Reflection Station, Another One Who Knows Me?!

9B.

A paper figure.

19A.

Another paper figure.

And-

They looked exactly alike.

Shen Niannian stared at the last row, her expression growing serious.

Only seven passengers had boarded at Paper Figure Station.

A lot of people had seen it.

But now.

There were eight paper figures in the carriage!

One extra.

Cheng Ye had clearly realized it too.

He didn't approach right away. Instead, he counted everyone again.

"Ten players are currently alive, seven people boarded at Yellow Mud Station, and seven boarded at Paper Figure Station. Under normal circumstances, carriage four should have twenty-four passengers."

"But there are actually twenty-five now."

"So the 'extra passenger' in the announcement should be this additional one."

Several players' expressions changed slightly.

The question was-

Which one was extra?

The paper figures looked almost identical.

Even their clothes were barely different.

The only ones with an obvious irregularity.

Were these two in 9B and 19A.

Cheng Ye looked at 9B.

"That paper figure's original ticket was for 19A. After it took Sun Qiang's identity, it changed to 9B."

"So the one in 19A is very suspicious."

But Shen Niannian didn't reach a conclusion right away.

She still remembered everything that had happened.

That paper figure's identity replacement.

Had been recognized by the instance rules.

In other words.

Which one was real.

And which was fake.

Couldn't be determined by the change in seats alone.

She focused.

[Identity Archive] activated.

First, she checked 9B.

[Target: Paper figure passenger]

[Danger level: C-rank]

[Identity: Official passenger of the Lightless Train]

[Ticket held: Yes]

[Current seat: 9B]

Real.

Next, she checked 19A.

The translucent interface paused for a moment.

Then it refreshed.

[Target: Substitute paper doll]

[Danger level: D-rank]

[Identity: Passenger without a ticket]

[Ticket held: No]

[Current status: Disguised]

Shen Niannian's eyes lit up.

(✧ω✧)

Found it!

After Sun Qiang completed the identity replacement.

That so-called "substitute paper" hadn't disappeared.

It had turned into another paper figure!

The paper figure that had actually completed the identity replacement had already obtained 9B.

The one in 19A-

Was the one that had appeared out of nowhere!

Shen Niannian spoke up at once. "The extra one is the one in 19A. It doesn't have its own ticket."

Cheng Ye turned his head instantly.

"Are you sure?"

"I am."

Shen Niannian answered without hesitation.

Cheng Ye didn't ask how she knew. He simply raised a hand at once.

"Attendant, we found a suspected passenger without a ticket here. Please check 19A."

Soon.

A white-badge attendant walked over.

"Ticket."

The paper figure in 19A didn't move.

The attendant repeated the request.

"Please show your ticket."

The paper figure's stiff smile began to twist, little by little.

A few seconds later.

It sprang to its feet!

But the white-badge attendant was faster.

A deathly pale hand clamped down on its head.

"Riding without a ticket."

"Expulsion."

Rip!

The paper figure's body was torn into countless scraps of white paper in an instant.

The carriage door didn't even open.

The scraps were sucked away as if by an invisible force.

They vanished in the blink of an eye.

Immediately afterward.

The announcement sounded.

[Carriage four count complete.]

[Current valid passenger identities: 24.]

[Extra passenger eliminated.]

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at once.

The livestream chat exploded too.

"They found the right one!"

"How did Shen Niannian know 19A didn't have a ticket?"

"She must have some kind of detection ability!"

"Finally, this feels like a proper golden finger. She's not just relying on ghosts knowing her face!"

"Did the person above forget that her biggest golden finger is that face of hers?!"

Shen Niannian couldn't be bothered with the livestream's speculation.

She was more concerned about the message just now.

[Valid passenger identities: 24]

Identity.

It had appeared again.

From the temporary tickets at Yellow Mud Station.

To the paper figure taking Sun Qiang's seat.

And now the ticketless substitute.

The Lightless Train seemed to revolve around a single central concept.

-Passenger identity.

As long as your identity was valid.

Even if you were a paper figure.

The rules protected you.

If something went wrong with your identity.

Even if you had originally been a player.

The train would eliminate you all the same.

Shen Niannian silently made a note of it.

Just then.

The train began to slow.

The view outside changed too.

The pitch-black wilderness disappeared.

In its place.

Were enormous mirrors, one after another.

The platform.

The walls.

The ceiling.

Even the floor was covered in smooth mirrors.

The entire station seemed to have been stuffed into an endlessly replicating world of mirrors.

The announcement sounded.

[Next stop-Reflection Station.]

[The train will stop here for five minutes.]

[Passengers, please take care to safeguard your identities.]

That last sentence.

Made Cheng Ye frown at once.

"Safeguard your identities."

"I'm afraid this station will be even more troublesome than Paper Figure Station."

The carriage doors slowly opened.

However.

This time, there were no groups of eerie beings on the platform.

There was only one woman.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

High heels stepped across the mirrored surface.

The sound was crisp.

The woman was tall and slender.

Her long black hair was neatly coiled at the back of her head. She wore a sharply tailored, ink-black long coat and thin black gloves.

She carried no luggage.

Only a palm-sized silver hand mirror.

Her bearing was so cold that no one dared approach her.

Most distinctive of all were her eyes.

Silver-gray.

Like two mirrors without warmth.

The first thing she did after boarding the train

was not look for a seat.

Instead, she looked down at the paper ash clinging to the edge of the train door.

Her brows furrowed slightly.

"Dirty."

Just one word.

The white-badge attendant beside her immediately fetched some tools and wiped the paper ash away.

Someone in the livestream recognized her instantly.

"Holy shit!"

"Ning Hongzhuang?!"

"Who?"

"Mirror City's mirror keeper, Ning Hongzhuang, a peak A-rank mirror weird!"

"I've read the files on 'Funeral in the Mirror.' She hates mess and lies more than anything. A player once lied in front of her, and she stuffed him straight into a mirror and folded him over a dozen times!"

"Where did another heavyweight like this come from?!"

Cheng Ye had clearly recognized her too.

His expression turned especially grave for the first time.

"Don't stare at her mirror, and don't talk to her unless she speaks to you."

Peak A-rank.

And a weird with a clearly defined rule-based ability.

Even if a being like that wasn't the instance boss,

she could still kill.

Ning Hongzhuang, however, paid them no attention.

She simply looked for her seat according to her ticket.

One step.

Two steps.

Until she reached the area around 12A.

Her footsteps suddenly stopped.

Shen Niannian: "..."

(・_・;)

No way?

She slowly looked up.

Their eyes met.

The Identity Archive popped up instantly.

[Target: Ning Hongzhuang]

[Race: Mirror Nightmare]

[Danger level: Peak A-rank]

[Identity: Mirror City mirror keeper]

[Current state: Calm]

The next second.

Ning Hongzhuang got a clear look at her face.

[Current state: Stunned]

A second later.

[Current state: Headache]

Immediately afterward.

Additional information from her level 1 clearance appeared.

[Environmental information: She knows you and has cleaned up your messes more than once.]

Shen Niannian:

"..."

(⊙_⊙)

She knows me too?!

And what does it mean, she's cleaned up my messes more than once?!

What on earth did I used to do for a living?!

Cause accidents professionally?!

The livestream viewers still hadn't figured out what was happening.

Ning Hongzhuang had already stopped in front of Shen Niannian.

She first looked at her messy silver-white hair.

Then at the white pajamas she was wearing.

Finally, she looked at her slippers.

Her silver-gray eyes grew complicated.

She remained silent for a full three seconds.

Only then did she speak.

"Shen Niannian, you've been gone for so long, and the first time you show up in front of me again, you're riding an A-rank Lightless Train in pajamas and slippers?"

The entire carriage

fell silent in an instant.

Cheng Ye whipped around to look at Shen Niannian.

The other players were all stunned too.

The livestream chat paused for a second.

Then it exploded.

"???????"

"She knows her too?!"

"How does she know another peak A-rank?!"

"Wait, it's one thing for people at the Blood Moon Hotel to know her, but why does Mirror City's mirror keeper know her too?!"

"And that's definitely not how you talk to someone you've just met!"

"What does 'you've been gone for so long' mean?!"

Shen Niannian herself was even more confused.

She tilted her little face up.

After hesitating for a long time,

she could only ask with complete honesty:

"Um... were we close before?"

Ning Hongzhuang's expression froze.

She looked down and stared at Shen Niannian for a full five seconds.

Her previously cold gaze

truly changed for the first time.

"You don't remember me?"

Shen Niannian shook her head.

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

"I don't."

Ning Hongzhuang didn't press her further.

She simply put away her silver mirror slowly.

Then she raised a hand and pressed her brow.

Her expression was as if she had suddenly encountered a problem more troublesome than an A-rank instance.

But just then,

the little girl from Yellow Mud Station sitting in 16C

secretly glanced at Shen Niannian's pocket.

Her train ticket was in there.

Ning Hongzhuang didn't even turn around.

"Keep your eyes to yourself."

Her voice was calm.

The little girl's body stiffened instantly.

Only then did Ning Hongzhuang turn her head.

Her silver-gray eyes swept coldly over her.

"Who are you to covet her things?"

The eerie smile vanished completely from the B-rank little girl's face.

The next second,

she lowered her head.

She didn't dare say a word.

The livestream chat went wild again.

"Holy shit!"

"She's protecting her too!"

"I'm completely certain now. Shen Niannian definitely wasn't an ordinary person before!"

"Bai Feiyue's the yandere young lady, and this one's the cold-faced mature beauty, right?!"

"Just how many people does she know in the Weird World?!"

Shen Niannian looked at Ning Hongzhuang in front of her.

Then she looked at the B-rank little girl, who had instantly fallen into line.

She was silent for a few seconds.

Then it suddenly occurred to her-

this A-rank instance

seemed to be heading in a familiar direction again.

(￣ー￣)

But what concerned her even more

was what Ning Hongzhuang had just said.

[You've been gone for so long.]

This was the first time

a weird had explicitly mentioned-

that she had once "disappeared."