Bai Liu's figure disappeared completely as Mu Sicheng jumped in agitation.
Mu Sicheng bit his fingernails and paced anxiously around the spot where Bai Liu had vanished. He circled it several times before crouching down, grabbing his hair, and crushing the lollipop in his mouth with a sharp crack. Finally, he gritted his teeth, clicked on the Exploding Last Train icon, and followed Bai Liu into the game.
One second before entering, Mu Sicheng muttered gloomily to himself, "Damn it, Bai Liu. That guy made me curious, too. I didn't even prepare for a Level 2 game!"
[The game 'Exploding Last Train' has gathered two players. Five more players are required to begin.]
Two minutes after Mu Sicheng disappeared, four players of nearly identical height, build, and appearance appeared in front of the screen.
Their faces were painted with strange puppet-like makeup, and they walked stiffly, like marionettes suspended on invisible strings. Every step carried an unnatural pause in their limbs and joints. They looked like four identical dolls crafted by a master artisan—so similar that it was difficult to distinguish them with the naked eye.
The one in front—the leader, perhaps—spoke in a low voice. "Bai Liu entered this game?"
When this "puppet" spoke, his mouth opened and closed in exaggerated movements, like a marionette mimicking speech. The low, hoarse voice, however, seemed as though it came from someone manipulating him from behind the strings.
Another puppet, a butcher knife strapped to his back, showed a flash of vengeful desire in his eyes as he replied respectfully, "Yes, Mr. Puppet Master."
"Is this Exploding Last Train?" The ink-painted eyes on the puppet's face narrowed with unsettling realism before curling into a vicious smile. "A Level 2 game. It seems that even if I don't personally act against Bai Liu, he is unlikely to come out alive. What a pity. Such high talent… It would be better to turn him into one of my puppets."
"Go."
The four puppets moved in perfect unison. They clicked on Exploding Last Train and disappeared together.
[The game 'Exploding Last Train' has gathered six players. One more player is required to begin.]
A young man wearing a sweater, thick plain glasses, and holding a heavy tome appeared beside the entrance screen.
His thick, square glasses were so large they covered nearly half his face. The lower half of his face—what little was visible beneath the frames—showed scattered freckles across the bridge of his nose. He hunched slightly, his head tucked into his sweater collar.
If Bai Liu were here, he would think this player resembled Jeff from Siren Town.
However, this person looked weaker—more ordinary. Like a normal student.
And in this game, someone dressed so ordinarily felt strangely out of place.
"Let's see which game I should choose…" the young man murmured. He pushed up his glasses and leaned in close to the screen, squinting as though they were reading glasses. Then he opened his game manager panel.
The personal interface displayed:
[Player Name: Du Sanying]
[Today's Rising Stars Points Ranking: You have surpassed Mu Sicheng's 170,000 points, who is currently ranked fourth among the Rising Stars. He will not be able to catch up with you in the short term. Please continue working hard to widen the gap and catch up with the players ranked above you.]
[Achievements: Winner Who Did Nothing; The Only Lucky Survivor; The Player Ignored by Monsters for No Reason; The Fighter Whose 100 Attacks All Missed You.]
[Items in the game store are currently discounted from 10,000 points to 1 point. Would you like to purchase them?]
[Congratulations to player Du Sanying for winning the Top Player Gift Package with a probability of one in 100,000! Would you like to claim it now?]
-----------------
Du Sanying seemed numb to these windfalls. He didn't claim any of the rewards or gifts. Instead, he closed each interface one by one until he reached the final page—his personal panel. Pushing up his glasses, he leaned so close that his face was nearly pressed against the screen. He squinted as he searched carefully for the information he wanted.
[Luck Value: 100 (You are the luckiest person in the world today. You are favored by the God of Luck. Choose the game you want according to your instincts! The one you choose will make you the luckiest!)]
"The luck value is 100 again today?" Du Sanying muttered hesitantly as he scanned the screen. "In that case… I'd better choose based on intuition. Then—"
His gaze wandered before finally settling on the icon for Exploding Last Train.
His hand hovered over it.
A strange, unsettling premonition surged through him. If he clicked this icon, something extremely lucky—and extremely unlucky—would happen.
He had never experienced such a contradictory feeling before. Whenever his luck value was at 100, he would always have a clear sense of which choice would bring him good fortune. But this time…
Why did he feel that choosing this game would make him suffer terribly—yet also grant him incredible luck?
It was chaotic. Confusing.
Du Sanying shook his head. After hesitating for a long time, he finally pressed the icon for Exploding Last Train.
[All players have been gathered for the game 'Exploding Last Train.' The game will now begin.]
On the large screen, a "Full" mark appeared in the lower right corner of the Exploding Last Train icon.
The next second, Bai Liu opened his eyes inside a subway station.
At the same time, seven small TVs lit up in the game hall. One of them displayed Bai Liu's calm face amid the crowd of a subway station.
Wang Shun had been searching for Bai Liu in the game hall when his game manager began vibrating repeatedly.
[System Tip: Bai Liu, the player whose small TV you bookmarked, has logged into a game. Please proceed to watch~]
[System Tip: Mu Sicheng, the player whose small TV…]
[System Tip: Puppet Master, the player whose small TV…]
[System Tip: Du Sanying, the player whose small TV…]
"No way…" Wang Shun muttered in a daze after reading all the notifications. "Fuck. Bai Liu, the third and fourth players on the Rising Stars ranking, and Puppet Master all entered the same multiplayer game. This is a clash between gods…"
-----------------
The moment Bai Liu opened his eyes, system notifications appeared before him.
[Welcome, player, to 'Exploding Last Train.']
[You are a passenger. Please use the ticket in your pocket to enter the station within 10 minutes and wait to board the last train, which is about to explode.]
Bai Liu reached into the pocket of his suit pants and pulled out a thin, stiff subway ticket. Printed on it were the words:
Metro Line 4: Antique City → Antique City
He raised an eyebrow slightly.
The departure station and destination station had the same name. Unless there were two stations with identical names—
Bai Liu turned his head and scanned the station interior, searching for a subway route map. He quickly spotted one mounted beside the ticket booth.
Line 4 was marked in an eye-catching red. He found it immediately.
"As expected, Line 4 is a loop line," Bai Liu murmured as he examined the red track circling the city. "The starting station and the terminal station are the same. This station is called Antique City."
He strolled around the subway station. Aside from a few scattered passengers, he found no additional information.
However, something about the station's design felt slightly off.
Normally, subway stations have escalators at both entrances and exits. To manage passenger flow efficiently, exit escalators usually move upward, while entrance escalators move downward.
But here, the directions were reversed. It felt subtly wrong.
Another detail caught Bai Liu's attention: the LED electronic clock mounted high on the wall.
[7:34]
At first glance, it seemed normal. But after looking at it several times, Bai Liu realized something was off.
The time wasn't moving forward. It was moving backward.
In the blink of an eye, the display shifted from 7:34 to 7:12.
Bai Liu reacted immediately. "This isn't a clock," he said thoughtfully. "It's a countdown."
"It's giving me a time limit. I have six minutes left to enter the station."
Despite the dwindling time, Bai Liu didn't rush. He stepped outside the subway station.
Beyond it was pure darkness—no sound, no lights, nothing at all. The passengers who walked into the pitch-black night simply vanished.
Bai Liu didn't attempt to follow them. Instead, he turned back inside.
The countdown now reads 3:02.
Bai Liu slowly examined the subway map again. This time, he focused on the station names along Line 4.
The next station after Antique City was Reservoir.
A few stops away was another station: the Mirror Museum. That name immediately drew Bai Liu's attention.
"Mirror Museum…" Bai Liu's gaze settled on the name as if something had been stirred in his memory. "Why does this feel familiar…?"
He was just about to recall where he had heard it before when a male voice abruptly interrupted him.
"Damn it, Bai Liu! Why haven't you gone in yet?!"
Mu Sicheng stepped back from the platform and saw Bai Liu standing there, touching his chin while studying the subway map. Narrowing his eyes, he strode over. "There's barely more than a minute left. What are you doing? Memorizing the map?"
Bai Liu wasn't surprised that Mu Sicheng had followed him into the game. He glanced at the red LED countdown and replied calmly, "I think I've been here before…"
Mu Sicheng froze. "You've played this game before?" Then he immediately shook his head. "Impossible. You're a newcomer."
"No," Bai Liu admitted. "I haven't been here in the game."
Mu Sicheng frowned. "Then how could you have been here—"
"I haven't been here in the game," Bai Liu said evenly, "but that doesn't mean I haven't been here at all. I think I've been to this place in real life."
"Real life?" Mu Sicheng stared at him in disbelief. "You've been to this subway station in reality? How would you know that?"
"If I'm not mistaken, this is a horror game based on a real incident." Bai Liu turned away from the subway line map. "Have you heard of the Mirror City Bombing?"
Mu Sicheng's expression shifted. "You mean the case where two thieves hid a bomb inside an antique mirror? They planned to bring it to a local museum and use a bomb threat to rob the place, but the bomb went out of control during transport, and the entire subway train exploded.
Bai Liu walked toward the ticket gate as he spoke, pulling out his ticket. A soft beep sounded as he passed through smoothly. "I just studied the station distribution on the map. This game was most likely designed based on that bombing."
"I've heard of it…" Mu Sicheng followed him through the gate. "But knowing that doesn't help much. The case caused a huge sensation, yet the authorities never revealed how the perpetrators managed to hide a bomb inside a mirror and get it past security. A lot of details were never made public."
He shrugged. "Even if we know the inspiration behind the game, we still don't know what exactly happened on that last train to make it explode. We don't know the specifics. Just the background. That's useless."
"I might know what's going to happen," Bai Liu said lightly, touching his nose before flashing Mu Sicheng a faint smile. "I was on that subway that day. I got off one stop before the explosion."
Mu Sicheng: "..."
Bai Liu shrugged innocently and added in a considerate tone, "Isn't that a good deal? Can't you use such valuable information to clear the instance?"
"Mu Sicheng, I can tell you everything I know." His expression remained calm. "But it won't be free. If you don't believe me, you can verify it. I remember you have an item that detects lies."