Players, Please Board the Train

As Xu Huo led Jiangjiang away from the black trench coat man and his group, the chair he had kicked and the few scattered chairs around them shot across the floor at high speed, ramming into the backs of the metal player’s knees within a second. The three who involuntarily sat down were carried straight toward the center of the banquet hall!

The chairs only caught three people. The black trench coat man and the player using black thread managed to dodge, and the moment they escaped the chairs, they launched their attack at Xu Huo.

A barrier condensed from air blocked their first strike, giving Xu Huo enough time to get away. Since the moment he’d snatched Jiangjiang back, the Silver Mask outside and the other players in the banquet hall had already erupted into motion. He didn’t need to worry, these people directly took over the battlefield.

After cutting through the black thread that lunged at his feet, Xu Huo finally turned to look at the other three players. The moment they were forced onto the chairs, they tried to stand up, but violating the host-guest harmony rule resulted in a half-minute ”seat lock.” Although they could still use items and characteristics while locked, having a chair glued to your rear made moving around anything but convenient. Unfortunately, they didn’t even have time to dismantle the chairs, because the other players were already on them.

The three were in a miserable state. The metal player, after being slammed into the wall by item power, landed and spotted Xu Huo not far away. He ground his teeth and snarled, ”Free Blade!”

The metal wall surface right next to him tore apart like silk, turning into blade fragments that flew toward Xu Huo in a semicircular formation.

”Ah!” Jiangjiang, held in Xu Huo’s arms, let out a startled cry. Immediately, two players flanked them from left and right, blocking most of the metal blades. Xu Huo casually used Concentrated Air to block the two fragments in the middle. When he looked up, the two players had already pulled the metal player away from their vicinity.

The fight had barely started when a player punched a hole through the metal wall, and people in the banquet hall were already squeezing through it.

Xu Huo made his way to the window, estimated the approximate position, used the ”Crimson Sword” to cut through both the metal plate and the glass window, grabbed the piano wire, and jumped out. After descending roughly fifty meters in one breath, he randomly picked a room and leaped inside.

The sounds of fighting faded into the distance. Xu Huo had just set Jiangjiang down when her legs gave out and she started to collapse toward the floor. He caught her again, ”Are you alright?”Jiangjiang’s throat was mottled purple, and her speech was a bit slurred: ”I’m... I’m fine... what about you?”

”I wasn’t hurt.” He helped her sit by the sofa. ”Have you ever taken healing-type potions before?”

Jiangjiang nodded.

Xu Huo handed her a bottle. ”Drink it, it’ll make your throat feel better.”

Jiangjiang didn’t suspect for a second that Xu Huo might have ulterior motives. She took it and drank it directly. After a moment to catch her breath, she said, ”Thank you for saving me.”

”It was nothing.” Xu Huo listened to the sounds outside the window. ”Do you run into this kind of thing often?”

Jiangjiang appeared quite calm. ”Ever since my paintings became famous, plenty of people have come looking for me with different intentions. Kidnapping is practically routine. Just in the last couple of days, my agent died. The news said he was accidentally caught up in a fight, but that’s not what really happened. The other party struck because they thought I was in the car too.”

”How pitiful.” Xu Huo said with a blank expression.

Jiangjiang looked up at him, but the movement pulled at the wound on her neck. She let out a sharp ”hiss” and winced.

”I also have some ointment for external injuries. Do you want some?” Xu Huo asked.

She took the ointment from his hand but didn’t head to the bathroom. Instead, she opened her phone’s camera and applied it herself.

Meanwhile, the players who’d been protecting her retreated from the upstairs battle, speaking urgently: ”Jiangjiang, we need to get out of here now. They have explosive-type items. They might blow up the building!”

Jiangjiang immediately tensed up. ”Then let’s hurry... You should come with us!”

The last sentence was directed at Xu Huo.

Xu Huo went along with it and retreated together with the group.

Jiangjiang’s family was wealthy, and given her special status, she had her own car-type flight device. However, it couldn’t carry many people. When the group reached the observation deck on the mid-level of the hotel, two bodyguards helped her aboard, and the flight device had no room for a fifth person.

Xu Huo stayed behind on the observation deck. ”You go ahead. I’ll make my own way down later.”

Jiangjiang hesitated, a look of guilt on her face. ”Wouldn’t it be too dangerous for you alone?”

”He’s a player.” The person piloting the flight device up front said.

Just then, an explosion rocked the top floor. There was no more time to delay. The two players forcibly pulled Jiangjiang back and shut the door. Her voice came from inside: ”Come find me at Galaxy Residences, I live there. Galaxy Residences is very safe...”

Before she could finish, her voice faded into nothing.

Xu Huo stood at the edge of the observation deck, waving his hand at the flight device from a distance, then headed down the stairs.

By this time, a large number of people fleeing from upstairs had already streamed past the mid-level floors. Discarded jackets and shoes could be seen in the hallways, and occasional shouts rose from below, though they were nearly inaudible against the roar of the explosion and the sound of the building’s top floors peeling away and crashing down.

”Mommy...” A child’s sobbing came from behind the stairwell door. Xu Huo pushed the door open and found a little boy sitting behind it. His right lower leg was bent at an unnatural angle, and there was a sizable shoe print on his pants.

Seeing Xu Huo, the boy let go of the doorframe he’d been gripping and shrank back, staring at him with fear, not even daring to cry out loud.

”Don’t be afraid.” Xu Huo crouched down to examine his leg. ”It’s nothing serious. It’ll heal in no time.”

Tears welled up in the boy’s eyes. ”You’re not going to kill me?”

Xu Huo smiled. ”Why would I kill you? You’re so cute.”

Hearing this, the boy only grew more frightened. ”Players eat people. They like cute little kids even more...”

Xu Huo’s gaze darkened slightly, then he said, ”Do you like candy? Uncle will splint your leg and take you down to find your mommy, okay?”

It wasn’t a question of liking or not. The boy had no choice but to pop the lollipop into his mouth. Apparently, he’d never tasted such a strange flavor, he smacked his lips and took it out to look at it.

Xu Huo straightened his leg, wrapped it with gauze and wooden splints he’d hastily torn off, then picked the boy up.

The boy clung to his shoulder. After they’d walked a ways, he whispered, ”Uncle, can you wait until I’m asleep before you kill me? I’m scared of pain.”

”Uncle doesn’t kill children...” Xu Huo hadn’t even finished his sentence when a short figure barely over a meter tall came running toward him, shouting ”Help!” at the top of his lungs. ”Uncle, save...”

The second half of the word was still stuck in his throat when Xu Huo kicked him flying. The figure crashed through the stairwell door and landed in the hallway corridor. After hitting the ground, he spat out a mouthful of blood with a ”wah.”

”Uncle...” The boy’s voice trembled with tears.

Xu Huo rubbed his temples and said to the person playing dead on the floor, ”Are you going to get up on your own, or do I need to come over and help you?”

The man who, a second ago, seemed to have more breath going out than coming in, nimbly scrambled to his feet and bolted. Xu Huo used the kite string to haul him back and dangled him in front of the little boy. ”He’s not a child. He’s just short.”