Players, Please Board the Train

”These two things can’t be done at the same time?” Xu Huo said, quite surprised.

”No.” Lady Lily said directly, ”Contact with other wormhole points is inherently dangerous. District 011 needs enough players to stay behind. We can’t send out large teams like we used to.”

”Which side does Madam lean toward?” Xu Huo asked in return.

”I’m a woman. I just want to run my business in peace and see my family and friends live well.” Lady Lily looked at him, ”I don’t like killing and bloodshed.”

”But you men can’t wait to burn and pillage every district, yet you don’t know that 011 has made quite a few enemies in E27. This incident at the base city is living proof.”

”When the day comes that players from other districts come knocking on our door, the players can run, but where are the rest of us supposed to go?”

Xu Huo stared at the woman before him, and only after a moment did he say, ”With District 011’s strength, something like that shouldn’t happen.”

”Who can say what the future holds.” Lady Lily rose and walked over to him, paused for a moment before sitting down beside him, and said in a low voice, ”I’m truly glad you came.”

The distance between the two was ambiguous, but Xu Huo didn’t move away. Instead he said, ”I’m just a D-level player, here to make up the numbers.”

Lady Lily didn’t make any further move, but said with a smile, ”You’re a noble. By standing on my side today, you’re also standing in opposition to Ahsis and his lot.”Xu Huo didn’t have much interest in District 011’s political infighting, but that didn’t stop him from stating his position. ”I chose to settle in District 011 precisely so I could have a few safe days outside of dungeons.”

Lady Lily brightened up, ”I’m so glad you think that way.”

”I’d like to ask you a favor.”

She had taken care of him, and they were on the same boat, so of course Xu Huo couldn’t refuse.

”I want you to kill someone for me.” Lady Lily set her wine glass on the table. ”The target is a mental Evolver. I’ve already lost several people to him, so I hope that when the sun rises tomorrow, this person no longer exists in the game world.”

Walking out of the duke’s mansion, Xu Huo piloted his flight device back toward Rose Castle.

The things Lady Lily had given him were still placed beside him. He switched to autopilot, then pushed the items on top aside and picked up the materials underneath.

The person Lady Lily wanted him to kill was a C-level player, also a member of the Holy Sword Society. He had been captured alive during the fighting two days ago and was being held in a neighboring city, but tonight he would be transferred to another core city. Someone would intercept and create a distraction along the way, and all Xu Huo needed to do was get close to the player and kill him.

Normally, a C-level player wouldn’t be hard to kill, but this man was under the protection of the Black Epaulets, and to reduce risk, the Black Epaulets had also used an item on him that enhanced mental power, ensuring that he could still defend himself in an emergency.

This man was bait. Besides Rayton Mireille, whom he had voluntarily confessed, he had lured quite a few people out. But the more people who came to kill him, the more certain Ahsis’s side would be that nobles in District 011 were cooperating with them. They weren’t making any particular effort to conceal his movements.

So this transfer was essentially an unspoken confrontation between the two sides.

That Holy Sword Society player wasn’t easy to kill, otherwise Lady Lily wouldn’t have thrown in an item for him. But this woman was nowhere near as naive and weak as she appeared. All that talk about District 011’s future was empty words. What she wanted was power.

This favor served as Xu Huo’s Proof of Loyalty. Only after completing it would he be formally accepted by the nobles, and at the same time, he would be forced to pick a side.

By the time he returned to Rose Castle, Bai Kou was already back. She was well-informed and already knew what had happened at the duke’s mansion.

”I need to go out for a while. I might not come back.” Xu Huo informed Mr. Dong.

Bai Kou gave him an extra glance. ”You’re planning to wade into this mess?”

”I still have to live in District 011. I ought to show some good faith.” Xu Huo said, ”Do you have anything else to do in District 011?”

Bai Kou didn’t answer, but instead said, ”You’d better not show off your Mental World too much. With as many players as there are here now, you can’t lock down more than a few people.”

Xu Huo smiled, said ”Thanks,” and headed upstairs first, where he injected the P2S evolution agent.

After a brief moment of dizziness from the impact, he noticed a slight sense of resistance when he moved.

He couldn’t tell whether it was an illusion caused by his senses becoming more acute or a side effect from his body not having fully adapted to the potion. He tested it out. Both his speed and strength had increased considerably from his original baseline, but the feeling of resistance hadn’t disappeared.

Opening the game panel, his evolution rate had already risen to 40 percent. Ordinary evolution agents wouldn’t raise the rate by ten percentage points all at once, so this was definitely a genuine Perfect Potion.

”Why does this feeling occur?” Xu Huo worked his body. Although this sensation didn’t affect his movements, the fact that it appeared at all meant something was wrong somewhere.

He searched the network platform for information on evolution agent side effects. The official explanation stated clearly:

”Taking evolution agents multiple times within a short period, causing the evolution rate to rise too quickly, can lead to fatigue in the player’s body. This usually disappears on its own after a period of time. During this period, please refrain from using further evolution agents.”

Fatigue symptoms... The interval since Xu Huo’s last use of the Perfect Potion wasn’t exactly long. He knew that ordinary evolution agents made you slower the more you used them, but he hadn’t expected that even the S-version Potion would cause this.

After getting used to it, he disguised himself as a maid and left the castle. Once he was out of the ancient city district, he switched identities and took a flight device toward Xiang City.

Xiang City was the core city closest to the base city, and that Holy Sword Society player would be questioned at the courthouse there.

Based on the information Lady Lily had provided, Xu Huo arrived outside the courthouse building ahead of time.

Black Epaulets were already standing guard here, and the cleaning tasks had basically been completed during the day, so after nightfall, aside from the patrolling Black Epaulets, no one else came or went.

As long as people were coming and going, that was fine.

Xu Huo put on the Invisibility Cloak, opened his Mental World, and followed two Black Epaulets into the building.

Due to the special nature of the courthouse building, electronic monitors were only placed on the perimeter, not inside. However, trap items had been set up inside, and entering within the range of those items could trigger an alarm. So Xu Huo followed the Black Epaulets as they checked the courtroom, the lounge outside the courtroom, the staff lounge, and the restroom one by one.

While the Black Epaulets lingered in the lounge outside the courtroom, he left a simple mark on both decorative paintings there. After coming out, he also broke the water pipe in the men’s restroom. After following the two Black Epaulets around for a circuit, he didn’t leave the building. Instead, he went to the cleaning staff changing room.

He glanced over the cleaning staff’s work records and belongings, took a set of spare uniform, added a fake name to the staff roster, and after finishing, went back to check the courtroom.

District 011 relied heavily on holographic projections, so during trials, apart from the accused having to be present in person, the high-ranking government officials participating in the trial could all use projections. This ensured the safety of senior officials to the greatest extent possible.