“I will challenge the Final Stage”

Shao Lin might never know that the plan he had devised together with Ye Zirou and Qiao Yuxin had already been completely uncovered by Xing Ye. Every step of his plan had long been known to Xing Ye.

The answer was very simple—the “Projector” QR code.

As early as Car No. 9, when Xing Ye pushed a small cart selling boxed meals and casually asked whether they wanted to buy any, his victory had already been decided.

At that time, Xing Ye deliberately took advantage of the moment to casually brush against Shao Lin, triggering the activation condition of the “Projector.” His purpose was to gain the upper hand when Shao Lin and his companions later finalized their plan for the decisive battle.

In fact, before Tan Feng arrived, Xing Ye had also used the “Projector.” However, Tan Feng had not formulated a battle plan. At that time, he merely said to Wang Sipa and the train attendant, “When we get to Car No. 1, listen to me.”

No one knew where he had obtained three headsets equipped with talkie-walkies —probably items acquired from some other world. Using these made it convenient to adjust battle plans at any time.

Tan Feng believed that before a battle, having only a rough idea was sufficient. Humans cannot completely control the battlefield; all kinds of unexpected situations may occur. Compared to Shao Lin’s long-winded plans, he trusted his own combat instincts more.

Therefore, Xing Ye did not obtain much intelligence from Tan Feng—but Shao Lin was a different matter.

Shao Lin was the kind of person who liked to make preparations in advance for everything. Through the “Projector,” Xing Ye had long become thoroughly familiar with the three of them—their combat patterns and their initial skills. For someone like Xing Ye, even without knowing the enemy’s abilities, he could write countless contingency plans; now that he had already gained the upper hand in information, his chances of victory were even greater.

The only trouble was determining Shao Lin’s timing for attack and figuring out how to force them to fight inside Car No. 1.

Not only did Shao Lin believe Car No. 1 was the optimal location—Xing Ye thought so as well.

Thus, at this moment, Xing Ye used the achievement title “Stealing Heaven and Swapping the Sun.”
The ability of “Stealing Heaven and Swapping the Sun” was that as long as Xing Ye’s disguise was strong enough, he could even deceive the system itself.

Shao Lin might never know that his earlier suspicion had been correct. After the trendy man in Car No. 12 stood up and walked out, the one who returned was no longer a paper substitute, but Xing Ye himself. Yet at that moment, when Shao Lin refreshed the system’s location information, it still showed Xing Ye in Car No. 1. He chose to believe the system and dismissed his own doubts—this was a grave mistake.

Xing Ye rarely trusted the system. As for the hints provided by the system, he would always refute them by examining the rules, the environment, the story background, and the reactions of NPCs, then reinterpret the information from another angle to arrive at the correct answer.

But Shao Lin—despite having already been deceived by the system once in the casino world—still chose to trust the system’s location information. This was the fundamental difference between him and Xing Ye.

Shao Lin, who focused solely on the grudges and conflicts between players, had already lost to Xing Ye at the most basic level.

Xing Ye had never thought of sucking benefits from other players. The opponent he truly sought to defeat was always the system.

When the two female players showed signs of retreat and no longer wished to continue fighting Xing Ye, he seized the moment when they were not paying attention. He sat sideways on a seat, placed his massive backpack in front of him as cover, and used a decorative mirror hanging from the backpack to keep watch, drawing a QR code.

The “Mass Panic” QR code—one that Cao Qian had obtained in the Mental World but never had the chance to use. Xing Ye had always wondered what the difference was between this QR code and the “Panic” QR code he had used before, aside from single-target versus group attacks. After using it this time, Xing Ye finally understood—the activation conditions of this QR code were extremely strict.

The “Mass Panic” QR code required that the opposing group must be in a team state, and that they must collectively harbour fear toward the same individual. Only when both conditions were met could the effect be triggered. At this moment, the three opponents had formed a temporary team and were all jointly fearful of Xing Ye. There was no better time to use “ Mass Panic.” Although Shao Lin refused to admit it verbally, he was in fact somewhat afraid of Xing Ye.

The effect of “ Mass Panic” was this: when several people all harboured fear toward the same individual, the QR code would plunge them into a state of constant fear and timidity. Under such a psychological state, players found it difficult to think calmly and were prone to overlooking many things. However, it could be overcome through sheer willpower, so the effect was not very strong. For this reason, its duration was very long—up to half an hour, or fifteen minutes after being redrawn.

Xing Ye did not expect this QR code to have a decisive impact. As long as it prevented the opponents from remaining fully calm, that was enough.

After the QR code took effect, Xing Ye stood up and left Car No. 12, following a train attendant as he passed by them. The three were under the control of “Mass Panic” and did not even notice that the trendy man had left the carriage once again.

Of course, this was also because the distance information on their phones still showed Xing Ye in Car No. 1. They assumed the trendy man was just an ordinary passenger, and with “Mass Panic” lowering their cognitive sharpness, it was difficult for them to pay attention to an insignificant bystander.

“Stealing Heaven and Swapping the Sun” could only be used once, and it deceived both the system and Shao Lin only once—but once was enough. All preparations for this battle were already complete; all that remained was to wait for Shao Lin and his group to fall into Xing Ye’s trap.

Xing Ye returned to Car No. 1 and created three paper substitutes: Yan Hebi, the trendy man, and the burly man. Using these three paper figures, he deceived Shao Lin and the others. The paper figures were not visual illusions—they truly existed. They could be touched and could perform simple dialogue and actions, but they were essentially crude toy figures: one command, one simple action. They were incapable of complex movements, and even more incapable of fighting.

Moreover, even when using the Repainting Brush to draw QR codes, one had to remain at a very close distance to the opponent; otherwise, it was impossible to attack them at all.

A location that could both conceal oneself and remain within the effective range of QR codes—the most suitable place was the restroom of Car No. 1.

Xing Ye used the restroom wall as a projection surface and relied on the “Projector” to constantly monitor Shao Lin and the others. The “Projector” only lasted five minutes. Fortunately, the restroom had three walls and one window—when one projector was about to expire, Xing Ye would draw a second one on another wall, seamlessly connecting them and maintaining continuous playback.

At the same time, with Yan Hebi’s help, Xing Ye affixed a half-length mirror to the wall near the door of Car No. 1. This mirror had been takenf from the crew lounge by Yan Hebi. With his driver’s halo, he had reported it to the train conductor in advance and paid compensation, so it did not count as damage to public property.

Once the mirror was installed, the entire battle inside Car No. 1 fell under the mirror’s gaze.

Lu Mingze recorded the battle inside Car No. 1 through the mirror, then used the “Truth Magic Mirror” to replay it on the mirror in the restroom. The video Xing Ye recorded as evidence was not footage captured by a phone placed inside Car No. 1—how could a phone’s angle just happen to capture everything perfectly? Instead, it was footage recreated by the “Truth Magic Mirror,” which was then sent to Yan Hebi and fabricated to look like evidence accidentally recorded before the phone was destroyed.

As for why the “Truth Magic Mirror” was used for recording instead of the “Projector,” it was because the images produced by the “Projector” were not real—like a movie projected onto a white wall. Even the “Please press to flush” sign on the restroom wall could be seen in the projection. Recording with the “Projector” would have been far too fake, so in the end, they had to rely on the small mirror.

With all preparations complete, Xing Ye had laid down an inescapable net, and now all that remained was to wait for Shao Lin and his group to be caught within it.

When Qiao Yuxin used “Drowsy,” Xing Ye actually fell asleep as well. Fortunately, he and Lu Mingze had mastered the skill “Hearts connected as one”. Lu Mingze woke Xing Ye in his mind, preventing him from being herded along with the passengers of Car No. 1 to the dining car by the “Corpse Driver.”

During the battle, Shao Lin originally had an opportunity to discover that the enemy was a substitute, but Xing Ye continuously used QR codes to fight from inside the restroom. Combined with the emotional boost from “Mass Panic,” this successfully dispelled the group’s suspicions.

Throughout the battle, Xing Ye was extremely relaxed, staring at the projector as if watching a movie, and at appropriate moments tossing out commonly used QR codes such as “Bouncing Ping-Pong Balls,” “Piano,” “The Fire Ring of the Unlucky Beast-Tamer,” “The Often-Leaking Battery,” and “You’re Already a Mature xx.” Due to insufficient time gaps, the “Battery” and “Piano” were used by Lu Mingze. Of his ten opportunities to use the Repainting Brush, seven had already been consumed, leaving three remaining.

The paper substitute that fell during the fire and happened to smash into Ye Zirou—preventing her from using QR codes—was controlled by Xing Ye. Paper substitutes were not afraid of fishing line, nor would they suffocate to death. Ye Zirou believed she had already killed the driver Yan Hebi, never realizing that the paper substitute she had hung from the top of the carriage was still alive. After the fire broke out, under Xing Ye’s command, it directly fell down and precisely smashed into Ye Zirou’s phone.

With the fire rings causing such a massive disturbance in Car No. 1, it was impossible for the train police not to arrive. Arson was a serious crime, and Shao Lin and the others could not escape.

After Yan Hebi handed over the video evidence to the police, Xing Ye pointed at the camera on the ground and said, “Officer, there’s a camera on the floor. It looks like it belongs to this lady—shouldn’t it be taken along as well? What if it’s physical evidence?”

He did not take the initiative to touch the camera. After all, it belonged to a player—what if there was a desperate counterattack at the brink of death?

Indeed, the video evidence showed footage of Shao Lin holding the camera and taking photos. The train police officer therefore picked up the camera—the final hunter had fallen into the net.

Shao Lin stared at Xing Ye as he had in the casino world and said stubbornly, “I’ll be back. I will definitely kill you.”

Xing Ye removed his sunglasses and looked into Shao Lin’s eyes, silently mouthing a sentence.

Shao Lin, who could read lips, saw Xing Ye’s words and his pupils suddenly contracted. He muttered, “Impossible… impossible… the casino world was your first advanced world—this is only the third one. How could that be possible? No, no!”

He struggled desperately. The train police had no choice but to use an “Arrest Warrant” to knock him unconscious before taking Shao Lin away.

What Xing Ye had just said to Shao Lin was: “You no longer have any chance. After winning this stage, I will challenge the final stage.”

This time, Shao Lin would never again have a chance to take revenge on Xing Ye—he had lost completely.

 

Translator : DarNan