Paper Figure Station, One "Person" Missing

The train slowly came to a stop.

Creak-

The doors to car four opened.

On the platform,

over a hundred deathly pale paper figures turned their heads at once.

They had identical red cheeks.

Identical black eyes.

And identical painted smiles.

The sight was unspeakably creepy.

No one in the car spoke.

But the livestream chat had already gone wild.

"What the hell is with this platform?!"

"Are all hundred of them getting on?"

"Can they even fit in the car?"

"Rule four says we can't stop ticketed passengers from taking their seats, but which of these things has a ticket?"

Shen Niannian was also staring at the platform.

She swept her Identity Archive over them.

[Target: Paper figure]

[Danger level: E]

[Identity: Ritual paper doll]

[Current status: Stationary]

She checked another.

It was the same.

The third.

The fourth.

They were all ordinary ritual paper dolls.

Shen Niannian frowned slightly.

Something was wrong.

The announcement had clearly said they had arrived at Paper Figure Station.

Surely there had to be at least one real passenger.

Cheng Ye soon noticed something was wrong too.

"Don't assume they're all passengers just because of how they look."

"The key words in rule four are 'ticketed passengers.' Don't help with anything until we've confirmed they have tickets."

Everyone nodded.

The next second,

the paper figures on the platform moved.

Rustle-

Over a hundred paper heads bowed at once.

Immediately afterward,

the seven paper figures at the front slowly stepped forward.

They passed through the doors

and entered car four.

The remaining paper figures stayed where they were.

Seven.

Shen Niannian quickly checked them.

This time,

the Identity Archive showed something different.

[Target: Paper figure passenger]

[Danger level: C]

[Identity: Official passenger of the Lightless Train]

[Ticket: Yes]

As expected.

Only the seven at the front were real passengers.

Six of them quickly found empty seats and sat down.

The last one,

however, stood in the middle of the aisle.

It didn't look for a seat.

It simply turned its papier-mâché head slowly.

Left.

Right.

Finally, it stopped in front of a young woman in 5C.

It was the rookie player Xu Jing.

The paper figure held out a thin hand.

A sheet of white paper lay on its palm.

"Miss."

"Could you help me see where my seat is?"

Xu Jing went pale.

She instinctively looked at Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye didn't answer directly.

"First, have it show its ticket."

The paper figure slowly opened its other hand.

It did have a ticket.

[Car 4]

[19A]

[Destination: Weeping Well Station]

19A.

The last row of the car.

And it was currently empty.

Xu Jing visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Your seat is in the last row, by the window."

The paper figure didn't move.

Instead, it held the first sheet of white paper a little closer.

"I can't read numbers."

"Could you write it down for me?"

Xu Jing froze.

A sheet of white paper.

A red pencil that had appeared in the paper figure's hand at some unknown point.

The livestream chat was instantly on alert.

"Don't write it!"

"Can you just touch something a ghost hands you?"

"Cheng Ye just said not to find seats for the paper figures!"

Cheng Ye frowned too.

The problem was-

no rule explicitly forbade helping passengers.

On the contrary, rule four required them not to stop ticketed passengers from taking their seats.

If the paper figure couldn't find its seat because it couldn't read numbers,

then helping it

seemed more like assisting in the enforcement of the rule.

Xu Jing had evidently thought of that too.

She asked nervously, "What if I just write 19A?"

Cheng Ye didn't answer immediately.

He stared at the sheet of white paper.

After several seconds of silence,

"I can't be sure."

Since entering the instance,

this was the first time he had given an answer like that.

"If you're not sure, don't touch it."

"Tell it to find an attendant."

Xu Jing nodded immediately.

"You can ask an attendant. I don't know if I can write it for you."

The paper figure fell silent.

Its painted smile didn't change at all.

A few seconds later,

it withdrew the paper,

turned around, and walked toward the front of the car.

Xu Jing let out a long breath of relief.

"That was close."

But right then,

another paper figure suddenly stood up.

It came to stand beside 9B.

The player there was named Sun Qiang.

He was also a rookie.

The paper figure was holding white paper and a red pencil too.

"Sir, could you help me write down my seat?"

Sun Qiang's expression turned grim.

"Didn't we just say to find an attendant?"

The paper figure shook its head.

"The attendants won't write for us."

"If I can't find my seat, I'll become a fare-dodging passenger once the train starts moving."

Sun Qiang froze.

The livestream chat instantly erupted too.

"Is that true?"

"It has a ticket. How could it become a fare dodger?"

"But if it doesn't sit in its assigned seat, wouldn't it be breaking rule one?"

"Rule one says everyone has to stay in their own seat, so the paper figures might be bound by it too!"

That logic

actually seemed to make sense.

Sun Qiang was visibly wavering.

But Cheng Ye spoke again. "Don't touch it. We don't know what writing for it might trigger, and why does it insist on having a player write for it instead of another paper figure?"

The paper figure slowly turned its head.

"Because paper figures can't write names for paper figures."

Names?

Shen Niannian's gaze flickered.

What it had just asked for was clearly-

to write down its seat.

But now it was asking for a name?

Something was off.

She was just about to warn him,

but Sun Qiang was so nervous that he hadn't noticed the detail.

More importantly,

The countdown above the train doors had only-

[00:41]

Forty-one seconds left.

The paper figure spoke again.

"If I can't take my seat in time, I'll die."

"Are you willing to watch me die?"

Sweat broke out on Sun Qiang's forehead.

He glanced at Cheng Ye.

Then he looked at the countdown.

Finally, he gritted his teeth.

"It's just a seat number. It should be fine."

"Sun Qiang, don't touch it!"

Cheng Ye had barely spoken.

Sun Qiang had already picked up the red pencil.

He wrote on the white paper-

[19A]

The final stroke fell.

Nothing happened.

Sun Qiang froze for a moment.

Then he visibly relaxed.

"See? Nothing happened."

The livestream chat also hesitated for a moment.

"Really? Nothing happened?"

"Was Cheng Ye being too cautious?"

But the next second.

The paper figure lowered its head and looked at the three characters.

Then it suddenly asked.

"Thank you."

"May I ask-"

"Who wrote this?"

Sun Qiang answered instinctively.

"I did."

As soon as he spoke.

The entire carriage fell silent.

The paper figure's smile.

Slowly split open.

"So your name is 19A."

Sun Qiang's expression froze.

"What?"

The paper figure gently pressed the white paper against its chest.

At the same time.

The ticket in Sun Qiang's hand suddenly grew searing hot.

He jerked his head down.

On the ticket that had originally belonged to him-

[Seat: 9B]

Was gradually disappearing!

"My seat number!"

Sun Qiang panicked.

He rubbed at the ticket desperately.

It was no use.

[Seat:]

Blank.

The next second.

The white paper on the paper figure's chest changed.

[Name: Sun Qiang]

[Seat: 9B]

Meanwhile, on the paper figure's original ticket.

The seat had changed to-

[19A]

Sun Qiang's face turned deathly pale.

"No! That's not right! I only helped it write a seat number!"

Cheng Ye sprang to his feet.

He finally understood.

"It wasn't the writing. It was admitting it!"

"It had you write down a piece of identity information yourself, then asked, 'Who wrote this?' When you answered 'I did,' you confirmed that the paper represented you!"

Shen Niannian realized it too.

Paper Figure Station.

Paper.

Names.

Seats.

The real danger here wasn't helping.

It was-

Letting a paper figure obtain an "identity paper" sufficient to replace you!

But it was too late to know that now.

The train announcement sounded.

[The doors at Paper Figure Station will close shortly.]

[All passengers, please confirm that you are in the correct seat.]

Sun Qiang whirled toward 9B.

The paper figure had already sat down.

It raised its head.

Its drawn-on smile facing him.

"This is my seat."

Sun Qiang panicked.

"Get out! That's mine!"

He reached out to yank the paper figure up.

Cheng Ye's expression changed drastically.

"Don't touch it!"

Rule four!

[Do not prevent any "ticketed passenger" from taking their seat.]

Now, the ticket this paper figure held.

Already said 9B!

But Sun Qiang wasn't listening.

"This is my seat!"

He grabbed the paper figure by the shoulder.

The next instant.

A red light flared on the carriage ceiling.

[Passenger detected preventing a ticketed passenger from taking their seat.]

[Violation.]

Sun Qiang's body went rigid.

A pitch-black fissure suddenly opened in the carriage floor.

Countless pale paper hands reached up from below.

And grabbed his ankles.

"Help me!"

"Brother Cheng, help me!"

Cheng Ye gripped the black iron nail.

But he didn't act.

It wasn't that he didn't want to.

He couldn't.

The punishment for breaking the rule had already been triggered.

Anyone who touched him.

Would likely die with him.

The next second.

Sun Qiang was dragged bodily into the floor.

His screams quickly faded.

The fissure closed again.

Not even a drop of blood remained.

[Player Sun Qiang has died.]

[Players currently alive: 10]

The carriage fell deathly silent.

The paper figure sat quietly in 9B.

As if nothing had happened.

Shen Niannian looked at the seat.

A layer of cold sweat had already broken out on her back.

Another one dead.

And this time.

Even Cheng Ye had failed to see through it in advance.

There were noticeably fewer comments in the livestream chat than before.

"A-rank instances are brutal."

"Who could tell what a sheet of white paper was for without falling into the trap once?"

"Cheng Ye already warned him not to touch it, but even he didn't know what actually triggered it."

"The nastiest part is that you don't die immediately after writing. You have to answer 'Who wrote this?' too."

Cheng Ye crouched down.

He picked up the blank ticket Sun Qiang had dropped on the floor.

He was silent for a few seconds.

Then he looked at Xu Jing.

"When the first paper figure asked you, you didn't touch the paper or answer any questions confirming your identity, so it gave up."

Xu Jing nodded, her face pale.

Shen Niannian, meanwhile, looked at the paper figure in 9B.

The Identity Archive had refreshed.

[Environment-related information: Paper figures cannot seize a living person's identity out of nowhere. The substitution can only take effect when a living person voluntarily leaves identity information on the "substitute paper" and personally confirms the writer's identity.]

It was completely clear now.

Shen Niannian spoke immediately.

"If another paper figure offers you paper, don't write anything related to yourself, and don't answer questions like 'Who wrote this?' or 'Whose is this?' They need you to confirm your identity voluntarily before they can take your seat or your passenger identity."

Cheng Ye glanced at her.

He didn't ask why she was so certain.

He simply added quickly.

"One more thing. From now on, don't casually write down any information involving names, seats, ticket numbers, or final destinations for the anomalies. The core of the Lightless Train seems to be not just the 'ticket,' but the passenger identity it represents."

Something stirred in Shen Niannian's heart.

Identity.

Identity again.

This seemed to mesh strangely well with her [Identity Archive] ability.

But before she could think it through,

Paper Figure Station vanished completely from sight.

The train accelerated again.

The announcement followed.

[The train has departed Paper Figure Station.]

[Next stop--Reflection Station.]

[Estimated arrival in twenty-five minutes.]

Then,

a second notice appeared.

[Special reminder: Starting with this section of the route, "extra passengers" may appear aboard the train.]

[Before the train arrives at the next station, passengers are asked to--]

[Determine exactly how many "people" are in car four.]

Shen Niannian slowly raised her head.

Ten players were currently alive.

There were seven temporary passengers from Yellow Mud Station.

Another seven had boarded at Paper Figure Station.

Plus the original strange passengers...

Her gaze swept slowly across the entire car.

She suddenly noticed a problem.

After Sun Qiang died just now,

a paper figure had been sitting in 9B.

But in 19A, in the last row of the car--

there was an identical paper figure sitting there too.

Shen Niannian's expression slowly froze.

(°ー°〃)

Wait.

That paper figure just now...

Where exactly had the extra one come from?