Recap
When Xia Jing regained consciousness, he was already standing in the aisle of a brightly lit train carriage.
Among the players who had entered the instance earlier and were waiting, some were attracted by his appearance and looked at him strangely.
Some were vigilantly observing the inside of the carriage and the outside.
Some were communicating loudly to relieve their tension.
Xia Jing calmly counted, there were already five people in his sight.
He turned around again.
In the other half of the carriage behind him, two girls were sitting by the window, and one of them, facing him, was looking at him.
Diagonally opposite them, a handsome man with fair skin was standing by the window, looking out.
Noticing his gaze, the man turned his eyes and paused.
Song Yang: “…………”
The style of this face was somewhat familiar.
After their eyes met, there were three seconds of awkward silence in the air.
Song Yang entered the instance alone this time.
Jia Qing’s current level wasn’t enough to challenge three-star instances, so usually Song Yang and Feng Shi took turns taking him to gain experience.
It just happened to be Feng Shi’s “shift” today, so Song Yang chose a three-star instance to enter by himself.
Unexpectedly—
He slowly narrowed his eyes and straightened his body.
But before he could speak, the last two players also appeared in the carriage aisle at this time, looking like a couple.
The eleven players were assembled, and the bright spring sky outside the train suddenly darkened, instantly turning into a pitch-black night.
The train made a loud ringing sound and started with a rumble.
Everyone took a wary stance.
The instance officially began!
Xia Jing turned back around, pretending not to see Song Yang’s reaction, but a hint of amusement had already appeared in his eyes.
He didn’t expect their “next time we meet” to come so soon.
The train’s broadcast sounded at this time, a polite male voice.
“Ding dong!”
“Hello everyone, welcome to Smiley City DEAD No. 666 train, I am the conductor of this train, please call me Ah Huo.”
“This train departs from the human world to hell, the estimated travel time is 12 hours, the total length of the journey is 1800 kilometers, the number of stops is unknown, and how many times each stop will be passed is also unknown. Water and food are not provided on the train, please solve this by yourselves. But please don’t walk around the carriages to avoid accidents.”
“I hope all passengers enjoy this journey,” the male voice paused, then laughed strangely, and slowly uttered four ominous words, “Get off when it’s time.”
After the broadcast, the expressions of all the players immediately changed.
The couple who last logged into the instance looked at each other and said in surprise, “12 hours?”
A sneaky-looking man jumped up and said gloomily, “What does this mean? This instance only gives us 12 hours to clear it?!”
Behind Xia Jing, one of the two girls sitting by the window had her hair permed into wool curls and had a cute and sweet appearance.
She was obviously panicked, “Even the stingiest instance would give at least three days, right?”
The adjective “stingy” made everyone choke.
Seeing that the train had already started moving forward, and they were about to face the unknown, but they were like a plate of loose sand. A man in a suit, who looked to be about forty years old, coughed lightly to attract everyone’s attention.
He said elegantly, “Time is tight, let’s keep it short. The few of us who arrived earlier have already met each other, but three new partners have arrived. In order to facilitate cooperation later, let’s quickly introduce ourselves again. My name is An Ruming, I’ve been wandering between one-star and two-star instances before, and today is my first time trying a three-star instance, please take care of me.”
Three high school boys in school uniforms were huddled in a corner at the front of the carriage.
A thin boy sat timidly.
The other two boys, one tall and one strong, were surrounding the former, and it was unknown what they were doing before.
An Ruming introduced, “Those three children over there, the two standing are Ma Qiu and Cheng Jiayu.”
The tall boy, Ma Qiu, glanced at Xia Jing and the others absentmindedly.
The strong boy, Cheng Jiayu, looked very nervous, with a somewhat fierce face. He suddenly grinned and lifted the thin boy from the seat. His rough action caused several people to frown.
The thin boy didn’t dare to resist at all, always shrinking his neck and letting Cheng Jiayu play with him.
Cheng Jiayu hooked his neck, as if to vent his nervousness, and said with a痞痞smile, “This kid is called Wang Zhi, the three new brothers and sisters can also call him Prince. He’s very powerful, he won’t die no matter what you do to him. If there’s anything dangerous, you can ask him to do it, don’t be polite!”
Wang Zhi’s hands hanging by his sides clenched into fists, his face tense, but he didn’t dare to say anything.
Several adults saw this, some dismissed it, some frowned, but due to the special circumstances, they didn’t have time to educate the children.
An Ruming directly changed the subject and said, “The handsome guy standing at the back is called Song Yang.”
This group of players didn’t seem to react to the name Song Yang.
When mentioning him, An Ruming’s expression was normal.
And at this point, the two girls diagonally opposite Song Yang stood up on their own initiative. Wool Curls nodded to everyone and said a little reservedly, “My name is Fei Shengxiao, hello.”
She was quite tall among women, visually estimated to be about 1.75 meters.
Her companion next to her had a very glamorous appearance and was as tall as her.
Both of them looked like models, but this companion had her long hair tied up and looked very capable, “My name is Li Mian.”
Finally, the sneaky-looking man said, “My name is Ye Xiang.”
After the players who logged into the instance earlier finished introducing themselves, it was the three newcomers’ turn.
The husband in the couple was relatively short, but his muscles looked very strong, and his expression was relatively calm. He said politely, “My name is Sha Yu, and my wife is Yang Leliu.”
Finally, everyone’s eyes uniformly focused on Xia Jing—
His face was too “dazzling” to be ignored.
Xia Jing also felt a certain gaze from behind him.
That gaze subtly landed on the back of his neck.
Xia Jing slowly curved his eyes and said with a smile, “My name is… Dong Jing.”
An Ruming was stunned for a moment and subconsciously asked, “Dong? Which Dong?”
After he asked, Song Yang said lazily, “And which Jing is Jing?”
Xia Jing lowered his eyes and chuckled softly.
This time, his voice had a nasal tone, and it sounded inexplicably sticky.
Xia Jing tilted his head and said with a smile, “Dong is the Dong in winter, and Jing is the Jing in scenery.”
After he finished speaking, an ambiguous chuckle came from behind him.
An Ruming reacted at this moment, “Dong Jing” was probably a fake name.
There were many people who used fake names in instance games. Some were indeed high-ranking big shots, and some were self-righteous small fries.
He didn’t know which one this one was.
After everyone finished introducing themselves, An Ruming said, “Just now, before the game started, all the doors couldn’t be opened, and we didn’t have a chance to check the entire map. Now every door should be able to be opened, let’s split up and check the entire train as soon as possible, how about it?”
The others had no objections. Ye Xiang said darkly, “But the broadcast just reminded us not to walk between carriages.”
“There’s no instance that can be cleared without exploring the entire map,” Song Yang withdrew his attention from Xia Jing and said calmly, “I’ll go check the back.”
After saying that, he took the lead and walked towards the next carriage.
With Song Yang taking the lead, the others looked at each other and quickly took action.
Ye Xiang curled his lips.
…
Xia Jing put his hands in his trouser pockets.
He arrived relatively late and hadn’t had time to observe the carriage they were in, so he didn’t rush to the back with Song Yang, but looked around first.
Xia Jing had never set foot in the real world.
But judging from the reactions of other players, the carriages of this train shouldn’t be too different from real trains.
There was an aisle in the middle, with two seats next to each other on both sides.
The train’s windows were quite large, and the scenery outside could be clearly seen.
At this time, the train was traveling on a wilderness, and there was nothing but dark rolling mountains in the distance.
And also…
Xia Jing stopped and looked up.
Inside the carriage, two square metal pipes were hanging on the ceiling on both sides.
The existence of these two pipes was very abrupt.
The silver-white metal pipes themselves were very thick, a bit like exhaust pipes.
However, these two pipes extended from the driver’s cab and connected all the way to the carriages at the back. In addition, the broadcast had just said that food and drinks were not provided on the train, so the option of “exhaust pipes” was absolutely impossible.
Then what was the function of these two pipes?
Xia Jing looked towards the driver’s cab at the very front.
Three high school students were huddled outside the driver’s cab, peeking inside through the small window on the door.
Obviously, the conductor also appeared after the instance started.
The three high school students were surprised.
The strong boy, Cheng Jiayu, said with a surprised laugh, “The conductor speaks Chinese, but his hair is actually golden, is he a foreigner? This setting is a bit messy.”
The tall boy, Ma Qiu, was startled by what was inside, “Why is he smiling at us!”
Cheng Jiayu swallowed, trying to pretend not to be afraid, and said with a chuckle, “He’s greeting you, maybe he’s the monster and has already targeted you, hahahaha!”
Ma Qiu scolded, “Stop your crow’s mouth!”*
*(it means that when they open their mouth, what they say will come true (usually unlucky events))
Xia Jing’s gaze passed through the small window and landed on the vaguely visible face of a foreigner in the driver’s cab.
The conductor, “Ah Huo”, was a very handsome foreigner. Noticing him, he winked.
Xia Jing calmly withdrew his gaze and turned to walk towards the back.
The door connecting the second carriage had been successfully opened.
The couple, the pair of girls, and Song Yang were all gathered here.
At this moment, their expressions were a bit strange.
Xia Jing glanced at the carriage behind him and raised his eyebrows.
The carriage behind him was dimly lit.
There were no windows, no seats, only the square pipes extending from the driver’s cab and the first carriage.
—They were winding and twisting, occupying most of the carriage space, as if forming a three-dimensional maze here, somewhat spectacular.
The wife of the couple, Yang Leliu, said in shock, “What, what is this? What are these pipes for?”
The husband, Sha Yu, slowly scanned the pipes with his eyes and shook his head, “I don’t know.”
The glamorous beauty, Li Mian, fixed her gaze and said, “Look, there’s another door at the back of this carriage.”
—So there was a third carriage?
How long was this train?
If it was really as long as a real train, then finding clues would become a very laborious task.
Song Yang was the first to step forward and walk inside.
Li Mian was obviously a girl who liked to take the initiative in instances.
Without waiting for others to react, she decisively took out a dagger from her spatial bag and whispered to the worried Fei Shengxiao, “Shengxiao, you stand here and don’t move, I’ll be back soon.”
After saying that, she followed Song Yang and walked in.
Two people had already set off to investigate, so the others stayed outside to avoid causing chaos.
They paid attention to the surroundings for the two, ready to warn them of any danger at any time.
It was a difficult task to pass through those twisted square pipes.
Song Yang and Li Mian were like agents crossing X-rays in a blockbuster movie, jumping and climbing for a while, crawling for a while, and for caution’s sake, they had to be light-footed.
It took several minutes to finally reach the end of this carriage, and by then they had already broken out in a thin layer of sweat.
Song Yang also took out a dagger and held it in his hand.
Xia Jing stood at this end of the carriage, staring at the man as he put his hand on the handle of the sliding door, and exchanged glances with Li Mian—after confirming the timing, he abruptly pulled the door open.
Everyone was stunned.
The strong night wind gushed in, puffing up everyone’s clothes.
—Behind the door wasn’t a third carriage, but a small open platform at the tail of the train.
Unexpectedly, the length of the train ended here.
Song Yang walked out and looked around, then turned around and looked up.
Soon, he said to the people guarding outside the door, “There’s nothing else here, only a ladder that can climb to the roof of the train.”
Sha Yu and Yang Leliu were obviously relieved.
It was good that there was nothing else.
This way, they only needed to focus on the two carriages.
Song Yang and Li Mian carefully confirmed the situation of the platform at the back again before closing the door and walking back.
Li Mian trusted her intuition more. When she first saw Song Yang, she could feel that this man wasn’t simple and should be someone she could cooperate with.
So on the way back, she thought for a moment and said in a low voice, “In this case, the most suspicious person at the moment is the conductor? After all, he’s the only living thing on the train.”
They just happened to walk to the most twisted area of the pipes.
Song Yang leaned down and replied, “Yes, but the conductor is too obvious a target, don’t forget that the main monster may not necessarily be disguised as a human.”
However, there were so few elements on this train. If the monster was disguised as an object, what could it be?
Li Mian was thinking, standing up—
The next second, Yang Leliu’s expression suddenly changed, and she shouted in a low voice, “Wait! There’s something in the square pipe!”
Song Yang and Li Mian froze. The others hadn’t reacted yet, only Sha Yu quickly took out his knife from the spatial bag, pulled Yang Leliu behind him, and stared at the pipes with vigilance.
Noticing the commotion here, Ye Xiang, An Ruming, and the three high school students hurriedly came over and asked nervously, “What’s wrong, what happened?”
Everyone’s eyes were focused on Yang Leliu and Sha Yu.
Sha Yu’s voice was tense, “…Leliu has very good hearing. As long as she concentrates, she can hear ‘non-human voices’ that ordinary people can hardly hear.”
Xia Jing’s eyes flickered, and he glanced at Yang Leliu.
Many people’s eyes on Yang Leliu also changed.
—Was she a superhuman?
Recalling her reminder just now, An Ruming hurriedly stretched out his hand and said, “Mr. Song, Miss Li, you, you stop there and don’t move.”
As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere suddenly became stiff.
This seemed to be for Song Yang and Li Mian’s good, afraid that they would continue to attract the monster’s attention, but wasn’t it also because he was afraid that if they moved again, they would attract the monster to their side?
At this moment, An Ruming and the others looked at Song Yang and Li Mian as if they were looking at poor creatures already in the monster’s mouth, full of pity and fear.
However, Song Yang and Li Mian had already stopped long before An Ruming spoke.
But unlike the nervousness of some people outside, the two surrounded by the winding pipes were still relatively calm.
Li Mian carefully observed above her and listened attentively.
Song Yang calmly asked Yang Leliu, “What did you hear?”
Yang Leliu closed her eyes, her delicate brows furrowed tightly. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and shook her head, “It’s gone now, but I just heard… right where you are, something was moving in the pipe, rustling!”
What could be moving in the pipe besides a monster!
An Ruming, Ye Xiang, and the three high school students each took a step back and were about to speak—
Xia Jing tilted his head and said, “Cut a hole and see?”
If they directly cut the pipe and there was nothing inside, then the player would very likely be locked in the little black room for “maliciously destroying the instance environment”.
Cutting a hole first to check the situation was a safer approach.
But An Ruming’s expression changed drastically when he heard this, “What are you talking about, there might be a monster inside, we should close this door now—”
“—Close it, and then what?” Fei Shengxiao looked well-behaved, but she was the first one to explode after hearing this.
“Feed Mianmian and that handsome guy to the monster together? Uncle, have you forgotten how we can clear the instance? It’s to kill the monster, not to feed the monster! And this pipe is connected to the first carriage, you think you’ll be safe after closing the door here?”
Fei Shengxiao’s unceremonious retort made An Ruming’s face turn blue and red.
Fei Shengxiao rolled up her sleeves and said, “Mianmian, wait for me, I’ll come in and help you—”
Li Mian stopped her, “Don’t come over!”
For players who lingered in one-star instances, killing monsters was the biggest difficulty they faced.
But for players in instances above two-star, killing monsters was already the simplest task.
If they could really face the main monster of the instance directly at this time, then today could even be considered a lucky day.
The question was, could they have such good luck?
Song Yang said, “Just in case, you should still step back a little.”
An Ruming, Ye Xiang, and the three high school students hurriedly took three steps back as he said. However, Xia Jing, the couple, and Fei Shengxiao didn’t retreat a single step.
This difference made An Ruming and the others feel a little embarrassed.
Song Yang glanced at Xia Jing outside the door.
The latter was staring straight at them, his eyes fully showing his eagerness. He probably couldn’t move again after hearing that there was a monster.
Song Yang laughed.
Dong Jing?
Heh.
He might as well call himself Chun Jing, Qiu Jing.*
*(The Xia 夏 in Xia Jing means summer, Dong 冬 in Dong Jing means winter, Chun 春 means spring and 秋 means autumn.
In fact, the name Xia Jing 夏景 can directly translate to summer scenery.)
Song Yang replaced the dagger with an axe, his expression serious, a cold light flashing in his eyes, and swung his arm forcefully.
In an instant, the axe was deeply embedded in the pipe!
An unbearable stench quickly spread.
“Ugh—”
The three high school students were the first to vomit.
___
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Update: Monday, Wednesday, Friday
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