Chapter 11: The Anomaly-Jogadores, embarquem(Montanha Haiyan)

Liu Jia stared at him in shock, and even Professor Han furrowed his brows to look over. Those who understood, understood; those who didn’t, gazed out the window. “What’s there?”

“I was mistaken,” Xu Huo withdrew his gaze, having obtained the answer he sought.

Liu Jia grew uneasy, but Professor Han gently patted her shoulder to reassure her.

The suffocating night descended once more.

This darkness came faster than before—almost an instant transition from day to night. The train was submerged in silence; all sounds softened.

But the quiet lasted only minutes. Suddenly, the train shook violently for over ten seconds, and fierce fighting erupted simultaneously in the front and rear carriages. From the third-class carriage came beast-like roars.

“They’re inside!” Liu Jia cried out, voice trembling.

“Don’t panic, those are human voices!” Professor Han raised his voice. “Everyone, stay put! Block the front and rear doors first!”

Professor Han and Liu Jia barricaded the front door with tables and chairs. Yan Jiayu dragged another table toward the rear door. Amidst the chaotic footsteps, the sound of flesh being torn and swallowed echoed through the carriage.

Xu Huo instinctively froze, then charged toward the source of the noise. But someone was faster—Yan Jiayu swept past him like a gust of wind, and immediately after, Li Fei screamed in agony!

Li Fei was not dead. Fighting desperately, he kicked Yan Jiayu away, but the object thrust into his abdomen was the detached table leg Yan Jiayu wielded. It tore a large hole in his belly, and feeling something leaking out, he staggered and collapsed to his knees.

At the same moment, Xu Huo caught the falling Yan Jiayu and was about to speak when suddenly the lights in the third-class carriage flickered on!

“Bang!”

The sound of shattering glass rang out repeatedly, but the lights went out again in an instant. In that brief blink, Xu Huo caught sight of the “monsters” pressed against the window glass!

The night’s earlier jolts were caused by these creatures boarding the train. Countless grotesque, deformed faces snarled hideously against the glass. Their humanoid limbs were pale and slender, tangled together like a swarm of locusts wrapping the carriage tightly. Two large, sunken eyes stared blankly but intently inside, saliva dripping from their mouths as if awaiting a signal to strike.

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But the signal had come!

“Bang!” A flash of light awakened the monsters outside. The glass shattered, and instead of a gust caused by the train’s movement, several creatures lunged inside!

Heavy thuds echoed from different directions, accompanied by screams. With keen hearing, Xu Huo discerned dragging and tearing sounds. Li Fei, beside him, was dragged away before he could even cry out. The chilling sound of swallowing was unlike the earlier flesh-eating players.

“What the hell are these things!” Terrified screams broke out one after another. Chaos engulfed the carriage as a rising stench of blood and decay spread. Xu Huo retreated to the rear door, grabbing a nearby table to shield against the gusts whipping toward him. The collision with the carriage wall sent him and the table crashing down, a foul wind slicing past. He crouched as claws scraped harshly against metal.

Seizing the moment, he used the table to shove the monster off him. Yan Jiayu, nearby, accurately located another creature by sound and stabbed it with the broken table leg.

With a strange, sharp shriek, the creature clutched the leg and clattered toward the window, attempting to escape. Xu Huo moved after it but was suddenly brushed by a gust that grazed his shoulder as the ceiling above slammed loudly.

Evolved humans are faster than ordinary people, and Xu Huo’s reflexes were sharp. He spun around and grabbed the attacker’s ankle.

But in the next instant, a monstrous force kicked him away. Sensing pursuit, Xu Huo rolled upon landing and kicked over a toppled table and chairs.

The creature impaled itself on a table leg, howling pitifully as it writhed on the floor.

Though startled by the light, the monsters, surely attracted by the scent of blood, kept coming relentlessly. Xu Huo shouted to Yan Jiayu, “Let’s block the windows together!”

Yan Jiayu immediately lifted the table, pushing it with the impaled monster toward the window to seal the broken glass.

As the steel pressed against the hole, a crushing pressure bore down on them. Outside, ripping and swallowing sounds intensified, and the foul stench seeped in.

The monsters outside grew more restless. Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu dared not loosen their grip, uncertain how many creatures remained inside the carriage.

“Liu Jia, how many monsters are still inside?” Professor Han shouted amid the turmoil.

Startled out of her stupor, Liu Jia realized that all the corpses inside had vanished within moments. Bloodied trails marked the floor and walls. The worm-like swarming monsters not only devoured the dead but also their wounded comrades, smearing blood and guts across the windows.

Liu Jia nearly vomited and instinctively sought Professor Han’s side. Turning, she saw a monster lunging at his back.

“Professor, watch out!”

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The inhuman creature opened its mouth to a grotesque angle, its entire gums protruding, dripping with sticky saliva as it clamped down on the back of Professor Han’s neck.

Alerted by the warning, Han swayed but was still bitten on the shoulder. Overwhelmed by searing pain and weight, he was forced into a half-kneeling position, realizing escape was impossible. With the monster on his back, he charged toward the window.

Misjudging the distance, he prepared to crawl forward, but suddenly a hand gripped his shoulder, forcing the creature’s jaws apart.

Unaware of the situation, the others looked on, but Liu Jia saw that it was the elderly man in military uniform who saved Professor Han. His eyes bloodshot, saliva dripping from his mouth, his fierce expression was eerily similar to the restrained monster’s.

Liu Jia covered her mouth, unwilling to expose this, but the old man glanced back at her, mumbling incomprehensibly before leaping out the window—monster in arms.

Blood splattered everywhere. Trembling, Liu Jia cried, “Quick! Block the window! The old man jumped out holding the monster!”

At the window, Professor Han grabbed a table, pressing it against the hole with his back, bracing until the shaking subsided. Then he asked, “Are there any more of those monsters inside?”

“No more…” Liu Jia scanned the carriage, her throat tightening. “Professor, He Yang is missing, and so is Li Fei…”

“Li Fei was a flesh-eating player,” Xu Huo interjected. “How many are left now? Yan Jiayu and I are fine.”

“I’m okay too,” a trembling middle-aged woman’s voice came from a corner, followed by the heavily made-up woman and Wang Xiaohui. All three were deeply frightened.

He Yang’s disappearance was mysterious, and Liu Jia found it hard to accept. She said, confused, “Maybe she, like the old man, turned into one of those monsters…”

“Turned into a monster?” Xu Huo immediately asked, “What do you mean?”

He could roughly guess from what had just transpired. He had heard the old man’s last words—“I wanted to see my granddaughter once more”—and assumed the man chose to perish alongside the monster to save others.

“That old man… when he saved Professor Han, he also became a little like those creatures…” Liu Jia paused, then in terror said, “Could it be that we’re all turning into those monsters?”