Matryoshka Off-Limits Chapter 82 Part 2

Chapter 82.2 Crimson Sunset Expedition

“By the way.”

Suddenly, up ahead, Wen Shi halted, “Have you ever considered one question?”

When he raised his voice, the teenager suddenly felt a strong sixth sense, urging him that he couldn’t let the other continue.

“Grandma… Is there a way to shut him up?”

The teenager looked at the girl in the white dress next to him.

The girl nervously twisted her fingers, “We might not be able to win.”

Fighting took time. During the scuffle, people would surely finish talking.

The teenager glanced sideways, noticing a few shadows around. He understood why Wen Shi had suddenly raised his voice. He was deliberately speaking for all the shadows to hear.

“Let’s team up and take him down!” the teenager said in a low voice.

The shadows, of course, wouldn’t charge just because of a sentence.

Without looking back, Wen Shi continued, “Being controlled solely by primal instincts, sooner or later, you’ll end up just like these passengers: crawling creatures, wolf-headed creatures,” he enumerated each one, “Take a good look at what you’ll become.”

As if that wasn’t enough, he even mimicked the game’s “hee-hee” sound, giving people goosebumps.

Wen Shi wasn’t too far from the train carriage, and Li Nan inside had also heard. He glanced up to gauge the tour guide’s expression.

Prior to this, he had raised an eyebrow suggestively, prompting Shadow Yu Xingzhou to look over as well.

After hearing Wen Shi’s words, the tour guide’s action of munching on melon seeds slowed down for a beat, indicating that this speculation was highly credible.

Even if it wasn’t the complete truth, it covered half the story.

Wen Shi posed a rather unsettling philosophical question.

Following primal instincts blindly would lead to becoming a beast. But if one exercised restraint, what purpose did the shadows serve?

Such questions couldn’t be pondered deeply. Shadow Yu Xingzhou, knowing escape was impossible, still struggled forcefully, writhing against the coarse bedsheet that left deep red marks on his skin. Through the pain, he gradually calmed his mind.

Li Nan, wearing his usual gentle smile, said, “The crux isn’t about replacing, but about becoming. You should strive to become a person, rather than replacing anyone.”

Shadow Yu Xingzhou tightly shut his eyes.

Demon.

Everyone in this train car was a demon.

He had inherited a resilient willpower from his original self. Even such strong conviction was slightly shaken, let alone the other shadows.

Ignoring the internal struggle, Li Nan kept an eye on the tour guide while checking the group chat.

In the Sunflowers group chat, a chain of numbers was being shared, representing the count of human passengers who had been asked.

Just a minute before the train’s departure, Xiao Hua sent a message: 【10】.

Simultaneously, a system prompt sounded:

“Group side quest ‘Eagle Eyes’ is completed.”

All players suddenly dashed towards the train carriage. Wen Shi held his suitcase and hopped onto the train in a few steps, narrowly avoiding getting his clothes caught as the door automatically closed.

“Made it.”

After catching his breath, Wen Shi turned around and saw the jar with two heads. He took a step back and patted his chest. “You startled me.”

The expressions of players who had just sat down were quite complicated.

Who was responsible for this scary surprise?

The tour guide, as vibrant as her sleek silver hair, was always full of energy. “Dear passengers and friends, the next stop is Common Rich Pile. The highest temperature in Common Rich Pile today is 43 degrees Celsius. After this stop, we will reach our destination for this journey, the Sunset Station!

“…I understand that everyone might be a bit bored during this long journey, so I have prepared a special game for you all—Capture the Flag!” she introduced with a smile. “It’s simple: I will take a colored flag from the train half a minute before getting off, and you’ll have to chase me. Whichever train’s passengers catch up to me first will win.”

The game sounded like an easy run.

The tour guide concluded with a warm reminder, “The passengers of the losing train will have to pay a small price, so everyone should take it seriously!”

After explaining the rules, she didn’t rush around anymore and took a seat in Carriage No. 04.

Whenever the tour guide appeared, something would happen. Seeing her expression of enjoying the show, all the players remained on edge, not daring to relax for a moment.

Half an hour passed since the train departed, and nothing had occurred. The train was moving at a fast speed, with the scenery outside flashing by.

However, the train couldn’t outrun the sun. No matter how far it ran, the blazing sun hung high.

Crew Cut Guy complained while fanning, “The train has been running for hours. It should be afternoon by now.”

However, the sun showed no signs of change. It remained as bright and scorching as it was from the beginning.

The entire carriage felt like a massive steamer, with bodily fluids constantly evaporating. Song Yan’s bottle of ice-cold water to soothe his forehead had returned to room temperature long ago. The water from the tap was lukewarm. Players who tried to get some cold water to freshen up had to walk quite a distance and returned drenched in sweat.

Wen Shi observed the passengers in other carriages, all sitting in their seats as if nothing was amiss, each doing their own thing.

Someone must have been crazy enough to cook a pack of sour cabbage instant noodles and even had meat with white wine. The scent refused to dissipate in the stuffy air, blending to create an aroma similar to the vomit of a drunkard.

The expressions of the players became increasingly unpleasant. Disregarding the possibility of flying stones from outside, they opened the upper windows of the train and leaned into the safe area, holding their noses and breathing.

“Did you notice?” Li Nan suddenly asked.

Wen Shi nodded.

The worm passengers were scared of death. The chubby worms they transformed into bore a resemblance to resilient moss piglets. Among the passengers seen in the previous station, the animal-headed ones were mostly wolves and camels, both heat-resistant creatures. There was also the somewhat eerie tour guide, reminding Wen Shi of silver ants that lived in the desert.

… Only the world of injured ordinary humans had come true.

“Grandma, how are you?” Wen Shi asked with concern towards the old lady in the suitcase.

A frail voice came through, light but sounding much more spirited than young people, “As long as I’m not being roasted over a fire, I’m fine.”

Once he was sure she was well, Wen Shi leaned back, saving his strength as he lay on the bed. He resembled a dehydrated fish, breathing rapidly.

Not only him, but everyone felt listless, as if they were being baked into jerky.

With a temperature of 43 degrees Celsius in Common Rich Pile, getting off the train for another chase meant they probably weren’t far from death.

The seemingly simple flag-snatching game they heard earlier now felt like a death sentence.

The unbearable heat prompted Wen Shi to search the versatile in-game store, only to find that an ordinary electric fan required a staggering fifty thousand points.

This wasn’t just a price hike, it was a clear refusal to sell.

When sweat was close to leaving a complete human-shaped imprint on the bed, the tour guide spoke up once again, seemingly kindly reminding them, “Remember, there’s more than one way to cool down.”

The crowd’s eyes flickered as they remembered the side quest of killing shadow the to lower the temperature by three to five degrees.

In the scorching environment, many eyes filled with hidden hostility turned towards Shadow Yu Xingzhou.

The shadow was bound and sat silently on the lower bunk, his expression behind the mask forever inscrutable.

Even with closed eyes, the expanding aura of murderous intent was palpable in the air.

Enduring the stifling heat, Wen Shi spoke in a raspy voice, “Don’t only focus on the present. Sometimes people need to be rebellious.”

He glanced meaningfully at the tour guide.

Everyone understood the meaning conveyed by that look, including the newbies: if an NPC was actively pushing for something, it was best to avoid it.

Wen Shi had another concern in not moving the shadow around too much. If his guess was correct, and Yu Xingzhou’s skills weren’t entirely locked, the shadow was likely the same. It couldn’t be ruled out that the opponent had held back a bit during their previous fight. If things came to a desperate situation, no one would benefit from a fight to the death.

“Harm…” He sighed. “There’s a shadow where there is light, and the shadow version of me is probably enjoying this.”

The suitcase moved by itself to Wen Shi’s side, opening the zipper halfway. The old lady found a scrap of paper somewhere and helped him fan it. She whispered confidently, “Things will not go well, believe me.”

It wasn’t about believing her judgment, but rather believing in the shadow version of her strength.

Seeing the old lady fanning him, Wen Shi quickly sat up and said, “Please, don’t…”

“It’s not a big deal,” the old lady said, “I’m more heat-resistant than any of you.”

Enjoying the care from his family, Wen Shi blinked and fell into contemplation.

He could guess that the shadow was a mix of his suppressed urge for violence and the rebellion against being controlled. However, he couldn’t figure out the similarities between himself and this parallel world version.

Benevolence? He hadn’t reached that age yet.

Social anxiety? Even less likely.

“So where exactly is the resemblance…” Wen Shi pondered, perplexed.

…

Similarly suffering in the heat were the shadows on the K9999 train.

Their heat tolerance surpassed that of their original selves, but they also had their limits. This scorching heat was uncomfortable for them too.

Gathering together would only worsen the lack of airflow. The teenager ran to another carriage by himself, and a girl sat opposite him. “Do you want water?” she asked.

The teenager shook his head, engrossed in playing with the steel pipe in his hand.

Merely obeying primal instincts wouldn’t work. Wen Shi’s words sounded alarming, but there was another solution. Finding a way to devour the original self would grant both rationality and freedom simultaneously.

Devour him, replace him, surpass him.

The tip of the teenager’s tongue excitedly licked the edge of his lips. “Everything that person possesses will eventually be plundered by me.”

“You’ve been talking to him all this time, and even when you’re quiet, you’re thinking about him,” the girl softly expressed her concern. “You haven’t been talking to me.”

Long nails scratched the edge of the ladder, the sharp sound mirroring the current discontent.

The teenager remained unaffected. He despised being controlled.

Well, this was a good opportunity to see how far this shadow from the parallel world could endure his presence.

“Why should I talk to you?”

The girl paused.

“What, do you want to kill someone?” The teenager calmly raised his eyes. “At a certain point of possessiveness, doesn’t it always end up like this? Wearing his skin, embracing his bones, drinking his blood…”

He knew how hurtful these words were, but he looked at the other person as if diagnosing a patient, not as family.

Afraid the message wouldn’t come across clearly, the teenager enunciated each word. “I… dislike… you.”

Locking eyes with his slightly hostile gaze, the girl’s nails were close to drawing blood from the metal surface.

After a moment of silence, her voice barely audible, she said, “From childhood till now, I’ve never had anything that truly belonged to me, including my own body.”

She extended her fragile and boneless hand. “Someone once extracted my bones, injected toxins into my blood, subjected me to the most horrifying curses.”

The teenager hesitated for a second.

Avoiding eye contact with a hint of guilt, he suddenly realized something: the version of him from the parallel world and his original self had similarities.

What Wen Shi excelled at was precisely feigning weakness. He would give first, then expose his wounds in a bloody display to achieve an unprecedented effect.

“I won’t kill you, I’ll do everything to protect you,” the girl spoke truthfully, but deliberately, “If the day comes when you can’t bear it anymore, you can take my life with your own hands.”

Who was this pitiable image meant for?

The teenager bit his tongue to dispel the slight guilt from before, irritably throwing the steel pipe to the ground, warning her to stop.

Bang!

Amid the loud noise, the girl flinched.

She didn’t get angry, instead, she lowered her head, picked up the pipe, wiped off the dust with her skirt’s sleeve, and looked at the teenager’s expression as she cautiously spoke, “You can make do with it for now. I’ll definitely get the kitchen knife back for you later.”

“……”

She did it on purpose. The teenager saw through the scheme in an instant.

With the second look, scheme aside, her genuine sadness showed in her eyes.

With the third look, she was crying!

She was crying!

The teenager conceded defeat, feeling the urge to let out a long howl.

The girl wiped away her tears, “I-I’m fine, don’t dislike Grandma.”

“……Don’t dislike.”

The girl choked up, “I can’t control myself.”

“Well, you can’t control me either…”

In another section of the carriage, an onlooker shadow heard the loud noise and glanced over. From their perspective, it looked like a bully teenager tormenting a fragile girl. They sighed, realizing that while everyone was bad, this one was bad to the core.

“Grandma, you’re my grandma, okay?” The teenager clenched his teeth. “Truly despicable.”

Bewildered by the scolding, the girl sniffled.

“I’m not talking about you.” The teenager was searching for tissues everywhere. “I’m referring to a certain someone who even cheats their own shadow.”

The girl felt hurt. “You’re thinking about him again.”

The teenager took a deep breath, forcing a smile. “It’s not like we’re having a chat, but let’s chat.”

The girl’s eyes instantly brightened. “Really?”

Tears had yet to dry in her innocent eyes, as if the teenager saying ‘no’ would make them flow again.

“……”

Controlled!

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