Players, Please Board the Train

”These places have harsh environments, unsuitable for human or animal survival, so most are very desolate. Forget people, you can’t even see Mutants there, especially at spatial anomaly points. You could say that aside from the train, there’s no safe place anywhere.”

”Exactly because it’s hard to grasp the patterns, whether Mutants will appear is also uncertain. The train’s jolting isn’t entirely due to Mutants.”

”Not only are there Mutants, but also unknown viruses, radiation, or other unpredictable dangers. That’s why high-risk dungeons make players pale at the mere mention.”

She Ping said a lot in one breath, finally summarizing, ”After all, the tracks are also part of the game. The places they pass through are definitely within the game’s coverage. Not to mention possibly encountering areas from high-risk dungeons, even in places you can see, inside the train and outside the train are two different worlds. Unless the train is completely destroyed, leaving the train under any circumstances is unwise.”

”Those places seen along the tracks are also considered part of the game...” Xu Huo said, ”So that means some high-risk dungeons are actually severed from ordinary dungeon worlds, completely abandoned worlds.”

Not only that, it’s possible some spaces truly cannot support life due to their inherently harsh environments, but there are definitely man-made factors too. Why do so many Mutants appear around the tracks? Are they all Preliminary Trial players? Not necessarily.

”You could say that,” Ai Jia chimed in.

”Can’t you use a train ticket to leave after getting off the train?” Xu Huo continued asking.

”Difficult,” Ai Jia said. ”Our train tickets are like signal transmitters. The space near the tracks is complex, and tickets might not be able to connect to nearby stations. However, nothing is absolute. You might get lucky.”

”If we could use train tickets freely while on the train, we should be able to teleport directly onto the train, not go to the station first,” Sun Chuan interjected from the side.”But the Preliminary Trial Train boards directly, doesn’t it?” Wan Tingfang asked, confused.

”That’s different,” Ai Jia waved his hand dismissively.

”Why is it different? Isn’t it all boarding?” Wan Tingfang didn’t understand.

Xu Huo had the same doubt. If trains on the tracks cannot receive train ticket signals, then new players should first go to the station with their tickets, not be forcibly teleported onto the train to start the game.

”This involves the game’s programming, I can’t really explain it clearly,” Ai Jia said with a laugh. ”Honestly, my physics is terrible. Stuff like crossing space, dimensional stations—I don’t understand any of it. Of course, this knowledge is also classified.”

Knowledge and technology blockade—that’s not hard to understand.

”Maybe when we become high-level players, we might understand more,” Xu Huo said with a smile.

Wan Tingfang could only give up, saying somewhat dejectedly, ”High-risk dungeons are basically sending people to their deaths.”

”Even if you can avoid Mutants, Mutated Animals, even viruses, you absolutely cannot avoid radiation. Even if you come out of the dungeon, you probably won’t live very long.”

Cai Xiangxiang patted her shoulder. ”You’re thinking about it wrong. Up until now, as long as you don’t die directly in the radiation zone, there’s a cure after coming out. The Stellar Pharmaceutical Research Group has developed quite a few related potions. Also, players aren’t as fragile as you think. Of course, it’s better if you can prepare before entering the dungeon.”

Problems always outnumber solutions. Any difficult problem only gets tackled by humans after it appears. So even in the game, there absolutely cannot be a 100% solution.

Therefore, entering a high-risk dungeon means the chance of survival is very small.

The expression faded from Wan Tingfang’s face. She hunched her shoulders and said, ”If only I could become a grey player.”

”Keep striving,” Cai Xiangxiang said. ”But our base has good benefits. Uncle Sanyang will get some safe train tickets for us.”

”Is Uncle Sanyang’s real name Sanyang? Did his birth parents give him that name? That’s strange,” Wan Tingfang quickly shifted the topic.

”His previous player nickname was Yangyangyang. It was inconvenient to say, so we call him Sanyang. His real name is unknown. The Captain might know; you can ask him.”

”I’m not asking. That’s asking for a scolding,” Wan Tingfang quickly shook her head.

”The Captain looks fierce, but he’s actually a good person. If he were a bit more handsome and had a bit more hair, I’d definitely marry him,” Cai Xiangxiang said with a giggle.

As the others chatted and laughed, Xu Huo deliberately paid attention to some track duty records while sorting.

These duty records were much fewer compared to other records like weather or track maintenance, but at least one-third of these duty records involved attack incidents. This meant the base dispatched personnel to handle situations they had predicted would involve attacks.

”How were those two blood mutants from last time handled?” he asked.

”Sent to the lab,” Ai Jia answered while destroying a Square Box. ”Mutants like blood mutants carry toxins; they’re good experimental samples.”

”You want to look at these records?” He looked up.

”I want to understand what worlds that might contain high-risk dungeons are like,” Xu Huo said frankly.

Wan Tingfang also looked over curiously, interested.

Cai Xiangxiang and the other few members were quite calm. Sun Chuan said, ”We’ve looked at them before too. Can’t make heads or tails of them. Some chaotic spaces are hard to record with instruments. Even if recorded, it’s mostly not a complete world, like a shattered mirror.”

”Sun Chuan is right. Some records can even damage human eyes, but these have all been processed. You can look if you want,” Ai Jia checked the time. ”But preferably within two hours. New files will be delivered later.”

Xu Huo indicated no problem. He first helped them clear out the old record disks before selecting some to view.

”I’ll go with you,” Wan Tingfang followed him when he headed to the screening room. She had also picked out a few disks herself.

Having seen Sanyang control these Square Boxes so effortlessly before, Xu Huo had thought that was also his characteristic or an item. Only after entering the screening room did he realize the entire screening room was a large docking device. Bringing the record disk in was equivalent to docking it. To play which box, you just selected it.

This screening room could only play one disk at a time. After discussing, the two decided to watch them in sequence. The first one played was the track repair record Xu Huo had selected, a special case of damage caused by spatial movement.

The record itself had been processed. When projected, it looked pitch black. But as the train moved forward, the three-petal space around the tracks shattered like a mirror. The shattered edges suddenly burst with intense light. Even processed, the light was still dazzling. Xu Huo instinctively shielded his eyes, but soon this light turned into colors, becoming softer.

In just over ten seconds, the light disappeared. The scenery around the train had become five kinds.

The scenery near the tracks is commonly divided into left, right, and the sky. But after this intense light, the sky was split into three different weather conditions. Separated by a thin line, there was bright sunshine, thunderstorms, and overcast clouds.