Bai Liu’s figure disappeared completely as Mu Sicheng jumped frantically.
Mu Sicheng bit his fingernails and circled the place where Bai Liu disappeared a few times anxiously. He crouched down, grabbed his hair and crushed the lollipop in his mouth. Finally he gritted his teeth, clicked on the icon of Exploding Last Train and followed Bai Liu into the game.
One second before entering the game, Mu Sicheng talked to himself in a depressed manner. “Damn Bai Liu, this guy made me curious too. I didn’t do anything to prepare for a level 2 game!”
[The game ‘Exploding Last Train’ has gathered two players. Five more players are needed for it to start.]
Two minutes after Mu Sicheng disappeared, four players with almost the same height, figure and appearance showed up in front of the screen.
They all had weird puppet paint on their faces and they walked like puppets being led on strings. Every step they took had a strange sense of pause in their limbs and joints. They looked like four identical puppets made by a skilled craftsman and it was hard to tell the difference using the naked eye.
The first person, or puppet, asked in a low tone, “Bai Liu entered this game?”
When this ‘puppet’ spoke, his mouth moved up and down a lot like a puppet pretending to speak under the control of strings while the low and hoarse voice came from the one lifting the string behind him.
A hint of a desire for revenge flashed in the eyes of another puppet carrying a butcher knife on his back as he respectfully replied, “Yes, Mr String Puppet Master.”
“Is this Exploding Last Train?” The ink painted eyes on the puppet’s face narrowed realistically before he gave a vicious smile. “A level two game. It seems that even if I don’t fight against Bai Liu, he is unlikely to come out alive from this game. It is a pity for such a high talent to die. He should just be used as my puppet.”
“Go!”
The four puppets acted neatly together as they clicked on Exploding Last Train and disappeared together.
[The game ‘Exploding Last Train’ has gathered six players. One more player is needed for it to start.]
A person wearing a sweater, thick plain glasses and holding a thick tome in his hand appeared at the screen next to the entrance.
His thick square glasses were so big that they covered half his face. The lower half of the face exposed by the glasses had scattered freckles on the bridge of his nose. His head was shrinking down into his sweater. If Bai Liu saw him then he would think this player was similar to Jeff in Siren Town.
However, he looked weaker and more normal than Jeff. He seemed to be a normal student. Yet in the game, a normally dressed student seemed strangely abnormal.
“Let’s see what game I should choose…” The player pushed up his glasses and looked closely at the screen like he was wearing reading glasses. Then he opened the management panel of his game manager.
The personal panel of his game manager showed:
[Player Name: Du Sanying]
[Today’s Rising Stars Points Ranking: You have surpassed Mu Sicheng’s 170,000 points, who is fourth on the rising stars ranking. He will definitely not be able to catch up with you in the short term. Please continue to work hard to widen the gap and catch up with the players in front of you.]
[Achievements: Winner who did nothing, the only lucky one who survives, the player who is ignored by monsters for no reason, the fighter who attacked you missed 100 shots.]
[The items you bought in the game store are being discounted from 10,000 points to 1 point. Do you want to buy them?]
[Congratulations to player Du Sanying for winning the top player gift package with a winning rate of one in 100,000! Do you want to receive it now?]
……
Du Sanying seemed to have become numb to these windfalls. He didn’t receive any of the rewards or gifts. He crossed out of all these interfaces until he reached his personal panel on the last page. Du Sanying pushed up his glasses and almost pushed his face to the panel. He squinted as he searched for the information he wanted.
[Luck value: 100 (You are the luckiest person in the world today. You are favoured by the god of luck. Choose the game you want according to your instinct! The one you choose will make you the luckiest!)]
“The luck value is also 100 today?” Du Sanying glanced hesitantly at the entire screen. “In that case, it is better to choose according to intuition. Then—”
He glanced around and his eyes finally froze on the icon of Exploding Last Train. Du Sanying’s hand hung above the icon and a creepy premonition surged in his heart. It seemed that if he clicked on this icon, something very lucky and very unlucky would happen. This was a feeling that Du Sanying had never felt before when choosing a game as he was 100% lucky.
Previously, he always had a certain feeling that he would be lucky if he chose a certain game. Why did he feel that he would suffer a lot if he chose this game but at the same time, he would be very lucky…
It was a mess. Du Sanying shook his head and hesitated a long time. Even so, he still clicked on the game icon of Exploding Last Train.
[All players have been gathered for the game Exploding Last Train. The game will start.]
On the big screen, the ‘full’ mark appeared in the lower right corner of the Exploding Last Train icon. The next second, Bai Liu opened his eyes in a subway station. At the same time, seven small TVs lit up in the game hall. One of them showed Bai Liu’s calm face in a crowded subway station.
Wang Shun was looking for Bai Liu in the game hall when his game manager shook again and again.
[System tip: Bai Liu, the player whose small TV you have bookmarked, has logged into the game. Please go and be a viewer~]
[System tip: Mu Sicheng, the player whose small TV…]
[System tip: String Puppet Master, the player whose small TV…]
[System tip: Du Sanying, the player whose small TV…]
“No way…” Wang Shun was in an unprecedented trance after checking all the messages in his game manager. “Fuck. Bai Liu, the third and fourth on the rising stars ranking and String Puppet Master actually entered the same multiplayer game. This is a fight between gods…”
Bai Liu received the system reminders the moment he opened his eyes.
[Welcome players to Exploding Last Train.]
[You are a passenger. Please use the ticket in your pocket to enter the station within 10 minutes and wait to board the last train that is going to explode.]
Bai Liu reached into the pockets of his suit pants and took out a thin, hard subway ticket that said ‘Metro Line 4: Antique City → Antique City’. Bai Liu raised an eyebrow with slight surprise. The departure station and end station of this ticket actually had the same name. If it wasn’t a case where two platforms had the same name then…
Bai Liu turned his head and looked inside the subway station, trying to find the subway line map. Soon, Bai Liu saw the subway map next to the ticket booth. Line 4 was a very eye-catching red line. Bai Liu instantly found this subway line on the route map.
“Sure enough, Line 4 is a closed-loop subway line.” Bai Liu observed the red Line 4 that went around the city. “The starting station and the terminal station are the same. This station is called Antique City.”
Bai Liu wandered around the subway station. Apart from a few s, no other extra information was found. The only thing he felt was a bit strange was the design of the subway station. Generally speaking, there would be escalators at both the exit and entrance of the station.
In order to facilitate the flow of passengers, the escalator at the exit should go up while the escalator at the entrance should go down. However, the design of the subway station here was reversed and this made Bai Liu feel it was a bit unnatural.
Another thing that Bai Liu found strange was the LED electronic clock at the top of the subway station.
[7:34]
It seemed normal but Bai Liu looked at it several times. He found that the time wasn’t going forward but was going back. In Bai Liu’s eyes, it became 7:12 in the blink of an eye and this made him react quickly.
“This is a countdown, not a clock.” Bai Liu was thoughtful. “It seems to be giving me the countdown. I have six minutes left to enter the station.”
Despite there being only six or seven minutes left, Bai Liu wasn’t in a hurry. He went out of the subway station and found that it was dark outside with no sound, no light, nothing. The passengers who walked into the pitch black night disappeared. Bai Liu didn’t try to walk out. He turned back and found that the countdown of the clock had become 3:02.
Bai Liu slowly looked at the map again. This time, he focused on the names of the stations on Line 4. The station after Antique City was Reservoir and there was also a Mirror Museum a few platforms away. This platform attracted Bai Liu’s attention.
“The name Mirror Museum…” Bai Liu’s gaze fell on it and he seemed caught up in a memory. “Why do I feel like I have heard this name…?”
Bai Liu was recalling where he had heard this name when a male voice interrupted his memory. “Damn! Bai Liu! Why haven’t you come in yet?!” Mu Sicheng looked back from the platform and saw Bai Liu touching his chin while looking at the subway map. Mu Sicheng narrowed his eyes and walked over. “There is a bit more than a minute left. What are you doing here? Are you remembering the map?”
Bai Liu wasn’t surprised that Mu Sicheng would chase him into the game. He glanced at the red LED light of the countdown and answered Mu Sicheng. “I think I’ve been to this place…”
Mu Sicheng was startled. “Have you played this game?” Then he quickly denied it. “Impossible, you are a newcomer.”
“Yes, I haven’t been to this place in the game.” Bai Liu admitted it.
Mu Sicheng frowned at Bai Liu. “Then how could you come to this place…”
“I haven’t been to this place in the game but that doesn’t mean I haven’t come to this place. I think I should’ve been to this place in reality.” Bai Liu retracted his gaze from the subway line.
“Reality?” Mu Sicheng was shocked. “You’ve been to this subway station in reality? How do you know?”
“If I’m not mistaken, this should be a horror game based on real-life events. Have you heard of the Mirror City Bombing?”
“Are you talking about how two thieves hid a bomb in an antique mirror? They were preparing to bring it to the local museum to rob the museum using a bomb threat. As a result, the bomb went out of control on the way and the entire subway train exploded?”
Bai Liu walked as he talked with Mu Sicheng. He took out the ticket and there was a beep as he smoothly entered the station. “I studied the distribution of the subway stations just now on the subway map. This game was probably designed based on the Mirror City Bombing.”
“I have heard of it…” Mu Sicheng took out the ticket and followed him into the station. “Still, it is useless even if you know it. The case had a significant impact but I still don’t know how the perpetrators hid the bomb in a mirror and escaped the security check. A lot of information hasn’t been released to the public.”
Mu Sicheng finished analyzing it and spoke noncommittally. “Even if we know the game’s reference, we don’t know what happened on the last train to make it explode and we don’t know the details. We only know the inspiration. It is useless.”
“I might know what is going to happen…” Bai Liu touched his nose and smiled at Mu Sicheng. “I was on the subway that day and I got off at the stop before the explosion.”
Mu Sicheng, “……”
Bai Liu shrugged innocently and spoke kindly to the shocked Mu Sicheng. “Isn’t this a good deal? Can’t you use this important information to clear the instance?”
“Mu Sicheng, I can tell you everything I know but it isn’t for free. If you don’t believe me then you can verify if I’m telling the truth or not. I remember you have an item to detect lies.”
Proofreader: Purichan
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