Chapter 139 - 138: A Speechless Operation

Chapter 139: Chapter 138: A Speechless Operation

"All players? You might as well have just called me out by name."

Listening to the hoarse, mechanical voice from the broadcast, Gu Su couldn’t help but mutter, his tone tinged with resignation.

Grumbling aside, he didn’t dare delay the summons. He turned, walked out of the Graveyard Demon, and hurried toward the recruitment point northwest of the Sunset Plain.

However, Gu Su never expected that the Sunset Plain, which didn’t look all that vast, would turn out to be so much larger than he’d anticipated.

The black ash crunched under his feet. Along the way, there was no sign of life, only scattered discarded parts and rusted Metal. In the distance, the smokestack of a Mobile Castle was still puffing out faint black smoke.

Gu Su walked quickly for a full half-hour, fine beads of sweat forming on his temples, before he finally spotted the Sunset Plain Management Office. He was secretly glad he hadn’t slowed his pace.

The management office before him was, bizarrely, a twenty-five-story high-rise that had been laid flat on its side. The sight was so unsettling it sent a chill down his spine, a stark contrast to the surrounding wasteland.

The building’s original exterior walls and windows had been completely demolished, leaving only a bare reinforced concrete frame. It looked like a giant, exposed skeleton, sprawled menacingly across the ground.

To reinforce its Defense, the gaps in the frame had been densely packed with thick iron sheets and sandbags full of black ash. The perimeter was piled high with wrecked cars and dilapidated shipping containers. The car bodies were riddled with rust and their glass had long been shattered. Some of the containers were even covered in claw marks of varying depths, as if they had been gnawed on by a Giant Beast.

Even stranger, a bizarre odor permeated the air in and around the building—a mixture of rust, rot, and a faint Yin Qi. Inhaling it sent a chill through the body, making even breathing feel somewhat constricted.

Fine black ash and a wispy white mist floated in the air. The mist drifted slowly between the steel beams of the frame, obscuring one’s vision and adding to the sinister, eerie atmosphere.

Large numbers of Undead moved about within the toppled building, their figures appearing and disappearing in the mist. There was no chaotic noise, only the CLANG of footsteps on iron sheets, the GRIND of rubbing bones, and the occasional low roar of an Undead, which echoed through the empty frame, sounding particularly jarring.

With just a glance from a distance, Gu Su discovered that the variety of Undead here was far beyond what he had imagined.

There were Skeleton soldiers with exposed bone, wielding Long Spears; Walking Dead with festering skin, who shambled along unsteadily; and other bizarre Undead with twisted bodies and obscured features.

He even spotted a Bone Dragon on the steel frame at the building’s highest point, its body pieced together entirely from white bone. An eerie, Blue flame flickered in its eye sockets as it gently swayed its enormous tail, its cold gaze sweeping over the area below, exuding a heart-stopping sense of oppression.

Seeing this, Gu Su nodded to himself.

’Looks like this really is a territory for all kinds of Undead. With so many different types gathered here, their collective strength can’t be underestimated.’

’I definitely made the right choice coming to the DT-501 District.’

The moment he stepped into the bizarre building, Gu Su immediately heard an emotionless, mechanical voice. It came from the mist deep within, echoing clearly in his ears without any inflection: "Follow the Skeleton ahead to the center of the maze."

’A maze?’

’Are they talking about this toppled building? It’s supposed to be a management office, so how did it turn into a maze?’

Gu Su looked around. The crisscrossing steel frame, along with haphazardly stacked iron sheets and shipping containers, formed a series of narrow, winding passages. It really did resemble a giant maze, where one could easily lose their way if they weren’t careful.

Although Gu Su was full of questions, he didn’t voice any of them.

In this bizarre Game World, anything unusual was possible.

He glanced at the Skeleton that had slowly emerged from the mist. It had a slender frame, and a faint, ghostly light flickered in its eye sockets. It stood perfectly still, waiting for him to follow.

Gu Su no longer hesitated. He stepped forward and followed, treading lightly and warily observing his surroundings, afraid of any unexpected trouble.

After a few minutes of walking along the narrow, winding passages, through layers of mist and past crisscrossing steel beams, Gu Su soon arrived at a large hall inside the building.

The hall had been created by knocking through several of the building’s original floors. Exposed steel beams ran overhead, from which hung a few old light bulbs. The dim, flickering light cast long, distorted shadows of the figures within the hall.

Inside the hall sat several players, all dressed differently. Some wore heavy hazmat suits covered in black ash and bloodstains. Others wore simple tactical gear with weapons at their waists. A few were even in ordinary casual clothes, their faces etched with a mixture of exhaustion and wariness.

A quick glance was all it took for Gu Su to determine that they were all official players. After all, they exuded a kind of confidence that Game Workers simply didn’t have.

When Gu Su walked in, the other players’ gazes instantly snapped toward him, filled with a mix of scrutiny and curiosity.

One of the players, a man who looked to be in his thirties with a faint scar on his face, broke the silence. His tone was casual, yet probing, as he asked, "New here? Mobile or stationary?"

Huh?

Gu Su froze for a moment, not immediately understanding the question. After a two-second pause, he realized the man was likely asking about his city type and quickly replied, "Mobile City."

"Oh? So you’re a proper player, then?" Hearing the two words "Mobile City," a flash of surprise crossed the scar-faced player’s eyes, and his tone shifted.

At that, the gazes from the other players also shifted. Their initial scrutiny and curiosity were now mixed with a degree of approval and a faint, almost imperceptible hint of surprise.

"So he’s not one of those here just to leech some credit."

Another player, a slim man leaning against the cold iron wall, muttered, his tone carrying a hint of complex emotion.

As soon as Gu Su heard that, he knew there was more to the story. It seemed the conscription in the DT-501 District wasn’t as straightforward as the broadcast had suggested.

So he took a seat, looked at the other players, and asked calmly, "So, what’s the deal? Is there something I should know? Might as well fill me in."

The scar-faced player smiled and began to explain slowly.

"It’s nothing too complicated. As you know, a beast tide is coming soon, and we’re severely short-handed here.

"Most of the veteran players have their own fixed docking points and territories, so they won’t come over to provide support.

"New players don’t know the situation in the DT-501 District, and the game’s teleportation points don’t usually send people directly here, so manpower has always been tight."

He paused, then continued, "And now, with a beast tide on the way, the manpower shortage is just too big. So, the boss of the DT-501 District decided to give all the civilian players a chance to become official players. As long as they’re willing to come, they can apply for a ’Gamble Car’ and participate in the beast tide Defense."

’Gamble Car?’

Hearing those two words, Gu Su was clearly taken aback. An image instantly flashed in his mind: the pickups and vans he had seen at the stop, the ones retrofitted with all sorts of weapons and thick iron plates.

’Those crude, beat-up vehicles... they couldn’t be the so-called "Gamble Cars," could they?’

"That’s right. The Gamble Cars." The scar-faced player nodded, having read Gu Su’s mind.

"To put it bluntly, you’re gambling with your life. Players drive those junkers to the front lines to face the beast tide. As long as they can survive the slaughter and upgrade their car bit by bit, they can use the car as their Golden Finger. That’s how they officially take the step to becoming a real player, instead of just a Game Worker."

He pointed in the direction outside the building and asked, "As for those bigger-looking Mobile Castles, you saw those, right?"

"I saw them." Gu Su nodded, growing even more curious about how those impressive-looking Mobile Castles were different from the Gamble Cars.

"That’s about connections," the player said, winking. His tone was full of meaning.

"You know how it is. Maneuvering through a beast tide in a fully-armed Mobile Castle is a whole lot easier than trying to survive in some beat-up pickup truck or van, right?

"The ones who can get a Mobile Castle either have a powerful faction backing them or have connections to the higher-ups in the DT-501 District. They’re not something your average civilian player could ever hope to get their hands on."