Players, Please Board the Train

In the dim hotel corridor, a huge, bald, shaggy beast lazily swung its tail as it walked. Its eyes rolled constantly, scanning the doors on both sides. If the door was closed it would pass by, but if it found an open room it would walk in on its own, circle around, or sniff and bite at any blood-stained item, leaving tooth marks before moving on.

After finishing this floor it was going to take the elevator to other levels, but at that moment music came from the stairway:

”Xiao Ming had a secret, he told his friend Xiao Hua, Xiao Hua heard the secret and told Xiao Liang, Xiao Liang heard the secret and he told...”

The music sounded especially out of place in the silent hotel, and it clearly provoked the beast that was calmly patrolling its turf. It roared and sprinted up the stairs, covering three or four steps at a time until it leaped to the upper floor and charged straight toward the source of the sound!

A music player hung suspended not far from the stairwell. As the monster lunged in one go at the dangling noise source, Xu Huo and Lin Zhenhuai burst out of rooms on the left and right, respectively. Sword energy sliced at the monster’s hind leg before it left the ground, while a spring-loaded gauntlet that could shoot out two or three meters hammered at its skull!

What none of them expected was that, although massive, the beast moved with surprising agility. It first swiped a claw and severed Lin Zhenhuai’s gauntlet, then sprang upward. The sword energy grazed its foot and struck the wall at the end of the rear corridor.

The chance of a decisive hit was very small. Xu Huo and the others had prepared before they moved, but the light arc from the sword energy had not completely vanished when the monster’s claw, accompanied by a gust of wind, swept toward Xu Huo!

”Boom!” Xu Huo narrowly avoided the strike, but the beast’s sheer size allowed both front paws to block his escape route. He hastily raised The Severing Ties Door to protect himself, yet the blow still lifted both the item and him several meters into the air!

Xu Huo stumbled backward repeatedly. The Severing Ties Door, already cracked, was close to collapsing, and the creature hurled itself forward again — that little extra distance from being shoved up wasn’t nearly enough to stop the monster’s full-force leap. He could almost guarantee that before he could steady himself, the beast would leap down and tear him apart!

”Explode!” With that command, a lighter and the Explosive Aesthetics item were used simultaneously, instantly turning the shadow that cloaked him into a ball of fire!The attack worked. The beast that had been frenziedly hunting them slammed into the wall and began rolling its body wildly to put out the flames. Lin Zhenhuai and Gao Xiaoyue, who had rushed in behind, one looped a steel cable around the creature’s neck while the other turned a compact pulley in her hand. The cable retracted rapidly on its own and, using an anchor inside the room’s window, quickly hauled the monster into the room!

They had set the mechanism up earlier hoping to fling the creature out the window, but what surprised everyone was that the blazing beast suddenly dug its claws into the floor upon nearing the window. Its talons carved several deep grooves into the ground and then finally locked at the window edge!

The cable went taut, but no matter how the pulley was turned it couldn’t lift the monster’s high-held head — in fact, its head was contorted backward at an almost impossible angle; for a normal animal its neck bones would have snapped.

The creature’s head had no fur and had not burned with the rest of its body, so even though its neck was deformed you could still see its pupils rolling constantly.

This could not deliver a fatal injury.

At that moment Peng Fengnian, lying in ambush in the room, tossed out a short knife and snapped off the embedded claw that anchored the monster to the ground. As its body loosened, Xiao Ling sent out a toy little cart that directly toppled it over!

The cable moved again. This time the creature slammed against the window and its massive body fell out the opening!

The cable loosened and tightened in an instant. Gao Xiaoyue stood frozen in place, her expression betraying how tense she was. ”Quick!”

Xu Huo lunged into the room in a single step, leaped onto the window frame, and made a backward hand signal!

The cable vanished instantly. The monster that had been suspended began to fall rapidly. Xu Huo grabbed the piano wire and jumped out after it, swinging his sword to force the beast away whenever it tried to re-enter through the windows it passed during its descent!

”Accelerate the fall!” came Sun Bo’s voice from above, and the falling monster began to speed like a projectile, crashing into the hotel’s first-floor ground with a tremendous impact!

The creature was truly tenacious. Despite falling from such a height, it immediately rolled over and scrambled to its feet, attempting to run into the hotel.

Besides Xu Huo, three others had jumped down from above: Yu Guangnan and two unnamed companions of Peng Fengnian. Those two men spread an electrified net left and right on the ground. The sizzling currents occasionally sparked outward and repeatedly shocked the monster back whenever it tried to break through!

”Shhhh...!” At that moment a sharp whistle sounded from Yu Guangnan’s side. The special noise immediately drew the beast’s attention. As Yu Guangnan flung what looked like a whistle-like item through the air toward the street outside the hotel, the monster lunged after it!

Both the front and back of the hotel opened onto streets that looked like ordinary roads, but there was an invisible barrier at the edge of the sidewalk that players could not pass through. The item Yu Guangnan tossed struck the barrier and fell. The pursuing beast stopped right at the barrier and did not pass through.

Yu Guangnan felt disappointed and looked at the other two.

The two coordinated quickly, narrowing the range of the electric net to force the monster toward the barrier. But the creature, which had already been singed and charred black from the shocks, suddenly snapped in a vicious change of mood. It lunged at the electric net, using claws and teeth to tear it apart, and then leapt directly at the player on the right!

The beast, stripped of fur and scorched black, looked like a flayed monkey, yet its speed and strength remained. It accelerated and slammed straight into that player’s defensive item!

The force was unimaginable. The player flashed and was thrown through the hotel’s exterior wall. He landed right in the monster’s path, and before he could crawl out from under the rubble the charging beast ripped open his lower back with hands and feet!

Xu Huo and two others who had been pursuing were splattered by the spray of blood. When they looked back into the hole in the wall, the monster had already disappeared!

Yu Guangnan and another player stayed behind to rescue the wounded. Xu Huo wasted no time and dashed into the hotel, following the trail of blood that led directly to an open-door room...

But just as he reached the doorway, the monster hiding inside the room suddenly leaped out!

”Concentrated Air!” He slammed up an air barrier in front of him, but his body hit the wall behind. Watching the beast thrash and roar against the barrier, he moved with a gravity-flip maneuver to the other end of the corridor, pulled something from his pocket, and hurled it directly into that blood-gaping maw chasing him!