Players, Please Board the Train

”It’s truly amazing,” Wan Tingfang remarked with emotion. ”If you only look at that light and scenery, it’s actually quite beautiful.”

Unfortunately, beautiful things often come with unknown dangers. After this spectacular sight, the recorded train’s exterior showed signs of weathering. The specially made metal dissolved like fragile gray skin, and after traveling for another minute, it stopped completely. The internal instruments were damaged, making it completely inoperable.

The recording ended here. There was no record of how the people on board were subsequently handled, nor how the train was repaired.

”No repair footage—I really wanted to see how they handle that,” Wan Tingfang said regretfully.

”They probably bring self-contained equipment over, no need for people,” Xu Huo said as he picked up the second record disk.

”That’s true. If people were needed, it would definitely be technicians,” Wan Tingfang agreed. The team Shi Youzhi led clearly leaned more towards train security—basically just running errands.

”By the way, did you hear about the big incident last night?” Wan Tingfang instinctively lowered her voice.

”What?” Xu Huo asked while watching the projection.

”Someone broke into the Enforcement Department’s prison. I heard they killed quite a few people,” Wan Tingfang said with a smile. ”A lot of players went there last night. I heard they didn’t catch anyone.”

Xu Huo glanced at her. ”I hadn’t heard. Was it a big commotion?””Two hours of lockdown, city-wide search,” Wan Tingfang added. ”In this station city’s Main City District, aside from private residences, almost everywhere is under surveillance with no blind spots. After the lockdown was announced, everyone had to stay at the location they were at when the notice was issued. No random movement allowed, otherwise they’d be treated as enemies. They might even be executed on the spot by law enforcement robots before the Enforcement Department’s players even arrive.”

”That’s not very useful against players. With train tickets, you can go anywhere,” Xu Huo said casually.

”Exactly! The person’s already run off, what’s the point of searching the city?” Wan Tingfang had lost interest in the projection’s content. She stretched her neck and said, ”Probably the Enforcement Department folks were too idle and wanted to make their presence felt.”

Xu Huo continued watching several more recordings of Mutant attacks.

Mutants usually appeared at night. Limited by visibility, their forms weren’t very clear in any of the recordings. However, judging just from their silhouettes, they were different from the ones on the Preliminary Trial Train.

Mutants came in many varieties—he already knew this—but there were just too many bizarre and grotesque ones.

Interestingly, all the Mutants appeared in darkness. Was it a limitation of their species?

”These ones you’re looking at aren’t interesting either. Might as well watch mine,” Wan Tingfang interrupted him. ”I found a few disks without clear time labels. Might have some surprises.”

Xu Huo gave up his spot to her.

Wan Tingfang enthusiastically started playing them, but ended up looking disappointed. ”Turns out it’s just station repairs.”

Of course, how could the records they were allowed to see contain any important information? Besides, these things didn’t really need human handling anyway. Handing them over to machines could completely automate the cleanup of old records.

The base might be firing players, perhaps because those players themselves had problems.

Players were all curious about the game’s secrets. Could it be that the District 011 government, which controlled several Game Partitions, didn’t care about the game’s technology?

After finishing the record disks they had taken, Xu Huo put them all back to await destruction.

After that, there wasn’t much to do. Team members could move freely, waiting for the next notification.

Sanyang called Xu Huo into the office. ”You took some record disks to watch?”

”I wanted to understand the world outside the tracks,” Xu Huo said honestly. ”More dangerous than I imagined.”

Sanyang scratched his curly hair a couple of times. ”How’s your physics knowledge?”

”Learned the basics in school, didn’t pursue further studies,” Xu Huo said. ”If I’d become a scientist, I probably wouldn’t be in the game now.”

”Haha! Not necessarily. There are some in the game who focus on science and theory. They’re all talents, actively sought after by the Game Partition governments,” Sanyang laughed twice. ”Those with abilities in that area can also apply to the game to become grey players, working for the Game Government.”

Xu Huo spread his hands. ”Don’t have that ability. Can only go on adventures.”

”Young people, gaining more experience is good. But you’d better not think about the world outside the trains,” Sanyang advised. ”Even if you encounter a situation where a train is destroyed by Mutants, it’s best to stay on the train. As long as you survive, you might be rescued by the repair train.”

”Having curiosity and ambition isn’t a bad thing, but you have to act within your capabilities. Don’t even mention you’re only D-rank—even A-rank advanced players might not dare to leave the train.”

”Ignorance breeds fearlessness. Understanding a bit can’t hurt,” Xu Huo said with a smile.

Sanyang nodded. ”Good, I don’t have anything else here. Oh, if you have time, help me make a trip to the Enforcement Department. Their logistics department bought a few instruments. Take someone with you, anyone, and get a receipt.”

Since this was Xu Huo’s first errand run, of course it was better to call someone familiar. However, Ai Jia and the others had already left. Contacting them, they said they were busy. He had no choice but to go call Wan Tingfang, who had stayed behind because she wanted to buy items.

”Any overtime pay?” Wan Tingfang asked immediately.

”With such a leisurely job, you still want overtime pay?” Sanyang impatiently shooed them away.

”Can’t blame me. Money really isn’t enough,” Wan Tingfang complained to herself once in the vehicle. ”Need to buy potions, want to buy items. Although the base gives eight thousand White Bills monthly, which is better than other places, it’s still not enough.”

She looked at Xu Huo. ”You definitely don’t look short on money.”

Xu Huo smiled. ”Haven’t you noticed I haven’t even gone to look at items? The little money in my pocket is only enough for food and lodging.”

Wan Tingfang immediately wore an expression of ”we’re in the same tough boat.” ”So true! I don’t even have next month’s rent money figured out yet. And I have to enter a dungeon soon. Really don’t want to go.”

”What about you? When’s your next dungeon?”

”Still have some time,” Xu Huo said. He had completed the Rose Castle dungeon relatively early. After the days delayed in District 011, he still had over a month before his next dungeon deadline.

However, Brother Tu in the frame had been imprisoned for almost thirty days. Needed to find a chance to let him out.

”We’re here,” Wan Tingfang reminded him.

They had arrived at the Enforcement Department headquarters—the same place Xu Huo and the fake He Pu had unexpectedly ended up last time.

The architecture of this place somewhat imitated the base in appearance, but it was much more tightly guarded than the base. The surroundings couldn’t be approached casually. Entering required passing through several checkpoints.

”Normally there aren’t this many people,” Wan Tingfang whispered. ”Probably because of yesterday’s incident.”

”Who are you people?” an Enforcement Department personnel in a white uniform with white epaulets stopped them.

”Representing the base to deliver something,” Xu Huo patted the vehicle body. ”Bought by your Enforcement Department.”

The White Epaulet glanced back and said, ”Wait here. Don’t wander around.”

After saying this, the person stood guard beside them, without communicating with anyone else.

”Look, waiting is fine, but you should at least notify the logistics department that a delivery has arrived, right?” Wan Tingfang spoke up after waiting a while, unable to endure any longer.