This was what Mu Sicheng had said to Bai Liu before entering the game. Now Bai Liu returned the exact same words to him.
Mu Sicheng was silent for a long time before cursing darkly. He could fucking do this too?! This guy had actually been on that train!
After a moment of silence, Mu Sicheng let out a low chuckle and opened his point wallet. "How many points do you want for the information you have? If it's less than 300 points, I can consider buying it."
He was clearly indicating that he was willing to pay for Bai Liu's information.
Mu Sicheng had watched Bai Liu's previous games. He knew about Bai Liu's love for money. This guy would never refuse points delivered to his doorstep, nor would he waste an opportunity to earn them.
Bai Liu had survived the real-life explosion. In a game where nothing was known, information from someone who had lived through the event was extremely valuable—especially to Mu Sicheng, who had entered in a hurry without preparation. He wouldn't refuse something that could increase his chances of clearing the instance.
"You can give however many points you like." Bai Liu slipped a hand into his jacket pocket, brushing against his old wallet. His smile grew more sincere. "Mu Sicheng, there's something else I want to discuss. I'll share the game's settings and the information I know. In return, you help me when necessary. A mutually beneficial cooperation. What do you think?"
Mu Sicheng looked him up and down. Bai Liu's expression was unusually earnest.
"Cooperate with you?" Mu Sicheng raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms as a faintly mocking smile appeared. "So you're giving me the information for free?"
"It can't be completely free, right?" Bai Liu sighed as if being magnanimous. "You're such a wealthy player. Getting information for nothing would be a bit shameless. Just give me one or two hundred points as a symbolic gesture."
Mu Sicheng's smile turned vicious. "One or two hundred? You're thinking beautifully. You want a high-level player like me to cooperate with you, and I still have to pay 100 or 200 points for information whose value I can't even verify? Keep dreaming! I haven't even calculated the 2,000-point item you stole from me yet!"
"…One point is fine too."
"Wait." Mu Sicheng's expression sharpened. "I find it strange that you'd actually seek cooperation in-game. You're not that naive."
He narrowed his eyes. "Do you really think I'd risk myself to save you just because I verbally agreed? You might be a newcomer, but I see you as a competitor. I don't underestimate you. You have plenty of tricks. You might even get in my way. So why seek cooperation? It feels like a setup."
Mu Sicheng studied Bai Liu suspiciously. Cooperation between ordinary players inside a game was nothing but a blank check—completely unenforceable.
What if Mu Sicheng, a Super A-grade player ranked fourth among the Rising Stars, took the information and refused to help afterward? What could Bai Liu possibly do about it?
"There's no setup," Bai Liu replied calmly. "I genuinely want your cooperation."
"This is a high-mortality game. My panel attributes are only F-grade. If I don't seek help from someone like you, it would be easy for me to die."
He paused, then added lightly, "Second, I think we share a common enemy."
"A common enemy?" Mu Sicheng frowned.
"Puppet Master is in this game, too." Bai Liu smiled faintly. "You don't want to deal with a group-control player like him alone, do you?"
Mu Sicheng's expression changed instantly. "How do you know he's here?"
His reaction wasn't exaggerated.
During his early days as a newcomer, Mu Sicheng had suffered terribly at that man's hands. He had developed a deep psychological shadow.
At one point, Puppet Master had wanted Mu Sicheng to become one of his puppets. After repeated recruitment attempts failed, the man didn't give up. Instead, he collaborated with other players to ambush Mu Sicheng again and again inside games. His methods were ruthless, utterly indifferent to Mu Sicheng's life or death.
Each time, Mu Sicheng narrowly escaped. If not for his high-speed movement skill, he would have been captured and turned into a puppet long ago.
Back then, before he had grown strong, Puppet Master had been his natural enemy.
If Bai Liu's playstyle could be described as unconventional, then Puppet Master's was outright malicious.
After repeatedly failing to catch Mu Sicheng, Puppet Master realized that no single player could physically restrain him. So he changed tactics.
With his 93 intelligence points, he devised a new method.
And that time, Mu Sicheng had nearly been captured.
No matter how fast he ran, there were people he wouldn't run from—people he trusted.
As a newcomer, Mu Sicheng had entered games with a friend from the real world. Fighting alone was difficult for beginners, and the two had started around the same time. Because of their real-life connection, their relationship had initially been decent.
Mu Sicheng didn't fully trust him—but he also didn't guard against him carefully.
No one knew what Puppet Master had promised that friend, but eventually the friend joined the Kings Guild and secretly cooperated in a plan to encircle Mu Sicheng.
The friend deliberately lured Mu Sicheng into a specific game. Puppet Master entered beforehand and laid an ambush.
Mu Sicheng had no idea he would face a large-scale assault the moment he logged in.
In that game, his hands were severed. His mental value dropped to 18.
Driven into a berserk state, Mu Sicheng slaughtered every puppet player controlled by Puppet Master before clearing the instance.
When he emerged into the game hall, half his body had undergone alienation. He was drenched in blood, his appearance horrifying, his mind teetering on the edge of madness.
Since then, Mu Sicheng had harbored deep hostility toward in-game "cooperation."
Logically, as the first player to enter this instance, Bai Liu shouldn't know who joined afterward.
So how could he know that Puppet Master was here?
…Unless Bai Liu had arranged in advance to enter the same game.
That thought dragged Mu Sicheng back to the memory of being ambushed.
His expression darkened. A faint red glow flickered in his eyes like a warning signal.
His hand silently transformed into gray-black monkey claws. He hid them behind his back and stared at Bai Liu coldly.
"Bai Liu," he said in a low voice, "give me a reasonable explanation for how you know Puppet Master is here. Otherwise, your game journey might end right now."
Bai Liu calmly opened his game manager and turned it toward him.
On the panel was a glaring red forum post:
[Puppet Master has entered 'Exploding Last Train' and declared he will capture Bai Liu and turn him into a puppet!]
The hostility on Mu Sicheng's face froze. The red glow in his eyes faded considerably.
"How can you open the forum?" he asked in shock. "After entering a game, we're not supposed to be able to access the forum or communicate with the outside world."
"It's my personal skill. I saw on the forum that you once encountered something similar and were pursued to be made into a puppet." Bai Liu didn't elaborate further and simply extended his hand to Mu Sicheng. "In short, we're in the same camp now. Cooperate?"
"Of course, I don't accept free labor. One point will be enough to show your sincerity," Bai Liu added with a smile, as if joking.
Mu Sicheng narrowed his eyes and put a lollipop in his mouth, staring at Bai Liu for a long time. Finally, he took out one point.
With a hypocritical smile, he condescendingly handed the coin to Bai Liu. "Fine. We'll cooperate, share information, and help each other. I'll give you one point to show my sincerity."
Mu Sicheng still remembered how Bai Liu had once used a single point against him, so this time he returned the favor with exactly one point.
Bai Liu grasped the coin, and the smile on his face deepened. "I feel your sincerity."
"My sincerity is that if you cry and beg for help—" Mu Sicheng pulled down the oversized monkey headphones he was wearing and let them hang around his neck. The monkey's sharp, strange voice abruptly stopped. He shoved his hands into his pockets and sneered. "If you cry sincerely, I might reluctantly help you."
Bai Liu smiled in an unreadable way and followed his words. "No problem. I'll cry very sincerely. You'll definitely help me."
At the same time, a system notification sounded in his mind.
[System Tip: Player Bai Liu and Player Mu Sicheng's cooperation transaction has been established.]
[Transaction Content: In the Exploding Last Train game, whenever Player Bai Liu requests help, Player Mu Sicheng must do everything in his power to assist him. If Player Mu Sicheng refuses to cooperate, the system will forcibly enforce cooperation. In return, Player Bai Liu will share all information he knows with Player Mu Sicheng and provide assistance when necessary—fixed assistance in exchange for points compensation.]
Mu Sicheng was about to urge Bai Liu to share all the information he knew when he saw the gentle smile on Bai Liu's face. A chill suddenly ran down his spine.
Why did it feel like he had just been tricked?
As Bai Liu and Mu Sicheng waited for the countdown to end, the game hall and forum had already exploded with activity. The multiplayer game area was packed with spectators who had rushed over to witness the rare sight of so many top players gathering in one place.
"Fuck! It's really the Puppet Master, God Mu, and Xiao Ying! Oh my god, how did those three end up in the same game?!"
"It's rare for top players to run into each other in a match. Usually, they keep an eye on one another and deliberately avoid direct clashes. What happened this time? All three of them are playing? And it's a Level 2 game that no one has ever cleared?!"
"The gods wanted something exciting, but… this is too exciting!"
"Now I don't even know who to watch. I'm a fan of Xiao Ying, but he always wins by lying down. It's not that thrilling. I want something intense. Should I watch God Mu or the Puppet Master?"
"I'm struggling too. I recently started following a newcomer—Bai Liu. He was so handsome in his last match! I recommend watching his stream. The excitement level is no worse than God Mu's or the Puppet Master's!"
"How annoying. Here we go again. This newcomer, Bai Liu, is acting arrogantly everywhere. What can someone who has never played a multiplayer game even do?"
"I just checked his stream. He's actually talking about cooperating with God Mu. How stupid can he be? God Mu hasn't cooperated with anyone since he was backstabbed. Even if he agreed, Bai Liu is probably just being toyed with."
Bai Liu was extremely popular at the moment. His ranking wasn't particularly high, but the discussion surrounding him was intense. His strong solo-clear video had attracted many viewers who admired him.
However, just as many people liked him, others despised him. Many players couldn't accept someone like Bai Liu, who had risen so quickly despite having such poor panel stats. As a result, his reputation among lower-level players was quite bad.