Players, Please Board the Train

”Xu Huo, you’re awake!” Yan Jiayu hurried over, thrilled, ”How do you feel? Can you see people’s skin blood vessels now? Wait!”

She turned her back, made a fist, then stretched out her hand, ”Guess what I’m holding?”

”Roasted sunflower seeds.” Xu Huo brushed aside the Painting Woman’s hand and scanned the warehouse. Professor Lan, Tang Guangbo and the others were all there, with more people outside the door. Yuan Yao wasn’t among them.

”You really can’t see through things!” Yan Jiayu stared at him in shock, ”Professor Lan was right after all!”

Xu Huo looked at the medical workers clutching notebooks, a little excited, ”Sorry, I can’t see through things.”

”What about hypnosis? Mental control?” one doctor asked.

”None of that.” Xu Huo shook his head, ”None of the superpower phenomena you see in sci-fi movies are happening.”

”Huh?” Yan Jiayu visibly deflated, ”I thought you could see through my hand.”

Xu Huo chuckled, ”Sunflower seeds have a smell.”

”True.” Yan Jiayu tucked the item back into her small pocket, then asked, ”Any sensations in your body?””Tired.” Xu Huo rubbed his temples.

”The external symptoms have lessened a lot,” Professor Lan observed, ”Overall he’s returned to normal, but to be safe, we should still run some checks.”

Xu Huo wanted to see how his brain had changed before and after too, so he cooperated. Two hours later, Professor Lan and the others held the reports, disappointment mixed with an expected understanding.

What concerned them most, the electroencephalogram, placed him only among the top five in activity among recorded players. Though he passed the expert group’s test questions, he did not perform outstandingly.

”Usually players whose brains have evolved highly show phenomena like hyperthymesia, accelerated computation, higher IQ, efficient learning of different languages, cross-domain work ability, and heightened sensitivity to others’ emotional states. Xu Huo’s case is different.” A doctor spoke to Professor Lan, ”He did show strengthened memory and faster reaction time, but he doesn’t compare to those players in Capital City. And he was already smarter than average. This evolution didn’t bring a substantive leap.”

Everyone present was disappointed, but Professor Lan said, ”I don’t think so. You forgot what happened in the sealed ward. There were other players present then, but only he detected the truck outside the wall in advance. I already asked the Special Defense Department players — that truck appeared out of nowhere, due to a characteristic or item power. If other players couldn’t detect it, how did he know?”

”That’s exactly the leap in brain evolution, breaking free of human preconceptions about brain development. He can sense fluctuations in space even when he can’t see or hear, and can even penetrate the solids we see — like that wall.”

”How did he do it?” someone murmured after a long pause.

Professor Lan shook his head slightly, ”If my hypothesis holds, Xu Huo’s evolutionary direction has already transcended current human understanding. There’s no starting point for research.”

All they could do was deconstruct the human brain biologically. This kind of mutation was something they had never tackled.

”It’s a shame we can’t make calls. Otherwise we could immediately contact Capital City to start discussions,” another professor said.

Professor Lan waved his hand, ”That requires the subject’s cooperation.”

Did Xu Huo really not know about the changes in his body? He simply didn’t want to say.

In the next ward, Xu Huo was talking with Yan Jiayu.

”I don’t really know exactly what happened. In short, after the blackout many people disappeared — Yuan Yao, the doctors in the hospital, and most of Special Defense Department,” Yan Jiayu said.

Xu Huo looked out the window. From Team Leader Wu’s side, the missing people were their group, but from their perspective, the ones who vanished had been Team Leader Wu and his group.

”Feeling stable?” Tang Guangbo came in from outside, smiling as he handed Xu Huo a cup of water, ”The hospital’s water dispensers are broken, so it’s cold.”

Xu Huo took the cup, ”The hospital’s large medical devices can still be used. How could the water dispenser be broken?”

Before the blackout a doctor had brewed tea.

”Hard to say. The less noticeable things are the easiest to fail,” Tang Guangbo said.

”Five dispensers on the same floor all breaking at once?” Xu Huo looked up at him, ”Could it be that some physical objects didn’t cross space to get brought here?”

Tang Guangbo was startled, ”What do you mean, cross space?”

Xu Huo narrowed his eyes and studied the middle-aged man carefully. Back in Capital City he had suspected Tang Guangbo was a player. Tang Guangbo’s repeated actions in the Fog Zone hospital had become a planted suggestion in his memory. He had lost consciousness before entering this hospital and only regained awareness after hearing Tang Guangbo speak.

”Actually, you don’t have to harbor such deep hostility toward me,” Tang Guangbo said, ”I didn’t come only at the Special Defense Department’s request, but because of your mother. She cares about you. I want to make her happy, so of course I mean you well.”

”Professor Tang?” a nurse pushed the door open, ”Professor Lan is requesting you.”

Tang Guangbo adjusted his coat and left.

Xu Huo stared at his retreating figure, his eyes boiling with murderous intent.

”Hey.” Yan Jiayu nudged him.

Xu Huo reined in his emotions and turned to her, ”Thanks for what you did. I know you stopped those doctors.”

”We’re friends.” Yan Jiayu smiled shyly, ”Friends help each other. I helped you this time, you help me later.”

”Me too, I’m a friend.” The Painting Woman propped up a phone.

After that, Professor Lan and Tang Guangbo and the others didn’t return to the ward. About half an hour later, dawn brightened and outside things grew noisy.

”The Special Defense Department people are back.” Yan Jiayu stood at the window peering out.

Xu Huo closed his eyes. Indeed, after the medium disappeared he couldn’t freely use mental power, but as Professor Lan had said, a qualitative change had occurred in his perception. Even inside the room he could clearly sense the movement of people outside.

”They’re back.” He looked toward the door. The next second Yuan Yao pushed the door open, followed by Zhou Ning and three others.

Except for Shen Xin, the others were people Yan Jiayu recognized. After Yuan Yao introduced them, he said, ”I was worried you were goners for a moment, Brother Xu. Is that a new characteristic — coming and going without a trace, no sound, even better than my ’hide-and-seek’?”

Seeing everyone unhurt, Xu Huo asked, ”No traces left, right?”

”Don’t worry.” Zhou Ning said softly.

Leave aside Dai Wenqian for now — those players were Special Defense Department personnel and couldn’t be shown publicly.

With Flower City matters settled, Xu Huo planned to return to Ting City.

”In such a hurry to leave?” Team Leader Wu and Team Leader Song and a few others came in. Team Leader Song glanced at the others meaningfully, ”Xu Huo, you have quite a few friends, huh.”