I Rely On Poverty To Sweep Through Survival GamesCh85 - Subway Station 13 (4)

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After flashing three times, the red indicator light on the turnstile went out.

Everything returned to stillness. The only thing left behind was an intense scent of blood that wouldn’t fade for a long while; it declared that the cruel slaughter just now hadn’t been an illusion. flR7EP

After that person – an NPC or player, who knew – demonstrated with his own life that one couldn’t sneak out without a ticket, Xiao Lan naturally wouldn’t be so dumb as to try and see if his protagonist halo was useful.

Xiao Lan carefully walked forward, stepping past the blood and minced meat on the floor as he approached the turnstile and stood there quietly.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

After he drew close, Xiao Lan faintly heard the sound of rain in the distance. It seemed that it was raining outside the station right now. There was something enticing about the pitter-patter, as if telling players that they were only separated from hope for survival by this small turnstile.

The flashlight illuminated the turnstile covered in blood. dj3oDr

That person had been repeating the word “ticket” earlier. Coupled with the subway’s standard method of swiping a card to leave the station, it seemed that this game required them to find a ticket before they could leave.

Xiao Lan pondered this. “Who knows what the train ticket looks like.”

There were all sorts of subway tickets. There were the old paper ones, the coin-shaped ones, as well as the most common ICs; there were even electronic versions on handphones. Furthermore, this was the game world; the ticket could take any sort of appearance, and wouldn’t look odd.

After meticulously observing the turnstile, Xiao Lan’s brow furrowed.

Dv83ES

A subway station in the ‘90s should still be a time when there was a person selling the tickets, right? But this row of turnstiles before him was completely metallic and had automatic card readers. Their pure white colour was a little jarring in this environment.

He then looked around the turnstiles, but didn’t find anything similar to a ticket seller stand.

“Can it be that this game pulled in high tech items to conserve manpower?” Xiao Lan was doubtful. “Are they so lacking in people?”

Luo’s voice rang out faintly. “Perhaps they’re hoping especially for people to join them.” m5WUlV

Xiao Lan: “…”

You make a very good point. 

He suddenly felt a little wary, since he thought of Zhang Dong and Gu Mo. Would this sort of instance that lacked people have an unusually huge number of death traps so that players could also join their big, warm family?

When he thought of the densely packed players he had seen behind Gu Mo, Xiao Lan felt a chill run down his spine. G2y4Yk

The flashlight shifted to the side and Xiao Lan began examining the nearby area.

Everything around them still looked ruined and messy, and only trash cans that were stuffed to the brim drew his attention.

Xiao Lan got closer. “This is…”

There were two trash cans side by side and everything inside was charred, their original appearances no longer recognisable. After finding half a steel pipe nearby, Xiao Lan poked through the trash cans and discovered that everything underneath that layer was the same. 4xECVW

After Luo inspected it, he said, “It’s junk; most of it has already broken down. There’s also some burnt plastic.”

Perhaps this was where the scorched smell came from, though they didn’t know when it had burned.

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But there were no signs of burning in the area.

However, this dump clearly had nothing to do with the train ticket, so the two of them changed directions and headed for another area. 4RAGt0

A subway route map appeared up ahead, taking up a large area on the wall. For some reason, however, the other parts of the map had been completely blotted out, and this lone Subway Station 13 was left, like an isolated island in a vast ocean.

Aside from this, there were no other clues at the station exit.

The two left the station exit and returned to the platform below.

This time, they didn’t encounter the footsteps on the stairs. Who knew if it had already left, or had chosen to shut itself away after seeing the two of them. VACEBZ

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The platform was still quiet, the faint moldy smell in the air the same as before. The two of them proceeded forward; it seemed as if their footsteps were the only things left in the world.

C qbrafg tjv yffc qjrafv ja j mgbbxfv jcuif bc j qliijg eq jtfjv.

Ktf qbrafg kjr jirb nfgs biv-ojrtlbcfv jcv jigfjvs nfgs ojvfv. Ktfs mbeiv njuefis rff j kbwjc klat yijmx tjlg jcv gfv ilqr, lc atf wjxfeq rasif atja kjr qbqeijg veglcu atf flutalfr bg clcfalfr. Vtf kjr ulnlcu atf mjwfgj j rwjii, fcmtjcalcu rwlif, jcv kjr j yfjeas klat j nlcajuf afwqfgjwfca.

It seemed to be one of those pin-up posters that used to be popular. j73VfS

The edges of the poster had already curled up and were ruffling slightly in the breeze, as if luring people to peer under it.

Xiao Lan reached out to gently lift it a little, but ended up with a handful of black dust.

He rubbed his fingertips together. Because of the humidity in the air, the dust was a little moist and overly dark in colour. It didn’t look like dust, and instead looked more like the black soot left behind after burning something.

Luo reached out and tore away the poster on the pillar. The pillar behind the poster looked completely intact. Although it wasn’t clean and tidy, there were no signs that it had been burned. It seemed that the black dust only appeared behind the poster. TE5dG9

Xiao Lan’s brow furrowed slightly. Yet another sign of burning. Adding in the heap that they had seen in the trash cans upstairs, this was already the second time. However, there was nowhere else in the station with similar traces, which was a stark contradiction.

Right at that moment, in the poster that was now on the ground, the woman suddenly blinked.

It was a blink-and-miss-it action, but it didn’t escape the notice of the two people.

Under their gazes, the woman’s red lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something. tsHUqb

Suddenly, flames appeared on the corner of the poster out of nowhere. The woman’s expression turned into alarm, and her lips that were on the verge of spilling out words formed the shape of a scream.

The flames spread at an unimaginable speed and swallowed up the entire poster in the blink of an eye, not giving either of them any time to put out the fire.

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In less than a second, only brittle ash was left on the ground. There were still even some embers that hadn’t died out yet, and these ashes very quickly scattered on the wind in the station.

Xiao Lan stared at the ashes being blown far away, a bad premonition in his heart. “Is this… silence by murder?” X6qe70

What had that woman wanted to say just now? Was it related to how the poster she was in had traces of burning, unlike the surroundings?

Unfortunately, she could no longer speak.

This sudden and unforeseen event caused Xiao Lan’s mood to sink a little.

This station didn’t have monsters that brandished claws and teeth. The threat took an invisible and intangible form, which conversely increased the danger. No matter how powerful a player was, they could still be easily entrapped by this sort of danger. bD5tMk

And apart from being wary and careful, they couldn’t do anything else.

The two of them continued along the train tracks.

Black marks appeared in a section of the tracks up ahead, like stains that were decades old and had fused with the tracks. Something similar to white thread could be faintly seen amidst the blackness, but it wasn’t very clear because of the distance.

There were a few long benches on the right side in this area, which were probably provided for passengers to rest on while they waited for the train to arrive. 5MVenI

A newspaper folded neatly was placed on one of the benches. This newspaper looked like it had been purposely placed there, and was clearly different from the trash on the ground.

It had even been placed under a white coin-shaped object which only had a ‘13’ engraved on it  and nothing else, and Xiao Lan thought of a train ticket. Though there weren’t many regions that used coin-shaped tickets, they weren’t rare either.

Xiao Lan walked up and picked up the newspaper. When he touched it, he realised that the newspaper texture was thick and exquisite, and the printed letters were very clear. It looked especially refined. Although it had been a very long time and the papers had turned yellow and a little brittle, they could still be considered durable.

Xiao Lan flipped open the newspaper, and grandly written in the most eye-grabbing spot was: 45YzlM

“According to the community news, on Xth of X(month), 199x, 23:44, there was a subway train accident in the city. Two trains on Subway Line 1 collided with each other at Subway Station 13…

“…The accident led to 103 deaths at the scene and 39 victims with varying degrees of injury.

“After the accident, police, fire department, and medical personnel rushed urgently to the scene to assist. The victims were sent to the nearest hospital for treatment, and operations ceased temporarily on the subway tracks in the vicinity of the accident.

“Currently, the police and traffic control division are working together to further investigate the reason for this accident.” SwKLBJ

The news even came with a photograph of the trains that were completely unrecognisable from the crash. Although it was a black and white photo, they could still see the bloodstains in the image as well as some faintly visible human bodies. The tragedy of the accident could be clearly seen.

And they could vaguely discern the appearance of the train in the wreckage. It was — the train Xiao Lan had been riding!

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So that meant that the train that they had rode earlier was the train of the dead, both in name and reality?

“Hello, youngsters.” A gentle and polite voice suddenly rang out from the side. xF5f1b

Xiao Lan turned his head to see an old man dressed in a loose, old-fashioned suit sitting on the side. His hands were resting on a walking stick and his head was bent low, the hat on his head hiding his face. There were no wrinkles in the suit while his necktie was in the standard knot, in the dignified style of a gentleman.

But when Xiao Lan had come over earlier, the chairs had all clearly been vacant — where did this old man come from?

His movements looked very stiff, and there wasn’t any sound of breathing when he spoke. The hand he stretched out also looked a little grey and wasn’t the skin colour of a living person.

This person was probably also one of the platform’s ghosts. u3OZM1

The old man still didn’t lift his head and merely continued speaking. “Hurry up and leave this place. Danger is coming.”

Xiao Lan was a little suspicious. “What are you talking about?”

The old man’s tone turned grave. “Quickly leave, get out of this place. You guys will be able to leave this place if you take my train ticket!”

Xiao Lan and Luo exchanged slightly confused looks. What was he referring to? quYW9p

Right at that moment, a system notification appeared:

【Triggered a hidden task: Last Wish】

【Task explanation: Take the old man’s train ticket and fulfill his last wish】

【Task reward: Unknown】 vMClBq

【Tip: This mission is not compulsory and can be given up at any time. There is no penalty for giving up this mission】

Xiao Lan, however, knitted his eyebrows minutely.

This old man’s words were sincere and he kept trying to advise them to leave. He just seemed like a kind old man who was good-naturedly helping someone out.

But he didn’t explain what the danger was, and he immediately appeared to advise Xiao Lan to leave the station right after Xiao Lan read about the train accident in the newspaper, to the point that even the train ticket to leave the station had already been prepared. tWbsu9

All of this might not be an excessive coincidence; it was as if it had been specially prepared.

Moreover, just now he said “You guys will be able to leave this place if you take my train ticket”, but the task explanation merely stated “Take the old man’s train ticket and fulfill his last wish”, and didn’t say anything about leaving the station.

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Although it was easy to connect his final wish with leaving the station, he didn’t personally say that was the case.

There seemed to be another motive hidden under his deeply concerned exterior. x0GXIJ

Xiao Lan cautiously took a step back and didn’t choose to accept the mission. At the same time, he also put the train ticket and newspaper back in place.

“You don’t want to leave?” The old man’s tone cooled somewhat.

“We still want to stroll around a bit more. We won’t bother you anymore, sir.” As Xiao Lan spoke, he and Luo stayed away from the man.

Just as he was about to leave this area, Xiao Lan suddenly sensed a sinister gaze. He looked in the direction that it was coming from, and met the old man’s gaze. He had raised his head slightly and there was a malicious gloominess in his eyes, as if he was furious that his prey had escaped. TaiWpy

The two of them picked up their pace and immediately walked out of his line of sight.

After the two left, the old man’s figure vanished, and the ticket and newspaper returned to their original position, like a hunter’s trap awaiting its next prey.

Not long after, a male player arrived here.

He was a little bloodied up; it was clear he had encountered an attack. qmh D6

He sat down on the seat a little weakly and wheezed harshly. He didn’t expect the danger in this game to be so crafty. He had escaped by the skin of his teeth each time; a few more times, and he would probably be dead.

“Shit, where the hell is that goddamn train ticket?!”

He kicked the chair next to him irritatedly and just happened to send the newspaper on the chair flying. The coin-shaped train ticket resting on the newspaper also rolled towards him with a clatter.

“What’s this thing?” The male player looked at this strange thing, clearly not recognising that this was a train ticket. uWwSU1

He nonchalantly put the train ticket aside and picked up the newspaper on the floor. As he read, he said with some trepidation, “Ss… train of the dead ah. Thank goodness I got off.”

At that moment, the old man appeared again. He concernedly and anxiously warned the player that danger was coming, and appeared warm-hearted and gentle.

As the old man spoke, there was the sound of a train in the distance. It sounded like the god of death singing, which alarmed the male player who had just read the newspaper.

The old man seized this chance to point at the white coin beside him. “Youngster, take my ticket and leave the station ba.” U1EQ2b

The mission also simultaneously appeared.

The male player’s heart burst with delight, and he decisively accepted the mission.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

Too perfect! His current situation was really awful, and he definitely wouldn’t survive if he had to confront the train of the dead that was filled with hundreds of ghosts. He unexpectedly encountered a hidden task and could now leave in advance. After he exited, he would definitely get a good rest with the lights on. This instance was just too damn exhausting.

He picked up the train ticket and turned to leave — ilkw2N

But then discovered that he couldn’t control his body.

He was like a marionette as an intangible force made him turn around and walk stiffly towards the train tracks step by step.

“Stop… stop ah…” He struggled with all his might in an attempt to wrest back control over his body. Unfortunately, it was like every single muscle didn’t belong to him at all, and his struggles were futile.

He could only stare helplessly as he walked onto the train tracks and lay down. RdwfOp

Above him was the worn, old-fashioned ceiling and under him were the hard, ice-cold rails. His nose was filled with the sharp metallic smell of the railway and everything around him was stained black. These stains had been here for an unknown number of years and had now deeply contaminated the ground.

Some silver threads were also mixed into the black stains and seemed a little familiar. He looked closer — wasn’t this hair?! It was identical to that old guy’s hair.

“Fuck… old guy… you tricked me!”

His heart was utterly cold. He didn’t expect to be fooled by this old guy in a moment of desperation!! After some careful thought, this old guy had appeared too coincidentally and his words were also ambiguous. However, the other party had grasped the moment too well and set a trap just when the player was beaten down and feeling anxious. 548Xvx

Under the male player’s wrathful gaze, the old man stood up and revealed his cold and gloomy eyes. He looked at the male player lying on the rails, and the corners of his lips pulled up stiffly to give him a satisfied smile.

After that, he took off his hat and, as the rumble of the train grew closer, tossed it to the male player.

“Hidden task 【Final Wish】 is completed. Obtained reward 【Hat】.”

It turned out… his wish was… to find a scapegoat… CsBS4R

That was the male player’s final thought.

The train hurtled past and turned his world pitch-black.


Baobao Notes

I’m curious. How many of you readers genuinely believe in the supernatural? Personally, I don’t believe in those common ghosts, but I do think that you have to be careful in those haunted places and forests. h8JiBw

Leave a Comment

29 comments

  1. Thanks for the chapter! I know people who’ve had experiences, so I believe there are things we can’t explain. I don’t fool around with ouijia boards or stuff like that, just in case… but I don’t believe in the supernatural blindly, either.

  2. dunno if i believe, but i ain’t gonna jinx nothing by saying i dont either. thanks so much for the translation!

  3. If the old man wanted a scapegoat, is it that he didn’t intentionally lie on the tracks the first time, or was he disappointed in what the afterlife gave him? I’m also interested in what kind of attack that player had faced earlier, so far Xiao Lan and Luo haven’t faced any actual violence

    The attitude toward the supernatural where I live is “why chance it?” haha, basically there’s no point in provoking anything intentionally, better to just leave it alone. The house I grew up in had a ghost that walked up the stairs sometimes, but he wasn’t dangerous, just walking the end of his life again. He was a nice man in life, I heard, built the house we lived in but didn’t manage to finish

    Thank you for translating! <3

  4. I don’t actually believe in supernatural but I still get scared too easily UwU

    Thank you for the chapter!!! ❤️❤️

  5. idk how much I believe or dont believe but lately we have been going through some strange stuff. My nieces, little sister, and myself (who all live in different cities in 2 different states) have all experienced something trying to get our attention lately. It’s so strange typing it out. We have seen shadows, someone stepped on my feet, heard voices calling out to us… creepy!

    That and all the Mexican folklore my parents raised us on (also personal experiences at our home in Mexico). Anyway, like my mom says: “We shouldn’t believe but neither doubt.”

    thanks for the chapter! <3

  6. I believe in jin not ghosts, and personally whenever I read about folklore of the east or west I always find similarities to the concept of jin, whether it is in elves, fairies, poltergeists, shapeshifters, spirit beasts, or yokai. Even scientifically, the universe is vast and there might be many things or rather beings in this universe that humans have yet been unable to discover or perceive🌌

  7. I honestly believe in the supernatural, I’m Haitian and I used to live in Haiti and the amount of things that have happened there were truly terrifying, I believe in God and i also know that the devil exist, if God didn’t exist i would’ve died many times due to the devil, my grandfather was a voodoo priest and even though he didn’t use it for bad, he still sold his soul to the devil in order to achieve what he did

  8. I actually didn’t believe in ghosts and such until supernatural events started happening in my own house (ب_ب)

    And my friends and even family members had this kind of experiences too, so I can’t help but believe ┐(‘~`;)┌

  9. I believe in the fact that humans have the power to imprint powerful memories onto certain places or things that were extremely important to them in life and these memories manifested themselves in a multitude of ways; including but not limited to phenomena like apparitions (imprints of people or actions that were particularly important or something they did a lot while they were alive) or objects moving on their own (same thing basically), or certain objects or places making the now living humans feel something by unrelated to what is going on at the time (confusion, anger, etc.,) because of the imprint of the memories or emotions left behind.

    May the walls remember your screams.

  10. What a shitty task :’D

    Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)

    Since I experienced it myself, I do think that there is “stuff” out there that we can’t explain with sience. And I heard stories from others too :’D

  11. my mather had an encounter with the ghost of her grandfather the night that he died… i dont know if i personally believe in ghosts (im v scared of them tho lol) but i do believe that when bad things happen to people it leaves an impression in the places where they occur. and i think people pick up on those rancid vibes and thats why we say places are haunted and stuff.

  12. I knew that this old guy too suspicious. How can be this instance so easy and short.

    I’m an atheist and this is also mean that I don’t believe in everything what have connect with Supernatural. I don’t believe in things which I can’t explain with science.( so, I am a damn sceptic ) Don’t take it like personal humiliation, I just think so.

  13. “Xiao Lan naturally wouldn’t be so dumb as to try and see if his protagonist halo was useful.” Oh wow, is this what you called breaking fourth wall

    Thank you for your beautiful translation!

  14. Personally, I also don’t think that there are ghosts like in this chapter. However, you should stay away from places where many people suffered and/or died. Sanitariums can also feel strange, as if the place were haunted, because the walls of these buildings seem to absorb the desperate feelings of the soul. At least, to me it feels this way. Nature has it’s spirit and you need to trust your intuition in some places, else it can be quite unsettling.

  15. I grew up in a haunted house that was well known in my area and have had way too many experiences to not believe in something lol. It’s led me to be pretty open minded. This is probably the reason why I have a love for supernatural themed novels.Thank you for the chapter!!

  16. Thanks for the translation! For me, it’s not like I wanted to believe it, but I have experienced too many strange things in my life that I had to believe, you know?

    Seeing unfamiliar figures walking inside my house, getting ‘lost’ in a beach (long story), hearing my little brother suddenly speak to me in his sleep with an old man’s voice that is definitely not his… Well, yeah. That’s just a little bit of them.

  17. I believe in djinns, and as long as you’re not afraid of them, they can’t bring terror in your life (although they can fuck your life up in other ways)

    Thanks for the chapter! 😘

  18. Thanks for the chapters, about supernatural honestly I live in Indonesia, at Mid Java, And there, supernatural things are quite common, my family actually one of Paranormal family, that deal with supernatural things and honestly i have seen those things that we called ghost too, idk What u guys think about my statement but… im not mentally ill, okay?😭🤣

  19. Thanks for the chapter ~

    I don’t believe in God or ghosts, but I believe in supernatural entities with origins in nature

  20. Rather than ghosts, I believe that there are supernatural existences and occurrences. The world is too wide for only humans, plants, and animals to exist, after all. There’s also the unexplored deep sea and undiscoverd extraterrestrial creatures. I am sure there are still a lot of things that humans are yet to discover or will never discover. There are endless possibilities. We, as human, cannot judge the limits of the world we were born in.

  21. I straight up believe I these things. My father had actually seen shadow figures. I’ve also seen lill movements In the corner of my eye. Also experience someone I like to call first cat on my bed. It’s when I feel a cat step on my bed even no cats there. And lets not forget the bugs I see even though they’re not there.

  22. not a big fan of ghosts but urban legends sure do have their own origins… Also if you’re really curious you can just try a summoning ghost game, although if it succeeds… good luck… anyway I won’t be on of those brave people, if you don’t do some dumb sh!t then you won’t die because of it, there are causes and consequences to everything…

  23. I did have some supernatural encounter when I was young… I was lying on the bed while observing the clock on the wall then I suddenly heard someone trying to get my attention like “….pssst..pssst”. It was coming from a direction in a corner where they’s only a mini fridge and a pretty much forever locked door leading to some balcony fenced with barbs etc.. I was scared dared not to look over where the sound was coming from and just shut my eye and fell asleep wew