Players, Please Board the Train

Xu Huo had already been teleported into the aquarium through the Entry-Exit Pod. Like the Raincoat Man before him, he was thrown directly into the ocean without any protective measures.

Being in the pitch-black seawater was almost no different from being in the dead of night. However, the Projection outside was far less restricted by the lack of light, allowing everyone to clearly see Xu Huo floating underwater.

He seemed to have slightly better luck than the Raincoat Man. He did not encounter a school of piranhas upon emerging, but as the Host rotated the Projection’s viewing angle, a gigantic semitransparent shark appeared not far from him.

In terms of appearance, it did indeed bear some resemblance to sharks from before evolution.

“As everyone knows, animals living in the deep sea often display certain obvious signs of degeneration. For example, their bodies may lack color. Such traits are usually related to an animal’s living environment. Evolution only occurs when it is necessary, but after the entire world began evolving, the fish in the ocean also underwent certain mutations.”

“For example, this semitransparent man-eating shark. Although it does not live in the deep sea, its body developed this trait after mutating. Among the marine creatures living at the same depth, it is the only fish to undergo this particular mutation. However, after mutating, the hardness of the man-eating shark’s bones became several times greater than before, and it also became far more ferocious and aggressive. Sea World once compiled statistics on marine-life attacks, and man-eating sharks accounted for more than fifty-three percent of the victims involved.”

“Mutated man-eating sharks are not only tough and incredibly fast, they also like to appear in groups, making them extremely difficult to capture and hunt... What we are looking at now is a vanguard shark responsible for surveying the area. Judging from the range of information released by this shark, it has at least ten man-eating sharks following it!”

“The only weakness of these man-eating sharks is that their sensory systems have degenerated, so they can only detect Prey from a very close distance. Ah, it has already discovered Number 313 Guest!”

Sharks do not primarily rely on their vision to distinguish their surroundings. They depend more on the nerves along the sides of their bodies and their sense of smell to identify Prey from a distance. The degeneration of their sensory systems meant that the range in which they could search for Prey had been greatly reduced. Instead, their vision had become useful.

Xu Huo, floating in the seawater, had already sensed it. He could see the man-eating shark’s bulb-like eyes, yet the creature only lingered at a certain distance before swimming toward him.Visibility underwater was limited, but Xu Huo could sense twelve sharks rapidly closing in on him from the front, some ahead of the others. Behind him, there was also one enormous fish, nearly as large as a white whale, though it was not moving quickly.

Xu Huo was wearing the Oxygen Supply and a Protective Suit capable of withstanding underwater pressure, but that did not mean he could fight twelve mutated sharks underwater. Still, solving the problem did not necessarily require him to act personally.

He remained floating in place, estimating the distance between himself and the man-eating sharks.

Other than the one in front, which was relatively close, the rest were still some distance away. Of course, to a human, that distance was not particularly long, but to seawater permeated with a large amount of poisonous fungal fluid, it was an extremely long distance.

The power of Hugo’s pathogens lay in their ability to reproduce rapidly in harsh conditions. The last time Xu Huo opened the Seventeenth Hospital dungeon, he had collected quite a few samples and made some ready-to-use potions. Some had been diluted, while others had been mixed with different pathogens for experimental purposes.

They could be considered enhanced versions, but Xu Huo had tested the toxins and confirmed that their rank had not increased. King Fungus could still neutralize them. He simply did not know how effective it would be.

The first man-eating shark charging toward him visibly slowed down. Xu Huo had only counted to five when the shark swam right in front of him and opened its mouth. He then watched as the massive creature slowly turned belly-up, a faint stream of black liquid seeping from between its teeth. Its head gradually began turning black.

The school of sharks behind it followed immediately. Eleven man-eating sharks spread out into a hunting formation and swam toward him from different directions, but as soon as they approached Xu Huo, they flipped belly-up just like their companion and floated peacefully in the water.

Xu Huo turned to look behind him.

The distant black giant fish flicked its tail and fled at top speed.

Xu Huo returned to the Friendship Garden Plaza. When he emerged from the Pod, the Protective Suit and items on his body had already been put away. He casually brushed off his sleeves and nodded from a distance toward Player 64.

However, seeing him return from a trip to the aquarium without even getting his hair wet made all the players present somewhat wary, not just Player 64.

The Host remained as calm as ever and said with a smile, “Painting it black still counts as giving it a color. Player 313 is incredibly powerful. The strong never lack for friends, but the other guests still need to work harder on the road to friendship. The next match will be Guest 124 versus Guest 75!”

The Three-Color Showdown began again. Zhuang Mengtian, who had not interacted with them at all since entering Friendship Garden, unexpectedly walked over of her own accord. Her wristwatch was still playing music softly. Unlike her previous arrogance, she now wore a smile that sent a very clear message. “Are you still going to choose Player 64 next round?”

Xu Huo glanced at her. “Why?”

“If you continue choosing the white ball, won’t he get a free ride all the way to the end?” Zhuang Mengtian brushed back her hair. “Although I don’t understand why you’re doing this, watching that scoundrel get a free advantage makes even me envious.”

Ignoring the gazes around him, Xu Huo said calmly, “Unless I discuss it with my teammate beforehand, I will only choose the white ball.”

Zhuang Mengtian studied him deeply. “Can you clear the dungeon this way?”

In fact, none of the players present had a clear direction for clearing the dungeon. Whether they treated the clear condition as equivalent to the program’s final scoring, rescuing someone, or being rescued, any of these could be the method for clearing the dungeon, or merely an incomplete method. In other words, even if Xu Huo’s guess, which he had told Xiao Xianglin yesterday, failed to result in a successful clear, it could not be said to have been entirely wrong.

Everyone understood that it was impossible to obtain pure friendship here. Any method that might be related had to be tried.

“Even if you ask me, I don’t know,” Xu Huo said. “If I did, I would probably have cleared the dungeon and left already.”

Whether they could obtain friendship or not, they at least had to show the attitude of someone making friends.

Zhuang Mengtian lowered her head and fiddled with her wristwatch, seemingly lost in thought.

At that moment, Xu Huo reminded her, “I thought it would be better if you fiddled with your watch less.”

Zhuang Mengtian raised her head.

“If you’re strong enough, do you still need to make your move while people are asleep?”

Zhuang Mengtian’s expression changed slightly. The next second, she raised her hand again. “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“Stop pretending to be stupid,” You Si cut in. “We came in the same vehicle. Do you really think everyone else is an idiot?”

Xu Huo had not been entirely certain that Zhuang Mengtian had done something on the train. After all, the entire train had been affected, and she herself did not possess that level of strength.

However, he could be certain that she probably had an item or characteristic related to hypnosis, and its effects were quite powerful. At the very least, it had worked on him.