Deceiving Them for Tickets

Chapter 17: Deceiving Them for Tickets

After tallying up everything, he now had an official Player number, one more Ability, two items, four Potions, a gift pack, three Tickets, and another two thousand in prize money.

He pulled his collar aside. Sure enough, there was a string of numbers behind his shoulder, similar to the Courier Woman's, but in a different color. Every official Player who had passed the preliminary trial should have a number like this. Cannibal Players were marked in red, and murderers in black.

It didn't look like an ordinary tattoo. Whether it could be removed or altered remained to be seen.

First, he examined the items.

The Super Running Shoes looked no different from ordinary shoes. They felt light on his feet. He was already more than twice as fast as an ordinary person, so a further thirty percent speed boost was considerable.

He couldn't put his old shoes in his inventory, so he tossed them aside.

The Arsonist's Tool was a plain brass lighter. It wasn't as distinctive as the one the tattooed man had given him, but judging by its description, it was an interesting item. It could attack from a distance and was even more convenient to use. Unless someone wasn't wearing clothes, it was a weapon that never missed.

Of course, that was another matter if they had other items that could defend against it.

He slipped the lighter into his pocket and moved on to his Ability.

Insider's Perspective enhanced his vision. Once selected, it was as if a magnifying glass had been placed over his eyes, enlarging tiny details. It lived up to its name: he could observe even the finest details.

Like Tireless Legs, it was a physical evolution, just tied to his profession in an unconventional way.

This meant that choosing a profession in the game wasn't meaningless. The Abilities Players could develop were more or less linked to their professions. The more thoroughly they fulfilled their professional roles in a Dungeon, the more Abilities they might develop.

Although ordinary Players were clearly more promising in the long run, Cannibal Players had an advantage for newcomers: they could gain strength simply by eating, especially when it came to their vitality.

The Courier Woman's powerful self-healing and the Player in First-Class Seat's way of playing dead both showed how strong their vitality was.

Despite suffering the same kind of injury, the wound in his palm still ached faintly. It was no different from before his evolution.

"To make up for that gap..."

Xu Huo shifted his attention to the Evolution Potion, took a bottle, and downed it. It tasted pretty good—strawberry. He waited half a minute, but felt nothing. His evolution progress, however, had risen to 9%.

He downed two more bottles in a row. His evolution progress climbed to 10%, and a note appeared:

[Congratulations, Player Passerby A, on reaching 10% evolution. Please note: once your evolution level exceeds 10%, the effects of P0 Potion will become increasingly limited. Please search for P1 Potion! Perhaps it's hidden somewhere in the game!]

He flexed his fingers and punched the air. The blow produced a distinct whoosh. His strength and speed were both beyond anything he could have managed two minutes ago.

But if the Potions' effects weakened as he evolved, their impact would become increasingly limited. Besides P0 and P1, there might be P2 and P3 in the future, but his physical abilities wouldn't grow without limit.

"So the key is still developing Abilities."

Xu Huo stroked the stubble on his chin and took out the three Tickets.

Game Tickets weren't paper tickets like those in the real world. They were rectangular glass pieces, three fingers wide and half a finger thick, a little like transparent phones. The Station name floated on the front, while the departure times were listed on the back, with both game time and real-world time shown. He could swipe to select a train.

The next train to a Dungeon was due to depart in just thirty minutes.

[Player has selected Train 134. This train will depart in twenty-nine minutes. Player must arrive at the Station five minutes before departure. Teleport?]

Xu Huo didn't rush to select yes. Instead, he tested each Potion in turn.

The Self-Healing Agent performed exactly as an obsolete product should. Applied to his wound, it only dulled the pain slightly—so little that it could basically be ignored.

The Cleaning Agent, on the other hand, worked well. He smeared it on his clothes, and the dried blood vanished instantly. Apart from the tear in the fabric, his clothes looked as if they'd been washed. No wonder the Cannibal Player on the train hadn't had a single mark on him.

Ordinary Players might board a train with one or two Abilities or items, but that wasn't an advantage on the Preliminary Train. Cannibal Players, by contrast, had astonishing stamina and items for disposing of bodies... The game didn't seem to favor ordinary Players.

He casually rubbed some Hair Growth Agent onto his head. After waiting a while with no effect, he selected [Yes].

A few seconds later, he was standing inside a Station made entirely of glass.

It was called a Station, but aside from the glass windows blocking the wind on all four sides and the projection screen floating in the center, it lacked everything else a Station should have. The empty Glass Room seemed to float in midair, with neither sky above nor ground below. It was like being trapped between two mirrors made of blue sky and white clouds, with no end in sight. The place felt utterly unreal.

Five strangers were already in the Station. Two men in suits had been staring at him ever since he appeared.

"We're Station Staff. We need to check your Ticket," said the taller of the two as he walked over.

Xu Huo glanced at them, leisurely took out his lighter, and lit a cigarette. He blew out a cloud of smoke.

The tall man had expected him to hand over his Ticket obediently. He hadn't expected Xu Huo to ignore him completely and even provoke him to his face. His expression darkened at once. "Refuse to let Station Staff check your Ticket, and you want to be banished?"

"Of course not." The lighter in Xu Huo's hand flickered on and off, accompanied by the sound of its brass lid opening and closing. "But I don't have a Ticket. Do you? Mind lending me one?"

The two exchanged a look. The tall man continued, "Hand over your Ticket. You have to pass the ticket check before you can board. Every Player here has already been checked."

Xu Huo glanced at the other three Players, who were watching in silence, and smiled. "But I don't have a Ticket."

"How could you not have a Ticket?" the other man, a shorty, snapped. "A train number appeared on the floating screen when you arrived!"

Xu Huo had already noticed that the screen displayed only one train number. He nodded. "So the train number only appears when a Player with a Ticket arrives. That means none of you has one. How pitiful."

"If you still can't get a Ticket in another ten minutes or so, who knows what'll happen? You can't board a train, and you can't leave. You might starve to death right here in the Station. Cannibal Players might last a few days longer, waiting for the next batch of Players with Tickets."

"But the game never said Players without Tickets could stay in the Station forever. Maybe when the time's up, you'll be cleared out like trash—thrown somewhere no one goes, perhaps, or fed to some humanoid Monster. Worst of all, you might be sent to a high-risk Dungeon. Do you know what would happen then?"

Please support the author by adding this to your library and voting!