Chapter 1799: The Ultimate Night
Everyone's attention was quickly drawn away, as they placed the items they had given up on early onto the table. Whoever won a round got to take the prize. Pink Hair also joined in a few bets, but his luck was bad and his card skills were poor. He lost three C-grade items in just a few rounds and had to leave dejectedly.
Xu Huo did not participate but rested in his room.
The atmosphere in the carriage was fairly pleasant, with no one causing trouble until lights-out. After it got dark outside, the players each settled down to rest. The peace lasted until midnight, when a sound like raindrops, a pitter-patter, began to echo outside the train.
But this shouldn't be the sound of rain.
The design of the train carriages was meant to mess with the players, but they certainly weren't thin enough to make raindrops so distinctly audible. This sounded more like something landing on the train's body.
Before boarding, Xu Huo had looked into the precautions for B-class train travel. The general environment was similar to other trains, but because B-class instances might require crossing greater distances, the tracks had to choose between saving time and balancing safety. This was a B-class train, and clearly, the former took priority.
And this section of the journey after nightfall had become completely pitch black, as if the entire train had sunk into a bizarre darkness. There was no light at all. Naturally, the players couldn't see what was happening outside. To avoid causing trouble, they had to keep the carriage completely dark while also not making too much noise.
No one spoke. The players even tried to keep their breathing to a minimum.
The pitter-patter sound continued outside the carriage, sometimes moving forward, sometimes backward. It lingered for a few times before gradually fading away.
But this wasn't over. Before long, the raindrop sound reappeared and gradually grew denser.
The number increased. When these interwoven sounds began moving back and forth again, the train's movement experienced a slight stall and shake. Then, a faint cracking sound came from above everyone's heads.
This tiny disturbance made the hearts of all the players on the train leap into their throats.
Although information about the alien species around the B-class train tracks could be found in the higher dimensions, the data wasn't complete. First, because the game hadn't released it, and second, because even if passing players happened to see these aliens, they couldn't see many details. Moreover, such pitch-black conditions were common. Most people naturally wanted to keep a low profile and get through the crisis, so many players didn't know exactly what kind of alien was on top of the carriage.
But as time passed, the faint cracking sounds seemed to increase, appearing from all directions.
This wasn't an illusion. Judging from the changes in space rays, the carriage roof was indeed starting to crack, and there was even a tendency to cave in, as if it couldn't bear the weight.
Xu Huo had long since come out of his single room. He stood close to the rear carriage door, using the room as a shield on his outer side, while also equipping enough items.
The other players in the same carriage tried to move as close to the sides as possible, but space was limited, and not everyone could get close. Those in front were unwilling to act as meat shields, so some moved to the middle of the carriage, using the tables and chairs as temporary cover.
However, as the cracking sounds intensified, the raindrop sounds grew softer and softer, eventually becoming inaudible. The train also stopped experiencing any obstruction.
Just as everyone thought the danger had passed, from an unknown location, loud cracking sounds came from all around the carriage—front, back, left, and right. These sharp and brief sounds ended, and the train returned to its previous stillness.
No human voices, no alien sounds. The danger seemed to have passed.
Although the front and rear doors of the carriage were closed, a few players still sensed changes in the nearby carriages. The windows had indeed cracked, but the openings were small, so presumably the aliens hadn't gotten in.
However, the players inside could clearly perceive that the number of breathing sounds in the carriage had decreased.
In Xu Huo's carriage, a window had also broken a hole. Just as the window broke, a player somehow moved close to it. Then his body trembled, and within a second, he was dead.
This wasn't even the strangest part. The strangest part was that Xu Huo could clearly sense the player's body shrinking!
Yes, that player's body dried up in an extremely short time, then lightly fell through the window onto the soft carpet, barely making a sound.
Thanks to the broken window, he could roughly perceive the shape of the thing outside. It wasn't very large, somewhat like a wild boar, but extremely fat—perhaps due to sudden overeating. The space rays even transmitted the sensation of its belly suddenly swelling and trembling, but it was very brief, because after successfully hunting, the creature disappeared from the roof.
At the same time, there weren't many similar aliens still on the roof. It should have been just those few that broke through the windows.
Even though they sensed someone had died and the danger had passed, the other players on the train still didn't move or speak rashly. They kept their eyes open until dawn.
It wasn't until eight o'clock the next morning that this ultimate darkness completely disappeared. The players looked at the dead person piled by the window and fell silent in unison.
That could no longer be called a corpse. It was just a pile of bones covered with skin and clothes.
Someone went over to examine the body and said with emotion, "This alien species is too powerful. It can secrete a substance that rapidly dissolves the human body. The wound is on the back of the head. I reckon this person was poisoned the moment he was bitten, so he didn't have time to resist."
"That's not right. We all used defense items. Why could the alien directly... eat him?" a female player asked.
"I don't know." The man examining the body casually grabbed a piece of cloth and covered the corpse. "Anyway, I know we need to be more careful at night. This thing doesn't seem to have any trigger conditions. It attacks the train even without sound or light stimulation."
This person's death was both strange and alarming. After discussing it, the players decided to seal up the windows. Since the thing could kill by breaking through a small hole, not only should the windows have no gaps, but the windows on the front and rear doors should also be blocked.
They didn't have suitable defense items, but metal plates were easy to obtain. Just blocking with metal plates should be enough to prevent the aliens from reaching in.
Additionally, the players tested the mucus residue on the corpse and found that it didn't affect metal.
Without the previous day's excitement, the players ate their meals and hurried to rest, waiting for the next lights-out.
At eight in the evening, it got dark on time. Less than half an hour after entering the same darkness as the previous day, the raindrop sound descended rapidly and violently. This time, unlike the previous day's sluggishness, within seconds, the crackling of broken windows and sticky, muffled impacts interwove, as if the entire train was under attack!
(Chapter End)