Players, Please Board the Train

Only five more people were still needed.

But none of the remaining people stepped forward voluntarily. Many, having seen Brother Tie and the others going up and down the thirteenth floor, started considering the idea of hiding on the thirteenth floor.

But right at that moment, panicked shouts suddenly came from the thirteenth floor, followed immediately by violent coughing. A few seconds later, Brother Tie and the others successively jumped down from above using ropes, landing on their knees with tears and mucus streaming down their faces, urgently telling others to close the elevator door.

Gu Yu and the others were also startled by their appearance: the skin around their eyes was burned red, and saliva continuously dripped from their mouths. They hurriedly closed the elevator door. Jiang Yihua turned back and said, ”It seems like some kind of dust-like substance floated out from the thirteenth floor.”

”Didn’t you close the thirteenth-floor elevator door?” Zheng Liang came over and grabbed Brother Tie, but then he noticed some reflective golden powder stuck to his face. He let go and stepped back, instead looking at the plants they had brought down. ”Is it poisonous powder sprayed by these things?”

”Probably not, they might have triggered a trap on the thirteenth floor,” Xu Huo glanced over and noted that Brother Tie and his group were at least clever enough; the flowers they brought were all ones he had taken before.

Gu Yu couldn’t stand watching anymore and said to them, ”Use the antidote already!”

Brother Tie clawed at his throat, vomiting twice before finally pouring the antidote into his mouth. Zhang Biao and the other two had no antidote; in the end, Zheng Liang gave them one bottle.

After taking the antidote, their condition improved slightly, but their eyelids were burned, sores formed at the corners of their mouths, their tongues seemed swollen, and they drooled uncontrollably while struggling to speak clearly.

”Mild poisoning, not life-threatening,” Wei Bin gave them water to wash their faces, then observed their condition further and added, ”But staying there longer would have been uncertain.”Dai Wenqian squatted in front of Zhang Biao, using a handkerchief to wipe off a bit of the powder from his face. ”This is pollen.”

”But they didn’t close the thirteenth-floor elevator door,” Zheng Liang said with a dark expression. ”Even if we don’t use this elevator anymore, this poisonous powder could be carried to other floors.”

”The small amount isn’t enough to matter,” Dai Wenqian said.

”It seems the thirteenth floor is off-limits,” Gu Yu said disappointedly.

”We still have to proceed according to the previous plan,” Dai Wenqian stood up and checked the time. ”There are less than three hours left. Since no one is willing to volunteer, we’ll draw lots to decide the other five people.”

At the mention of drawing lots, the people around retreated even further. After the incident on the thirteenth floor, they understood that besides going down floor by floor, they had no other choice. But no one wanted to take risks accompanying the players.

Zheng Liang sneered coldly: ”Why bother drawing lots? Anyway, there will always be four extra people. Whichever elevator you get into, the people in that elevator will die. If you’re unlucky enough to occupy an extra elevator, everyone faces the risk of being randomly selected. I estimate that by the time we reach the eighth floor, only about eighty people will be left.”

Xu Huo offered no opinion on this. Currently, it seemed players and non-players were on opposite sides, and players holding the power of discourse was very unfair to non-players. But actually, this situation was safer for the majority.

If the players didn’t intervene, the remaining people would still fight and kill each other over the elevators.

”Everyone, think carefully,” Kang Hong reminded the crowd at this point. ”Cooperating with players only has benefits. If we find a way to counter the dangers this time, then all the remaining people can survive. But if no one is willing to yield, what should we do about the few extra people on this floor?”

”What method do you plan to use to select these four people?”

”Won’t it just come down to a bloody fight then?”

After a moment of silence, the Wealthy Young Girl stepped forward. ”I... I’ll go too...”

If they had to push others to their deaths, women, who were clearly physically weaker than men, would undoubtedly be the first targets to be abandoned.

A few more people stepped forward one after another. Apart from one thin young man, the other four were all women.

”It’s settled then,” Xu Huo finalized. ”There are still two hours left. Everyone, rest for a while.”

After speaking, he also sat down on the spot, plugged earphones into his phone, and carefully listened to the sounds in the video.

This was the second night since entering the dungeon. During the time from 10 PM the first night until 4 AM the next morning, they had been on the thirteenth floor.

At that time, the thirteenth floor had no issues at all.

Including during the daytime today, when Xu Huo threw the Mantis corpse and placed the phone, and when he entered the thirteenth floor just now to replace the phone, there were no problems at all.

He had also considered several possibilities regarding the trap measures for violating the dungeon’s reminder and staying on the previous floor.

Most floors here lacked monitoring facilities. To detect personnel staying behind, it was probably through weight-sensing facilities, which should be installed within the floor. When he cut the ground during the daytime, he discovered special metal layers in the floor panels.

If they relied on this to detect personnel staying behind, then as long as you didn’t step on the floor, you should be able to bypass it.

But this method wasn’t reliable either. Firstly, it was impossible to confirm if other factors were involved. Secondly, it couldn’t accommodate many people.

However, the thirteenth floor was different.

He had moved plants multiple times and entered and exited the thirteenth floor twice without encountering any danger, yet Brother Tie and the others encountered poisonous pollen.

This didn’t seem related to sensing devices... But if we’re to say how the thirteenth floor differed from others, it had an additional ventilation system.

Other floors had many windows, while the thirteenth-floor windows were sealed. The interior lacked oxygen, and even with the ventilation system, it felt suffocating with many people.

Thinking of this, he dragged the progress bar of the phone video, carefully listening to the fan sounds.

He hadn’t noticed yesterday, but logically speaking with over a dozen ventilation units, it shouldn’t make people feel suffocated. Could the ventilation ducts be blocked?

”Let me see too,” Jiang Yihua, who had long been unable to hold back, leaned over. She knew Xu Huo had placed a phone, but hadn’t mentioned it due to Dai Wenqian and the others.

Xu Huo took off the earphones and gave them to her, checked the time again, then closed his eyes to rest.

Soon, it was 4 AM. He, Jiang Yihua, and over ten others entered the elevator. The moment the elevator doors closed, the entire elevator was suddenly pulled upward. As it approached the fifteenth floor, the metal panel above with the light retracted to both sides, plunging the elevator car into darkness. Then, rustling sounds came from above!

It’s here!

Xu Huo immediately positioned the Ox Shield above his head and raised his sword with his right hand. But unexpectedly, what poured down from above wasn’t mutated plants, but transparent, water-like adhesive mucus!

Gel-like substance instantly filled the elevator. The more than ten people inside the elevator car, including Xu Huo, were sealed within, then pulled upward one by one!

The moment he was enveloped by the adhesive mucus, Xu Huo placed the shield in front of himself. But the shield didn’t create a buffer zone; the adhesive mucus still surged toward him. So he retracted his sword and shield, placed the fragments of the Headhunter Demon’s axe into his mouth, and arched his hands in front of his nose and mouth to leave a small air pocket.

He closed his eyes, able to feel himself being pulled into a pipe and moving downward rapidly through the pipeline.