Players, Please Board the Train

There weren’t many people in the exhibition hall, and not many had the leisure to look at paintings at a time like this, so most of those present were players, with Jiangjiang surrounded by as many as ten people.

”Miss Jiangjiang, your paintings are truly magnificent. Although I’m not a player, I can still see tolerance and serenity in your art.” A portly middle-aged man held her hand and refused to let go. ”Those who say your paintings lack substance are the ones who lack substance themselves. Your paintings are filled with compassion, you’re practically a living goddess!”

Hearing this, even the players nearby couldn’t stomach it, and someone stepped forward to signal him to let go.

The middle-aged man reluctantly released her hand, then pulled over a young man beside him. ”This is my son. He just became a player and is your fan. Later, could you please sign one of your paintings for him?”

The young man looked at Jiangjiang with slight excitement, and Jiangjiang gave a faint smile and a nod before saying, ”Excuse me,” and went off to speak with others.

The ignored middle-aged man’s expression soured somewhat, but he quickly adjusted himself, draping an arm around his son’s shoulders as they walked aside. ”We’ll buy four or five of her paintings later. Out of respect for the paintings, she’ll definitely have to chat with you a bit more.”

As he was speaking, his son got bumped into by someone, and the middle-aged man said crossly, ”This place is plenty wide, are you blind?!”

Unfortunately, the other party paid him no mind. Though the somewhat older woman was dressed in fine clothes, her mental state didn’t look good. She ignored the crowd and walked straight toward Jiangjiang.

Players had already noticed her unusual behavior, and two of them came over to block her. The woman didn’t try to force her way through but instead said with tears streaming down her face, ”My son is dead. Before he died, he was by your side...”

Jiangjiang stepped forward and said with a sorrowful expression, ”If there’s anything I can help with, please don’t hesitate to ask.””I just want to ask you, why did you kill him?!” The woman’s eyes were bloodshot. ”He loved your paintings, admired you, liked you, and was willing to risk his life to protect you. Why did you kill him?!”

”Your son was killed by other players, how can you blame Jiangjiang for that?” A player scolded her.

”It was her who killed him!” The woman dumped out the photos from the document folder in her arms. ”These are all her paintings. Everyone in the paintings is a player who stayed by her side, and every single one died a horrible death!”

The photos scattered on the ground were exactly those from Jiangjiang’s studio, with the corners revealing parts of the studio’s layout. Except for the corpses whose faces couldn’t be seen, all the other faces had appeared on the memorial website built by her fans.

The woman held up two photos, one of a painting and one of the death scene, and demanded hoarsely, ”The upload time of this photo was before my son died! Before he died, you already knew he would die! It’s you! You cursed him to death! You’re a monster! Your paintings kill people!”

The desperate voice echoed through the exhibition hall, and everyone gathered around, naturally seeing the photos on the ground. So many paintings that looked like death photographs were jarring to behold, and for a moment, everyone present lost their voice.

But soon, someone recognized a deceased companion in one of the paintings. Some of Jiangjiang’s paintings bore dates, and the dates on the paintings were indeed before the deaths of the people depicted!

”These photos must have been altered, and there’s no way to prove these paintings are actually Jiangjiang’s.” Someone voiced doubt. ”...At the end of the day, they’re just paintings. How can a painting kill?”

”If she’s a player, a painting can kill too.” Xu Huo stood behind the crowd and added with a smile.

Jiangjiang, who had remained expressionless throughout, lifted her head to glance in his direction, then looked at the woman with pity. ”It wasn’t me or my paintings that killed your son.”

”I merely foresaw his death.” She said calmly.

”See, she really is a player!” The woman was clearly in an unstable mental state, eagerly seeking validation from others. ”She’s a player! She’s using paintings to kill people!”

Jiangjiang shook her head, then said to a player beside her, ”Could you please take her to rest?”

That player didn’t move but instead asked, ”You also foresaw Brother Song Xu’s death, so why did you still go out that day?”

The most important reason players voluntarily gathered around her was her paintings, but now their self-perceived ”spiritual salvation” was hanging by a thread, and rationality and coldness had returned to their bodies.

Jiangjiang answered the question. ”Because no matter what I do, what I foresee never changes.”

”You could have told us.” Another player noticed some people arriving outside the venue. ”Did you also foresee that we would die here today?”

”No.” Jiangjiang smiled. ”I came here because I will die here.”

Like the other players present, Xu Huo furrowed his brow.

But the next second, no one had time to dwell on her words, because a violent explosion erupted upstairs, and the entire ceiling of the exhibition hall came crashing down. Several black-clad players fell with the debris, wielding thermal weapons that clearly didn’t belong to Zone 009, and opened fire indiscriminately on the people in the hall!

They weren’t targeting Jiangjiang. Their goal was the group of players who had also fallen from upstairs. Amid the chaos of fleeing and dodging, one of them emerged from the smoke and dust, and it was Chi Nan!

Xu Huo pushed aside a large chunk of floor slab and happened to lock eyes with her. She was clearly more delighted than he was, and even in the midst of the chaos, she found time to greet him. ”What a coincidence!”

Quite the coincidence indeed.

Xu Huo turned to look at Jiangjiang. When the building collapsed, she had braced the floor slab to save the woman who had lost her son, handing her over to a nearby player who was helping with rescues, and then looked at Xu Huo.

In the middle of the exhibition hall, Chi Nan and a group of players with indistinct faces were joining forces against the black-clad players. Some of the players maintaining order in Zone 009 were rescuing ordinary people trapped under the rubble, while others scattered and returned to Jiangjiang’s side.

As Jiangjiang and Xu Huo locked eyes, the moment she raised her brush, he had already crossed the short distance between them. Just as the Octagonal Gallery unfurled, the Awakening Doll also dropped to the ground!

Although Xu Huo’s speed was already very fast, he still couldn’t bring Jiangjiang into the dungeon before the gallery expanded. Only two players who had come to help were caught off guard and sucked in, while he and Jiangjiang remained standing inside her gallery.

The noise was stripped away in an instant. Eight deep gallery corridors stretched in different directions. Standing at the convergence point, the view was subtly warped, as if one could take in more than half of the galleries at a glance, yet each corridor was severely distorted, not resembling a real location at all.

Jiangjiang stood at the center of the convergence circle and let out a sigh. ”Why didn’t you leave?”

”I haven’t gotten what I came for.” Xu Huo said.

”I already answered your question.” Jiangjiang said helplessly. ”I don’t know the doctor you mentioned, and Shang Shuming isn’t a doctor. He’s merely a sponsor.”

”Then let’s switch questions.” Xu Huo’s expression turned slightly serious. ”Who provided psychological counseling for you and Peng Ya?”