Chapter 12: The Monster

“Keep your voice down. What if you startle those monsters again?” the middle-aged woman scolded anxiously.

“Those things don’t seem to react to sound,” Yan Jiayu replied. “Yesterday, every carriage had some movement, but they didn’t respond. It was only after the third-class seats turned on the lights—”

So that’s what the rule about lights meant. The second-class seats were barely illuminated by peripheral light, yet that already attracted several monsters. The third-class side must have been completely wiped out.

“This is a scam, isn’t it?” the middle-aged woman complained. “What kind of lousy train is this? They don’t explain anything clearly, just setting us up to die. Who would dare go to the bathroom in the dark at night? Of course, someone would have to turn on the light...”

“Are those monsters really players who transformed?” The heavily made-up woman ignored her and asked, “How could normal people suddenly turn into monsters?”

Outside the carriage, the eerie sound of swallowing had not yet ceased. Players who boarded had fought desperately against the cannibalistic players. Nearly becoming monster food wasn’t bad enough; now there was the possibility that they themselves could mutate into those irrational, grotesque creatures. No one could accept that.

The carriage fell into a heavy silence. After a while, Xu Huo finally spoke, “Liu Jia, my arm is injured. Come help me down.”

Liu Jia hurried over, but just as she touched the table, her hand was grabbed.

Xu Huo traced characters on her palm as he spoke, “Most of the things outside are probably players who have mutated, but that doesn’t mean every player will become like that.”

Actually, without Liu Jia’s input, just from what he saw earlier, he could already guess the true identity of those “monsters.” They looked human-like, but their hands and feet seemed to have secondarily developed, growing abnormally long. Their bodies were desiccated, yet their speed and strength were extraordinary. Essentially, they resembled humans who had evolved.

“My guess is that only the cannibalistic players who didn’t eat after boarding would mutate.”

Everyone there had eaten the food on the train, so that wasn’t the issue. The key must relate to the particular nature of the cannibal players.

After the oval-faced woman died, three people ate—if the old man wasn’t among them, then the mutation’s cause lay there.

“Is the old man a cannibal player? How do you know?”

“How do you know he didn’t eat?”

Yan Jiayu and the heavily made-up woman asked in turn.

“The direction of the bite wound on his shoulder—if someone attacked him head-on, there should be wounds there.” Not only wounds, but scent, fabric of clothing, even the length of hair could provide clues. But the old man only said he was bitten once, nothing more. So the bite marks were most likely self-inflicted to suppress his urge to feed.

“Maybe he was the one who bit off a piece of that woman’s flesh last night. As for the bite wound, there’s another explanation.” The heavily made-up woman looked unconvinced.

“If eating also caused mutation, there’d be more than just him in our carriage tonight,” Xu Huo said coldly.

“He saved my life despite being mutated. I believe in that elder’s character,” Professor Han said.

The heavily made-up woman sneered, “But he’s a cannibal player.”

“He saved someone,” Wang Xiaohui interjected.

“Regardless, the person is dead. Arguing over this is pointless.” The middle-aged woman suddenly braver upon hearing that the monsters were once people and that she herself showed no sign of mutation, clicked her tongue in regret. “It’s such a shame about He Yang, such a young, beautiful girl gone.”

Li Fei was killed by Yan Jiayu, the old man turned into a monster, but He Yang disappeared without a trace, leaving no sign behind. It was unclear whether she was slain by monsters or killed by cannibal players amidst the chaos.

“More important than the dead is the monsters outside,” the heavily made-up woman said. “God knows if they’ll come in again.”

“That dense mass of them...” Suddenly she changed the topic to Liu Jia, “Have the monsters decreased?”

“I don’t know...” Liu Jia answered instinctively, then caught herself and corrected, “No, they’re all lying still, unmoving.”

The heavily made-up woman smiled faintly after a moment. “Your ability is quite impressive—seeing at night.”

Liu Jia’s spirits lifted.

Yesterday, she had been frightened by whatever was outside the window. She saw only Chen Yi attacking Xu Huo. When she came to, the oval-faced woman was already dead. She only caught a glimpse of the heavily made-up woman stepping back from her side, wiping something at her mouth, and the bloodstain vanished without a trace.

She dared not say anything rash, only confided this to Professor Han. The heavily made-up woman, knowing of Liu Jia’s night vision ability, was probing her, probably guessing her power was limited in duration. To protect herself, she would surely strike first!

Liu Jia was terrified but forced herself calm, gesturing Xu Huo about the heavily made-up woman and mentioning that Wang Xiaohui seemed to have some kind of protective shield that blocked attacks. Just now, a monster had tried to bump into her but was repelled.

Xu Huo was surprised. Whether it was a trait or a device, it far exceeded normal physical enhancements. Yet with Wang Xiaohui’s physical condition, mere strength wouldn’t sustain her; this was a tailored solution.

The train rules forbade entering other carriages at will. Wang Xiaohui had broken this rule; what consequences that might bring were unknown.

But since she could still protect herself, it seemed the punishment wasn’t life-threatening.

“How many cannibal players are there in one carriage?” Liu Jia couldn’t help asking. She no longer trusted anyone easily and regretted agreeing to let Wang Xiaohui in.

“About half and half,” Xu Huo said. “Six cannibal players, six ordinary players.”

“How many cannibal players remain here?” the middle-aged woman chimed in.

“There should be two left,” Yan Jiayu said. “Two people died last night, plus Li Fei and that old man—they were cannibal players.”

“The woman who was killed could also have been a cannibal player,” the heavily made-up woman added.

That was uncertain, since she was murdered.

“Liu Jia, did you see anything yesterday?” the heavily made-up woman asked.

Liu Jia tensed but, taking Xu Huo’s hint, said, “I didn’t see. I was scared and was focused on Mr. Xu and Chen Yi who were right in front of me.”

The heavily made-up woman said nothing. Xu Huo followed, “I tend to think that woman was also a cannibal player. When she boarded, she smelled strongly of blood.”

“But now there’s an extra person in our carriage,” the middle-aged woman said.

“I’m not a cannibal player,” Wang Xiaohui explained. “I can’t stand or walk, how could I possibly eat anyone?”

A faint rustling of fabric came in the darkness. After a few seconds, Professor Han said, “There’s still one cannibal player left. But don’t worry too much; we have six of us.”

Though he said this, Professor Han remained worried. He had kept Liu Jia from revealing the monsters’ existence, fearing that in extreme situations, players might act blindly. The third-class carriage’s self-destruction was an example.

Knowing that the heavily made-up woman was a cannibal player and that the carriage’s corpses had been taken by monsters, he was uncertain whether she had fed before. Now, his greatest concern was Liu Jia.