Mutation

Mutation

Liu Jia stared at him in shock. Even Professor Han frowned and looked over. Those who understood, understood; those who did not looked out the window. "Where is it?"

"I saw it wrong." Xu Huo withdrew his gaze. He had already gotten the answer he wanted.

Liu Jia was deeply unsettled, and Professor Han patted her shoulder reassuringly.

The suffocating night descended once more.

This darkness came even faster than before, switching from day to night almost instantly. The train was steeped in silence, and every sound seemed to quiet down.

Yet after only a few minutes of silence, the train shook violently for over ten seconds. Fierce fighting erupted in both the carriages ahead and behind, while beastlike roars came from the Third-Class Carriage.

"They got in!" Liu Jia said tearfully.

"Don't panic, those are human voices!" Professor Han raised his voice. "Nobody move around! Block the Front Door and Back Door first!"

Professor Han and Liu Jia held the tables and chairs against the Front Door. Yan Jiayu dragged a table toward the Back Door as well. Amid the chaotic footsteps, however, the sounds of flesh tearing and swallowing rose within the carriage.

Xu Huo instinctively stopped moving, then charged toward the source of the sounds the next second. But someone was faster than him. Yan Jiayu swept past him like the wind, followed immediately by Li Fei's scream!

Li Fei did not die. Struggling desperately, he kicked Yan Jiayu away, but the table leg she had torn off was buried in his stomach. It had punched a huge hole through his abdomen. Feeling something spilling out from inside, he staggered two steps and fell to his knees!

At the same time, Xu Huo caught the retreating Yan Jiayu. Just as he was about to speak, the lights in Third-Class Seat suddenly came on!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The sound of shattering glass rang out in rapid succession. In the blink of an eye, the lights went out again, but Xu Huo had still clearly seen the "Monster" clinging to the outside of the window!

So the jolting at night had been caused by these Monsters boarding the train—countless ugly, distorted faces were pressed ferociously against the glass. Their pale, long, humanoid limbs tangled and crowded together, wrapping the carriage tightly like a swarm of locusts. A pair of huge, sunken eyes stared fixedly and blankly into the carriage, drool hanging from their mouths as though they were poised to strike at a signal!

But the signal had already come!

Bang! That fleeting flash of light awakened the Monsters outside the windows. The glass shattered in response, but what rushed in was not the wind stirred up by the speeding train, but several Monsters!

Heavy thuds sounded from different directions, accompanied by screams. Evolvers had keen hearing, and amid the chaos, Xu Huo heard dragging and tearing. Li Fei, beside him, was dragged away before he even had time to cry out. The horrifying swallowing sounds were clearly different from when the Cannibal Player had eaten earlier!

"What the hell are these things?!" Terrified screams rose one after another. Chaos engulfed the carriage, while the rapidly thickening stench of blood and rot spread through the air. Xu Huo retreated to the Back Door and grabbed a nearby table to block the fierce gust rushing at him. The impact slammed both him and the table against the carriage wall. A fishy wind sliced toward his face, and he twisted free and crouched, the Monster's claws scraping harshly against the metal!

Seizing the chance, he lifted the table and rammed the Monster pinning him down away. Yan Jiayu was right beside him, accurately locating it by sound and driving a snapped table leg through the Monster!

With a wet squelch, she struck some unknown part of the Monster. It let out a strange, shrill screech and dragged the table leg with a clatter toward the window. Xu Huo was moving in that direction when there was suddenly a bang from the ceiling of the carriage, and a gust of wind brushed past his shoulder!

An Evolver was faster than an ordinary person, and Xu Huo reacted quickly. He immediately turned and reached backward, actually grabbing the thing's ankle!

But the next instant, he was kicked flying by monstrous force. Sensing the Monster pursuing him, he rolled as he landed and kicked the overturned tables and chairs beside him away!

The Monster impaled itself on a table leg, howling and struggling on the floor!

Although the Monsters had been stirred by the light, there was no telling whether they would keep pouring in, drawn by the smell of blood. Xu Huo shouted to Yan Jiayu, "Let's block the window together!"

Yan Jiayu was nearby. At his words, she immediately helped him lift the table and push it, along with the Monster skewered on it, against the window, using the tabletop to block the hole in the glass!

The moment the tabletop covered the opening, the pressure on both of them suddenly increased. Another violent bout of tearing and swallowing came from outside, and a strong stench flowed in with the air!

The Monsters outside the window were clearly even more agitated. Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu could not let go, nor did they know how many Monsters remained inside the carriage...

"Liu Jia, how many Monsters are still in the carriage?" Professor Han shouted just then.

Liu Jia, who had been frightened senseless, finally came back to herself. In just a few breaths, all the corpses in the carriage had disappeared, leaving bright red drag marks everywhere. Those wormlike writhing Monsters had not only fought over the corpses, but had devoured their injured companions too. Blood and scraps of Internal Organs nearly covered the windows!

Liu Jia nearly threw up. She instinctively looked for Professor Han, only to turn around and see a Monster pouncing at his back.

"Professor, watch out!"

The almost-human thing opened its mouth to an eerie angle, its entire tooth bed protruding from its mouth as it bit toward the back of Professor Han's neck, dripping with sticky fluid!

Hearing the warning, Professor Han twisted aside, but the Monster still bit into his shoulder. Intense pain and crushing weight bore down on him. Forced to one knee, he realized he could not escape the Monster's jaws, so he carried it on his back and rammed toward the train window!

Professor Han had misjudged the distance. Just as he was about to crawl forward, a hand suddenly pressed down on his shoulder, then shoved itself between the Monster's teeth and forcibly pried its jaws apart!

The others did not understand what had happened, but Liu Jia saw that the old man in military uniform had saved Professor Han. His eyes were bloodshot, saliva dripped from the corners of his mouth, and his savage expression bore an alarming resemblance to the Monster he was restraining!

Liu Jia covered her mouth, not daring to say it aloud. But the old man turned to look at her and mumbled something indistinctly before hugging the Monster and jumping out!

A great spray of blood splattered out. Trembling, Liu Jia said, "Quick! Block the window! The old man jumped out holding the Monster!"

Professor Han, right by the window, grabbed a table and pressed it over the hole. He braced the tabletop with all his strength until the jolting stopped, then asked, "There are no more of those Monsters in the carriage, right?"

"No more..." Liu Jia looked around the carriage, her voice catching. "Professor, He Yang is gone, and so is Li Fei..."

"Li Fei was the Cannibal Player," Xu Huo said. "How many people are left now? Yan Jiayu and I are fine."

"I'm fine too." The middle-aged woman's trembling voice came from a corner, followed by the heavily made-up woman and Wang Xiaohui. The three of them had been terrified out of their wits.

But He Yang had disappeared without explanation, and Liu Jia could not accept it. In confusion, she said, "Maybe she turned into a Monster too, like that old man..."

"Turned into a Monster?" Xu Huo immediately asked. "What do you mean?"

He could roughly guess what had happened just now, because he had heard the old man's final words too: "I still want to see my granddaughter one more time." He had thought the man had chosen to die together with it only because he had no other choice if he wanted to save someone.

"It was that old man. When he saved Professor Han just now, he started looking a little like those Monsters too..." Liu Jia suddenly stopped, then said in utter terror, "We're not all going to turn into those Monsters too, are we?"