Players, Please Board the Train

“Either way, you’ll have to take me with you. You might as well give it a try. There’s nothing to lose.” Teacher Ai still held the same attitude.

Shangguan Xi looked at Xu Huo, silently asking for his opinion.

Finding a guide was exactly why Xu Huo had come here, so of course he had no objections. Besides Teacher Ai, there didn’t seem to be any better options in the base city.

“Where can we get energy?” he asked.

“Get a map of the city first. I’ll tell you where to find some,” Teacher Ai said.

Xu Huo took out the floor plan he had photographed in the Library and enlarged it on his communicator.

“Behind the Third Energy Plant is a storage shed for miscellaneous supplies,” Teacher Ai said. “The backup energy is hidden underground. Starting from the entrance, count to the third floor tile. Two meters to its right, there’s a hidden password lock. Open the floor, and you’ll find it. The code is 33927.”

“There are backup communication devices in there, too.”

“I’ll go,” Shangguan Xi said. “Brother Xu, stay here and keep an eye on them. Don’t let anyone run off.”

The Third Energy Plant wasn’t far from their location, so the trip wouldn’t take long.

Xu Huo nodded. “Be careful.”

Going alone would be much more convenient. Shangguan Xi had no intention of crawling back out through the pipes. After feeling around the Protective Wall for a while, he pried open a steel panel, put on a camouflage item suit, and climbed down along the wall.

“He’s not very sharp,” Teacher Ai said after a while. “Letting him go alone will only bring more players here.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Xu Huo gazed toward the city. “Anyone who comes will either be an ally or a free kill.”

Teacher Ai seemed not to have caught the implication in his words. “Wouldn’t it be better to travel alone? You can find allies just as easily at W19 Base. That would spare you the hassle of the journey in between and wouldn’t delay clearing the dungeon. For all you know, someone may already have beaten you to the task objective.”

Xu Huo gave no indication of his attitude. Instead, he said, “Aren’t you coming with us? We can take a shortcut and still make it in time.”

“How do you know what I’m saying is true?” Teacher Ai asked again.

“You’re a smart man. You should be able to figure it out.” Xu Huo looked away from the city. “Instead of testing my limits, why not comfort the kid? His whole world has just fallen apart.”

The Teenager, who had been crouching listlessly nearby, immediately stiffened and lifted his head.

Teacher Ai was cold toward him. “I’m alive only because I want to leave this place. The people here have nothing to do with me.”

“Teacher...” The Teenager gazed at him with reddened eyes.

Teacher Ai didn’t look away. Xu Huo watched them for a while, then chuckled. “Why bother? We’ve already agreed on the terms. I’m not going to turn around and slaughter everyone in the base city.”

“It’s not for them,” Teacher Ai said calmly in his defense. “Everyone who’s been infected is going to die in the end. It makes no difference whether it happens sooner or later. They’d be better off dying early than suffering.”

“At least there’s some hope in being alive,” Xu Huo said. “Maybe a treatment potion will be developed before long.”

Teacher Ai said nothing this time. He lowered his eyes to the mottled patches on the back of his hand.

It was understandable that the players had let their guard down around an ordinary disabled person. After all, even if an ordinary person knew the dungeon’s contents, there wasn’t much they could do to change anything. So Teacher Ai might know that clearing this dungeon meant transporting humans with antibodies, who had turned into Mutants, to other base cities. A normal person would have been full of hope.

Xu Huo didn’t look at him for long before turning his gaze back toward the city. Even from this great distance, he could see Shangguan Xi waving at him.

Two people had returned with him. One of them was Ding Wei.

Xu Huo took out the fifteen catties of guide fee he had promised and handed them to the Teenager. “Since Teacher Ai is coming with me, he doesn’t need these supplies. Take them back.”

“I don’t want them,” the Teenager said sulkily.

Teacher Ai turned his head and said sharply, “What good is your pride when you’re about to starve to death? Take the food and get out of here!”

The Teenager didn’t understand that he meant well. Instead, he retorted, “Didn’t you say that a person should have dignity at all times, and that someone without dignity isn’t really a person?!”

“Someone without dignity isn’t a person. Do you think the dead still count as people?” Teacher Ai sneered.

The Teenager couldn’t argue with him, but he still stubbornly refused to take the supplies. “I’ll find food myself!”

“There are seeds in here,” Xu Huo said. “The survivors in the city don’t seem to have been affected much by the epidemic. Since they can have children, they can survive. You can’t possibly keep getting lucky and finding food. Without enough food, how many more years can the people here survive?”

“If even one of you becomes a player, everyone’s situation can improve.”

The Teenager stopped in his tracks. Gritting his teeth, he turned back and glared at Xu Huo.

Xu Huo smiled. “Hope doesn’t lie with you. It lies with those children.”

The Teenager glanced quickly at Teacher Ai. When he got no response, he picked up the bag from the ground in disappointment, slung it over his back, and climbed the ladder. As he was leaving, he asked Xu Huo, “I know you’re a good person. I saw you secretly giving the children candy. Will you really take Teacher Ai to W37 Base?”

Xu Huo looked at him in silence.

The Teenager took a deep breath. “I understand. One day, I’ll leave W18 too!”

After saying that, he didn’t look back again and soon disappeared into the passage.

“Lies are more pleasant to hear than the truth.” Teacher Ai lifted his chin slightly, speaking as if to himself, though perhaps he was talking to Xu Huo.

Clearly, these people who had been polluted didn’t qualify as players, and neither would their descendants.

Xu Huo didn’t see it that way.

When Shangguan Xi climbed onto the Protective Wall, the two players who had followed him appeared one after the other. Standing below the wall, Ding Wei used a large writing board in place of speech: “I saw you still had some energy you hadn’t taken away, so I brought it over to help.”

Shangguan Xi’s gaze turned cold. “I was just about to tell you there was quite a lot of energy and my luggage compartment couldn’t hold it all. I didn’t expect someone to swoop in and take advantage!”

“Is one luggage compartment’s worth of energy enough?”

He asked Teacher Ai again.

“That depends on whether the road is easy to travel,” Teacher Ai said vaguely.

“Everyone’s here to clear the dungeon, so don’t be so stingy. You can’t put a living experimental sample in a luggage compartment, so you’ll definitely need to form a team. Rather than looking for people at the last minute, why not team up with me, someone you have at least a little rapport with? At least I won’t turn on you without warning.” Ding Wei’s reasoning was sound.

“Won’t turn on us without warning?” Shangguan Xi, who had been pushed forward to take the hit, raised his eyebrows so high they nearly disappeared into his hairline. Before he could complain to Xu Huo about her, the words on the board below changed to: “My loyalty to my teammates is directly proportional to how good-looking they are.”

“She just said I’m ugly!” Shangguan Xi exploded. “I’m killing her right now!”

“Can’t you tell she’s trying to provoke you?” Xu Huo cut him off. “If you kill her, cooperation will be my only option.”