo and Wu Qiuyi with intense, burning eyes.

Wu Qiuyi looked confused. From the moment she failed to stop Xu Huo from throwing the doll toy, she had basically been dragged along without much say.

”Maybe it was just luck. There are many such puzzle mechanisms in this town. Perhaps not every one is a death trap.”

”How can we tell which ones are safe?” Shen Xin said disappointedly. ”We can’t just test them one by one.”

”Explain in detail what happened. Let’s pool our ideas—we might find some clues,” Lin Pei said.

Wu Qiuyi repeated the story again. After thinking carefully for a moment, Lin Pei said: ”The key might be the number of people. There were only two of you.”

”That’s right!” Ke Liang slapped his thigh. ”This town absolutely doesn’t allow three people to appear in public spaces at the same time. Maybe that’s why all of Xiao Heng’s companions were killed! It must be!”

Wu Qiuyi wasn’t so sure. She instinctively looked at Xu Huo, who was frowning as if deep in thought, and asked softly: ”What do you think?”

Xu Huo’s expression turned grim. ”We need to find a way to lure out the Mutant and either kill it or trap it.”

”Are you insane!” Gu Yu blurted out. The others also looked incredulous. After seeing that pile of wreckage, who would want to face the town’s Mutants head-on?

”Do you have any other ideas?” Xu Huo swept his gaze across everyone and said calmly: ”The walls outside the town are undoubtedly all made of this indestructible metal. There are no handholds on the surface, and the height exceeds seventy meters. Besides opening the gates, there’s no other way to leave this town.”

”We don’t know how to open the main gates yet, but any attempt to investigate will definitely alert the Mutants.”

”Unless we can find a mechanism to open the doors, and this mechanism can open them silently, players and Mutants will inevitably confront each other.”

”Rather than being ambushed, it’s better to find a way to kill the Mutants. That would make moving around much easier.”

Seeing that he didn’t seem to be speaking recklessly, Lin Pei exhaled and said: ”This is indeed a fundamental solution to the problem. And if we kill the Mutants, we can move around the town more freely.”

”But how do we kill the Mutants?” Shen Xin’s eyes moved between their faces. ”We’re clearly no match for them.”

”We don’t necessarily have to kill them—trapping them would work too,” Wu Qiuyi said. ”As long as we find a place to lock up the Mutants, we’ll have succeeded.”

”But these past days we’ve looked at the town’s buildings, and none seem particularly sturdy,” Ke Liang said. ”Even if there were, what would we use to block the doors and windows?”

A Mutant that could tear cars apart could leave claw marks on metal walls that even cars couldn’t scratch. What could ordinary steel do against it?

”Are there any maps of the town?” Xu Huo asked.