Puppet Zhang snorted proudly. “An idiot is an idiot. One of the three people is Bai Liu. This guy has very poor panel attributes and his movement speed isn’t as fast as all of you under my control. He can’t search the carriage faster than you.”
“Mu Sicheng moves fast but his intelligence isn’t as high as Bai Liu’s intelligence. When it comes to finding things, he can’t compare to me who has intelligence and you puppet players. Unless those two people unite, I must be the fastest player to search the carriages.”
“However, those two definitely won’t cooperate.” Puppet Zhang’s smile became malicious as he casually kicked one of the puppets in front of him. The puppet fell as he was kicked, bowing his head and kneeling in front of Puppet Zhang.
Puppet Zhang stepped carelessly on the kneeling puppet’s back, lowering his head as he approached the puppet in front of him with a smile. “Right, Mu Sicheng’s one-time good friend, Lin Huai?”
The puppet player called Lin Huai said nothing, his limbs trembling slightly.
“I specifically brought you with me because I knew this game will have Mu Sicheng.” Puppet Zhang smiled. “Mu Sicheng wouldn’t think that you have become my puppet player, right?”
“He almost became my puppet because of your betrayal but in the end, Mu Sicheng’s mental value fell to 18 and he violently attacked me. He violently killed my four puppets and escaped. So many of my puppet players died that I had to take you as one.”
“Still, it is good to be my puppet. You must be happy too. Wait until you see Mu Sicheng and remember to give a good performance to disturb his mind, understand? If you let him run away then the fate waiting for you isn’t something as good as being my puppet.”
Puppet Zhang spoke while patting Lin Huai’s face with his hand. Lin Huai’s puppet face was constantly sweating and he didn’t dare say a word.
Puppet Zhang seemed to feel bored and quickly withdrew his hand. “Mu Sicheng will never cooperate with anyone let alone Bai Liu who obviously has a lot of thoughts. Even if Bai Liu intends to cooperate, Mu Sicheng will definitely disobey. These two people, whether alone or cooperating, can’t search the carriages faster than me. We should be the fastest players in the game but we still can’t find any. There are only two possibilities—”
He raised two fingers and explained, “The first possibility is that the broken lenses needing to be collected aren’t on the train at all.”
“The other one—” Puppet Zhang’s eyes narrowed meaningfully “There are seven players in the game. Mu Sicheng, Bai Liu, the three of you and I occupy six players. There is one more spot left. If the player who entered later has the ability to find all the broken lenses before us then it is a possibility.”
Li Gou might be scared but he still raised his head and asked in a confused manner, “Master, we have searched half the train at full speed and haven’t seen any lenses. It is impossible for all the lenses to be in the other half of the train and they also happened to be collected by the last player who came in, right?”
“Why is it impossible?” Puppet Zhang gritted his teeth a bit as he spoke this person’s name. “If the last person who entered is Du Sanying then it is possible for all the broken lenses to be piled up in front of him, waiting for him to pick them up!”
Bai Liu glanced at Du Sanying behind him. Du Sanying was searching the seats one by one in a distressed manner. He didn’t find any broken lenses but had already followed Bai Liu and the others through two carriages.
“No…” Du Sanying murmured to himself. He felt it was really strange. “How come a broken lens hasn’t been found?”
He had done this type of collection task before. This was the first time he looked for so long while being empty-handed.
Du Sanying pushed up his glasses and clicked on his game manager to check that his luck value was still 100%. Then he became deeply confused. How could this be? His 100% luck value had always been good at finding something…
Du Sanying had a strong hunch that he could successfully pass the level with Bai Liu. It might be accompanied by a sense of discomfort that made him feel creepy but Du Sanying never doubted his own intuition. His instincts told him that he would be able to clear the level with Bai Liu and it would definitely be the case.
Bai Liu saw Du Sanying checking the luck value on the panel and turned to speak to Mu Sicheng confidently. “There are no broken lenses on the train.”
Mu Sicheng had given up on understanding Bai Liu’s thinking process and directly asked, “Why?”
“If there are broken lenses on the train, it is impossible that Du Sanying who has 100% luck hasn’t found one yet.”
Mu Sicheng raised his eyebrow. “Did you forget that there is the puppet master in this game? Du Sanying might be really good at finding things but there are four people on the puppet master’s side and the puppet players move very quickly under his control. It is very likely that they can find the broken lenses on the train ahead of us.”
“It is unlikely.” Bai Liu shook his head. “First, you mentioned that Du Sanying’s luck value has the advantage in this game. Second, if the puppet master had found the broken lenses and determined the key to this game then he would probably attack us. We have walked through so many carriages without encountering them. I think they are deliberately avoiding us to avoid conflict. It doesn’t seem like they can find them.”
Mu Sicheng hugged his chest and gave a somewhat sarcastic laugh. “You smart people can understand each other and you all like to play this game.”
“I don’t like his style.” Bai Liu understood Mu Sicheng’s ridicule and clarified for himself. “If I need a person to cooperate with me then I will let him cooperate with me willingly.”
“Just like I’m working with you right?” Mu Sicheng said with a false smile. “Bai Liu, this type of verbal agreement between you and I isn’t very strong.”
“It is a money transaction.” Bai Liu emphasized and smiled slightly. “You gave me one point, Mu Sicheng.”
Mu Sicheng smiled mockingly and didn’t care much about this matter. “So if there are no broken lenses on the train as you said, where will they be? Outside the train? At the subway station? Do we have to wait until we get off the train and go to the subway station to find them?”
Bai Liu touched his chin and thought for a moment. “Actually, I think the possibility of the broken lenses being in the subway station is very small.”
“It isn’t on the train or outside the train. The map is so big.” Mu Sicheng spread open his hands. “Then where do you think it will be?”
Bai Liu didn’t answer because the train arrived and the female voice on the train’s intercom interrupted him as his lips slightly opened. “The train has arrived at Mirror City Museum. Passengers who need to get off at this station should get off the train in an orderly manner. Passengers who need to get on the train at this station should get on in an orderly manner…”
The train doors slowly opened. Mu Sicheng and Du Sanying saw something outside the train and their faces changed in an instant. Bai Liu maintained his indifferent expression like he already expected it.
On the platform outside the train doors were various scorched corpses. Some of the corpses had their eyeballs burned while others had shrunken limbs and exposed teeth.
The weird thing was that these corpses maintained normal human actions. One of the corpses was looking down at his watch even though the watch on his wrist had long been burned to the point where no trace could be seen.
These burned passengers were densely distributed throughout the subway station. As the door opened, they raised their heads and their black eyes stared at Bai Liu’s group on the train. Du Sanying couldn’t help gulping and backed away to stick to the train window.
The subway station was a mess. There were blackened charcoal traces everywhere from the fire and the smell of charred human flesh was so strong that it made the throat itch.
Du Sanying weakly hid behind Bai Liu and asked in a low voice, “B-Bai Liu, do you think this is a cutscene as well? Will they attack people?”
“I probably wouldn’t design two similar cut-scenes.” Bai Liu answered. “It is too boring and a waste of time.”
Du Sanying became weaker and weaker. His hairs were standing up and a feeling of danger made him want to escape.
However, once he left Bai Liu, the misfortune that he was likely to die hung over Du Sanying like a shadow. Du Sanying now felt that he couldn’t go, nor would he go, so he could only tearfully ask, “Bai Liu, how would you design it?”
“If it were me…” Bai Liu quickly searched for items in his system interface while talking. He found the tool he was looking for and continued to speak. “I would probably design a very dangerous train chase to add excitement at the beginning of the game.”
Mu Sicheng understood Bai Liu’s meaning. He stared at the burned corpses outside the doors with a dark expression.
This was going to be a chase.
Proofreader: Purichan
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