Chapter 816: The Endless Night

The tracks fell silent once more. No one strayed from the group again. No one knew how much time had passed, but when some players recovered their energy, they began to wonder why dawn still hadn't broken.

"It's already eight o'clock in the morning." The others instinctively turned their gazes toward the Train Operations Director.

A staff member explained on his behalf, "Not all spaces follow the rules of day and night."

In other words, some spaces didn't have day and night cycles that followed any regular pattern, and not all spaces even had a distinction between day and night.

"Would staying in darkness for an extended period cause any problems?" the Pink-Haired Female Player asked.

"It's negligible for players."

With the staff member's reassurance, the group's anxieties eased somewhat. Perhaps growing restless from sitting by the tracks, someone suggested, "How about we take a look around nearby?"

"Why?" the Baseball Cap said with a strange look. "Didn't you see those two people die earlier? And you still want to run off far? What's the point?"

"This is right by the tracks, you know. Who knows, there might be materials here that other Game Partitions don't have?" That player said. "Just bring back one or two samples, and they'll definitely fetch a high price!"

Special ores were highly sought after in any partition where the game had progressed even slightly deeper, especially in places near the tracks that ordinary players could never reach. Whether or not they had any research value, plenty of people were willing to buy them for collection.

"Man dies for wealth, birds die for food. Good luck to you all." The Baseball Cap said.

That bald player snorted coldly and continued trying to persuade others, but in the end, only two people among the dozens of players were swayed.

The three of them set off along the tracks together.

"Is there something wrong with the tracks?" the Curly-haired Female Player asked, unable to resist inquiring after seeing the commotion over there.

"There's nothing wrong with the tracks," Xu Huo said. "As long as you don't leave them, it's safe."

It was widely acknowledged that the space near the tracks was complex, with unpredictable dangers that couldn't even be counted. But since the train had to pass through here, the tracks were essentially a safe area. As long as there were no Mutants, staying here was absolutely secure.

"What kind of dangers are out there beyond the tracks?" Yan Jiayu peered into the deep pit below and casually tossed a lollipop down into it.

The pit looked no more than twenty meters deep to the naked eye, but the time it took for the lollipop to fall and the size it appeared to be when it finally landed were completely different from the data their eyes "saw."

"Is there something wrong with my eyes?" the Short-haired Player leaned over to look. "This pit doesn't seem to be the same depth as before."

"Near the tracks, this counts as normal," the elderly man explained. "What the human eye can see directly is very one-sided. This area looks like equally deep pits, but it's also possible that each spot has a different spatial density. Let alone going down to explore, it's best not to even touch it."

At that, he gave Yan Jiayu a pointed look.

Yan Jiayu quickly whipped out an item to take a photo as a keepsake.

"The Old Gentleman means you shouldn't have itchy fingers," the Unlucky-Looking Man couldn't help saying.

"I know," Yan Jiayu nodded, her attitude toward admitting fault very proactive. "I won't do it again."

"It's not that serious," Xu Huo said. "The space near the tracks is relatively stable. The fact that the Dimensional Storm passed and this place wasn't completely destroyed proves that point. However, whether spaces too far beyond the tracks can sustain life is hard to say."

"So we can't do anything for these three days?" the Curly-haired Female Player pulled out a deck of cards. "Since we've got nothing to do anyway, how about we play a game?"

Several nearby male players immediately grew interested and crowded around to ask about the rules. In the end, they picked one game, and the group sat in a circle to start playing.

With more people, there were more ways to play. Xu Huo didn't participate, and the elderly man said he was too old and lacked the energy, so he didn't play either. Surprisingly, the female player who was knitting also joined in.

But since they were playing, there had to be stakes. They wagered food and water.

Some of the other players followed suit and started recruiting others for gambling as well.

Things stayed lively for two hours, until someone suddenly noticed something moving near the edge of the light radius.

The Train Operations Director immediately sent a small flying item over. It turned out to be the Gray Fish - the water area where the Gray Fish lived had shifted to their vicinity.

"The space moved? Are we in danger? Could it move a space with Mutants over here?" Some players began to panic.

"No, this body of water is right next to the tracks. It wasn't affected by the Dimensional Storm?"

"It's a water area, but the pit got filled in!"

As everyone chattered noisily, Xu Huo and the others also stood up and walked forward a short distance. Sure enough, the water area with the Gray Fish that had existed before the storm had appeared within the light radius.

This wasn't a good sign.

The more stable and unchanging a space was, the safer it was for players. The fact that this water area was moving meant other places might be moving too. Moving space was a variable, and variables meant instability.

The train staff clearly shared the same thought. The Train Operations Director turned to the group and said, "Go find those three idiots. Don't let them leave the tracks. If someone gets swallowed by the moving space, that's a small matter. But if it causes a butterfly effect, everyone dies. There's no second train blocking outside now!"

The crowd was both shocked and furious, yet at the same time, they walked forward along the tracks with pounding hearts.

"Didn't you say the area near the tracks was relatively stable?" the Pink-Haired Female Player walked up to the Train Operations Director.

"Perhaps the Dimensional Storm has undergone changes, resulting in this outcome," the Train Operations Director said patiently, also explaining to the others. "Near the tracks, any change is possible. Of course, spatial movement doesn't bring only bad things. Maybe the train tickets will become usable at some point."

The group felt slightly encouraged. The staff member walking ahead turned back and said, "The item hasn't detected any traces of living persons. They've walked quite a considerable distance."

"I thought they were stupid, but I didn't expect them to be THIS stupid," the Baseball Cap said.

Even when going out to find an opportunity to get rich, a normal person wouldn't walk too far. After all, staying with the Train Operations Director was the only way to possibly encounter rescuers. What if they ran too far and missed their chance to leave?

"I'd say they're probably already gone," the Pink-Haired Female Player said. "They definitely wouldn't have walked too far, but they'd also be afraid of others seeing what they found. They'd more likely extend to either side, or maybe they went down into a deep pit from the start."

The space near the tracks was moving. Whether someone who went down could come back was anyone's guess.

They hadn't seen anyone on either side of the tracks the whole way here either.

"Did you see anything?" Yan Jiayu asked Xu Huo.

"No," Xu Huo replied. "If we can't find them, we have no choice but to keep moving forward."

Up ahead, the Train Operations Director also announced they would continue forward, heading in the opposite direction of the spatial movement. At least the front was safe.

The group hurried onward, and after ten continuous hours, some people began to grow restless.