Chapter 327: Money Makes the World Go Round
The female player stared at the blond man for a few seconds before tossing her hair. "Boring, I'm done playing."
The strips of cloth fell one after another. The blond man patted the burly man's shoulder again. "You need to be more magnanimous. You got tricked, just have him refund your money."
Before the burly man could say anything, the skinny monkey quickly returned the money, not even wanting the knife anymore.
Seeing this, the burly man was even more frustrated. As he returned to his seat, he shot Xu Huo a fierce glare. "What are you looking at, pretty boy!"
Xu Huo flicked his lighter and raised it slightly. The burly man instinctively stepped back, only to realize after dodging that Xu Huo had taken out another cigarette, lit it, and smiled at him.
Fear flickered in the burly man's eyes, and he returned to his seat without a word.
The carriage fell silent again. The skinny monkey, seeing the danger had passed, decided not to leave. He sidled up to the female player and the blond man to thank them, even throwing in a small gift.
But after sitting in the carriage for a while, he grew restless again. Before long, he moved to sit next to Xu Huo and lowered his voice. "Hey, buddy, want some 'Drunk on Life and Death'? You look like you'd be into this kind of thing."
Xu Huo glanced at the small bottle sticking out of his pocket, which looked like some kind of stimulant.
"I'm not interested in that. What did you smear on the short knife?" he asked casually.
The skinny monkey paused, then gave a thumbs-up. "Good eye, buddy. Most people can't tell. The knife's material isn't that great, but the craftsmanship is good. After soaking it in metallic water for a few hours, it looks like a divine weapon."
"Metallic water?"
"It's just coloring water," the female player interjected. "A small trick for fakes. It's common in many instance worlds."
"Heh!" The skinny monkey grinned. "I'm just trying to make a living. That stuff isn't cheap to buy either, and I put in the labor and the ticket. Selling it at a higher price is only fair."
He packed up his small wares and added, "You guys are all first-time riders on this train, right? I travel these routes often. If you want any inside info, just ask me. I won't charge much—how about a small fee for passing along the message?"
"The game rarely issues duplicate tickets. How can you travel this line so often?" a middle-aged woman couldn't help but interrupt.
"That's not hard. This train has seven stops. If you get one of those tickets, you can board. Tickets can be bought and sold in the game lobby and instance worlds. Especially in the game lobby—with such a huge game world, there are bound to be leftover tickets," Xu Huo explained. He also had an E-grade ticket left, which could be sold through the game, but the demand for E-grade tickets was low because E-grade players who actually needed them hadn't unlocked trading permissions.
"I see." The middle-aged woman asked again, "So if you use a ticket to board the train and reach a station, can you skip entering an instance?"
"D-grade player tickets are flexible. No matter when you board, as long as you enter the instance during the last instance opening time of the month, you're fine." The female player spoke up again. "Look at your ticket. See those few extra lines of small print? Those are the remaining instance opening times before the deadline."
"But if you miss the deadline, the ticket becomes invalid."
The middle-aged woman quickly pulled out her ticket to check. The transparent ticket listed four instance opening times.
After confirming, she smiled and thanked them.
"The earliest station won't arrive until tomorrow. Sitting around doing nothing for a whole day and night is so boring," the female player said. "How about we find some fun?"
Her suggestion got a response from the blond man. "I have some cards."
"Since there's nothing else to do, a little game won't hurt," the baby-faced man also chimed in.
About half of the dozen or so players in the carriage showed interest, while the rest minded their own business.
Xu Huo put his lighter back into his item slot, stood up, and opened the front door to step out.
There were structural diagrams of the train in the corridor. This time, he was still in the second-to-last carriage. There were seven passenger carriages ahead. The doors of the front carriages didn't have doorbells; you could just pull them open to enter.
Instead of going in directly, he pressed the service bell to call a train attendant.
A staff member in a small vest and bow tie quickly approached from a separate side corridor and asked warmly, "Sir, how can I help you?"
"Can I take a tour of this train?" Xu Huo asked.
"Of course," the staff member replied. "However, the first and second carriages have been reserved, so other passengers cannot enter freely. The other carriages, as well as the VIP dining car and lounge at the front of the train, are available for a fee."
Xu Huo nodded and handed him a tip. "Please lead the way."
The staff member opened the door to the front carriage. "This is the sixth carriage of this train. The last three carriages are all thirty-seat carriages, each seat independent and can be used for rest at night. The train also provides special sleep incense to ensure every passenger rests well. However, the sleep incense needs to be purchased."
Naturally, Xu Huo, who had been led in by the staff, attracted the attention of all the players in the carriage. Under normal circumstances, players would stay in their original carriage after boarding. Entering another carriage mid-journey might cause dissatisfaction among some players—some item techniques were hard to guard against, so players were especially wary of those suddenly arriving from other carriages. This was also the main reason the female player in his carriage had driven out the male player chasing the skinny monkey.
Of course, normal people generally wouldn't waste stamina and items on a train, so most ignored the skinny monkey type hawking goods. If Xu Huo was just passing through the carriage, there shouldn't be too much of a problem, but to be safe, he had called the staff member.
Xu Huo had already put on his glasses. With a quick sweep, he memorized the appearances of everyone in the carriage. One man carrying a black leather briefcase caught his attention. He glanced at him a second longer, and the man's gaze shot back like a sharp blade.
Xu Huo looked away nonchalantly and followed the staff member to the fifth carriage.
As they passed through the transition car, he saw a staff member walking by from the side corridor and asked, "Can passengers use this passage?"
"That's the staff-only passage, equipped with a biometric recognition system. It's not open to passengers." The staff member stood smiling at the carriage door.
Xu Huo glanced at the nearby emergency release button, then took out a stack of white notes and handed them over.
The staff member beamed and opened the door for him.
The layout of the front few carriages was the same as the back ones, but every three carriages had an emergency release button that could detach the rear carriages from the train.
He couldn't go past the third carriage. Xu Huo said he wanted to eat at the dining car, so the staff member led him through the employee passage and warmly handed him a menu.
"Does the train serve human meat?" Xu Huo asked.
Also in the dining car were two tables of guests in matching suits. At his words, they all looked up.
"I'm very sorry, but the Eternal Star Restaurant does not serve any human meat dishes," the staff member replied with an unchanged smile.