Players, Please Board the Train

“You’re not from Zone 009, are you?” Lu Zhen looked at him with a hint of envy. “Zone 009 just merged with the Game Partitions. I heard dungeons are overflowing with items and potions, practically lying around for the taking. It’s a pity my player level’s too low to dare enter the publicly unlocked fixed dungeons.”

“Lying around for the taking?” Xu Huo chuckled. “Do you see any items around here?”

Lu Zhen exhaled. “I guess so.”

Their conversation paused, and footsteps echoed from the hallway outside: the first temporary master had been born.

Lu Zhen immediately shot to her feet, tense, and hurried to the door. She pressed her ear against the panel, listening intently. “Coming from the left…”

Before she could finish, she couldn’t help but jerk backward, springing to the side of the door. She conjured an axe and raised it high.

But whoever was outside only paused for a single moment at the door before walking on.

Lu Zhen breathed a sigh of relief. She heard the footsteps fade away, then pressed herself against the door again, listening for a long while. When nothing more happened, she turned back and mouthed to Xu Huo: “What’s going on?”

“Maybe they thought better of it and decided killing isn’t worth the trouble, so they went back,” Xu Huo said.

The dungeon’s announced rules separately targeted the temporary master and the guests. In practice, whether the rights and obligations of the host and guests overlapped was hard to say.

But looking at it the other way, though this dungeon appeared to have many rules, the best way for a temporary master to succeed was to hide their identity and just stay put for a day. As long as they didn’t stir up trouble, that day would make them a “qualified master.”

Lu Zhen caught on. “But will the others think the same way?”

If every player thought like that, the dungeon wouldn’t have such a high mortality rate.

By the next morning, true to expectation, people had died. Both players in the first room on the left side of the second floor were dead. In the rooms opposite Xu Huo’s and to his right, one player had died in each.

Two people killed together in one room was easy to understand—after all, to avoid exposing themselves, a “temporary master” would best kill both at once. But one death in a room was abnormal. Though the dungeon hadn’t explicitly stated whether a surviving guest after their roommate’s death violated the first guest rule, as a precaution, players wouldn’t target their roommate first.

The room opposite belonged to the female player who had opened the door yesterday. To the right were two of the eight who had arrived at the villa first. The survivor was a Short-haired Man, who looked grim and said, “I’ve already checked the bodies. They were poisoned to death.”

“Isn’t that the same way those two died?” a Baby-Faced Female Player behind the man in the raincoat pointed to the room not far away.

The two players in the first room on the left had been traveling with Lu Zhen. She hadn’t expected them to be killed on the very first night. She examined their bodies and found a pair of blood holes on their necks. “It looks like they were bitten to death by a snake.”

All four players had died the same way, leaving the group puzzled. “Could there be venomous snakes in the villa?”

“What venomous snake?” The alluring female player twirled her hair, her electric gaze roaming over the others. “You really think several players couldn’t spot a venomous snake? That’s giving them way too little credit. It was obviously a player’s doing.”

“The murder method is quite unique, but it fits this game perfectly.” She laughed out loud. “Everyone, be careful.”

As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly struck at the red-haired player standing beside her: “Lush aquatic grass!”

A large clump of green, water-laden plants exploded from a small sphere like a ribbon, wrapping around the red-haired male player like an octopus. The redhead only had time to let out a cry of shock and fury before he was engulfed by the aquatic grass. As he tore through it to counterattack, the man in the raincoat kicked him hard, sending him flying into the room next door.

A sharp crack sounded as a table in the room shattered.

“What the hell!” The redhead flipped up and charged out. The raincoat-wearing man easily dodged his fist and said flatly, “Don’t be so mad. As long as you’re not the temporary master from last night, breaking something doesn’t matter.”

The redhead froze, suddenly realizing why those two had attacked him. Furious, he shouted, “You think I killed them!”

“Can’t help it,” the alluring female player said with a smile at him. “Who told me the footsteps I heard last night came from your direction? The person staying with me died without a sound. I’m terrified.”

The red-haired player was livid, but faced with the other players’ suspicion, he didn’t dare truly fall out with them. After all, he was only a “suspect.” If he actually fought, he’d instantly confirm their suspicions. To avoid a potential ticking time bomb, the players would join forces to kill him—a temporary master who damaged the villa broke the rules a master had to follow, disqualifying them from being a qualified master and, naturally, from clearing the dungeon.

“Faking footsteps isn’t hard,” he said. “Besides, the guy staying with me is dead too. What benefit would I have in killing him?”

“That’s why we didn’t really kill you,” the Baby-Faced Female Player said with a grin. “If the footsteps were faked, wouldn’t we have fallen for someone’s trap? If you’re not the temporary master, everyone’s happy. If you are, we’re happy.”

The redhead was speechless but helpless.

“Wouldn’t one less person in a room break the first guest rule?” Lu Zhen interjected. “Whoever became the villa’s temporary master took a huge risk doing that.”

“Afraid of exposing their identity,” the young player playing with his dagger said. “How could a temporary master go out to kill without their roommate noticing?”

He stared coldly at the alluring female player and the redhead. “Looking at it this way, you two are the most suspicious.”

This comment made the atmosphere tense. That was when Xu Huo spoke up. “Maybe someone deliberately did this to stir up internal conflict among the players. The more people die, the less risk for the rest. Instead of discussing who last night’s temporary player was, maybe we should think about how to guard against such dangerous items.”

“But guests can’t go out at night, and the door has no peephole, so we can’t see what’s happening outside. I figure what happened last night won’t repeat tonight. What we should really worry about is whether someone will take advantage of the chaos to strike during the day.”

“Why don’t we find last night’s player first?” someone suggested. “Since a temporary master can’t damage the villa, we can just test everyone one by one!”

As soon as he finished speaking, the eyes of everyone around turned to him.

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