Players, Please Board the Train

The female player stared at the blonde man for a few seconds before flipping her hair. ”Boring, I’m done playing.”

The strips of cloth fell one after another. The blonde man patted the burly man’s shoulder again. ”Be more magnanimous. You got tricked, just have him refund your money.”

Before the burly man could even speak, Skinny Monkey hurriedly took out the money to return it, not even asking for the knife back.

Seeing this, the burly man felt even more frustrated. As he returned to his seat, he glared fiercely at Xu Huo. ”What are you looking at, pretty boy!”

Xu Huo flicked his lighter on and raised it slightly. The burly man reflexively flinched back. After dodging, he realized Xu Huo had just taken out a cigarette, lit it, and smiled at him.

A flicker of fear appeared in the burly man’s eyes. Without another word, he went back to his seat.

Peace returned to the carriage. Seeing the danger had passed, Skinny Monkey had no intention of leaving either. He thanked the female player and the blonde man in turn, even throwing in a small gift.

However, after sitting in the carriage for a while, he grew restless again. Before long, he slid into the seat next to Xu Huo and lowered his voice. ”Hey buddy, want some ’Ecstasy of Life’? You look like the type who’d be into this.”

Xu Huo glanced at the small bottle peeking out of his pocket. It was probably something similar to a stimulant.

”I’m not interested in that. What did you smear on that short knife?” he asked casually.Skinny Monkey paused, then gave a thumbs up. ”You’ve got a good eye, buddy! Most people can’t tell. Honestly, the knife’s material isn’t that great, but the craftsmanship is good. Soaked in metal solution for a few hours, it looks just like a divine weapon.”

”Metal solution?”

”It’s just coloring solution,” the female player interjected. ”A little trick for fakes. Lots of dungeon worlds have it.”

”Hey!” Skinny Monkey chuckled. ”Just trying to make a living. That stuff isn’t cheap to get either. I put in the labor and the train ticket, so charging a bit more is fair, right?”

After saying this, he put away his small goods and continued, ”You’re all riding this train for the first time, right? I travel these stations often. If you want any inside information, just ask me. I won’t charge a high price, just a small fee for spreading the word, okay?”

”The game hardly ever issues duplicate train tickets. How could you possibly travel this line frequently?” a middle-aged woman couldn’t help but interject.

”It’s not that hard,” Xu Huo said. ”This train has seven stops. You can board as long as you have a ticket for one of them. Train tickets can be bought and sold both in the game backend and within dungeon worlds, especially the game backend. In such a vast game world, there are bound to be leftover tickets.” He still had an E-grade ticket left himself. It could be traded through the game, but the demand for E-grade tickets was low because E-grade players who truly needed them didn’t have trading permissions enabled.

”So that’s how it is,” the middle-aged woman said, then asked, ”Then, if you take the train to a station using a ticket, can you choose not to enter the dungeon?”

”D-grade players’ tickets are very flexible. No matter when you board, you just need to enter the dungeon during the last dungeon opening time of each month,” the female player up front spoke again. ”Look at your ticket. There should be a few extra lines of small print on it. Those are the remaining dungeon opening times before the final deadline.”

”But if you miss the final deadline, that ticket becomes void.”

The middle-aged woman hurriedly took out her ticket to check. Listed on the transparent ticket were four dungeon opening times.

After confirming, she smiled and thanked her.

”The earliest station won’t be reached until tomorrow. Sitting here doing nothing for a whole day and night is so boring,” the female player spoke again. ”How about we find some entertainment?”

Her suggestion was met with agreement from the blonde man. ”I have a deck of cards.”

”Since we have nothing to do anyway, playing a bit won’t hurt,” the baby-faced man said as well.

About half of the dozen or so players in the carriage showed interest. The other half went about their own business.

Xu Huo put the lighter back into his item slot, stood up, pulled open the front door, and walked out.

There was a structural diagram of the train in the corridor. This time he had boarded the second-to-last carriage. There were seven passenger carriages ahead. The doors of the front carriages didn’t have doorbells; you could just pull them open to enter.

He didn’t go in directly. Instead, he pressed the service bell to call a train server.

A staff member wearing a small vest and bow tie quickly approached from a separate side corridor, asking cordially, ”How may I assist you, sir?”

”May I take a tour of this train?” Xu Huo asked.

”Of course,” the staff member said. ”However, the first and second carriages have been privately booked. Other passengers cannot enter freely. The other carriages, as well as the VIP restaurant and lounge at the front of the train, are available for use with payment.”

Xu Huo nodded and handed him a tip. ”Please lead the way.”

The staff member pulled open the door to the carriage ahead. ”This is the seventh carriage of this train. The last three carriages are all thirty-seat carriages. Each seat is independent and can be used for rest at night. The train also provides special sleep-inducing incense to ensure every passenger rests well. However, the sleep incense requires purchase by the passenger.”

Naturally, Xu Huo, being led in by the staff member, attracted the attention of all the players in the carriage. Generally, players would stay in their original carriage after boarding. Entering another carriage mid-journey could cause dissatisfaction among some players—various item-based methods were hard to guard against, so players were especially wary of those who suddenly appeared from other carriages. This was also the main reason the female player from his carriage had driven out the male player chasing Skinny Monkey earlier.

Of course, normal people generally wouldn’t waste energy and items on the train. Therefore, most ignored peddlers like Skinny Monkey. If Xu Huo were just passing through the carriage, it shouldn’t be a big problem. For safety’s sake, he had called a staff member.

Xu Huo was already wearing his glasses. With a quick glance, he memorized the appearances of everyone in the carriage. One man carrying a black leather suitcase caught his attention. He looked at him a moment longer, and the man’s gaze shot back at him, sharp as a blade.

Xu Huo calmly withdrew his gaze and followed the staff member to the fifth carriage.

While passing through the connecting area between carriages, he saw staff members passing through the side corridor and asked, ”Can passengers pass through here?”

”That is a dedicated passage for train staff only. It’s equipped with a biometric recognition system and is not open to passengers,” the staff member said with a smile, standing at the carriage door.

Xu Huo glanced at the emergency decoupling button nearby and handed over a stack of White Bills.

The staff member beamed with joy and pulled the door open for him.

The layout of the front few carriages was the same as the back. However, every three carriages, there was an emergency decoupling button that could detach the following carriages from the train.

He couldn’t go past the front of the third carriage. Xu Huo proposed going to the restaurant for a meal. The staff member led him there via the employee passage and enthusiastically presented him with the menu.

”Does the train serve human meat?” Xu Huo asked.

There were two other tables of guests in the restaurant wearing matching suits. Upon hearing this, all of them looked up.

”My apologies, Yongxing Restaurant does not serve any dishes containing human meat,” the staff member replied, his smile unchanged.