Meat Sausage

Meat Sausage

"What nonsense are you talking about?!" Liu Jia snapped. "The professor is only injured!"

"What I'm saying makes no sense?" the middle-aged woman argued forcefully. "There are no more Cannibal Players in our carriage. We can safely make it through the last night. If he turns into a Monster, won't he get us all killed?"

"Then what do you want to do?" Xu Huo asked her.

The middle-aged woman choked on her words before hesitantly saying, "How about we drive him out..."

"It's full of man-eating Monsters outside at night! Driving him out is sending the professor to his death!" Liu Jia shouted angrily. "The professor has been protecting us all along. If it weren't for him, you might have been like those people in Third-Class Seat, turning on the lights yourself and getting yourself killed!"

The first night had been understandable enough, but yesterday the Old Man had suddenly mutated. Without knowing what was happening, someone could easily have rashly turned on the lights. Before Third-Class Seat self-destructed, there had first been a beastlike roar.

The middle-aged woman twisted her face, spittle flying. "You've got some nerve talking about me! Since you saw someone eating people, why didn't you say so earlier? Were you waiting for everyone else to die so you could show how capable you were?"

Liu Jia was so angry that her eyes reddened. Wang Xiaohui wanted to mediate but could not get a word in, while the other woman continued shouting, "Anyway, I'm not staying with someone this dangerous..."

Xu Huo abruptly said, "Then go to another carriage."

The middle-aged woman stared at his calm face in astonishment. Only after a long moment did she swallow back the curse on her lips.

Xu Huo's earlier actions had carried weight. Professor Han gave a bitter smile and said, "I'll go to Third-Class Seat. The Transfer Carriage still works. If you close the door at night, I won't be able to open it either."

"Treat the wound first." Xu Huo used a small knife to scrape away the rotten flesh around the wound, then squeezed out the pus and blood. Only when clean blood flowed out did he stop. "Go to the hospital as soon as you get off the train. Don't let a wound infection finish you off."

Professor Han thanked him, but he still wanted to leave.

"But the door to Third-Class Seat is already broken. What if those Monsters get in?" Liu Jia was the first to object.

"I can watch Professor Han," Yan Jiayu suggested.

"Can you handle it?" Xu Huo looked at her. Professor Han's condition differed from that of the Cannibal Player, so no one knew what changes might occur.

"No problem." Yan Jiayu patted the table. "Pin him against the Back Door and he definitely won't get out."

Her combat ability was plain for all to see. Xu Huo could tell that, unlike him, who had only one foot over the threshold, Yan Jiayu had an excellent martial arts foundation. Combined with her enhanced strength, not a single Player here was her match.

"That works." With that extra safeguard in place, Xu Huo did not bring up the matter again. He got up and went to check the Front Door.

The windows of First-Class Seat had been covered up. A pair of faint bloody footprints lay beneath the door, and his hand paused on the handle.

"Thank you for earlier," Professor Han said as he came over. "And thank you for saving Liu Jia. She said you had Yan Jiayu take her place at the Front Door."

"Yan Jiayu was the one who did the work. I didn't help much," Xu Huo said politely.

Professor Han continued thanking him, then sighed. "I've met some Evolvers too. In the end, they all became less and less human... But I still believe in the light of Human Nature. If not for that old man, I would already be dead."

"He was beyond saving." But the old man had proven one thing: Players who had eaten people had absolutely no way back. If they forced themselves not to eat, they would lose their Human Nature and become Monsters.

Xu Huo turned to look at the others in the carriage.

"You're amazing! If it weren't for you, I definitely would have died yesterday!" Liu Jia was thanking Yan Jiayu.

Yan Jiayu scratched her head. "I grew up in a temple. Hauling water and chopping firewood were everyday chores, so I'm especially strong."

The two girls looked at her with admiration and envy.

"...Do you think we'll return to normal after getting off this time?" Liu Jia added. "What if we get hungry again..."

They could barely endure it for a while, but if it went on too long, they might one day become Cannibal Players.

"I don't think so." Wang Xiaohui shook her head. "Didn't the train announcement say this journey was meant to classify Players? We aren't Cannibal Players, and we haven't eaten anyone since boarding, so we're different from them. We don't need to survive by eating our own kind raw."

"Once you've eaten someone, you have to keep eating people forever. If it were me, I'd rather die!" Liu Jia said.

"Are you hungry? I have food here." The middle-aged woman, who had been sitting in the corner all this time, suddenly approached with a smile and pulled several vacuum-sealed meat sausages from beneath her apron.

After their earlier argument, the three girls ignored her. However, the middle-aged woman familiarly took Liu Jia's hand. "Little girl, you've got quite a temper. I said the wrong thing earlier, so don't take it to heart. Professor Han and Mr. Xu are injured. We'll still have to rely on ourselves to keep watch tonight."

She had a point. Liu Jia and Wang Xiaohui each took one. The former turned around and asked, "Professor, Mr. Xu, do you want one?"

The plump, springy meat sausages were wrapped in transparent vacuum packaging, their color appetizing.

Xu Huo walked over. Under the middle-aged woman's tense gaze, he took one and held it beneath his nose to smell it. Then he looked up at her. "The little girl only said a few unpleasant words. Was there really any need to harm her?"

The others froze. Professor Han reacted first and immediately pulled the three girls back.

"W-what do you mean?" The middle-aged woman's face stiffened.

Xu Huo loosened his grip and lifted his foot, crushing the meat sausage that had fallen to the floor. The meat squeezing from a gap in the plastic bag was an unnatural red, and a bloody smell gradually spread through the air.

"What kind of meat is this?" Liu Jia stared at the middle-aged woman in horror.

"What kind of meat? Pork, of course! It costs over thirty a pound. If you don't want to eat it, then forget it. But you had to ruin perfectly good food. Young people these days..."

"You're the last Cannibal Player," Xu Huo cut off the middle-aged woman's rambling.

"What Cannibal Player... Didn't you say yesterday there were only six Cannibal Players?" The middle-aged woman's smile twisted slightly. "Why are you targeting me for no reason? I haven't attacked anyone else..."

"You haven't attacked anyone, but you ate." By then, Xu Huo had already grabbed a chair. The middle-aged woman showed caution, then shouted at Professor Han and the others, "First he says six, then he says seven! I think he's the Cannibal Player! You idiots, don't let him fool you!"

"She really did eat something." Liu Jia's face turned pale. "I saw it the night before last, but I thought she was eating snacks... Ugh!"

"Don't come any closer!" Professor Han stopped the middle-aged woman from approaching and said sternly, "Take another step and I won't be polite!"

The middle-aged woman's expression turned vicious. She suddenly drew a Fruit Knife from beneath her apron and lunged at Xu Huo, slashing wildly. "You forced me to do this!"

She was fast. Although Xu Huo swiftly dodged away, a bloody gash was still cut into his side. When he saw the middle-aged woman dart toward the Front Door, he directly moved aside.

But unexpectedly, the middle-aged woman changed direction midway and charged at Liu Jia, determined to drag her down with her!

"Die!"