Chapter 816: Endless Night
The tracks fell silent again, with no one else leaving the group. After an unknown amount of time, some players regained their energy and began to wonder why the sky still hadn't brightened.
"It's already eight in the morning." Others couldn't help but look toward the train commander.
A staff member explained on their behalf, "Not all spaces follow the rules of day and night."
In other words, some spaces had day and night cycles that didn't change according to regular patterns, and not all spaces even had a distinction between day and night.
"Would there be any problems from staying in the night for a long time?" the Pink-Haired Female Player asked.
"For players, it's negligible."
With the staff member's reassurance, everyone's hearts settled a little. Probably unable to sit still by the tracks any longer, someone said, "How about we take a look around nearby?"
"Why?" the Baseball Cap Player asked strangely. "Didn't you see two people die earlier? And you still want to run off far? What for?"
"This is near the tracks, you know. Maybe there are materials that other game zones don't have?" that player said. "As long as we bring back one or two items, we can definitely sell them at a high price!"
Special ores were very popular in any zone with a slightly deeper game progression, especially in places near the tracks that ordinary players couldn't reach. Whether they had research value or not, plenty of people were willing to buy them for collection.
"Men die for wealth, birds die for food. Good luck to you," the Baseball Cap Player said.
The Bald Player snorted coldly and continued to persuade others, but in the end, only two out of the dozens of players were swayed.
The three of them walked off along the tracks.
"Is there something wrong with the tracks?" the Curly-Haired Female Player couldn't help asking as she watched the commotion.
"There's nothing wrong with the tracks," Xu Huo said. "As long as you don't leave them, it's safe."
It was widely acknowledged that the space near the tracks was complex, and unpredictable dangers were impossible to count. But since the train had to pass through here, the tracks were equivalent to a safe zone. Without any Xenomorphs, staying here was absolutely safe.
"What dangers are there outside the tracks?" Yan Jiayu looked down into the deep pit and casually tossed a lollipop down.
The pit appeared to be no more than twenty meters deep to the naked eye, but the time it took for the lollipop to fall and its final size when it landed were completely different from the data they "saw."
"Are my eyes playing tricks on me?" the Short-Haired Female Player leaned in for a look. "This pit doesn't seem as deep as before."
"It's normal near the tracks," the Old Man explained. "What the human eye can directly see is very one-sided. This area looks like a uniformly deep pit, but it's possible that the spatial density of each spot is different. Don't even think about going down to explore—it's best not to touch it at all."
He gave Yan Jiayu a particularly pointed look at that.
Yan Jiayu quickly took out an item and snapped a photo as a souvenir.
"The Old Sir means don't be so nosy," the Unlucky-Looking Player couldn't help saying.
"I know," Yan Jiayu nodded, her attitude toward admitting fault very proactive. "I won't do it again."
"It's not that serious," Xu Huo said. "The space near the tracks is relatively stable. The fact that the dimensional storm passed but this place wasn't completely destroyed shows that. But whether spaces too far from the tracks can sustain life is hard to say."
"So we can't do anything for these three days," the Curly-Haired Female Player took out some cards. "Since there's nothing to do, let's play a game."
A few nearby male players immediately became interested, gathered around to ask about the rules, and finally chose one. They sat in a circle and started playing.
With more people, there were more ways to play. Xu Huo didn't join in, and the Old Man said he was too old and lacked the energy, so he wouldn't play either. Surprisingly, the Female Player knitting yarn also joined in.
But since they were playing, there had to be stakes. They bet food and water.
Some of the other players followed suit and started recruiting others to gamble.
This went on for two hours, when suddenly someone noticed something moving near the edge of the light range.
The train commander immediately sent a small flying prop over. It turned out to be Gray Fish—the water area where the Gray Fish were had moved close to them.
"The space moved? Are we in danger? Could it move a space with Xenomorphs here?" some players panicked.
"No, this water area was right next to the tracks. Wasn't it affected by the dimensional storm?"
"It's a water area, so even if there was a pit, it's been filled in!"
Everyone was chattering away. Xu Huo and the others also stood up and walked forward a bit. Sure enough, the water area with the Gray Fish that had been there before the storm had appeared within the light range.
This wasn't a good sign.
The more stable and unchanging a space was, the safer it was for players. This water area moving meant that other places might be moving too. Moving spaces were variables, and thus unstable.
The train staff clearly thought the same. The train commander turned to the group and said, "Go find those three idiots. Don't let them leave the tracks. If they get swallowed by a moving space, that's a small matter, but if it causes a butterfly effect, everyone will die. There's no second train blocking the way outside now!"
The crowd was both furious and terrified, but they had no choice but to walk nervously along the tracks.
"Didn't you say it was relatively safe near the tracks?" the Pink-Haired Female Player walked over to the train commander.
"Maybe the dimensional storm has changed, causing this result," the train commander said patiently, also explaining to the others. "Near the tracks, any change is possible. Of course, spatial movement doesn't bring only bad things. Maybe at some point, the tickets will become usable."
Everyone felt a little more encouraged. The staff member walking ahead turned back and said, "The prop didn't detect any signs of life. They've walked quite a distance."
"I thought they were stupid, but I didn't think they were this stupid," the Baseball Cap Player said.
Even if they were looking for a chance to get rich, a normal person wouldn't go too far. After all, staying with the train commander was the only way to possibly meet rescuers. If they ran too far and missed the chance to leave, what then?
"I think they're already dead," the Pink-Haired Female Player said. "They definitely wouldn't have gone too far, and they were afraid of others seeing what they found. They were more likely to extend sideways, maybe even went into the deep pit from the start."
The space near the tracks was moving. Whether someone who went down could come back was hard to say.
As they walked along, they hadn't seen anyone on either side of the tracks.
"Did you see anything?" Yan Jiayu asked Xu Huo.
"No," Xu Huo replied. "If we can't find them, we'll have to keep moving forward."
Up ahead, the train commander also announced that they would continue walking, heading in the opposite direction of the spatial movement. At least ahead was safe.
The group hurried forward. After ten hours, some people began to grow restless.
(Chapter End)