Players, Please Board the Train-Chapter 266: The Toe-Stepping Game

After landing a light tap with her foot, she performed a backflip to create distance from Uncle Bear, grinning playfully as she said, "Come and catch me if you can!"
The bear let out an "Oww!" roar and slammed the ground, causing the jelly-like floor to violently shake and making all the furnishings in the room sway back and forth. It grabbed a nearby chair and hurled it at Yan Jiayu, then when she dodged, it blocked her path and extended its sharp claws!
Yan Jiayu remained unflustered. She calmly avoided the first attack and summoned her stone staff to strike the bear's paw!
While this blow wasn't enough to cause serious injury to the bear, it was certainly painful enough to make it withdraw its paw and shake it vigorously. Then it stomped heavily on the ground several times.
The floor shook even more violently this time—so much that not only humans, but even the bear itself was rocking back and forth from the undulations.
"Be careful, the floor is changing color," Xu Huo warned Yan Jiayu as he jumped onto a display cabinet.
Yan Jiayu had been about to land on the floor, but hearing his words, she quickly changed direction and leaped toward an overturned chair instead. However, Uncle Bear swiped at her from behind, forcing her to dodge sideways and unavoidably land on the ground.
The moment her feet touched down, she immediately sensed something wrong. While the jelly-like bounce of the floor remained, a layer of gelatinous, sticky substance now coated the surface. When she tried to lift her foot, it pulled up stringy filaments that perfectly matched her shoe's outline. She struggled to step back, but the more she moved, the tighter her feet stuck. After just a few steps, she could barely lift her feet at all!
Meanwhile, the bear laughed uproariously as it charged toward her, raising its face-sized paw to stomp on her feet!
"Lift your foot!" Xu Huo's voice came from the side. Without a second thought, Yan Jiayu yanked her right foot upward. As the malt candy-shaped filaments around her foot were severed, she used the momentum to kick away the bear's paw and scrambled onto a nearby chair, while the filaments around her left foot were also cut.
"You're cheating! Cheating!" the bear roared in fury.
"You only said one person needs to land three steps, you never said others can't help," Yan Jiayu retorted. "There's still one step left before it's my turn to step on you, hurry up!"
Enraged, the bear flipped over the chair, but Yan Jiayu had already torn off the leather stuck to her feet and hopped onto the coffee counter in one leap.
Failing in its attack made the bear even more frenzied. It chased Yan Jiayu around, overturning everything in the room that could be flipped, even scratching deep marks all over the walls.
Yan Jiayu bounced around everywhere to evade it, with no time to tear off the leather still connected to her feet. Hopping frantically around the room, she shouted to Xu Huo, "Cut me free with your sword again!"
"Just take off your shoes," Xu Huo responded. Of course he wanted to help, but he couldn't find the right opportunity.
"It's not that I don't want to—the laces are tied too tight!" Yan Jiayu pulled up her pant leg, revealing that her shoes were actually secured with cloth straps tightly wrapped around her calves, while the external laces were merely decorative.
His dignity seemingly offended, Uncle Bear now targeted Xu Huo too, scooping up chunks of the jelly floor and hurling them at both of them.
Xu Huo dodged the jelly and ran toward Yan Jiayu's position, casually scattering some candy on the ground along the way. As the bear's attention was caught by the colorful candy wrappers falling to the floor, he swept away the leather stuck to Yan Jiayu's feet. They exchanged a glance, and he gave her a push from behind.
Yan Jiayu leaped through the air, landing perfectly on the bear's paw as it turned around.
"Three times—I win!" she cheered triumphantly. However, Uncle Bear responded with a furious downward slash of its claw.
"Hey, you're being a sore loser," Yan Jiayu said, bending backward to avoid the attack before executing a sideways flip onto nearby broken wood. Gripping her stone staff tightly, she complained indignantly, "How can you cheat at games!"
The bear couldn't care less and prepared to attack again, but at that moment Xu Huo produced a jar of candy and said, "You should follow the game rules. Since you've already lost, there's no point continuing to fight. How about we both peacefully accept this outcome?"
The bear's eyes followed the candy jar for a moment, and its expression softened slightly. But the next second, it put on a fierce face again, walked over, grabbed two small hats, and tossed them to Xu Huo. "Alright, alright, you can go now. I'm off duty."
Xu Huo nodded to Yan Jiayu, set down the candy jar, and climbed out through the window of the small cabin.
Yan Jiayu landed behind him and couldn't help glancing back at the small building. "I actually thought it didn't like candy."
Xu Huo simply smiled. "This bear is just like the rabbit."
Yan Jiayu didn't quite understand, but Xu Huo didn't elaborate further. Instead, he asked her, "Are you injured on your foot?"
Yan Jiayu looked somewhat embarrassed. "When I kicked the bear earlier, I broke my toe."
"But it's nothing serious—I can still walk and run fine. I used to get injured often growing up. My master always said 'no pain, no gain,' so it'll heal fine after resting for a couple days."
After using the S-grade perfect evolution agent, Xu Huo's physical strength had undergone comprehensive development. His speed and stamina were superior to other players at the same 20% evolution rate. Combined with his "Tireless Legs" characteristic, which minimized stamina limitations on his speed, he could accelerate and run without issue. Yet Yan Jiayu had been able to keep up with him—this likely wasn't solely due to evolution but also related to her previous training.
Yan Jiayu had probably systematically studied martial arts, evident from her running and fighting style.
"Being injured will always hinder movement," he said, glancing at her. "There's a campground set up by the amusement park nearby. Let's stay there tonight and head to the third game point tomorrow."
Yan Jiayu didn't dwell on it further anyway, it would be difficult to move around after dark.
Though it was past four o'clock, the sky in the amusement park remained bright. They weren't in a hurry, so they walked slowly along the route.
Along the way, they encountered the two players who had wanted to team up with them outside the Mirror Tent.
The moment the male player saw Yan Jiayu, he put on a professional smile. "We meet again. Are you heading to the third game point?"
"We just came from there—the third game point is already closed. You'd be making a pointless trip if you go now. How about staying in a mountain cabin tonight instead?"
He pointed toward a fork in the road and added, "It's safer here compared to the campsites other players set up themselves, though the price is a bit steep. Of course, you two don't seem short on money."
Yan Jiayu stared at him for a long while, until his smile became somewhat strained, before saying, "Sir, have you had plastic surgery?"
The male player's face instantly fell. The female player holding his arm snorted coldly. "Ingrates. I told you there's no need to bother with these people. It's not like we can't clear the game ourselves."
The male player remained silent with a cold expression but didn't leave.
Yan Jiayu sighed. "My master said people who smile without sincerity have either had plastic surgery or have ill intentions. Which one are you?"
Both their expressions shifted slightly. The female player immediately said, "Fine, if you won't accept our kindness, let's go!"
"Don't go just yet," Yan Jiayu said, raising her stone staff. "I can smell blood on your breath."