Players, Please Board the Train

How could the Special Defense Department headquarters be built in a place without a reservoir? Not only was there one, but they had actually constructed two new ones, all to prepare for emergency water shortages during special times. But under the current circumstances, the water in the reservoirs might not be usable.

“Where exactly is it?” Xu Huo didn’t care whether the reservoir was contaminated or not.

Nie Xuan simply told him the locations of all the reservoirs, then said, “The reservoir to the southwest is the largest. If fully filled, it can hold at least twenty thousand tons. But right now, it’s only half full. Do you need water? The control valves on the reservoir haven’t been damaged—you can still pump water in.”

“No need. Half is enough.” Xu Huo lit a cigarette, his gaze fixed on the rain curtain outside, his tone calm. “Whether this works or not depends on luck.”

“Then good luck to you,” Nie Xuan said. “Right now, the Special Defense Department can’t spare anyone to help you. In fact, we’re short on manpower. If you don’t pull this off, come by and lend a hand when you have time.”

The call ended. Xu Huo stubbed out the cigarette he’d just lit and put the “Oxygen Supply” back on.

“You asked about the reservoir because you want to put the antidote in it?” Zheng Liang could only think of that possibility. “Will a diluted antidote even work?”

“We’ll only know if we try.” Xu Huo said. “Since you have time on your hands, do something for me.”

“You have access to the black market, right?” He handed Zheng Liang a note. “Get me a set of identification documents. Everything I need is written on there.”

Zheng Liang took it and looked, his expression shifting. Then he stared at Xu Huo with a complicated look. Seeing that Xu Huo had no intention of continuing the conversation, he gritted his teeth and said, “I’ll get it done for you!”Xu Huo nodded, then leaped from the upper floor. After landing, he dove forward, his body like an arrow, tearing through the rain curtain and disappearing into the distance.

On the other end, as soon as Nie Xuan hung up on Xu Huo, he began a siege on the Country Y players’ stronghold.

According to the information David Pierce had provided, they had three strongholds in total. This one was closest to the Special Defense Department headquarters, and the person living here wasn’t a Country Y national—it was a local player who had been turned. Country Y players only showed up here when they needed to distribute tasks.

By Nie Xuan’s estimate, there had to be quite a few people here tonight. Even if he couldn’t catch any big fish, he could at least snag a couple of small ones.

Sure enough, before the Special Defense Department players could even storm in, the players inside the room broke out from four different directions. Each one was dressed identically, and even their builds were nearly the same!

The first wave of Special Defense Department players chased after one of them. Just as they were about to grab him, he vanished right before their eyes!

It wasn’t like suddenly disappearing into a dungeon. It was something bizarre and indescribable—first he became semi-transparent, and only after a few seconds did he completely vanish.

“Don’t bother with him.” Nie Xuan leaned back in his chair, eyes fixed on the real-time video feed. “The instruments didn’t detect a living person skipping past. Doesn’t matter if it’s a person or a Mutant—treat them all the same and capture them all. If we fail, that’s fine. Immediately activate the second plan.”

Players’ methods were impossible to guard against. There was no point getting hung up on how they escaped or fought back—because any method was possible. The only thing that counted was actually catching them!

The four escaped players hadn’t managed to lure all the Special Defense Department players away. After three of them vanished, the fourth was caught in an electric net and fled into a dungeon.

After the first attempt failed, the players still surrounding the residential complex, along with those who had returned from the chase, quickly adjusted their positions and formed a triple-layer encirclement around the area.

The Country Y players trapped inside the complex had tried several times to slip out from inconspicuous spots, but all exits were completely blocked by the Special Defense Department—literally blocked. The main gate, the underground parking garage entrance, and even the fences outside the complex were all lined with electric nets and anesthesia nets. In addition to the players, a large number of armed police personnel were providing firepower support, not to mention the snipers lying in ambush in the distance.

Breaking through the encirclement was already tough enough, and even if they got out, there were snipers waiting for them outside. There was no escape!

“Mr. Lin, I think we should just hide in a dungeon.” A square-faced middle-aged man shrank behind the curtain, furtively watching the situation outside the window. “The Special Defense Department doesn’t know our exact situation yet, so they haven’t forced their way in. But give it a few more minutes, and that might change. The person leading the operation is Nie Xuan—of all the team leaders and captains in the Special Defense Department, he’s the most ruthless toward players. Every troublemaker he catches, he kills them!”

“Shut up!” The man addressed as Mr. Lin wasn’t a purebred Our Country Person—he was a mixed-blood. Although his eye color was different, his facial features matched those of Our Country’s people. With a pair of contact lenses, he could easily pass as a local.

At the moment, he was fiddling with his phone in frustration, fingers constantly tapping on it. But a closer look would reveal that he wasn’t pressing the phone screen—he was pressing on a plastic cartoon doll attached to the side of it.

The signal in the area had already been cut off, making information transmission impossible. So he used an item to communicate with the other players. However, it seemed that item was now malfunctioning as well—his sent messages were getting no response.

Pacing anxiously around the room, he couldn’t sit still for even twenty seconds before grabbing the square-faced man and saying, “Break out from different spots. Don’t enter a dungeon until you’re about to be caught!”

The square-faced man wore a look of misery and fear. He nodded reluctantly, and the next second, Mr. Lin kicked him out the door.

The Special Defense Department players were already at the door. Though the square-faced man was prepared, the moment he stepped out, he triggered a pre-placed item: “I’m innocent!”

The moment he spoke, his hands involuntarily shot up above his head, his arms locked in place and unable to move!

The Special Defense Department didn’t give him a chance to jump out the window either. Several shots of anesthesia flew in from different directions, and the man fell in the hallway without even a grunt.

Seeing the legs being dragged away from the doorway, Mr. Lin cursed, “Useless!” He grabbed a glass cup from the table and hurled it toward the door. “Stay away from fragile items!”

The glass cup shattered on impact, and at the same time, all the glass items on his floor exploded as well. Glass shards flew everywhere like bullets. Mr. Lin jumped out the window—only to be met with a blinding flash of golden light!

“Bathed in radiance!”

A player came crashing in with the golden light, slamming into Mr. Lin like a cannonball and smashing him straight into the building’s wall!

But Mr. Lin wasn’t injured. He was wrapped in a layer of air cushion, his body bloated like a puffing bread. Even stuck in the wall, he managed to bounce the player pinning him down away.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!” A hail of bullets rained down on the dent in the wall. Mr. Lin had already pulled the plug on his air cushion, and like a balloon, he shot off in a completely erratic direction!

“Friendly connection!” A player appeared on the ground inside the complex and threw a rope into the sky. The rope extended upward as if it had a mind of its own, precisely latching onto Mr. Lin’s shoe.