# Chapter 14: Meat Sausage
"What nonsense are you talking!" Liu Jia said angrily. "The professor is just injured!"
"Am I wrong?" the middle-aged woman argued confidently. "There are no more cannibal players in our carriage. We can safely spend the last night. If he turns into a monster, won't he kill all of us?"
"Then what do you want to do?" Xu Huo asked her.
The middle-aged woman choked, hesitating before saying, "Maybe we should kick him out..."
"Outside at night are all man-eating monsters. Kicking someone out means sending the professor to his death!" Liu Jia shouted angrily. "The professor has been protecting us all along. If it weren't for him, you might have turned on the lights like Third Class and gone to die!"
The first night was fine, but yesterday the old man suddenly mutated. Not knowing the situation, someone might have rashly turned on the lights. Before Third Class self-destructed, there were beast-like roars.
The middle-aged woman's face twisted, spittle flying. "You dare talk about me? Since you saw someone eating people early on, why didn't you say anything? Were you waiting for others to die so you could show off how capable you are?"
Liu Jia's eyes reddened with anger. Wang Xiaohui wanted to mediate but couldn't get a word in. The woman kept shouting, "Anyway, I'm not staying with this dangerous person..."
Xu Huo spoke up coldly, "Then go to another carriage."
The middle-aged woman was stunned, staring at his calm face. It took a while before she swallowed her curses.
Xu Huo's previous actions had had an effect. Professor Han smiled bitterly and said, "I'll go to Third Class. The transition car can still be used. At night, you can close the door and I won't be able to open it."
"Let's treat the wound first." Xu Huo used a small knife to scrape off the rotten flesh on his wound, squeezed out the pus and blood, and only stopped when clean blood flowed. "Go to the hospital after getting off the train. Don't die from wound infection."
Professor Han thanked him but still wanted to leave.
"But the door to Third Class is already broken. What if those monsters come in?" Liu Jia was the first to disagree.
"I can watch over Professor Han." Yan Jiayu suggested.
"Can you handle it?" Xu Huo looked at her. Professor Han's situation was different from the cannibal players, so no one knew what changes might occur.
"No problem." Yan Jiayu patted the table. "If I pin him behind the back door, he definitely won't be able to get out."
Her combat ability was obvious to all. Xu Huo could see that unlike him, who had one foot on the threshold, Yan Jiayu had a solid foundation in martial arts. With her supernatural strength added, none of the players here, not a single one, could match her.
"Alright then." With the insurance in place, Xu Huo dropped the matter and went to check the front door.
The windows of First Class were covered. There were faint bloody footprints under the door. He paused with his hand on the door handle.
"Thank you for earlier." Professor Han walked over. "And thank you for saving Liu Jia. She said you asked Yan Jiayu to take her place at the front door."
"Yan Jiayu did the work. I didn't help much." Xu Huo said politely.
Professor Han kept thanking him repeatedly, then sighed, "I've seen some evolvers too. In the end, they all stopped being human... But I still believe in the brilliance of human nature. If it weren't for that old man, I would have died."
"He's beyond saving." But the old man had proven one thing: players who had eaten people had absolutely no way back. Forcing themselves not to eat only resulted in becoming monsters devoid of humanity.
Xu Huo turned back to look at the others in the carriage.
"You're really amazing. If it weren't for you, I would have died yesterday!" Liu Jia was thanking Yan Jiayu.
Yan Jiayu scratched her hair. "I grew up in a temple. Carrying water and chopping firewood were everyday tasks, so I'm especially strong."
The two girls showed expressions of envy and admiration.
"...Do you think we'll return to normal after getting off this time?" Liu Jia continued. "What if we get hungry again..."
For a while, it could be barely endured. But over time, who knew if they might become cannibal players one day.
"I don't think so." Wang Xiaohui shook her head. "Didn't the train announcement say this trip was to classify players? We're not cannibal players. We haven't eaten anyone since boarding. So we're different from cannibal players. We don't need to survive by eating our own kind raw."
"If once you eat human flesh you have to eat it forever, I'd rather die!" Liu Jia said.
"Are you hungry? I have some food here." The middle-aged woman who had been staying in the corner suddenly came over with a smile, pulling out several transparently wrapped meat sausages from under her apron.
Given the earlier argument, the three girls ignored her. But the middle-aged woman familiarly grabbed Liu Jia's hand. "Young lady, you're still holding a grudge. Don't take what I said earlier to heart. Professor Han and Mr. Xu are injured. We still need you to keep watch at night."
What she said made some sense. Liu Jia and Wang Xiaohui each took one. The former turned back. "Professor, Mr. Xu, do you want one?"
The plump, springy meat sausages were wrapped in vacuum-sealed plastic, their color tempting.
Xu Huo walked over. Under the middle-aged woman's nervous gaze, he took one and sniffed it, then looked up at her. "Just a few unpleasant words from a young girl. Is it worth harming someone over?"
The others froze. Professor Han was the first to react, immediately pulling the three girls back.
"You... what do you mean?" The middle-aged woman's face stiffened.
Xu Huo let go, raised his foot, and crushed the meat sausage on the ground. The meat squeezed out from the plastic bag seam had an abnormal red color, gradually emitting a bloody smell.
"What kind of meat is this?" Liu Jia stared at the middle-aged woman in horror.
"What kind of meat? Pork, of course! Thirty-something per catty. If you don't want to eat, fine, but wasting things... young people these days..."
"You are the last cannibal player." Xu Huo interrupted the middle-aged woman's chatter.
"What cannibal player... Didn't you say yesterday there were only six cannibal players?" The middle-aged woman's smile twisted slightly. "For no reason, why are you targeting me? I haven't attacked anyone else..."
"You haven't attacked others, but you have eaten." By this time, Xu Huo had already picked up a chair. The middle-aged woman showed caution, then shouted at Professor Han and the others, "First he says six, then seven! I think he's the cannibal player. You fools, don't be fooled by him!"
"She really has eaten something." Liu Jia's face turned pale. "I saw it the night before last. But I thought she was eating snacks... Ugh!"
"Don't come near!" Professor Han stopped the middle-aged woman from approaching, speaking sternly, "Come any closer and I won't be polite!"
The middle-aged woman's expression twisted. Suddenly, she pulled a fruit knife from under her apron and swung it at Xu Huo. "You forced me to do this!"
Her speed wasn't slow. Although Xu Huo quickly retreated, a bloody gash was still cut on his side. Seeing the middle-aged woman dart toward the front door, he directly moved out of her way.
But unexpectedly, the middle-aged woman changed direction mid-stride and charged at Liu Jia, determined to drag her down as a sacrifice!
"Die!"