Beat to Death

There was still some time before dawn.

The windows had to be barricaded, and both the Front Door and Back Door needed guarding. After discussing it, they decided to take shifts.

"But there's still a Cannibal Player among us. What if..." Liu Jia said softly.

"If we let whatever's outside in, everyone will be in danger. No one is that stupid," Xu Huo reassured her.

Professor Han thought that made sense. He was only guarding against the worst-case scenario, so he volunteered to watch the windows with the heavily made-up woman.

The heavily made-up woman had no objections.

Wang Xiaohui and the middle-aged woman guarded the doors. Xu Huo, "injured," rested for the time being, while Liu Jia and Yan Jiayu took the first shift. Two hours later, he would relieve them. He specifically asked Yan Jiayu whether she wanted to rest.

Yan Jiayu said, "I used to carry water and chop firewood all the time. I have plenty of stamina. Let Liu Jia go to the Front Door." The people guarding the doors could rest for a while.

The carriage fell silent again.

To test whether Liu Jia really could not see, the heavily made-up woman deliberately held her breath and approached Professor Han in the darkness, opening her mouth as if to bite him. There was no reaction from that side.

Three minutes later, she made her move!

The table in her hands suddenly dropped. Professor Han immediately knew something was wrong, but he did not dare let go of the table. He turned his back and braced it with his body while shouting, "Liu Jia, be careful!"

The heavily made-up woman sneered. As expected, that little girl knew. She had lied only to keep her steady. Once dawn came, she would probably become everyone's target!

She had to die!

First Liu Jia, then Professor Han!

She had memorized Liu Jia's position earlier. A raised hand would be enough to eliminate the threat, but she had not expected to meet not Liu Jia's soft neck, but a thick metal table!

Bang! It struck the heavily made-up woman squarely in the face!

The heavily made-up woman saw stars from the blow, her head buzzing as she staggered back several meters. Before she could steady herself, wind came from her right. She frantically raised her hands to shield her head, but the table, as immovable as a stone wall, brutally smashed her shoulder bone apart!

She screamed in pain, only to take another blow across the back. Blood sprayed from her mouth as she roared, "The Cannibal Player is attacking me!"

No one answered. The pounding did not stop at all. The heavily made-up woman felt as if every bone in her body had been broken. "Who are you? Xu Huo?"

She could not hear the other person moving at all and had no way to tell where they were!

"It's me." Yan Jiayu's voice suddenly sounded behind her.

The heavily made-up woman spun around in shock, but the metal table had already smashed down on the crown of her head. This time, she heard the sound of her neck bones coming apart...

After the sound of a Heavy Object hitting the ground, Yan Jiayu announced several seconds later, "Amitabha. This female benefactor has gone to Hell to atone for her sins."

The bone-chilling thuds and cracks still rang in their ears. The middle-aged woman in the corner asked shakily, "Why did you kill her?"

"She was a Cannibal Player," Yan Jiayu said. "Xu Huo said she was the last Cannibal Player, and she just tried to kill Liu Jia."

"So that's what happened!" The middle-aged woman sounded delighted. "Mr. Xu is truly capable!"

"That's wonderful. We can get through the remaining day safely now!"

Xu Huo said flatly in the darkness, facing her direction, "Yes."

Near eight o'clock, the train gave a slight shudder, as though it had cast off a heavy burden, and its ride became smooth.

Dawn broke. "Ding-dong!"

"Welcome aboard..."

The announcement arrived as expected, and everyone in the carriage breathed a sigh of relief.

After two days and two nights, the train was exceptionally quiet. There was no sound from either direction. After looking ahead and behind and finding no one, Professor Han and the others sat down where they were to rest.

After remaining tense all night, Xu Huo was exhausted as well. He rubbed his arm, dragged the heavily made-up woman's corpse into a corner, then looked toward Third-Class Seat.

The blood-smeared door had warped and twisted. Raised claw marks covered the entire surface, nearly piercing through the metal. Such strength was simply beyond human comprehension.

Through the twisted gaps, he could see that every window in the Third-Class Car had shattered. Only a sheet of metal remained, dragging behind the rear of the train. It was covered in dried blood and fragments, creaking as the train moved.

The complete destruction of Third-Class Seat had caught him by surprise. He had thought that with six people remaining, they could at least hold out until the third day. He had not expected the Cannibal Players who failed to feed to mutate on the second night, causing the carriage to fall.

Though the Monsters that appeared yesterday retained human-shaped characteristics, their forms had completely departed from the realm of humanity. They had no reason left, only the urge to feed. They appeared at night and awakened under the lights, remaining active for a certain period. They also seemed somewhat slow to react to sounds and smells.

These things were far more dangerous than Cannibal Players. Though mindless, they also fit what the heavily made-up woman had said— the more people they ate, the stronger they became.

But there were too many of them. Could all those Monsters have been Cannibal Players who failed to feed?

How long had Evolvers even existed?

Wang Xiaohui came over to him. Xu Huo glanced at her. "Stop looking."

Wang Xiaohui's eyes were red. "If he had come over yesterday too, maybe..."

Xu Huo's expression did not change. "Don't be stupid. He couldn't get in."

Under the woman's stunned gaze, he continued, "You got in because you're disabled."

One more Player meant one more risk. Even if Xu Huo could stop the other Players, he would not rashly let an unknown risk in. But Wang Xiaohui's physical condition had clearly lowered that risk, so the other Players had not objected strongly.

Wang Xiaohui seemed to find it difficult to accept. After a while, she lowered her head and said, "I violated the train rules, so my Ability duration was reduced by one-third. If I stay in Second-Class Seat until the terminal, the game will permanently deduct that one-third."

After saying that, she wheeled herself away. Xu Huo said nothing. That had been his goal from the start. There were not that many purely good people in the world.

"There's a suicide note in his pocket." On the other side, Yan Jiayu righted the overturned tables and chairs and found the Old Man's coat. Perhaps to prevent the letter from going undelivered, he had left an address on it.

"It's in the capital. My maternal grandmother lives in the capital, so I'll deliver it," Wang Xiaohui said.

Liu Jia held He Yang's small backpack. "I'll deliver this one."

One had saved him, while the other could barely be considered his student. Professor Han's eyes reddened, and his breathing grew heavy.

Xu Huo, who had found nothing after searching the heavily made-up woman's clothes and shoes, suddenly looked up at him. "Your wound may be infected."

"Evolvers have strong recovery abilities. It should be fine, right?" Professor Han froze for a moment, then pulled open his collar and discovered that the flesh on his shoulder had nearly been bitten into minced meat. It had turned purplish-black, and dark brown pus oozed from the wound.

"He won't turn into a Monster too, will he?" The middle-aged woman cried out as she backed away. "That's how zombie movies go! Once you're bitten, you turn into a zombie too!"