Deceiving the Ticket

Chapter 17: Ticket Scam

Summing up all the information, he now had an official player number, one extra trait, two items, four potions, one gift pack, and three tickets, plus two thousand in bonus cash.

Turning down his collar, there was indeed a string of numbers on his shoulder similar to the delivery woman's, only the color and digits were different. Every formally approved player should have such a number—red for cannibal players, black for killer players.

This didn't look like ordinary tattoo work. Whether it could be damaged or altered remained to be seen.

He looked at the items first.

The "Super Running Shoes" looked no different from ordinary shoes, light on the feet. His original speed was already more than double that of an average person, and a thirty percent boost on top of that was quite substantial.

The old shoes couldn't fit into the item slot, so he discarded them on the spot.

The "Arsonist's Tool" was a solid brass lighter, not as distinctive as the one the tattooed big brother had given him, but from the description, it was an interesting item. It had ranged attack capabilities but was even more convenient—unless someone went around naked, it was a sure-hit weapon.

Of course, if the other party had defensive items, that was another story.

Tucking the lighter into his pocket, Xu Huo moved on to the traits.

"Insider's Perspective" enhanced his eyesight. Once selected, his vision seemed to be covered with a magnifying glass, zooming in on tiny details—truly observing the minutest things.

It was similar in nature to "Tireless Legs," both being physical evolutions, just tied to an occupation from a tricky angle.

This meant that the game's occupation choice wasn't meaningless. The traits a player could develop were more or less linked to their occupation, and the higher the completion of the occupation role in a game instance, the more traits they might unlock.

Although in the long run, ordinary players definitely had more development potential than cannibal players, for new players, cannibal players who could gain power by eating had the advantage, especially in terms of vitality.

The delivery woman's strong self-healing ability and the first-class passenger's feigning death method were both signs of strong vitality.

Suffering the same injury, the wound on his palm still ached faintly, no different from before evolution.

"To close that gap..."

Xu Huo shifted his gaze to the Evolution Potion, grabbed a bottle, and downed it. The taste wasn't bad—strawberry flavor. After waiting half a minute, he felt no physical change, but his evolution progress jumped to 9%.

He chugged two more bottles, and the progress jumped to 10%, with an additional note appearing:

[Congratulations, Player Passerby A, on reaching 10% evolution. Please note, after evolution exceeds 10%, the effectiveness of P0 Potion will gradually decrease. Strive to find P1 Potion—perhaps it's hidden in the game!]

He squeezed his fingers and punched the air, producing a clear sound of breaking through it. Both strength and speed were incomparable to what they were two minutes ago.

But if the potion's effectiveness weakened as evolution progressed, the further he went, the more limited the potions would become. There might be P0, P1, and later P2, P3, but physical ability wouldn't increase without limit.

"So the key is still trait growth."

Xu Huo rubbed the stubble on his chin and took out the three tickets.

Game tickets weren't paper tickets like in real life; they were rectangular glass pieces, three fingers wide and half a finger thick, looking somewhat like a transparent phone. The station name floated on the front, while the back listed train times, with both game time and real time marked, allowing for sliding selection.

The nearest train to the next instance was in just thirty minutes.

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

Xu Huo didn't rush to select "yes." Instead, he tried out the potions one by one.

The Self-Healing Agent performed exactly as a discontinued product should—applied to the wound, it barely dulled the pain, essentially negligible.

The Cleaning Agent was handy. Wiped on his clothes, the dried bloodstains vanished instantly, leaving the torn areas looking as if they'd been washed. No wonder the cannibal players on the train had no traces on them.

Ordinary players might have one or two traits or items when boarding, but on the preliminary train, that wasn't an advantage. Cannibal players, on the other hand, had astonishing physical strength and items for disposing of bodies... It seemed the game wasn't friendly to ordinary players.

He casually dabbed a bit of Hair Growth Agent on his head, waited a while with no reaction, then finally selected [Yes].

A few seconds later, he stood in a station made entirely of glass.

Calling it a station, aside from the glass windows blocking the wind and the projection screen floating in the center, it had none of the usual station amenities. The empty glass room seemed to float in midair, touching neither sky nor ground, like being sandwiched between two mirrors of blue sky and white clouds—endless, completely lacking a sense of substance.

There were five strangers in the station, two of whom, men in suits, stared at him the moment he appeared.

"We're station staff. We need to check your ticket," the tall, thin one said, walking over.

Xu Huo glanced at the two, unhurriedly pulled out the lighter, lit a cigarette for himself, and blew out a puff of smoke.

The tall, thin man had expected Xu Huo to obediently produce his ticket, but instead, Xu Huo completely ignored him and even dared to provoke him on the spot. His face darkened. "Refusing a station staff inspection—do you want to be exiled?"

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

The two exchanged glances. The tall, thin man continued, "Take out your ticket. You need to be checked before boarding. All the players here have been inspected."

Xu Huo looked at the other three players silently watching him and said with a grin, "But I really don't have a ticket."

"How could you not have a ticket!" the other shorty snapped angrily. "The train number appeared on the floating screen when you arrived!"

Xu Huo had already noticed that only one train number was displayed on the floating screen. He nodded. "So the train number only shows up when a ticket-holding player arrives. That means none of you have tickets. How pitiful."

"If you still can't get a ticket in ten-plus minutes, I wonder what will happen. You can't board, and you can't leave. Maybe you'll starve to death in the station. Cannibal players might last a few more days, waiting for the next batch of ticket-holding players."

"But the game hasn't said ticketless players can stay in the station forever. Maybe when time's up, you'll be cleaned out like trash—dumped somewhere remote, or turned into rations for humanoid monsters. The worst-case scenario is being teleported into a high-risk instance. Do you know what that's like?"

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