Tan Feng’s face darkened. “We have been played!”

 

Three minutes later, the train arrived at the second stop. Xing Ye changed back into his trendy-guy outfit in the restroom, threw the baseball cap and mask into the train’s trash bin, and walked off the train leisurely in his sequin-covered outfit.

When getting off, the conductor didn’t check tickets. Xing Ye had calculated that this station stopped for five minutes—enough time for him to get off from carriage No. 20 and then re-enter from another carriage.

The moment Xing Ye stepped off the train, the narrator’s voice rang in his mind. But this time it wasn’t the gentle reading voice; instead, it was a shrill scream: “Warning, warning! The player has left the game area. If the player does not return to the game area before the train departs, there will be no winner in this world, and the thirty million points will be reclaimed by the system!”

There was even a double-loss option?

Xing Ye quickly walked to carriage No. 12, picked up his ticket, and boarded. This time, the onboard attendant was not the same person who had checked tickets earlier. Xing Ye handed him the ticket. The attendant said in confusion, “I didn’t see you get off.”

Xing Ye said, “I got off from another carriage earlier.”

The attendant said nothing and returned the ticket. Xing Ye put on his sunglasses and boarded smoothly.

At this moment, the trendy paper-man in carriage No. 12 stood up to go to the restroom. On high-speed trains, unless it was a terminal station or a major stop, restroom doors were usually left open. Xing Ye entered first. When the paper-man arrived, he pulled it inside and completed the steps of putting on earrings, a lip ring, and stick-on rhinestones under the eyes—all within one minute, incredibly fast.

After the swap, the paper-man disappeared. Xing Ye walked out of the restroom, washed his hands, and returned to his seat.

He saw Cao Qian sitting diagonally across from him looking at her phone—she was probably refreshing the location information.

Cao Qian had come to carriage No. 12 on Xing Ye’s signal. She still remembered what Xing Ye looked like in his casual clothes and baseball cap, and had been observing the people in the carriage, waiting for him to return. She noticed that the trendy guy beside her had gotten up to go to the restroom and then came back, but she didn’t pay him any attention, because this person had been sitting in carriage No. 9 the whole time, wearing sunglasses and headphones—he couldn’t possibly be Xing Ye who had been in carriage No. 20.

The trendy guy who had returned to his seat took out a stick of mint gum and started chewing, hoping to mask the previous scent.

His cross-body bag contained plenty of gum. When Xing Ye realized Shao Lin’s teammate had a sharp sense of smell, he immediately handed out all the watermelon-flavoured gum from his pocket, hoping this trick would temporarily fool the enemy.

Even up to departure time, Cao Qian didn’t look at him once. Xing Ye then took out a makeup mirror and flashed a bit of light toward Cao Qian’s eyes.

After being flashed, Cao Qian looked over and saw an outrageously flamboyant trendy guy dressed like a colourful peacock shining a mirror at her. For a moment she froze, then suddenly realized something, and her Loli-like face showed shock.

Even teammates familiar with Xing Ye had worn expressions of disbelief at his outfit. It seemed the trendy-guy disguise could temporarily fool others.

Cao Qian was just about to get up and sit beside Xing Ye when she saw him shake his head. She stayed seated as a man and woman walked past holding their phones.

This pair was walking from the direction of carriage No. 9 toward carriage No. 20—it was Shao Lin and his companion!

When the train arrived at the previous station, the phone location refreshed, and at that time Xing Ye had been in carriage No. 20. The location refreshed every ten minutes, and there were still three minutes left until the next refresh. The two of them examined every person in the carriage. Tan Feng also kept twitching his nose. When he passed Xing Ye, he had no reaction at all and left carriage No. 12 with Shao Lin, heading toward No. 13.

Xing Ye secretly let out a breath of relief—he had won his gamble. Even if Shao Lin’s companion had a powerful sense of smell, in a carriage full of mixed scents, he could only remember distinctive or unusual smells. That was exactly why Xing Ye set his character trait as “chewing gum.” Gum inherently had scent elements, and when Xing Ye defined this character trait, he was already considering the possibility of a player with strong olfactory senses, using this method to confuse them.

He carried four or five different flavours of gum. First he let Shao Lin’s companion remember one of the scents, then switched to a different gum—the chance of fooling him was high.

After they left, Xing Ye finally nodded to Cao Qian. The pink haired girl sat beside him.

The outfits of the two of them were equally eye-catching, making the surrounding passengers even more unwilling to look directly at them.

To prevent “walls have ears”, they didn’t speak— instead, they added each other on WeChat.

The thirty-million-points players and hunters couldn’t form temporary teams, but they could add each other through chat apps to exchange information.

Cao Qian’s fingers flew across her phone: Was that a paper substitute just now? Nice job!

Xing Ye: Did you encounter any other teammates?

Cao Qian: I was in carriage No. 20 at the beginning. Back then I hadn’t transformed—I was just an ordinary girl. In carriage No. 13 I saw someone who might’ve been Qian Dainu, but I didn’t reveal myself to her.

Xing Ye: Why not?

He had a vague guess about Cao Qian’s reasoning, but he needed to confirm it.

Cao Qian: I don’t want to test someone’s loyalty in this way. People may go their whole life without making a mistake if they never face temptation. Not everyone can resist the pull of money. Qian Daniu barely knew us to begin with. Testing her like this is unfair to her and unsafe for you.

Xing Ye: So your idea is…?

Cao Qian: Not telling Qian Daniu where you are, not letting her discover you, not giving her the chance to choose — this is better for both sides.

Xing Ye asked: The skill “quit while you’re ahead” prevents you from harming her. In this situation, what would you do?

Cao Qiansaid: I’ve tested this skill. The word “harm” actually has restrictions. As long as I think about killing her, I won’t be able to touch Qian Daniu, and I believe using the QR code will also be ineffective on her. But in a friendly state, I can touch her, hug her, or even throw her off the train—no problem, as long as I don’t intend to kill her. I plan to get Qian Daniu off the train at the next stop. This way she won’t face a dilemma, and she also won’t be accidentally hurt by other players.

Xing Ye wrote: Let me do it. I’m more suited to this. And Qian Daniu has never used “Steady Stream” on me, so “Quit While You’re Ahead” is ineffective on me.

Seeing that Xing Ye agreed with her plan, Cao Qian gave a knowing smile.

This was the best method. As long as Xing Ye wanted to win, Qian Daniu inevitably had to be eliminated. Rather than telling her who Xing Ye was and using such a cruel method to test Qian Daniu’s feelings toward them and challenge her humanity, it was better to take the initiative and let Xing Ye eliminate her in a gentle way.

Cao Qian: I haven’t found Yan Hebi. Is he in cars 1–12?

Xing Ye thought for a moment and wrote: Actually, I suspect Yan Hebi might be the driver.

Cao Qian: What?

Xing Ye: You and Yan Hebi are both fate defying players who are close to me. You were refreshed in car 20, extremely far from me in car 12. By the same logic, Yan Hebi must also be far from us. The phone can show distance; if he wanted to find me, he would be in nearby cars, but I haven’t seen any passenger who looks like he could be him. After two and a half hours and two stops, I haven’t found anyone resembling him in cars 9–15. That’s too unlikely.

Cao Qian: Right. With his personality, he should have hurried to the cars near yours, and then… started chatting with some female passenger or train attendant, letting you recognize him instantly.

Xing Ye: …

Cao Qian’s description was extremely accurate.

He continued writing: So he must be holding a position like that chef in car 8 — one that prevents him from moving. He has no way to meet us. I thought about which positions on a train would prevent someone from leaving their designated car for two and a half hours straight. It should only be the driver, right?

If he really was the high-speed rail driver… then Yan Hebi was truly unlucky… Cao Qian thought privately.

But then she reconsidered: Actually, this was quite safe. Yan Hebi didn’t have strong combat power; his two initial skills weren’t very useful in this world, he had nearly exhausted his QR codes in the previous world, and he only had a paper avatar item to resist physical damage — essentially no combat ability.

If Yan Hebi were in the driver’s position, other players wouldn’t attack him; he himself would be safe.

After ten hours, once the train reached its terminal station, as long as Xing Ye survived, Yan Hebi would automatically be eliminated. Their relationship wouldn’t suffer, and no player would erase his consciousness.

Cao Qian: So in this world, only you and I are fighting side by side? Kind of like the school world.

Xing Ye: No. This time there are four people — you, me, Xiao Jingzi, and Linlin. Our combined strength far surpasses the school world.

Cao Qian: You’re right.

Xing Ye: There are currently 13 hunters left. Excluding you, Yan Hebi, Qian Daniu, and the already-confirmed Shao Lin and his companion, that leaves 8. I have three suspects: one train attendant who checked my ticket, and two male passengers who went into the same bathroom — their behaviour was strange, very much like players.

After Xing Ye spoke, the small mirror in his hand displayed the faces of the three people. After seeing them, Cao Qian wrote on her phone: I also have two confirmed targets — two women who keep poking around cars 13 and 14. Should we strike first?

Xing Ye: Not yet. Just lock in the appearances of these three players. We’ll figure out a plan when we encounter them. The priority is to identify the remaining three players. I just observed cars 8–14 and memorized all the passengers’ faces. These three remaining players should be among them or among the train attendants I haven’t seen.

While they were discussing strategies, Shao Lin and Tan Feng reached car 16. Their phones refreshed the distance data, showing they were four cars away from the thirty million.

“They should still be in car 20, not moving,” Tan Feng said. “Last refresh said 11 cars away — that’s car 20.”

But Shao Lin said: “Cars 12 and 20 are both four cars away. Is it possible that within these ten minutes, he already returned from car 20 to car 12?”

“How?” Tan Feng asked. “When I passed through car 12, I didn’t smell that sweet watermelon scent. And in cars 13, 14, 15 I didn’t encounter that smell either… huh?”

Halfway through speaking, his nose twitched.

Shao Lin asked: What is it?

Tan Feng frowned and said: “Why is there so much watermelon smell in car 16? Are you sure the distance between Thirty million and us is four cars?”

“Sure.” Shao Lin showed Tan Feng the phone.

The two of them scanned the passengers in car 16 and found that many were chewing gum.

Shao Lin smiled and asked a little boy: “Little brother, your gum looks very tasty. May I ask where you got it?”

The little boy looked up and said: “A train attendant big brother handed it out to all the children in the car.”

Hearing this, Tan Feng’s face darkened: “We’ve been played!”

Translator : DarNan