Chapter 2017: The Protective Suit Outside the Window
Hearing this, everyone felt as uncomfortable as if they had swallowed flies. Judging from the broken window and the thing that had slithered past outside the carriage earlier, if that was a Xenomorph, it meant the creature could change its size. This not only implied the Xenomorph could be large or small, but also that even if it were dismembered, it might not die, and could even possess extremely high reproductive capabilities, allowing it to grow back into a complete form in a very short time.
"These are all just guesses," the White Suit said calmly. "We haven't even seen what the Xenomorph really looks like. Imagining how difficult it is to deal with won't do us any good in our current situation."
"Then what do you mean?" the Buzz Cut seemed to pick up on his signal and pressed further.
"Aren't there ready-made boxes?" The White Suit pointed back at the three boxes still sitting in the second carriage. "Whether it's a rapidly reproducing Xenomorph or some kind of potion that attracts Xenomorphs, wouldn't opening them and taking a look tell us?"
Earlier, they hadn't opened the boxes because it might cause more serious consequences. Now, after two murder incidents, everyone realized that even if there was a Xenomorph capable of interfering with people's mental states, its numbers or range of activity were very limited. At the very least, it couldn't attack everyone at the same time—only one or two people at a time. In the short term, it posed no real threat to them. It was better to take advantage of the time and try to understand the Xenomorph's situation.
"What time is it now?" Xu Huo suddenly asked.
"It's time for the lights to come on," the Red Headband replied. "But under the current circumstances, the lights in the carriage probably won't turn on automatically. The people who left the rear carriages specifically checked to make sure all the lights were off."
So everyone's attention shifted back to the boxes.
Xu Huo also agreed to open one box to check the situation, but he wasn't the one initiating it. He simply followed behind the others to observe.
With so many people, it was impossible for everyone to crowd into the second carriage. The Red Headband, the Tie Man, and the White Suit entered the second carriage. Xu Huo and the remaining Fortune-Telling Female Player and a few others originally planned to check the third carriage, but when Xu Huo reached the fourth carriage, he started having a nosebleed again. His head throbbing with pain, he leaned against a seat and sat down, barely managing to glance at the glass-covered box in the carriage ahead.
"Young man, your condition looks serious. A nosebleed isn't a good sign. Is your head sick, or are you poisoned?" A player who appeared to be in his sixties sitting nearby observed his condition, then speculated, "You're not suffering from aftereffects at such a young age, are you?"
"It shouldn't be aftereffects." Xu Huo wiped the blood from his mouth and nose and looked ahead again. The distance didn't affect his vision. The box had been opened, but to everyone's great disappointment, there was nothing inside. The glass box had been taken out by a player and came with its own detection device, but the instrument didn't give them the answer they wanted—it remained silent.
"It can't really be empty, can it? Even if it were filled with poison gas, there should be some traces left," someone said.
"Was the box opened before?" The White Suit turned around to ask.
Many eyes turned to Xu Huo.
"We only realized something was wrong after the box was opened," the Fortune-Telling Female Player answered on his behalf. "We snatched it back and closed it immediately, never opening it again. We don't know if there was something inside or if it had already escaped."
"I'm guessing it might have been a special agent that attracts Xenomorphs," the Buzz Cut said. "Once the box was opened and the task was complete, the people who got on the train could just wash their hands of it and leave."
"So we have no clues at all?" the Yellow Hair said. "Can we get any clues from the box itself? Since there's nothing inside, let's take it out and have a look."
"I think we'd better not," the White Suit said cautiously. "If there's nothing else rigged on the box, taking it out won't help. If there is, it's likely something we can't perceive and existing instruments can't detect. Taking it out might just invite trouble. Opening the box was only to confirm whether there was a Xenomorph inside. The goal has been achieved."
There was no need to waste more time on the boxes.
Some agreed, while others opposed. Those who opposed trusted their own judgment and their own items more.
"What's there to argue about?" The old man sitting next to Xu Huo said indifferently, "Arguing back and forth, if you're meant to die, you'll die. If you're not meant to, you could survive even a Dimensional Storm. Who can say for sure? It's all fate."
"If everyone believed in fate, why bother struggling in the Instance Dungeon? If those who aren't meant to die can't die, then if someone tries to kill you, wouldn't you survive just by standing still?" The woman with the high ponytail across from him said disdainfully.
The old man smiled calmly. "Before I became a player, I had a terminal illness. The hospital said I only had a month left to live. Doctors, family, and friends all told me to go home and wait to die. But what happened? I suddenly evolved. Not only did I recover, but I've lived longer and better than my relatives and friends. That's what I call fate."
"When I was sick, I did my best to treat it—that's doing my part. If it couldn't be cured, then I accepted heaven's will."
"If someone tries to kill you and you just stand there, that's just stupid. Even if heaven gave you a hundred or eighty lives, it wouldn't be enough."
"You've survived in the game until now and boarded this train safely—that's doing your part. Now that the train is stuck on the tracks and you're helpless, that's accepting heaven's will."
"Now is the time to accept heaven's will."
The High Ponytail wasn't entirely dismissive. She pressed further, "How do you know that everything you've done so far has already been your part?"
"Are you a Mental Super Evolver? Or an expert in Xenomorph studies? Or proficient in potion experiments? Or perhaps an Artificer?" The old man fired off a series of questions.
"None of those," the High Ponytail admitted frankly.
The old man smiled slightly. "Then you can only accept heaven's will."
For more than half the players on the train, they had no way to change their current situation. The old man's words sounded like an admission of helplessness, but they also served as a reminder for everyone to stay calm.
"Sure enough, old people love to lecture," the High Ponytail changed the subject. "But you really are lucky. You were about to die and then became a player."
The old man nodded, agreeing with her, then turned to Xu Huo, who had stood up beside him, and said, "Why bother?"
Xu Huo smiled. "I haven't reached the point of accepting heaven's will yet."
Instead of moving forward, he returned to the seventh carriage and found a seat by the window. The young player who had blocked the window was still crouching in the same spot, with the Veterinarian beside him. The two seemed to be discussing a shift change.
Xu Huo went over, removed a piece of the metal plate blocking the window, and looked at the protective suit he had thrown out earlier.
"What are you looking at?" the Veterinarian couldn't help asking. "Has the Xenomorph appeared?"
"No," Xu Huo said, closing the metal plate. The protective suit had shifted slightly. Although there were no water stains, it was clear that the Xenomorph had visited it. It seemed the Xenomorph wasn't choosing its targets randomly but followed a certain pattern. (End of chapter)