After leaving the Seventeenth Stop, Chai Yingying realized that the upcoming subway stations were not particularly dangerous.
Not only were they safe, but they didn’t even require the group to disembark.
Each time the train stopped, Lu Ji would simply step off, glance at the surrounding walls, retrieve the small paper doll affixed to the wall, and return to the train.
The entire process took no more than ten seconds, and the train wouldn’t even start moving again before he was back on board.
Each paper doll had a timestamp on its back, marking the time Gu Jiu had arrived at and departed from the station. By analyzing these timestamps, they could determine Gu Jiu’s current location and estimate how much longer it would take to catch up with her.
Chai Yingying cheered, “This is so convenient. No need to get off and search!”
Lu Ji was clearly in a good mood. For once, he condescended to spare her a glance. “Ah Jiu has always been smart.”
What kind of smug and boastful tone was that?
Chai Yingying wanted to roll her eyes and let out a disdainful snort. However, since she still had to rely on Lu Ji, she didn’t dare offend her. Instead, she hypocritically agreed, “Indeed. Your family’s young lady is both beautiful and intelligent. There aren’t many women in the world who can combine beauty and brains like her.”
She was confident she was one of them, though. Whether in beauty or intelligence, she considered herself a standout as well.
Silently praising herself, Chai Yingying waited for Lu Ji to react.
Unfortunately, Lu Ji didn’t seem to catch her self-compliment. Instead, she shot her a warning look.
Chai Yingying asked, “…What? Can’t I praise her?” She adopted a joking tone, but internally, she was confused. Just now, she seemed quite happy to hear others compliment her young lady.
Lu Ji’s expression was cold and serious, and even her voice dropped a notch. “You can praise her, but don’t entertain improper thoughts about her.”
Chai Yingying: “…” Improper thoughts?
For a moment, her face went blank before realization dawned on her.
Seeing her warning and serious expression, which made it clear she meant every word, Chai Yingying let out a long sigh and said dejectedly, “Don’t worry. I’m as straight as they come. I have no interest in women!”
To her surprise, upon hearing this, Lu Ji took two steps to the side, putting more distance between them.
Chai Yingying: ?????? What’s that supposed to mean, big shot?
Finally, the train reached Station 10.
As soon as Lu Ji stepped off, a few staggering figures came into view, heading in their direction.
He glanced at them casually, showing no interest, and instead focused on the small paper dolls stuck to the wall. He reached out to grab them.
As the staggering figures got closer, they suddenly accelerated, rushing toward Lu Ji with alarming speed. It was then that everyone on the train realized—they weren’t just staggering people but full-on living corpses.
The passengers on the train began shouting in worry. “Sister Ji, get back! There are living corpses at this stop!”
In their panic, someone accidentally let slip their private nickname for Lu Ji.
Fortunately, Lu Ji’s attention was wholly on the two paper dolls and didn’t notice. Chai Yingying secretly wiped her cold sweat and glared at her teammate, silently urging them to be more careful.
Although they called her “Big Shot” to her face, the players privately felt that “Sister Ji” was more endearing and fostered a closer connection. Some even secretly hoped to attract her attention. If “Gu Jiu” happened to perish on this Death Train, they thought they might have a chance to console the big shot’s fragile heart and take her place in her affections.
After all, players died every day on the Death Train. If Gu Jiu were unlucky and met her end, wouldn’t it just be the natural order?
Lu Ji caught the two paper dolls and, with a swift backhand slash of her sword, decapitated the few rushing living corpses. Their heads and bodies separated, collapsing to the ground. She sheathed the black sword and hung it at her waist, calmly stepping back onto the train.
Het movements were steady and unhurried, not even sparing a glance at the fallen corpses.
The players on the train stared at her with admiration. No matter how many times they witnessed her skill, they were always in awe of her effortless dominance, growing more and more reverent.
A male player exclaimed with infatuation, “I think I’m in love with Sister Ji!”
“I’ve been in love with her for ages!”
“I think I stand a chance!”
…
“You don’t stand a chance!” a female player said irritably. “Don’t forget, Sister Ji likes women. And guess what? We happen to be women!”
The female players lifted their chins proudly, puffing out their chests, flaunting their confidence as they shooed the men away. “Go on, move along! Don’t think you can compete with us for Sister Ji
For a moment, the male players were left speechless. Then, their eyes lit up with an idea.
“That’s fine. We can just buy some gender transformation pills. They’re easy to find in Boundless City. One pill is all it takes to become a woman—no surgery needed!”
Hearing this shameless suggestion, the female players were dumbfounded.
In this day and age, it seemed rivals in love were no longer confined to one gender. They now had to compete with the opposite sex too? Could these guys have some dignity?
After checking the timestamps on the paper dolls, Lu Ji’s eyes lowered slightly, and a faint, almost imperceptible smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
One hour.
As long as he didn’t waste time lingering at the stations, he estimated it would take about an hour to reach Gu Jiu, provided she didn’t board a return train too soon.
But she wouldn’t. Lu Ji was certain she would wait for him at one of the forward train stops.
He trusted Gu Jiu completely.
—
At Station 5, Gu Jiu and her group rested for half an hour before they had to set off again.
It wasn’t by choice—they were forced to move.
Old Hei, who was on patrol at the time, sounded a warning. The players resting or treating their injuries immediately sprang to attention, looking toward the passage where they had previously destroyed the Ghost Hand. Something was emerging from within.
A moment later, an inky blackness began to gush out from the rectangular tunnel, spreading across the ground like a flood.
The darkness was thick, resembling spilled ink or a shadow. It was shapeless and formless—or perhaps it could take on any shape. As it spread, it consumed everything in its path, leaving only void behind.
Everyone’s expressions darkened.
They all recognized the black shadow—or at least, that’s what they called it for lack of a better term. No one knew exactly what it was. It frequently appeared in subway stations, engulfing the entire area in darkness and hunting the players trapped within.
Anyone swallowed by the shadow was never seen again. No one knew what happened to them—just that they vanished entirely.
Everyone immediately descended to the second basement level, leaving the first.
The train was due to arrive in two minutes.
Old Hei glanced at his watch and shouted to the group, “Hold on for just two more minutes! Move faster, and don’t let those shadows catch up!”
As he spoke, the blackness began to seep down the escalators and stairways. Fortunately, its quantity wasn’t overwhelming—it was more like a stream trickling down. Although it moved swiftly, players still had a chance to escape as long as they didn’t let it overtake them.
The players scattered.
They fled in different directions to avoid the shadowy stream that was tracking them.
Gu Jiu led Wan Xingzhou and Wu Yang toward the platform for the return train.
After running for a while, she suddenly quickened her pace, took a running start, and leapt to the side. Using a support column as leverage, she kicked off it at an angle. As her body twisted mid-air, she slashed at the black shadows with her Lingyuan Blade.
The blade cut through the thick black substance, seeming to slice it apart, yet it also felt as if nothing had been affected.
As Gu Jiu’s body slid forward, Wu Yang and Wan Xingzhou moved to her sides, grabbing her arms to pull her along. Wu Yang asked, “Did it work?”
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
The two weren’t discouraged. If it had worked, this Death Train world wouldn’t have remained such a difficult enigma, and players wouldn’t still be clueless about how to deal with it.
Though ineffective, Gu Jiu didn’t give up.
She retrieved a mermaid doll from her inventory.
The doll was palm-sized, with blue hair, a chubby round face, and an adorable miniature fish tail.
Wan Xingzhou glanced at it. “Young Miss, is that the mermaid doll you got in the previous world?”
The doll turned its head to look at him, its glassy eyes glinting with human-like disdain, leaving Wan Xingzhou momentarily stunned.
Gu Jiu nodded, pressing the doll’s head as she asked it, “Can you devour those shadows?”
The mermaid doll puffed out its cheeks, clearly displeased at the notion of consuming something it considered garbage.
“Your whole purpose is to devour supernatural trash,” Gu Jiu said bluntly. She had no patience for the doll’s attitude. In the mermaid world, she’d had no problem putting the real mermaids in their place—what was a rule-generated tool like this doll compared to that?
Reluctantly, the doll opened its mouth and took a deep breath, sucking in a portion of the shadow.
Gu Jiu and her two companions saw a noticeable gap form in the black stream chasing them.
“Well, what do you know? It actually works!” Wan Xingzhou exclaimed, delighted. Wu Yang was just as thrilled.
However, Gu Jiu wasn’t satisfied. “That’s it? Just one small bite?”
The mermaid doll opened its mouth wide and wailed, “Waaah waaah!”
“Stop whining and keep eating!” Gu Jiu pressed its head again, urging it onward.
With no choice, the doll continued to devour the shadows, biting them into fragmented pieces and leaving their pursuer in disarray.
Finally, the train arrived.
Gu Jiu grabbed the mermaid doll and boarded the train with the others. The black shadows followed closely, stopping only at the train doors. By then, the entire subway station had been swallowed by the inky blackness, a void as dark as the train tracks themselves.
After the train started moving, most of the players slumped against the walls of the carriage, exhausted.
The black shadows had still managed to claim a few victims, but the rest successfully boarded.
Though such events were commonplace on the Death Train, they never failed to dampen the mood. No one spoke, and the carriage remained eerily silent.
When the train reached Station 4, Gu Jiu chose to disembark as usual.
Some players, however, refused to follow. They wanted to push through straight to Station 1 and board the return train there. Privately, they hoped Old Hei and his team would stay with them for safety in numbers.
Unfortunately for them, Old Hei and his group valued Gu Jiu more and didn’t insist on them staying together, leaving the others to go their separate way.
At Station 4, Gu Jiu’s group lingered for 15 minutes before being driven back onto the train by the station’s ghosts.
As the train neared Station 3, unease began to spread among Old Hei’s team.
“Gu Jiu, do you think your partner will make it to Station 1 in time to meet us?” Old Hei asked.
“She absolutely will!” Gu Jiu answered confidently, her trust in Lu Ji unwavering.
Wan Xingzhou was equally confident. Patting his chest, he declared, “Relax, everyone. Our Sister Ji is amazing. Her paper-folding skills are unmatched. Just her paper constructs alone will be enough to get her here safely.”
Encouraged by this, the group decided to place their trust in Lu Ji.
—
At Station 3, the group got off the train.
They explored the second basement level and found it relatively safe, so they headed to the first basement level to investigate further.
As they stepped onto the first floor, several gray shadows darted past their feet. The players quickly leapt aside and focused their gaze—only to discover that the shadows were rats.
“Puppet Rats!” Old Hei’s expression changed drastically. “That means there’s a Puppet Master at this stop!”
Yesterday, while riding the return train past the Station 2, they’d seen Puppet Rats and decided not to disembark. They hadn’t expected to encounter them today on the forward train at the Station 3.
This confirmed that the dangers at each stop were unpredictable, varying between the forward and return trains.
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
A chorus of squeaks echoed, sending shivers down everyone’s spines. Turning their heads, they saw a massive swarm of rats surging toward them. Even though they knew these were puppets, the rats looked terrifyingly lifelike. The endless stream pouring from every corner made their skin crawl.
As the swarm advanced, the group decisively resorted to fire.
Fish oil, kerosene, animal fat, vegetable oil, and ghost oil were thrown out, and they quickly set the area ablaze.
Despite being puppets, the rats still had the nature of rats. Crafted by the Puppet Master, their bodies were flammable. The fire spread quickly, engulfing swathes of Puppet Rats.
The players formed a circle, their backs against the wall, and created a ring of fire around them to keep the rats at bay.
At first, the tactic worked well. However, the Puppet Master controlling the rats wasn’t foolish. The rats began climbing on top of each other, forming a living ladder to leap over the flames and into the fire circle.
Gu Jiu pulled out her mermaid doll once more, instructing it to deal with the rats.
The mermaid doll hesitated. “….” It looked like it wanted to die.