Players, Please Board the Train

”The weather is a bit strange. It feels like it just turned into a blazing sun not long ago.” Long Aotian also took off his shirt, revealing his vest and the black number on his back. He didn’t care at all about others seeing his number and even deliberately showed off his customized tattoo. ”You can’t tattoo the number itself, but you can around it. What do you think of my ’Beast Unleashed’ design?”

Most people paid no attention to his tattoo, only Xie Ling took a curious glance and said, ”I wanted to get a tattoo once too, but my boyfriend was strongly against it, so I didn’t.”

”Little sister, that’s not good. You can’t give up something you want to do for a partner.” Long Aotian took a sip of water. ”If my girlfriend didn’t allow it, I’d definitely break up with her.”

”Breaking up or not, it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s already dead.” Xie Ling said nonchalantly.

”That’s pretty harsh,” Long Aotian said with a meaningful tone.

”I didn’t do it,” Xie Ling quickly explained. ”Kill someone over a tattoo? I’m not that insane. He evolved on his own, went out to show off, and got himself killed by someone else.”

”Bold!” Long Aotian gave her a thumbs-up.

Xie Ling smiled shyly and checked the time again. ”It’s already noon.”

Right. They had left the Wax Figure Hall at dawn, around six in the morning. From meeting up with the others, resting, and now heading to the Mannequin Building, it couldn’t have taken six hours.

”Could our perception be off?” The middle-aged man quickly checked his game panel. ”The watch time matches the dungeon time shown in the game prompts.”Watches were usually adjusted to game time after arriving at dungeons, so both aligning meant there was no issue.

Not only that, many shops and public rest areas in Museum City had timers, and those timers also matched their own.

”Could it be exhaustion?” Xu Ruosi suggested. ”It’s impossible for the game system time to be wrong, right?”

If the time wasn’t wrong, then their perception was collectively off.

Xu Huo looked at the short shadow beneath his feet, then suddenly turned toward the entrance of Museum City.

A moment later, the long-curly-haired man said, ”Someone’s coming. Quite a few!”

By then, most of the people present had sensed it. They exchanged glances, felt something was off, and immediately took cover in the nearby shops.

Xu Huo chose the two-story dessert shop next door. He silently went upstairs and found a suitable spot to observe the main gate.

The door of Museum City pushed open from the outside, and a group of over a dozen players filed in. Like their group yesterday, these people didn’t rush to wander around but gathered together to observe the overall structure of Museum City.

”Why are there so many more players coming in?” Long Aotian followed behind him and only spoke after activating a soundproofing item.

”Have you ever encountered a dungeon where players entered in batches before?” Xu Huo asked without turning his head.

”Aside from random dungeons, aren’t fixed dungeons all opened at once?” Long Aotian was equally puzzled. ”If there’s a time difference, everyone’s dungeon progress would be uneven. Someone would always be at a disadvantage. The game wouldn’t do that.”

”Fixed dungeon, fixed mode—that’s only in a general sense. It doesn’t mean it’s absolutely impossible.” Xu Huo seemed to be talking to himself. Sifang Palace was an example, but ”Shared Eyes” was a survival dungeon, so the situation was different.

The ”1/6” indicator on the game panel hadn’t changed. They had indeed completed one-sixth of the task progress. At this point, players entering now would be lagging behind in progress and might even fall victim to ambushes from earlier players. Conversely, if the earlier players were injured, the later arrivals could also be a threat... Was this the model for Museum City’s dungeon?

If a batch of players entered every day, would this dungeon never close?

Given Museum City’s scale, a dozen or twenty players did seem a bit few. If a batch came in every day and this cycle continued, Museum City might truly turn into a lively game city.

”But since we arrived first, I guess we have the advantage,” Long Aotian added.

Xu Huo thought of the two fresh corpses that had died in the Wax Figure Hall. Had they arrived earlier that same day, or had they come the day before?

”Should we meet up with these people?” Long Aotian asked. ”With limited energy, cooperating with others gives us a better chance of clearing the dungeon.”

True. Although cooperating with players carried some risk, the death rate in this dungeon was too high. There were still so many venues, and they couldn’t be sure which five remained on the progress bar. All things considered, cooperation was still necessary.

”We’ll talk later.” Xu Huo moved away from the window, went down the stairs, and quickly slipped into the adjacent shop to look around.

”What are you looking for? If you tell me, I can help,” Long Aotian said hastily.

”Dates,” Xu Huo replied. ”Aside from the clocks recording time in Museum City, there don’t seem to be any calendars.”

There were none, neither paper nor electronic.

”Is a calendar that important?” Long Aotian was puzzled. ”Can’t we just check the date on the game panel?”

The date and time on the game panel were all normal.

Xu Huo couldn’t articulate exactly what felt off, but he acted on instinct, searching shops one by one.

The batch of players that had just arrived had already gone to the crossroads. Xie Ling and the others came back to regroup with him. When they heard Xu Huo was looking for a calendar, Xu Ruosi spoke up, ”I have a time-display item.”

She pulled out a calendar-like item made of paper. The square sheets had dates on one side and time on the other.

”Each game partition has different year-month-day numbering. Usually, watches like ours can be adjusted for time, but the year-month-day counting in partitions is more complex, and few clocks or timers include that function.”

”This item can automatically adjust the date and time based on the partition’s wormhole point and location.”

With that, she pressed the button on top of the item. The time digits on the paper quickly jumped and then stopped at 12:53.

”The time matches.”

Next came the date.

The year and month both matched the game panel, but when it came to the specific day, the item’s number didn’t match the game panel.

Everyone fell silent for a moment. Long Aotian said, ”Is your item broken?”

”That can’t be.” Xu Ruosi pressed the button again, and the same number appeared. After trying twice more, she had to admit, ”The item’s time is one day ahead of the game time. Maybe the item is really malfunctioning.”

”Is it the item that’s broken?” Xie Ling turned to ask Xu Huo.

Xu Huo shook his head. ”I’m not sure. Let’s head to the Mannequin Building first.”

He didn’t show it on his face, but his mood wasn’t good.

A full day’s difference couldn’t appear out of nowhere, especially when it involved time. Although ”time” was a human invention, the game followed the rules of time. The game panel’s time couldn’t be wrong. That meant the problem was with Museum City.