Players, Please Board the Train

”Did you encounter any other surprises when coming down from the twelfth floor?” Dai Wenqian called out loudly. ”What about the Man-eating Flowers in the elevator shaft?”

”They’re still down there, alive and kicking,” Xu Huo replied. ”They don’t seem easy to kill.”

Dai Wenqian smiled slightly. ”Your trip yielded no results.”

”We may not have gained anything, but we didn’t harm anyone either,” Jiang Yihua glanced at the corpse on the floor. ”Unlike some people.”

”Extraordinary times,” Dai Wenqian shrugged, putting on an expression of being forced into it.

Jiang Yihua turned away and said nothing more.

With her companion nearby, Gu Yu couldn’t press Xu Huo about what happened after he went upstairs, so she returned to Zheng Liang’s side.

The six hours on the eleventh floor passed quickly, and it was time to proceed to the tenth floor.

The tenth floor appeared to have originally been a laboratory, with broken experimental equipment scattered everywhere. Lab benches and instruments were overturned, and the floors and walls bore claw marks from beasts, along with occasional dried bloodstains. Although there were no skeletons, the floor was littered with suspicious residue.

Xu Huo walked to the window and looked down, still unable to see the first floor. Even the ninth-floor windows were partially obscured.He returned to the room and thrust his sword into the floor. The blade sank into the floorboards, but when he pulled it back up, it hadn’t penetrated through to the ninth floor below. He then struck the window ledge with his sword, but the floors seemed to be made of special materials, as this strike also failed to cut through the floor.

Brother Tie and his group watched his sword intently, exchanging glances. Zhang Biao touched the mole on his face and spoke up, ”I think instead of wasting these six hours doing nothing here, we should make better use of our time.”

The others turned to look at him, and the Bald Player immediately chimed in, ”What do you mean...”

”Although going up carries risks, we could go down early,” Zhang Biao said. ”Back on the fourteenth floor, the reason we lost so many people was simply because we were newcomers who didn’t understand the situation. If we’d known in advance that there were Mutants on the fourteenth floor, that never would have happened.”

Everyone seemed to find this somewhat reasonable. Zhang Biao glanced around and continued, ”So why don’t we go scout ahead before the elevator arrives? That way everyone can be mentally prepared.”

This sounded like a feasible plan.

”If we do that, we could indeed avoid certain risks,” Kang Hong commented objectively. ”But the scouts would definitely be in great danger.”

”How dangerous could it be?” Brother Tie said dismissively. ”Coming down from upstairs, did we really encounter any ferocious Mutants?”

He pointed at Xu Huo and the other two. ”Didn’t they kill a mantis? With all that commotion upstairs, no other Mutants were drawn in. The dead mantis was probably the same one that killed Wu Kun in the elevator shaft.”

”That should mean the building is actually safer now.”

”Didn’t we already say when coming down that there weren’t just the mutant mantis, but other Mutants were drawn in later? We just escaped down here in time,” Jiang Yihua frowned.

”If that Mutant was so powerful, could you really have escaped unscathed?” Brother Tie retorted.

Jiang Yihua was momentarily speechless, and before she could counter, he continued, ”To be frank, Mutants aren’t that strong when their numbers are limited. Otherwise, you three wouldn’t have been able to kill one so easily, right?”

”What exactly are you proposing?” Xu Huo asked at this point.

”Since it’s scouting, we need strong players to go,” Brother Tie said. ”We still have sixteen players here. We’re not forcing anyone, so let’s draw lots. Whoever gets chosen goes.”

”What do you think? That’s fair, right?”

He glanced at Kang Hong and the others. ”If you want to sacrifice yourselves for everyone, you can join the lottery too.”

The ordinary people in the back shook their heads like rattles, chiming in, ”We agree with your method.”

Brother Tie smiled with satisfaction and looked at Dai Wenqian. ”What do you think?”

Dai Wenqian didn’t give a direct answer, saying instead, ”As long as the majority agrees, I have no objections.”

Brother Tie immediately found a relatively intact notebook in the laboratory, tore out equally sized slips of paper, marked them with different numbers, and handed all the slips to Gu Yu. ”For fairness, we’ll all draw lots first before announcing which numbers will go down to scout.”

This method benefited the vast majority of people present, including most players. After all, the building seemed to get more dangerous the further down they went. Not encountering particularly fierce Mutants on the upper floors had been lucky. If what happened on the fourteenth floor repeated itself, many more people would likely die.

”Then let’s draw lots,” Xiao Ba said. ”After drawing, we’ll choose an elevator first, work together to kill the Man-eating Flowers below, and then go down.”

”Moving through the elevator shaft is convenient too. If we encounter danger, we can escape back up immediately.”

The other players thought briefly and agreed, but Gu Yu held the slips without nodding. She knew these players’ capabilities best - Brother Tie, Zhang Biao and the others had only experienced one dungeon and received the lowest rating, while the remaining Zheng Liang and Xiao Ba had just come down from the Preliminary Trial Train and hadn’t reached their next dungeon deadline yet.

The most experienced people present were probably Dai Wenqian and Xu Huo.

Since Dai Wenqian’s attitude was unclear, she turned her gaze to Xu Huo. ”Do you agree with this method too?”

”Agreed, do as you please,” Xu Huo said. ”I’m not participating.”

Brother Tie’s face darkened. ”What do you mean? Are you going back on what we agreed?”

Xu Huo glanced at him. ”This is what you agreed on. What does it have to do with me?”

”Xu Huo, we’re not targeting you. Every player has to draw lots,” Zheng Liang said.

Xu Huo said nothing, showing no intention of cooperating whatsoever.

Brother Tie stood up abruptly, glaring at him fiercely. ”Xu, the minority follows the majority. Everyone else agreed, why won’t you?”

”Who said everyone else agreed?” Jiang Yihua said. ”We’re not participating in the lottery either.”

Brother Tie glanced at Gu Yu, and seeing she had changed her stance, a flash of anger crossed his face before he said, ”Weren’t you so righteous earlier? Why are you chickening out now?”

”Weren’t you going to save people? When real danger comes, you turtle up! Your words were so pretty though!”

Brother Tie stirred up some of the uneasy people, and someone said sarcastically, ”Forget it, fearing death is human nature. How can our ordinary lives compare to precious players? What a shame to have them risk their lives for us common folk!”

”I heard the country is calling for ordinary people to join the player ranks. My son wanted to sign up, but if he ends up becoming like these people, I’ll beat him to death!”

”...If the country falls into the hands of such people, it’s doomed...”

”...”

Most people remained silent, but with over a hundred people present, even if only a few spoke up, their overlapping comments created a noisy atmosphere.

Brother Tie chuckled, looking at Xu Huo with satisfaction.