The seats had not been adjusted the night before, and the train attendants hadn’t asked them to vote for who they suspected, but players still died.
The dead person was He Mei.
Early in the morning of the fifth day, He Mei was found hanging above the door of the rear compartment. Her head hung limply from her broken neck, and blood dripped down her hair, forming a small pool on the ground.
The corpse was handled by Bodybuilder-xiansheng again. He Mei, who had had to ask people to loan her luggage to get food, had no luggage left, so Bodybuilder-xiansheng didn’t get any “trophies” for dealing with the corpse that time.
Afterwards, the players remained seated to discuss the cause of He Mei’s death.
Although the “rules” were entirely up to the train attendants, there were concrete guidelines to follow. The unknown was much more frightening than facing death after breaking the rules.
One player said, “The only special thing seems to be that she took someone else’s luggage last night?”
Shen Qingcheng actively joined the discussion, “I don’t think so, didn’t Jin Da also steal our bricks?”
After speaking, he turned to Lu Qi for approval, “Right?”
Lu Qi nodded, “The storyline or rules of difficult copies won’t be too complicated. Just having someone else’s luggage definitely wouldn’t be the reason for He Mei’s death.”
Shen Qingcheng: “At the same time, we can also rule out the possibility that it was because of exchanging other people’s luggage for food, for the same reason.”
Not only did they have Jin Da’s bricks, but they also ate food they traded Jin Da’s bricks for, and they were still alive and well.
So He Mei, who had used Lin Wen’s luggage for food, wouldn’t have died because of that.
Jin Da: Humph, now they admit that they were his bricks! He gritted his teeth.
Hearing the words, the girl with short, ear-length hair, “Then, was it because she tried to steal?”
The girl’s mood was very complicated. She had really hated that person because of the other party’s behavior of grabbing her luggage the previous night, but today that person had died.
People are so strange. If the other party was alive, she would definitely continue to hate and be vigilant towards the other party. However, because she had died, her negative emotions had been reduced a lot.
Shen Qingcheng: “It’s unlikely, Bodybuilder-xiansheng also stole a lot of people’s luggage.”
Being asked to give luggage and being beaten up if it wasn’t handed over was also a different kind of robbery.
The tall, muscular man sitting in the front suddenly realized that “Bodybuilder-xiansheng” was referring to himself: “???”
He couldn’t get angry. No matter how he looked at it, being called Bodybuilder-xiansheng was a compliment. He was really good-looking, and even his words were nice to hear~
Shen Qingcheng: “And every rule announced by the train attendant so far was aimed at alienating the players from each other. If a conflict broke out between us, he would probably be very happy.”
The players thought to themselves: they didn’t know if the train attendants were happy or not, but he seemed quite happy.
Shen Qingcheng was very happy, he had understood why He Mei died.
Lu Qi had put a knife to Jin Da’s neck, he had put a knife in Jin Da’s hand, and Bodybuilder-xiansheng had beaten up more than one person, but why had nothing happened to him, Lu Qi, and Bodybuilder-xiansheng?
Was there a difference between He Mei grabbing the girl’s luggage and the previous conflicts?
Yes, the previous conflict involved only people from the two sides of the conflict, but He Mei’s also involved Lin Wen.
He told Lu Qi his guess.
Lu Qi pondered for a moment and said, “You’re half right.”
Shen Qingcheng was puzzled.
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.
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Ojc Wle’fg, ktb kjr revvfcis wfcalbcfv ys cjwf, teuufv tfg mtliv jcv rtbbx.
Ktf kbwjc tjv jrxfv Ojc Wle’fg obg tfiq, yea Ojc Wle’fg tjv gfoerfv. Ktf akb tjv atfc tjv j vlrqeaf, jcv la kjr Vtfc Hlcumtfcu tlwrfio ktb fcvfv atf jiafgmjalbc.
That incident was very similar to what happened to He Mei.
Except for the different purposes, the request for help, the dispute, the third-party intervention, and the fact that the intervening party was injured, were all exactly the same.
More importantly, both the woman and He Mei were dead.
Forgetting about the existence of other players, Shen Qingcheng only discussed with Lu Qi, “But the woman should have been sitting at the back that night.”
That made it impossible to tell whether the woman had died for breaking the rules, for suspecting others, or both.
Lu Qi reminded, “Don’t forget Zhonglou.”
Were player conflicts related to Zhonglou?
Shen Qingcheng’s eyebrows wrinkled in confusion–what was the connection?
During their conversation, the two did not deliberately lower their volume. While the other people in the front understood the first half, not only Shen Qingcheng, but also everyone else, couldn’t understand the last sentence.
However, after knowing why He Mei had died, the players quieted down again.
The calm did not last long.
The time had almost reached the end of the copy time limit, and the number of players who had exhausted all their luggage had begun to increase, from 1 at noon to 4 in the evening.
11 players; if the mother and son pair of Lan Xiu’er and her child were counted as one, 4 of the 10 players had no food to eat.
The players were naturally divided into two groups, one with food and one without food.
Those who had food would not be united, and those who did not have food would naturally band together.
Such a group of people, if they identified a target they wanted to take from, no doubt no one could stop them.
Fortunately, they didn’t do it.
The train attendant appeared again that night, and he brought good news to everyone, “The day after tomorrow… the Harmony will arrive at… the last stop…”
The final stop, Tushan, they were almost there!
Some players shouted out excitedly. Living on the train was really not fucking living like a human, they didn’t even care about clearing customs now, just let them leave this copy!
Then the train attendant added another sentence: he said, “I hope everyone… can live until the day after tomorrow…”
Exaggerated smiles were off-putting.
The train attendant did not announce the rules, stating that there would be no voting that night.
But what he said still weighed heavily on the hearts of every player.
With their abnormal hunger rate, it would be difficult for players without food to persist until the day after tomorrow.
On the sixth day of the copy, no players died, but the atmosphere in the car was more tense than ever.
The players who hadn’t eaten for many days were almost red-eyed with hunger; what was worse was that their limited luggage was still dwindling rapidly.
A player who couldn’t stand it stood up and said, “It will be too late if we wait any longer!”
When all the luggage was exhausted, those who had begun starving first would be the first to be unable to hold on. Seeing that he would survive if he just reached the last station, how could he give up at this point?
Lin Wen lowered his head silently. Even at this point, he was reluctant to steal other people’s food.
Lan Xiu’er secretly raised her vigilance. She, a woman with a child, would probably be the first to be targeted.
At this time:
Shen Qingcheng: “Lin Wen.”
Shen Qingcheng glanced sideways at Lu Qi, saw Lu Qi nod, and dragged a woven bag out from under the chair.
He kicked the bag and said, “We have extra, we’ll just give this to you.” There was still half a bag of bricks inside.
Lin Wen left his seat and took two excited steps, his voice trembling, “You’re giving it to me?”
Lu Qi: “Do what you want.”
The implication was that even if Lin Wen wanted to distribute these bricks to other players, they had no problem with it.
Lin Wen’s eyes were slightly red, and he said hoarsely, “Thank you.”
He evenly distributed those bricks to every player who had no food. Although these bricks could not keep them full, they would definitely last until tomorrow if they scrimped a little.
The atmosphere in the car was a lot more relaxed for everyone, whether it was those who had been given bricks or those who had been vigilant of being robbed.
Most of the players who were allocated bricks came to thank Shen Qingcheng and Lu Qi, except Jin Da.
These bricks were originally his, so why would he need to thank them?!
In his seat, Shen Qingcheng asked, “Can we really clear the copy tomorrow?”
They sat the furthest back of all the players, and they wouldn’t be the ones to pass first.
Lu Qi: “Worried?”
Shen Qingcheng lowered his eyes, “I just think it’s too simple.”
The high-difficulty special copy was not even comparable in difficulty to “Masquerade”.
In the past few days of the copy time, there were almost no other accidents except for some perils during the night, and the train attendants warned about the dangers at night in advance–if the “rules” of the train attendants were not followed, something would happen in the night.
This was the first point, and the second point was that there were many questions that could not be explained.
Although this copy did not require them to solve the storyline, the storyline objectively existed. Even if they did not solve it, it would definitely exist.
But he couldn’t figure out the storyline in this copy.
There were three stations, starting from Fengshan South Station, then Zhonglou Station, and ending at Tushan Station.
In addition to the Harmony train, there was the town, the townspeople, scarecrows, similar smiling faces, and even the train attendants who were increasingly bloodstained.
The clues were fragmented, and he couldn’t piece together a complete storyline.
He raised his head, his eyes and tone calm, “Also, I can’t tell which one of you is the real you.”
Lu Qi looked back calmly, “Which one do you think is the real me?”
Shen Qingcheng: “Both.”
The Lu Qi outside the window was confirmed with his own eyes, so there could be no mistake, and this one next to him…
This Lu Qi was the Lu Qi he was familiar with. He didn’t think that such a real person, whose language, behavior, and even way of thinking were perfectly in line with his understanding of Lu Qi, was actually a ghost.
Shen Qingcheng: “The copy hinted that the ghosts in this copy are good at disguising themselves and like to play with people’s hearts.”
The ghosts were playing with the players’ hearts and humanity, so what was it disguised as?
The conversation stopped here, and no one spoke after that.
Shen Qingcheng didn’t ask if Lu Qi was a ghost in disguise, and Lu Qi didn’t say anything to explain himself.
The seventh day of the copy.
Shen Qingcheng was awakened by a burst of cheers. He opened his eyes and was confused for a while, until he realized that the train seemed to have stopped.
The platform was clean and tidy, and one big word–“Tushan”–was printed on the blue station sign.
Lu Qi, who was standing in front of the window, seemed to have realized that he was awake. He turned back to him and said softly, “We’ve arrived.”
The door was already open, and the lucky guy sitting at the front got out of the car first with suppressed excitement.
After a while, he turned around and waved to the people in the car, quickly disappearing in a flash of light.
The players’ terminals sounded a familiar beep.
Someone had passed the copy!
Players opened their terminals one after another and chose to directly leave the copy.
So more flares of light appeared, and more players disappeared.
Shen Qingcheng didn’t read the message on his terminal.
He got up and rubbed his stiff neck, then asked the person by the window, “What is the name of this copy?”
Lu Qi only said, “Believe in yourself.”
Shen Qingcheng looked at him, “The name of the copy is ‘Death Route’. ”
The ghosts gave the players customized death routes.
He smiled at the man, the corners of his mouth curving only slightly, and said softly, “See you later.”
Under the bright light, the man’s handsome eyebrows were faintly shadowed, and his eyes were as usual.
The door was in the front of the car, but Shen Qingcheng turned and walked towards the rear compartment.
There were players’ corpses hanging there almost every morning, sometimes one, sometimes two.
If someone looked from the outside at this time, they would find that the train was parked on an empty track, with bright lights illuminating the front of the train, while the rear half was shrouded in a layer of fog that made it difficult to see.
He closed his eyes.
One step, two steps, three steps… until he touched a warm chest.
Shen Qingcheng reached out and hugged the other person.
Interesting!
I am immensely confused lol
Thanks for the chapter!
I am very confused.
Also, imagine that he hugged a random person instead of his beau lmao
Yeah, don’t understand anything
Thank you for your translation 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Awwww! I’m also confused, but awwww!
Thank you for the update.
So confusing
Thanks for the chaoter
Great….I’m beyond confused😅
Thanks for the chapter!
Wonder how did Lu Qi end up there? Thank you for the chapter(◍•ᴗ•◍)❤
Confused and wanting answers! Thanks for the update 🤣❤️❤️
all of it were just an illusion, like what said on the other chapter if Shen Qingcheng blood doesn’t work on ghost then it simply didn’t exist.
I’m also confused. Hoping everything can be explained next chapter😵💫
huh??? what happened sob- i’m so confused
thank you for the chapter!
Aw does that mean all those other players died or
So if he got off the train he would have fell for the illusion and died?? Thanks for the chapter!!
!!! Major Spoilers !!!
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Just joking, I know it doesn’t happen, our Xiao Mei guessed correctly and he went to meet dog Lu, if he were to guess wrong and actually goes into the ‘exit’ then he will be considered failed cuz he didn’t finish the mission thing, everyone is having hallucinatory dreams like him and it depends on the person to recognize what’s right and what’s wrong (the hallucinations are based on the host’s knowledge, etc Xiao Mei knows how dog Lu act so dog Lu act exactly like how Xiao Mei knows him) also Dog Lu got off wayyy earlier than everybody else, he got off on the 1st day while most people (including Xiao Mei) took 6-7 days to get off the train !!! Another Big Spoiler !!!
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It is because he recognized his feelings for Xiao Mei in this round and he leans over to kiss ‘Xiao Mei’!!! ‘Xiao Mei’ allowed dog Lu to kiss him but dog Lu knows the real Xiao Mei wouldn’t let him kiss him, so he woke up from the dream, now transformed into a wife chasing puppy (not really still the same cold brother Lu but wayyy gentler !!! Spoiler For Arc 4 And Arc 5 !!!)
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In arc 4 he kinda openly shows his love as he said he could carry Xiao Mei if he’s tired or sum, the story starts to get quite sweet. Moving to arc 5 (don’t wanna spoil arc 4 too much, but arc 4 is about education) so then on arc 5 Xiao Mei starts to realize he has feelings for dog Lu too!!! And they even kissed!!! In the sunset!!! In the water!!! Drenched together!!! (It was meant to be passing air to each other, they were crossing through a body of water and Xiao Mei found it hard to breath. When dog Lu was passing air into Xiao Mei, Xiao Mei pretty much took that as a kiss and lingered it until they got out of water xD) arc 5 is about the entertainment industry btw. I think I gave wayyyy too much spoilers but this is the part I’m up to in the MTL translation.
I’m LATE but Thanks for the chapter!
Somehow I forgot about update, but I’m glad I remembered and read it.
I’m still confused but I can’t bring myself to read the MTL translation so I’ll wait patiently for the new chapter.
Eh? So the door is nothing but an illusion…? A death trap? Is the one with him is the ghost? And the real exit is at the rear?😵💫