Chapter 2463: I Don't Think You're Sincere
What a coincidence.
Bubble Bean, Xu Huo, and Painting Woman were sitting face-to-face at the same table. His expression was grim, making the "Scenic Tour" scar on his forehead even more conspicuous. Several players had already deliberately turned their heads to stare at his forehead.
Even if he couldn't bring himself to cut off the skin, using a disguise prop or wearing a mask could solve this embarrassing situation. The reason he hadn't done so was only to remind himself not to forget the shame of yesterday, and also to remind himself that if he ever ran into Xu Huo again, he would definitely take revenge...
But he never imagined it would be such a coincidence. Just after leaving the instance, they immediately met again on the train.
The time was too short, not fitting the pattern of "a gentleman takes ten years to avenge a wrong," so after being stopped by Painting Woman, he could only sit down with a forced smile and thank Xu Huo for not killing him.
Xu Huo glanced at him with a faint, ambiguous smile and didn't respond to that remark. But Painting Woman was delighted. She indicated that the words on his forehead were her doing, so he should thank her.
"Well, thank you very much then," Bubble Bean said through gritted teeth.
Painting Woman stared at him, then typed: "I don't think you're very sincere."
Bubble Bean barely managed not to grind his teeth to dust. To show his "sincerity," he offered to treat them both to a meal.
So the three of them sat down to eat together.
During the meal, Painting Woman mentioned wanting to play with the stamp fruit again. Bubble Bean was tempted to encourage her to go cause trouble, but after glancing at Xu Huo beside her, he swallowed his words.
"If you're really bored, you can just slap two slices of bread together and play with that," Xu Huo said. "Don't go causing trouble for other people."
That was barely acceptable, so Painting Woman didn't make any new demands.
Xu Huo and Bubble Bean chatted idly. They were both delayed too long by the Hidden Friend instance, so after coming out, they had to head straight for the next instance. As for whether to rest a bit before starting the next instance, they would decide when they reached the next instance's district.
Because Xu Huo had taken the Instance Authorization only after clearing it, Bubble Bean didn't know that instance had essentially disappeared. He sincerely asked Xu Huo how he had actually cleared it.
"As long as one person clears that instance, the instance ends," Xu Huo briefly explained the instance's true requirement.
After hearing this, Bubble Bean found it unbelievable. "Is that really the way to clear it?"
"Didn't you get out?" Xu Huo said flatly. "Because I cleared it."
Bubble Bean couldn't argue. Otherwise, there was no explanation for why he had woken up in a tree hollow. Xu Huo had tricked him into going out but hadn't killed him—that was the best evidence.
Bubble Bean sighed with emotion. "If all instances were like this one, players wouldn't have to fight to the death."
Xu Huo didn't respond. Just then, an announcement came over the train's speakers:
"Attention, passengers. This train is expected to pass through an energy burst space in approximately five minutes, lasting for thirty seconds. The energy surge will produce an extremely intense light. Please protect your eyes."
"Another energy burst space," a player complained. "I've been on this train for two days and experienced this three times. Is this track safe or not? If it's not safe, they might as well not let the train pass through!"
But the train staff couldn't hear their complaints, or if they did, they pretended not to. So after the players put on their light-shielding devices, the train entered a highly illuminated area.
The light-shielding devices could record the brightness values. Although many people couldn't perceive the change in external light, they could see the numbers climbing. "Whoa!" Bubble Bean exclaimed. "If you looked at that with your bare eyes, you'd go blind!"
After the track space returned to normal, Xu Huo asked the people around him what kind of energy burst this was.
"It should be a special energy contained within Chaos Space," someone who didn't know much more said. "When cold air and hot air meet, it can create a thunderstorm. This is probably similar. After all, the track has to pass through some unstable spaces."
There were quite a few people speculating and discussing, but no one could provide any real information. And aside from near the tracks, it was hard to see such energy bursts elsewhere.
Someone did record it with a communicator, but all they could see was a flash of white light before the communicator was destroyed. Even if they had captured the whole process, under that blinding white light, nothing useful could be seen.
Xu Huo gazed at the scenery outside the window. It was slightly different from the usual sight of the track splitting the sky into two completely different halves. On the same side of the track, scenes resembling spatial splicing occasionally appeared—one patch of blue sky, one patch of sunset, and occasionally a rain belt. It looked as if multiple spaces were being connected onto a single screen.
"I wonder if when we reach A-Class, we'll see several spaces clearly stacked on top of each other," Bubble Bean said. "The higher the level, the more dangerous the places the train passes through. Before, you could barely treat it as an ordinary space. Now, forget about entering—you wouldn't even dare to get close."
"If it were you, would you dare to go down?" He turned to Xu Huo.
"Definitely not," Xu Huo said with a slight smile.
Bubble Bean seemed to feel a bit better and finally used a potion to completely heal the wound on his forehead.
Painting Woman had lost interest in him because she had spotted a player dressed as a little girl in the rear carriage.
The vast majority of people accepted by the Dimensional Rift were adults, and it was rare to see someone as young as seventeen or eighteen become a player. Dressing up as a child didn't mean they were actually a child. With advanced technology, not to mention wearing a disguise mask, even scarless plastic surgery was possible.
It was probably a woman who was naturally short due to illness. Slightly different from dwarfism patients, her body proportions were very coordinated, making her truly look like a child.
Perhaps accustomed to facing strange looks from others, the woman impatiently dealt with Painting Woman's two questions and told her to leave.
However, Painting Woman wasn't always good at reading the room. Not only did she not leave, but she sat down in someone else's carriage and stared intently at the woman.
No one could tolerate that. The female player slammed the table and stood up. "What exactly do you want?!"
Painting Woman tapped on her communicator, then asked, "Why do you look like this? Do all the people where you're from look like this?"
The female player stared coldly at her. "So what if they do? So what if they don't?"
"Then you're really lucky. You can stay like a child your whole life," Painting Woman said. "Being a child is great."
The female player didn't know if she was genuinely stupid or just pretending to be foolish. She said sarcastically, "If it's so great, why don't you become one? Cut off a few bones, and you can do it too."
Painting Woman looked at her own legs and felt that would be quite difficult. "Is there another way?"
"Do you have a problem with your brain?" the female player asked sincerely.