Players, Please Board the Train-Chapter 15: Life-or-Death Struggle

"Watch out!" Just as Wang Xiaohui beside Liu Jia pushed her aside, she propelled her wheelchair forward to collide with the middle-aged woman. The moment they made contact, a translucent light pillar erupted around Wang Xiaohui. The woman's knife struck as if hitting a spring—not only failing to penetrate, but the tremendous rebound force sent both woman and knife flying backward!
The middle-aged woman crashed against the window, her face a mix of shock and fury, yet she dared not continue the fight. Scrambling up, she rushed toward the front door, but as she pulled it open, a dark figure materialized before her like a projectile. A hand flashed across her throat!
Bright red liquid sprayed out as the figure shoved the middle-aged woman back into the carriage before stepping in himself!
This was an exceptionally tall man. He wiped his bloodied hand across his mouth, his gaze sweeping over the remaining passengers.
Xu Huo stood closest to him, but after a quick glance, the man's attention skipped over him entirely, locking onto Yan Jiayu standing two meters away!
After two days on the train, all players had developed basic survival instincts. When the middle-aged woman was killed, Liu Jia's group of three immediately retreated.
Wang Xiaohui's special ability wouldn't last long. Neither Liu Jia nor Professor Han were combat-capable, especially with the professor injured. That left only Xu Huo and Yan Jiayu to fight!
Meeting Xu Huo's eyes, the targeted Yan Jiayu retreated slightly toward the broken window, kicking aside the table beneath it with one foot.
The cannibal player from first class barely glanced at the movement before refocusing on her face, attacking without hesitation! Though injured in his left arm and forced to flee first class, with second class passengers either crippled or wounded, dealing with a young girl should have been simple despite his injury. Holding a razor blade between his fingers, he aimed to dispatch Yan Jiayu the same way he had others.
Pinned against the window with seemingly no retreat, Yan Jiayu remained remarkably calm. She slid her right foot back into a bow stance, lowering her center of gravity just enough to evade the attack. As the blade whistled over her head, her tensed fist, veins bulging, drove straight into the man's chest!
"Ha!"
The force behind that single punch produced three distinct cracking sounds as ribs shattered. The man spewed blood, doubling over as he staggered back—only to meet Yan Jiayu's rising knee slamming into his chin. When he hit the floor, his head twisted at an impossible angle, life instantly extinguished.
Yan Jiayu exhaled, running fingers through her hair while murmuring "Amitabha." As she moved to drag the corpse aside, the supposedly dead man's eyes abruptly rolled toward her! Like a horror movie monster, he lunged up, teeth aiming for her throat!
Xu Huo, positioned behind Yan Jiayu, yanked her back while driving his knife toward the male player. With a metallic screech, the man actually caught the blade between his teeth, biting down hard!
Feeling resistance, Xu Huo grabbed his own wrist with his free hand and twisted horizontally—the blade sliced through the man's cheek as Xu Huo followed through with a crushing elbow strike to the temple!
Even for a hardened cannibal player, the temple remained vulnerable. Though the man instinctively turned his head, the blow still made his eyes roll back. Yan Jiayu seized the moment to deliver a powerful kick, sending him crashing against the window where he slumped, eyes closing with a grunt.
"He's still alive!" Liu Jia pointed at the man's twitching fingers. She and Professor Han grabbed chairs and tables, frantically beating the body until it became a bloody pulp before cautiously lifting and tossing it out the window!
Only after watching the man disappear over the cliff did Professor Han relax. "First class cannibal players are terrifying."
To fake death like that... if not for Xu Huo's quick reflexes, Yan Jiayu might have paid with her life.
"It's not that first class players are stronger," Xu Huo corrected. "There's no clear hierarchy among players. We just happened to encounter novices."
In second class, only the heavily made-up woman showed real capability—the others lacked both physical prowess and experience, making them easy targets. Had he been in charge, half the ordinary second class players would have died the first night.
Third class self-destructed, but given that level of carnage, some players must have escaped. If any were those who transformed into monsters, whether the metal doors could hold remained questionable.
As for the middle-aged woman... she was simply unlucky.
Yan Jiayu rubbed her arms, still shaken. "I'll barricade the front door later."
Liu Jia examined the middle-aged woman's corpse, puzzled. "Weren't there only six? Where did the extra one come from?"
"I get it now—the woman killed the night before last wasn't a cannibal player."
"Not her. It was Chen Yi." Xu Huo crouched to search the middle-aged woman's belongings, finding a family photo where two elderly people and a middle-aged man had their faces scratched out, leaving only the middle-aged woman and a young girl.
Covering the corpse's face with her bloodied apron, he briefly explained about Chen Yi.
If Chen Yi had simply wanted to feed, Liu Jia would have been the logical target—close proximity, and subduing a female college student easier than an adult man. Perhaps he sought White Bills, or potential game rewards when choosing Xu Huo.
Of course, he might have wanted both, though for a cannibal player driven by hunger, that made little sense. Also: "Whether you boarded the train starving makes a huge difference."
The others fell silent. None had noticed. When boarding, their empty stomachs made them ravenous—the carriage reeked of others' scents. Suppressing the urge to attack already took immense effort, let alone observing others.
"You didn't seem to board hungry either," Yan Jiayu suddenly remarked.
Liu Jia's group, emotionally drained, regarded them uneasily, eyes darting between the two.
Xu Huo leisurely lit a cigarette, exhaling smoke unabashedly amidst the wreckage. "What do you think?"
"I think you're a good person." Yan Jiayu emptied dried fruits from her patched robe's pockets. "Let's crack walnuts."
The following hours passed peacefully. Using their scant White Bills for minimal food and water, supplemented by snacks, their ravenous urges seemed to vanish entirely. After lunch, they even took turns napping.
As lights-out approached, Professor Han voluntarily moved a table to guard the rear door. Though in better condition than morning, uncertainty about the night's events meant sticking to their plan—Yan Jiayu would watch his back.
This left the remaining three to guard the broken side windows and front door respectively.