Chapter 60.1: Exploding Last Train
Due to the existence of the ‘forbidden speech’ mechanism, Bai Liu couldn’t directly tell Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu that the game existed. He could only say that if they encountered unexpected situations, they shouldn’t panic. He would help them survive but they had to find a way to tell him about their situation. Tell him their location through the items they bought.
So after entering the game, Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu listened to Bai Liu’s words. The moment they completed their first task, they used their only points to buy the four cheapest items: Wooden plug, blade, small torch and paperweight. Liu Fu also bought a vibrator and the five items together formed ‘Siren Town’. (Last characters of these items form out Siren Town)
They had been terrified. They didn’t know if Bai Liu could understand this but it was the only thing they could do. Buying these cheap items spent almost all their points. Viewers also criticized them for squandering points and sent them to a division where almost no one came.
Fortunately, their system soon became stuck as if someone had taken over. Their panel self-manipulated from time to time to automatically help them buy items. They used the items like the flashlight, 3D projector and alcohol in a trembling manner. It was as if another person was manipulating the panel to cooperate with them in playing the game. Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu didn’t play games very much but fortunately, both of them had a strong desire to survive. Even if the two of them hadn’t figured out how to use the items, they gritted their teeth and persevered.
After surviving the chase battle, Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu’s game process became much smoother. Finally, they cleared the game at the same time. Yes, this was correct. While Bai Liu was dying in the level two game Exploding Last Train, he also took the time to help Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua play the game and clear the level. This was doing multiple things at the same time.
Despite Bai Liu’s help, they were still on their own most of the time.
It was because Bai Liu was also in a very dangerous game and the unreliable Bai Liu system would go offline. There would be no movement from time to time and Bai Liu didn’t know the specific progress of Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu’s game. Therefore, most of the game was Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu relying on themselves to fight and clear the game. After they came out, they couldn’t recover from the fear. They supported each other and stood up tearfully.
It stood to reason that when encountering such weird and unconventional things, normal people wouldn’t be able to believe it and wanted to escape.
Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu were two adults who didn’t believe in gods and ghosts but they didn’t react with fear, the desire to escape or yelling hysterically like a normal person who was dragged into the game.
The couple hugged and wept with joy at the exit.
“The young man’s words were true.” Xiang Chunhua’s hands trembled as she supported Liu Fu. In the short period of time since she lost Guoguo, she seemed to have become decades older. Tears fell from her eyes that had gradually deepening wrinkles. She crouched down and started to sob. “Do you think Guoguo can be saved? Will that beast really be punished?”
Liu Fu kept wiping his tears with his hands. The big man sobbed tearfully. “Yes yes, it is possible. He said he will help us.”
Before entering the game, Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu sat face to face on the night of the university entrance examination in June.
Three pairs of chopsticks and a large bowl of braised pork were placed on the table in front of them. Next to an empty bowl was Liu Guoguo’s admission ticket. The photo on the admission ticket showed a girl in a school uniform looking at the camera with a bit of restraint and expectation. She showed a small smile filled with uneasiness and hope for the upcoming important exam.
Xiang Chunhua’s house was close to the street and they could hear teenagers who had finished the university entrance examination happily or dejectedly discussing the answers to the questions.
In the midst of these laughs that made them feel lonely, there should be the voice of a 17 year old girl. However, this voice disappeared forever in a dark alley, turning into a black and white sweet photo left on a distant grave stone. The hands that should’ve picked up a pen and paper were chopped into pieces and turned into minced meat. In order to deal with it quickly, she was sold as cheap pork at 10 yuan per 500 grams to an unknown person.
Liu Fu frantically searched through the sewer to find Guoguo’s right hand. Unfortunately, he didn’t find it even up to the burial. His daughter’s right hand was reduced to a pulp mixed with meat and flowed somewhere into the ground.
“I heard from Sister-in-law Zhang that physics is a bit difficult this year.” Xiang Chunhua muttered to herself dully. “However, isn’t Guoguo the best at physics? This year’s university entrance examination might just suit her.”
“Yeah, maybe she could’ve gotten into the school she liked…” Halfway through, Liu Fu couldn’t speak. He covered his eyes in a depressed manner and bent down like the world was collapsing. He let out a mournful howl to the extreme as he slammed his fists down on the table, carefully avoiding the admission pass. “Bastard! She was only 17 years old! Blame me, I shouldn’t have let her go!”
“Blame me too. If I hadn’t wanted to make braised pork for Guoguo, she wouldn’t have…don’t be sad. That young man said he would help us.” The tears in Xiang Chunhua’s eyes dried up. She numbly cried as she patted Liu Fu’s shoulder in trance. She told him in a comforting whisper, “Go to sleep. It will be fine when you fall asleep.”
The moment they woke up, they appeared in the game.
Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu supported each other. They had a beast-like vigilance toward this strange land. There was a bit of the uniqueness of adults who mixed into communities. The only thing they trusted was the young man called Bai Liu who said he bought their souls and would help them in the game.
Xiang Chunhua saw someone passing by and stepped forward cautiously. “Young man, do you know someone called Bai Liu?”
The man looked at them strangely. “Are you fans of Bai Liu? Go to the core screens in the central hall. Bai Liu has just soared with a wave of likes and charging of points. The audience’s cheers are so loud that it seems like he is going to rush to the nightmare new stars list. If you are in a hurry, you can quickly go there.”
Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu glanced at each other. They thanked the man and headed to the central hall that he pointed to.
The central core screens.
Wang Shun stood in front of Bai Liu’s small TV, face very solemn. Bai Liu had just been charged with points and praised for his wonderful performance but none of the audience members there had a good face. It was because Bai Liu’s health only had 1 point and he could be killed with a single attack.
“Stay steady! Now Bai Liu absolutely can’t face any attacks head-on!”
“Help! I want to take oxygen again. The last time I watched Bai Liu’s video, I really wanted to take oxygen and it is the same this time!”
Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu rushed to the scene and saw everyone staring nervously at the TV screen. They instinctively watched the TV. They saw Bai Liu’s familiar face and sighed with relief. The next second, they saw a man flashing past in a corner of Bai Liu’s small TV.
“Li Gou! This beast!!!”
Li Gou sat on the ground, gasping with exhaustion. Bai Liu who only had a bit of health left was protected by Du Sanying and Mu Sicheng. His lips were extremely pale but his eyes were still clear. “I’ll arrange the next station. We have collected 360 fragments and there are still 40 left. However, I don’t think we will be allowed to collect the fragments at the next station.”
“Can’t we gather them at the next station?” Puppet Zhang looked suspicious. “However, if we don’t gather them at the next station then we will arrive at the Antique City departure station. The train explosion should’ve occurred at Antique City. If we don’t gather all the fragments at the second to last station, we will face the explosion and will all die!”
Bai Liu’s tone wasn’t fast or slow but it was soft due to his weakness. “The reason why I say that the next station isn’t full of fragments is because there is still a monster that hasn’t appeared in the monster book. Look, the exploding passengers and Brother Thieves have fragments on their bodies. My guess is that the last monster must also carry fragments on their body.”
Puppet Zhang’s reaction was extremely quick. He followed Bai Liu’s train of thought and touched his chin with narrowed eyes. “That’s right. Bai Liu, will this monster appear at the next station? Then we can gather the fragments and directly clear the game.”
“Do you still remember the minimum death rate for this game?” Bai Liu answered with a question.
Everyone was stunned.
Bai Liu lowered his eyes. “The mortality range of this level 2 game is 50% to 80%. In other words, if it is calculated according to the general minimum mortality then 50% of us should die in this game. This means three and a half players. However, none of us are dead now. This forced the system to lower Du Sanying’s luck value in order to balance us out.”
“Then what if it wants to maintain the lowest mortality rate? Du Sanying, how much is your current luck value?” Bai Liu turned to Du Sanying and asked abruptly.
Du Sanying didn’t seem to expect that Bai Liu would suddenly cue himself. He pointed to his nose in a bewildered manner. After confirming that Bai Liu wanted to know his luck value, he immediately opened his personal panel and looked at Bai Liu. “80 points.”
“This means the system has only reduced Du Sanying’s luck value by 20 points. If it wants to kill three and a half players among us, Du Sanying’s luck value hasn’t dropped enough.” Bai Liu made a quick and simple decision.
“Previously, Siren Town did too much against me to maintain the balance. However, Exploding Last Train only dropped Du Sanying’s luck value by 20. This is a very small correction. The survival of all players at the last stop illustrates this point. However, the system didn’t continue to lower Du Sanying’s luck value and continued to maintain such a small correction in balance.”
Bai Liu slowly looked up. “—This shows only one problem. In other words, the system might only need a slight correction and it thinks the mortality rate of this game is balanced.”
As the others were feeling confused, Puppet Zhang understood and his body was filled with a chill. He turned to look at Bai Liu, his face pale. “You mean, this game has a certain stage before clearing the game that will increase the death rate? It is likely that at least three of us will die in the next stage?!”
A must die stage where a player needed to die to pass wouldn’t be set up in a single player game but it was relatively common in multiplayer games. Generally, in order to ensure the difficulty and excitement of the game, a player had to die for the other players to pass. In short, it was ‘sacrificing a teammate for boundless power.’
For those outside the horror game, it was fun and exciting but it was only bloody and cruel for those inside the horror game.
“What do you think would be a death stage for the game called Exploding Last Train?” Bai Liu’s tone wasn’t rushed.
Puppet Zhang slumped back in the chair. He stared up at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling of the train and murmured to himself. “…It is an explosion. This game should require us to go through an explosion so we won’t be able to gather the fragments at the last station.”
“We must get through the explosion and arrive at the station before we can gather the fragments.”
“Three and a half will die which means three and a half can live, right?” Li Gou’s hoarse voice suddenly interrupted Bai Liu. He crawled on the ground while others weren’t paying attention, getting through Du Sanying and Mu Sicheng. His dirty hands grasped Bai Liu’s ankle and there was a fierce light in his eyes. “You will decide who will live and die, right? You must have a way to keep at least three of us alive, right?! Bai Liu, let me survive! I will do anything!”
Mu Sicheng kicked the crawling Li Gou away. After Li Gou was kicked away, he kept moving toward their side until Mu Sicheng showed his monkey paws. However, the fierce, hot and creepy desire to survive in Li Gou’s eyes made Mu Sicheng a bit numb. He couldn’t help moving in front of Bai Liu to block this person while threatening Li Gou with his teeth. Li Gou reluctantly shrank back in the corner but he was still staring at Bai Liu.
“I do have a way to get through the explosion.” Bai Liu stared at Li Gou with meaningful eyes. “However, this plan involves the sacrifice of two people.”
This was also the reason why Bai Liu had to save everyone in the early stages. It was because Bai Liu had long anticipated there would be a deadly barrier here. Everyone, even Mu Sicheng, couldn’t help holding their breath as their eyes moved to Bai Liu.
Bai Liu raised his eyes. “I previously checked that all water items and explosive items in the system store had been banned. I can’t even buy a bottle of mineral water. Banning water items shows that one of the weaknesses of these monsters is water. My guess is that the high temperature corpses will show a certain dissolution reaction when meeting water. Water can be called a big weapon against these monsters.”
Bai Liu sighed with regret. “It is a pity that neither the train nor the system will provide us with any water. At the next station, we can’t use Du Sanying to distract the monsters. If we keep using Du Sanying, the system will continue to reduce his luck value. It won’t work. Therefore we need a lot of water to fight the monsters at the next platform.”
“The problem of the explosion can also be solved by water.” Bai Liu spoke clearly. “Death from an explosion is mainly caused by shock waves, high temperature and explosive projectiles. If a large amount of water can be introduced to fill this section of the subway tunnel, lethal factors such as high temperature and shock waves can be reduced and our survival rate in the explosion can increase.”
“Then where will so much water come from?” Mu Sicheng frowned. “It won’t be enough even if the system allows us to buy mineral water and the seven of us empties our points to buy it. What is the concept of filling a subway tunnel with water? The height of a subway tunnel is generally around 8-10 meters and the distance between each station is generally 1.5 kilometers. You would need more than 500 swimming pools to fill a subway tunnel!”
“That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible.” Bai Liu smiled. “Isn’t there a readily available one at the next station?”
Mu Sicheng was startled.
“Reservoir!” Puppet Zhang’s mind returned. “I remembered the subway line map before getting on the train! The name of the last station is Reservoir! The water is there! A reservoir can’t be built next to an underground hollow building like a subway station. This is an inconsistent place and is a hint from the game! If this reservoir is a medium-sized reservoir, the water in it will be enough to fill the circular subway track!”
Bai Liu was calm. “Yes, I think so too. The problem is how to introduce water to the subway station. I prefer to use a bomb.”
“You want to blow up the reservoir?” Puppet Zhang quickly replied to Bai Liu. Then he soon frowned. “However, the system store has been cleared of explosive items. Where will you get the bomb?”
Bai Liu smiled and took out a huge oval mirror with just a triangular gap in the center. “Of course, from here.”
Proofreader: Purichan