Chapter 81.2 Crimson Sunset Expedition
In just a few minutes, the train went from slowing down to a complete stop.
They had arrived at Wind River Station.
The cries of vendors drifted in through the window. Wen Shi lifted a corner of the curtain, revealing a lively scene outside. Wind River was a big station, bustling with both passengers and vendors pushing food carts.
Chubby worms disembarked from each carriage, while new passengers with animal-like faces and human bodies boarded. Instead of immediately looking for seats, they smiled and revealed their sharp fangs towards the carriage where the players were seated.
Surprisingly, the intimidating suitcase provided some comfort now. Players weren’t paying much attention to the monsters. They were considering whether or not to disembark and check on Yu Xingzhou’s situation.
Li Nan pondered briefly. “Let’s wait and see. If he’s safe and sound, he’ll find the right moment to return on his own.”
Moreover, Yu Xingzhou being thrown into the midst of the shadow group must have a side quest. If he failed to accomplish it, he wouldn’t be able to return anyway.
The tour guide appeared, maintaining her enthusiastic attitude, “Dear tourists, Wind River Station will stop for twenty minutes. Feel free to get off the train and stretch your legs. This station has a large flow of passengers, so please keep an eye on your belongings!”
As her words faded, the system prompt immediately sounded:
【Group Side Quest: Eagle Eyes
Players need to find ten human passengers and greet them.
Note: If you accidentally greet a monster, they will enthusiastically invite you to dine at their table at home.】
【Side Quest: Wallet Defense Battle
Among the continuous stream of passengers, some thieves specialize in stealing organs. Money is their medium, and when they target your wallet, your safety won’t be far behind.
Protect your belongings and make sure they don’t take a single cent from you!】
【Attention: Existing players in this carriage are not allowed to mix with the K9999 train, and vice versa.】
With two consecutive side quests, only Li Nan was left to watch over the shadow, while the others had to disembark.
Wen Shi respected the old lady’s opinion, bending down to ask, “Would you like to go out for a walk with me, or would you prefer to stay on the train?”
The fingers extending from the suitcase pointed straight towards the door. Understanding the gesture, Wen Shi lifted the suitcase and got off.
A wave of heat hit him.
The air below wasn’t much better than in the train carriage. The passengers at this station were numerous and diverse—various creatures mingled with those who looked human. Sunlight filtered down, creating an aura of surreal light and color in the surroundings.
With two quests to complete, the first one consumed a lot of time. Wen Shi immediately plunged into the dense crowd.
It was incredibly crowded, shoulder to shoulder, and he had to be cautious not to let his suitcase get squeezed.
A beauty passed by him, disdainfully turning her head away, and then looking back to spit.
“……” First, he ruled out the possibility that she was human.
The blood bride’s blessing sometimes came in handy.
The suitcase shifted, and the old lady tossed out a small piece of paper. Wen Shi picked it up and read it: “Too hot-tempered, can’t be a granddaughter-in-law.”
Earlier, he had given the person who looked human a few extra glances, wanting to observe further if she was human. The old lady had mistaken his curiosity for interest.
Wen Shi shook his head. “Definitely not.”
His other hand clenched tightly around his wallet. Suddenly, the crowd formed an arc and pushed him a second time. Wen Shi almost got pushed off the platform. Springing up, he caught sight of another teenager across from him who looked exactly like him. The guy wielded a steel pipe, having just poked through a passenger’s shoulder.
The game couldn’t perfectly replicate the kitchen knife. The strength of the steel pipe was weakened. There were pros and cons to this alteration, and its impact on his consciousness was somewhat controllable.
Wen Shi had a vague feeling that something wasn’t right. While complaining about his current height, he jumped a few more times.
Next to the teenager was a young girl.
Red flower, white dress—the pristine dress now had spots of blood.
In the few seconds he leaped up, Wen Shi’s gaze briefly met the girl’s. Her eyes were like those of a snake—cold, slippery. For a moment, he even felt like her pupils were vertical.
Pausing for a moment, Wen Shi decided to approach and find out more.
“Excuse me.” After seeing a variety of bizarre passengers, even the strangest appearances no longer had a visual impact. Wen Shi squeezed through a crooked, narrow path.
The teenager across from him seemed to sense something. He had already taken a step but halted, coldly locking his gaze in place. His prior ruthless actions had earned him some extra space to move around. Seeing Wen Shi sweating as he pushed through, the teenager raised the steel pipe in his hand.
Wen Shi had initially thought the steel pipe was meant for him, but at the last moment, its direction changed. The teenager aimed it directly at a pushy passenger next to Wen Shi.
The splattering blood stained the sleeves of his sports jersey, causing Wen Shi to slightly furrow his brows.
The surrounding people moved further away from this pair of star-crossed “brothers,” allowing the air to circulate a bit more freely.
Throughout, the teenager’s gaze never wavered. He played the role of an observer, calmly watching Wen Shi, who was capable of avoiding the crowded environment but insisted on squeezing into the pile of monsters.
“Hypocrite,” he commented without a hint of personal emotion.
In contrast to his peers, the young Wen Shi possessed an extreme level of rationality during his adolescence. Conversely, his shadow displayed no restraint when it came to killing.
Wen Shi was well aware of why his rebellious streak was projected onto killing. There were multiple instances where he contemplated going back to secretly murder Pei Hongxin and his wife, indulging in arson and bloodshed.
The teenager leaned in toward Wen Shi, two identical faces exhibiting entirely contrasting expressions—harmonious yet incredibly eerie.
“I’m stretching my neck out so far, you could easily slit it with a single blow. Because the quest doesn’t explicitly demand combat and I haven’t initiated an attack, you simply won’t make a move…”
Easily deciphered behavior patterns held no amusement.
This person’s predictability was annoying. The teenager began contemplating what the most enjoyable way to kill him would be—draining the last drop of blood, then extracting his bones.
Faced with the imminent threat, Wen Shi merely gazed quietly, as if observing his teenage self. He extended his hand, as if to flick away the furrowed brow filled with hostility.
The teenager swung his arm forcefully. “Those who are controlled don’t deserve to live in this world.”
Wen Shi seriously reflected on this, quite certain he wasn’t this irritating back then. Ultimately, this kid was exaggerating.
In the silent standoff, the uncontainable urge to kill lingered in the enigmatic thoughts of both parties.
“You’ve exceeded a hundred words.”
A faint voice floated over, breaking the silence.
The girl’s tone carried a morbid patience as she looked at the teenager and spoke, “You’ve said so much to him, but only a few words to me.”
As she spoke, her expression almost revealed a tearful appearance, “My dear grand…”
“Cough, cough…” Wen Shi nearly choked.
“I didn’t call you. I can only have one grandson,” the girl finally glanced at him, “You have a bunch of people who care about you, but my dear grandson only has me…”
Almost instinctively, the teenager said, “I can also have as many…”
The girl softly and weakly expressed, “No, they would all be killed by me.”
Wen Shi’s expression at this moment was indescribable. He struggled to find words as he looked at the suitcase, and the old lady timidly said, “I was foolish when I was young.”
Wen Shi made an effort to conjure a smile. “It’s alright. Your transformation has been quite successful.”
From being a thug to becoming a sociophobe, this twist was far from straightforward.
The girl’s icy gaze fixated on the suitcase, aware that she couldn’t kill her troublesome original self at the moment. She dipped her finger into the blood on the teenager’s steel pipe and licked it, alleviating her thirst for slaughter.
Ignoring the blood-licking scene, Wen Shi calmly gathered the information he had gained from this encounter.
Perhaps because he hadn’t spent enough time in the game, he had limited data for the game to create a replica, leading his shadow to become overly domineering. Another point was that his parallel world self’s shadow didn’t hold any special feelings for him. Wen Shi suspected this was due to his parallel world self’s possessiveness. Just as the girl in the white dress had mentioned, he had many people who cared about him, and she lacked the ability to kill these people altogether.
Wen Shi looked sympathetically at the teenager. He wasn’t even allowed to have friends. The level of control exerted over him was far beyond his own experience.
The teenager’s complexion turned somewhat unpleasant.
“Aaaaah!”
A scream pierced through the crowded mass of people. The sound wasn’t loud where they stood, but the underlying despair lingered.
It was a slightly familiar voice. Wen Shi rushed over instantly.
Whether players or shadows, everyone was converging in that direction.
Bluntly put, human lives were the best breadcrumbs for exploring the deathly rules. By understanding the experiences players went through before dying, valuable information could be gathered.
Ferocity had its advantages. The teenager accurately singled out passengers resembling crawling creatures. According to his observations, these types of passengers tended to be timid and would choose to back down when faced with the brutal display of the steel pipe.
Wen Shi took advantage of a free path and quickly followed the source of the sound.
The teenager trailed behind, tempted several times to thrust the steel pipe through Wen Shi’s heart. Unfortunately, the latter wasn’t completely defenseless. Inside the suitcase, the old lady’s eyes remained wide open.
Near a thick pillar, the wrists and ankles of a newbie who had been transported into the game alongside Song Yan were severed. His body convulsed, blood gushing out like a torrent.
“Mmm…” His tongue was gone too, preventing him from speaking a complete sentence.
Some passengers were drawn by the scent of blood. There was strong interest in his broken torso.
A lizardkin was the first to give in to its impulses, its forked tongue extending towards the blood vessels.
The tongue penetrated flesh, causing the player excruciating pain.
Players and shadows had arrived. There was no further action taken. With limbs and tongue gone, he couldn’t provide any information. Since it was unlikely they could extract any information from him, it wasn’t worth the effort to expel the monsters.
Song Yan and Qian Laiye arrived from the opposite direction. Qian Laiye seemed unfazed, but an indescribable sense of desolation overwhelmed Song Yan.
It was the first time he witnessed the brutality of the game.
“Duck!”
Before Song Yan could react, Qian Laiye kicked his knee, causing his leg to buckle. A knife came hurtling through the air. It swept past him and precisely embedded itself into half of the lizard’s head.
Wen Shi arrived from behind and pulled the knife out from the lizard’s head.
The teenager who arrived with Wen Shi was also ready to take action, but his target wasn’t the monster.
“Useless.”
In the terrified gaze of the newbie, the teenager gave an unimpressive evaluation and thrust the steel pipe straight towards his throat.
The steel pipe was deflected by the knife in midair, hitting the cement floor with a loud thud, causing quite a commotion.
“Pei Wenwei’s shadow is too brutal.” Someone among the players muttered.
The teenager stood still. Before the steel pipe could land a blow, Wen Shi, who had just intervened, said expressionlessly, “At least he knows how to give someone a quick death instead of being devoured alive by monsters.”
The newbie continued to spit out blood. Wen Shi frowned and half-squatted down, administering a few bottles of potion to the newbie. “Grandma, is there still hope for him in this condition?”
Newbies wouldn’t have the courage to undertake group side quests. Most likely, errors occured while safeguarding their wallets. The penalties for failing side quests were relatively lenient, but if they stumbled upon a death rule, they wouldn’t have time to come to their aid.
The old lady motioned for Wen Shi to come closer and whispered, “Get a jar. I can keep him alive in it.”
The game engaged in various businesses, so Wen Shi bought a large jar directly from the in-game store.
Amid the horrified stares of everyone present, he stuffed the newbie into the jar. “Hold on.”
The old lady muttered something under her breath, and dark patterns appeared on the broken limbs of the newbie. His blood turned into black fluid, continuously dripping to the bottom of the jar.
After losing his tongue, the newbie’s blood flowed more intensely amid his wailing cries.
Gradually, the sensation of pain started to subside. In the throes of intense agony, perception becomes numb, and as his blood grew darker, he finally stopped screaming.
To the onlookers, the mouth full of blood and the dilated pupils that were growing increasingly dull seemed like the state of having an out-of-body experience.
The monsters and passengers that had gathered earlier surprisingly felt a sense of guilt: If we had eaten him earlier, his suffering might have been less.
Wen Shi calmly said, “Performing a good deed each day, we can’t easily give up hope for another person’s life.”
The newbie’s entire expression was contorted.
“I’ll try to finish this quest as quickly as possible. You hold on for a few days. As long as you can return to the virtual world, you’ll be back to normal.”
The scorching sun baked the bloody severed limbs, and the newbie struggled to move his eyeballs. He looked at the steel pipe in the hand of the teenager beside him and suddenly felt that it might not matter if he were stabbed in the throat.
Wen Shi always respected others’ decisions. “To live or die?” he asked the newbie. “Blink once if you choose death.”
Whenever there was a glimmer of a way out, people tend to hesitate.
The severed stump was sealed with eerie black patterns. The newbie could hardly feel any pain now, but facing the prospect of enduring as a human-pig hybrid, he felt a sense of psychological helplessness.
Half a minute passed without him blinking. Wen Shi assumed he chose to live.
“Fine.”
He picked up the jar and headed towards the train to fetch water.
The platform was still crowded with people. This time, both humans and monsters around him automatically took a step back.
Just as he had walked a few steps, Wen Shi thought of something and turned back to the somewhat dazed teenager. He said, “Remember, respect life.”
“……”
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