Players, Please Board the Train

Zheng Liang’s face turned pale with shock as he blurted out, ”Xu Huo, can’t you ever break that habit of touching everything?!”

*Click!* A metallic snap sounded from within the small cabin, followed by the floor beneath the desk lifting up and moving aside along with the desk. An aluminum standing cabinet slowly rose from below, filled with at least thirty to forty potions of various colors.

”They’re evolution agents!” Wei Bin exclaimed excitedly. ”Both P1 and P2 varieties, plus some healing potions and antidotes!”

Jiang Yihua and Zheng Liang quickly rushed over. Zheng Liang said, ”We’ve hit the jackpot this time! I never expected the game to actually hide potions like this!”

”Everyone present gets a share—let’s divide them equally!” Jiang Yihua said.

Dai Wenqian glanced at Xu Huo. ”You found them, so you distribute them.”

There were enough evolution agents and healing potions for all five players present to receive at least seven or eight each.

Xu Huo wasn’t interested in the evolution agents, but when he spotted several plant nutrient solutions at the bottom, he reached for them. ”You probably don’t want these, so divide the rest among yourselves.”

Jiang Yihua and the other two immediately split the remaining potions equally. Since Xu Huo took three nutrient solutions, he received three fewer of the other potions.

After storing the potions in his item slots, Zheng Liang said, ”Well, this trip wasn’t a complete waste of risk-taking after all.””She... she seems to be dying!” The Wealthy Young Girl, who had been resting nearby the whole time, cried while watching the convulsing woman.

Xu Huo walked over and pressed on the woman’s leg, discovering that the area where she had been bitten earlier had already festered. The toxin had invaded her blood vessels, causing her entire leg to swell up.

”You found antidotes, right? Please give her one!” the Wealthy Young Girl pleaded. ”I can buy it from you! My family is really rich—I’ll pay whatever you want!”

”Antidotes meant for players might not work on ordinary people,” Jiang Yihua said sympathetically.

Players’ bodies had been enhanced and could withstand the effects of potions, but ordinary people might not be so fortunate.

”But we have to try!” the young girl said with reddened eyes, looking at them hopefully. ”I’m begging you...”

Dai Wenqian completely ignored her and went to search for clues elsewhere. Zheng Liang and Wei Bin hesitated, while Jiang Yihua also couldn’t bear to waste a potion.

Xu Huo silently took out an antidote and injected it into the woman’s neck, then said, ”Whether she lives depends on her luck now.”

The young girl repeatedly expressed her gratitude.

Jiang Yihua seemed somewhat ashamed and went over to help move the woman to lie down in the inner restroom. Zheng Liang shot Xu Huo a glance. ”Always playing the good guy. You only got one antidote—what will you do if you encounter danger later?”

Xu Huo’s expression remained unchanged. ”Don’t you still have antidotes?”

Zheng Liang widened his eyes, wanting to retort, but swallowed his words because Xu Huo had already looked away, showing no intention of continuing the conversation.

Zheng Liang turned away angrily, even bumping into a confused Wei Bin in the process.

After a thorough search, they didn’t find anything else particularly valuable, but they did discover several plant cultivation diaries.

Zheng Liang lost his patience, looking at the lights outside. ”Let’s just fight our way out. The mutated animals around have already retreated anyway—if we catch them by surprise, it might work.”

”Throw something out first to test,” Dai Wenqian said.

Zheng Liang casually picked up a pen holder from the desk and threw it out the window. The moment the pen holder disappeared into the dense thicket, the leaves and branches inside began shaking violently, accompanied by faint low growls of beasts.

”Those mutated animals never went far,” Dai Wenqian said as he sat down to rest.

”I wonder how long these lights can last,” Wei Bin worried. ”The Little Flower Red Red Building has been abandoned for five years—it wouldn’t be strange if the energy storage equipment has problems.”

”Can we use potions?” Jiang Yihua asked as she walked out of the restroom, looking at Dai Wenqian. ”Your potions seem quite powerful—can they drive away those mutated animals?”

Dai Wenqian shook his head. ”My potions aren’t that lethal, and their range isn’t large enough either.”

Wei Bin leaned against the window and looked up at the lights on the glass greenhouse dome, shielding his eyes. ”Can these lights be moved?”

”Too high,” Dai Wenqian replied without hesitation.

The other three couldn’t help but feel discouraged. Noticing that Xu Huo had been flipping through the plant cultivation diaries the whole time, Jiang Yihua asked, ”What’s the use of reading those?”

Xu Huo stopped and pointed to a record on one page. ”That man-eating flower’s roots only release poisonous powder when electrocuted, and only while they’re still alive.”

”What does that mean?” Jiang Yihua didn’t understand.

”The pollen attached to the giant man-eating flower’s roots is very similar to the poisonous powder that appeared on the thirteenth floor. If the flower roots entered the ventilation ducts, then there’s a pattern to explain why poisonous powder appeared on the thirteenth floor,” Xu Huo explained. ”The elevator went to the thirteenth floor from 10 PM the night before yesterday until 4 AM yesterday morning. During that time, all of us were on the thirteenth floor but encountered no danger.”

”But Zhang Biao and the others ran into danger,” Dai Wenqian was the quickest to understand. ”Also between 10 PM and 4 AM.”

”Probably because someone returned to the thirteenth floor,” Wei Bin said. ”Every floor has sensors—it wouldn’t be strange if traps activated when someone went up.”

But Dai Wenqian shook his head. ”Xu Huo went up twice without any problems, and Zhang Biao’s group also moved around up there for quite a while.”

”Twice?” Zheng Liang looked at Xu Huo.

”So the thirteenth floor is different from other floors—it might only release poisonous powder during specific time periods,” Xu Huo said.

”You mean even if someone stays on the thirteenth floor at other times, nothing will happen?” Wei Bin expressed surprise mixed with excitement. ”Then we can gather everyone on the thirteenth floor and find a way to cut the man-eating flower’s roots, right?”

”It’s not that simple,” Dai Wenqian said. ”First, cutting the man-eating flower’s roots might trigger chain reactions. The fifteenth floor shows no signs of mutated animal attacks, but the glass flew inward, proving something must be outside.”

”Mutated animals can move inside the building but don’t use the exterior walls—that speaks volumes.”

”Second, the absence of mutated animals on the thirteenth floor might be because of the man-eating flower. Whether other animals would come up after cutting the roots is unknown.”

”We can temporarily set aside the appearing mutated animals,” Xu Huo turned to look at the giant man-eating flower stretching high into the distance. ”I suspect this entire building is already enveloped by this man-eating flower.”

”Then that means...” Jiang Yihua caught on.

”Exactly, there should be man-eating flowers active outside the building too,” Xu Huo finished her thought.

Jiang Yihua and Zheng Liang exchanged glances, thinking of Brother Tie and the others still in the building, and said simultaneously, ”I have a bad feeling about this.”

Meanwhile, on the eighth floor of the Little Flower Red Red Building, three hours had passed since Xu Huo and the others disappeared in the elevator.

Due to the sharp reduction in numbers, the remaining ninety-one people could safely reach the seventh floor, but the group had split into two opposing factions, hostile toward each other.