Chapter 2015: Silent Death
The man rubbed his short flat-top and said with a grin, "Well, there's no other choice. We can only wait and gamble on the humanity of the Stellar Corporation."
Just as the man said, after counting the people in each car, they couldn't find the two missing players from Car 2. Moreover, three more players had vanished, though it was unclear whether they disappeared before the train stopped or during the recent chaos.
This put psychological pressure on the players. Since the possibility of getting off here was very slim, if someone hadn't silently killed the passengers on the train, there was only one other possibility left.
After considering that possibility, the players who had previously thought about taking the initiative fell silent. People are mostly afraid of things they don't understand. Perhaps some players had experience staying near the tracks, but no one could say what lay a hundred meters beyond the tracks or what was out there.
So even though the train system hadn't completely collapsed, they didn't dare turn on the lights. They could only rely on night-vision items or abilities to try to identify the people and things around them. With visibility so unclear, everything in the shadows seemed like it could become a danger.
Under these circumstances, the players also had to avoid conflicts as much as possible to prevent fights from damaging the train. So the investigation into the passengers from Car 2 had to be dropped.
Time passed silently, minute by minute. At first, everyone tried to stay quiet, but gradually people started talking. Many even took off their protective masks to breathe.
The main topic was still how to escape. Everyone had given up on the idea of "going out to test the waters" and instead focused on how to leave the tracks.
Someone had already tried using a ticket, but it didn't work. However, the personal panel and Under Dimension were still usable, so naturally people searched through various channels for a way out.
Tools like cross-space teleportation devices were widely recognized as one of the best ways to travel between different spaces without using a ticket. Although such devices were expensive and rare, they caused no harm to players and wasted no time. But now that the train was stopped on the tracks, no one knew if there was chaotic time-space around the tracks. The teleportation device might also leave them stranded in an even more dangerous place.
Another method was to leave using a container item, using it to transfer positions. But this method required cooperation. Entering a container item was easy, but getting out was uncertain. Not to mention that the train was full of strangers—even friends would be hesitant to try it.
Clearly, the players on this train hadn't reached a level where they could freely move between different spaces or find stronger support. After all this fuss, it seemed they didn't even have a target to call for help.
On Under Dimension, there were also some help-seeking posts from players trapped on the tracks, quite a few in fact, but basically none of them had any follow-up.
"Are we just going to sit here and wait?" The tie-wearing man couldn't hold back anymore and stood up. "I don't want to die here for no reason!"
"Do you have a better idea?" The female player next to Xu Huo glanced at him. "Unless you want to go out and find a way."
The tie-wearing man had nothing to say and sat back down in frustration.
"Everyone, try to think positively," the female player continued. "Didn't I tell you before? My trait lets me see a little bit of a person's luck. Most people on this train have pretty good luck, so we probably won't die here."
She had said this before, and no one took it seriously. But now someone believed her—an older woman who had specifically walked from the back car to the front. "Miss, take a look at me. How am I?"
The female player casually sized her up and said with a smile, "Big sister, your luck is pretty good too."
The older woman breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this. "That's great. I have two children who are both sick. I'm the only one earning money for their treatment. I haven't been back in almost half a year. I'm not afraid of dying, but at least let me see them one more time before I go."
"Don't worry, don't worry," the female player said, looking carefree as she comforted her.
The people around thought this was just a boring act. The red headband stood up and walked toward the back cars, and two other players from different cars followed him.
"Your life is the longest," the female player whispered to Xu Huo.
Xu Huo withdrew his gaze from the back cars and looked at her. "Have you looked at your own life?"
The female player made an exaggerated surprised expression. "I was just saying something auspicious. No need to be like that, right?"
Xu Huo gestured with his chin toward the dozens of players in the back cars. "If they all come and ask you whether their lives are long or short, how would you answer?"
The female player slowly caught on, her expression changing slightly. She obediently lowered her presence and shrank into a corner.
Xu Huo then stood up and walked toward the back cars.
For better protection, the players had gathered in the first seven cars, sealing off the transition car in the middle to separate themselves from the remaining cars in the back. The red headband and his group had gone to count the people. Seeing him approach, the red headband said, "No one's missing."
Xu Huo walked straight to a corner of the car and pulled down the hat covering the face of a player leaning against the window.
Under the protective shield, a pair of eyeballs were wide open, bloodshot and swollen as if soaked in water. Then the corpse tilted to the side, and a large amount of water flowed out from a tear at the back of the protective suit's neck. At the same time, the window that the player had been covering also had a hole, just like the one in Car 2, about the size of a human head.
"What's going on!" The players in Car 7 were all startled. Someone quickly went up to plug the hole, then turned back to look at the dead player, saying in disbelief, "He was killed right under our noses?"
Some protective suits could mask a player's physical condition, like breathing or heartbeat. So even though they were this close, it was normal for players not to detect these signs. What really shocked them was that this player had died without a sound. Under normal circumstances, he would have struggled at the moment of death, even if it was just kicking his legs!
There were players within one or two meters of him, and not a single person noticed!
"Was he really drowned?" a player questioned. The process of drowning was extremely painful. Unless he had been prepared beforehand, there was no way a player wouldn't make any noise. "Could he have been poisoned first or given some other potion?"
The players stood around the corpse. More than finding out the truth, they were worried about touching the water flowing from the body.
"No, before you worry about how he died, the window has a hole. Has that alien already entered the car? Can it turn invisible?" The player who had plugged the window looked around the car with some fear, scanning every corner.
"Don't scare yourselves. With that alien's size, where could it hide?" Xu Huo interrupted him and looked up. "Is there a player here with a doctor or coroner profession?" (Chapter End)