Chapter 80.2 Crimson Sunset Expedition
Looking at the captive shadow, Wen Shi suddenly asked, “You’re an independent entity now, with flesh and blood. Why do you still need to mimic others?”
In the eyes of the shadow, there was a clear reflection of the teenager who leaned towards him and spoke four fatal words, “You are who you are.”
In this moment, Wen Shi was like a venomous snake tempting Eve to eat the apple, yet that fruit contained something irresistibly compelling.
The shadow understood well. He wanted him to have independent thoughts, to diverge from his original self. However, independently formed thoughts wouldn’t be as comprehensive as those of the original self’s. Still, the temptation of independent thinking was something the shadow couldn’t resist.
Impulsiveness.
Not once did he show impulsiveness when his identity was discovered. Now, it surged back twofold.
Planting a seed, Wen Shi stood up contentedly. Just as he was about to let out a sigh of relief, a cry reached his ears.
“There!” One of the newbies exclaimed, covering their mouth.
Following the direction of their finger, a bizarre creature slowly emerged from the neatly stacked bedding on the upper bunk. It looked much like a soft, naked worm, but its size was dozens of times larger than an ordinary worm. The moment it emerged, it began to swell rapidly.
From the opposite upper bunk, the pillow moved a few times, and something as thick as a child’s arm crawled out. The chubby worm had a total of eight legs, each short and thick. Just like the worm, it rapidly swell in size after emerging, quickly reaching a height of almost a meter.
Faced with the swelling creature, the newbie’s pupils shook. “Shouldn’t we stop it?”
Just as the question was asked, the chubby worm had already crawled over.
The newbie kept retreating until a figure stood in front of them.
Wen Shi, during his younger years, had a slender build. Resolutely standing in the dimly lit carriage, the newbie was about to say a heartfelt thank you, when Wen Shi pointed to a backpack on a shelf behind, “This one?”
The chubby worm nodded its big head.
Wen Shi tiptoed, struggling to reach it. He was clearly putting in a lot of effort, but his height during this period was a bit inadequate, and the backpack was placed too far inside.
The chubby worm expanded its entire body again, reaching nearly two meters in height. It spat out a string of slime from its mouth, sticking the backpack to its back.
Looking down at Wen Shi from a higher position, it hesitated for a moment and then extended a chubby claw to pat Wen Shi’s head, “Thank you, Shortie.”
“……”
What surprised Wen Shi wasn’t that it could speak human language, but rather that it was speaking human language.
The chubby worm slowly moved towards the train carriage door.
The broadcast sounded once more, “Dear passengers, the train is about to arrive at Wind River Station. Passengers who will be disembarking at Wind River Station, please prepare your luggage and get ready to alight.”
There were no train schedules posted on the train. Passengers had to rely on the announcements to know where they were going
The newbie’s complexion changed, “Are they passengers?”
Wen Shi nodded. “More accurately, they were passengers sleeping in the upper bunks.”
The newbie swallowed hard, realizing that they had been searching through the belongings of these creatures earlier.
Suddenly, Li Nan said, “Not good.”
In an instant, even Yu Xingzhou’s shadow seemed to tense slightly.
Carriage No. 01 was under his responsibility for the search. He had only pretended to go through a few bags. The chubby worm’s backpack wasn’t within his search range, which was why the worm’s attitude remained somewhat friendly.
But in the other carriages…
The group walked a distance forward, stopping at the carriage door. Looking ahead, from Carriage No. 02 onwards, it seemed like the creatures had all been awakened by the announcement. Some crawled out from under the covers, some emerged from pillowcases, and even the caps of hot water bottles on the floor were pushed open, revealing more worms inside. Two mischievous kids climbed down from the luggage rack on the upper bunk, giggling and applauding, “Naughty bag rummagers!”
They were all fixated on one carriage, observing the people who had gone through their belongings.
After the candy incident, the players would put everything back in place after searching for clues. These creatures knew their bags had been rummaged through, indicating that they had been awake earlier. They had been waiting for this moment with a taunting attitude, specifically anticipating its arrival.
With her striking silver hair standing out among the creatures, the tour guide walked from the other end of the carriage.
A few players clung to a glimmer of hope, imagining that she was here to lead them to a safe carriage. However, their hopes were dashed as the tour guide not only refrained from doing so, but also had a chubby worm give her money every time she passed a seat.
This way, she collected “dues” along the journey.
Even the tour guide had joined in on the act, collaborating with the creatures to play with the poor passengers and make some extra cash.
Ding! The system notification sounded:
【Side Quest: Return
Your reckless wandering has significantly disrupted the passengers’ rest. Please return to your original carriage within thirty minutes.】
“Oh, come on.”
More than one person cursed under their breath.
Players had no doubt that stepping into Carriage No. 02 would mean entering the creatures’ territory, and they would most likely be killed.
Xiao Hua pressed her lips tightly together, then said slowly, “Going directly through won’t work for sure. The train hasn’t reached the station yet, so the only option is to get off first and then run to the Carriage No. 04 from the outside.”
At least the area near the doors was a public space.
Xiao Min from the Deep Space Guild’s eyes dimmed. “The platform might not be safe either. There’s a possibility that there’s another batch of monsters waiting there to feast on people.” After speaking, he sneered, “At least we finally understand why the first two waves of players were wiped out.”
The journey hadn’t even started yet, and it already felt like a hellish opening.
Wen Shi laughed wryly, “I finally understand why the pillow felt so soft when I lazily lay down on the lower bunk.”
So, there were worms inside it.
The group fell into silence one after another, realizing who had it worse.
The tour guide leaned against the glass of Carriage No. 02, smiling as she cracked melon seeds and said, “I’ve never seen tourists as noisy as you all. Everyone should go back to their seats.”
“……”
Did they not want to go back? It wasn’t like the conditions allowed for it!
Song Yan couldn’t help but look at Wen Shi. Unconsciously, he had already come to see this person as the backbone of the group.
There was no fear in Wen Shi’s light-colored eyes, and his gaze was directed differently from everyone else’s, fixed on the shelves. “I remember seeing this suitcase in Carriage No. 07.”
Others were speechless. How could he still be paying attention to suitcases at a time like this?
On his birthday, Liu Yuan and the others had given him an item that could refresh a side quest. Wen Shi still had a way out, albeit a tough one.
He decided to address the immediate curiosity. Without hesitation, Wen Shi climbed the ladder to reach the edge of the luggage rack. One hand was placed on the zipper, while the other hand was ready to draw the knife.
Rip…
In one go, he pulled the zipper all the way.
Wen Shi opened the suitcase.
Inside, something was clearly there. Everyone looked up, and since the lighting wasn’t great, Song Yan opened his phone’s flashlight and held it high. Now everyone could clearly see what was inside the box. It was a living person! At least, that was what it looked like from the outside.
The old lady was petite, coiled up in the box like a snake. Her neatly arranged white hair was tied with a red flower at the end, and her bone structure was beautiful. In her youth, she must have been quite a beauty.
What caught the eye the most were her eyes, brimming with innocence, as if she had never experienced any hardship in her life.
She appeared too kind, to the point that even in such a horrifying manner of appearance, it was difficult for everyone to connect her with a monster.
Wen Shi’s focus wasn’t on the old lady’s appearance. Instead, a sense of inherent familiarity was welling up in his blood.
The old lady reached out, her palms naturally smaller than those of a regular person.
In a split second, Wen Shi understood. He took out the kitchen knife and handed it to her, then stepped aside.
With a friendly expression, the old lady threw the knife toward Carriage No. 02. In an instant, it was as if the knife defied gravity, bypassing the passengers waiting to disembark and flying precisely forward.
The tourist guide, who had come to watch the commotion, immediately threw her melon seeds aside. Before the seed shells even hit the ground, she had already darted to the other side. The speed of those worms couldn’t match hers. They only felt a chill in their limbs before collapsing in an instant. They fell forward with their upper bodies, while their lower halves remained seated in place. The sharp blade swept through, leaving clean cuts.
Cutting through the worms was much quicker than dealing with other things. The ghost children were not spared either. The kitchen knife aimed directly for the bruised neck and chopped it off with a butcher’s precision.
The ghos children’s heads fell to the ground and rolled a good distance, making a thumping sound.
The worms further back finally realized something was amiss. Screaming, they fled towards other carriages.
The kitchen knife had its limitations. It fell in the public area between Carriages No. 02 and 03. Wen Shi walked over and picked it up.
This thing couldn’t be held for too long, or he would lose its intellect. He hurriedly ran back.
The chubby worm that was waiting for the train to arrive at the station clung to the glass, afraid of meeting the same fate.
Wen Shi handed the kitchen knife over to the old lady, but she waved it off, signaling him to keep it.
Wen Shi leaned back to the box’s edge. “You…”
The old lady seemed a bit unaccustomed to interacting with people. She handed over a small crumpled piece of paper with the words “my dear grandson” scribbled on it in a crooked manner.
Calling her “Grandma” was becoming more natural for Wen Shi now.
With teary eyes, the old lady looked at Wen Shi. She shook her hand again, and her joints flexed in an unnatural curve. Slowly, she pulled the zipper back up.
After a moment, she found the zipper to be too tightly closed. She opened it slightly, revealing her eyes as she stared at him intently.
“……”
Wen Shi gradually moved the suitcase outward. “Take the handle and help me put my Grandma down.”
The closest one to him was Song Yan. The advantage of being a newbie was that ignorance led to fearlessness. He only saw the old lady using a kitchen knife to kill a worm, mistaking it for an enormously thick thigh. He obediently helped Wen Shi hold the suitcase.
The expressions of the other players were quite remarkable. Even Li Nan seemed unusually solemn.
Xiao Hua swallowed nervously. “Your Grandma?”
Wen Shi nodded. “She might be a bit socially anxious and not too comfortable coming out to greet everyone.”
Xiao Hua’s first concern wasn’t about the origin of the old lady. She asked seriously, “Does she have a shadow?”
She asked while already having an answer in mind. The weather forecast said it would be a light rain, but the sun was shining brightly when she arrived. The game even fixed bugs during this time. These were enough to indicate one thing: the seemingly harmless old lady had singlehandedly raised the temperature by at least ten degrees.
How bad could this be?
Xiao Hua had a headache. Describing it as “bad enough to flow black water” was probably an understatement.
Wen Shi seemed completely unaware of this point and said naturally, “We can return to our original places.”
He held the suitcase and slowly walked toward the other carriages.
These chubby worms weren’t actually completely dead. Decapitation wasn’t lethal for them.
With tightly closed eyes, the sound of the suitcase wheels turning was like an ominous omen. Even more chilling was when this sound came to a halt in front of it.
Wen Shi’s footsteps halted in front of the pretending-to-be-dead worm. Looking down from above, he observed the worm’s head trembling slightly at the severed neck. His thin lips moved, “I’m the best at playing dead. You don’t look convincing.”
Placing the backpack on the shelf and enticing others to search through it was the favorite game of these creatures. If new tourists didn’t flip the backpack, they would pay more to the tour guide to persuade them. In the end, the law enforcement officers indulged in a hearty meal after a day of fishing for violations.
The most beloved game in the past had turned into a nightmare now.
Half of the worm’s body stood up with a curved posture, using its smooth side to rub against Wen Shi’s sneakers.
Wen Shi was stunned, blinked his eyes, and turned to ask, “Is this… being coquettish?”
Were the monsters so humanized now?
The worm twisted even more enthusiastically.
The coquettish behavior was starting to get nauseating, so Wen Shi decided it would be better to kill it.
The tour guide promptly translated, “It’s shining your shoes.”
“……”
The bloodstains on the front of his sneakers were rubbed off, and the chubby worm spat out slime. Its short and thick legs pulled a piece of bedsheet over, dragging it back and forth on the sneakers until the shoe tip was smooth and bright.
In the end, it even bowed deeply to the shoes.
The tour guide chimed in, “This is the law of the jungle. Do you have that ‘oh-so-in-love’ feeling?”
Wen Shi: “……”
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