Players, Please Board the Train

”...In fact, Director Sanyang hadn’t gone far. Taking advantage of the cover of night, he observed Xu Huo for nearly a minute, then stuffed a square box into a lump of black-smoke-emitting flesh and inserted it into the underground pipeline.”

”...”

”...Xu Huo had almost confirmed the identity of his current colleague Wan Tingfang, and at the same time, he had begun to suspect Director Sanyang.”

”...”

”An item was left behind at the street corner.”

”Two items were left behind at the street corner.”

”...An injured player discarded an item in the ruins...”

”The person suspected to be a super player standing on the rooftop exchanged a glance with Bai Kou before leaving.”

”Actually, there were far more than three living people in the city. Two hundred meters away from Xu Huo, Qing Cai was disguised as a promotional model, hidden on the frozen projection screen.”

”...The black gas brought out by the players had already polluted most of the city. Due to the special nature of Xu Huo’s body, he hadn’t noticed. At the same time, he also failed to realize that Bai Kou was carrying that same special gas on her.”The text written by the Finalized Script ended around here. Xu Huo looked at the last line of text, hesitated briefly, then took out a bottle of King Fungus antidote he had prepared in advance and had Painting Woman deliver it to Bai Kou.

Painting Woman quickly returned, cheerfully reporting that Bai Kou had given her a small item as a gift.

Xu Huo let Painting Woman take it out to play with, then turned around and picked out two ores from his inventory, placing them in a box together with the Nüwa Stone before stowing it all in the luggage compartment.

As for the Main City District, if the air had been polluted, city residents wouldn’t return in the short term, and the Black Epaulets should be coming back soon to cleanse the city.

Although he didn’t know how many people the Holy Sword Society had sent, the casualties were certainly heavy. As for the Phantom Sound Knights, with the super player going over, it was essentially wrapping things up. There was nothing more to say; the final result would have to wait for the District 011 government to announce.

Taking a distant glance at the city that had been restored to brightness, Xu Huo returned to his bedroom.

Compared to the commotion in the Main City District, the ancient city district was as quiet as ever, passing the night peacefully.

The next morning, Xu Huo first kicked Painting Woman, who was curled up at the foot of the bed, off the mattress. ”Go sleep in your own room.”

Painting Woman, taking advantage of her rolling momentum, sprawled on the floor and swung her feet, saying, ”This bed is softer.”

Xu Huo pulled on a short-sleeved shirt and got up. ”You sleep here tonight, and I’ll swap with you.”

”I only take up a tiny little space.” Painting Woman gestured with her hands, looking at him with a pitiful expression. ”I absolutely won’t disturb your sleep. Last night when I came in, you didn’t even notice.”

Xu Huo gave her a stare. ”If you don’t want to switch, you can go sleep in the same room as Bai Kou.”

Painting Woman pouted as she climbed up, then sat on the sofa in a huff. ”You’re mean!”

Xu Huo couldn’t be bothered with her and went straight to the bathroom. When he came out, he saw her peeking in from outside the door again, her communicator displaying a dense wall of text.

”Stop reading all that nonsense.” He confiscated her communicator. ”If you have nothing to do, go attend class with Xiao Yuan.”

”I can read.” Having failed in her imitation attempt, Painting Woman sheepishly pulled out another communicator and asked, ”When is Miss Bai leaving?”

This was the first time Xu Huo had seen her so tactfully express dislike for someone.

”You don’t like her?”

”A little scared.” Painting Woman shrank her shoulders. ”Seeing her makes me scared.”

Xu Huo watched for two seconds, observing her increasingly human-like behavior. ”You’re an item.”

Even all the people in the castle combined might not be able to handle her.

Painting Woman lowered her head and fiddled with her clothes. ”But I’m just scared, that’s all.”

Xu Huo’s gaze turned cold as he confiscated her second communicator. ”Talk properly.”

Painting Woman looked up with tearful eyes, and after a moment, pulled out a third communicator.

”Getting clever, are we?” Xu Huo smiled, then asked pleasantly, ”Still want to buy dresses whenever you like? Still want to buy snacks whenever you like? Still want your pocket money?”

Painting Woman retracted her tears instantly, raised both hands to place the communicator in his, and insisted she absolutely did not have a fourth one.

The two walked out of the room and happened to run into Bai Kou on the way downstairs. Before she could say anything, Painting Woman automatically pulled an apron from her small shoulder bag and put it on, beginning to demonstrate her diligence.

”What did you do to her?” Xu Huo looked at Bai Kou. Painting Woman was simple, but she also didn’t learn from experience, with a tendency to repeat her mistakes. Yet the moment she saw Bai Kou, she became as docile as a kitten.

Bai Kou was in a good mood today. ”Because if you’re not good, you get spanked.”

Xu Huo had asked Mr. Dong before, and since Bai Kou arrived at the castle, she had never laid a hand on Painting Woman. But when she said this, Painting Woman, who was pretending to be busy wiping down picture frames, visibly shrank back, desperately trying to minimize her presence.

”You two knew each other before.” Xu Huo stated.

Bai Kou smiled. ”So curious, aren’t you? Take your time guessing.”

After breakfast, there was nothing to do, so Mr. Dong set up a table in the garden at the back, prepared snacks and tea, and invited Xu Huo and Bai Kou to sit for a while while he taught Xiao Yuan some new knowledge.

Xu Huo asked Mr. Dong about his Static Reversion.

He had seen Static Reversion once before. It could restore shattered objects to their original shape, though it only maintained the shape and couldn’t repair the cracks. It was more like rewinding an object to the moment just after it had broken.

This was somewhat different from Super Evolution. One type of Super Evolution in object control involved changing the properties of an object. In his view, it was actually a modification of the object’s state, primarily affecting the object itself. But according to Bai Kou, this evolution was tied to time.

Compared to the last time this topic had come up, Mr. Dong was much more forthcoming. He said, ”Players can’t learn anything from items.”

”Knowing how to use something doesn’t mean understanding it.”

Items innately possessed special characteristics, so they didn’t need to think or ponder to use them. This was fundamentally different from players who lacked such abilities.

”Why don’t you demonstrate a few more times? Maybe he’ll suddenly have an epiphany.” Bai Kou said flatly. As she finished speaking, she tapped her fingertip on the teacup, and the cup shattered at the sound.

However, only dense crack lines appeared. The teacup didn’t burst apart, and not a single drop of tea leaked out.

Bai Kou applauded. Mr. Dong said with a stern face, ”Miss Coco, please don’t damage the castle’s property.”

Bai Kou acted as if she hadn’t heard him, turning instead to Xu Huo and asking, ”Did you see that?”

Unfortunately, Xu Huo hadn’t seen anything.

”It’s normal that you can’t see it. This is closer to a sensation.” Bai Kou raised her hand, and a petal that had just fallen from a flower shot at incredible speed, embedding itself into the tabletop in front of Xu Huo.

”I can’t change the state of objects, but object control is about the same as space manipulation.”

”Yesterday you saw the time rays, didn’t you? You can also imagine space as a physical object, an object that, like air, presses on everything inside it. Find this object, learn to control it, and naturally, you can move everything within that space.”

”Nearby.” She gently nudged Xu Huo’s teacup, then added, ”Far away.”

A flowering tree dozens of meters away was uprooted entirely.

”As long as you learn deeply enough, you can manipulate any space.”