Players, Please Board the Train

Xu Huo put on a pair of shorts and went to open the door. Outside stood a beautiful young woman. Her gaze swept over him and quickly looked away, her face slightly flushed as she glanced at the number by the door, “Sorry, I knocked on the wrong room.”

At that moment the door opposite opened, and a man in a white suit stepped out, “Jiangjiang, you went to the wrong place again.”

The young woman chuckled lightly, apologized to Xu Huo once more, then walked toward the opposite door and, while closing it, gave him a smile.

Ignoring the man’s wary, slightly warning glance, Xu Huo lingered at the doorway for two seconds.

The scent from the woman hung in the hallway air; it was hard to notice at first glance, but after she left the fragrance kept sneaking into his nose.

He stared at the opposite door, smiled faintly after three seconds, then closed his door and went to sleep.

He soon learned who was staying opposite.

The white-suited young master was the younger son of the extremely wealthy Zhou family of the country, named Zhou Zhiyang. Tonight the Zhou family was hosting a banquet at the hotel to entertain several senior members of player organizations, and they had asked all hotel guests to attend.

The young woman who had gone to see Zhou Zhiyang was Jiangjiang, a fairly well-known painter and the object of Zhou Zhiyang’s pursuit.

According to the hotel server, Jiangjiang had come to discuss selling paintings to Zhou Zhiyang because her agent had died unexpectedly in a brawl between players on the way here. So she had to come in person to handle the business.

Jiangjiang was only in her early twenties. She became famous when she was about fifteen. She debuted with watercolor paintings. At first her works were not well received because most were not realistic landscapes but somewhat strange, even wildly imaginative scenes, until an agent with an eye for talent discovered the unique value of her art.

That agent had once been a painter too. After becoming a player he suffered mental pressure; when he lost control and accidentally killed his girlfriend, he was about to commit suicide. By chance he discovered Jiangjiang’s works and claimed he saw “a color of hope” in them. Although he could not clearly define what that meant, through his promotion Jiangjiang’s paintings found a market among players. Many players reported that looking at her works calmed them when they were under extreme stress.

Once players became the mainstream of society, everything served them. Wealthy tycoons spent fortunes to buy Jiangjiang’s paintings to curry favor with players. Some obsessed collectors even provided protection for Jiangjiang, essentially forming a relay of bodyguards, since players had to enter dungeons. Rumor had it they even made a schedule for shifts.

This was also why Jiangjiang, an ordinary person, could still travel around chaotic Zone 009 to find scenes to paint.

Xu Huo found all this information online and also looked at some of her works.

He had no real appreciation skill. Some paintings to him were just mixes of color, neither visually pleasing nor emotionally resonant, merely colored paper.

“Do you also look at my paintings?” Jiangjiang approached him with a glass of liquor, smiling gently, “Sorry to have disturbed you just now.”

Xu Huo raised his own glass, “My honor.”

“Are you a player too?” Jiangjiang seemed to want to chat, taking the initiative, “Many players say they can see other meanings in my paintings. Can you see anything?”

“I’m not good at that,” Xu Huo said.

“That’s fair. Actually sometimes even I don’t know what they see in them, but if my paintings can bring them inner peace, that’s good.” Jiangjiang lifted the hem of her white dress, “Someone’s calling me.”

A warm smile appeared on her beautiful face, “We’ll talk again next time.”

Xu Huo felt several gazes from different directions fall on him. He didn’t care, casually picked some food, and started eating in a corner of the banquet.

The senior players invited by the Zhou family clearly couldn’t be bothered to eat; they didn’t show up in person and only sent representatives to greet people.

At special times, it was unsurprising that those senior players were working on tasks. At this hour they were probably all heading to dungeons.

Still, everyone present was happy. It was precisely because those players existed that they could enjoy their peaceful lives now.

But that fragile peace was soon shattered. Several players smashed through the windows, and using items they instantly sealed all the floor-to-ceiling windows except for the one directly in front. One of them stomped on the floor, and several black lines automatically extended outward, hoisting several players—several meters tall—into the ceiling. Amid the fleeing guests they caught the young painter Jiangjiang.

“Jiangjiang!” Zhou Zhiyang, as an ordinary person, actually tried to rush forward to save her, but he hadn’t gone two steps before a player who had been protecting Jiangjiang kicked him unconscious. A player annoyed that he was in the way shouted toward the front, “The exchanged pawn!”

Originally the player who had been throttling Jiangjiang suddenly swapped places with a player behind her. Both were stunned, but then Jiangjiang was hung from a chandelier by a black line. The black-line player used her as a decoy to attract two attacking players, distracting them while injuring one, then, amid Jiangjiang’s cries, threw her toward a nearby accomplice.

That player was obviously the one who had sealed the windows earlier. With both hands raised, metal rose from beneath the floor and twisted into rough, arm-thick metallic constructs that throttled Jiangjiang.

The young painter’s body was crushed; she let out a cry of pain and then was grabbed by the throat. The metal player sneered, then shouted at three players who were fleeing away from the crowd toward him, “Within three meters I’ll kill her!”

Those three had spontaneously been protecting Jiangjiang. Naturally they prioritized her life and froze in place, but distance could not completely restrain players. One player threw a Spinning Top to the ground; from beneath his feet the floor split open in a fissure two people wide and surged toward the metal player.

At the same time, another player threw something resembling a Balloon into the air. Its hollow sprayed a misty substance; Jiangjiang and the metal player below began sneezing uncontrollably. Seizing the chance, the third player brandished a huge magnet and yanked Jiangjiang up from the ground.

Sneezes echoed throughout the lobby, but the metal player recovered a few seconds later. She hurled an electric orb at Jiangjiang and then jumped into the crack in the floor.