Players, Please Board the Train

”You killed someone,” Xu Huo reminded her.

”So what if I did?” the Female Player shot back. ”The Host never said we couldn’t kill during missions. At worst, we fail to clear the dungeon. I’m not going to swallow this insult!”

The moment that woman earlier had tried to abandon her and Xu Huo, it meant there could never be friendship between them.

Then again, could anyone who entered this place truly have friendship?

The two followed the monkeys to find the next entry-exit pod. The Female Player said, ”This dungeon is designed to kill us. How could there be pure friendship in a game?”

Add a modifier to that, and the difficulty multiplied entirely.

”When the boat reaches the bridge, it will naturally go straight. No need to be so recklessly self-destructive,” Xu Huo said.

The Female Player scoffed. ”Failing to clear the dungeon is nothing. It’s hardly at the level of recklessly self-destructing.”

The two pressed forward through the dense forest. They walked for a long time without receiving any prompt about the location of an entry-exit pod. After another ten minutes, Xu Huo stopped, first releasing the few monkeys before warning the Female Player: ”Something’s coming.”

The Female Player immediately pulled out an electric whip, staring at the monkeys with unfriendly eyes. ”They deliberately led us here!””Squeak, squeak!” These evolved monkeys were extremely clever. After screeching twice at her, they quickly scattered in all directions. Their bodies were small, and in the blink of an eye they vanished without a trace. The Female Player had no time to deal with them now, because ahead the vegetation was being crushed flat, clearly by a Mutated Animal of considerable size.

But Xu Huo was more sharp-eyed. He had spotted the giant beast first. There was no sign of other predators chasing it, yet this giant beast was sprinting at full speed, changing direction several times along the way, giving off a distinct impression of fleeing in panic. Now that the distance had closed, he heard another kind of sound, thin and dense, covering a wider area, as though it blanketed the entire forest floor!

Realizing what it might be, he leaped up on the spot and grabbed the piano wire to escape the jungle.

After putting some distance between himself and the ground, the fleeing Mutated Animal had also escaped to this vicinity, a beast more than three times the size of a normal cheetah. It rushed over and frantically climbed the large tree nearby.

Coincidentally, that tree was also a hiding spot for the White Monkeys. After it climbed up, several White Monkeys hurriedly jumped to other trees, but this was the tallest tree in the area. The lead White Monkey was unwilling to give up its territory and faced off against the Mutated Leopard in the tree. Yet soon, the large tree began to sway despite there being no wind.

At first it was a slight wobble, but seconds later it tilted and fell to one side.

”What in the world is that?!” The Female Player, clutching a propeller-type item while hanging in the air, stared at the dense mass of black creatures at the base of the tree and said in shock.

”Looks like a kind of ant,” Xu Huo said vaguely. In truth, those things no longer really looked like ants. The Rainbow Ant the Female Player had caught was strange in both size and color, but at least it was identifiable at a glance as an ant. These creatures had evolved a pair of raptorial forelegs like a mantis, bodies over a finger-length long, and their mouthparts had evolved to an abnormally large size. In mere seconds, they could gnaw through a large tree.

Their target was the living creatures in the tree.

After the large tree fell, the ant colony swiftly changed direction and headed straight for the Mutated Leopard’s position.

Mutated animals had gained increased intelligence and ability. The Mutated Leopard bolted the instant the tree fell, leaving the monkey pinned beneath it.

The main force of the ant colony went after the Mutated Leopard at astonishing speed, sparing only a small group to crawl toward the base of the tree.

”Squeak! Squeak!” The remaining White Monkeys in the trees were frantic, scratching their ears and cheeks. One of them spotted Xu Huo and knelt on the tree in imitation of a human, kowtowing toward him.

”These monkeys are pretty smart...” The Female Player started, then changed her tune midway, exclaiming in surprise: ”You’re not actually going to save a few animals, are you?!”

The kite string landed precisely on that White Monkey. However, items didn’t necessarily work on animals. Xu Huo thought he wouldn’t be able to pull it up, but unexpectedly the White Monkey grabbed the kite string on its own, screeching at him.

Xu Huo hauled it out. The little thing was probably scared witless. It scrambled two meters up along the kite string by itself, then hung in midair with its tail tucked between its legs, calling out and looking down.

The ant colony took three minutes to fully pass through. They caused very little damage to the plants, but they had eaten quite a few small animals, their bones scattered haphazardly in the grass.

”Evolution is truly terrifying.” The Female Player picked up a bone from an animal. ”The bones are covered in bite marks. In another two years, maybe even the bones will be eaten clean.”

Xu Huo was more interested in the monkeys.

Primates were relatively intelligent, but not to the point of independent thought. They mostly relied on imitation, or could be trained through fixed methods. Yet these White Monkeys actually knew to ask him for help, which suggested they had intelligence beyond that of ordinary animals and had learned some human forms of expression.

Who knew what degree these animals would evolve to given time.

He placed the White Monkey back on the tree and waved. ”Goodbye.”

Several monkeys squatted in a row staring at him. Then the lead one pointed in a certain direction. After that, it led its companions climbing away along the trees.

Xu Huo intended to head in the direction the monkey had pointed.

But the Female Player didn’t quite agree. ”Those monkeys might have deliberately led us toward the ant colony just now. There could be more danger in that direction. The jungle is so big, surely we can find a second entry-exit pod?”

Xu Huo pointed at the sky. ”It’s getting dark.”

Although players could use other means to see at night, animals that hunted in the dark were also especially agile. Since the dangers encountered during the day were still within controllable range, it was best to use this time to get out early.

”Let’s go take a look first. If there’s nothing, we’ll search along the way.” Xu Huo assessed the direction. ”We’re not too far from my entry-exit pod.”

The Female Player thought about it and decided he had a point, so she said no more.

The two hadn’t gone far in the direction the White Monkey had pointed when they received a prompt. But by the time they quickened their pace to get there, someone had already arrived ahead of them.

That person had already peeled off the tree bark used to conceal the pod door and was trying to open the entry-exit pod.

”You two finished the task too?” The player had already noticed them and turned around happily. ”This entry-exit pod seems to be broken. It won’t open.”

The two didn’t approach. The Female Player said, ”A destroyed entry-exit pod will automatically seal itself shut. If the pod door won’t open, you’d best not damage it. Someone might come to repair it later.”

”So that’s how it is.” The player said helplessly, ”I can’t open it anyway. How about you two give it a try?”

”Be careful,” the Female Player warned.

Although that person said to let them try, he didn’t step aside himself. If he had truly completed the task, there would be no need for him to do this.

Xu Huo saw through it too, of course. But to avoid being beaten to the pod, he used ”Straight-Line Distance” to instantly teleport to the pod door and simultaneously activated ”Like Repels Like.”