Chapter 11: Mutation
Liu Jia stared at him in shock, and even Professor Han frowned and looked over. Those who understood naturally understood, while those who didn't gazed out the window. "Where is there something?"
"I was mistaken." Xu Huo withdrew his gaze, having already obtained the answer he wanted.
Liu Jia was uneasy, and Professor Han patted her shoulder reassuringly.
The suffocating night arrived once again.
This time, the darkness came faster than before, almost instantly switching from day to night. The train was immersed in silence, and all sounds dropped low.
However, after only a few minutes of quiet, the train shook violently for over ten seconds, and fierce fighting erupted simultaneously from the carriages ahead and behind. From the third-class carriage came a sound like a beast's roar.
"They're in!" Liu Jia said, her voice choked with tears.
"Don't panic, that's human voices!" Professor Han raised his voice. "Everyone, don't move around. Block the front and back doors first!"
Professor Han and Liu Jia secured the tables at the front door, while Yan Jiayu also carried and dragged a table toward the back door. Amidst the chaotic footsteps, the sounds of flesh tearing and swallowing echoed through the carriage.
Xu Huo instinctively stopped moving, then the next second rushed toward where the sound came from. But someone was faster than him—Yan Jiayu swept past him like the wind, and immediately after, Li Fei screamed in agony!
Li Fei wasn't dead yet. Struggling desperately, he kicked Yan Jiayu away, but what was thrust into his stomach was a table leg Yan Jiayu had dismantled. That thing tore a large hole in his abdomen. Feeling something flow out from inside, he staggered two steps and fell to his knees!
At the same time, Xu Huo caught the retreating Yan Jiayu. Just as he was about to speak, suddenly the lights in the third-class carriage came on!
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The sound of glass shattering rang out in rapid succession. But in an instant, the lights went out again. In just the blink of an eye, Xu Huo still managed to see the "monsters" clinging to the windows outside!
So the jolting during the night was the sound of these monsters boarding the train—now countless ugly, deformed faces pressed hideously against the glass. Their humanoid limbs were pale and slender, crossed and crowded together, wrapping the carriage tightly like locusts. On their heads, a pair of sunken, oversized eyeballs stared dully and forcefully into the carriage interior, saliva hanging from their mouths, poised and ready as if waiting for a signal!
But the signal had already come!
"Bang!" That fleeting flash of light awakened the monsters outside the windows. The glass shattered, but what burst in wasn't the wind from the moving train—it was several monsters!
Dull thuds of landing came from different directions, accompanied by screams. With the keen hearing of an Evolver, Xu Huo heard dragging and tearing. Li Fei, who was beside him, didn't even have time to scream before being dragged away. The horrifying sound of swallowing was distinctly different from the Cannibal Player's feeding earlier!
"What the hell are these things!" Terrified screams rang out one after another. The carriage was in chaos, and the rapidly rising smell of blood and stench spread everywhere. Xu Huo retreated to the back door, grabbed a nearby table, and blocked the gust of wind rushing toward him. Under the impact of the collision, he and the table slammed into the carriage wall. A wave of stench slashed toward his face—he ducked down, and the monster's claws scraped against the metal with a piercing screech!
Seizing the opportunity, he pushed the table to shove the monster pinning him away. Yan Jiayu was right beside him, accurately identifying the position by sound and using a broken table leg to stab through the monster!
With a "pfft," she hit some part of the monster. The thing let out an eerie, high-pitched shriek, then dragged the table leg with a clatter toward the window to escape. Xu Huo was moving in that direction when suddenly, with a "bang" from the carriage roof, a gust of wind brushed past his shoulder!
An Evolver's speed surpassed ordinary people's, and with Xu Huo's quick reflexes, he immediately turned and grabbed backward—and actually caught the other's ankle!
But the next moment, he was kicked flying by a strange force. Sensing the monster pursuing him, he rolled as he landed and kicked a nearby overturned table and chair out!
The monster impaled itself on the table legs, wailing and struggling on the ground!
Although the monsters were triggered by the light, it was uncertain whether they would keep pouring in, drawn by the smell of blood. Xu Huo shouted to Yan Jiayu, "Let's block the window together!"
Yan Jiayu was right beside him. Hearing this, she immediately cooperated, lifting the table—along with the monster stuck on it—and pushing it toward the window, using the tabletop to block the hole in the glass!
Just as the steel plate pressed against the opening, the pressure on both of them suddenly increased. Outside, another fierce round of tearing and swallowing began, and a thick, foul stench flowed in through the air!
The monsters outside the window were clearly more agitated. Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu couldn't let go, and they didn't know how many monsters were still in the carriage...
"Liu Jia, how many monsters are left in the carriage!" At that moment, Professor Han shouted loudly.
Liu Jia, who had been scared stiff, finally came to her senses. In just a few breaths, all the bodies in the carriage had disappeared. Bright red drag marks were everywhere. Those worm-like surging monsters not only snatched the corpses but also devoured their injured companions. Blood and internal organ remnants almost plastered the windows!
Liu Jia nearly vomited. She instinctively looked for Professor Han and turned back just in time to see a monster lunging at him from behind:
"Professor, watch out!"
The thing that was both human and not opened its mouth to a bizarre angle, its entire gum protruding from its mouth, dripping with sticky liquid, and bit toward the back of Professor Han's neck!
Hearing the warning, Professor Han twisted his body, but he was still bitten on the shoulder. Intense pain and heavy pressure hit him simultaneously. Forced to one knee, he realized he couldn't escape the monster's jaws, so he carried the monster on his back and charged toward the window!
Professor Han misjudged the position and was about to crawl forward, but at that moment, a hand suddenly pressed down on his shoulder, then thrust into the monster's teeth and forcibly pried them open!
Others didn't understand the situation, but Liu Jia saw that it was the old man in military uniform who had saved Professor Han. His eyes were bloodshot, saliva dripped from his mouth, and his ferocious appearance was eerily similar to the monster he was restraining!
Liu Jia covered her mouth, not daring to expose him, but the old man turned back to look at her, mumbled something unclear, and then jumped out with the monster in his arms!
A large amount of blood splattered out. Liu Jia trembled and said, "Quick! Quick, block the window! The old man jumped out with the monster!"
Professor Han, who was right by the window, grabbed a table and pressed it against the broken hole, using his back to brace the tabletop with all his strength. Only after the jolting subsided did he ask, "There aren't any more of those monsters in the carriage, right?"
"There aren't..." Liu Jia looked around the carriage, her voice choking. "Professor, He Yang is missing, and Li Fei too..."
"Li Fei was a Cannibal Player," Xu Huo interjected. "How many people are left now? Yan Jiayu and I are fine."
"I'm fine too." The middle-aged woman's trembling voice came from the corner, followed by the heavily made-up woman and Wang Xiaohui. The three of them were badly frightened.
But He Yang's disappearance was inexplicable, which Liu Jia found hard to accept. She said in confusion, "Maybe she turned into a monster like the old man..."
"Turned into a monster?" Xu Huo immediately asked, "What do you mean?"
He could roughly guess what had just happened, because he had also heard the old man's last words: "I want to see my granddaughter one more time." He had thought the other had chosen to die together out of necessity to save someone.
"It's that old man. When he saved Professor Han just now, he himself started to look a bit like those monsters..." Liu Jia suddenly stopped, then said in terror, "We're not all going to turn into those kinds of monsters, are we?"