Chapter 450: Non-Player's Guide to Boarding the Train
Like a fish that had taken the bait, the ghostly shadow struggled desperately on the strong adhesive. Xu Huo pulled the kite string and wrapped the raincoat around it again, but this time the shadow moved a few times inside before stopping, as if it were a lifeless sheet of paper, and the next second it turned to powder within the raincoat's wrapping.
Xu Huo wasn't surprised that the ghostly shadow would use this method to escape. After all, it was essentially a physical prop. Entering and leaving rooms required going through doors and cracks, so being caught wasn't entirely impossible.
Higher-level players definitely had more convenient props at their disposal. If the ghostly shadow were merely a simple entrapper, it wouldn't have lasted this long in the laboratory.
Even though the ghostly shadow had turned to powder, Xu Huo didn't let go. Instead, he packed the powder into the luggage compartment before leaving the room.
"Any results?" As soon as the door opened, Chu Yuan poked his head in. Seeing the mess in the room, he exclaimed in surprise, "Did you work on a demolition crew or something?"
Xu Huo, however, pulled out a blueprint of the Deep Blue Laboratory, which he had found while searching the rooms. It included the plans for the expansion of the outer area on the third underground floor.
"What use is this thing?" Chu Yuan asked, puzzled. "The expanded part outside is cut off from the laboratory, and it's all mechanical operation. People can't get through either."
Xu Huo wasn't sure if it would be useful; he had to see it for himself.
So the two of them walked to the end of the laboratory. The end was a corridor that ran vertically. According to the map, an underwater work tower should have been built on the other side of the wall.
This expansion wasn't a simple outer layer wrapped around the entire underwater structure. It was a separate addition to the third underground floor, seemingly intended to build individual storage compartments. On the complete design drawing, this added ring of buildings looked like a honeycomb from the outside, but in reality, each hexagon forming the honeycomb was a horizontally placed small compartment, numbering in the vast quantities.
Xu Huo went to the place on the blueprint where a connecting passage was planned. Unfortunately, while the location was marked, the door hadn't been opened yet, and the wall was sealed.
After checking two more passageway entrances without success, he put the blueprint away and asked Chu Yuan, "That cabinet of yours, can it still be used?"
"Yeah, it can." Chu Yuan answered instinctively, but then added, "But it can only hide one person at a time."
Xu Huo nodded to show he understood.
Chu Yuan's expression was uneasy, looking as if he was afraid Xu Huo would snatch his prop.
Xu Huo didn't pay attention to his gaze. He took another turn around the nearby rooms before returning to the place where he had parted ways with Dr. Deng and the others.
To his surprise, only Dr. Deng was left there. Seeing Xu Huo arrive, Dr. Deng quickly said, "The other three went to clean up the bodies again."
"Are they stupid?" Chu Yuan complained. "Didn't I tell them that even if they find some kind of weird potion from the bodies, it wouldn't be usable anymore? Since it's unusable, just use a fake one instead. Make up a couple of lies, and it's done. Why bother with all this effort for no reward?"
Dr. Deng also found it a bit strange. "They seem very eager to find the potion."
"Obsessed." Chu Yuan said disdainfully.
Xu Huo had doubts about what Wu Xiaonan and Qiu Xiangdong had said, so he simply stated, "As long as they don't move the bodies out of the elevator."
None of the three intended to go over and help, so they sat down on the spot to rest.
Chu Yuan gave Dr. Deng some food, but Dr. Deng shook his head and took a tube of nutrient supplement from his pocket to drink.
"I brought this from another game district. The water and soil quality in the Sair Coast have undergone severe changes. Eating things made here might have side effects."
Chu Yuan had already stuffed a biscuit into his mouth. He paused upon hearing this, then continued eating. "I've been eating this for days. One more meal won't make a difference."
Dr. Deng, displaying the educational spirit of an intellectual, explained, "You players are different from us ordinary people who have only taken evolution agents. You've gone through the evolution reaction—that state before boarding the preliminary train where you want to eat everyone you see. Your genes are different from ordinary people's, allowing you to resist some of the radiation and toxins from natural mutations. Even if you get hurt, with the help of agents, you can either heal yourself or absorb the damage for further evolution."
"Ordinary people, those who have only taken evolution agents or injected the blood of early evolved players without showing any evolution reaction, find it very difficult to resist these harms. Therefore, they need to be extremely careful when going out."
"How do non-players ride the Dimension Train?" Xu Huo asked. "You wouldn't be in the same car as players. How did the Bolen Clan people bring you here?"
"Non-players have their own trains to ride. They need to apply for special documentation from the Game Government. Players within the system cannot board this type of train, but people who have paused their player status can." Dr. Deng said, quite regretfully. "At the time, they were chatting with people on the train. I wasn't on guard and said too much, so I was kidnapped and brought to the Sair Coast. It's been almost half a year now."
He sounded quite bitter at the end.
"Can non-players board a player's train?" Xu Huo asked again. "If they have a ticket?"
"That's also possible, but they would have to apply to the Game Government to become a player... People without player qualifications won't be actively absorbed by the system." Dr. Deng glanced at him and said, "Some people use this method to leave their original game district. If handled properly, after getting off the train, they can apply to the Game Government or District Government of another district to pause their player status and return to a normal life. The time between pausing player status and reactivating it is not counted towards the trigger time for random instances."
"Once you leave this island, how do you plan to leave the Sair Coast?" Xu Huo said. "In your current state, you probably can't board the non-player train."
"Do you have a player identity?"
Dr. Deng sighed. "What else can a pharmacist like me, who is as weak as a chicken, do?"
Judging by his tone, this wasn't the first time he had been kidnapped and coerced.
"You're really lucky to have survived this long." Chu Yuan exclaimed in admiration.
After receiving sympathy, Dr. Deng said tactfully, "So, the only way for me to leave here now is through a ticket. After I leave, I'll find a way to pause my player status. Unfortunately, I don't have any tickets on me anymore."
"You've got a good plan, but I'm afraid if I gave you a ticket, I'd also have to be your personal bodyguard." Chu Yuan said. "Otherwise, how would you survive the night on the train?"
Dr. Deng adjusted his glasses and said to Xu Huo, "Taking me with you will definitely not be a loss for you."
Xu Huo had never intended to harm Dr. Deng from the start, and of course, he had this in mind. The knowledge gap was hard to bridge. He found it difficult to fully understand He Pu's pharmacy research notes. Having a doctor proficient in pharmacy to look at them would be different, and it would be even better if he could bring the man back.
However, he couldn't give him the ticket right now.
"I'll think about it." He put on a hesitant expression, then added, "But before that, you'll have to prove your worth."
(Chapter End)