She Only Cared About Shen Niannian

[Next stop: Eternal Slumber Station.]

[Estimated arrival time: thirty-five minutes.]

At the bottom of every player's ticket,

another line of text appeared.

[Remaining valid rides: 2]

Cheng Ye stared at the number for a few seconds.

"If one ride means one stretch between stations, then the next stop is Eternal Slumber Station, and the one after that is Homecoming Station. We have exactly enough rides."

Shen Niannian looked at him.

"Why did you say 'if'?"

"Because in an A-rank instance, the places where people are most likely to die are often the ones we assume won't cause any problems."

Shen Niannian: "..."

(￣ー￣)

Thanks.

She had felt reassured for less than three seconds.

Now she was worried again.

She instinctively looked at Ning Hongzhuang.

Ning Hongzhuang leaned against the back of her seat.

She had no intention of joining their discussion.

Shen Niannian thought for a moment.

Then she asked a question anyway.

"Is the Lightless Train's route fixed?"

Only then did Ning Hongzhuang look at her.

"No, but since you have a valid ticket to Homecoming Station, there must be a way to reach your destination. As for how to get there, that falls under this train's own rules. I can't do it for you."

"Understood."

Shen Niannian nodded.

Cheng Ye, who was beside her, didn't interrupt.

But his expression had subtly changed.

The few of them had spent so long discussing it just now.

Ning Hongzhuang hadn't even raised her head.

Shen Niannian had asked just one question.

And she had answered immediately.

Which side this peak A-rank eerie was on-

was already crystal clear.

Half an hour later.

The train began to slow down.

A platform shrouded in gray fog gradually appeared outside the window.

The platform floor was covered with old wooden beds.

On each bed

lay a "person" covered with a white sheet.

[Approaching stop-Eternal Slumber Station.]

[Stop duration: seven minutes.]

[Eternal Slumber Station boarding rules updated.]

[1. While the train is stopped, passengers already aboard must not leave their seats.]

[2. All passengers boarding at Eternal Slumber Station are asleep. Do not deliberately wake them.]

[3. If you hear a sleeping passenger talking in their sleep, do not respond.]

[4. Make sure you remain awake until the train departs.]

[5. Passengers who are still asleep when the train departs will be deemed to have voluntarily stayed at Eternal Slumber Station.]

The train doors opened.

Passengers sat up on the wooden beds one after another.

Their eyes were all closed.

Yet they walked into the carriage with the precision of sleepwalkers.

Six in total.

Until the last man appeared.

Gray suit.

Pale face.

His eyes were open.

He even looked from side to side.

He looked no different from a normal passenger.

Cheng Ye immediately frowned.

Shen Niannian directly used Inspection.

[Target: Eternal Slumber Station passenger]

[Danger level: C-rank]

[Identity: official passenger of the Lightless Train]

[Current status: deep sleep]

His eyes were open.

Deep sleep.

Shen Niannian immediately said, "Don't believe your eyes. This man is asleep right now too. Treat every passenger who boarded at Eternal Slumber Station according to rule two."

Everyone immediately became alert.

The man in gray soon arrived beside 7C.

"Excuse me, is this carriage four?"

No one answered.

It continued toward the back.

And arrived at 10B.

The newcomer Li Cheng was sitting there.

The man in gray looked down at his blurry ticket.

"I can't make out my ticket very well. Can you help me check whether this says 10A or 16A?"

Li Cheng's body went rigid.

He said nothing.

Cheng Ye immediately warned him, "Rule three only depends on the target's identity, not whether its eyes are closed. As long as it boarded at Eternal Slumber Station, treat everything it says as sleep talk."

The man in gray continued holding the ticket out to him.

Li Cheng still forced himself not to answer.

Until the ticket was almost pressed against his eyes.

The number really was blurry.

10A.

16A.

There was only one stroke of difference.

A few seconds later.

Li Cheng finally couldn't hold back.

"It should be 16A."

Cheng Ye's expression changed drastically.

The corners of the man in gray's mouth slowly curled up.

"Thank you."

The next second.

Its previously cloudy eyes instantly cleared.

But Li Cheng's pupils rapidly lost focus.

His body went limp.

He slumped directly into his seat.

He had fallen asleep!

"Li Cheng!"

A player beside him who knew him immediately reached out to wake him.

Cheng Ye stopped him at once.

"Don't touch him yet!"

It wasn't because he knew the answer.

It was because-

he didn't know whether touching someone forced to sleep by an eerie rule would set off a new chain reaction.

Shen Niannian had already activated Identity Archive.

[Target: Li Cheng]

[Race: human]

[Identity: original passenger of the Lightless Train]

[Current status: eternal slumber]

[Relevant environmental information: after responding to an eternal slumber passenger's sleep talk, the two parties' sleep states will be transferred. In the current state, the target cannot be awakened by ordinary external force.]

Shen Niannian's heart sank.

"He can't be woken by ordinary means. After he responded to the sleep talk just now, that eerie's sleep transferred to him."

The player beside Li Cheng went pale.

"Then what do we do?"

No one knew.

Cheng Ye had no solution either.

Just then.

The player abruptly looked at Ning Hongzhuang.

"Miss Ning, you must have a way, right? Please save him!"

Ning Hongzhuang sat there.

She didn't react at all.

"Miss Ning!"

The man was so anxious that he stood right up.

"You're so powerful, you only need to help a little. He has less than two minutes before he's left at Eternal Slumber Station!"

Ning Hongzhuang finally raised her head.

Her silver-gray eyes were cold, without a trace of warmth.

"Sit down."

The man froze.

"But-"

Ning Hongzhuang's voice remained calm.

"You're blocking her view of the rules."

The man went rigid.

He followed Ning Hongzhuang's gaze.

Only then did he realize that after he stood up,

he was directly between Shen Niannian and the rules at the top of the carriage.

The livestream comments stopped for an instant.

Then they erupted.

"Holy shit..."

"She didn't care about Li Cheng at all!"

"He begged her to save him, and her first reaction was that he was blocking Shen Niannian's view!"

"Now that's an A-rank eerie!"

"She talked so normally with Shen Niannian earlier that I almost forgot what she really was!"

The man's face turned pale.

In the end, he slowly sat back down.

He didn't dare beg again.

The two minutes soon passed.

[The train will soon depart from Eternal Slumber Station.]

The next second.

Li Cheng's sleeping body vanished.

On a wooden bed outside the window,

a familiar figure appeared.

A white cloth slowly covered his face.

[Player Li Cheng has died.]

[Players currently alive: 9]

No one spoke.

Cheng Ye looked out the window.

He was silent for a long time.

"The biggest trap at this station wasn't that sleeping people talk in their sleep. It was that players would instinctively use a normal person's standards to judge what 'asleep' meant. Rule two already said that all passengers boarding at Eternal Slumber Station were asleep."

"So even if one opens its eyes, walks around, or asks for directions, as long as its identity hasn't changed, whatever it says is still sleep talk."

It had taken a human life

to truly confirm that rule.

Just then,

the man in gray who had transferred his sleep to Li Cheng

slowly walked toward 12A.

Shen Niannian: "..."

(｡ŏ_ŏ)

Why me again?

The man in gray came up to her.

His mouth had just opened,

but he hadn't made a sound.

Snap.

The silver mirror in Ning Hongzhuang's hand snapped shut.

The reflections across the entire carriage vanished instantly.

She raised her eyes.

Her silver-gray eyes, which hadn't shown the slightest reaction even when Li Cheng died, were now cold enough to chill one to the bone.

"If you dare let her hear your sleep talk, I'll wipe you and your dream off this train together."

The man in gray stiffened abruptly.

[Current status: terrified]

His open mouth

slowly closed.

Then,

he silently backed away.

One step.

Two steps.

Finally, he went around Shen Niannian

and headed toward the other end.

Shen Niannian: "..."

(°ー°〃)

Wait.

She already knew she couldn't answer.

You don't have to be so fierce.

But the other players in the carriage felt completely differently.

Just now-

Li Cheng had died right before everyone's eyes.

Someone had begged Ning Hongzhuang to save him.

She hadn't even bothered to spare him another glance.

Now the same danger was merely preparing to approach Shen Niannian.

Yet this peak A-rank anomaly wouldn't even allow it to speak.

Zhou Min watched the scene.

The last bit of hope in her heart vanished completely.

This woman had never been protecting the "players."

She protected only one person.

Shen Niannian.

Cheng Ye also confirmed this beyond doubt.

From now on, unless something involved Shen Niannian,

treating Ning Hongzhuang as if she didn't exist

would be the best course of action.

He even-

had to guard against her.

Because no one knew

whether, if a player's actions to survive threatened Shen Niannian,

this woman would kill them before the dungeon's rules did.

Just then,

the tickets grew hot again.

[Remaining valid rides: 1]

Immediately afterward,

the announcement sounded.

[The train has departed Eternal Slumber Station.]

[This train is about to enter the final stretch.]

[Next stop-Homecoming Station.]

Every player in the carriage perked up.

The final stop!

They had finally arrived.

Shen Niannian was just about to check her ticket again

when Ning Hongzhuang suddenly stood up.

She walked over to 12A

and leaned down slightly.

This time,

she lowered her voice

and spoke to Shen Niannian alone:

"Once we reach Homecoming Station, don't rush to get off. The real danger of the Lightless Train has never been how to reach the final stop, but how to confirm that the place really is your home."

Shen Niannian's expression changed slightly.

Cheng Ye had evidently heard the first part.

He immediately looked at Ning Hongzhuang.

"What's wrong with Homecoming Station?"

Ning Hongzhuang didn't even look at him.

She simply sat back down.

"I was warning her."

That one sentence

made her meaning clear enough.

What happened to the rest of them-

was none of her concern.

Cheng Ye fell silent for two seconds.

He asked no more questions.

Shen Niannian lowered her head to look at the ticket in her hand.

[Destination: Homecoming Station]

The words that had once represented hope

suddenly seemed a little eerie.

Homecoming.

If that station really could recreate the place a person most wanted to return to...

Then for her, a transmigrator,

which place

was supposed to be her "home"?