Apocalypse Star House Hoarding-Chapter 229

Yu Xi approached the intersection again, but this time, instead of driving straight, she turned left. Five minutes later, she successfully left that area and began heading back toward the city center.
The night before, she had already downloaded a complete map of Wu Kong City on her phone. Using the main north-south avenue and the east-west transport river as central axes, she had roughly divided the city into four quadrants.
She had previously been in the southwest quadrant, but since that was where she exited the train station—and considering the incident that had occurred last night—she decided to head to the northeast quadrant instead, searching for clues about the hidden train station.
There had been a significant number of travelers disembarking that day. However, after she left the station, she hadn’t encountered any others in the vicinity. This suggested that the exits were randomly assigned, preventing all travelers from being concentrated in one small area.
As for the reason behind this setup, the incident from last night had already given her a clue.
That bizarre method of death was definitely not something an ordinary person could accomplish, meaning the one who killed that new traveler must have also been a traveler.
This indicated that fights and even killings between train passengers were permitted.
Under normal circumstances, murder for the sake of murder was rare. Most people killed for a purpose—usually for some kind of benefit. That meant the new traveler who died must have had something valuable that someone else wanted.
If that was the case, could it be inferred that every new traveler carried something that the experienced travelers coveted?
She recalled how, on the train, while the newcomers had been confused and arguing among themselves, the calm and silent experienced travelers had simply watched their faces as if memorizing their appearances.
By sheer luck, Yu Xi had been mistaken for an experienced traveler because of her composed demeanor.
But that didn’t mean she was completely safe. There were certainly other dangers lurking in this city.
As she drove closer to the city center, a towering, light-gray building came into view. Compared to the rest of the city’s structures, this skyscraper—over a hundred meters tall and nearly fifty stories high—stood out like a lone pillar, an anomaly among its surroundings.
Perhaps because it was so tall, yet not very wide, the entire structure resembled a slender tower.
She parked in a designated area nearby and searched for information online. The building belonged to a high-tech company called “Nuo’ai.”
The company specialized in numerous fields—new energy, genetic research, human health, network technology—covering a wide range of cutting-edge scientific developments, boasting numerous patented products. It would not be an exaggeration to call it a technological empire.
As Yu Xi scrolled through information about “Nuo’ai,” she found that, while there was plenty of material, very little of it contained real substance. Most of it was surface-level introductions.
As expected of a city within the Infinite Train world—an all-powerful tech company like this would be impossible in her original world.
At the bottom of her search results, Yu Xi came across a job posting for a security position at the company. She took a screenshot of the job listing before restarting her car.
She continued toward the northeast quadrant as planned, making a brief stop at a bustling street filled with small shops.
There, she had a bowl of beef noodles for breakfast and, as usual, ordered five extra portions to go, transferring them into her storage once she got back in the car.
She also managed to find square-shaped water storage containers. Large, one-cubic-meter tanks were rare, and they wouldn’t fit in her car anyway. Instead, she opted for ten half-cubic-meter tanks, stacking them neatly in the trunk.
Further down the street, she spotted bulk-packaged instant noodles. Since she hadn’t bought any at the supermarket the day before, she picked up five boxes from different brands—each box containing 48 packs with mixed flavors. From the same store, she also bought two rechargeable mini pots specifically for cooking instant noodles.
For Yu Xi, having ample supplies equated to a sense of security. Her 100 cubic meters of storage space was now a little over half full. For the time being, she decided to slow down on stockpiling, reserving the remaining space for urgent needs.
Half an hour later, she arrived at a five-star hotel in the northeast quadrant—her planned residence for the next week.
This hotel was in a relatively quiet yet central location, surrounded by office buildings, shopping malls, and a public plaza, making it a well-populated area. Blending into the crowd would be easy.
She requested a suite closest to the emergency stairwell. It was a one-bedroom unit on the seventh floor.
Upon entering, she did her usual room inspection to ensure there were no issues. Then, she slid open the balcony door and stepped outside to take in the view.
A clear water canal ran along the hotel’s exterior, with neatly landscaped greenery on both banks. Across the canal lay a public plaza and a shopping mall, roughly a ten-minute walk away.
Additionally, a subway station was nearby, right next to the shopping mall.
Satisfied with the location, Yu Xi stretched her limbs on the balcony to warm up, then retrieved her personal yoga mat from storage and started doing planks.
After thirty minutes, she finished her workout, cleaned the water storage containers, and filled them with water from the bathtub. Then, she sat down and used her phone to research her next steps.
If she treated the mission hint as an objective, her most crucial task was to locate the hidden train station within Wu Kong City within 44 days. However, given the city’s vastness and the fact that she only had two chances to confirm its location, the task seemed akin to finding a needle in a haystack—an evaluation that didn’t quite match the difficulty level of a “C-level” mission.
That meant the station couldn’t be hidden in some obscure, randomly assigned location. It was more likely to be placed in a distinct, recognizable area.
So she planned to start by investigating major landmarks.
She searched for all notable landmarks and unique buildings in the city, taking screenshots and organizing them into a list, prioritizing them based on exploration order.
After half an hour, she had compiled a list of four locations:
Yijia Commercial City
Long Lake Park
Qianshu Hotel
Meifeng Museum
Yu Xi also considered the Nuo’ai Corporation a potential landmark. However, since it was not a public area and ordinary people couldn’t simply walk in, she planned to leave it for last.
After gathering her notes, she packed a small backpack and set off for the nearest location—Yijia Commercial City.
Unlike conventional shopping centers, Yijia Commercial City wasn’t above ground; it was an underground facility connected to Line 2 of the subway, at Yijia Station.
Yu Xi tied her hair up, put on a mask and hat, and crossed the canal on foot to reach the subway station next to the shopping mall.
Line 2 passed through this station, and Yijia Station was only five or six stops away.
Wu Kong City’s subway system was old, with dim lighting that gave the station a slightly eerie atmosphere. It wasn’t rush hour, so while the station wasn’t crowded, it wasn’t empty either.
After checking the route map, she waited briefly before boarding the train.
Inside, there were available seats. She chose one near the door, sat down, and took out her phone to continue researching Yijia Commercial City.
At the next stop, a surge of passengers boarded.
As the subway resumed its journey, the train car was enveloped in darkness once more.
Due to the interior lighting, the wide subway windows reflected the scene inside, turning them into giant mirrors that clearly displayed the faces of everyone in the car.
Yu Xi glanced at the reflection out of habit.
Her gaze swept across the window’s surface.
And then, for just a split second—
Her reflection didn’t move in sync with her.
The realization sent a cold chill down her spine.
On the right, diagonally across from her, a two- or three-year-old girl was nestled in her mother’s arms, playing with a pinwheel in her hand. Seated next to them was a middle-aged woman, who, from their conversation, appeared to be the girl’s grandmother.
The little girl had been sick for the past few days and needed daily nebulizer treatments at the hospital. Every day around this time, her grandmother would take her on the subway for treatment. Today, the mother had taken time off work to accompany them.
As they talked, the middle-aged woman’s tone grew increasingly harsh, loudly complaining that her daughter was trapped in a marriage where she essentially raised the child alone. She blamed her daughter for not listening to her years ago and insisted that her son-in-law had done absolutely nothing since the child was born. Both parents had jobs, yet every responsibility ultimately fell on her daughter’s shoulders…
Across from them, on the other side of the subway doors, a couple was in the middle of an argument.
The fight started when they had been playing a mobile game together. In the middle of the match, the boyfriend received a message on WeChat. He opened it to read, but those few seconds of distraction caused them to lose the game. The girlfriend leaned over to check his phone, only to discover that he had already deleted the message.
Suspicious, she accused him of flirting with someone else and deleting the message out of guilt.
The boyfriend insisted it was just an ad and that he deleted it because it was useless. He complained that she was always paranoid and overly suspicious. The argument escalated as they hurled accusations at each other.
Across from the couple sat two men. One was slumped against the seat, seemingly asleep.
The other was a middle-aged man with a briefcase resting on his lap, holding a cup of hot coffee in one hand while talking on the phone. He appeared to be a salesman, flattering a potential customer while exaggerating the benefits of his company’s products.
Midway through his call, he accidentally spilled his hot coffee onto the man who had been sleeping. The scalding liquid jolted the man awake, who immediately cursed in anger.
The salesman, now interrupted in his call, snapped back. Instead of apologizing, he lashed out with insults, and the two quickly descended into a heated argument.
The noise in the subway car had drawn attention from other passengers. Many people frowned in annoyance, displeased with the disruption. Several nearby passengers attempted to mediate.
One person handed tissues to the two men involved in the coffee incident, hoping they would clean up and stop fighting.
Another passenger gently reminded the middle-aged woman that her raised voice and anger were frightening her granddaughter, suggesting she tone it down in front of the child.
Someone else advised the young man in the couple to stop arguing in public, saying they should settle their dispute at home instead of disturbing others.
Everything seemed like an ordinary case of public disputes—until a sudden scream shattered the uneasy peace.
The person who had handed out tissues was abruptly grabbed by the salesman and slammed onto a seat. The salesman then seized the man’s arm and smashed it against the subway handrail twice. A sickening
crack
echoed through the car, followed by a blood-curdling scream—the man’s arm had been broken.
The surrounding passengers recoiled in horror. Some people instinctively moved to stop the attack, but before they could react, the couple suddenly turned on a nearby passenger, violently bashing them over the head with their phones.
Blood splattered as chaos erupted.
Panicked passengers backed away, pushing toward Yu Xi’s side of the train. But before they could fully process what was happening, another attack broke out.
The middle-aged woman suddenly grabbed a stranger’s hair and yanked with inhuman force. Amid their agonized screams, a large chunk of scalp tore free, blood spurting everywhere.
The woman’s daughter stood frozen in shock, unable to utter a single word. Trembling, she held her child tightly and shrank into a corner.
At this point, the subway car had descended into complete mayhem.
Some people screamed for help, shouting, “Murder! Someone’s killing people!” Others gasped in horror, exclaiming, “They’ve gone insane!” as they scrambled to escape.
Some brave individuals attempted to intervene, but in the sheer chaos, people tripped and fell. Others were shoved and trampled. Those unlucky enough to be caught by the attackers desperately struggled, unintentionally dragging others down with them.
In such a frenzied situation, protecting oneself was already difficult—let alone trying to stop the violence.
The boyfriend, after bashing three people over the head, suddenly pulled a sharp pen from his pocket and lunged toward someone’s eye.
At the last moment, just as the pen was about to strike, his wrist was seized in an iron grip.
The victim looked up in terror to see a young woman standing on a subway seat. A backpack was slung over her shoulders, and with one hand, she held down the attacker’s shoulder. With the other, she had caught his wrist just in time, stopping the deadly blow.
Yu Xi locked his wrist in place, but deep down, she was alarmed.
This guy was abnormally strong—far beyond what a normal person should be capable of.
Frowning, she struck the back of his neck with enough force to knock out an ordinary person.
But instead of collapsing, the attack only seemed to enrage him further.
His frenzy escalated into full-blown mania. With his free hand, he grabbed the sharp pen again and swung it at her, completely ignoring the fact that his other hand was still restrained.
Yu Xi could actually hear the cracking of his wrist bones beneath her grip.
She dodged his strike and twisted his other wrist behind his back, forcing both arms into a restraining hold while pinning him against a seat with her foot.
She examined his condition. He didn’t seem to be infected or undergoing a mutation—his pupils, lips, and exposed skin all looked normal. Physically, he still appeared entirely human.
The only abnormality was his extreme rage and agitation, as if he had been driven past his breaking point.
She couldn’t knock him unconscious, nor could she kill him outright. And there were still other violent outbreaks happening in the subway car.
She pulled off her hair tie and used it to bind his wrists behind his back. Then, gripping his collar, she hauled him up, intending to secure him against a handrail.
But as she dragged him past a subway window, she noticed something wrong.
No—that wasn’t right.
Normally, subway rides between stations took three to five minutes. But the chaos in the car had already lasted far longer than that.
Why hadn’t they reached a station yet?
Why was it still pitch black outside the subway windows?
Wait—
Yu Xi’s breath caught. She turned her head sharply toward the nearest window.
The clean, reflective surface clearly displayed the young man’s face.
He was smiling.
No—
the reflection
was smiling.
The real young man in her grasp was still thrashing angrily, shouting, “Let go of me, you nosy bitch! I’ll kill you! I’ll beat you to death!”
A chill ran down Yu Xi’s spine.
She suddenly recalled the eerie moment she had glimpsed in her bathroom mirror the night before.
At the time, she had dismissed it as a trick of the light.
But now…
Just what kind of city was this?
Her grip tightened as she locked eyes with the grinning reflection in the window.
“What are you?” she demanded.
The reflection snapped its gaze to meet hers.
That same eerie, mocking smile twisted its lips—a smile so sinister it made her skin crawl.
Suddenly, an uncontrollable surge of rage swelled within her, a violent urge to destroy everything.
A voice whispered in her mind:
Don’t hold back. Don’t suppress it. Let it all out. This world is absurd—if you want to destroy everything, then do it…
She looked down at the struggling man beneath her grip.
It would be so easy. Just one twist, and he would never curse at her again…
Her fingers tightened around his neck.
In the window, her reflection beamed with delight.
—Just once. Just surrender once, and you’ll never break free from “her” again…
But then—
Bang!
A deep crack split the window.
The fissure cut through her reflection’s grin, freezing it in place as if shattering its control.
Yu Xi snapped back to her senses.
Retracting her fist from the glass, she threw the man aside and lunged toward the emergency hammer. With a swift punch, she shattered the panel, seized the hammer, and swung it toward the subway window with all her might.