Players, Please Board the Train

Chapter 617: Seventeenth Hospital Upgrades

The Special Defense Department had extensive experience dealing with players, utilizing not only anesthetics and anesthetic smoke but also electric shock guns and specialized electrified nets. The electrified nets were particularly effective since they didn't require direct confrontation with players—just laying the nets in advance and luring targets into them.

Of course, dealing with players relied more on characteristics and items. The Special Defense Department had gone all out this time. Elite players wearing dark blue uniforms and black leather gloves moved through every conflict zone, using items in coordination with armed personnel and other players to capture people.

As Xu Huo passed by a certain office building, a player used "Down to Earth," forcing even him to fall to the ground, landing right in the middle of a battlefield.

However, the item's effect ended there. He swiftly killed two Player-Eaters, then rose back into the air and accelerated before the Special Defense Department players could identify him as an enemy.

The Special Defense Department had more resources stockpiled than he'd imagined, but that wasn't surprising. As long as items could be purchased, the department had plenty of money to buy high-level items.

Just as his first three-minute window was about to expire, he found himself blocked by a vast fog zone.

Fog in winter wasn't unusual, but after circling several times without finding his way out, he realized he'd fallen into a trap. Sensing someone approaching through the fog, he quickly shifted position to the side, then noticed a team of black-clad figures upon closer inspection.

Xu Huo used the Sound-Muffling Figurine and watched as this group removed their contact lenses while passing through the fog zone, revealing colored irises beneath. He furrowed his brow slightly.

There were ten people in total, one of whom carried a square screen. A faintly glowing "Heavy Fog" icon appeared on the display, with mist continuously seeping out of it. This was likely the item responsible for creating the foggy weather.

They stopped, and the leading middle-aged man said, "Everyone, remember our purpose here?""Get the antidote fungus and kill all the Special Defense Department players!" The other nine answered with conviction, clearly ambitious.

"Correct," the middle-aged man said with a grim expression. "But word just came in—we've been betrayed. The Special Defense Department already moved the antidote fungus. The lab we blew up was just an empty shell, and we lost quite a few of our players!"

The other nine erupted with fury, shouting in unison, "Blood for blood!"

"Good!" the middle-aged man barked. "Our mission failed, but we're going to take revenge. This is someone else's territory, and we're short on people, so we have to concentrate our forces to kill a few key figures!"

He sent a list to everyone's phone. "These are all important members of the Special Defense Department. Kill them, and the department won't recover anytime soon. As for the other players here, we'll leave them to the random dungeons!"

At that moment, outside the fog zone, several massive metal boxes appeared simultaneously in the skies above the Special Defense Department headquarters and the surrounding areas.

"Where did those come from!" In the operations meeting room, Minister Fan slammed his fist on the table and stood up.

"It must be an item effect," Team Leader Wu said. "We need to intercept them immediately!"

The nearby confidential staff immediately issued orders. Several interceptor missiles launched, and the boxes exploded in mid-air!

As smoke sprayed out, the metal was blasted into fragments, but the contents inside the boxes fell toward the ground completely intact.

Drones transmitted the footage back instantly, and the meeting room saw what had fallen out of the boxes: a ritual-like mask, a moss-covered stone, a door, and a long-haired doll.

The moment they saw these items, everyone present knew they were looking at random dungeon entrances.

Random dungeon entrances came in various forms. Some were large areas like entire zones, a house, a room, or a stretch of water—these were larger-scale entries that would often absorb numerous living people at once. But there were also portal-style dungeon entrances: an item, a tree, or a stone, which would only transport whoever touched them.

The Special Defense Department had conducted experiments. Large-scale dungeon entrances generally couldn't be moved, but smaller items could be relocated before the dungeon disappeared.

"Small-entry dungeons won't affect that many people," Minister Fan said. "Immediately have the rescue team seal off the areas where the dungeon entrances land. Then find out exactly how those boxes were launched over headquarters. We must catch the people responsible!"

The Special Defense Department swung into action. Inside the fog zone, the middle-aged man signaled his players to put away their items and waved for them to disperse.

However, several seconds later, the surrounding fog still hadn't dissipated. The middle-aged man frowned and turned around. "What's going on?"

The player holding the electronic screen looked just as confused, but the group quickly realized they might have stepped into the range of another item's effect.

"Split up," the middle-aged man said, choosing a direction first. But he'd barely taken a step before his expression changed—the original asphalt road had transformed into smooth paving stones. As he stepped onto it, he vaguely saw the entrance of a large building through the fog.

Retreating was impossible. A strange, irresistible force directly pushed him toward the entrance, along with the other nine.

They exchanged bewildered glances, and finally, the middle-aged man said, "Looks like we've stumbled into a random dungeon. Bad luck."

But once inside a random dungeon, there was no way out except by clearing it. So, on his signal, one player stepped forward to push the door open.

To their surprise, the door wouldn't budge.

The ten of them studied the drab, dusty building from the outside. After a moment, they silently dispersed to search for entrances around the structure, but quickly returned empty-handed.

"There are doors and windows, but we can't get in. I checked the second and third floors too—can't see what's inside."

"This is the strangest dungeon I've ever seen. Players can't even enter the venue!"

"Maybe the dungeon's venue is outside?"

"There are no other buildings next to this one. The area we can move around in is probably about ten meters across. No hidden passages or other clues. The venue must be inside the building, but we just can't enter yet."

The players looked at each other, and finally someone said, "If the dungeon won't activate, maybe we can leave."

Leaving wasn't possible, because the Seventeenth Hospital dungeon was currently upgrading.

Xu Huo had chosen this location to release the dungeon for two reasons: first, considering player distribution, and second, because the Seventeenth Hospital had previously been contaminated by Hugo's pathogens. It was uncertain whether the contamination had spread throughout the entire building. Releasing it could cause large-scale pathogen transmission, so he'd picked a relatively remote spot, and the first thing he'd done upon entering was deal with the contaminants inside.

But sometimes, plans didn't match circumstances. These ten players had to be detained regardless, so he released the signal and activated the "Seventeenth Hospital." What he hadn't expected was that not only could the hospital be used despite the contamination, but it had actually begun to upgrade.

The original building rapidly expanded to twice its former size, and two new buildings of equal dimensions appeared behind the outpatient building. All three structures lined up horizontally, separated by grassy patches.

[The Seventeenth Hospital is about to upgrade. Will dungeon holder Passerby fill out new dungeon rules?]