Players, Please Board the Train

Two minutes later, the countdown ended. Xu Huo remained standing in place—no explosion occurred, and no white mark appeared on the back of his hand.

”You actually pulled it off,” Brother Feng said with considerable surprise. No amount of online information could compare to seeing it with his own eyes. He studied Xu Huo carefully. ”You really aren’t afraid of death.”

”Afraid? Of course I’m afraid,” Xu Huo replied. ”I just endure it and get through it.”

As he spoke, he provocatively glanced at the Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier. ”If you’re scared, I can take this round too.”

The Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier immediately exploded with anger. ”Brother Feng, let me go this time! I refuse to believe I’ll lose to this guy again!”

”You don’t have any survival opportunities left. Qi Shan will take this round,” Brother Feng stated decisively, producing a glass hourglass as he turned his palm upward.

The tall thin camouflage soldier named Qi Shan took the hourglass and walked toward the center of the roulette wheel. He said to the Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier, ”Don’t look so sour. I’ll let you have the next round.”

The Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier wore an expression of unwilling resentment as he prodded the Old Gentleman and the female player forward with his gun, forcing them to stand beside Qi Shan.

”What’s this about?” the female player asked tremulously. ”I thought only one person could enter at a time?”

”BANG!” The Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier shot through her calf, then grabbed her hair and dragged her across the floor. The Old Gentleman hurried forward to intervene but received a rifle butt to the face for his efforts.”Stay put if you want to live!”

The Old Gentleman seethed with anger but didn’t dare speak out, instead helping the female player—who was biting her lip to avoid making noise—sit at Qi Shan’s feet.

The life-and-death round began quickly. Qi Shan’s expression shifted as he simultaneously turned over the hourglass in his hand. Gray sand began pouring from the fuller end to the emptier one.

Xu Huo felt his arm being bumped twice. He turned to find a colorful scribbled drawing thrust in front of his face, followed by Painting Woman poking her head out from the side with a smiling expression. She pointed at the person in the drawing, then pointed at him.

This was a picture she had drawn with fluorescent markers borrowed from the children earlier. It depicted two people—one was Xu Huo, the other was her.

”Big sister didn’t draw very well,” a child being held by a woman suddenly whispered. Her mother quickly covered the girl’s mouth and glanced fearfully toward Brother Feng’s group. Only when she confirmed they weren’t looking their way did she relax slightly, whispering, ”Thank you.”

This woman was the one who had been replaced first by the Old Gentleman.

Xu Huo crouched down and patted the child’s fluffy hair, then picked up a fluorescent marker and drew a small pig on white paper before pointing at Painting Woman.

The little girl shook her head. ”Pretty sister doesn’t look like a piggy.”

Xu Huo smiled, folded a paper flower from the paper, and handed it to Painting Woman.

”Mister, I want one too,” the little girl said shyly.

Xu Huo took another sheet of paper, tore off a corner, and drew a single white line on it with a fluorescent marker before closing his hand around it.

”Can you make this real?” he asked Painting Woman, tapping the back of his hand.

Painting Woman lightly clasped his hand and immediately released it. When Xu Huo opened his palm again, the scrap of white paper had attached to his skin like real flesh. As he turned his hand, it could slide to the back.

The white line drawn by the fluorescent marker had merged with the paper under Painting Woman’s ability, becoming a single object—just like herself. Similar to how her clothing and accessories could transform from painted paper to appear completely real and indistinguishable from genuine articles, this now looked nearly identical to the white mark representing survival opportunities.

”Mister...” the little girl exclaimed in wonder, but her mother quickly covered her mouth again and whispered urgently, ”Don’t speak! Don’t disturb the gentlemen, understand?”

The little girl nodded. Xu Huo placed the folded paper flower in her hand and stood up, turning back to look at the three camouflage-clad soldiers.

Qi Shan stood within the pointer’s circle, with the female player and Old Gentleman outside the circle. Brother Feng and the Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier stood guard about two meters apart on either side.

After observing their positions, Xu Huo frowned slightly and shifted his gaze to the hourglass in Qi Shan’s hand. The sand in the upper chamber was almost depleted, but its color had changed from gray-brown to a mixture of gray and white. The moment the last grain fell, Qi Shan spun the pointer.

Simultaneously with his movement, the female player and Old Gentleman collapsed to the ground without any signs of life. The sand in the hourglass suddenly emitted a faint multicolored glow that enveloped Qi Shan’s entire body, then disappeared as he completed the spinning motion.

”Get back!” The Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier aimed his gun at Xu Huo.

”Brother! Don’t be impulsive!” Wang Chaoqing quickly grabbed hold of him.

Xu Huo didn’t advance further. After glancing at the two corpses, he retreated.

He finally understood why these three had gathered so many people in the shopping mall—they were probably using other people’s lives as currency to obtain survival opportunities.

Unfortunately, this time they might not get what they wanted.

Sure enough, when Qi Shan emerged from the life-and-death round, the white mark on the back of his hand had disappeared.

”How could this happen!” the Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier exclaimed. ”You didn’t land on a white square?”

Qi Shan’s face darkened. ”No. Did the Lucky Hourglass fail? Or were we tricked?”

”It seems two people are far from enough,” Brother Feng said with an unpleasant expression, kicking aside the corpses of the female player and the Old Gentleman before turning to glare darkly at Xu Huo and the others.

”What just happened? Why did both of them suddenly die?” The Baseball Cap man, now without any survival opportunities to protect him, cautiously positioned himself at the edge of the crowd.

”Are you blind? Didn’t you see that glowing hourglass? It’s definitely some kind of killing item,” Wang Chaoqing said fearfully, swallowing hard. ”They’re not going to drag us up there too, are they?”

”They won’t,” Xu Huo said at that moment. ”That hourglass probably has usage restrictions. Ordinary people might not be effective, which is why they chose two people who had obtained survival opportunities.”

”Am I right?” he asked, turning to Brother Feng.

Brother Feng gave a hollow, mirthless laugh. ”What else have you figured out?”

Xu Huo asked Qi Shan, ”What color was the pointer on the roulette wheel you saw?”

”Black.”

Xu Huo rubbed his chin. ”So that’s how it is.”

”Speak plainly! Stop being cryptic!” the Tall Sturdy Camouflage Soldier said impatiently.

”Haven’t you noticed there are two different colored pointers in the life-and-death round?” Xu Huo said. ”What color was the pointer during the round when you obtained your survival opportunity?”

”White,” Qi Shan said, looking at Brother Feng, who nodded in confirmation. Brother Feng then asked Xu Huo, ”Are you saying only white pointers can land on white squares?”

”Just speculation,” Xu Huo said as he stepped forward voluntarily. ”Maybe it’s not that your item failed, but that there’s a problem with the life-and-death round itself.”

”Let me try again.”

Qi Shan and the other soldier looked toward Brother Feng, who said with visible irritation, ”Kid, you won’t get a second life this time!”

Xu Huo calmly walked into the life-and-death round. Ten minutes later, he extended his hand, revealing another white mark on the back.

Qi Shan reached out and rubbed it. ”It’s real.”

”You take the next round too,” Brother Feng said coldly.

Xu Huo proceeded to begin the second round. This time, he took out the Dual-color Magic Cube, but when the round ended, the white mark on his hand had disappeared again.

”Are you screwing with us?!” Qi Shan stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar.