Chapter 12 Monsters

"Keep your voice down, what if you startle those monsters again!" the middle-aged woman scolded anxiously.

"Those things don't seem to react to sound," Yan Jiayu said. "There was noise in every carriage yesterday, but they didn't react. It was only after the Third-Class Seats turned on the lights that..."

So, turning off the lights in the train rules meant this. Just a glance from the indirect light was enough to attract several monsters to the Second-Class Seats, so the Third-Class Seats must have been wiped out completely.

"Isn't this a trap?" the middle-aged woman complained. "What kind of broken train is this? They don't explain things clearly, it's like they're sending us to our deaths on purpose. Who would dare to go out to the toilet in the dark at night? They're definitely going to turn on the light..."

"Are those monsters really transformed from players?" Ignoring her, the heavily made-up woman asked, "How can a normal person suddenly turn into a monster?"

The unsettling swallowing sounds from outside the carriage hadn't ended; becoming players and fighting desperately against Cannibal Players, almost becoming food for some monster's belly wasn't enough, now they even had the potential to turn into those bizarrely shaped, mindless monsters themselves? No one could accept it!

There was dead silence in the carriage for a while before Xu Huo finally spoke up, "Liu Jia, my arm is injured, come and help me down."

Liu Jia hurried over, but as soon as she touched the tabletop, her hand was grabbed.

While writing words in her palm, Xu Huo said, "The things outside the window are mostly mutated from players, but that doesn't mean every player will turn out like that."

Actually, even without Liu Jia saying anything, based on what he just saw, he could guess the real identities of those "monsters." They resembled humans in shape, but their hands and feet were abnormally long, as if they had undergone a second development. Although their bodies were shriveled, their speed and strength were extraordinarily remarkable, they were essentially like people who had evolved.

"I'm guessing that only the Cannibal Players who haven't eaten after boarding would mutate."

All of them had eaten the food provided on the train, so the problem wasn't there; it might have something to do with the special nature of the Cannibal Players.

After the woman with the melon-seed face died, three people ate; if none of them were elderly, then the key to the mutation lay there.

"The old man is a Cannibal Player? How do you know?"

"How do you know he didn't eat?"

Yan Jiayu and the heavily made-up woman asked questions one after the other.

"The direction of the bite on his shoulder, if someone attacked him from the front, there should have been a wound." Not just a wound, but odor, fabric of clothes, or even the length of hair could be pieces of information to be captured. However, the elder only mentioned being bitten without saying more, so most likely, the bite marks were self-inflicted to suppress his urge to eat.

"Perhaps he was one of the ones who bit off a piece of that woman last night; as for the bite wound, there is another reason," the heavily made-up woman obviously didn't believe it.

"If eating also leads to mutation, our carriage should have more than just him tonight," Xu Huo said coldly.

"Despite the mutation, he still saved my life; I trust the integrity of that old senior," Professor Han said.

The heavily made-up woman sneered, "But he's a Cannibal Player."

"He saved someone," Wang Xiaohui said this time.

"No matter what, the person is dead, arguing won't bring her back." Now that it was clear that those monsters were once human and they had no risk of mutating, the middle-aged woman suddenly felt braver and clucked her tongue in sympathy, "It's such a pity for He Yang, a young and beautiful girl to be gone."

Li Fei was killed by Yan Jiayu, the old man had turned into a monster, and only He Yang had vanished without a trace. Not a single clue was left; it was unknown whether she had been attacked by the monsters or killed by a Cannibal Player in the chaos.

"Compared to the dead, the most pressing issue is the monsters outside," the heavily made-up woman said. "Who knows if they'll come in again?"

"That dense mass of..." she suddenly shifted the topic towards Liu Jia, "have the monsters decreased?"

"I don't know..." Liu Jia subconsciously replied, but halfway through she realized and immediately corrected herself, "No, they all just lay there without moving."

It took two seconds before the thickly made-up woman said with a laugh in her voice, "Your ability is quite impressive, to be able to see at night."

Liu Jia's heart raced.

She was terrified by something outside the window yesterday, only catching sight of Chen Yi attacking Xu Huo. By the time she came to her senses, the melon-faced woman was already dead, and she only managed to see the thickly made-up woman pulling away from her side and wiping her mouth with something, causing the bloodstain to vanish without a trace.

Not daring to speak out, she only told Professor Han about the incident. The thickly made-up woman, knowing she had night vision, spoke to test her, sure to have guessed that her ability had a limited duration, she would definitely make a move on her for self-preservation!

Liu Jia was very afraid but forced herself to remain calm as she gestured to Xu Huo about the thickly made-up woman's actions and also mentioned that there seemed to be a protective membrane around Wang Xiaohui that could block attacks, for in fact, a monster had just now bumped into her but was repelled.

This news did surprise Xu Huo. Whether it was a special trait or an item, it was much stronger than just enhanced physical abilities. However, considering Wang Xiaohui's physical condition, merely having the strength would hardly ensure survival; it was a case of the right tool for the right person.

The train rules prohibited entering other carriages at will. Wang Xiaohui violated this rule, uncertain what impact that would have.

But she could still protect herself, so it seems this punishment did not endanger her life.

"How many Cannibal Players are actually in one carriage?" Liu Jia couldn't help asking, now not daring to trust anyone easily, even regretting her soft heart in agreeing to let Wang Xiaohui in.

"A half to a half, I suppose," said Xu Huo. "Six Cannibal Players, six ordinary players."

"Then how many more Cannibal Players do we have here?" the middle-aged woman chipped in.

"There should be two more," Yan Jiayu said. "The two who died last night, plus Li Fei and the old man, were all Cannibal Players."

"The woman who was killed could also have been a Cannibal Player," said the thickly made-up woman.

That was hard to say, since she was murdered.

"Liu Jia, did you see anything last night?" the thickly made-up woman threw out the question.

Liu Jia was nervous but, upon receiving a cue from Xu Huo, she said, "I didn't see anything; I was too scared at the time. Plus, Mr. Xu and Chen Yi were right there; I was just watching them."

The thickly made-up woman said nothing, and Xu Huo immediately added, "I'm inclined to believe that woman was also a Cannibal Player. She had a strong smell of blood on her when she boarded the train."

"But our carriage has one extra person," the middle-aged woman said.

"I'm not a Cannibal Player," Wang Xiaohui explained. "I can't stand or walk; how could I possibly eat anyone?"

In the darkness, the faint sound of fabric rustling arose, and after a few seconds, Professor Han said, "There's still one Cannibal Player left, but we don't need to worry too much; there are six of us."

Though he said this, Professor Han was still worried. The reason he didn't let Liu Jia talk about the monsters was for fear that players would take blind action in extreme situations; the self-destruction in Third-Class Seat was a case in point.

Knowing well that the thickly made-up woman was a Cannibal Player and that the monsters had taken away the corpses in the carriage, he wasn't sure if she had fed earlier. Now he was most worried about Liu Jia.