When Zhao Weilai woke up, the overhead lights were exceptionally calm.
On the navy-blue velvet seats, the brass armrests and the shadows of the past still hid beneath the bloodstains.
She was awakened by an ache in her neck.
Leaning awkwardly against the freezing carriage window, she hadn't slept well, her light slumber filled with fragmented nightmares—
She sat up straight, clutching her knife to her chest, and looked out the window.
06:17.
Before she rested, her phone had shown 02:17.
She had rested for a full four hours, but right now, there was still not a single speck of light outside the window.
The players around her were huddled in their seats, their expressions numb.
Even the longest stretch of the London subway took no more than twenty minutes to exit a tunnel.
Four hours was more than enough time for a subway train to traverse the entire London metropolitan area.
Yet, not even a single reflection of the tunnel walls could be seen outside.
“Zhao... Zhao...” the Indian man beside her stammered, speaking in a pleasing tone. “You slept for four hours. We... we didn't dare wake you... The train has been running, constantly running. It's pitch black outside. No one knows where it's heading.”
His voice trembled violently, his lips dry and peeling. “What should we do now?”
Everyone in the carriage looked over, seemingly treating Zhao Weilai as their pillar of support.
Zhao Weilai scanned the room, her heart growing heavy.
The Orthodox priest sat in a corner, silently praying over the headless corpses on the floor.
Several corpses were piled together, including a rigid, pale-faced female corpse with chestnut hair.
Margaret had found her ID card; her name was Nina, and she had died of a heart attack last night.
Sitting diagonally across from the priest, Margaret's hair was somewhat disheveled. Her lips moved constantly as she silently recited prayers, her expression sorrowful. “Poor child...”
Mu Xiao hugged her canvas tote bag, curled up in her seat.
The Korean couple held each other's hands tightly, their expressions uneasy.
“God will arrange everything,” Margaret murmured to herself. “He will surely send down a revelation and dispatch angels to save us.”
Zhao Weilai shook her head.
...
Just then, Mu Xiao let out a gasp, her face pale.
“What's wrong?” Zhao Weilai looked over. Mu Xiao rubbed her hands together nervously. “The bread I bought... I hadn't even opened it before leaving... and now it's already...”
Zhao Weilai looked down at the tote bag in her hand. Half of the whole wheat bread inside had fallen out, though the transparent packaging was still sealed tight.
Yet the bread inside had completely changed.
The surface of the bread was covered in a thick layer of mold. The grayish-green hyphae were fuzzy, like a layer of disgusting hair.
It had only been a few hours.
The sealed bread at room temperature was already completely inedible.
Meanwhile, on the floor of the aisle, the tuna sandwich had been crushed into mush, and yellowish-brown rotten juices were already seeping out.
It smelled like a fish that had been dead for half a month and then baked under the sun for three days.
Ravi, the Indian man, dry-heaved along with the smell, quickly covering his nose. “What the hell is going on?!”
“It's an anomaly within the Instance.” Zhao Weilai shook her head. She had seen similar scenes in the Campus Ghost Stories Instance before—
The food in the cafeteria had completely rotted overnight, and they had barely survived on a few packs of biscuits.
...
“The anomaly of the first night was 【The Invisible Ticket Conductor】,” Zhao Weilai analyzed as her mind cleared up a bit. “The rules state that the fourth, eighth, and twelfth carriages are safe zones. This means the train has at least twelve carriages, so there should be players in every single carriage.”
—The invisible conductor had moved from the first carriage to the second.
This meant the anomaly started from the first carriage and spread backward, carriage by carriage.
“This is so unfair,” Ravi muttered neurotically to himself. “If the anomaly starts from the first carriage, aren't the people sitting in the front carriages incredibly unlucky? Why do we have to die first? It's not fair!”
But no one around him responded.
He could only sit back down in embarrassment.
Zhao Weilai's expression grew increasingly helpless.
Demanding fairness from an Instance—that was just out of one's mind.
Zhao Weilai softened her tone. “If we want to be safe, we need to head toward the dining car. The Instance hints mentioned that there are point shops in the fourth, eighth, and twelfth carriages. We should be able to exchange for items and food there.”
These words acted like a reassuring pill, easing everyone else's expressions slightly.
At the very least, there was hope.
“We are currently in the first carriage.” Zhao Weilai pointed behind them. “As long as we cross the second and third carriages, we can reach the safe zone.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Kim Myung immediately stood up, his tone urgent. “Shibal... what if that monster comes back while we're still here?”
Just as Zhao Weilai was about to speak, she heard an incredibly soft, quiet click from the door between the first and second carriages.
Everyone was startled and instinctively looked toward the door.
The metal door, which had been locked tight, suddenly popped open on its own.
The door was left slightly ajar, revealing a thin gap.
Zhao Weilai was uncertain whether it was safe behind the door, but she had been traumatized by her experiences in the last Instance.
Whether it was a closed door or a half-open one, she would absolutely never take the initiative to open it.
Mu Xiao looked at Zhao Weilai, who was frozen in place. Seeming to sense her apprehension, she volunteered to step forward. “Sister Zhao, let me do it.”
She took a deep breath and pushed herself up from her seat.
Mu Xiao was also a bit scared, but she wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.
She walked over to the door and gently pulled open the ajar metal door.
The door hinges let out a piercing screech.
In the next second, Mu Xiao's head slid off her shoulders without warning. The bewilderment and terror on the girl's face were frozen in time, the light in her pupils not yet fully faded—
The scene behind the door was laid bare before everyone without any warning.
Behind the door was not the second carriage at all.
In a distorted, thick darkness, countless human heads were tangled together, growing out from the floor, the ceiling, and the walls on both sides. They looked like massive bouquets of malformed flowers, packing the entire space.
Every single bunch of "ghost flowers" was twisted together from dozens or hundreds of ghosts.
Countless faces crowded onto the tumor-like clusters of flowers, showing various forms and gruesome deaths.
Hanged, crushed, drowned, burned, strangled...
Countless limbs were entangled, twisting and wrapping around each other like vines.
Innumerable grayish-white, translucent spirits were stacked on top of one another, forming tumor-like flower stalks.
They were densely packed.
There was even a shocking, grotesque beauty to it.
There was absolutely no warning.
Mu Xiao didn't even manage to let out a scream before warm blood sprayed out, splashing onto the carriage walls.
Next was the Indian man.
Then the priest, Margaret, and the Korean couple.
Zhao Weilai didn't even feel any pain; she only felt a cold sensation on her neck.
It was as light as a gentle breeze brushing her face, and then her vision began to tilt and spin.
Amid the spinning world, she saw her own body still standing in place.
Blood gushed from the severed stump of her neck like a fountain, splashing onto the floor and spreading into large, dark stains.
Her face slammed hard against the freezing floor, and she could smell the scent of rust.
Her eyes were still wide open.
She could see the Korean couple falling to the floor.
The priest was overwhelmed and torn to shreds by countless ghosts.
Margaret's treasured Bible lay scattered all over the floor.
It was too fast.
So fast that they didn't even have a chance to resist.
Don't come in.
Don't come in.
Zhao Weilai's consciousness sank rapidly, as if falling into a bottomless abyss.
Her final thought was: Deng Ziwen, whatever you do, please don't enter this Instance.
Then, everything went black, and she lost consciousness completely.
The ghost flowers packed the first carriage, as countless distorted spirits let out shrieks of wild ecstasy.
The ghosts continued to spread toward the carriages behind.
Like a string of lit firecrackers, the spirits' feast of death began from the first carriage and swept backward at lightning speed.
The players' bloodcurdling screams rose one after another, only to vanish just as quickly.
...
“How did they all die?! You dog system, what the hell are you doing?! What are you doing?!”
“What do you mean 'the capacity limit for Materials in the Instance has been reached'?”
Outside the Instance, Song Mo scratched her head at the floating ink text. “A hundred and fifty players is already the storage limit for Materials?”
That couldn't be, right?
【Instance: 《London Ghost Subway》】
【Instance Status: On the verge of collapse】
【Current Number of Ghosts in Instance: 379 (rapidly increasing) Invisible Conductor, Goat Monster, Hollow Man, Decapitated Ghost...】
【An unknown mutation has occurred in the Instance, and it is about to spiral out of control. Please handle it as soon as possible!】
【Warning: The Instance will descend upon the real world in 360 seconds!】
Inside the Instance, players wailed and screamed, some losing their lives without even the chance to resist.
Rate on N.U.
