Chapter 15: The Kill
"Watch out!" Wang Xiaohui pushed Liu Jia aside, sliding her wheelchair into the path of the attack. The moment it made contact with the middle-aged woman, a translucent pillar of light sprang up around her. The woman's blade struck as if against a spring—not only failing to penetrate, but the immense rebound force sent both the knife and its wielder flying backward!
The middle-aged woman crashed into the glass window, a mix of shock and fury on her face, but she didn't dare press the attack. She scrambled up and rushed toward the front door. But the instant the door slid open, a dark figure shot into her path like a projectile, his hand sweeping swiftly across her throat!
Crimson liquid sprayed out. The man shoved the middle-aged woman back into the carriage and followed her inside!
He was a very tall man. He wiped his bloodstained hand across his mouth, but his eyes were fixed on the others in the carriage.
Xu Huo was the closest to him, but the man's gaze flickered past him and landed on Yan Jiayu, who was two meters away!
After two days on the train, the players had developed basic emergency reflexes. By the time the middle-aged woman was killed, Liu Jia and the other two had already retreated.
Wang Xiaohui's trait wouldn't last much longer. Liu Jia and Professor Han weren't fighters, and Professor Han was injured. The only ones left who could fight were Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu!
Yan Jiayu, now the target, exchanged a look with Xu Huo. She backed up a step toward the broken window and kicked aside a table that was in the way.
The cannibal player from first class glanced at her, then locked his gaze back onto her face without any hesitation. Though the man had injured his left arm and been forced to flee first class, the second class was filled with the wounded and the weak. Even injured, dealing with a young girl would be a simple task. He held a blade between his fingers, intending to finish Yan Jiayu the same way.
Yan Jiayu stood by the window, seemingly with nowhere to retreat. But she was perfectly calm. She slid her right leg back into a lunge, rapidly lowering her center of gravity, and dodged his attack by a hair's breadth. As the blade swept over her head, her fist, veins bulging, slammed into the man's chest!
"Ha!"
No one knew how much force was behind that punch, but the sound of cracking bones rang out three times. The man spat blood, doubled over, and staggered backward. Yan Jiayu followed up with a knee strike to his chin. As he fell, his head twisted backward at an angle no living person should be able to achieve, and his life force vanished in an instant.
Yan Jiayu ran a hand through her hair and let out a breath, muttering a quick "Amitabha." She was about to move the body aside when she leaned in—and the man's rigid eyeballs suddenly swiveled. Like a monster from a horror movie, he lunged up, aiming for her throat!
Xu Huo was right behind Yan Jiayu. He yanked her back while thrusting his knife toward the male player. A grinding *crack* sounded as the man actually clamped his mouth around the blade, his teeth biting down hard on the edge!
Feeling the pull on his weapon, Xu Huo grabbed his own wrist with his other hand and yanked the knife sideways, slicing through the man's cheek. At the same time, he drove his elbow back into the man's temple!
Even for a powerful cannibal player, the temple was an extremely vulnerable spot. Though the man instinctively turned his head, the blow still made his eyes roll back. Yan Jiayu followed up with a kick, and the man flew into the glass window, letting out a muffled groan before his eyes closed!
"He's not dead yet!" Liu Jia pointed at the man's twitching fingers. She and Professor Han grabbed a table and chair and rushed over, frantically beating him until his body was a bloody mess. Only then did they carefully lift him and toss him out the window!
Watching the man's figure disappear over the cliff, Professor Han finally breathed a sigh of relief. "Those first-class cannibal players are terrifying."
He had even managed to play dead like that. If Xu Huo hadn't reacted so quickly, Yan Jiayu might have lost her life.
"It's not that first-class players are stronger," Xu Huo said. "There's no clear power ranking among players. It's just that we've been unlucky enough to run into rookies."
In second class, only the heavily made-up woman was strong. The other players lacked both physical ability and experience, which was why they were taken down so easily. If it had been him, half of the ordinary first-class players would have been dead on the first night.
Third class had self-destructed. Otherwise, with that level of carnage, some players would have escaped. If any of them had mutated into monsters, it was hard to say whether the metal door could have held them back.
As for the middle-aged woman, she was just unlucky.
Yan Jiayu was still shaken. "I'll block the front door later."
Liu Jia looked at the middle-aged woman's corpse, confused. "Weren't there only six people? Why is there an extra one?"
"I get it now. The woman killed the night before last wasn't a cannibal player."
"It wasn't her. It should have been Chen Yi." Xu Huo crouched down to search the middle-aged woman's belongings. He found a family photo. The faces of two elderly people and a middle-aged man had been slashed out, leaving only the middle-aged woman and a young girl.
He used her bloodstained apron to cover her face, then briefly explained Chen Yi's situation.
If Chen Yi had only been after food, his first choice should have been Liu Jia. They were close, and subduing a female college student was easier than subduing an adult man. Perhaps he was after the white notes, or perhaps a possible game reward, but he chose to target Xu Huo.
Of course, it was possible he wanted both. But for a cannibal player driven by an urgent need to feed, that was clearly a bad deal. And, "Whether or not you board the train on an empty stomach makes a huge difference."
The others in the carriage fell silent. They hadn't noticed at all. When they boarded, they were starving, and the carriage was filled with the scent of other people. Just suppressing the urge to attack others was incredibly difficult, let alone having the energy to observe anyone else.
"You don't look like you boarded on an empty stomach either," Yan Jiayu suddenly said.
Liu Jia, Wang Xiaohui, and Professor Han, whose emotions had been fluctuating wildly, stared at them, their gazes shifting nervously between the two.
Xu Huo leisurely lit a cigarette, exhaling a puff of smoke without any pretense. Standing amidst the chaos, he said calmly, "What do you think?"
"I think you're a good person." Yan Jiayu pulled all the dried fruit out of her patched cloth pouch. "Let's crack some walnuts and eat."
The rest of the time was peaceful. They used their remaining white notes to trade for a small amount of food and water, supplementing it with the snacks. The overwhelming urge to binge seemed to have completely vanished. After lunch, they even took turns sleeping.
When it was almost lights out, Professor Han voluntarily moved a table to the back door. His condition was much better than in the morning, but no one knew what the night might bring, so they stuck to the plan. Yan Jiayu would guard him.
That left the remaining three to guard the broken left and right windows and the front door.