Players, Please Board the Train

Blood mixed with rainwater flowed down, but the illusion didn’t disappear. C wiped his face with his hand, and his left palm was rapidly contaminated as well.

”It really is poison...” Before he could finish his sentence, he spat blood and collapsed forward. As he lay dying, he stared into an unknown direction and asked, ”Who the hell are you... what grudge do you have against us...”

”I get it now... you’re from the Special Defense Department... Do you want to know where this rain came from? This is God’s punishment on Nation X!”

Xu Huo stood on a tree fifty feet away, unmoving and silent, with no intention of going over to give him a send-off. He watched C grow weaker from the poison.

C realized now that he couldn’t lure the man out. He glanced back at his two companions whose faces had turned black, then painfully reached for the miniature bomb at his lower back.

A faint beam of light sliced through his wrist. Almost at the same moment, a sharp gleam flashed in C’s eyes. He leaped up from the ground and charged toward the direction the item had come from. Before he could even see anyone, he hurled a metal canister of considerable size: ”I’m taking you with me to hell!”

The metal canister exploded on impact, and flames burst forth instantly. The three men in raincoats at the center of the blast were obliterated down to their bones. The nearby trees were leveled as well. After the shockwave dissipated, all the trees within dozens of meters were knocked down and set ablaze, turning the massive forest into a sea of fire!

The sudden explosion and conflagration caught the attention of both the guarding players near the depression on one side of the forest and the Special Defense Department reinforcements arriving on the other.

”What the hell is C doing? Making such a racket is bound to attract the Special Defense Department’s notice.” Code Name D contacted the others through a communication item.

”The opponent must be extremely troublesome, or C wouldn’t have chosen to die together. Him doing this means all three of them are dead.” Code Name A said.”Three vehicles have arrived, and there are ten armed helicopters in the air.” Code Name E reported.

”U’s decoy mission probably failed. The Special Defense Department has figured out that the high-grade item is with us. Their primary target is the item. We can stall for at most twenty minutes. After twenty minutes, whether or not the Special Defense Department gets the item, Nation X will level this entire area. B, stay behind and prepare to retrieve the item. Everyone else, follow me to lure them onto Wenshan.” After giving his orders, Code Name A was the first to plunge into the dense forest vegetation.

Meanwhile, the Special Defense Department players who had arrived skirted around the fire zone, cutting through the forest on the side adjacent to Wenshan.

”Xu Huo’s phone isn’t going through. Could he have died in the explosion?” A female player with a beautiful face asked after several failed dial attempts.

”I’d say more than likely. That fire was massive. Those Y Country players must have pulled out all the stops.” Another player wearing a cartoon mask said, ”Bad luck for him. If he’d waited a little longer, things would have turned out differently.”

”He didn’t have to provoke those players. Maybe he was trying to hog the item for himself.” The tall, lean player walking in the middle said.

”Then he deserved to die.” A player with an earring in the front grinned as he cut ahead two positions, ”This is what they call ’a snake trying to swallow an elephant—greed beyond measure.’”

”Who deserved to die?” A short, scrawny player behind them said while pulling at his protective suit hood, ”Zeng Tai, don’t talk nonsense. No matter who dies, my Brother Xu won’t. Haven’t you seen when he became a D-level player? He didn’t have a whole country backing him with money and resources to grind dungeons!”

The female player turned around, ”Wang Chaoqing, weren’t you pretty hostile toward him when you first arrived? Now why are you speaking up for him?”

Wang Chaoqing was the shadow-ability player who had previously spied on Xu Huo and accidentally led him into Decibel Town. Later, in Harbor City, he got infected with Mutant toxin and followed Team Leader Wu to Capital City. After taking a delayed-effect antidote, he shamelessly stayed on at the Special Defense Department headquarters.

”Times have changed. My Brother Xu is incredibly impressive. He’s the one who brought back the antidote fungus. He’s bound to save my sorry ass sooner or later. He’s my lucky star, and I’m definitely on his side!”

”Don’t mind him. I’ve never seen someone so afraid of death.” Earring-wearing Zeng Tai rolled his eyes, ”His poisoning wasn’t even that deep. Using the antidote wouldn’t have affected his body at all in the short term. And yet he still keeps running to the research institute to apply for the first batch of antidote fungus trials. Shameless.”

The other players didn’t react to this, and Wang Chaoqing didn’t care about their attitude toward him. He insisted, ”What’s wrong with being afraid of death? If you’re not scared, then don’t wear a protective suit!”

The tall, lean player cut them off, ”Wang Chaoqing, enough joking. Have you checked the underground cable map around Wenshan? Have you sent out your shadows?”

”Done, done,” Wang Chaoqing said, ”They’ve all gone into the mountain. Eight people total.”

”What about near the depression?” the female player asked.

”There doesn’t seem to be anyone near the depression...” Wang Chaoqing paused, ”Maybe the other four were all killed by my Brother Xu.”

”Then did you find Xu Huo?” Zeng Tai asked sarcastically.

Wang Chaoqing’s shadows couldn’t force their way into the fire zone either. He said irritably, ”Maybe Brother Xu entered a dungeon.”

”Should we send someone in to search for him?” the female player asked. ”Xu Huo is a top-priority protection target ordered by the higher-ups.”

”No need. He might be fine.” The tall, lean player said, ”We’re already short on hands. Those ambushing players definitely came fully prepared, and we still have to guard against the high-grade items they’re carrying.”

The group of twenty-three exited the forest and arrived at the foot of Wenshan. The tall, lean player pressed the timer on his watch, ”Total operation time is thirty minutes. Everyone must withdraw outside Wenshan before the twenty-seventh minute. Sync your watches. Wang Chaoqing, stay at the foot of the mountain.”

The players dispersed into the forest. The armed helicopters flying in from a distance began to circle above Wenshan and the depression, their super-bright searchlights occasionally piercing through the trees to find and report any players they spotted.

The current thermal imaging and sensor technology wasn’t very effective against players. Mainly because as D-level players increased in number, many had brought back items from other game partitions specifically designed to counter such devices. With Zone 014’s current technological level, there was nothing they could do. So when it came to mountainous terrain incidents like this, they mainly relied on manpower. Only after the players completed their mission would heavy firepower be deployed as backup.

However, for players who could escape into dungeons, the final firepower coverage seemed somewhat futile.

Two minutes after the players entered the mountain forest, three helicopters split off from the formation and flew toward the woods.

These three aircraft were searching for Xu Huo. His phone had been unreachable, and the Special Defense Department wasn’t sure whether he had entered a dungeon. To be safe, they decided to search the forest anyway.

But the fire and thick smoke were too intense, and even the helicopters couldn’t get in.

At the center of the sea of flames, on a patch of ground that had been completely burned clean, stood a metal room of considerable size. The surrounding trees had been burned beyond recognition, but this metal room remained perfectly intact, without a single mark on its surface. It also seemed to be heat-proof, giving off a cool metallic gleam against the red firelight.

Xu Huo pulled open the door and stepped out, then conveniently answered a phone call that came in right at that moment.