Players, Please Board the Train

Xu Huo tore open his sleeve and discovered that his entire left arm was covered in bulging, dark-blue veins, and his skin had become as dry and cracked as old tree bark. The good news was that although the left half of his body was stiff, his left leg was only somewhat numb and he could still walk.

The art gallery was about to disappear, and the sounds around him were growing closer. He opened the "Fifty-Fifty Air Window" and jumped inside.

The art gallery vanished like Jiangjiang had earlier, dissolving into color like wisps of smoke. After discovering the bodyguard's corpse beside her, the players swarmed over and surrounded the person standing in the ruins of the Haunted House. "What happened? Where's the enemy?"

Some searched for any players who might still be lurking, while others arranged for Jiangjiang's departure. Once she was in the car, Jiangjiang leaned against the window, gazing at the rubble on the ground, and let out a soft breath. "He actually refused to leave..."

Xu Huo had no idea how long his condition would last. Returning to District 011 was one option, but staying in Zone 009 was equally viable. Both sides carried risks, yet he had no intention of leaving.

Jiangjiang clearly knew something about the inside story. Even if the person who trained her wasn't the doctor from the Seventeenth Hospital but the real Shang Shuming, they still had a connection to that doctor. He couldn't afford to let this lead slip away.

"Bang!" The air window snapped open above a cluster of old, rundown residences, dumping him from the sky as usual. Xu Huo grabbed the piano wire to slow his descent, but when he landed, his left foot jammed awkwardly, throwing his body off balance. He crashed directly into a nearby dumpster, startling a little girl who was rummaging through the garbage. She scrambled away, covering her head, and shrieked as she crouched down: "Don't hit me, don't hit me! I won't do it again, I swear!"

Xu Huo glanced to the side. Several homeless men were staring at him, apparently eyeing the same pile of trash. They just didn't dare approach while he was there.

It was a small garbage mountain, and mixed among the refuse were boxes from premium snacks—clearly not something this slum could afford. So this trash had been hauled in from somewhere else.

He adjusted to his half-numb body, gripping the piano wire with his right hand to stand. Not being able to walk on one leg wasn't the real problem; the real issue was that half his body couldn't coordinate, making it hard to stay balanced. After forcing two unsteady steps, he placed a skateboard on the ground.

That made movement possible. He glided along the uneven road ahead.

The homeless men rushed to the garbage pile the moment he left. The little girl only managed to snatch two plastic bags with leftover snack crumbs before taking a punch, but even as she was hit, she still fought to rip some random items from one of the men's hands and bolted.

The stench of unwashed sweat and rotting food swept past him. Xu Huo watched the little girl run off, then turned to glance at the two homeless men who had started chasing after him.

They cowered back, spat on the ground, and turned around to keep digging through the trash.

Xu Huo moved forward slowly, quickly realizing this place was more than just poor and backward. Beyond the dumped garbage mountains, there was a conspicuously high number of shady characters from every walk of life. Anyone walking down the street had to endure surveillance from at least a dozen pairs of eyes. Even in broad daylight, people hugged the walls as they walked—except for the wandering children.

He found a spot to stop and rest, using the time to look up information about this city.

It had originally been a tourist city—small but scenic. However, after the game events erupted, a massacre swept through here. Nearly everyone who had lived here died, and the city sat abandoned for years until a nearby metropolis established a safe area the year before last.

Zone 009 had quite a few safe areas, mostly concentrated in more populous, prosperous locations. Remote regions were lucky to have one or two cities designated as safe areas. Those who couldn't fit into the safe areas were forcibly expelled.

"Expelled" wasn't quite accurate either—they weren't corralled into some isolated spot and forbidden from approaching. The nearby cities weren't abandoned; they simply didn't have the strength to protect them. These places were left to sink or swim on their own. Those with good luck avoided player attacks or dungeon spawns and lived in relative peace. Those with bad luck could only blame their misfortune.

But every city was extremely strict about identification. This meant that people without registered identities, or those who were ostracized, got pushed from mid-tier cities to smaller ones, layer after layer. This border town sat at the very bottom—people with nowhere left to go ended up here.

The environment spoke for itself.

"After the game started, these people don't even have time to handle garbage properly..." Xu Huo looked up at the gray, overcast sky. It was about to rain.

"Are you a player?" The little girl who had run off came back, standing a few meters away, clutching a broken umbrella. "It's going to rain. Aren't you afraid of getting wet? Want an umbrella?"

"I have one," Xu Huo said.

The girl stared at his left leg, her voice trembling slightly as she asked: "You don't have anywhere to go either, do you? Do you want to come to my place? I can carry you, I can cook for you. Do you have money?"

"Is your home big enough to fit an adult?" Xu Huo smiled. "Hurry on your way."

With that, he continued down the street looking for somewhere to stay. But the little girl didn't give up—she kept following him at a distance.

Because he didn't drive her off, a few more kids tagged along after a while. One of the bolder ones edged closer and said: "Uncle, are you looking for a place to stay? I know where one is! Give me ten yuan and I'll take you there!"

The little girl squeezed forward too: "Uncle, I can help you get dressed and put on shoes, I can give you a bath. I don't want money—just give me a little food!"

The children squabbled into a chaotic mess, but Xu Huo had already stopped in front of a shabby inn. The owner enthusiastically hauled out a beat-up wheelchair and invited him inside, shooing all the kids away.

There was dried blood on the wheelchair. Xu Huo sat down before asking: "Do players come here often?"

"You bet. The badly wounded, the ones waiting to die, the ones with nowhere to go—they all end up here. We've even had two or three who dropped out of the sky like you, but they weren't lucky. They landed and broke themselves." The owner sized him up with a smile. "You look like you're holding up fine!"

"A hundred White Bills a night—that's a fair price. How many nights will you be staying?"

Xu Huo placed a hundred White Bills on the table. "Day by day. Who knows when I'll end up back in a dungeon."

"Right, right." The owner added: "But we don't include meals here. You'll have to eat outside, and I'd advise against ordering delivery. You know how it is these days—who dares eat anything without watching it go into the pot?"

"And whatever you do, don't let those little brats outside run errands for you. They'll steal your food, and if they're really feeling nasty, they might even pee in it."

"Your leg's not in great shape—how about a room on the first floor?"

"I'll take the second floor." Xu Huo stood up. "Please carry the wheelchair up there for me."

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