Chapter 246 Train No. 444 – 09

Chapter 246 Train No. 444 - 09

The player in black was tightly gripped by the vendor, and his composed expression gradually crumbled inch by inch.

...It hurts.

It hurts so much.

He looked down at their interlocked hands.

The NPC seemed to be using all his strength; the player felt as if his bones were about to shatter, cold sweat dripping down his face.

He gritted his teeth, his expression contorted with pain, while the vendor's face remained frozen in an eerie smile, continuing to tighten his grip bit by bit.

The player in black tried to struggle, but it felt as if all his strength had been locked away. He was horrified to find that he couldn't move at all.

Inside Carriage 4, even the most oblivious onlookers noticed something was wrong.

"President!" The nearest player rushed forward, grabbing the NPC's wrist and applying pressure to force him to let go.

However, the moment they touched the NPC's limb, the player suddenly wore a strange expression.

Why does this NPC feel so hard?

A question arose in his mind.

Cold and rigid.

Not like the stiffness of a body three days dead that players were used to in scenarios, but a complete and utter lack of human-like sensation.

It felt as if he was touching not an arm, but a stone or a piece of wood.

"...” The player who arrived later opened his mouth, trying to speak.

But no sound came out.

His throat felt as if it was clogged with something.

...

"Why aren't those two moving?" Mi Yang stood in Carriage 3, frowning as she observed from afar.

Lu Cheng relayed more precise information: "They can't move. Both of them exhibited symptoms of paralysis after touching the NPC. It must be the NPC's fault."

Silent, light green vines crept into the corner of Carriage 4, transmitting everything happening there to Lu Cheng's eyes. Like a live commentator, he reported to the people around him:

"It doesn't seem to be a mental attack. I see their eyes are clear; they don't look like they've lost sanity."

Up until now, including Lu Cheng, the players only thought that the two were merely controlled by the vendor and couldn't move.

In Carriage 4, two players successively lost their ability to act, and the others dared not touch the NPC again.

"Hehe... Hahaha..."

The vendor didn't move, emitting a chilling laugh from deep within his nasal passages.

The members of the Guild watched helplessly as their teammate was trapped, feeling like ants on a hot pan.

They attempted to communicate with the NPC, but no matter how they spoke, the vendor didn't utter another word.

"Look at the President!" A player exclaimed nervously.

As time passed, the condition of the two paralyzed players worsened.

Initially, they were just immobilized, but now, even their eyeballs stopped moving.

Their skin turned pale, like uncarved plaster, and the vitality of living beings rapidly drained from them.

They couldn't afford any more delays.

The players suddenly realized that this wasn't just a simple loss of bodily control.

If they didn't solve the problem soon, their President might die here.

Why? Why is this happening?

Players exchanged glances, their eyes filled with confusion.

The rule card they found clearly stated, "Please be friendly with the staff."

Could this rule be false?

The two trapped players resembled statues, standing motionless. Seeing this, a player with combat abilities clenched his teeth.

He took out a half-man-tall iron hammer and shouted, "Move aside!"

To save his teammates, he prepared to fight the NPC to the death.

Someone cast a translucent protective shield over the player wielding the hammer. The dark gray hammer was raised high and then fell with a loud thud!

The wind generated by the hammer's descent was felt even by Qin Fei in Carriage 2.

The NPC neither dodged nor resisted, seemingly immobilized like the players.

Everyone held their breath, staring intently at Carriage 4.

What would happen next?

Would that person be saved? Or would a third person be added to the list? The players in Carriage 4 were still confused, but the members of Black Feather and Dark Fire knew exactly what was going on—they had violated the rules.

The subsequent scene undoubtedly surpassed the players' imagination.

"Crack—"

A crisp sound of shattering echoed through the air.

"How... Damn!!!" Lu Cheng's eyes widened as he blurted out a curse, his mouth agape in shock.

Qin Fei's brows furrowed slightly. Originally leaning casually against the aisle of Car 2, he now straightened his back involuntarily.

In the nearby Car 4, the massive hammer struck the NPC vendor squarely on the head, but the expected gruesome scene did not occur.

"Crack—crack—"

Cracks radiated outward from the point of impact on the vendor's head, each crack branching into new ones.

Soon, the vendor was enveloped in a web-like pattern of cracks.

He continued to laugh, seemingly oblivious to pain and fear, as patches of his skin peeled off without any blood.

This was an empty shell of a person.

The vendor shattered, breaking into pieces like a smashed vase, leaving everyone stunned by the bizarre sight.

However, the disaster was far from over.

As the NPC crumbled, the two trapped players did not regain control of their bodies.

The man wielding the hammer panted heavily, laughing when the NPC cracked open, but now his smile froze on his face.

"Huh... Huh..." He stared in terror at the unfolding scene.

The NPC's arm had fallen to the ground, yet his hand was still held by the player in black.

The cracks spread across the remaining hand of the NPC and then seamlessly extended to the hand of the player in black.

Then it was the arm, the shoulder, the body, and finally the head.

Within just 30 seconds, the player in black had also shattered like the vendor.

The other player beside him met the same fate, both crumbling into broken fragments almost simultaneously.

"Aaah—Aaaaah!!!"

The players in Car 4 could no longer contain their screams.

At that moment, the door connecting Cars 4 and 5 opened, and a familiar figure pushed a cart into Car 4.

"Anyone want snacks or drinks?"

The gentle female voice resonated in the air.

The vendor lady smiled warmly, but to the players in Car 4, she looked more terrifying than a demon.

Players hurriedly backed away; some retreated into their seats, others shook their heads vigorously, their faces paler than ghosts.

The vendor lady's expression turned displeased, and she did not linger in this car, continuing forward.

Qin Fei quickly approached her.

But the players from Car 3 were even faster.

Zeng Huan rushed ahead to intercept the vendor lady.

Logically, given the recent tragedy in Car 4, the players from Car 3, who had never interacted with NPCs before, should not have been so proactive.

But Zeng Huan's group had a precognitive player.

"See that person?" Three minutes ago, the precognitive player discreetly pointed at Qin Fei and whispered to Zeng Huan, "Whatever he does, we'll do it first. This person is very strong; I can sense it. He might become the winner of this strange tale."

Thus, Zeng Huan smiled and stepped in front of the NPC, his smile tinged with tension, revealing his lingering unease.

"Um, Miss Vendor..." Zeng Huan rubbed his hands together, hesitating to touch the NPC.

Before he could finish, his words abruptly cut off.

"Bang!"

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground suddenly rang out.

Qin Fei didn't even see what happened before Zeng Huan flew backward, crashing into the seats several rows away.

...What's going on? The young man raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Another figure flashed past like a whirlwind.

When the vendor lady entered, she had opened the door to Car 5, and now the entire train was unobstructed.

That person stumbled through the door, leaving behind a trail of bloodstains.

"Ah, it's that person," Lu Cheng arrived, "isn't that the player without a ticket?"

During the half hour when the train was passing through the tunnel, something happened in Carriage 3 that left others confused, but Lu Cheng knew exactly what transpired.

"That person tried to seek help from Zeng Huan, but was driven away."

Lu Cheng sighed at this point.

The person who died in Carriage 3 seemed to be the girlfriend of the one who escaped. Both had rather average skills, likely having no connection with combat talents.

When the corpses turned violent, these two struggled for a while. Just before the female player died, the male player saw what was happening in Carriage 2 and thus sought protection from Captain Zeng Huan, only to be heartlessly pushed aside.

Even with clear examples proving that helping wouldn't endanger oneself, Zeng Huan still refused to take any risks.

All the players in Carriage 3 were like this, ultimately leaving the man to watch helplessly as the monster tore apart his most important person.

"He probably hates these players now," Lu Cheng clicked his tongue.

Zeng Huan fell hard and couldn't get up for a long time.

Qin Fei thus became the closest person to the NPC. The saleswoman looked up, meeting Qin Fei's eyes, her expression brightening.

Her attitude towards Qin Fei was much better than towards others.

The NPC's smile deepened as she stepped forward. "Passenger, would you like to buy anything else?"

Qin Fei didn't refuse this time.

During the previous search, Heiyu found some scattered bills in Carriages 2 and 3. Qin Fei kept two hundred-dollar bills for backup and used the rest to buy almost everything on the trolley, nearly monopolizing the goods.

Wen Tao, the bespectacled man who arrived just after Qin Fei but was ignored by the saleswoman, wore a frustrated expression.

Players in Carriage 4 stared blankly at Qin Fei, completely bewildered.

What went wrong?

They glanced at the saleswoman and recalled her earlier demeanor, finally realizing they had approached the wrong person.

Qin Fei gained nearly 30 points of favorability with this transaction, and the NPC now looked at him with a radiant smile.

With the trolley empty, the NPC disappeared with the empty cart.

Qin Fei turned around and beckoned to the source of contamination. "Let's go."

It was time to check out the front.