The paper dolls were thin and light, easily slipping into shadows or dim, concealed spots. It was nearly impossible for players to notice them at first glance.
Coincidentally, Station 17 had recently witnessed a massacre, with human blood and flesh splattered everywhere. Taking advantage of the gory chaos, the paper dolls effortlessly hid themselves.
“Gu Jiu, where are you going?” Old Hei called out, seeing her heading off alone.
“I’m going to Level B1. There’s some movement there,” Gu Jiu replied.
Old Hei’s expression turned serious, and the others followed suit.
After their cooperation the previous day, they had learned just how freakishly sharp Gu Jiu’s hearing was. None of them doubted her judgment.
When they reached the escalator, they were greeted by a chilling sight. The long escalator was strewn with severed limbs and streaked with thick, pooling blood that dripped downward. It made their scalps tingle.
“Is there a serial killer here?” Pang Hou muttered softly. “But I haven’t heard anything about one at Station 17.”
Li Jing scoffed, “Maybe they just arrived. It’s not like we haven’t seen that happen before.”
The return train only allowed passengers to leave, not board, so players fleeing for their lives never chose that route. On the other hand, the forward train allowed unrestricted boarding and disembarking. However, with this freedom came unpredictability. Each station it stopped at presented unknown dangers. Some stops were relatively safe, while others were fraught with peril, and one could never predict when a terrifying killer or monster might appear.
The thought that a murderer might be lurking here sent shivers through the group. But as they watched Gu Jiu’s determined figure moving forward, they clenched their teeth and followed her.
How could a bunch of grown men let a woman outpace them?
While they understood that women were just as capable as men in the game world, they sometimes used this mindset to push themselves forward, steeling their courage.
Gu Jiu stepped over the severed limbs and onto the sticky, coagulating bloodstains, ascending the escalator. Each step left behind a blood-red footprint.
She wore sleek black boots, their high shafts tightly hugging her legs and highlighting the elegant, slender lines of her calves. The male players trailing behind her couldn’t help but notice the view—a pair of evenly proportioned, long legs that were quite pleasing to the eye.
However, recalling the boots’ lethal potential, any thoughts of admiration vanished instantly.
The soles were hard and thick. If she kicked someone with them, it would likely shatter their ribs—or worse.
Gu Jiu climbed the bloodstained escalator to Level B1.
The scene on Level B1 was even worse than B2. It was a sea of corpses. Everywhere they looked, it was bodies as far as the eye could see.
Standing at the elevator entrance, the players were momentarily dazed. Although they had been through countless game worlds and survived countless battles, they had never seen anything like this—a world filled with such a staggering number of corpses.
Most of the bodies were intact, but many were missing limbs, their remains scattered and incomplete.
The manner of their deaths was easy to discern—hacked to death, stabbed, poisoned… With just a glance at the corpses, it wasn’t hard to figure out how most of them had died.
“These bodies definitely aren’t players,” Old Hei stated with certainty. “Although many players enter the Death Train world, the numbers don’t even come close to this.”
Gu Jiu hummed in agreement.
She had just entered this world yesterday, and before arriving, the system steward had mentioned that around a thousand people were trapped here. Even if the game had sent in more players since then, it was impossible for the numbers to have suddenly swelled to nearly ten thousand.
The corpses here were definitely no fewer than ten thousand.
Gu Jiu steadied herself and stepped forward, walking directly on the corpses.
The sensation of stepping on bodies felt odd and unsettling, but there was no other choice—there were simply too many of them, leaving no clear path.
Suddenly, from the corner of her eye, Gu Jiu caught sight of a small paper doll pressed against the glass wall of a nearby escalator. It was frantically waving at her.
A sudden gust of wind swirled past.
Gu Jiu shouted, “Hold your breath! There’s poison!”
Everyone immediately stopped breathing.
Pang Hou pulled out a fan-shaped tool and gave it a gentle wave. A fierce wind burst forth, centered on their group, sweeping the toxic gas away.
A figure emerged from the station entrance ahead. Tall and lanky, he held a bloodied watermelon knife, the blade dripping with fresh blood that landed on the ground with a distinct plop.
The man treaded over the corpses, charging toward them at full speed.
Old Hei swiftly drew his large steel blade and swung it at the approaching figure.
The watermelon knife and the steel blade clashed mid-air, producing a harsh metallic screech. The impact forced Old Hei to take a step back, his hand trembling from the shock.
“This guy’s strong. Be careful!” Old Hei shouted.
Under the stark white fluorescent lights, the group finally saw their attacker clearly. It was a man, seemingly young, with a gaunt face that looked as though all its fat had been sucked away, leaving sharp, protruding cheekbones. His pallid complexion and dark circles beneath his eyes gave him a hollow, addict-like appearance. His pupils were unfocused and glassy.
The players couldn’t tell if he was alive, dead, or some kind of ghost.
Seeing the watermelon knife in his hand and the corresponding wounds on the corpses, it was clear—this man was the killer.
“Another Hunter,” Li Jing cursed under his breath. Flipping his hands, he drew two short maces and rushed to assist Old Hei.
Monsters like this, who indiscriminately killed anyone in sight at subway stations, were known among players as “Hunters.”
The Hunter at Station 17 might have looked like an emaciated addict, but his strength was terrifying. He wielded his weapon with ease, as if slicing through people were no harder than chopping vegetables. Players who fought him often found their weapons nearly knocked from their hands by the sheer force of his strikes.
Gu Jiu furrowed her brows. When the Hunter’s watermelon knife slashed toward her, she stepped back, avoiding direct confrontation.
Despite their numbers, the dozen or so players couldn’t subdue the Hunter. Instead, they found themselves dodging his attacks, scrambling over the corpses to avoid being sliced by his blade.
“Back to Level B2!” Old Hei roared. “Get on the train, now!”
The Hunters were among the most dangerous creatures in the subway world. No one wasted time arguing—they immediately retreated toward Level B1.
Old Hei stayed behind to hold the line, blocking the Hunter, while Li Jing and Pang Hou flanked him on either side. The others bolted for Level B2 without hesitation.
Once again, Old Hei intercepted the Hunter’s watermelon knife. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Gu Jiu lingering nearby. “Why are you still here? Go!”
“Of course I’m leaving!” Gu Jiu replied. “We’re going together.”
Together? What did she mean?
Old Hei was about to shout something else when Gu Jiu suddenly disappeared from his peripheral vision. In the next instant, she reappeared behind the Hunter, her Lingyuan Blade slashing fiercely at his back.
The Lingyuan Blade tore through the bloodstained shirt of the Hunter, slicing into the muscles of his back.
However, no blood flowed from the wound. Instead, it healed at an astonishing speed.
Seeing this, Gu Jiu finally understood why players were so terrified and despairing when facing Hunters. These monsters were practically unkillable.
The Hunter ignored her entirely, focusing his relentless attacks on Old Hei and the other two.
Old Hei blocked several swings of the watermelon knife, but his hands had gone numb. His body tilted backward, sliding down the mountain of corpses. Just as the watermelon knife was about to slash toward his neck, Gu Jiu’s expression darkened. She lunged forward, wrapping her arms tightly around the Hunter’s body and twisting his arm with brutal force.
Her fingernails grew longer, concentrating all her strength in her grip.
A sharp crack seemed to echo as Gu Jiu forcibly wrenched the Hunter’s arm off, taking the watermelon knife with it.
Old Hei, Li Jing, and Pang Hou froze in disbelief.
“…Is this woman some kind of demolition expert specializing in dismantling monsters?” Pang Hou muttered under his breath.
The Hunter went into a frenzy, swinging his remaining arm at Gu Jiu.
Despite being weaponless, the sheer strength of his blow was far beyond that of a normal human. Gu Jiu took a direct hit to her back, her body flung into the air before crashing heavily onto the pile of corpses. Her chest heaved as she struggled to breathe, her vision darkened, and she couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood.
Seeing that the Hunter, now missing an arm and his watermelon knife, was significantly weakened, Old Hei roared, “Run!”
Li Jing darted over and scooped up Gu Jiu from where she lay on the corpses. Old Hei and Pang Hou held the Hunter at bay, buying time as they rushed toward the escalator.
The three men jumped onto the escalator and slid down its handrails.
The others were already waiting at the bottom to assist. Li Jing threw Gu Jiu toward them, shouting, “Catch her!”
The players at the escalator’s base caught Gu Jiu, though the rough landing caused her to cough up another mouthful of blood.
Just then, the pitch-black train tracks lit up with a blinding beam of light—the forward train was arriving.
“Go!” someone yelled as the group bolted toward the train.
The Hunter, now one-armed, was hot on their heels.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
The train doors opened, and the players surged inside like a gust of wind.
The Hunter reached the doorway just as the last player boarded. The doors hadn’t closed yet, and everyone watched him nervously, holding their breath. But the Hunter made no move to enter.
Finally, the group exhaled in relief as the train doors slid shut 40 seconds later.
The Hunter stood motionless by the doors, his cold, lifeless eyes watching them depart. His gaze was chilling, a mix of soulless apathy and the unrelenting malice of a killer.
They were safe—for now.
Inside the train car, everyone collapsed into seats, utterly drained.
Gu Jiu was carefully placed into a seat. Old Hei pulled out a blood-red pill and handed it to her. “Take this to recover.”
Gu Jiu opened her mouth with difficulty and swallowed the pill. After a few moments, the searing pain from her seemingly displaced organs eased slightly.
“You okay?” Old Hei asked with concern.
Gu Jiu let out a shallow breath. “I’m fine… just need a moment.”
The others glanced over curiously.
Li Jing and Pang Hou whispered to the uninformed players about Gu Jiu’s feat on Level B1. Soon, every gaze toward Gu Jiu carried awe and admiration.
This woman was incredible. She could twist off a Hunter’s arm—who or what couldn’t she overpower?
After resting for a while, Gu Jiu finally spoke, “It still hurts. For a moment, I thought my internal organs had ruptured.”
The Hunter’s sheer power was overwhelming. With just a single palm strike, she had been sent flying, her internal organs seemingly displaced.
“Even if they had ruptured, no big deal. That pill would fix it,” Old Hei said, a cigarette dangling from his lips. The blood-red pill, known as a Blood Pellet, was said to have been refined by cultivators in a mystical world. No matter how severe the internal injuries—even severed meridians—one pill would heal them.
It had cost him a fortune in points when he bought it, but since Gu Jiu had saved his life, he didn’t hesitate to use it.
Gu Jiu could feel the pill’s effects as the pain in her body gradually faded. She nodded sincerely. “Thank you.”
Old Hei waved dismissively. “No need to thank me. If you hadn’t stepped in when you did, I’d be a dead man by now.”
Li Jing scooted closer, his curiosity evident. “Gu Jiu, when you twisted off the Hunter’s arm earlier, what did you do with it? Did you toss it?”
Gu Jiu smiled faintly. “No. I let it keep the Red High-Heeled Woman’s hand company.”
Li Jing: “…”
Everyone else: “…”
As expected, this woman was fierce and relentless.
Old Hei burst out laughing and gave Gu Jiu a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Sister, you’re something else! Even a Hunter loses a significant chunk of its combat ability after losing an arm.”
The benefit of monsters in the game world was that missing limbs directly reduced their fighting strength.
“Man, why didn’t we think of disarming them before?” someone lamented. “It would’ve saved us from being chased so badly.”
“That’s only if you have the ability to pull it off,” Old Hei reminded. “If you don’t, forget about taking off their arm—you’ll be lucky if they don’t chop off yours.”
Everyone knew that dismembering a boss could cripple their combat ability. But did they have the skills to do it? Old Hei understood that Gu Jiu’s success wasn’t just luck—her long, ghostly red nails were likely tied to some awakened innate skill or talent.
Without such abilities, attempting something like that would only lead to certain death.
Old Hei was well aware that none of his teammates had the strength to twist off a boss’s arm the way Gu Jiu had.
As they chatted, the train pulled into the Station 16.
—
Although a lot of time has passed for us, only a single day has gone by in the game world. So it’ll still be a while before Ah Ji makes an appearance. =-=