Players, Please Board the Train

The female player stared at the blonde man for a few seconds before flipping her hair. "Boring, I'm done playing."

The strips of cloth fell one after another. The blonde man patted the burly man's shoulder again. "Be more magnanimous. You got tricked, just have him refund your money."

Before the burly man could even speak, Skinny Monkey hurriedly took out the money to return it, not even asking for the knife back.

Seeing this, the burly man felt even more frustrated. As he returned to his seat, he glared fiercely at Xu Huo. "What are you looking at, pretty boy!"

Xu Huo flicked his lighter on and raised it slightly. The burly man reflexively flinched back. After dodging, he realized Xu Huo had just taken out a cigarette, lit it, and smiled at him.

A flicker of fear appeared in the burly man's eyes. Without another word, he went back to his seat.

Peace returned to the carriage. Seeing the danger had passed, Skinny Monkey had no intention of leaving either. He thanked the female player and the blonde man in turn, even throwing in a small gift.

However, after sitting in the carriage for a while, he grew restless again. Before long, he slid into the seat next to Xu Huo and lowered his voice. "Hey buddy, want some 'Ecstasy of Life'? You look like the type who'd be into this."

Xu Huo glanced at the small bottle peeking out of his pocket. It was probably something similar to a stimulant.

"I'm not interested in that. What did you smear on that short knife?" he asked casually. Skinny Monkey paused, then gave a thumbs up. "You've got a good eye, buddy! Most people can't tell. Honestly, the knife's material isn't that great, but the craftsmanship is good. Soaked in metal solution for a few hours, it looks just like a divine weapon."

"Metal solution?"

"It's just coloring solution," the female player interjected. "A little trick for fakes. Lots of dungeon worlds have it."

"Hey!" Skinny Monkey chuckled. "Just trying to make a living. That stuff isn't cheap to get either. I put in the labor and the train ticket, so charging a bit more is fair, right?"

After saying this, he put away his small goods and continued, "You're all riding this train for the first time, right? I travel these stations often. If you want any inside information, just ask me. I won't charge a high price, just a small fee for spreading the word, okay?"

"The game hardly ever issues duplicate train tickets. How could you possibly travel this line frequently?" a middle-aged woman couldn't help but interject.

"It's not that hard," Xu Huo said. "This train has seven stops. You can board as long as you have a ticket for one of them. Train tickets can be bought and sold both in the game backend and within dungeon worlds, especially the game backend. In such a vast game world, there are bound to be leftover tickets." He still had an E-grade ticket left himself. It could be traded through the game, but the demand for E-grade tickets was low because E-grade players who truly needed them didn't have trading permissions enabled.

"So that's how it is," the middle-aged woman said, then asked, "Then, if you take the train to a station using a ticket, can you choose not to enter the dungeon?"

"D-grade players' tickets are very flexible. No matter when you board, you just need to enter the dungeon during the last dungeon opening time of each month," the female player up front spoke again. "Look at your ticket. There should be a few extra lines of small print on it. Those are the remaining dungeon opening times before the final deadline."

"But if you miss the final deadline, that ticket becomes void."

The middle-aged woman hurriedly took out her ticket to check. Listed on the transparent ticket were four dungeon opening times.

After confirming, she smiled and thanked her.

"The earliest station won't be reached until tomorrow. Sitting here doing nothing for a whole day and night is so boring," the female player spoke again. "How about we find some entertainment?"