Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 502: Dismantling the Ship

On the deck of the eighth floor, there was a completely transparent swimming pool. A tattooed burly man, bare-chested, crouched there, scratching his head as he said, "What, do you have a grudge against us?"

"No." Bai Kou's gaze swept over Matt and the others beside the burly man.

Captain Matt, responsible for transporting the arms shipment; Vicen Meni, acting as the trading party; Ran Ying of the Black Epaulets, representing the cooperative side for now; and three high-level noble players who were here on vacation, incidentally to witness this transaction.

There were quite a few nobles on this ship, but most were only here to participate in this unconstrained free-for-all hunt. Those who knew about the Rongxin Group's arms deal were in the minority.

Earlier on the tenth floor, a high-level noble player had already clashed with Bai Kou. Neither side had inflicted significant damage on the other. However, when Hugo expressed interest in Bai Kou, the side from District 011 stepped aside.

"No past grievances, no recent grudges. Why so much anger, little sister?" Hugo flicked open two fingers, deflecting the ocean grass that had accidentally swept towards his face. Starting from the point of contact, that strand of ocean grass rapidly withered, aged, then crumbled to dust. The effect then traveled back along the roots and stems, causing large patches of ocean grass to disintegrate in succession.

Jiang Feng's younger sister, who was controlling the ocean grass to attack Xu Huo, noticed the ship's ocean grass withering on a massive scale. She immediately turned and directed the ocean grass to attack Hugo.

However, this man in a floral shirt, who seemed sloppy and unreliable, struck with vicious precision. In a flash, he appeared behind her and used a small scalpel to cleanly slice open her throat.

Xu Huo saw it clearly. As Hugo closed in, Jiang Feng's sister had already activated a defensive item at the first possible moment. Whether it was due to a vast difference in speed or insufficient defensive power of the item, the scalpel clearly sliced through a thin, film-like barrier just before her throat. But this obstruction caused almost no delay, which was why she was killed without any chance to resist.

As soon as she died, the gathered ocean grass immediately collapsed. Hugo looked up at the people on the eighth floor and said, "Captain Matt, why don't you clean up this stuff? It's useless anyway."Matt smiled. The next second, the vessel began to change. The ocean grass returned to the floors and walls. The mottled ship's hull gradually became brand new and shiny. Even the vanished seventh deck was restored. The overall volume of the ship was also increasing... The giant ship was undergoing a new round of transformation!

Xu Huo, who was still outside the ship, immediately returned to the vessel, rushing inside just before the seventh deck sealed shut. After landing, he glanced at the walls that were continuously splitting and changing, realizing the distances between everyone had also been stretched.

Previously, quite a few players had fallen from the seventh to the sixth deck or were hiding on the sixth deck. But after the ship's second transformation, the internal layout shifted slightly. Some people immediately disappeared into suddenly appearing rooms or behind corridors. He himself was pushed by the continuously expanding floor towards a position near the windows.

Xu Huo glanced at Bai Kou, who remained motionless in her original spot, then turned and ran towards the newly generated corridor, avoiding the line of sight of both sides.

The metal bar that killed Jiang Feng earlier probably wasn't a coincidence. It was likely Bai Kou had helped him. Judging by her actions, it seemed she intended to challenge the Phantom Sound Knights and the players from District 011 single-handedly. It was unclear how strong she truly was, but if both sides went all out, the ones who would suffer the most were low-level players like them.

He clearly wasn't the only one who realized this. Taking advantage of the ship's transformation, while neither Bai Kou nor Hugo made a move, the other players were all scrambling to hide elsewhere. Some rushed towards the elevators, trying to go upstairs.

Among them were even black and red wristband players who had been happily hunting just moments before.

The Jiang Feng siblings were nobles, yet Vicen Meni and the others had watched them die without intervening. And Hugo could kill nobles so casually, showing that their lives weren't worth much in the eyes of those high-level players upstairs either. The only way was to hide somewhere safe.

Right now, the only place that could be called safe was near Captain Matt.

Most white wristband players chose to go below. The reasoning was simple: the upper decks might be destroyed, but this ship definitely wouldn't capsize completely. As long as Captain Matt was still here, the lower decks would be safer.

"Aren't you going down?" As Xu Huo moved through the space, the black wristband player who had fiercely fought several red wristband players suddenly called out to him.

Xu Huo glanced at him. "Staying up here to watch the show."

The black wristband player noticed the color of his wristband had also changed. He didn't say anything more and silently left.

Xu Huo originally planned to stay on this deck. However, he hadn't expected that right at this moment, a powerful force suddenly erupted from the ship's center, separated by several walls. Immediately after, that tremendous force directly destroyed the newly formed seventh deck! The shattered ship's structure, carrying immense power, surged outward, shaking the entire vessel!

Xu Huo took out the "Severing Ties Door" to block in front of him. But he still couldn't withstand this force and was continuously pushed back by the piling-up wall fragments. The outer window glass had already been shattered. He, along with the black wristband player and some other players, were forced back to the window edge. Just as they were hesitating whether to go out or not, screams suddenly came from below.

Looking back, the sea below had somehow turned into boiling black water. Two players who tried to use items to hide on the sea surface had their items melted the moment they went down. One managed to climb back up using a flight device, but was instantly swatted back into the sea by a tentacle that suddenly emerged from below, never to resurface.

The scream came from another player who had been splashed by the seawater. The black water melted half his shoulder. His companion nearby didn't have time to pull him back before he fell into the sea, not even making a splash.

And that tentacle that had just killed two players rose from the sea again. Dripping with water, it swayed gently in the air as if stretching. The part above the water alone was over ten meters long. Not to mention the ones that emerged from the water one after another. The sea surface around the vessel was instantly filled, trapping the ship in the center.

"Don't go out!" the black wristband player urgently said. "These are mutated giant octopuses! They're mating right now. Anything that appears on the sea surface will be attacked!"

"Then why aren't they attacking the ship..." Another player's words were cut off as a tremor came from the ship's stern, as if the octopuses were lashing it. Fortunately, the force wasn't too great.

But this still scared the players badly.

"This ship's exterior must be coated with a special potion," the black wristband player said calmly. "Since they have to pass through this sea area, District 011 would definitely make corresponding preparations. No need to worry about the ship capsizing. If it capsizes, everyone dies!"

"How do you know all this so clearly?" Serin suddenly appeared.

"It's common knowledge," the black wristband player glanced at him. "If you pay attention to the news, you'd know District 011 often captures mutated species from this sea area. How could they not have methods to avoid large mutated marine creatures?"