“One minute until the next stop, Hexagon Avenue. Passengers getting off, please prepare to disembark,” the sweet, clear female voice announced over the broadcast. “Departing passengers, please do not crowd the doors or obstruct boarding passengers. Please let passengers off before boarding—”
Mu Shicheng’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot. He flexed his fingers, then glanced sideways at Bai Liu, who was sitting with Du Sanying in the My Little Pony bumper car.
“Bai Liu, what if you can’t transfer the aggro?” he asked. “If those monsters’ aggro stays locked onto me, I’ll die very easily.”
“Don’t you have my [Siren’s Amulet]?” Bai Liu said unhurriedly. “You can still use it to teleport away once. This time is only a test. If it doesn’t work, we’ll talk then.”
“You didn’t let me steal that thing from you just so I could use it here, did you?!” Mu Shicheng cursed. “What’s the point of teleporting?! The monsters’ aggro will stay locked onto me from beginning to end. As long as they see me, they’ll chase me.”
Du Sanying looked at Bai Liu with a complicated expression.
“Bai Liu, are the mirror fragments really on the passengers? If they are, then this game is way too...” Difficult.
“If the mirror fragments really are on the passengers,” Mu Shicheng sneered, swapping his wristband for an acceleration one as he loosened his wrist, “then the difficulty of this game probably isn’t low even among Grade Two games. Bai Liu, your eye for choosing games is really something.”
“I should be able to transfer the aggro,” Bai Liu said. “I have an attack weapon with very high priority, though it consumes quite a lot of stamina. Oh, right—”
As if suddenly remembering something, Bai Liu took a thousand points from his pocket and handed them to the dazed Du Sanying.
“In a moment, I’ll be buying stamina restoratives nonstop. I estimate the price of stamina restoratives on my end will spike. Hold these for me. If the price hasn’t risen on your end, buy them for me.”
“Oh, okay.” Du Sanying’s attention was fixed on the train doors, his nerves stretched tight because the battle was about to begin. Although he was confused by Bai Liu’s sudden interruption, he subconsciously accepted the points. “I just need to help you buy stamina restoratives, right? Got it.”
Purchasing large quantities of the same item would indeed drive up the unit price in a player’s shop.
The instant Du Sanying accepted the points, Bai Liu suddenly smiled and patted his shoulder.
“During this game, we’ll need to cooperate properly. When it’s time to help me, you have to help, Du Sanying.”
Holding Bai Liu’s thousand points, Du Sanying nodded blankly.
“Okay, sure.”
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu has used 1,000 points to establish a purchasing proxy for stamina restoratives and a cooperative relationship with player Du Sanying. When player Bai Liu needs assistance, player Du Sanying shall provide help in a timely manner.]
“The train has arrived at the station—”
Mu Shicheng looked coldly at the charred corpses—or rather, passengers—waiting outside the doors. He clicked his tongue irritably and pressed down on his monkey headphones.
His entire face began transforming into something monkey-like.
A sharp red light glowed in his eyes. Fangs pushed out from beneath his lips. His hands turned into slender, powerful black monkey claws with razor-sharp nails. Coarse, pale-yellow fur emerged from his collar, and a black-and-white banded tail slipped out from his pants, curling into the shape of a question mark.
[System Notification: Player Mu Shicheng has used personal skill (The Thief’s Full Armament)—]
[System Notification: Player Mu Shicheng has entered personal skill identity transformation—State: 《Monster Book: The Thief’s Trained Capuchin Monkey》]
Bai Liu stood at the front of the bumper car. Du Sanying had strapped his ankles down with the seat belts to keep him from being thrown off.
Slowly, Bai Liu drew a snow-white bone whip from his waist. He flicked his wrist to test its weight, his gaze fixed intently on Mu Shicheng.
When Bai Liu did something, his concentration was always frighteningly high. But when he truly needed to focus, that concentration reached an almost inconceivable level.
As Bai Liu lowered his body and locked his gaze onto Mu Shicheng, Du Sanying could barely even hear him breathing.
He had sunk into a stillness that almost resembled an inanimate object.
Words like “focused” or “absorbed” were no longer enough to describe Bai Liu in this state.
Du Sanying watched blankly as Bai Liu’s pupils slowly contracted. For nearly a full minute, he did not blink.
In that moment, Du Sanying felt that the thing standing on his car was not a human being.
It was a precision weapon being calibrated toward its target.
The doors slowly opened.
Scorching wind surged in, along with flailing black corpses crackling with sparks and flame.
Mu Shicheng hung from the hand straps with one hand and one foot. Looking at the corpses lunging toward him, he maintained a superficial calm, but the rapidly rising temperature sent sweat sliding down his temples.
The intense heat quickly warped everyone’s vision.
Even the rubber seals around the train doors melted under the touch of the incoming passengers.
Mu Shicheng took a deep breath. His trembling monkey claws moved slowly.
Watching those passengers wail and writhe in the flames, unable to escape, Mu Shicheng felt an uncontrollable fear creeping over him.
What if Bai Liu’s deduction was wrong?
What if there were no mirror fragments inside these monsters at all?
What if Bai Liu couldn’t transfer the aggro?
What if Bai Liu was only using him to test his own theory?
If even one part of Bai Liu’s plan went wrong, the first player to die would be Mu Shicheng—the one facing the monsters head-on.
Those passengers burning in the raging fire, dying with their eyes open, were Mu Shicheng’s possible future.
Countless doubts, anxieties, and fears surfaced in his heart, along with murderous intent and despair. All those emotions tangled together like flames, overlapping and surging until they nearly choked him.
Facing life, death, and the agony of eternal burning, Mu Shicheng wavered.
His monkey claws trembled almost imperceptibly.
Perhaps no one could remain unmoved before such a scene.
Except, perhaps, for a monster like Bai Liu, who could disregard anything for money.
But Mu Shicheng had no way out.
Bai Liu controlled him.
If Bai Liu wanted him to die, then he had to die.
“Mu Shicheng.”
Bai Liu suddenly spoke.
His eyes held a cold, inorganic light, and his tone was calm, without the slightest ripple.
“You are the most useful card in my hand. You are too valuable. I won’t let you die.”
“You will survive.”
“So don’t hesitate. Do what you need to do. Leave the rest to me.”
Through the thick smoke, flying sparks, and surging corpses, Mu Shicheng met Bai Liu’s eyes.
The entire carriage was engulfed in unquenchable flame. The shrill, twisting screams of the [Passengers] filled their ears as blackened corpses stretched their limbs through the waves of fire.
They seemed to be standing in the center of a battlefield made of charred bodies and lethal flames.
Bai Liu’s words sounded like those of a greedy, cruel general coaxing his soldiers into charging forward so he could reap greater profits.
And yet, strangely, absurdly, Mu Shicheng was encouraged by them.
In that instant, seeing himself and the dancing tongues of flame reflected in Bai Liu’s motionless eyes, Mu Shicheng truly felt that Bai Liu would not let him die.
“Tsk.”
Mu Shicheng turned away and suddenly laughed.
He drew in a deep breath, forcing his racing heart to calm.
“If I die, Bai Liu, I won’t let you go even as a ghost.”
The moment he spoke, the red light in Mu Shicheng’s eyes flared.
The piercing laughter from the monkey headphones rang through the entire carriage.
Mu Shicheng hooked his tail around a hand strap and shot forward, moving with both hands and feet. At a speed nearly invisible to the naked eye, he brushed past the monsters one after another.
His monkey claws darted in and out of the charred corpses, withdrawing fragments and black ash.
Du Sanying could barely see his complete movements.
All he could catch were afterimages.
[System Notification: Player Mu Shicheng has been burned by fire. Health -1, Mental Value -1.]
[System Notification: Player Mu Shicheng has been burned by fire. Health -1, Mental Value -1.]
...
Sweat dripped from behind Mu Shicheng’s ears and struck the metal floor with a sizzling sound, like red-hot iron plunging into cold water.
Finally, after Mu Shicheng’s Health had dropped by five points, the system notification changed.
[System Notification: Player ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Mu Shicheng has obtained a mirror fragment (1/???). Congratulations to player Mu Shicheng for being the first player in the game to obtain a mirror fragment!]
A mirror fragment roughly the size of a three-carat diamond lay between Mu Shicheng’s heated, blackened monkey claws, glowing with a moist, crystalline luster.
Mu Shicheng could not help whistling.
He turned toward Bai Liu and cursed with a grin.
“Got it! You guessed right. Damn, this game is a real trap. The mirror fragment is actually this tiny. I almost missed it. Do you know how much effort it took me to grab this?”
“But now comes the real fight.”
Mu Shicheng watched as the [Passengers] he had touched staggered to their feet.
Their scorched eyeballs, nearly melted by the fire, fixed on him as they crawled toward him through the flames.
[System Notification: Player Mu Shicheng has stolen items from 5 passengers. The passengers are very angry. They have decided to catch this despicable thief and punish him severely.]
Mu Shicheng flipped upward, clinging to the hand straps to dodge a [Passenger]’s reaching hand.
But four other passengers lunged at him from the front.
Veins bulging, he roared, “Bai Liu—!!! Lead them away!!”
Bai Liu stood at the front of the pink run-about kart—or rather, the bumper car—with the bone whip in one hand.
The scorching wind rushed into his slightly oversized white shirt, making it billow and snap. Air slipped through his collar and swept the hair away from his forehead, revealing eyes focused to an astonishing degree.
With a flick of his wrist, the whip cut through the air.
Crack.
It struck precisely across the back of the hand of a [Passenger] just as it was about to grab Mu Shicheng.
[System Notification: Player Bai Liu has used (Siren’s Bone) to lash a passenger. The target’s aggro has transferred. He has decided to catch this naughty player, Bai Liu, and punish him severely.]
