The train sped through the darkness of the tunnel.
Having decided to stop and rest at Station 25, the train passed through other subway stations along the way. The players aboard the train only gave these stations a cursory glance, uninterested in whatever might be going on there. Even if a station appeared safe, no one paid it any mind.
Uninjured players kept watch, staying alert for any potential dangers that might arise on the train. Meanwhile, the injured rested inside the carriages.
Two hours later, the wound on Gu Jiu’s hand finally healed.
Instead of removing the bandages wrapped around her palm, she took out another roll and rewrapped both hands, making them look like a mummy’s.
Just as she finished bandaging her hands, commotion broke out in the front carriage. The sound of high heels clicking against the floor echoed sharply, waking the people in her carriage instantly. They looked toward the source of the sound, their expressions wary.
Gu Jiu stood up and said to Chai Yingying and Old Hei, who were still recovering from their injuries, “I’ll go take a look. You guys keep resting.”
The people in this carriage were all seriously injured—internal injuries, no less. If this were the real world, they’d undoubtedly be in the ICU. Although Boundless City’s medicines could help, they were ordinary remedies and didn’t work as effectively as Blood Elixirs, so recovery wasn’t instantaneous.
Chai Yingying was about to ask if Gu Jiu could handle it alone but decided against it when she saw Lu Ji following her. She shut her mouth decisively.
With Lu Ji around, they didn’t need to worry.
Old Hei and the others felt the same. Though they were still concerned, they didn’t follow to check. Instead, they stayed put, focusing on healing their injuries as quickly as possible.
As blood began dripping from the red high heels, Gu Jiu and Lu Ji strode forward.
The players, who had been tense and on guard, lit up with relief when they saw the pair and exclaimed, “Miss Gu, Miss Lu, you’re here!”
Lu Ji’s eyebrow twitched at the sound of “Miss Lu,” and he couldn’t help but glance at them.
He used to be indifferent about being mistaken for a girl by humans, but ever since realizing he was deceiving Gu Jiu, the matter began to weigh on him. He resolved that as soon as they got off this Death Train, he would come clean to her. No more lies.
Gu Jiu noticed that the blood pooling on the ground was growing thicker and spreading wider. Before it could form a humanoid shape, she pulled a mermaid doll from her pocket.
“Doll, go have a sip of blood.”
The mermaid doll, half-asleep, jolted awake at her words, instantly alert.
Even though it was clearly unwilling, the doll couldn’t defy its owner’s command. With a disgruntled sigh, it was tossed into the air, landing on the ground and opening its mouth to gulp down some blood.
A pained cry echoed from within the blood.
The red high heels had just started to transform into a humanoid figure when the woman caught sight of Gu Jiu and the mermaid doll. Her expression shifted, and without hesitation, she turned and fled.
Everyone: “…”
The players, who had been ready for a fight, were left speechless. She ran away? They hadn’t even started yet!
Wait—weren’t they supposed to be the ones running?
To their further astonishment, Gu Jiu chased after her, shouting, “Why are you running? You came all this way—let’s have a chat!”
Hearing this, Lu Ji conjured a blood-red whip in his hand.
The whip, steeped in the stench of countless battles and dripping with ominous energy, cracked through the air and flew straight for the fleeing woman. It coiled around her neck, forcing her to stop in her tracks.
Gu Jiu leaped forward, landing a solid kick that sent the woman sprawling to the ground.
Blood threads erupted from the woman’s body, attempting to entangle Gu Jiu. But before they could tighten, the mermaid doll extended its claws, slashing the threads apart. It even grabbed the shredded blood threads, rolled them into a ball, and stuffed them into its mouth, chewing noisily before swallowing.
Unable to fight back and having her own blood threads devoured, the woman in red high heels experienced the most humiliating moment of her ghostly existence, letting out an enraged wail.
The sound reverberated through the carriage, so piercing that the nearby players couldn’t help but cover their ears as they stumbled backward.
Gu Jiu felt her head buzz from the noise, her thoughts briefly scattered. Then she noticed something warm dripping from her nose. She wiped it with her hand and was startled to see red blood.
As someone who had been beautiful her entire life, Gu Jiu was in disbelief. A nosebleed? She, of all people, was having a nosebleed?!
How could something so undignified happen to her?
The string of rationality in her mind snapped instantly. With fury in her eyes, she stomped on the woman’s back, yanked her hair, and twisted her head around 360 degrees. Her crimson nails dug into the woman’s face, leaving a bloody hole. In a chilling tone, she said, “Scream one more time, and I’ll scratch up your face, gouge out your eyes, and cut off your tongue!”
The woman: “…”
Her wailing came to an abrupt halt. Who was the real ghost here?
The woman in red high heels stared at Gu Jiu with a twisted, venomous expression.
Gu Jiu wiped the blood from her nose and sneered. “What are you staring at? Never seen a beauty before? Look at yourself—you’re not as pretty as me, your nails aren’t as long, and your blood threads are absolutely disgusting. What exactly do you think you’re so proud of?”
The woman: “…”
As a ghost who still cared deeply about her appearance, the woman was utterly crushed. Seeing that even Gu Jiu’s nosebleed looked elegant only made her more furious.
Gu Jiu yanked her hair again, dragging her along the ground like a dead dog toward the front of the train.
Lu Ji’s whip remained tightly coiled around the woman’s neck, preventing her from launching any surprise attacks. But his caution proved unnecessary—Gu Jiu’s grip on her hair was as unyielding as iron, giving the woman no chance to break free.
The players in the back watched dumbfounded as Gu Jiu dragged the woman in red high heels away. They couldn’t believe their eyes. Were they dreaming?
It wasn’t until the group reached the front of the train and disappeared into the lead carriage that the players snapped out of their daze and hurried to follow. But when they passed through several carriages, they found that Gu Jiu, Lu Ji, and the ghostly woman had inexplicably vanished, as if they had never existed.
The players’ hearts pounded uneasily. They searched the area several times but found nothing, prompting them to rush back to report to Chai Yingying and the others.
“What? Even the woman in red high heels was subdued by the young miss?” Chai Yingying gaped in shock. “Is the young miss always this ferocious? Or was she so provoked by Lu Ji’s injury that she became unstoppable?”
The group: “…” Hey, that’s not what ‘subdued’ means, right?
Despite her injuries, Chai Yingying clutched her chest and darted off like an excited rabbit. Her expression was brimming with anticipation, and she seemed to have completely forgotten her pain.
Old Hei and the others also forced themselves up and followed.
When they reached the lead carriage, they tried to open the driver’s cabin door but found it completely sealed. Even brute force couldn’t break it.
“Look! Blood is seeping out from the gaps.” Li Jing pointed at the crimson liquid trickling from the cracks, his face pale with fear.
So much blood—what on earth was happening inside?
The group grew anxious for Gu Jiu and Lu Ji. They attacked the door repeatedly, hacking and kicking, leaving marks all over its surface. Yet the door refused to budge.
Someone muttered under their breath, “Do you think something happened to Gu Jiu?”
“Impossible!” Wan Xingzhou glared fiercely at the speaker, looking both innocent and threatening. “The young miss and Ah Ji are fine! If anything happened, it’s to that woman!”
Chai Yingying nodded in agreement. “Little Wan is right; the young miss is fierce.”
With the duo’s strong rebuke, the others didn’t dare voice further doubts. Old Hei and the rest, however, felt reassured by their confidence.
—
Meanwhile, Gu Jiu and Lu Ji, who were the subjects of everyone’s concern, were still on a train.
But this train wasn’t the Death Train.
It was a regular subway train, bustling with people—men, women, the elderly, and children—crowding the carriage. The passengers were busy with their own routines: some leaned against the carriage walls with their eyes closed, others chatted quietly, a few listened to music through headphones, and others scrolled through videos on their phones.
These people were utterly ordinary, living their routine subway day.
Amidst the throng, Gu Jiu and Lu Ji blended in, appearing as two ordinary passengers themselves.
Despite their striking attire, which clashed with the mundane surroundings, and their appearances, which outshone celebrities, no one gave them a second glance. It was as if they didn’t exist—or perhaps, as if they truly belonged in this ordinary scene.
Gu Jiu’s gaze swept across the crowd before turning upward toward the subway route map.
She tried to focus on the diagram, but it remained blurry, obscured as if some unseen force was blocking her from fully perceiving this world.
Unable to make sense of the map, she didn’t dwell on it and instead moved forward.
Lu Ji followed silently, his eyes fixed on her figure, paying no attention to anything else around him.
Gu Jiu wove through the crowded carriage. When the throng blocked her way, she gently extended her hand to gesture for space. The passengers, seemingly without much thought, looked at her and naturally stepped aside, creating a path for her.
She walked from the front of the carriage to the rear, where she finally spotted someone familiar.
At the back of the carriage, seated and attempting to blend into the crowd, was the woman in the red dress.
Gu Jiu stopped before her, looking down with a smile. “What’s the idea behind bringing us here?”
The woman only stared at her with wide eyes, remaining silent.
Gu Jiu’s gaze swept over the woman’s form, noticing that one of her arms was missing. She chuckled. “Decided you didn’t need your arm anymore?”
The woman stayed silent.
Gu Jiu crouched slightly, her expression friendly as she patted the woman’s shoulder. The woman flinched in fear, her face a mix of horror and apprehension.
“Relax,” Gu Jiu said, her tone light. “I’m not going to hit you. Just send us back, will you?”
The woman’s face was filled with disbelief.
Not long ago, Gu Jiu had nearly chopped off her other arm in a fit of fury.
“Or,” Gu Jiu added with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “I could just finish the job and take this arm off right here.”
Those words worked better than any threat. Without hesitation, the woman jumped up and grabbed both Gu Jiu’s and Lu Ji’s hands.
Gu Jiu’s smile widened. “I hope we meet again on the train next time.”
The woman: “…”
The vibrant, bustling subway scene began to dissolve like a fading watercolor painting, transforming back into the desolate, blood-soaked, and chilling Death Train.
Gu Jiu and Lu Ji reappeared in the last carriage.
The players searching for them spotted them there and shouted at the top of their lungs toward the front, “They’re here!”
Chai Yingying and the others, who had been searching near the train’s lead carriage, immediately dashed back upon hearing the news.
Seeing the two return safe and sound, the group was momentarily speechless.
“Young Miss, weren’t you heading to the front of the train? How did you end up at the back?” Chai Yingying asked in disbelief. “Could it be that the woman in high heels used spatial powers to bring you here?”
“Not really,” Gu Jiu replied casually. “We walked here.”
“But we didn’t see you.”
“Because we walked through the train in another space.”
“…”
Everyone stared at her in stunned silence as they tried to process her words. Their wide-eyed disbelief reflected their confusion, surprise, excitement, and doubt. A mix of emotions piled up, leaving them at a loss for words, afraid they might have misunderstood and would end up celebrating prematurely.
Gu Jiu tugged Lu Ji down to sit beside her and affirmed, “It’s exactly what you’re thinking! After we caught her, she tried to escape by pulling us into another dimension—another version of the train. But unfortunately for her, that space was just as small, so it didn’t take long to find her again and force her to bring us back.”
The realization dawned on everyone.
Gu Jiu had entered yet another space—an alternate realm where the ghosts resided. In that space, they appeared as normal humans, indistinguishable from the living.
After a pause, Chai Yingying concluded, “So, if we can enter a normal space, we might be able to escape?”
The group pondered her statement. The subway station and train they were trapped in were clearly abnormal. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t leave. The only way out was to enter a “normal” space.
“Why didn’t you leave?” Old Hei asked. “You have a return ticket, don’t you?”
The group had already pieced together the purpose of the return tickets sold in the game’s shop. Players with return tickets could leave this endless Death Train.
Gu Jiu explained, “I couldn’t leave because I couldn’t see the subway’s route map.”
This revelation made it clear that the players were subject to many limitations in that space. Even something as basic as reading the route map was blocked, making it impossible to leave.
“So, does that mean we need to go to the subway station and board the train from the entrance?” someone speculated.
“Or maybe at a specific station?”
“From the first station to Station 25, there must be one station where players can board the return train and leave.”
“I think it’s probably the first station since players can only board the return train from there. The return ticket is a hint, directing us to board at the first station.”
“But what if the first station is a decoy?”