Chapter 109: Night Ghost Market

Chapter 109: Chapter 109: Night Ghost Market

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All public transportation within the Ring Moon followed a unified set of rules.

They were rigid and standardized, yet possessed extreme speed. With no extraneous design elements, everything was centered around efficient commuting, perfectly accommodating the travel needs of the hundreds of millions of players in this massive Mobile City.

At this moment, Gu Su was sitting on a train with a distinctly old-fashioned, green-painted style. The inner walls of the car glowed with a faint, cold metallic light, and the mechanical, clear voice of the announcer continually reported the stops in his ear.

The train was accompanied by a slight rocking and whistling as it sped along, flashing past one station after another, each marked with a district number. It moved so fast that one barely had time to appreciate the passing scenery.

After safely depositing his Graveyard Demon at a temporary holding point in Ghost Valley and confirming the storage rules and retrieval procedures, Gu Su left the cold, eerie Ghost Valley without a moment’s delay.

He first made his way to the nearest affiliated city, Endless Ghost Wall. There, he successfully purchased a ticket at the station and boarded this green train, which was bound directly for the DT-319 District—the most critical destination of his trip.

The Night Ghost Market!

The Night Ghost Market had been Gu Su’s home for three whole years since he transmigrated into this Game World.

Here, one could find not only the tiny capsule home he once rented, but also the crooked merchant who had ripped him off by selling him a shoddy, knock-off version of the Graveyard Demon.

Returning to this old place, Gu Su had things he absolutely had to do. Numerous loose ends needed to be tied up here.

At the very least, he first had to retrieve everything he had left in his rented room. Hidden among those unremarkable odds and ends were the traces of his three-year struggle at the bottom, the only marks of his past now that he had been reborn.

He also had a score to settle with that crooked merchant.

’Did he really think I died in the game and wouldn’t come looking for him?’

A trace of cold viciousness rose in Gu Su’s heart.

’How naive.’

He was a transmigrator, a natural-born protagonist, a formal player who now possessed real growth potential. He was no longer the Game Worker from before, who was at everyone’s mercy and could barely scrape by.

Sitting by the window, Gu Su lowered his gaze, and the vicious glint that flashed in his eyes vanished in an instant.

But none of the other players in the car noticed anything unusual about him, and no one approached him to talk.

After all, in this city, everyone was a player. The only distinction between them was whether they could level up and had opportunities for growth, or whether they couldn’t and were relegated to the bottom. There was no room for warmth.

Here, every player struggled to survive in the Game World. To raise their Level, acquire Resources, and stay alive, whose hands weren’t stained with monster blood?

Who hadn’t experienced a life-or-death situation?

The viciousness and gloom in Gu Su’s eyes were just the normal state for a player who had just escaped a dangerous situation. Most people in this state would find a small roadside bar, order a couple of strong drinks to relax, and be back to normal afterward.

Normally, no one would pay any special attention to a stranger’s mood, let alone meddle in their business.

Everyone had their own livelihood to worry about; they could barely look after themselves. No one had the spare energy to care about the life, death, or state of mind of others.

The green train sped along the tracks, stations flashing by one after another as announcements rose and fell.

After about an hour and a half, Gu Su finally heard the familiar yet distant station announcement. A mechanical voice echoed through the car, "Next stop: DT-319 District, Night Ghost Market station. Players who need to disembark, please prepare. The doors will be opening shortly."

Gu Su immediately sat up straight and focused his mind, not daring to delay for a second.

He remembered clearly that to strictly ensure on-time departures and arrivals and not disrupt the travel rhythm of hundreds of millions of players, the public trains on the Ring Moon had their stop times at each station strictly controlled to under one minute. They wouldn’t linger for even a second longer.

Furthermore, the train’s boarding and alighting doors were separate and did not interfere with each other. This was to maximize efficiency, prevent congestion, and ensure every player who needed to get on or off could do so smoothly within that brief one-minute window.

The moment the announcement ended, the train slowly decelerated and came to a steady stop at the Night Ghost Market platform. The doors opened with a chime.

Without the slightest hesitation, Gu Su stood up and rushed out. His movements were swift and decisive, afraid that if he were a step too slow, he would be trapped inside, miss this train, and have to wait a long time for the next one.

Compared to the eerie coldness of Ghost Valley and the unfamiliar alienation of Endless Ghost Wall, the Night Ghost Market, where he had lived for over three years, was a place Gu Su knew to his very bones.

The Night Ghost Market was located in an inner region of the Ring Moon, on the side that faced the Moon.

This was a land of eternal gloom. Sunlight could never penetrate the thick city structure above to shine on any corner of this area.

Normally, illumination came entirely from the streetlights lining the roads. These lights emitted a faint, ghostly Blue glow that made the streets flicker between light and dark. It was for this very reason that the area earned its "night-walking" moniker.

Regardless of day or night, this place was always dim, as if trapped in a perpetual midnight.

And because there was no natural light to begin with, there were no concerns about buildings blocking light or needing access to it. All the structures extended as far as possible into the available space, built in an extremely compact and dense manner.

From a distance, the densely packed small homes were stacked together. Uniform and narrow, they looked like neatly arranged capsules, squeezed tightly together to occupy the entire area, exuding an air of oppression and confinement.

Back when Gu Su first started renting here, looking at these small, cramped capsule homes where it was difficult to even turn around, he had complained to himself more than once. ’This isn’t a place for people to live; it’s clearly a temporary cage.’

But ever since he acquired the Graveyard Demon and witnessed firsthand how he could forcefully cram one hundred and fifty Skeleton soldiers into a single large Gravepile, Gu Su had come to terms with the capsule homes.

Compared to the conditions inside the Graveyard Demon, these capsule homes, though small, were relatively tidy and could actually be considered quite good living quarters. At the very least, they provided shelter from the elements and a relatively private place to stay.

After smoothly exiting the Night Ghost Market train station, Gu Su expertly weaved through the labyrinth of narrow streets and alleys, dodging the players rushing by. After a few turns, he quickly arrived in front of the capsule building he once rented.

He raised his hand, about to push open the familiar, dilapidated door, when a somewhat familiar voice suddenly called out from behind him, tinged with excitement and urgency.

"Gu Su? It really is you!

Where have you been the last few days? I couldn’t find a trace of you!

Let me tell you, a couple of days ago over at Mine 3319, someone dug up some green raw ore. It’ll sell for a good price..."