Players, Please Board the Train

”Truly shameless!” Yuan Yao spat from behind.

”What you say has some logic,” Xu Huo stroked his chin, ”I’m just a bit puzzled. Since your goal is so lofty, why didn’t you come discuss it with me directly, instead of sending people to kill me... I understand now. It’s because you’re a bunch of stinking rats hiding in the sewers, using the banner of righteousness to cover up your profit-seeking faces.”

Hou Song’s face, pale from excessive blood loss, flushed red. ”How could someone as selfish and shortsighted as you possibly understand our ideals? We want to quickly establish a powerful player nation, to fight for more survival opportunities for Zone 014 within the game. Is that wrong?”

”So your meaning is, because I’ve undergone Secondary Evolution, I should sacrifice myself to pave the way for you lot.” Xu Huo’s smile gradually faded. ”Just admit you’re running a cult. No need to package yourselves so grandiosely.”

His gaze flicked to the bucket. The bleeding at Hou Song’s severed limb had already stopped.

”Your recovery ability is quite strong. Perhaps I should hand you over to the Special Defense Department for research. Might benefit all players in the future.”

”Sima Xiao Er.”

Hearing his call, Sima Xiao Er, who had been hiding, jumped out and walked over in a few steps. ”Brother Xu, rest assured. The First Research Institute originally handled this kind of thing. Hou Song... this experimental specimen, I’ll personally deliver to Team Leader Wu. Guarantee no one will ever find him.”

Hou Song stared at the two of them in shock. ”What do you want to do? Dissect me?”

”Didn’t you say it yourself? Contribute to Zone 014. If all players’ recovery abilities improve because of you, your name will definitely be written in the book of merits. You’ll become a hero for all humanity!” Sima Xiao Er grabbed his hand and shook it up and down. ”Congratulations, congratulations!””Get lost!” Hou Song flung his hand away, shouting agitatedly, ”The Special Defense Department only serves the powerful and privileged! Why should I be a stepping stone for those fat-brained, corrupt people?!”

Sima Xiao Er backhanded him across the face. ”Weren’t you pretty damn happy demanding others sacrifice themselves? Now that it’s your turn to sacrifice a bit, you’re not willing!”

”Kill him.” Xu Huo handed him a dagger. ”No reasoning with this kind of person.”

Sima Xiao Er hesitated for a moment before taking it. ”He is, after all, Team Leader Liao’s man...”

”No one will know.” Xu Huo smiled slightly. ”Tonight, we were never here.”

Sima Xiao Er’s expression wavered. Seizing the chance, Hou Song said, ”Sima Xiao Er, you can’t kill me. Before coming, I told Team Leader Liao. You can’t bear this responsibility!”

Sima Xiao Er was clearly even more shaken, but at that moment, a bullet from nowhere shot through Hou Song’s forehead. A few drops of blood splattered. His eyes wide open, he fell back into the bucket.

”Who?!” Yan Jiayu and the others found cover while scanning their surroundings.

Xu Huo looked up at a building not far ahead. ”Heard you were seriously injured. Didn’t expect you to be out and about.”

”You incited my subordinate to kill a fellow Vanguard Player colleague. I’d have to crawl out even if I had to.” Nie Xuan emerged in a wheelchair, nodding to the person behind him. That player quickly walked over, took out a normal-sized handbag, and placed it over Hou Song’s head. The corpse, along with the plastic bucket, vanished on the spot.

Then he went to collect the bodies in the factory building.

”My people will handle the cleanup.” Nie Xuan tilted his chin towards Xu Huo. ”Find a place to chat?”

Xu Huo readily agreed, telling Yan Jiayu and the others to head back first. On Nie Xuan’s side, Sima Xiao Er and the others didn’t follow either. The two went to a nearby riverbank.

With no one else around, Nie Xuan gazed at the lights across the river and said, ”This time, only one-third of the players from the Ting City Special Defense Department who entered the Fog Zone returned. The rest are missing.”

”My condolences.” Xu Huo hadn’t searched everywhere at the time, only rescuing those who appeared at the hospital. He didn’t know where the other players were.

”After the game started, people around you often die. A friend you were sharing dirty jokes with yesterday might die silently today. How they died, where they died, where their body went—no one knows.” Nie Xuan sighed. ”Maybe tomorrow, the ones dying silently like that will be you or me.”

Xu Huo glanced at him sideways. ”Aren’t you still alive?”

His gaze shifted to the other’s feet. ”Secondary Evolution, right?”

After his conversation with the Little Girl from the Amusement Park, he guessed Nie Xuan must have been carrying an item with spatial properties or something else that caused his rejection by the fog space. At first sight, he noticed energy fluctuations in Nie Xuan’s right foot, its density and intensity unlike anything else within the space.

”A blessing in disguise.” Nie Xuan rubbed his leg, not intending to elaborate. He continued, ”I’ve already heard about the Flower City incident from Sima Xiao Er, though there’s a lot he doesn’t know. It was you who told the Players Association people to go find the Special Defense Department, right?”

Xu Huo didn’t respond. Nie Xuan didn’t seem to want a definite answer either, speaking as if to himself, ”Accelerating the playerization process doesn’t bring only good things. Ambitious schemers, fence-sitters, foreign forces, and homegrown cultists—all sorts dare to show their faces now. In just two or three months, peace has ceased to exist.”

With the rise of players, the nation is bound to lose some degree of control. This process is inevitably accompanied by chaos, first within the country, then between nations. Right now, everyone is busy accumulating strength or licking their wounds, not yet having the energy to turn their gaze to other countries. But that day will come sooner or later.

Xu Huo handed him a cigarette. This time, Nie Xuan accepted it. The two of them, one standing, one sitting, smoked facing the river.

”Maybe in the future, we won’t even have leisurely times like this.” Nie Xuan smiled wryly.

”Where there’s life, there’s hope. No need to be so pessimistic. Hasn’t humanity always managed to survive every catastrophe?” Xu Huo’s tone was casual. ”If the day of world destruction truly comes, the best method is to pack up and leave, preserving the embers. Who knows, maybe we can rebuild a civilization.”

Nie Xuan glanced back at him. ”You think very openly.”

The cigarette tip glowed bright then dim before flying into the river with a faint hiss.

Xu Huo turned in the darkness, his entire form completely covered by the shadows, leaving only a faintly visible silhouette. With a flick of his hand, a metal lighter arced towards Nie Xuan.

”I plan to move to live opposite the Special Defense Department.”

Nie Xuan flicked the lighter on. The flame illuminated his stern face, which no longer held the fighting spirit from the Preliminary Trial Train, replaced by a deep gravity.

”Alright.” He said expressionlessly, then closed the lighter, put it in his pocket, and wheeled his chair into the darkness.

Xu Huo stood behind. A patrol car passed on the opposite riverbank, its lights shining on the water surface. The shimmering ripples reflected onto him, outlining a bright edge.

”Hey, who’s over there?” A flashlight beam swept over.

Xu Huo waved towards the other side before calmly leaving.