Life Game In Other World
Chapter 404: The First Victim (Long - Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 404: Chapter 404: The First Victim (Long Chapter Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

He Ao sat in the private compartment, watching the countdown behind the door steadily tick to zero.

But just as it was about to hit zero, the second hand swiftly moved, pointing once more toward the ’4’.

?

What’s going on?

Could it be that someone originally wanted to leave but couldn’t get out?

Did Yang De and the others make their move?

So, did the train directly bypass the people from the Research Institute?

This train is really holding on, isn’t it?

He Ao slowly stood up, walked to the door, and quietly watched the clock hands move.

At that moment, he faintly heard slow and light footsteps outside the door.

These footsteps appeared only for a very brief time before they vanished.

He Ao frowned slightly.

He reached out to pull the door handle, but the compartment door in front of him still couldn’t be opened.

Could it be that some people’s compartment doors can be opened? Allowing them to move freely while the train is passing through the tunnel?

He Ao recalled the content on the card.

’The Murderer’ is among ’us’.

Is it the Murderer who opens the door?

During the passage through the tunnel, the time for the Murderer to hunt has come. ’Ordinary people’s’ compartment doors cannot be opened, while the Murderer’s can.

Perhaps the Murderer can not only open their own compartment door but also the doors of other passengers’ compartments.

During these pitch-black moments, all passengers are lambs enclosed in a pen, left at the mercy of the Murderer to pick and slaughter at will.

He Ao took two steps back, quietly observing the compartment door.

The Murderer must be holding some sort of ’Assured Kill’ Prop, to even out the playing field between ordinary people and Transcendents.

To counter this Prop is to go against the rules of this train car, that is, to fight against the train itself.

He Ao was only barely sure that he could break out of the compartment, but he had no confidence in breaking out of the train itself.

Moreover, the ’tunnel’ outside is probably a mysterious Domain capable of closing spatial distances, otherwise, it would be difficult to achieve such a terrifying speed of crossing thousands of kilometers in half an hour.

With the power of this clone puppet, even if he escaped from the train, he may not be able to survive in the mysterious Domain outside.

The worst-case scenario would be for He Ao to have to abandon this clone puppet and resort to other preparations.

However, risk comes with rewards. From his experience of conducting several promotion ceremonies, the more dangerous and complex the environment, the better the effects of the ceremony.

This train has shown many unusual aspects so far, signaling there might be some hidden entity plotting behind the scenes.

Breaking through in such a situation should maximize the effect of the promotion ceremony.

He Ao was very curious to see what Super Memory would be like after being promoted to C-level through a ceremony of this magnitude.

Tick—Tick—Tick—

Time passed minute by minute, the second hand returning to 12 over and over again.

The sound of movement outside the door never arose again, and there was no disturbance in the entire corridor.

Finally, when the hour hand returned to the starting point, these added four hours also approached their end.

The Murderer didn’t kill anyone?

Or was it just that he didn’t hear anything?

He Ao reached out to grasp the door handle, turned it, and slowly pulled the door open.

"Ah!!!"

A scream suddenly came from the corridor.

He Ao burst through the door and rushed out.

What first met his eyes was Lin Chichi, her body tensed and trembling. In front of Lin Chichi lay a man drenched in blood.

The man’s eyes were wide open, his mouth slightly ajar. He lay at the doorstep of Compartment No. 5, with a massive wound on his back, as if a sharp blade had pierced through his heart from behind.

It was the passenger from Compartment No. 5, the man with brown curly hair who had been slapped by He Ao.

"Ah!"

At that moment, Jin Ya also stepped out, startled by the scene.

"Nobody move!"

The door of Compartment No. 6 opened, and Luo Luo, upon witnessing the corpse, was shocked too, but instead of screaming, she immediately called out.

Then she dashed toward the body.

At the same time, the door to Compartment No. 1 slowly opened, and a pale cheek peered out from behind it.

Just as this face appeared, the floor of the entire train began to shift slowly, and the body lying on the floor started to sink.

Like a stone disappearing into the water, the body soon sank into the floor.

Luo Luo, who had rushed over to examine the body, found herself grasping at air.

Everyone turned their heads to look at the pale cheek protruding from Compartment No. 1.

That was a man with red short hair, a thin and pointed face, wearing a pink cross-hatched shirt.

The man, noticing everyone staring at him, quickly waved his hand, "Don’t look at me like that, I don’t know why the body sank either."

Saying this, he stepped out from the compartment.

His figure was thin and tall, from a distance he resembled a standing bamboo pole.

He glanced at everyone, his voice low and sharp, slowly saying, "My name is Ruoti."

His demeanor was somewhat cold, giving off an unwelcoming vibe.

Jin Ya gave him a glance and slowly stepped back half a step.

Luo Luo moved closer to He Ao, tiptoeing to bring her head closer to his, and whispered,

"What did he just say?"

Ruoti had spoken in Tia language, which Luo Luo did not understand.

"He said..."

"My name is Ruoti, cute little sister."

As soon as He Ao opened his mouth, Ruoti quickly interrupted him, the man flashing a smile, "I’ve worked in Central Earth for two years, I know a bit of Central Earth language."

"Did I ask you?" Luo Luo retorted with a twist of her mouth, "Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt someone? Tch, Tia barbarian..."

Ruoti’s expression stiffened.

He Ao shifted his gaze to Luo Luo.

"Why are you looking at me? I wasn’t standing up for you,"

Luo Luo walked towards Lin Chichi, casting a sidelong glance at the stiff-faced Ruoti, "Little sister, little sister, your whole family is little sisters."

This ’little’ sister seems quite irritable.

He Ao couldn’t help but chuckle to himself.

His gaze swept over the five people present.

The deceased was from Compartment No. 5, the man he had dealt with the day before.

The reactions of the five people to the body varied. Lin Chichi was so frightened she almost cried, while Luo Luo was comforting her.

Jin Ya was also startled but seemed to be regaining her composure.

Luo Luo, who discovered the body, showed shock but not fear, and her immediate command to not disturb the scene suggested that she was accustomed to such sights from her time working at the Research Institute’s overseas department—she acted very officially.

And that ’Ruoti’ from Compartment No. 1, he seemed only mildly surprised and not fearful; he must have encountered such ’deceased’ before, and not just once.

Moreover, judging by how Ruoti interrupted his speech, He Ao felt that this Ruoti either genuinely lacked manners or harbored hostility towards him.

If it was indeed hostility, he had no idea where it stemmed from.

He Ao thought for a moment, then said,

"Everyone, let’s head to the dining hall,"

"Let’s find a spacious spot,"

Another voice rose almost simultaneously with his.

It was just that He Ao was speaking in Central Earth language, and the other was in Tia language.

It was Ruoti.

He Ao looked up and saw Ruoti was also looking over.

Their gazes met.

This person was vying for the leadership of the group against him.

He Ao retracted his gaze.

Interesting.

The one speaking Tia language had also accurately targeted Jin Ya, another person from the Tia Empire present at the scene, obviously aiming to secure her support.

However, this carriage was indeed quite extraordinary; after traversing a loop within the Tia Empire’s domain, it had picked up three Central Earth people.

Originally, there were six passengers, three from Central Earth and three from the Tia Empire, split evenly.

Now, with one person from the Tia Empire dead, the Central Earth people unexpectedly held the majority.

Such an arrangement only intensified the conflicts among the passengers.

Ruoti was clearly aware of his disadvantage, and he also realized that Jin Ya seemed to be closer to He Ao than to him, so he naturally chose to fall silent.

The leadership returned to He Ao’s hands.

He Ao then led everyone to the dining hall.

All the passengers now needed an opportunity to interact with each other, to share what they had discovered in their compartments, their "identities" and "missions," as well as to discuss what they had heard the previous night.

Such matters required a leader to initiate, to set the pace; otherwise, everyone would scatter like headless flies, causing incredibly low efficiency.

They might all end up dead without ever untangling the logic.

The group arrived at the dining hall and selected a table in the middle, then, under He Ao’s direction, they either sat or stood around the table, forming a circle.

At that moment, He Ao suddenly recalled a "Murder Game" he had played before, where a group of players would gather, some acting as good people, others as bad people, with the game revolving between "day" and "night" phases.

At "night," the bad guys could "kill" people, and during the "day," the good guys could vote to identify the bad guys and eliminate them from the game.

Right now, the game on this carriage resembled that murder game, with the sole difference being that on this carriage, the "Murderer" would actually commit murder.

When death became a reality, many strategies viable within the game were no longer applicable.

He Ao snapped back to the present and looked at the other four people encircling him.

He first asked if anyone had paper and a pen, and Luo Luo took out a small notebook and a pen she carried with her.

He Ao tore five sheets from the notebook and began,

"First, let’s play a little game."

He distributed the five sheets to everyone, "In a moment I’ll say a sentence, and everyone will complete the sentence."

People were taken aback but nodded nonetheless.

He Ao watched as everyone received their paper, and spoke slowly, "There is a... please complete the phrase after these three words, and be mindful not to let others see what you write."

Everyone was once again startled but they soon started to write, passing the pen among them.

He Ao also wrote on a sheet.

Once everyone had finished, He Ao asked all of them to reveal their papers at the same time.

Each person’s paper read, [(There is a) Murderer among us.]

Identical content.

As expected, the game rules had patched this loophole.

He actually wanted to write the sentence that came after, "I must find him, or we will all die."

But as he wrote, no matter what, he couldn’t recall the complete sentence.

It seemed that the first sentence was the same for everyone, while the sentence that followed was the one that identified each person’s identity.

Perhaps the two sentences of the Murderer were.

"There’s a Murderer among us."

"You are that Murderer."

He Ao sighed, handing the notebook and pen back to Luo Luo.

"That, Brother Hao Yi, I seem to... not be able to write it out..."

Lin Chichi looked at He Ao and spoke slowly.

Her condition had improved a lot, and the current situation didn’t allow her to feel sorry for herself.

The main reason people feel sorry for themselves is that they have something to rely on. When there’s nothing to depend on and they have to face their fears themselves, there’s little time for self-pity.

He Ao naturally knew what Lin Chichi wanted to say, and he looked at the others,

"This ’game’ has rules that restrict what we can say about our ’identities’ and ’mission objectives.’ It seems we can’t speak of information related to these."

Then he tried again. He found that he couldn’t speak about obtaining the leaf prop or related content either; as soon as he tried to speak, he would forget the details.

This vehicle had shown immense power under certain conditions.

Lin Chichi felt somewhat relieved upon hearing He Ao’s words.

Then He Ao said softly,

"Let’s all share what discoveries we made while going through the tunnel. Say as much as you can. I’ll start. When I went through the tunnel, I found my ’identity’ and prop in a compartment. Due to game restrictions, I can’t speak of the details, but I am one of the good guys.

"Then, at the start of the second four-hour period, I heard faint footsteps outside the door. That’s all."

He Ao repeated everything quickly in both languages. Next was Jin Ya, who paused and spoke slowly,

"While going through the tunnel, I discovered my mission and prop. I’m one of the good guys. Then I sat on the bed and accidentally fell asleep. I didn’t hear anything, until I woke up with just over an hour left on the countdown,"

She looked up at He Ao, "So the tunnel took more than ’four hours’ to pass? I thought I had only slept for an hour or two..."

"The first four-hour count reached zero and then it reset, totaling eight hours."

This time Ruoti interjected again.

However, Jin Ya’s gaze remained on He Ao.

"A total of eight hours."

He Ao nodded slightly.

"Thank you."

Jin Ya nodded slowly.

It wasn’t that Jin Ya was deliberately ignoring Ruoti.

For Jin Ya, as long as she was engaging in a conversation, her attention would be more focused and she would react much faster. If someone else interrupted, she would likely get stuck and be slow to respond.

Just like an old CPU, it can only process other threads after finishing the current one.

He Ao also suspected whether Jin Ya was some sort of ’puppet’ similar to what his body was like now, but Jin Ya didn’t exhibit the mechanical, lifeless feeling of a puppet.

This feeling might be hard for others to detect, but someone who has controlled puppets could notice it instantly.

Moreover, for a puppet, Jin Ya’s latency was too high.

He Ao felt more that Jin Ya was immersed in her own world, somewhat ’autistic,’ not stupid, but not very concerned about the input of external information.

Seeing that Jin Ya was completely ’ignoring him,’ Ruoti seemed to feel a sense of frustration. He took a breath and spoke in Central Earth language,

"In the first four hours... I didn’t notice anything unusual. Around the beginning of the second four hours, I also vaguely heard footsteps at the door, but they disappeared quickly. I’m one of the good guys."