Players, Please Board the Train

”Heehee!” Another sound came from ahead. Everyone turned their guns, only to find that the path they had come from had transformed into an impossibly long corridor that shouldn’t exist at all. Lights flickered within it, and the rabbit plush doll’s figure kept shifting positions between the flashes of light and darkness, as if luring them forward.

”Damn rabbit!” One impatient player raised his gun, but just as he was about to fire, someone lifted the barrel, sending all the bullets into the ceiling.

”What are you doing!” Several nearby players simultaneously aimed their guns at Xu Huo, who had stopped the shot. The Captain even grabbed at his face shield. ”Which group were you transferred from? Report your identification number!”

Xu Huo blocked his hand. ”Before that... count how many people are here now.”

The player standing at the very back said, ”Captain, the headcount matches.”

Players on missions usually operated in groups. Even when pulled from different teams, their identities would be known in advance. But today was different. To rescue the hostages, the Special Defense Department had arranged several players responsible for securing the secret safe area. With their identical uniforms and face shields, they didn’t fully know each other’s faces. However, the uniforms were unique, bearing special markings.

But Xu Huo had stopped a teammate’s action, and now the Captain suspected an outsider had infiltrated their ranks.

”Does it really match?” Xu Huo pulled out a lighting item. Strangely enough, under the light, the corridor returned to its original state. One teammate was standing right in front of the gun barrel from earlier. Noticing the light, he turned around. ”Captain?”

The Captain’s voice dropped. ”We’ve all been interfered with by an item!”

In an instant, every gun barrel swung toward Xu Huo.”There’s one extra person among us. Who are you? I’ve never heard of your item before.” The Captain put distance between them. ”When did you sneak in?”

”I’m also a Special Defense Department player, specially dispatched by Team Leader Wu.” Xu Huo said. ”You can verify with him. And you can trust me—if I were a player from Country Y, I wouldn’t have saved anyone just now. You don’t even know when I caught up to you. If I wanted to cause trouble, it would be easy.”

What he said was true, but the Captain still signaled his teammates to verify Xu Huo’s identity.

”Captain, communications are down.” A teammate tried and reported. ”We’ve lost contact with the outside.”

Xu Huo took a step back. ”If you’re really scared, I can go solo.”

The Captain weighed his options, then said, ”You stay with us, but don’t leave my sight. Otherwise, I’ll take action.”

”No problem. I’m here to save people.” Xu Huo agreed readily.

Under his lead, the group smoothly exited the cinema and reached the third floor.

Meanwhile, the player who had escaped from the plush doll arrived at the ninth floor. This entire floor consisted of small rooms. He pushed open one small door with a skull hanging on it and stepped inside. ”There’s a pretty impressive player among this batch that came in. My item doesn’t affect him. His mental power is strong.”

Several players sitting around a box-shaped small table were playing cards. Among them, a bald man with a cigarette dangling from his lips said, ”That trick of yours only works on some rookies. Players with a bit of experience won’t fall for it. Don’t underestimate the elites of the Special Defense Department.”

The plush doll player took off his coat and joined the card game. ”It’s just that one guy. The rest are nothing. The Special Defense Department just relies on numbers. Speaking of which, if you guys really thought those SDF people were tough, you wouldn’t be here playing cards.”

Several of them laughed in varying tones. A man with a bleached crew cut and a scar at the corner of his mouth interrupted them. ”The Special Defense Department is for Tracy to handle. Our target is Xu Huo... Has he arrived yet?”

”Thump, thump!” A knocking sound came from under the small table, and the tabletop shook with it.

”You messed up my cards, you little brat! Behave yourself!” The older player in the hat was clumsily sorting his cards and kicked the box impatiently.

Silence fell under the table. Then the plush doll player said, ”According to the intel, Xu Huo specializes in fire. None of the players who entered so far use fire.”

”Fire is just one of his traits.” The crew-cut man said. ”That intel is outdated. As one of the top players from Nation X, he must have accumulated a considerable number of high-level items. Bonn hasn’t come back yet. He’s probably dead already. Xu Huo should be arriving soon.”

As he spoke, he tossed his cards down. ”You guys watch the kid. I’m going to take a look around.”

The others waved him off casually. The crew-cut man pulled open the door, passed through three secret rooms, confirmed that his companions stationed nearby were safe, then followed a narrow corridor to other rooms. When he unlocked one of the password locks, he suddenly sensed a faint current of air behind him!

Just as he turned around, a pebble fell to the ground. A red arc of light sprang up from beneath the crew-cut man’s feet. The protective shield it generated enveloped him while simultaneously expanding outward at tremendous speed, smashing through the walls on both sides of the corridor and all the decorations before and behind!

”What happened?” The voice of a companion came through his earpiece. The crew-cut man glanced at the white female ghost sticker fluttering to the ground, then turned and stepped into another room. ”Nothing.”

Once his footsteps faded away, the stacked sticker on the floor slowly floated up and slipped through the crack under the door into the room he had just come from.

Players were guarding all the main routes. The Painting Woman landed in one of the corridors. Her body began to materialize from the feet up. Her height, clothing, and appearance underwent a massive transformation. By the time the faint glow from below vanished, she had become a seductive blonde beauty with a sexy figure.

She rubbed her cheeks red, then clicked her heels to the corner, extended half of her snow-white arm, twirled her finger, and beckoned to the player a few meters away.

”Tracy?” The man recognized the accessory on her wrist and called out his companion’s name. Then he cautiously walked over. When he saw the Painting Woman leaning against the wall, he couldn’t help closing the distance.

The Painting Woman lunged forward and wrapped her arms around his neck, flashing him a captivating smile.

The man lowered his head to kiss her, but the fingers moving at the back of her neck were creeping into increasingly strange territory. They crossed behind his neck and clamped onto his Adam’s apple...

The man’s face changed instantly, but the next second, the Painting Woman’s hands turned into layers of thin paper that stretched endlessly, wrapping him up completely!

”Burst!” The man gave a muffled command. The paper wrapped around him instantly shattered. However, the fragmented paper turned into thousands upon thousands of razor-sharp blades, defying the explosive blast’s direction and plunging straight into his body!

The man’s eyes went wide as he suddenly lost all movement. Then he opened his mouth and spat out a torrent of blood before toppling forward.

The Painting Woman flew out from behind and caught his hand that was reaching for his chest. She propped him up against the wall, then, under his gaze, tore off the button signaler on his chest, dangled it in front of his eyes, and pointed at herself, indicating: *Mine.*