Du Sanying hurried into the carriage at the very last second. The compartment was extremely hot, but not the kind of scorching heat that would burn someone alive as he had imagined. The corpses hanging from the handholds and the other "passengers" remained where they were; none of them stepped forward to attack. The flames licked at Du Sanying's hair. Although it felt hot, they lacked the true, tangible sensation of real fire.
Bai Liu smiled kindly at him. "Hello. My name is Bai Liu. I'm one of the players in this game."
Du Sanying awkwardly reached out his hand. "Y-Yes, hello. I'm Du Sanying…"
Mu Sicheng looked at Du Sanying in surprise, as if he hadn't expected him to appear in this game. Soon after, he gave a cold snort, crossed his arms, and turned his head away as though he hadn't seen him at all—not even offering a greeting.
Du Sanying seemed to have anticipated this reaction. His smile grew more awkward, and he quietly shrank into a corner. After hesitating for a while, he couldn't help asking, "Bai Liu… how did you know you wouldn't be attacked when you boarded?"
"This should just be a cutscene," Bai Liu analyzed calmly. "We haven't received the first point-based task yet, which means the game hasn't officially started. These things are probably just here to scare players and set up the story. They won't actually kill us."
After speaking, Bai Liu glanced between Mu Sicheng and Du Sanying with interest. The two were clearly at odds. He turned to Mu Sicheng, who had gone silent the moment Du Sanying boarded. "What's wrong? Do you have a grudge against this kid, Du Sanying?"
Mu Sicheng shot Du Sanying a hostile look. Du Sanying fidgeted, unsure where to put his hands, and retreated a little farther back, secretly observing their conversation from behind a burning corpse.
Du Sanying wasn't very tall—about half a head shorter than Bai Liu. His thick, bottle-cap glasses and thin frame made him look like an overprepared high school student. He radiated a harmless, nerdy aura, which was why Bai Liu, who had already entered society, casually called him "kid."
"You'll understand after playing one game with Du Sanying," Mu Sicheng said through gritted teeth, biting down hard on his lollipop as if recalling something unpleasant. "His luck value is 100. No matter how hard you try, he'll end up first in the game, snatching victory from you in ways you'd never even imagine."
The viewers watching Du Sanying's broadcast burst into laughter.
"Is God Mu remembering that multiplayer game where Xiao Ying accidentally picked up what he missed and took first place?"
"Accidentally? That wasn't picking up a mistake—it was express delivery from the heavens! God Mu personally delivered it!"
"This is why Du Sanying doesn't even know basic information like the opening animation, even though he's ranked third among the Rising Stars," Mu Sicheng sneered. "He lies flat and wins his way to the top. He has zero game awareness. I'd advise you not to get involved with him. Any instance-clearing items or information you collect will somehow end up in his hands."
"He's lucky—but anyone close to him is unlucky. Every time you run into Du Sanying in a game, your luck value drops."
Mu Sicheng spoke with obvious disdain, mocking Du Sanying for not even daring to board the train at first. Yet when Bai Liu had dragged Mu Sicheng onto the burning carriage earlier, Mu Sicheng himself had been startled. It was Bai Liu who pointed out they hadn't received the point task yet and that the scene was likely just an opening animation. Only then did Mu Sicheng react.
Most players rarely consider things like opening animations. Even if they did, they wouldn't dare board the carriage so confidently. Only Bai Liu would act without hesitation.
Bai Liu was a heavy gambler at heart. If gambling weren't illegal, he might have made a career out of it. If he calculated an 80% chance of success, he would commit with 100% determination.
The future Mu Sicheng would never have obediently followed such a bold Bai Liu onto the train. But the current Mu Sicheng didn't yet understand this side of Bai Liu and was easily misled by his calm, decisive expression.
Still, Mu Sicheng continued explaining Du Sanying's ability.
"No." He opened the game manager panel and showed Bai Liu his luck value. His expression darkened. "My luck value dropped from 56 to 43. Tsk. Du Sanying's ability is getting more lethal. Bai Liu, your luck value will probably decrease too…"
Bai Liu looked at him silently. "Can luck values go negative in this game?"
Mu Sicheng: "..."
Damn. He had forgotten that Bai Liu's luck value was already 0.
Du Sanying overheard Mu Sicheng explaining how his presence reduced others' luck and noticed that Bai Liu seemed aware of this unpleasant trait. Embarrassed, he scratched his cheek and shrank deeper into the corner. Suddenly, the carriage doors slammed shut, startling him.
All the burning corpses in the carriage instantly reverted to normal passengers. They turned their heads in unison and smiled strangely at Bai Liu before crumbling into ashes. At the same time, a sweet female voice announced, "Passengers, welcome to Line 4. The next stop—Mirror City Museum."
Bai Liu turned to the LED countdown board. After hitting zero, it had reset to [60:00].
A one-hour countdown. That was the time he estimated it would take for the train to travel from the starting station to the terminal. It seemed the explosion would occur in one hour.
Bai Liu recalled the real-life Mirror City Bombing that served as the prototype for this game, Exploding Last Train. The explosion had occurred at the Mirror City Museum subway station. At the time, Bai Liu had disembarked at the stop before it. In reality, however, that stop hadn't been Antique City, and the subway line wasn't a closed loop.
He had been on that train with Lu Yizhan. He was supposed to get off after the Mirror City Museum, but Lu Yizhan had suddenly insisted they disembark early. Otherwise, Bai Liu—whose luck was nonexistent both in and out of the game—would have been blown to pieces in the bombing.
The Mirror City Bombing began when two thieves stole a priceless antique mirror. Pretending to be its rightful owners, they offered to donate it to the local museum—but insisted on escorting it there themselves.
The mirror was said to be worth over 100 million yuan. The museum rarely received such a valuable donation and agreed to several unreasonable requests.
The city housing the museum was called Mirror City, and the institution itself was the Mirror City Museum. The thieves' true plan was to use the transport process to access the museum's backstage area. They had hidden a bomb inside the antique mirror, intending to detonate it and loot the museum's collection.
For reasons unknown, the thieves refused to transport the mirror by car and insisted on taking the subway. The museum sent a commissioner to accompany them. During transit, something happened, and the bomb concealed in the mirror exploded. Almost everyone in the carriage died on the spot, including the two thieves and the museum escort.
After their deaths, their crime was exposed. The case sparked heated public discussion before being concluded as a terrorist-style theft attempt and quietly closed.
Later, Bai Liu and Lu Yizhan discussed the suspicious aspects of the explosion. Two main doubts stood out:
First, how had the thieves concealed enough explosives in a mirror to destroy an entire carriage and still pass subway security?
Second, if their motive was money, why donate a priceless antique mirror instead of selling it privately?
As far as Bai Liu knew, the total value of the museum's collection didn't exceed the mirror's price. If profit was their goal, selling the mirror would have been simpler. Transporting it publicly and detonating a bomb was inefficient and reckless. The moment explosives were involved, escape would have been nearly impossible.
Back then, Bai Liu had remarked that if he wanted to rob the museum, he would simply sell the mirror, bribe the guards for access, eliminate them afterward, and frame them for the theft—clean and efficient.
Lu Yizhan had been utterly speechless. He had asked Bai Liu to help solve the case, not to devise a more perfect crime from the perpetrator's perspective.
Bai Liu had apologized insincerely, saying he naturally thought from the standpoint of maximizing personal benefit. Lu Yizhan had indignantly warned that such thinking would cause serious trouble one day.
Now that trouble had arrived. Bai Liu stood inside Exploding Last Train, forced to reconsider why the thieves had acted so irrationally.
His eyes narrowed as his thoughts raced. The thieves had refused a private car and avoided being alone with the mirror. They preferred crowded public transport. They weren't concerned about damaging the mirror, even stuffing it with explosives. They chose to exchange it for other collections instead of selling it—contrary to a thief's instinct for profit.
All signs pointed to one conclusion:
They were afraid of the mirror.
They hadn't dared stay alone with the 100-million-yuan mirror. Perhaps they had tried to dispose of it but failed, and it somehow returned to them. Desperate, they sought the authority of the museum, hoping to donate or confine it there.
In a final attempt to destroy it, they packed it with explosives. Yet something went wrong—the mirror exploded on the subway before they could rid themselves of it.
If Bai Liu's reasoning was correct, then the key to this game wasn't the last train about to explode, nor the burned passengers, nor the station names Du Sanying was scrutinizing—
It was the mirror.
[Congratulations to player Bai Liu for triggering the main quest—Collect the broken mirror fragments on the last train (0/?).]