Chapter 1625: Filling in the Story Details
He went to the main station.
According to the previous schedule, each accident occurred about forty minutes after the train departed. Now, it took him an hour to reach the main station. If the conditions were strict, he would have returned to the ticket counter before even arriving at the station.
But that didn’t happen. He arrived smoothly.
The main station was more expansive than the intermediate stops, with a city outside the station, and he could even leave the station and move around the city.
Returning inside the main station, he avoided the staff and obtained a detailed list of the station personnel. Starting with those on duty today, he investigated their family situations and social connections one by one.
This was extremely time-consuming, and the information wasn’t necessarily useful, as it was hard to say whether the six kidnapped individuals had any connection to the station staff.
Without being involved in the train accidents, the time in the dream became extremely chaotic. Investigating the first batch of ten people didn’t take as long as Xu Huo had imagined—at least, after finishing all the work, it wasn’t dark yet.
However, as soon as he stopped, the sky over the station suddenly turned black, and he woke up from the dream.
He had slept until the middle of the night.
Upon waking, he immediately noticed several players gathered outside the shelter, with Young Master Mo, Chi Xian, and a few others blocking the door, seemingly confronting them.
“Whether he’s awake or not has nothing to do with you,” Chi Xian was saying. “Even if Old Xu isn’t here, dealing with a few of you isn’t hard.”
Then a rough voice laughed, “We’re just concerned about our companion’s safety. What if he sleeps himself to death in there?”
“Besides, can you handle just a few of us, or a few dozen?”
“What do you mean, a few dozen?” The beautiful female player crossed her arms and said, “Don’t count us in.”
She and the dark-faced player and a few others kept their distance from the shelter, clearly not intending to get involved.
“That Xu guy is too powerful, and he’s made it clear he won’t take us through the instance. If we don’t act now, do you want to die at his hands?”
“He just killed two B-rank players. He probably has countless good items on him, maybe even some A-rank items. If we kill him, we can split them all!”
“Opportunities to kill someone this strong come once, not twice. Are you willing to miss this chance to get rich...”
Before he could finish, his head flew off, followed by the heads of those standing behind him.
After the bodies hit the ground with a thud, Xu Huo stepped out of the shelter, looked around at the crowd, and smiled slightly. “Indeed, such an opportunity comes once, not twice. Too bad he missed it.”
The players didn’t respond to his words, and some didn’t even dare to meet his eyes.
After a brief silence, the players who had approached scattered again.
“Your sleep time has increased. How do you feel?” Chi Xian asked.
“Tired,” Xu Huo said, his expression darkening. “I suspect it will only get longer.”
The longer it took, the more dangerous it became. Just like that player had said, opportunities to kill someone like Xu Huo were rare, especially since he had just killed two B-rank players. With such a fat sheep sleeping right in front of them, anyone would be tempted.
“Location items won’t affect the instance progress,” Young Master Mo said. “For now, I should be enough to ensure our safety.”
Young Master Mo might not have rich combat experience, but he had plenty of items, and since there was no other B-rank player present, a B-rank location item would be sufficient.
“Try mine,” Chi Xian unexpectedly released a mushroom-shaped small house. “Three bedrooms and a living room—enough for us. There are barriers between the rooms, so just close the door.”
He demonstrated as he spoke.
After he closed the door, Tong Qi tried a few items. “Really can’t open it. Even specialized door-opening items are useless.”
Seeing Young Master Mo and the others still standing outside, Chi Xian came out and said, “If you’re not convinced, you can check if this is a location item.”
But Young Master Mo said, “I have usable items. With all those fungi you’ve raised in that house, you still dare to call it safe?”
Tong Qi, inside the house, looked in surprise at the brightly colored, greasy mushroom clusters in the corner. “Aren’t these fake?”
“All the fungi in this house are real.” Xu Huo didn’t go inside either, just saying, “Are you all getting ready to rest?”
Tong Qi immediately ran out without a second word, quickly saying, “I’m feeling great right now!”
Compared to the mushroom house, Tong Qi would rather stay in Young Master Mo’s location item.
But just because he didn’t want to didn’t mean others wouldn’t. The beautiful female player and others who didn’t have good enough location items stepped forward to negotiate with Chi Xian.
Xu Huo opened his personal panel to purchase a location item.
Good location items were hard to find, and not every location item was without time limits. There were no ready-made B-rank or above location items for sale on the bounty platform or under the dimension, and the ones available for auction had already expired.
He then contacted Xin Rong and asked if he had a suitable location item to borrow.
Xin Rong quickly packed a few items for him.
One was an A-rank location item, “Telephone Booth in Use.” When someone was inside the phone booth, the door could only be opened from the inside.
It came with two trap items: “Goddess’s Halo” and “Psychiatric Hospital, Please Detour.” The former could block attacks, and the latter could keep others at a distance. However, “Goddess’s Halo” needed to be worn, while “Psychiatric Hospital, Please Detour” was a sign that could be hung on the door.
Xu Huo thanked him and took out the items. The phone booth certainly wouldn’t be too big, and it had no windows. He could put a small stool in it to sit, but lying down was out of the question.
He also placed a mechanical robot outside to stand guard, hung the sign reading “Psychiatric Hospital” on the handle, and closed the door. The door wasn’t completely sealed, so he wasn’t sure if it could block gas attacks.
After checking the interior of the item, he closed his eyes again.
Soon, he returned to the dream, but unexpectedly, in addition to the ticket, he now had a newspaper in his hand.
A quick glance showed only a small article in the corner about a railway inspection and track change related to the train, accompanied by a construction photo.
Event information had actively appeared in the dream.
Xu Huo boarded the train, avoided the thugs’ harassment, and warned the driver before the collision. This time, instead of five identical faces lying on the tracks, there were three old people and two children.
One of the old men, missing an arm, stood up and threw himself onto the tracks, killing himself.
Xu Huo grabbed the other two and, holding up the newspaper, asked if they had any relatives who had died in an accident.
The two old men were in tears, repeatedly saying, “The station staff have no humanity,” “My son and daughter-in-law died for nothing,” and similar words.
After returning to the ticket counter, Xu Huo went to the main station. Using the information he had gathered from the previous dream, he found one of the relevant responsible persons and forced them to reveal the whole story of the track inspection incident.