Players, Please Board the Train

The building had been enhanced with item powers, so the Special Defense Department team prepared explosive devices, planning to blast an opening in the wall.

From preparation to wall demolition to the SDF players entering, the lurking players inside the building gave no warning at all—it was as if they had vanished without a trace.

The drones and surveillance robots sent in beforehand would malfunction within moments of flight. Without eyes and ears, the SDF had no choice but to send players in to scout.

Xu Huo swapped into a set of SDF gear and followed the scouting team into the building.

The building was completely empty. Different music poured out of shops that hadn’t had time to close their doors—pop songs and electronic beats mixed together, creating a deepening effect in the spacious interior, as if the sound was coming from deep within a cavern.

”Watch out for items!” the captain at the front raised his hand, signaling the team to halt, and fired two shots at a giant plush doll sitting directly ahead.

The bullets passed through the doll and hit the wall behind it. Confirming it wasn’t an item, the captain gestured for the others to spread out toward the stairwell.

But just as they approached the stairs, the plush doll that had been shot suddenly jumped up, its stomach torn open with a gaping hole, wobbling as it lunged at the players.

”Watch your feet!” one player rushed forward and tossed out a spinning top. When it hit the ground, it released several small tethered tops that whirled around and tripped the doll.

”Bang! Bang! Bang!” A hail of bullets tore through the doll, leaving it riddled with holes before it finally stopped struggling. What spilled out was nothing but charred stuffing.”Hee-hee!” A rabbit plush poked its head out, giggling as it ran toward the stairs. When it was knocked back by the stairwell door, it stubbornly charged again until it forced the door open and climbed up.

The eerie laughter echoed through the stairwell. The SDF players didn’t follow too closely; they first used an item with a mounted camera to scout ahead, but the feed went dark the moment the camera went up—capturing nothing but pitch black.

The captain stepped aside, and another player came forward, pulling out a half-human-sized robot and setting it on the step. After pressing the red button on top, he backed away.

”Boom! Boom!” The moment the robot’s eyes opened, it fired two lasers at the players. After they dodged, it grumbled and crawled up the stairs, smashing and punching its way along.

The player who had been ambushed by his own item remarked, ”For the next three minutes, it will attack anyone who comes within its sight and is about my height.”

The captain nodded and led the team forward.

Strange as the item was, it performed admirably. By the time the SDF members reached the second floor, the runaway rabbit plush had a massive hole in its head.

One player kicked it. The rabbit didn’t move.

Next, they needed to clear the second floor.

More than half of the second floor was taken up by drink shops and snack stalls—lots of small stores with almost nowhere to hide. The other side was an entertainment area that could be seen at a glance, though the cinema at the back was fairly large.

”The master switch is dead,” a player who had gone to check the main panel reported back to the captain. ”We can’t turn on the cinema lights, but each screening room has its own switches.”

”Everyone stay sharp. The enemy is probably hiding inside.” The captain quickly divided up the tasks.

Xu Huo followed the other team members into a screening room. A war film was playing on the big screen. As a fierce volley of gunfire erupted, two players at the front took hits and crashed into the seats. Before they could get up, the seats around them exploded, bullets ricocheting off the metal frames and catching the other players in the crossfire.

”Scatter!” one of them shouted, slashing at the big screen from a distance!

The players who saw this were stunned. Then they all dove behind the seats—because the machine gun in the film character’s hands could actually kill people!

Bullets flew nonstop, filling the entire screening room with the smell of gunpowder. The ”film character” pushed the players back but still wasn’t satisfied. He leaped toward the seats in the front row.

Two players fired back, but the bullets passed right through his body and hit the screen behind him.

”That’s a visual displacement.” Xu Huo had a visual displacement item himself, so he wasn’t as clueless as the others. ”Something fake can’t deal real damage to people. Since you can hit other people, that means you must be near the illusion—and you can’t be too far away.”

He aimed at the fake machine gun, but the Crimson Sword would only strike the first target it encountered. He was lucky—he only needed one try to find the real body.

With a heavy shove, he slammed the man into the screen. The ”film character’s” false image seemed to overlap with his real body. He hit the wall with a thud and collapsed to the floor!

The man glared hatefully at Xu Huo, then waved his hand. From half the screen, more film characters poured out. Fake gunfire and real bullets mixed together, making it impossible to tell where the actual player was hiding.

Xu Huo leaped down from the seat and swung his sword at the ”crowd” charging at him. A faint sound of a bullet being fired came from somewhere. He pushed off the ground and thrust his sword toward the left front. With a splash, the tip of the sword lifted up a crocodile plush!

”You can’t catch me! Can’t catch me!” A fox appeared behind the crocodile, raising its front paws excitedly as it ran toward the door.

”Trying to escape?!” The captain, not far from the door, smashed a potion bottle on the ground. An oily liquid spread across the aisle on its own. The fox, trying to flee, slipped and fell flat on its back, but the next second, it no longer moved like the clumsy plush dolls. It kicked off the wall with one foot, dodged the captain’s bullets, and slid straight for the door!

The Crimson Sword sliced through the fox plush from a distance. The player hiding inside leaped out and vanished from sight.

The captain and several team members immediately gave chase, but once they got outside, the entire corridor suddenly went dark. The flickering light bulbs not only added psychological pressure but also interfered with the players’ vision.

An SDF player shot out the lights with a few rounds, plunging the corridor into complete darkness.