At this mont, Suo Qingqiu was groping her way through a dark aisle.
When the train plunged into darkness, she tripped over sothing. She didn't fall, but the walkie-talkie in her hand slipped from her grasp and flew far away.
After boarding the train, she had been standing near the counter. The passenger who had wanted to place an order had inexplicably disappeared, so she had nervously stayed by the counter.
Suo Qingqiu didn't dare venture too close to the passenger area.
But now, she had no choice but to make her way there.
It wasn't just because her walkie-talkie had fallen in that direction, but also because after the carriage plunged into darkness, she heard the toilet door, diagonally across from the counter, CREAK open from the inside. She thought she could even hear footsteps coming from that direction.
Startled by the eerie sound, Suo Qingqiu quickly moved toward the passenger area, away from the toilet. Fortunately, even after the carriage went dark, occasional sounds from the passengers could still be heard, adding a sliver of human presence to the unsettling environnt.
She carefully made her way to the passenger area and crouched down, feeling around on the floor.
The occasional exchanges between passengers and the rustle of their clothes brought Suo Qingqiu so comfort.
She quieted her movents and, after searching for a short while, finally found her walkie-talkie. It seed to have fallen underneath a seat.
Suo Qingqiu gritted her teeth and stretched out her hand for it. But just as she grabbed the walkie-talkie, a sudden rustling noise ca from a nearby passenger.
Startled, she was about to stand up and leave when a gentle voice drifted down to her from above. "Are you looking for sothing? Can I help you?"
Hearing the voice, Suo Qingqiu let out a soft sigh of relief and replied, "N-no, thank you."
However, a hand had already landed on her arm, seemingly intending to help her up.
Suo Qingqiu instinctively tried to push it away but found the arm disconcertingly soft, as if covered by a thick glove. With a light push, this "glove" rolled up and then fell to the ground with a SMACK.
Hearing that sound, a chill ran down Suo Qingqiu's spine.
What... what was that?!
That definitely wasn't the sound of a weightless glove hitting the floor!
Her hand was still frozen in place, her fingers having apparently brushed against sothing cool and utterly revolting where the person's arm should have been.
What fell to the ground?
And what did I touch?!
She wanted to scream, but sothing rigid, like a wooden plank, suddenly coiled around her neck from behind and began to tighten, strangling her.
Suo Qingqiu struggled, desperately trying to pry off the thing around her neck, but it was to no avail.
Her eyes were rolling back, her hands still unconsciously clawing at the object on her neck.
Just as Suo Qingqiu was about to lose consciousness, it suddenly occurred to her what the object strangling her might be.
An oxygen-deprived brain isn't usually conducive to thought, but in her final monts, she understood.
So, that's what it was...
"Say, did any of you hear sothing just now?" a passenger's voice ca from Carriage Six.
A dismissive voice replied, "Probably just soone turning in their sleep."
After this brief exchange, the carriage fell silent. The earlier sounds of struggle had ceased, so no one said anything more.
At this mont, Guigu's voice ca from Han Shan's walkie-talkie. "Damn, I think a head was just blowing on from above!"
Gu Mian also turned on his walkie-talkie.
The surroundings were still pitch black. The train that had been approaching from behind had already overtaken them, its sounds gradually fading. Gu Mian guessed it wouldn't be long before they exited the tunnel.
Sure enough, just as Guigu finished speaking, their surroundings abruptly lit up.
The power was restored.
Han Shan's first reaction was to look down at what he had written on his arm using the "Pen-shaped Real-ti Repeater."
His notebook was with Gu Mian, so he had been forced to write on his own arm.
It read—
"The 'Ti Escape' train caught up with the 'Ti Escape' train."
"Gu Mian on the 'Ti Escape' train took a photo."
"ng Shi Tian Ying on the 'Ti Escape' train yawned."
"Suo Qingqiu in Carriage Six was heinously attacked."
"The 'Ti Escape' train overtook the 'Ti Escape' train."
Ignoring Suo Qingqiu's heinous attack, Han Shan frowned. "So, there really are two 'Ti Escape' trains!"
Gu Mian, who wasn't far away, could also make out so of the writing. The na "ng Shi Tian Ying" caught his attention.
"ng Shi Tian Ying?" He stroked his chin. "That na doesn't belong to anyone on our train, does it?"
This obviously wasn't a na a normal person would have; only players had nas like that.
"I see," Han Shan said, staring intently at his arm. "Those vendors aren't vendors at all. They're players, just like us! They're from another 'Ti Escape' train."
No wonder the player count for this instance was unknown from the start. It wasn't a system glitch—they were being set up.
Gu Mian glanced at the notebook in his hand. "Moreover, these two 'Ti Escape' trains are probably the sa one... I an, the sa train, but at different points in ti."
Two tistamps were recorded in Han Shan's notebook.
One was 11:56 PM, and the other was 9:25 PM.
These two tis had been twisted into the sa spaceti continuum. The vendor's location served as the dividing line: one step forward placed you at 9:25 PM, and one step back, at 11:56 PM.
Gu Mian and his group of six others were likely on the 11:56 PM train.
The vendors, on the other hand, were on the 9:25 PM train.
Their current ti was later than the vendors'.
Gu Mian stroked his chin. "And I suspect the passengers on these two trains are actually the sa group."
The sa group of passengers? Han Shan frowned.
Gu Mian continued, "The instance information at the start said that the 'Ti Escape' train only runs once a day, beginning at 11:40 PM. We should be on the correctly tid run. At 9:25 PM, this train should still be stationary. But, as you saw, the 9:25 PM train was moving."
"Let's ignore for a mont why the train was moving at 9:25 PM. From a temporal perspective, the vendors' train is on a tiline before ours. Their actions on that train could affect us here... Do you understand what I'm saying?"
Han Shan nodded. "Go on."
"If the passengers on both trains are indeed the sa people, then imagine this: if a passenger dies on the nine o'clock train, that sa passenger definitely won't be alive on our eleven o'clock train."
It's like if you died at age three; you couldn't possibly be alive at age twenty.
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