Players, Please Board the Train

This time the struggle over the cube pillars was even more intense than before. Apparently, after some players fell from the cubes, new players had entered, creating a situation where ten people were competing for only three cubes.

”Get lost!” The player who had previously released the mechanical flies knocked another player off the cube and then sent several mechanical flies toward Xu Huo.

”Burn!” Xu Huo raised his hand and waved, the lighter rapidly opening and closing. With several ”ding ding ding” sounds, the mechanical flies were immediately detonated by the gas they themselves sprayed!

As the shockwave exploded, Xu Huo grabbed the piano wire and flew above the cube. The lighter in his hand transformed into a long sword, which he swung downward.

The sword energy barrier passed through the smoke and collided with a crisp metallic sound, then a long shadow quickly shot out from the smoke, sticking to the sole of his shoe at incredible speed!

”Heh!” The player below laughed. ”Never seen this kind of item before, have you? My sticky dough can adhere to anything, including people. Once you’re stuck, unless I recall the item, you won’t get free!”

After speaking, he took out a huge pink hat to shield his body. ”Go ahead and set another fire if you dare!”

Xu Huo looked down at the person using this thing to hang onto the cube, then kicked off his shoes.

The overly simple maneuver made the person below freeze momentarily, then he threw out more dough. However, Xu Huo was prepared this time and didn’t give him a second chance. Then he saw an electric mixer extend from the edge of the large hat:

”Chef’s Virtue—Highly Toxic Egg Foam!”The mixing rod spun at high speed, and foul-smelling black foam flew off the previously empty metal strips.

Without changing expression, Xu Huo raised his shield to block the toxic foam, then took out a bottle of cleaning solution and poured it on the cube. ”For cleaning kitchen stains, you should use the right remedy. Who would fight pots and pans with swords?”

Under the astonished gazes of the chef player and the other present players, the cleaning solution easily cleaned away the toxic foam splattered on the cube and began dissolving the sticky dough.

”No... impossible...” The chef player’s eyes widened in fury, but this couldn’t change the fact that the dough was coming undone. As he fell, he glared resentfully at Xu Huo and spat out a black mechanical fly with a ”pfft” sound.

Xu Huo swiftly caught it with a glass jar, then his vision plunged into darkness.

New beams of light lit up again. The bearded player not far from him laughed heartily, speaking toward his position in the darkness: ”I never thought cleaning solution could be used that way! That chef who fell down will either die or die of anger!”

”So characteristics and items aren’t invincible after all.” Under another beam of light, a teenager in his teens said: ”It seems that as long as you find the right method, many seemingly powerful characteristics can be easily dealt with.”

The cleaning solution’s effect also surprised Xu Huo. This was a game freebie—he thought even if it worked, it wouldn’t be this fast. Who knew it would directly cause a player’s downfall? The effect was surprisingly good.

Thirty seconds passed quickly again. This time, Xu Huo still didn’t change positions, but Yan Jiayu ended up colliding with a long-haired female player. Their luck was bad too—the cube they selected was a corner cube where people simply couldn’t stand!

”Grab my hand!” Yan Jiayu shouted, seizing the female player’s hand. The long-haired player immediately gripped back, and the two hung from the cube hand in hand like that.

Xu Huo retrieved the ”Tangle-Free Thread” and quietly waited for the thirty seconds to pass.

After three position changes, the smiling face clown appeared with the question: ”From entering the Rubik’s Cube Maze camp until reaching the maze itself, using the cubes closest to both left and right sides as reference, how many cubes were floating in total?”

”Eleven!” Xu Huo immediately answered. When they entered, Yan Jiayu had knocked down a large number of cubes, so although this cube camp was large, for them only the starting section and the section near the giant maze had floating cubes.

”Correct answer!” The clown flew to Xu Huo’s side, gave him a small pink hat, snapped its fingers, and he appeared outside the maze entrance. Yan Jiayu appeared slightly later.

”Fortunately we made it out.” She sighed in relief. ”This Rubik’s Cube Maze isn’t fun at all—it’s like standing on posts.”

”Don’t celebrate too early.” Xu Huo pointed at the stuffed animals gathered outside. ”They’re still waiting here.”

Yan Jiayu’s smile vanished instantly as she stepped back to negotiate with the stuffed animals. ”Let’s be clear first—I’m really poor!”

”Pay up! Pay up! Pay up!” The stuffed animals extended their plush paws and chanted in unison. When she stepped back again, they swarmed forward to hug her, tugging at her clothes and hair while demanding payment.

The young girl’s face was squeezed out of shape by the crowd when the sound of rolling candy saved her.

The stuffed animals all turned their heads in unison.

”I’ll share the candy with you, but let’s negotiate about the payment.” Xu Huo shook the glass jar he was holding.

The stuffed animals flowed off Yan Jiayu like water, swarming in front of Xu Huo. Large and small, they all stared at him.

Xu Huo distributed candy to each one and paid each a hundred White Bills. Only then did the stuffed animals happily disperse.

”Running a dungeon isn’t easy.” He patted the stuffed rabbit’s head and gave it the entire candy jar. ”Go play.”

Yan Jiayu, with her hair sticking out like a bird’s nest, straightened her clothes and walked over. ”I’ll pay you back the money.”

”No need,” Xu Huo said, picking up the hat and handing it to her. ”That question earlier wasn’t particularly difficult. Given a bit more time, other players could have calculated it too. We just got lucky by accident.”

Yan Jiayu didn’t say more, feeling around in her pocket before pulling out a white Rubik’s Cube. ”This seems to be a game reward.”

[Magnetic Rubik’s Cube: A special metal cube produced in Platinum Eye, the largest manufacturing base for precision instruments. Automatically levitates in magnetic environments. An extremely tasteful home decoration piece, though it’s typically used as a clothes hanger, having lost all its elegance.]

After taking this Rubik’s Cube, just as the two were about to leave, the bearded player appeared behind them and called out: ”Wait a moment, brother. How about we become friends?”

”My name is Jin Chao, D-level player, profession is comedy performer.” He introduced himself proactively and said: ”I’ve already passed six game points and two random questions. I’ve heard the later stages are more difficult than the earlier ones. Why don’t we team up? We can watch out for each other.”

Yan Jiayu looked at him strangely. ”How did you get out so quickly? We just came out ourselves.”

Jin Chao smiled. ”You two only recently advanced to D-level, right?”

Yan Jiayu nodded. ”I just reached D-level and haven’t started doing dungeons yet.”

”That explains it,” Jin Chao said. ”Time isn’t consistent between dungeons. Some partitions are affected by special geological environments, so clocks are never accurate. When you encounter alternate dimensions like the Rubik’s Cube Maze, time no longer follows ordinary concepts.”

”Different spaces have different time flow rates?” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. ”Is that possible even in places separated by just a wall?”