Players, Please Board the Train

”If you’re looking for him, then you’ve got the wrong person,” Xiao Ling shrugged.

”That’s right!” The lead man said as he released a bamboo dragonfly device, and in an instant a gale rose. A powerful force tore through the water channel space and struck behind the three of them, blasting through the curved stone wall and forcing Xu Huo, who had been hiding behind it, out into the open.

”Forced strip!” The male player clearly didn’t consider the three a threat. He teleported to the stone wall behind them, his feet sticking to the rock. With one hand he made a rope-hanging motion and reached toward the empty space ahead, ”The Shackles of Morality!”

Xu Huo, stripped of his invisibility cloak, instantly appeared in everyone’s view. But before that, a translucent barrier had already risen in the air, nullifying the effects of the item the male player subsequently used.

He couldn’t remain suspended in midair for long, and the piano wire moved slowly, so the moment he faced his opponent he bent forward and rushed onto the boat, using Absolute Safety Distance and Moving Metal to violently shove one blocking player aside. He darted straight for the entrance.

”This way is blocked!” Another player beside him swept a hand through the water channel and a mirror-like transparent wall rose up, cutting off Xu Huo’s path exactly.

Forced to retreat, he found two more players closing in behind. In the narrow passage the space for Xu Huo to move was tiny, front and back clogged. Both sides fired items at each other, but due to the effect of Concentrated Air, some items were ineffective, and it could also block part of physical attacks. After a round of exchanges, neither side gained the upper hand.

Xiao Ling and the others jumped into the brawl as well, and amid the chaos they smashed through the stone wall above. Yu Guangnan led the way and climbed out of the opening. Long Aotian, who followed up, placed a ring-shaped item at the exit, and the lead player tried to use an item to seal the hole but failed.

”Yu Huo! Get up here!” Long Aotian shouted from above.

Xu Huo glanced at the people blocking the entrance, then suddenly turned and lunged at the stone wall beside the water barrier. He covered it with both hands, and the stone began to powder!Two players beside him immediately leapt forward, and the lead player, worried he might escape, moved up to fill the gap. But while their eyes were all fixed on the people at the stone edge, an identical figure appeared at the cave opening.

The lead player noticed the anomaly first. He turned and saw Xu Huo had already been pulled up by Long Aotian, yet the figure by the stone wall had not vanished!

Kicking through the stone blocking the top, the lead player leapt from the opening. Seeing Xu Huo and the others heading toward the Corpse Hotel, he shouted for his teammates to follow.

Their exit was actually in the middle of a maze arena, but in this emergency the flimsy materials of the venue offered no real obstruction. Xiao Ling plowed right through and tore a hole in the arena.

Across the street was the Corpse Hotel, but before they could get close the hotel’s main doors shut automatically. From excessive force the glass in the doors shattered, and countless shards sprayed straight toward Xu Huo and the others’ faces!

”Ding ding ding!” Each of them used defensive items, but that slowed them down. The players behind had already caught up; they obviously intended to spare no one. When they left the maze they had split into two teams to encircle from left and right.

The lead player once again used The Shackles of Morality. Caught off-guard, Long Aotian had a pair of transparent handcuffs snap shut around his wrists. If Yu Guangnan hadn’t pulled him back, another player’s twin blades would have sliced him to pieces!

”Craftsman’s blade work!” The twin-blade player called as he opened distance from them. From several meters away he crossed his blades in a pattern — three horizontal, three vertical — sending six slashes cutting through the air!

They had seen this move last night. The group simultaneously leapt high to dodge, but reinforcements above immediately came down. A colorful net dropped over their heads, then, as it neared, it suddenly split into four smaller nets.

The Eye of the Dead was in Xu Huo’s hand in an instant. He swung the sword and sliced the net in two, then the sword transformed into a water jet gun. He fired several shots at the approaching players, creating temporary space, then flicked his lighter. The nearest player erupted in flames!

The explosion drew the other players’ attention. Xiao Ling took the opportunity to toss a few smoke bombs and led the charge into the Corpse Hotel!

”Swish swish,” five chasing players peeled away from the smoke one after another. The player who had been blasted only suffered surface burns and hurried into the hotel without delay.

The Corpse Hotel took a luxury route. Although it wasn’t meant for real lodging, all the decorations were similar. Time was tight so Xu Huo didn’t have time to search the front desk’s notebook; he simply pried open the elevator car door and rode up to the third floor.

”Iron will,” Long Aotian smudged something on the elevator door, and a metal strap-like thing connected across the gap, barely blocking the way.

But staying there was unsafe. Xiao Ling made a shushing gesture, signaling everyone to step lightly.

Yu Guangnan brought out a shoe cover machine, stamped it twice with his foot, and walked a few steps to demonstrate the footstep-dampening effect.

One by one Xu Huo and the others put on shoe covers. Once they confirmed those players hadn’t ascended the stairs, they casually picked a room and climbed up from the exterior windows.

At least half the hotel’s rooms faced the Beheaded Cemetery, but the room layout resembled gears. The doors weren’t on a single horizontal line. Every other room’s outer wall jutted out about two meters, so standing slightly back you couldn’t see the person next door.

Yu Guangnan used a silencing item, ”The hotel’s interior is like this? Not just the rooms, you could hide in the corridors.”

Now wasn’t the time to study room design. Xiao Ling’s face went cold. ”Those guys won’t let us go. It looks like they won’t stop until they kill us all. We need a plan to take them out.”

”These people are stronger than players of the same level,” Long Aotian said bluntly. ”The four of us probably can’t handle them.”

”Why are they so fixated on us?” Yu Guangnan couldn’t make sense of it. ”I only happened to overhear them mention an item, but who doesn’t know there are items in the new dungeon?”

”They aren’t only after you, are they?” Xiao Ling looked at Xu Huo.

”Not just me. Any player who enters the dungeon could be their target,” Xu Huo said. ”If they mentioned items, why aren’t they hunting for items directly? Why form teams to ambush other players?”

”There are only two possibilities,” Xiao Ling said. ”Either they want to weaken opponents by killing some players first—”

”Or the items have already been taken by someone, and they decided to hunt down anyone who might have obtained high-tier items.”