Death Trap!

"Miss Shen, should I check another carriage instead?"

The black-badge attendant's voice came from right in front of her.

Shen Niannian kept her eyes closed.

She didn't move a muscle.

(＞_＜)

She didn't answer.

She didn't open her eyes.

Rule three said only one thing.

[If you see an attendant wearing a black badge, close your eyes immediately and keep them closed until it leaves.]

So she followed it to the letter.

As for why this guy had suddenly become so polite...

She would figure that out after she survived.

The black-badge attendant waited a few seconds.

It really didn't seem to dare provoke her any further.

Footsteps sounded again.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

They gradually receded.

Soon.

The sound of a carriage door opening came from up ahead.

Creak-

Then.

Bang!

The door closed again.

Carriage four fell completely silent.

Ten seconds.

Twenty seconds.

No one dared move.

The livestream chat was frantic.

"Did it leave?"

"From the sound of it, it left the carriage, right?"

"Don't rush to open your eyes! The rule says 'until it leaves.' Who knows if the sound of the door closing was fake?"

"But we can't keep our eyes closed forever. What about the next stop?"

Cheng Ye kept his eyes closed too.

He sat in 11C, his voice very low.

"Everyone, keep your eyes closed. We can't confirm whether the sound of the door closing means it really left. What we hear can't be used to verify that the rule has been satisfied."

No one argued.

But just then.

A man suddenly gasped.

"Someone's feeling around in my pocket!"

It was Liu Peng, the player in 6B.

He was around thirty.

A newbie.

His voice was noticeably panicked.

"My ticket's in the right pocket of my jacket. Something's pulling it out!"

The atmosphere in the carriage changed in an instant.

Rule five!

[Please keep your ticket safe. Anyone who loses their ticket will be considered a fare dodger.]

Cheng Ye's brow immediately furrowed.

This time.

Even he didn't have an immediate answer.

Keep their eyes closed.

Protect their tickets.

The two rules seemed to have come into conflict at that moment.

The livestream chat exploded too.

"Holy shit, this is the trap!"

"If he doesn't open his eyes, his ticket might get stolen!"

"But if he opens them, he might violate the black-badge rule!"

"He has to choose one?!"

Shen Niannian tensed up too.

She instinctively felt for the ticket in her pajama pocket.

It was still there.

But she quickly realized something.

No.

If the black-badge attendant's ability was to snatch tickets while players had their eyes closed, then this rule was almost certain death.

An A-rank dungeon could be difficult.

But the rules themselves should offer a way to survive.

There had to be something she hadn't noticed.

"Liu Peng, don't open your eyes yet. Use your hand to hold your room card down through your clothes... No, your ticket." Shen Niannian had almost called it the wrong thing out of habit from the previous dungeon.

Liu Peng's voice trembled.

"I can't hold it down! That thing's hand is already in my pocket. I can feel the ticket slipping out!"

Cheng Ye immediately said, "Don't open your eyes yet. The death condition for rule three is more direct. We don't have any proof that the ticket is actually moving."

"But what if I really lose it?!"

Liu Peng was on the verge of breaking down.

The next second.

His voice shot up.

"It's out! My ticket's been pulled out!"

Cheng Ye's expression changed dramatically.

"Don't open your eyes!"

Too late.

Liu Peng's eyes flew open.

"Give my ticket ba-"

His voice cut off abruptly.

He saw it.

The black-badge attendant.

It had never left.

It was standing right in front of Liu Peng.

Its face was almost pressed against his.

Its once-normal human features had split completely open.

Both eyeballs were stuffed full of densely packed black tickets.

A raspy laugh came from its mouth.

"Fare dodger."

Liu Peng froze.

"I... I have a ticket..."

The black-badge attendant slowly grinned.

"But you saw me."

Squelch!

Two pitch-black fingers plunged into Liu Peng's eye sockets.

"Ah-!"

His scream rang through the carriage.

The next second.

Liu Peng's entire face was ripped apart.

His body fell to the floor with a thud.

[Player Liu Peng has died.]

[Players currently alive: 11]

The carriage fell deathly silent.

The breathing of all the players who still had their eyes closed grew ragged.

The livestream chat flooded with comments.

"He's dead!"

"The black-badge attendant never left!"

"The footsteps and the sound of the door closing were all fake!"

"It deliberately made him feel like his ticket was being stolen to force him to open his eyes!"

"That's so cruel!"

Shen Niannian's heart pounded.

(ΩДΩ)

This was an A-rank dungeon.

It didn't simply make you remember the rules.

It created a scenario.

Then forced you to doubt which rule you should follow!

More troubling still-

They still didn't know whether Liu Peng's ticket had actually been taken.

If it had.

That meant keeping their eyes closed could kill them too.

Cheng Ye had clearly realized this as well.

He didn't immediately jump to a conclusion because of Liu Peng's death. He merely said in a low voice, "Keep your eyes closed. No one move until the train gives us a signal we can verify."

This time.

No one dared argue.

One minute.

Two minutes.

The black-badge attendant's footsteps continued to move back and forth through the carriage.

During that time.

Someone heard the voice of their dead mother.

Someone felt cold fingers brush across their neck.

Another person distinctly felt the ticket in their pocket being pulled out bit by bit.

But with Liu Peng's corpse lying there.

No one dared open their eyes again.

Finally.

Bzzz-

The train announcement came on.

[This round of ticket inspection has ended.]

[The abnormal attendant has left carriage four.]

[Passengers, please keep your tickets safe.]

Shen Niannian didn't open her eyes immediately.

She waited another two seconds.

Until Cheng Ye spoke.

"The announcement explicitly confirmed that the abnormal attendant has left. You can open your eyes now."

Only then did everyone begin opening their eyes.

The carriage had returned to normal.

The black-badge attendant was gone.

Only Liu Peng's corpse lay beside 6B.

Both eyes had become pitch-black, bloody sockets.

Shen Niannian immediately checked her pocket.

Her ticket was still there.

The other players who had just felt their tickets being pulled away checked theirs too.

They were all there!

Cheng Ye's expression, however, remained tense.

He got up and walked straight over to Liu Peng's corpse.

He crouched down.

He reached into the right-hand pocket of Liu Peng's coat.

Soon.

He pulled out a ticket.

[Carriage 4]

[6B]

[Final destination: Homecoming Station]

It was completely intact.

Everyone in the carriage froze.

The livestream chat caught on at once.

"The ticket was never taken!"

"It was all an illusion!"

"So the rules never conflicted at all!"

"The black-badged attendant can't steal tickets directly. It can only trick you into thinking your ticket is gone!"

Cheng Ye stared at the corpse for several seconds.

Only then did he speak slowly. "We interpreted rule five too broadly. 'Keep your ticket safe' doesn't mean you have to check it immediately whenever you feel something unusual. Rule three, on the other hand, gives a clear action-close your eyes until the other party leaves."

"When two rules appear to conflict, you should prioritize the one with clearer trigger conditions and a verified fatal consequence, rather than let the information it creates lead you by the nose."

Shen Niannian nodded.

This was important.

The anomaly could deceive you.

Hallucinations could deceive you.

Sounds could deceive you too.

But the rules that had been written down explicitly

took priority, at least in this instance.

Just then.

The [Identity Archive] slowly refreshed.

[Target: Black-badged ticket inspector]

[Race: Deception Ghost]

[Danger level: A-rank]

[Identity: Anomalous staff member aboard the Lightless Train]

[Environment-related information: While passengers are observing the "close your eyes" rule, the target cannot directly seize a valid ticket and can only create the false perception that the ticket is being taken.]

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up slightly.

That settled it.

She committed this rule to memory.

She didn't tell everyone what the system said directly. She simply warned them, "If you encounter a similar situation again, first distinguish between what the rules explicitly require us to do and what the anomaly is deliberately making us feel is happening."

Cheng Ye glanced at her.

"That's right. And Liu Peng verified this information with his life."

When he said that.

No one in the carriage spoke.

The faces of the few newcomers who had just felt much safer with Cheng Ye leading them were noticeably paler.

The livestream chat also fell silent for a moment.

"An A-rank instance really isn't that simple."

"Even Cheng Ye couldn't determine beforehand whether the ticket had actually been stolen."

"This is more realistic. Veteran players can only improve their chances of survival; they can't instantly figure out every rule the first time they encounter it."

"If Liu Peng hadn't died, the people after him might have kept falling for this trap."

The train continued onward.

Clack.

Clack.

More than ten minutes later.

The announcement sounded again.

[Next stop-Paper Figure Station.]

[The train will stop at this station for three minutes.]

[Passengers planning to disembark, please prepare in advance.]

Outside the window.

A pitch-black platform gradually came into view.

This time.

There were no living people.

More than a hundred deathly pale paper figures stood packed together on the platform.

Red cheeks.

Black eyes.

Identical, stiff smiles painted on their faces.

And the moment the train came to a complete stop-

More than a hundred papier-mâché heads.

Turned in unison toward carriage four.

Shen Niannian: "..."

(°ー°〃)

She suddenly felt.

The passengers boarding at this station...

Might be a few too many.