Luo stood at the side and his light smile remained unchanged, but Xiao Lan saw through that elegant shell and saw the teasing expression hidden in his eyes.
Xiao Lan couldn’t help giving him a ‘please don’t speak’ look.
Sir’s appearance when feeling embarrassed is also especially cute, Luo silently thought in his heart.
After Diyi Fugui recited Xiao Lan’s classic quotes, it seemed she had yet to fully express herself and she still wanted to continue.
Xiao Lan hastily cut her off. “Ahem, it’s good that she’s living well, really, you don’t have to be concerned with me.”
“Fine…” Diyi Fugui said, then seemed to think of something. “Oh right, Xiao ge, Xiaohe and I joined Lunhui. The benefits are pretty good; do you want to join too?”
“Lunhui?” Xiao Lan knitted his brows. Was it the Lunhui who was searching for information on him behind the scenes?
The Lunhui rumoured to employ radical methods, and which wasn’t to be trifled with among the player organisations that currently existed?
This was actually his first time truly coming into contact with someone from Lunhui, but it wasn’t like he had imagined.
Diyi Fugui was unaware of the suspicions in Xiao Lan’s heart. “Let me tell you, our Lunhui’s treatment is really good; they help take care of family members who are in the real world, and they also give us insurance. Usually, our pay is calculated according to that KPI thing; if we perform well, we get rewards in both the Advent World and in reality. There’s also a subsidy if we die in battle. In any case, it’s really proper and reliable.”
Xiao Lan was surprised. “You guys even have a KPI? How is it calculated?”
Diyi Fugui: “Through things like submitting the items we usually obtain in instances ah, or completing an assignment to gather material, things like that. There are people who specialise in calculating this. I’m not too clear on it either, it’s roughly just earning as much as you work.”
Xiao Lan also didn’t expect a large organisation like Lunhui to actually have such a method. Why did it have the air of a company slave about it?
Taking care of family members as a condition could be considered pretty tempting. Who in the world didn’t have close relatives? And how could players not worry about how their families would fare after their deaths? After all, there were few people like Xiao Lan who were all alone in the world.
Attracting players with these sorts of conditions, then making them work for the organisation, could be said to be an extremely clever method.
However, the financial resources required to support this many people in the real world wasn’t small.
After all, everything in the game had nothing to do with the real world. Even if you were an advanced player, those who were poor in reality could still only chew on instant noodles when they returned.
Xiao Lan asked, “Does Lunhui contact you guys in the real world too?”
Diyi Fugui nodded. “Mn, in the real world, we’re nominally in a large company and don’t have to go to the office, but our wages are paid on time. However, the boss has never gathered us together in the real world, and doesn’t arrange missions there either. Our operations are still in the Advent World.”
She said a company’s name; it was even a renowned company, and one of the global top companies.
It seemed that Lunhui’s boss might have a considerably extraordinary identity, and was someone wealthy and respectable.
Xiao Lan was rather curious about this person. “What sort of person is your boss?”
Diyi Fugui thought about it. “Boss ah… He’s very mysterious. I’ve never seen him before, but I feel like he keeps his word, and will accomplish whatever he wants. He has the air of a tyrant. It’s rumoured that he once spent a lot of effort to take a cat out of an instance, just because he liked it.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
That sounded very wilful ah, and really seemed like a tyrant.
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Diyi Fugui shook her head. “No ah. Lately, we’re still teaming up and going through instances and whatnot. I haven’t heard anything about searching for someone ah… But I’m just a regular member. Perhaps the higher-ups have some plan, but it’s not like they’ll tell me ah hahaha.”
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Lunhui’s operation methods seemed different from an ordinary organisation. Members on the lower rung seemed completely ignorant of their boss’s plans and goals. They were just working for Lunhui in exchange for insurance and their family members being looked after.
“Ai~ Xiao ge, if you come to Lunhui, how about setting up a support group? At that time, we’ll give you a shoutout every day; I guarantee you’ll be popular wherever you go,” Diyi Fugui said with an eager expression.
Just imagining that scene made Xiao Lan feel so awkward that his goosebumps were about to pop up. He hurriedly changed the subject. “Uh… let’s talk about what you found out instead. What’s going on in the conductor’s room here?”
“Mm…” Diyi Fugui was successfully distracted. She scratched her green hair and pondered for a long while before she finally choked out, “That… I don’t know how to operate it…”
Xiao Lan: “…”
Fugui ah, how in the world did you advance to the intermediate level? By relying on luck and hardheadedness?
Xiao Lan took a different approach. “Was there no one around when you opened the door and entered? Is the train on autopilot, and is it useless no matter what buttons you press?”
Diyi Fugui nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”
Xiao Lan looked at the tracks shrouded in darkness in the front. It seemed that controlling the train wasn’t an effective method, and no one knew where the train was taking the players.
Right at that moment, the train began to slow down, and light gradually appeared up ahead in the pitch-black tunnel, followed by a station platform.
The platform was in the old industrial style, the brick walls completely bare and various pipes criss-crossing over them. There was basically no decoration, and it looked considerably rustic. Seemingly due to poor ventilation and drainage, moss grew out of the cracks in the ground here, and a lot also grew in the seams of the bricks on the walls.
The dim and yellow old-fashioned lanterns flickered occasionally, making the platform appear even more dilapidated.
Xiao Lan carefully examined the platform. Like the train, there were no signs of people here at all, but there was a bit more trash on the ground, like old newspapers and water bottles. Though it was still empty and quiet, at least there were some traces left by humans.
After a while, the train stopped.
The arrival announcement rang out. “The train is now arriving at Subway Station 13. All disembarking passengers, please get ready.”
The train doors also opened soundlessly.
The empty train and the empty platform faced each other in the silence, as if wanting players to make a choice between them. Of course, one could guess even with their toes that the content of this game couldn’t be this simple, so much so that this wasn’t the time to make a decision.
Xiao Lan left the conductor’s room and walked to the carriage at the back. In passing, he observed the platform opposite, while Luo followed him as usual.
Diyi Fugui stated that she wanted to follow Xiao ge’s teaching and do her best to hone her ability to clear the games without always relying on other people for everything. Thus, she didn’t follow Xiao Lan and Luo.
Although Xiao Lan felt a little embarrassed about this, he didn’t interfere with her decision. After all, Diyi Fugui might not appear reliable, but she had still genuinely advanced as an intermediate player, so she definitely had her own ways to clear the instance.
It would be even better if she could forget Xiao ge’s quotes…
As the two of them moved forward, the platform was as silent as ever and didn’t look threatening at all.
Xiao Lan’s footsteps, however, abruptly paused.
“What’s wrong?” Luo quietly asked.
Xiao Lan backed up a couple of steps and walked towards the glass window he had just glanced at. For one moment just now, he had seen the platform in the reflection of the glass window, but unlike what could be seen with the naked eye, the platform was clearly full of people standing around!
Although it was just a glimpse and he hadn’t been able to see more things clearly, the people packed densely together and the completely bereft platform before them absolutely wasn’t the same. There was also a sensation of being stared at that sent a chill up his spine and which couldn’t be ignored at all.
But when he retreated, there was already nothing there.
The platform reflected in the glass was still dilapidated and empty, and there was no indication of the presence of people at all. The sound of water dripping from an unknown source spread throughout the carriage through the open doors while everything else was extremely quiet.
Seeing Xiao Lan stare at the window, Luo followed his gaze, but all he saw was a typical, ordinary glass window.
Xiao Lan pointed at the glass window. “I saw a reflection of lots of people standing on the platform just now. It was just a glance, like it was an illusion.”
There wasn’t the slightest doubt in Luo’s tone. “Since you saw it, then it definitely wasn’t an illusion.”
Xiao Lan turned his head to look at the platform as reflected in the glass. The tranquil appearance seemed to contain some invisible danger.
His gaze fell upon the area around the open doors.
In this sort of old station, there were no safety doors between the train and the platform, so there was a deep gap in front of the doors, like a mouth picking someone to devour.
Drip — drip — drip —
The train let out a warning that the doors were closing, as if urging them.
However, Xiao Lan was unmoved. He wanted to know how many stations this train would pass, and what these stations were like. Conversely, there was no rush to explore the train station before them.
The other players in the train probably had the same mindset. During this time, Xiao Lan didn’t see anyone leave the train.
Under his attentive gaze, the train doors slowly closed. Seizing the final moment before the doors closed, Xiao Lan took out a coin from 【Unnamed Little Friend’s Piggy Bank】 and tossed it out of the door. The coin landed on the ground with a crisp sound.
The train rumbled loudly and entered the darkness once more.
Xiao Lan and Luo found a place to sit and waited patiently.
Finally, light appeared up ahead again.
However —
“The train is now arriving at Subway Station 13. All disembarking passengers, please get ready.”
After the doors opened, it was unexpectedly still the same station! Xiao Lan looked outside. It was the same brick walls, the same old-fashioned lanterns, the same mossy seams…
In the dim light of the lanterns, a small silver light twinkled on the ground.
It was — the coin Xiao Lan had tossed out. It was also still in its original spot.
Xiao Lan and Luo exchanged looks; they had an answer in their hearts. However, the two of them still didn’t act blindly. They waited for the train to stop a third time, thoroughly verifying this subway route.
The train entered the darkness, then welcomed new light again.
“The train is now arriving at Subway Station 13. All disembarking passengers, please get ready.”
The coin that had fallen there still lay quietly in its spot.
This train had clearly been heading forward in a straight line, yet they kept passing the same subway station every time, as if they were caught in a loop. It seemed that the train could only dither in a single space, forever unable to leave.
Just like — a ghost wall.
It seemed that to find a way to leave, getting out onto the platform was necessary. Otherwise, they could only keep going back and forth on the train.
“Let’s go.” Xiao Lan stood up and directly walked out.
The instant he stepped out of the carriage doors, a wind blew past, bringing with it stale underground air. Dust and a moldy smell was mixed in it to create an unpleasant odour.
After stepping onto the platform, Xiao Lan turned his head and glanced at the train.
There were now many people sitting on the train that had been completely empty.
Their heads were lowered as they stared at the floor under their feet, their expressions blank and their skin a type of dead gray colour that was lifeless. Like the figures that he had seen reflected in the glass, these figures appeared for an instant before they immediately disappeared. When the doors closed and the train departed, it was completely empty once more.
Watching the train depart once more, Xiao Lan turned around and strode over —
To pick up the coin on the ground and put it in his pocket.
For us poor people, a single coin is still a huge sum of money, okay? Maybe it’ll be useful in some fight.
Previously, when battling the landlord in 404, the coins that had been embedded in the walls and thus could no longer be used had pained him deeply. It wasn’t coins on the walls, but hundreds of thousands of his poverty value ah.
QAQ……
haha~ In a life or death situation all XL could think of was his poverty value~
Thanks for the chapter~
The leader of that group took a cat from an Instance, a white cat maybe?
Oh srry didn’t mean to reply
hmmm now thinking about it, that cat is probably a plot entity so it should be powerful and who is that guy??? a foe or a friend…
Oh oops, this commenting system is hard QAQ
ME: Don’t be sad eyes filled with motherly love here few buildings go destruct them
ML: narrows eyes Are seducing sir ?🔪🔪🔪🔪🔪
ME: QAQ no
Maybe the fangirls can become XL’s spies in Lunhui? >3
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
This is quite creepy…
Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️
If there’s only the one station, where did Diyi Fugui go? Still on the train? It was very interesting to hear more about Lunhui, too… Anyway, this instance has been particularly eerie so far, I’m excited to see where it goes
Thank you for translating! <3
No.13…. ominous. It kinda reminds me of this Japanese game about taking a ghost train.
Thanks for the chapter! <3
That’s interesting
Thanks for the update
Thanks for the chapter! ^^)❤
Luo thinking everything Xiao Lan does is adorable is adorable xD
thanks for the chapter <3
Why do I feel we shouldn’t trust this Fugui? Like, the Lunhui is using this promoter to recruit Xiao Lan? Hmm…
It’s just me that found it suspicious that the langhui boss spend a lot to get a “cat”? I remember a chapter where he was with a cat and now I’m curious…. Is this cat another existence like luo? Or it’s actually luo’s shadow part and both of them (the boss and the mc) are trying to get all parts of luo together?
Thanks for the chapter (ʘᴗʘ✿)
Fugui has green hair, I wanna trust Fugui
the organization that help take care of family members (then they can threaten you with your family) it doesn’t sound good
i think it’s be fun to be in this game, the old atmosphere, just sounds nice