Chapter 40: Vanguard

"Cousin, what are you doing? We're relatives! Even though I admire you, if you try to do... *this and that* to me, I won't cooperate!"

"Shut up!" Xu Huo checked her shoulders. No identification numbers.

Forcing her to face him, he used a small knife to slit his palm, squeezing out a string of blood right in front of her.

Yu Qingqing stared at him in shock. "Cousin, we haven't seen each other for a few days and you've actually developed a hobby of self-harm..."

Xu Huo breathed a slight sigh of relief. Good.

"Aren't you afraid?"

Yu Qingqing said nonchalantly, "I believe you won't hurt me. Besides, there are so many people outside; you wouldn't go out of your way to prey on a relative. As long as I'm fine, what does it matter if others live or die?"

Xu Huo felt a slight headache coming on.

Yu Qingqing was his stepmother's niece. Nominally, they were cousins, but in reality, there was no blood relation. His relationship with his stepmother was cold, and he rarely saw her relatives. Yu Qingqing was an exception; she had been clinging to him since high school. Later, when he moved to Ting City to settle down, this girl dropped out halfway through university to become an actress and refused to be driven away.

"Don't say things like that again," he warned. "Unless you want to see a psychiatrist."

Yu Qingqing stuck out her tongue and complained, "Humans are naturally self-interested; what's wrong with that? I don't understand what my parents are thinking, insisting I see a doctor. I haven't committed a crime."

"It'll be too late once you do," Xu Huo said. "Watch fewer dark movies and TV shows. If you dare to break the law, I'll personally deliver you to the police station."

Yu Qingqing shrunk her neck. "I'm done talking to you, I'm going to sleep!"

With that, she scurried into the bathroom.

Xu Huo sat down at the computer and logged in using the website and number Nie Xuan had provided. It was a forum named "Pioneer Players."

The forum already contained many popular science posts regarding Evolvers and Players. The content mentioned was similar to what he already knew, but the official authorities had not disclosed the dangers of discontinuing the use of Evolver Agents; Nie Xuan clearly knew about this.

Xu Huo understood the purpose behind the official stance: they were simply worried that the Evolver Agent would become the next resource to be frantically fought over by players, much like the "Train Tickets." However, if players knew that being absent from a dungeon for three months would result in being teleported to a random dungeon, most likely very few would think about snatching the agents first.

Being teleported to the station without a ticket still offered a chance to fight; but if one failed to obtain a ticket by the end of a dungeon, there was a high probability of being stranded within it. Whether one could encounter other players afterward to snatch a ticket was uncertain.

The start time of this game, "Dimensional Rift," could not be measured by current time. It claimed to shuttle between the third and fifth dimensions; perhaps other space-times or other eras existed. The Decapitator dungeon was an example: it was a closed dungeon now, but it hadn't been in the past. There were two possibilities.

First, the location of the dungeon was actually within real space. If the dungeon were not closed, then not only players, but non-players could enter as well. This meant dungeon sites could appear in any country or city in this world. Aside from players, non-players could also become targets of slaughter.

Second, the dungeon sites possessed a separate, specific game space. In that case, what the station connected were the internal game grounds. If these internal grounds were also open, then "non-player" would mean "a player not belonging to this specific dungeon." This would imply that the internal world of the game was open, and players should be able to travel to any dungeon city via the train.

Regardless of the situation, if a player were stranded in a dungeon city, it would be extremely difficult to successfully find other players.

Xu Huo had a premonition that closed dungeons like the Hot Spring Villa would not be many.

As long as one missed a single dungeon, the game would notify the player to prepare for a random dungeon three months later, starting at B-rank—essentially a death sentence.

He wasn't sure if the authorities knew about this news, because he didn't know exactly when Evolvers had first appeared in the world he currently lived in.

However, knowing was only a matter of time.

Xu Huo didn't dwell on this matter but instead scrolled through the official player rankings.

Currently, these rankings only included ratings for those who had experienced one dungeon. The highest was a player with the nickname "Jin Wu," an official staff member. He had safely brought eight players out of the game and received a B-rank rating. The authorities had also announced rewards: in addition to various benefits for his family, he was given an item.

Most players ranked below him were E-rank (Ordinary) or D-rank (Good), with a few C-rank (Excellent). This was very good considering they were still in the dark after just entering the game. Furthermore, they shared a common title—Pioneer Players.

Daring to be the vanguard, willing to be the vanguard.

The thread below was absolutely boiling. Many people's mindsets became unstable after becoming players, worrying both about losing their lives and about their families having no one to care for them. But after being officially registered, as long as they performed well, the state would provide resources and money. Even if they died in the end, their families would receive a compensation sum, completely removing their worries!

It was clear that many players were tempted. The thread was so hot that it pushed down all the posts proposing trades for tickets or high-priced purchases of items and potions.

Among them, there were some trying to sell tickets and items, but anyone with eyes could tell they were fishing for marks.

"Cousin, what are you looking at?" A damp Yu Qingqing walked up behind him.

Xu Huo closed the page and glanced at her bare legs. "You should know that right now, in my eyes, you're no different from a piece of pork."

Yu Qingqing was wearing an oversized T-shirt he had dug out of his bag. She pouted and said, "My clothes are dirty, how else am I supposed to wear something?"

"By the way, why do you have a blade in your pocket?" She held up a tiny silver fragment about the size of a fingernail. "It almost cut my hand just now. You didn't actually go kill someone, did you?"

That was a fragment chipped off from the Decapitator's axe. Although the game had reclaimed the axe, the fragments had not disappeared.

Xu Huo reached out and took it, then opened the booking interface. "If you have no clothes, have your assistant send some. Stop rummaging through my things. I've booked your ticket; go back early."

"Terminating my contract won't be that easy. I might even have to sue the company," Yu Qingqing attempted to struggle.

"You can't sue. You don't even need to sign; I'll handle it. Go home and study. Don't go running around aimlessly," Xu Huo said coldly.

"Xu Huo! You're being unreasonable!" Yu Qingqing glared at him in anger. "Even my parents didn't say anything!"

"Tomorrow, walk back on your own, or go back in a wheelchair. Pick one." Xu Huo stood up and looked at her expressionlessly.

Yu Qingqing's angry and pitiful expression vanished instantly. Her eyes stared at him coldly for a few seconds before she jumped onto the bed, pulled up the quilt, and said muffledly, "I curse you to have no girlfriend for two years!"

Xu Huo turned off the light and lay down on the sofa.

Early the next morning, the assistant brought clean clothes. While tidying Yu Qingqing's dirty clothes, the assistant's finger was cut by a razor blade that had been shaken out from inside.

"I'll do it." Xu Huo told her to go treat the wound, then he removed the three razor blades sewn into the collar and edges of the skirt and threw them into the trash.

After seeing her off at the airport and watching her board the plane with his own eyes, he returned to the city and went to the entertainment company she was signed with.