Chapter 253: Horror carriage, harsh environment! |
The brain briefly lost consciousness.
After a moment of chaos, when Qin Nuo regained consciousness, he heard a sound similar to an engine. When he opened his eyes, he found himself sitting in a seat by the window.
Outside the window was a hazy and dim night.
Beneath the darkness lay the outlines of buildings.
The sky was the same familiar gray.
"A familiar scent."
Qin Nuo murmured, lifting his gaze to the interior of the carriage.
Inside the carriage, it was equally pitch black, unclear if the bulb was broken or if there simply wasn't one.
His seat was at the very back, with a steel plate stitched with steel nails behind him. The metal friction in the gaps emitted a creaking sound.
He lifted his foot slightly, feeling something sticky beneath it, as if something was laid out on the floor.
Qin Nuo sensed something was off. The carriage was deathly silent, despite being fully occupied, as if everyone had fallen into a deep sleep.
His neighbor was equally motionless.
With his experience, he realized something and maintained his silence, adjusting his posture slightly. The head of the person next to him leaned on Qin Nuo's shoulder.
He couldn't see the person's face, but something seemed to spill from their mouth, landing on Qin Nuo.
Whoosh.
The train passed a few streetlights, and with the brief illumination, Qin Nuo saw his neighbor.
It was a man in his thirties, but his forehead had been pierced, blood oozing out, and the liquid flowing from his mouth was dark, black blood.
Qin Nuo frowned.
Encountering a dead person right upon entry?
Was this a player or a game NPC?
He heard some sharp sounds by his ear, and something crawled on his shoulder—a rat, emitting a foul stench.
It sniffed near Qin Nuo's face, opened its mouth, revealing blood-red fangs with bits of flesh hanging from them.
Before Qin Nuo could react, a hand reached out, grabbed the rat, and crushed it to death.
It was a passenger in the seat ahead, who held the dead rat outside the seat without saying a word.
Qin Nuo remained silent. Ahead, there were more sounds, resembling the sharpening of knives, and someone was speaking at the front of the carriage.
"Looks like I'm the last one to enter. What happened, and why are all the players silent?"
Qin Nuo naturally wouldn't deliberately break the eerie atmosphere. He tilted his head, assuming a side-sleeping position, and remained silent.
About half an hour later, sounds were heard outside the train, and the train's speed slowed, gradually coming to a stop.
With a click, the lights on the ceiling turned on, the glaring light shining on Qin Nuo's face.
After a moment of silence, there was some movement inside the carriage. Someone stood up, looked towards the front of the carriage, and said, "They've left."
With these words, the deathly silence in the carriage was finally broken, as if liberated, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
At this point, Qin Nuo finally saw the interior of the carriage clearly.
It was terrible.
The environment was extremely harsh!
The windows and floor were covered with vomit and bloody things, as if a brutal slaughter had just taken place.
The man in the front seat turned back and said to Qin Nuo, "You look a bit confused."
This person was none other than Fang Ye.
Qin Nuo looked at the blood on his pants, then at the people starting to move around the carriage, and asked, "So, what's going on?"
"I'm not too sure either. When I came in, there was an old lady in the carriage telling us to follow the rules. Anyone who caused trouble died."
Fang Ye glanced at the man next to Qin Nuo, "He just entered the instance, didn't understand the situation, stood up to speak, and ended up like that."
Inexperience, indeed. Experienced players would sense something was off upon waking up.
Unusual behavior would undoubtedly make one the nail that sticks out. Just entering and using up the get-out-of-jail-free card ended the game.
"Is it just you and me?" Qin Nuo asked.
"Probably. Before us, there was a group that entered the train earlier. We belong to the second batch."
"Some of the second batch seem to have already moved to the next carriage," Fang Ye said.
Qin Nuo blinked, took out the login device, and remembered what Qin Yushi told him before entering the instance: there was a grid system inside, matching players to the same instance, and the lit grids would provide answers.
"Three grids..."
So besides him and Fang Ye, there was another person in this instance.
While Qin Nuo was silent, Fang Ye looked towards the front of the carriage and said, "Our rest time isn't much. That old couple at the front of the carriage will be back soon."
Qin Nuo also looked forward, where the floor was equally bloody.
Two iron barrels were placed there, and on the chopping board beside them was a cleaver.
The other players looked at the spot, their eyelids twitching, faces showing obvious unease.
"The instance difficulty seems high. Before you came in, I heard a lot of screams, probably eliminating quite a few players."
"And this is just the first carriage. There are six more carriages ahead," Fang Ye glanced at Qin Nuo, took out a pack of Red Joy cigarettes from somewhere, lit one for himself, and offered one to Qin Nuo.
"Where did you get it?" Qin Nuo looked at the bloodstained cigarette.
"From the neighbor. After he got shot in the head, I took his cigarettes. In the Horror World, having a smoke is a rare pleasure," Fang Ye said, exhaling smoke.
Qin Nuo looked at the other players. Most had no intention of communicating, only a few forming brief alliances to try to reduce the instance's difficulty.
Of course, such alliances were as fragile as dried plastic.
"We need to find a way to get to the next carriage," Qin Nuo said.
"The way lies with that old couple. They seem to be the rule of this carriage, life and death in their hands," Fang Ye adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and said.
"The carriage door is right there. Isn't anyone planning to go open it?" Qin Nuo looked at the iron door at the end of the carriage, its surface covered in bloody scratch marks.
Fang Ye flicked the ash from his cigarette and said, "See those two iron barrels? Those who planned to open the door are in there."
"So, don't have such naive thoughts."
"Before entering the instance, you should have seen the rules and introduction. Violence on this train will only hasten your death."
"Follow the rules, slowly explore, that's the only way through," Fang Ye said with ample experience.
"The harsh carriage environment, terrible seating, rats and cockroaches everywhere, dirty and foul-smelling, already indicate that this carriage is at the lowest end."
Fang Ye looked at the rats crawling on the neighbor's corpse, frowned, pulled out a small knife, skewered a rat, and held it up: "These rats have red eyes, clearly their food is always corpses."
"For female players, such an environment is hell," Qin Nuo murmured, wondering how Qin Yushi would handle this instance if she were matched with it.
At this moment, the train shook slightly, then slowly started moving, the night scene outside gradually sliding past the window.
"The train's moving, the lights will go out soon, don't have any ideas, and don't think about forcing your way through, it's pointless."
"To enter this instance, I believe none of us are fools. Sleep peacefully until dawn. There's strength in numbers. This is just the first carriage; I don't want to reach the second carriage and find only a few of us left!"
A tall bald man stood up and spoke to everyone.
The others looked at him, remaining silent, each harboring their own thoughts.
At this moment, the train lights suddenly went out.
Everyone quickly returned to their seats.
When Qin Nuo and Fang Ye also returned to their seats, the dim carriage fell into silence once more.
From the front of the carriage, the familiar sound of sharpening knives was heard again, followed by the sound of chopping meat.
Qin Nuo looked at the night sky outside the window, wondering what would happen after daybreak.
But for now, it was certain that tonight, there was nothing to be done. Sleeping peacefully was the best outcome.
Despite the terrifying and harsh environment, Qin Nuo actually felt sleepy, his eyelids gradually growing heavy.
As he drifted into a half-asleep, half-awake state, he heard footsteps and the sound of something like an iron barrel being moved.
And the sound grew clearer and louder.
Qin Nuo suddenly became alert.
"Someone's walking in the aisle, is it that old couple from the front of the carriage?"
Pondering, Qin Nuo shifted his posture slightly, trying to keep his gaze on the aisle. As he moved, the corpse beside him fell, making a noise.
At that moment, a figure appeared in the aisle.
Qin Nuo's expression changed slightly, but he didn't panic, instead assuming a comfortable sleeping position, closing his eyes.
Through the slits of his squinted eyes, he vaguely saw a hunched figure enter his view.
And that bloody iron barrel.
A raspy voice sounded by his ear: "Passenger in the last seat, you should be asleep, right? Why are you still moving?"
The moment the voice fell, a terrifying ghost face, full of wrinkles and with pus oozing from its eye sockets, appeared in Qin Nuo's view.
It was right in front of Qin Nuo's eyes, the stench overwhelming...