Players, Please Board the Train

Everyone fell silent, utterly terrified. Dai Wenqian seemed quite satisfied with the situation he had created and tossed the dagger back to his companion.

”Just stopping them would have been enough, was killing necessary?” Gu Yu couldn’t help but say as he walked over to her.

”That’s the simplest and most efficient method,” Dai Wenqian replied. ”A few people escaping is a minor issue, but should the remaining hundred-plus people bear the risks they would bring?”

Although his approach effectively controlled the situation, Gu Yu still found it emotionally difficult to accept. She glanced at the person lying on the ground, then sadly turned her head away.

Someone covered his face with a piece of clothing.

Dai Wenqian’s attitude caused subtle changes in the expressions of the fellow players traveling with him. The remaining players split into small groups to rest, while the other ordinary people who had been directly threatened appeared even more dejected under the weight of dual fears.

The Wealthy Young Girl didn’t dare cry aloud, leaning against the Tall Woman while continuously wiping her tears. Kang Hong, sitting near them, also seemed less composed than before, showing signs of anxiety.

”Do you need help?” The Flower Basket Girl, seeing that Xu Huo had been organizing tape all along, proactively offered: ”If you have any ideas, you can tell us. Da Zhi and I can help. Three people are always better than one.”

”We can help too!” the Tall Woman quickly added.

Kang Hong and several other young, strong men around him also expressed that they were available to assist if needed.Xu Huo requested several mobile phones and, as before, wrapped them thoroughly with tape, apparently planning to place them inside the elevators.

”Will this method work? Someone just got killed earlier,” the Flower Basket Girl said.

”What’s your name?” Xu Huo looked up at her.

”Jiang Yihua,” the Flower Basket Girl replied. Seeing him merely nod and then continue working, she felt rather frustrated.

After preparing several phones, Xu Huo took his bright red sword and the Ox Shield and approached the elevator area.

At that moment, Gu Yu walked over. ”I’ll help too.”

Xu Huo nodded. ”I’ll block the gap. You lower the phones down, pulling them to the side.”

There were gaps of a few millimeters in the elevator outer doors. Phones couldn’t be shoved directly through, but a few layers of tape could pass through without issue.

Xu Huo selected four elevators to lower phones into, including the one Brother Tie had opened earlier and the one where the player was just killed. However, no unexpected incidents occurred while lowering the phones, which indirectly confirmed that the Mutants weren’t only active inside the elevators.

”The elevator shafts are pitch black. What can they even capture?” Zheng Liang commented sarcastically from the side. ”Didn’t we already try this earlier?”

”Not necessarily,” Dai Wenqian interjected. ”If we place phones in every elevator, whichever elevator door opens midway, even the slightest movement could be recorded. However, this method is a bit clumsy. All fifteen elevators connect to floors. It wouldn’t be strange for Mutants to appear in any elevator shaft.”

In other words, even if you knew a Mutant was in a specific elevator shaft one minute ago, the next minute it could enter other elevator shafts via the floors.

Gu Yu, who initially had confidence in Xu Huo, also felt this made some sense after hearing it and couldn’t help but look at Xu Huo.

”No need to find the Mutants’ hiding spots. We just need to confirm they aren’t in a specific elevator shaft,” Xu Huo said.

Another six suffocating hours passed.

Outside, the sky had brightened, but it remained foggy. Nothing could be seen through the windows.

Just before entering the elevator, Xu Huo took a spider from his pocket and stuck it near the elevator, then placed another phone before heading down to the eleventh floor.

”Why is it empty?” Jiang Yihua had mentally prepared herself, but when the elevator doors opened, the entire eleventh floor turned out to be a pure white space. Inside the sealed room, both the ceiling and floor were spotless.

The moment he stepped out, Xu Huo frowned. He instinctively moved closer to the wall but unexpectedly stepped into empty space, his lower leg sinking into the floor.

”What is this thing?” Those coming out later pushed the people in front out of the elevator, stepping into the ”white floor” one after another. When they pulled their feet up, their trouser legs were covered in fine white threads.

These white threads looked somewhat like ordinary spider silk, but they couldn’t be snapped when lifting a foot. They had a strong stickiness like malt sugar. Someone couldn’t resist grabbing a handful, only to end up with their hand covered in them too.

”Not spiders again, right?!”

”There seems to be something underneath,” Zheng Liang said from the side, stepping on the surface after placing a piece of clothing down, then bending over to look into the hole made earlier. ”It’s dark, about fist-sized, looks a bit like mushrooms.”

Xu Huo, who had used the piano wire to suspend himself in the air immediately, also saw the plants beneath the floor constructed from the white silk. Their shape indeed resembled mushrooms. Underneath the mushroom caps grew dense white filaments, connecting mushroom to mushroom to form sheets, creating a white barrier on top of the mushroom cluster like a hard scab.

”Can these mushrooms be eaten?” Kang Hong couldn’t help but ask. ”Judging by their appearance, they should be non-toxic, right?”

”You’d dare eat things from this place?” the Tall Woman looked at him in shock.

Kang Hong, however, said, ”This building grows many plants, but not every one is poisonous. Didn’t we see that earlier on the thirteenth floor?”

”Some plants are cultivated purely for pharmaceutical purposes. The possibility that the mushrooms are edible can’t be ruled out.”

”We don’t have much food on hand, and consumption is high. If the mushrooms are edible, wouldn’t that solve the food problem for the next two or three days?”

”What he says makes sense,” Xu Huo chimed in, glancing towards Gu Yu and the others ahead. ”Does anyone have a method to check for toxins?”

Gu Yu immediately looked towards Wei Bin.

Wei Bin used a knife to pry out one mushroom. Surprisingly, once the mushroom was cut, the white filaments connected to it also automatically severed, falling back to the ground and retracting into the hole.

Watching the filaments retract and extend like long white worms, Wei Bin’s face momentarily showed disgust. Nevertheless, he brought the mushroom to his nose and sniffed hard, then tore off a small piece to taste. After a moment, he hesitantly said, ”There’s no poison...”

”No poison is good!” Brother Tie, being impatient, didn’t wait for him to finish speaking. He took out a long knife, plunged it down vertically, then turned it horizontally, cutting out a slice of mushroom.

The white floor instantly retreated to the sides, leaving a black area inside, which from a distance looked like a collapsed hole in the floor.

Brother Tie jumped in. With each step, a squelching sound came from under his feet. He lifted his foot and discovered that beneath the mushrooms was another layer of something resembling jelly, with the mushroom stalks rooted in it.

”What is this? Looks a bit disgusting.”

Over here, Jiang Yihua and Da Zhi also picked quite a few mushrooms, revealing large areas of turbid, jelly-like substance underneath.

Jiang Yihua wanted to cut it open to see, but Xu Huo stopped her. ”Forget it. After seeing it, I’m afraid you won’t be able to eat the mushrooms.”

Jiang Yihua followed his gaze to the edge where the white silk had retreated and spotted several black filaments. She suddenly understood, scattering the mushrooms in her hand. ”There are corpses underneath!”

Everyone who had been figuring out how to harvest the mushrooms shifted their astonished gazes from her to Wei Bin.