“One more time, and I’ll kill you.”

 

The thermos cup’s plan to chase celebrities died before it was even born, but the few of them all treated Fate-following items as companions, family, or friends, which left them with very good impressions of one another.

The thermos cup got along especially well with Lu Mingze. Of course, the main reason was that the thermos cup was particularly fond of Lu Mingze’s looks and really wanted to be friends with him. Lu Mingze had a good temper, and when someone treated him with genuine friendliness, he would like them in return—though being too ugly was still unacceptable.

Fortunately, the thermos cup was a very good-looking stainless-steel cup. Although Yang Zhuang didn’t look like a good person, he was still cool and handsome in a roguish way. Lu Mingze was very satisfied with the looks of his new teammates, and the group got along extremely harmoniously.

“I don’t really mind teaming up with you—after all, nineteen people ganging up on one really isn’t honourable, but losing two games in a row and having three-quarters of my points deducted is just too brutal. I only have a hundred thousand points left. If I lose this round, I’ll have to go scrape by in the melee world,” Yang Zhuang said dejectedly.

“I have points,” Cao Qian said.

The “Equivalent Exchange” QR code was still within its effective period. Cao Qian immediately transferred one hundred thousand points to Yang Zhuang through the temporary team system, using those points to exchange for control over the thermos cup.

Previously, Cao Qian had only exchanged for Yang Zhuang’s personal cooperation rights. Since the thermos cup was conscious and counted as combat power, Cao Qian used another one hundred thousand points to exchange for the thermos cup’s willing assistance to Xing Ye. From this point on, the couple could be considered Xing Ye’s official teammates.

Xing Ye knew Cao Qian had already given out one hundred and fifty thousand points, leaving her with only three hundred and ten thousand. He said, “When the game ends and my points are unfrozen, I’ll pay you back.”

Cao Qian nodded. She didn’t care about those points—points that couldn’t be exchanged for money were just decorations anyway.

The Yang Zhuang couple said enviously, “Um… when you say ‘hunt Thirty million,’ does that mean you really have thirty million points on you? I always thought it was just a system reward.”

“The system would never reward that many points,” Xing Ye said. “I won those thirty million directly from the system, and it’s desperately trying to take them back. No matter who gets those points, the system will find a way to reclaim them. It’s just that with me, the points aren’t so easy to recover, so it wants to switch to another player to retrieve them.”

The thermos cup stared at Xing Ye for a while and sighed, “A rich man is really handsome. Now I think even every single strand of his purple hair is so handsome it makes me shiver.”

Yang Zhuang: “……”

After Xing Ye asked Yang Zhuang why he had attacked Shao Lin and what Shao Lin had said, his expression grew serious. Since there were few people in Car No. 1, he sat down and said, “The hunting app shows there are ten players left. Excluding Cao, Yan, and Yang, plus Shao Lin and his companions and the attendants, there are four people remaining. Shao Lin previously told you he had six temporary teammates. That means everyone else has already sided with him.”

“I’ve seen two girls among the remaining four,” Cao Qian said. “The other two have unknown identities. How do you think they’ll act next?”

“Based on my understanding of Shao Lin,” Xing Ye said, “he won’t act personally for now. He suffered a huge loss here, and almost all his abilities have been exposed. He’ll definitely try to use cannon fodders to exhaust our QR codes and skill usage limits. Only after confirming that our abilities are depleted will he strike.”

“So what should we do?” Cao Qian asked.

“Yan Hebi’s appearance hasn’t been exposed yet. I have spare clothes in my bag. Let him change and enter the carriages to observe secretly—especially those two female players. Try to sway them over.

“You and I will stay in Car No. 1 and wait like farmers guarding a tree, waiting for a rabbit (NT: idiom meaning to lie in wait for an easy opportunity). Whoever comes, we kill them. Yang Zhuang’s “No one in sight” skill paired with my Repainting Brush is the perfect combo—ensuring that anyone who comes will never return alive.”

Cao Qian nodded. It was a good plan. “No one in sight” blocked vision, making her sneak attacks easier, while Xing Ye could draw QR codes to coordinate attacks and even block out passengers in the carriage, preventing the train police from noticing.

After killing someone, they would destroy the evidence. Without proof, the train police wouldn’t casually issue arrest warrants.

Xing Ye had previously suspected that a perfect victory in this world required eliminating other players through the rules. However, after he transferred from Car No. 20 to Car No. 12 via the platform and heard the system’s prompt, he formed another hypothesis about the game rules. With that, there was no longer a need to avoid eliminating players—they could attack freely.

Yang Zhuang held the thermos cup in his arms and tilted his head as he listened. After holding back for a while, he finally raised his hand and asked, “Wait! You’ve been talking about another teammate surnamed Yan who’s here. Where is he? Is he one of the passengers in Car No. 1? There are only nine passengers left, and none of them look like players.”

Cao Qian and Xing Ye exchanged a glance. With her tremendous strength, Cao Qian strode to the cockpit door and yanked it open.

Yan Hebi, drenched in sweat as he concentrated on driving the high-speed train, said without turning around, “Wasn’t someone supposed to take over at the fourth station? Why switch drivers now? I’m in the middle of driving!”

He kept his head down, muttering to himself, “Need to change tracks… which button changes tracks again? How do I do this? Don’t bother me, let me think…”

Xing Ye, Cao Qian, Yang Zhuang: “……”

Cao Qian silently closed the cockpit door, found a seat near the front, and after some thought asked, “If something goes wrong, do you think my strength could stop the entire train?”

She clenched her fist, as if testing her power.

“Impossible,” Xing Ye said calmly. “Even if your strength were enough, your body couldn’t withstand it. Yan Hebi has already been driving for three and a half hours. If something were going to happen, it would have happened already. He’s doing fine. Let him continue—this is Yan Hebi’s solo battle.”

Yang Zhuang wiped the sweat from his brow and muttered, “That’s terrifying. The entire train is being driven by a single player. Why would the system arrange for a player to drive a high-speed train? Isn’t it afraid the train will crash and no one will win this world?”

“Isn’t it better if no one wins?” Xing Ye said. “That way, the system can extract massive amounts of points from us. What benefit does it gain from players winning?”

“Well…” Yang Zhuang said hesitantly. “Isn’t the ultimate purpose of a game to clear it?”

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Xing Ye replied. “Clearing the game is the player’s goal. If real-world online games had consciousness, and dungeon bosses were sentient, they would never want anyone to clear them. Within the rules, they would do everything possible to stop players from winning.”

After hearing this, Yang Zhuang broke out in goosebumps. Hugging the thermos cup, he seemed to recall many past experiences from games.

Xing Ye had no time to soothe one player after another. Yang Zhuang and his wife, the thermos cup, had long since witnessed the cruelty of the Challenging Fate game; many things didn’t need to be said aloud, as they could figure them out on their own. What Xing Ye needed to think about now was how to deal with the upcoming battle, how Shao Lin would act, and how he himself should take the initiative.

At first, Xing Ye believed that he held the advantage in this game. Other players had to continuously search for him and kill him within the time limit, whereas all he needed to do was hide, make use of the train police’s authority, and survive for ten hours.

However, after learning that there existed a double-loss ending, Xing Ye understood that he could no longer remain so leisurely. If Shao Lin didn’t send people to attack him, then he would have to strike first—because in the end, there might be even greater trouble waiting for him.

“What are the duration and usage limits of your ‘No one in sight’ skill?” Xing Ye asked.

Yang Zhuang replied, “It can be used three times within twenty-four hours. Each use lasts one hour. As for the area, it costs fifty points per square meter. I’ve already used it once; there’s half an hour left before the effect ends.”

“Do you have enough points?”

“Yes,” Yang Zhuang said honestly. “This carriage isn’t very large. I still have a few thousand points left as loose change—more than enough to support this initial skill.”

He was a very sincere person, Xing Ye thought to himself. Moreover, Lu Mingze also trusted this couple, believing that they were among the rare players who genuinely wanted to return to the real world and live honest, ordinary lives. They might like to take small advantages, but they wouldn’t cross the line—much less commit crimes.

Temporarily teaming up for one world should be fine… Xing Ye thought quietly.

Meanwhile, back in Car No. 16, Shao Lin gritted his teeth and said to Tan Feng, “We failed again. Xing Ye has already regrouped with Yan Hebi. It seems the hostage tactic won’t work.”

Tan Feng looked at the lash-like marks left on Shao Lin’s body from the water bindings and said, “They’re still in Car No. 1. I’ll go kill them.”

“Wait,” Shao Lin said, pressing down on Tan Feng’s arm. “Think it through first.”

He analysed, “Xing Ye’s initial skills are “Time Pause” and ‘Seizing what another loves’. Even if ‘Seizing what another loves’ isn’t exactly as he described, it at least proves that Xing Ye has the ability to control people. If he uses that method to control the muscular man in Car No. 1, then we’d be facing two people. Add the pink-haired girl from Car No. 13 and Yan Hebi at the front of the train—that’s at least four players, plus at least one onscious Fate-following item.

“We have six people here: three Fate- following items that erase consciousness, one player who just turned into a Fate- following item. In terms of numbers and items, we have the advantage. Splitting up would be unwise—the best approach is to concentrate our forces and attack together. But I don’t trust those temporary teammates; they could disband the team at any time and stab me in the back.”

“Me?” Tan Feng raised an eyebrow. “Not ‘stab us in the back,’ but me? In your eyes, am I the same as those temporarily teamed-up players?”

Shao Lin’s expression stiffened. He quickly picked up a piece of chocolate and put it into his mouth, smiling as he said, “Of course not.”

Tan Feng pinched Shao Lin’s chin. “You have to eat chocolate before answering me? Trying to cover up your real intentions with sweet words and honeyed phrases?”

Shao Lin immediately looked awkward.

Tan Feng said, “The one who actually wants to disband the team at the last moment and take the Thirty million points alone is you, isn’t it? You already told me that Xing Ye screwed you over in the casino world, leaving you owing the game a full twenty million points—and the interest keeps rising. You were trapped on the cruise ship and couldn’t get out. If you ask me, the one who urgently needs thirty million points to repay debts is you, right?”

Shao Lin swallowed the chocolate with effort. “Of course not. Didn’t I tell you? I transferred the debt to another player and only then managed to leave the casino.”

“You think I’d believe that?” Tan Feng stared at him. “The game wouldn’t let you escape debt that easily. Based on my understanding of this game, the most likely scenario is that it allowed you to transfer the interest to other players, but the principal still has to be repaid. That way, it can bind two players with the same debt—doesn’t that make sense?”

Shao Lin looked straight at Tan Feng, raised his hand, and knocked away the fingers gripping his chin. “Yes. I used someone else as a scapegoat to repay the debt. In reality, I still owe the game thirty million points. When this world opened, the game gave me a chance to clear my debt—if I become the final winner, I gain freedom.

“I must kill Xing Ye, and I must do it alone. I can’t team up with anyone.”

Since Tan Feng already knew, there was no point in hiding it anymore. Shao Lin decided to speak frankly—if Tan Feng accepted it, all the better; if not… though it would be a pity to kill such a powerful fighter now, it was still better than being killed by him.

After hearing Shao Lin’s words, Tan Feng stared at his face, took out his phone, opened the hunting app, and disbanded the temporary team.

Shao Lin watched him with a dark expression. Was Tan Feng planning to make a move by disbanding the team at this moment?

The “The weak are prey to the strong” skill could be activated with just a thought. Should I kill him? Shao Lin weighed the timing in his mind.

Unexpectedly, Tan Feng said, “You’re right. Those players won’t easily agree to go assassinate Xing Ye. It’s hard to trick them into going to their deaths. But if a strong person leads them, it’s different. I’ll take the attendant and the player with the Fate-following jade Buddha. Even if we can’t kill Xing Ye, we can take out a few of his subordinates. I’ll deal with the tough ones, and I’ll leave the two women to you—they’re easier to deceive. You can take them to their deaths whenever you want.”

Shao Lin frowned. “After breaking with me, are you planning to snatch the kill and steal the points first?”

“I’m helping you eliminate his subordinates,” Tan Feng said. “If I manage to kill Xing Ye, I’ll leave him barely alive and hand him over to you for the final blow. After all, you need those thirty million points, don’t you?”

“And what about you?” Shao Lin didn’t believe anyone could be that generous.

Tan Feng smiled. “I won’t lose out either. Xing Ye’s subordinates, plus the two cannon-fodder players you’re controlling—kill them all with Fate-following items, and I’ll gain plenty of points. I’ll take a step back in this world, since you urgently need the thirty million. But in the next world, don’t even think about betraying me again. If it happens one more time, I’ll kill you.”

With that, he stood up and went to find the other two players, leaving Shao Lin alone, staring at his departing back.

 

Translator : DarNan