Players, Please Board the Train-Chapter 11: Mutation

Liu Jia stared at Xu Huo in shock, while even Professor Han frowned at him. Those who understood knew immediately, while those who didn't looked out the window, asking, "What's out there?"
"I must have been mistaken," Xu Huo withdrew his gaze, having already gotten the answer he wanted.
Liu Jia trembled with unease, and Professor Han patted her shoulder reassuringly.
The suffocating night descended once more.
This time, darkness came faster than before—almost instantly transitioning from day to night. The train was submerged in silence, all sounds muted.
Yet the peace lasted only minutes before the train violently shook for over ten seconds. Fierce fighting erupted simultaneously in both the front and rear carriages, accompanied by beast-like roars from the third-class section.
"They're inside!" Liu Jia cried out in panic.
"Stay calm—those are human voices!" Professor Han raised his voice. "Everyone stay put! Block the doors first!"
Professor Han and Liu Jia barricaded the front door with tables and chairs while Yan Jiayu dragged a table toward the rear door. Amidst the scrambling footsteps, the sickening sounds of flesh tearing and swallowing echoed through the carriage.
Xu Huo instinctively froze before charging toward the noise. But someone moved faster—Yan Jiayu swept past him like wind, followed immediately by Li Fei's agonized scream!
Li Fei wasn't dead yet. In his desperate struggle, he kicked Yan Jiayu away, but the table leg she'd broken off remained embedded in his abdomen, having torn a gaping hole. Feeling something spill from his gut, he staggered and collapsed to his knees!
At the same moment, Xu Huo caught the recoiling Yan Jiayu. Before he could speak, the third-class carriage's lights abruptly flared on!
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The shattering of glass came in rapid succession—then darkness returned in the blink of an eye. But that brief illumination was enough for Xu Huo to see the "monsters" pressed against the windows.
Now he understood—the nighttime turbulence was these creatures boarding the train. Countless grotesque, distorted faces now leered against the glass, their pale, elongated limbs intertwined as they swarmed over the carriage like locusts. Sunken, oversized eyes stared blankly yet intently inward, drool hanging from their jaws as they waited for some signal to strike.
And the signal had come.
BANG! That fleeting light awakened the monsters outside. Glass exploded inward—but instead of rushing wind from the train's speed, several creatures came pouring through!
Thuds echoed from different directions alongside screams. With an Evolver's sharp hearing, Xu Huo discerned dragging and tearing sounds. Beside him, Li Fei was yanked away before he could even cry out—the horrific noises now utterly different from the Bloody Players' attacks earlier.
"What the hell are these things?!" Panicked shrieks filled the carriage as chaos erupted. The stench of blood and rot rapidly saturated the air. Xu Huo retreated to the rear door, grabbing a table to block an incoming lunge. The impact sent him and the table crashing against the wall. As foul-smelling wind whipped toward his face, he ducked—monstrous claws screeched against metal where his head had been.
Seizing the moment, he shoved the table forward, knocking his attacker away. Yan Jiayu, fighting beside him, accurately impaled the creature through with a broken table leg based on sound alone.
A wet crunch—whether she'd hit a vital spot or not, the thing emitted an eerie, high-pitched shriek before dragging the embedded leg clattering toward the window. As Xu Huo moved to intercept, the carriage ceiling BOOMED—something whipped past his shoulder!
An Evolver's speed surpassed ordinary humans'. Reacting instantly, Xu Huo spun and grabbed—actually catching the creature's ankle! But the next instant, freakish strength kicked him flying. Sensing pursuit, he rolled upon landing and kicked over nearby furniture.
The monster impaled itself on a table leg, howling as it writhed on the floor.
Though light had provoked these creatures, there was no guarantee they wouldn't keep entering, drawn by blood. "Help me block the windows!" Xu Huo shouted to Yan Jiayu.
Already nearby, she immediately helped him lift a table—monster still stuck to it—and shove it against the shattered window, using the surface to seal the breach.
The moment steel pressed against the opening, their burden abruptly increased. Outside came sounds of frenzied tearing and swallowing, while overwhelming stench seeped through the gaps.
The monsters grew visibly more agitated. Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu couldn't let go—nor did they know how many creatures remained inside...
"Liu Jia! How many are still in here?!" Professor Han's voice rang out.
The terrified Liu Jia finally snapped back to awareness. In mere moments, all corpses had vanished—only bloody drag marks remained everywhere. The worm-like monsters hadn't just taken the dead; they'd devoured even wounded kin. Blood and viscera now smeared the windows.
Liu Jia nearly vomited, instinctively turning to Professor Han—just as a monster lunged at his back:
"Professor, behind you!"
The humanoid creature's jaw stretched unnaturally wide, entire gums protruding as it dripped viscous fluid, aiming for Professor Han's neck!
Though warned, the professor only managed to twist aside partially—the thing clamped onto his shoulder instead. Agony and crushing weight forced him to his knees. Realizing escape was impossible, he deliberately crashed backward toward the window, intending to take the monster with him.
Miscalculating, he began scrambling forward—when suddenly a hand gripped his shoulder, then forced itself between the monster's teeth to pry them apart!
Others couldn't see clearly, but Liu Jia witnessed the elderly soldier saving Professor Han—eyes bloodshot, drool dripping, his ferocious expression nearly identical to the monster he restrained!
Liu Jia stifled a gasp as the old man turned to her, mumbling something indistinct before leaping out the window with the creature!
Blood sprayed everywhere. "Quick! Seal the window!" Liu Jia trembled. "The old man—he took the monster with him!"
Professor Han, nearest the breach, shoved a table against it and braced with his full weight until the turbulence passed. "Are they all gone?" he panted.
"Y-yes..." Liu Jia scanned the carriage, then choked. "Professor... He Yang's missing. And Li Fei..."
"Li Fei was a Bloody Player," Xu Huo interjected. "Current headcount? Yan Jiayu and I are unharmed."
"Me too," came the middle-aged woman's shaky voice from a corner, followed by the heavily made-up woman and Wang Xiaohui—all three badly shaken.
He Yang's unexplained disappearance disturbed Liu Jia most. "Maybe... maybe she turned into one of them, like the old man did..."
"Turned?" Xu Huo pressed urgently. "Explain."
He'd pieced together parts of what happened—having heard the old man's final words ("I wanted to see my granddaughter one last time")—assuming it was a sacrificial act.
"It's just... when he saved you, Professor, he started looking like those monsters..." Liu Jia trailed off, then gasped in horror. "Are we all going to become those things?"