Chapter 204
Captain 7721 believes his greatest strength is knowing how to follow in the footsteps of the strong and never being stubborn.
So when Captain Xu and the others, to be on the safe side, only repaired the last carriage to observe the situation, Captain 7721 decisively followed suit and dismantled the several carriages in the middle of the train that had been squeezed and deformed, repairing them separately.
When Yan Chuyi bluntly stated that these parts were unusable, Captain 7721 clenched his fist in excitement.
Great, we've got it!
He hadn't expected the players in instance 333 to trust Yan Chuyi so much. He had been listening intently, hoping to hear a detailed explanation of what the problem was, but the players didn't utter a single question and rushed off to disassemble the parts.
A teammate whispered to the team leader, "Captain, let's hurry back and take the parts apart too."
They never expected that a team of over a hundred people could be so unified and disciplined. When they went back and explained the situation, they were met with strong opposition.
One team member almost shouted angrily, "You copy everything they do, don't you even look at the gap between us? They have senior mechanics in their team, we don't! They can drag out the time and get the train repaired at the last minute, can we?"
"I don't see any need to repair these two broken, tattered sections!"
The team member kicked it hard, and the metal carriage shook violently, denting a large section inward: "We only have thirty people, can't we just abandon these two carriages?"
"Wasting this time is one thing, but you actually want to take the parts apart! There's only an hour and a half left, and the shaft hasn't been repaired at all. What if we don't have enough time and are just waiting to be eliminated?"
Although they didn't say it outright, the frowns and glances from the team members seemed to clearly express their dissatisfaction.
—How exactly did you become the team leader?
Yeah... their team's situation is different from theirs!
Captain 7721's smugness vanished instantly.
The teammate who questioned him continued to type the crucial question in the private channel:
Have you ever thought about what would happen if the parts were really faulty, and their train was so badly damaged that the parts were unusable?
Staring at this meaningful rhetorical question, Captain 7721's heart skipped a beat, and he belatedly broke out in a cold sweat.
It was at this moment that Yan Chuyi discovered that the parts could not be removed, as if they were welded to the sheet metal. Several people tried to remove them, their cheeks turned red and their hands trembled, but they could not budge them even a little.
"I'll give it a try."
Brian stepped forward and grabbed the edge of the part.
As the strong, muscular body bulged with veins, the sheet metal connecting the parts creaked and groaned, finally deforming and stretching under the immense force, creating a clearly visible gap.
The crowd erupted in uproar!
The gaps are filled with thin, bluish-purple tendrils that resemble blood vessels; when torn off, they drip mucus and twitch.
No wonder they couldn't take it apart; these parts were actually disguised monsters, like potatoes that had been planted and could even take root inside the metal shell!
Brian continued to exert force, and the parts gradually separated from the carriage.
The bluish-purple roots stubbornly clung to the sheet metal, stretching longer and longer, roughly half a meter in length.
In other words, a circular area with a radius of half a meter centered on the part has been corroded!
That's not even the scariest part.
When most of the tentacles were torn off, the parts seemed to realize that resisting was futile, and suddenly stopped assembling and began to wriggle wildly.
The hard, flat metal surface rippled with disgusting, tumor-like wrinkles, its color changing from silvery-white to a glaring, burning red, rapidly heating up like a red-hot branding iron, reaching hundreds of degrees Celsius with each breath!
Yan Chuyi shouted first, "Let go!"
Upon hearing this, Brian decisively let go, while Captain Xu strode forward, pulled away the surrounding players, and erected a barrier.
With a loud bang, the parts exploded!
The bluish-purple slime exploded in a radial pattern, splashing onto the lawn and sizzling up a puff of blue smoke, instantly corroding a charred pit!
"It might be poisonous, everyone step back!"
Upon seeing the smoke, the logistics team members quickly put on gas masks and ran up to assess it. After a long pause, they solemnly said, "Toxicity level C, but corrosiveness is as high as level A! Players below level B who are hit by a large-scale splash will most likely die on the spot, and even level A players won't be able to withstand more than two hits."
“These parts are unusable.” They reaffirmed Yan Chuyi’s judgment.
Everyone was terrified.
Previously, fire, ice, lightning strikes, and even sharp weapons were used to try to expose the grotesque nature of these parts. Who knew that they would only reveal their true colors after being loaded onto the train? That's too insidious!
But what do we do next?
The parts are unusable, and they can't conjure up a perfectly good engine out of thin air.
Reality may present a dead end, but a game that emphasizes fairness and reason always has a solution.
Yan Chuyi looked thoughtfully at the train next to line 7721 and asked the others, "Has the system explicitly stated in the rules which train we must take?"
"No."
Brian thought he understood the young man's unspoken meaning: "Got it. I'll go and negotiate with them to see which train the winning team will take."
Seeing the mercenary's menacing and aggressive appearance, Yan Chuyi's brow twitched slightly, and she quickly grabbed the male fighting rooster.
"Their trains also have problems. The middle of the carriages is squeezed and sunken, the whole thing is tilted, the bearings underneath may be damaged, and they will wear out after traveling a short distance, causing the wheels to deform and forcing them to stop."
Yan Chuyi said, "What's interesting is that their front end was completely preserved, while our front end was broken into pieces, engine parts were damaged and missing, but the carriage and wheelset (tires) were intact, which complemented each other perfectly."
Brian understood: "So we're going to just steal that train?"
"..." Yan Chuyi suddenly realized that this big guy was actually being quite polite to them.
“Perhaps not,” he said. “The sightseeing train is comparable in size to a regular train, and the undamaged carriages combined can accommodate more than two hundred people.”
Although there is the premise that "if you don't make it into the top three, you will be eliminated", it does not say that everyone cannot be merged into one team.
However, the system will not remind the players. It secretly hopes that the players will fight amongst themselves and kill each other. The prompt panel repeatedly mentions "enemy team" and "opponent", and even says that extreme measures can be used. It is a subtle hint and guidance.
If they really follow the system's instructions and treat other teams as hypothetical enemies that need to be dealt with more quickly than the dungeon, they will inevitably develop this habitual mindset when they encounter other teams in the future.
—They might be a threat to me. Never mind, I'll strike first and kill them!
So much so that we forget that this is an infinite game that requires cooperation and win-win outcomes from all of humanity.
Once you encounter a multiplayer cooperative level later on, the outcome is predictable.
Captain Xu decisively said, "Time is running out, let's go negotiate first."
If the other team disagrees, then let's see who prevails.
Knocked out and taken away immediately, that was more than enough.
As soon as I walked over, I saw Captain 7721 grabbing a team member and roaring almost in despair: "Are you idiots?! Huh? What do we do now? It's all over!"
Originally, Captain 7721 felt ashamed after hearing his teammate's reasoned rebuttal, feeling that he was blindly following the powerful.
Then he turned around and saw that these idiots thought he was wasting his time. They had secretly replaced the wheelset and bearings while he was asking for information!
Seeing him get angry, they scoffed even more, insisting that they had no choice but to do this to save their lives.
Is it better now? Is it better now?!
Did you see the parts that exploded over there with team 333? Not only did they explode, they were also poisonous! Grade A corrosion! Grade A!
They're useless at physical labor, but they're number one troublemakers! He was only away for half an hour, and they replaced all the wheelsets. It's like there was a whole row of time bombs buried under the carriage—there was no way out!
No wonder she didn't say anything at first, but suddenly took the initiative to scold and question him when he came back. It turns out she was secretly rebelling!
Captain 7721 was absolutely furious!
Originally, their braking system was fine, and they could have abandoned the vehicle to save themselves and escaped quickly. Even with a few fewer wheelsets, they could still drive.
Now……
Hearing footsteps behind him, Captain 7721 stiffly turned around and met Yan Chuyi and the others who looked surprised. He forced an awkward, ingratiating smile.
"Hahaha... Well then, esteemed experts, are you still willing to accept the offer of amnesty?"
In less than ten seconds, the two teams, who were on the verge of conflict, reached a friendly strategic alliance.
With nearly an hour remaining, both sides mobilized their logistics teams specializing in machinery and vehicles to disassemble the usable parts from the two trains as quickly as possible and assemble them into a brand-new sightseeing train.
The few members of team number 7721 who had acted on their own initiative dared not utter a word, but they were still a little unconvinced and secretly grumbled to themselves.
Suddenly, they heard the young man named Yan Chuyi say to Captain Xu, "Don't throw away the parts dropped by monsters. Pick out the ones that are about the size of your palm, so they're easy to pick up. Everyone should put some in their space bags. They only react when they're in close contact with metal. They'll be fine as long as they don't come into contact with trains."
Yan Chuyi: "We will encounter other teams and trains next. If they launch an attack, we will throw these parts at them."
As he spoke, the young man told the others to step back to a safe distance, and then, as an example, picked up a part and threw it onto the outer wall of the wrecked carriage.
Without a tight fit and without human support, the parts inevitably slip on the smooth sheet metal.
Just as it was about to fall off the carriage, countless bluish-purple tentacles suddenly emerged from the surface of the parts, clinging tightly to the carriage body, like a parasite unwilling to give up its host that was so close at hand, directly tearing through the disguise.
Yan Chuyi was waiting for the moment when it would expose its tentacles.
With a wave of his hand, golden light shot out like lightning, severing all the tentacles!
He observed carefully and found that the tentacles were the weak point of the creature.
At this point, disconnect most of the parts and immediately commit a suicidal self-destruction!
With a loud bang, the corrosive liquid splashed out, scorching large craters into the train wall.
"That's it." Yan Chuyi turned around and calmly pointed out, "If used properly, its power is comparable to an A-grade attack item, and it can be used for self-defense."
"Wow!" The teammates' eyes lit up, and they clapped enthusiastically.
For low-level players who have no chance to obtain high-level items, this thing can be a lifesaver!
Team member number 7721 was dumbfounded, only to find that the unassuming young man was terrifyingly ruthless.
Who in their right mind would dare to carry around a bunch of living monsters? And who would calmly use them as backup weapons?
The captain sneered from the side: "I know you want to be in charge. Go ahead and compete with someone. You will definitely become the next boss."
Several team members: "..."
I dared not speak; I was completely convinced.
Shortly after, the train departed precisely at 10:00 AM, carrying a busload of players slowly into the amusement park.
Just as an invisible hand parted the fog, the road that was originally just a section of track suddenly extended into a complete railway the moment the train started moving.
Under the pale moonlight, it reflected a silvery metallic sheen.
The players' pupils suddenly contracted.
The surrounding scenery has changed.
In the distance, the gray gravel road on both sides rushed past, wild grass and shrubs gradually grew lush, and the shadows of tall trees in front of him undulated and rose and fell, like giants standing tall.
The amusement park has disappeared, replaced by a majestic and magnificent primeval forest mountain range.
White mist quietly gathered in the dense forest, carrying away the little warmth left in the air. The temperature plummeted by more than ten degrees, and wisps of cool air seeped into the skin, raising goosebumps.
Swish—
They rushed along the straight railway into the dark forest, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, as if they were rushing into the gaping maw of a monster.
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