Tan Feng died smiling.

Although the soldiers were not very strong, dealing with a few people who could not move was still easy.

Just as Wang Sipang ordered the soldiers to attack, he heard a cold snort.

“Hmph.”

After that sound, two cold flashes cut through the air, striking the flashlights on Cao Qian’s and Xing Ye’s phones with perfect precision. The force was exquisitely controlled: it destroyed only the flashlights without damaging any other phone functions. This was the thermos cup’s ability, “Honeyed words, dagger heart”, which could turn the sugar water inside the cup into water swords for attack.

Once the light disappeared, the shadow-puppet threads outside the windows could no longer control them. Although visibility was gone, now that everyone could fight back, the soldiers created by initial skills posed no threat to Cao Qian—though the saliva-formed soldiers were admittedly disgusting.

At the same time, in the pitch-dark carriage, Wang Sipang kept stepping on the ping-pong balls bouncing all over the floor. Unable to keep his balance, he fell and began rolling on the ground.

Outside the carriage, when Tan Feng saw the lights go out, he knew the shadow-puppet thread control had failed. However, he did not rush inside. Instead, he nodded to the attendant in the crew control room beside him. The attendant immediately pulled the power switch, and the lights blazed back on.

As soon as the carriage lights came on, everyone was once again restrained by the shadow-puppet threads. At this moment, countless small soldiers had already surrounded Xing Ye, Yang Zhuang, and Cao Qian.

Meanwhile, Wang Sipang had only just climbed up from the floor. Ping-pong balls did not hurt when they hit him, but in the darkness they seriously interfered with his movement.

One soldier snatched the surgical scalpel from Cao Qian’s hand and slashed straight toward her neck. Unexpectedly, no blood flowed at all. It was unclear what the blade struck, only a ripping “hiss, hiss” sound echoed.

A paper substitute.

The soldier had not injured Cao Qian but had instead struck the paper substitute she had been holding all along.

It seemed the soldiers’ vision was synchronized with that of their user: they could only see what remained after “No one in sight” blocked perception. Though the soldier seized the scalpel through touch, it could only strike the paper substitute. Xing Ye remained motionless, quietly thinking.

The ping-pong balls could trip this player and continuously brush against his wrists. This indicated a Fate defying player—not Shao Lin’s companion, but very likely someone possessing a Fate defying item.

He was probably just a vanguard, sent in to drain their QR codes and initial skill uses.

Someone was controlling the lights at all times, meaning the attendant was present as well. One person controlled their bodies from outside the carriage, one entered as cannon fodder, and one secretly controlled the power supply. There were at least three enemies. The attendant could move freely within the carriage, enjoying a massive identity advantage, and was most likely a Fate-following player without a Fate-following item.

Thus, their enemies numbered at least three people, with two Fate-following items, plus an attendant who might be able to use many QR codes.

They had to deal with the external control threads first, otherwise this battle would be extremely difficult.

Xing Ye made a decision immediately. He signaled to Cao Qian, who was hidden behind the paper substitute, indicating that he would create a momentary opening. Cao Qian was to rush out of the carriage, locate the controller, and neutralize that ability.

Receiving Xing Ye’s signal, Cao Qian understood instantly and blinked at him in confirmation. At the same moment, five massive rings of fire suddenly appeared inside the carriage.

“The Fire Ring of the Unlucky Beast-Tamer,” a QR code Xing Ye had once used in the Hospital World. After being redrawn, it could generate five fire rings that would knock down and burn all non-human creatures. However, it could not attack humans or non-living entities.

Because Xing Ye and the others were restrained, the one who drew the QR code was Lu Mingze, who possessed ten redraw uses of the Repainting Brush. This was his second time drawing a QR code. The goal was not to attack—the fire rings could not harm humans anyway. The purpose of the fire rings was only one thing: light.

When the carriage was suddenly illuminated by the blazing fire rings, the shadows on the windows were instantly overwhelmed by firelight. Cao Qian felt her body regain movement and, at the exact moment the fire rings appeared, dashed out of the carriage in a flash.

She held a top hat in her hand, her target unmistakably clear: the shadow puppet in Tan Feng’s hand.

The control over their bodies came from the threads outside the windows, meaning the controller had to be nearby—system rules would not allow attacks from excessively long distances.

And the controller’s location was easy to deduce. The second carriage closest to Carriage No. 1 was full of passengers; the controller would not dare use skills in front of people, as that would easily draw the train police’s attention. He would only operate the threads in the restroom, wash area, or the smoking area between Carriages No. 1 and No. 2. The restroom and wash area both had mirrors, and Lu Mingze had already confirmed the controller was not there—leaving only the inter-carriage smoking area.

The moment Cao Qian opened the door, she saw the player holding the shadow puppet. She whispered, “Linlin.”

The swan crystal spread its wings, “idleness” activated, and Tan Feng’s consciousness wavered slightly. In that instant, Cao Qian flicked the magician’s top hat in her hand, and the shadow puppet in Tan Feng’s grasp vanished.

Cao Qian sneered coldly at Tan Feng, who was still affected by “idleness” and taunted, “If you’ve got the guts, come into the carriage and fight head-on. What kind of skill is stabbing people in the back?”

The “Magician’s Hat” was Yan Hebi’s QR code, capable of hiding fate-folllowing items. It had been used before in the Mountain God World. The original version could hide three items; after Xing Ye redrew it, it could hide only one. Xing Ye had drawn several potentially useful items before the battle began and hidden them beneath the seats, ready for use at any moment.

Cao Qian did not linger in battle. After obtaining the top hat, she immediately returned to the carriage. The “Magician’s Hat” could only hide fate-following items for five minutes. If the battle was not over after that, the hat would return the item to its owner.

The instant the top hat was secured, the players inside regained mobility. Xing Ye did not hesitate and immediately began drawing a QR code. Meanwhile, Wang Sipang, lying on the carriage floor, activated the jade Buddha’s ability, “Three Thousand Worlds”.

“Three Thousand Worlds” allowed a small nearby object to become its own world. Within that world, the player would not be affected by initial skills or QR codes—but likewise could not harm others. Duration: five minutes.

Upon seeing the jade Buddha, Xing Ye recognized the opponent’s identity. So it was Wang Sipang.

The thermos cup, which had originally intended to bind Wang Sipang with water threads, returned empty-handed as the water flowed back inside.

Xing Ye understood Wang Sipang’s ability clearly. For five minutes, Wang Sipang could neither attack nor be harmed, so he could be ignored for now. The real concern was the people outside—after losing the fate-following item that controlled movement, they would certainly take action.

Sure enough, the moment Cao Qian returned to the carriage, the lights went out again, plunging everything into darkness.

At this point, both Xing Ye’s and Cao Qian’s phone flashlights were broken. Yang Zhuang could not leave his phone and thus could not use it as a flashlight; otherwise, holding a light source would make him the enemy’s first target.

There was no longer any tool for illumination.

Xing Ye raised an eyebrow slightly. No wonder—even though carriage lights could also cast shadows on the windows, the enemies had chosen to cut the lights immediately. The goal was to lure them into using illumination tools in the sudden darkness. Once they realized that light triggered the control ability, the enemies had them personally destroy the only two remaining light sources.

That way, even if the shadow-control ability was broken, the enemies could still rely on their keen sense of smell to attack.

One step linked to another. From the very first move, they had already planned several steps ahead, continuously shaping an environment perfectly suited to their abilities. This enemy was powerful.

This darkness was the true battlefield.

Most intriguingly, the fire rings had not expired—yet not even their light could be seen anymore. The carriage seemed shrouded in a layer of black fog, completely blocking all vision.

It seemed that this was the effect of some QR code, initial skill, or world item. Since other players were unable to see one’s own QR code abilities, this darkness skill was likely either a world item obtained after achieving the true ending, or someone’s initial skill.

Therefore, there was at least one more enemy lurking in the dark. Before that person revealed themselves, they could not act rashly.

As Cao Qian entered, she casually closed the carriage door behind her. At that moment, in the darkness, they heard the faint sound of a door opening, but it was drowned out by the passengers’ screams.

At the beginning, the passengers had also been controlled by the thin threads outside the windows—after all, the enemy’s attacks were indiscriminate. Although they could not see the battle itself, they could still feel the lights turning on and off. The passengers cried out, “What’s going on with the lights? Why do they keep flickering? And what just happened to me? I suddenly couldn’t move or speak—did I get some kind of nerve paralysis?”

Amid complaints like these, Xing Ye and the others could not distinguish individual voices, but the enemy could combine the passengers’ sounds with their sense of smell to determine who inside the carriage was a player and who was a passenger.

It did not take long—an instant was enough.

“Three players…” Tan Feng twitched his nose slightly, thinking to himself.

He still remembered the scent of the pink-haired woman who had snatched away the shadow puppet. She was crouched on a seat, sweating heavily, clearly very nervous. The darkness made Tan Feng’s sense of smell even sharper, allowing him to clearly detect every trace of scent.

Another one was at the very front of the carriage—a smell he had never encountered before. As for the person pressed up against the window…

Tan Feng curled his lips into a smile. He remembered this scent clearly—it was Thirty Million, the one who had brushed past him while selling boxed meals earlier.

The one who had deceived his sense of smell with watermelon-flavoured chewing gum. This time, there would be no mistake.

Tan Feng did not approach Xing Ye, nor did he need to. Earlier, he had told Shao Lin that his initial skill was “ Seize by force and steal”, allowing him to steal other players’ initial skills, but only keep one at a time. That was indeed the true ability of “ Seize by force and steal”—he had not lied to Shao Lin.

However, after unlocking the achievement title “Player Killer,” Tan Feng could use all the initial skills he had ever stolen, choosing freely among them.

“Should I kill Thirty Million outright,” Tan Feng narrowed his eyes, “or steal his initial skill first, cripple him, and bring him to Shao Lin so he can beg me to hand the man over?”

Thinking did not interfere with his choice of skill. Tan Feng quickly selected an initial skill that could soften a person’s bones, planning to first turn Thirty Million’s skeleton crispy.

But at the instant he made his decision, Tan Feng suddenly sensed something was wrong.

A surgical scalpel had been embedded in his neck at some unknown moment.

He opened his mouth, but the massive arterial bleeding instantly cut off blood flow to his brain. Even thinking became difficult.

“Kuafu Chasing the Sun…” Tan Feng struggled to utter these four words before death.

Severe arterial bleeding can cause brain death within seconds. In his final moment, Tan Feng suddenly understood.

From the very beginning, Shao Lin had deliberately sent him here to die. Shao Lin knew that Thirty Million possessed a time-stop ability, so he had to first send a powerful enemy close to Thirty Million, forcing him—when left with no choice—to consume that time-stop ability. That way, Shao Lin would no longer need to fear Xing Ye’s trump card.

I was so stupid… Tan Feng thought weakly. Shao Lin had deliberately eaten chocolate in front of him, making him believe he was going to use “Sweet talk” on him, provoking him into anger and impulsively bringing people to kill Xing Ye.

Shao Lin calculated that his abilities were enough to force Xing Ye to reveal his time-stop power, drain his QR codes and initial skill uses, and even use Xing Ye to eliminate Tan Feng as a rival. Shao Lin must have a QR code or item capable of observing the battle scene before his death—he could judge which abilities Xing Ye used and formulate his next plan accordingly.

He even factored my emotions into his calculations. Ruthless. Next time I definitely—

Tan Feng died smiling.

He was not particularly sad. Betrayal and being betrayed were normal in this game for him. After learning that players who erased item consciousness could not pass the final stage, Tan Feng had long stopped caring about victory, defeat, life, or death.

He was merely a trapped beast.

And the only thing a trapped beast could do was, at the moment of death—within this game—use its own life to let out the loudest roar possible.

 

Translator : DarNan