Life Game In Other World
Chapter 406: Crisis (Long - Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 406: Chapter 406: Crisis (Long Chapter Please Subscribe, Bookmark, and Vote for Monthly Tickets)

Lin Chichi is not a Transcendent, unable to withstand hunger for that long.

The others were hungry too, but they had been tense and hadn’t noticed it until now.

"Let’s go to the restaurant and eat something,"

He Ao said slowly.

Everyone nodded slightly, but there was a flicker of apprehension in their eyes.

This car was not a normal vehicle, so the food in the restaurant was probably not normal food either.

The group returned to the restaurant once more.

There was a delicate menu on each table, and each person was flipping through one, but no one approached the kitchen window to place an order.

Lin Chichi’s stomach growled, but she didn’t dare to order food.

She looked at He Ao, "Brother Hao Yi..."

"Hmm?"

He Ao was slowly flipping through the menu.

This menu is quite interesting, not only featuring dishes from Central Earth and the Tia Empire but also from the Western Lands. It seems possible to taste delicacies from all over the world on this one car.

Yet this was consistent with the positioning of the Velora, the international luxury train; on the Velora, even the attendants must be proficient in multiple languages.

After He Ao responded, Lin Chichi didn’t have anything more to say.

He Ao glanced at her, "What’s wrong?"

"Nothing," Lin Chichi said with a cute smile, "I just think Brother looks handsome when he is serious about the menu."

He Ao, looking at the girl’s cute smile, could actually see right through Lin Chichi’s thoughts.

This young girl was very good at playing weak and used her apparent vulnerability to gain more benefits. She was quite cunning indeed.

To be precise, she was like a teasel, soft on the outside but hiding thorns within.

She didn’t actually think He Ao was handsome just now, but she was too hungry to endure it any longer. She wanted to eat, yet she feared the food might be dangerous, so she was coaxing someone to test it for her.

After all, on this perilous train, everything could potentially conceal danger, and the first one to taste the dishes might become the next victim.

She stopped talking halfway, probably because her conscience couldn’t bear it, feeling that what she was doing was not right.

In a life or death situation, human nature is hard to sustain.

He Ao’s gaze swept across the people around him; all of them evidently felt hunger, just to varying extents.

Luo Luo, a level-D Transcendent, was just a bit anxious, while Jin Ya seemed to use daydreaming to fight the hunger, and Ruoti sat in a corner with her back to everyone else.

As the one with the poorest physical constitution, Lin Chichi couldn’t hold on the longest. She might have fallen asleep during the tunnel crossing because she couldn’t withstand the hunger.

Everyone boarded the train in the morning or late morning, and it had been nearly twenty hours since they last ate, having had only breakfast, and some did not even have that.

Actually, if someone would stand up now, test whether the food was safe or not, and if they survived, that person would instantly become the core of the entire team.

But no one moved.

Even Ruoti, who had been competing with He Ao for leadership, made no move.

He wanted to be the leader, but he did not want to bet his life on it.

He Ao took his eyes off them and continued flipping through the menu, waiting for a while longer.

Lin Chichi looked up at He Ao, then glanced at the food pickup area nearby and began to doze off on the table.

After an uncertain amount of time, the clear sound of a chair moving broke the silence in the restaurant.

He Ao slowly stood up and walked towards the kitchen pickup window.

He had chosen the dish he wanted to eat.

Lin Chichi, still somewhat dazed, lifted her head to see He Ao getting up. She was momentarily confused and then quickly followed, trailing behind He Ao.

She made much more noise than He Ao, drawing everyone’s attention immediately.

Luo Luo, seeing He Ao start to move, hurriedly took a few steps and came to his side, "Have you made up your mind?"

She was the calmest of all, with her Transcendent physical fitness, able to endure several days with a clear mind. She also noticed that He Ao seemed to be in good physical condition as well.

"Just give it a try."

He Ao smiled and placed his order at the pickup window, whispering, "I want a portion of double-cooked pork, a portion of mapo tofu, a bowl of rice, and a cup of boiled water."

"Wait a moment."

A hoarse voice came from behind the pickup window.

"Hold on a moment, Chef," Lin Chichi popped her head out from behind, licking her chapped lips, "I’ll have a portion of the same."

"Wait a moment."

The hoarse voice behind the pickup window sounded again.

Jin Ya sat in the distance, staring blankly at He Ao’s back, while Ruoti cautiously approached her, speaking softly,

"You saw it too. I thought this guy was cautious enough, but it seems he’s still too reckless. Regardless of the danger, as the core of our team, he shouldn’t try these foods right now.

"The game seems to rotate every four hours, we can tough it out till the end of the game, that’s the safest approach.

"By trying like this, he is putting himself in danger. What if he eats something wrong and dies, throwing the team into chaos, wouldn’t that drag the entire team into peril?

"I think we shouldn’t follow the commands of someone who isn’t cautious enough. What do you think?"

Jin Ya didn’t respond.

Ruoti scratched his head, glanced at He Ao waiting for his meal, and continued trying to convince Jin Ya.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Chichi leaned nervously on the counter, looking at He Ao and then back at the pickup window. She wanted to speak, but was quickly silenced by her hunger.

Their wait wasn’t long, in a matter of minutes, a hand wearing white gloves placed two plates on the pickup counter.

Two servings of double-cooked pork.

The enticing aroma of the meat wafted from the pickup window.

He Ao saw tears of hunger stream from the corners of Lin Chichi’s mouth.

The young girl quickly carried the two plates to a table nearby. Soon after, two servings of mapo tofu, two containers of rice, and two sets of bowls and chopsticks were slapped onto the pickup counter.

He Ao watched the chef’s movements intently, and as the chef laid out the bowls and chopsticks, the immaculate white gloves moved slightly up and down, faintly revealing the slender hairs on the chef’s arms.

After the chef had arranged everything, He Ao collected it all and brought it to the table.

Luo Luo also came over to sit down, glancing at He Ao and Lin Chichi, "You could have waited a bit longer; the situation isn’t that bad. Maybe we’ll soon be rescued, right?"

The dishes before them exuded a soul-captivating fragrance, but no one knew what they were made of or whether their real appearance was as they saw it.

He Ao remained silent and simply picked up his bowl of rice.

Luo Luo, seeing she couldn’t persuade them, turned away and sat on a nearby stool, seemingly considering the plan for what to do next.

In theory, the food here shouldn’t be a problem because if the aim of this transport was to have the passengers kill each other, then it wouldn’t set traps elsewhere for them.

But the behavior of a mysterious Transcendent object is unpredictable, so He Ao still let his main consciousness descend into his clone.

He first activated Super Memory to confirm that these foods didn’t bear any Soul Phantom, weren’t "living".

Then he stimulated his Divine Sense to determine that these foods had no energy flow, not special Transcendent items.

Eventually, he concluded that these foods were made from very ordinary materials and likely not Transcendent objects or living Transcendent beings.

Even if it were the meat of a dead exotic beast, he wasn’t too concerned; during his time in the ruins, he had directly roasted and eaten exotic beast meat.

In this world, things are only divided into edible and inedible, with no further distinctions,

The only thing that puzzled He Ao was that he hadn’t heard the sound of a stove cooking the food, unsure of how "the vehicle had ’produced’ these dishes.

He took out his chopsticks and picked up a slice of double-cooked pork; the chef’s knife skills were excellent, cutting the meat uniformly with a perfect balance of fat and lean, and a right thickness.

From afar, the whole slice looked crystal clear, the oil glistening subtly under the light.

He Ao picked up the meat and brought it to his mouth.

To He Ao’s surprise, Lin Chichi also picked up the meat and brought it to her mouth at that moment.

He Ao gently bit into the meat on his chopsticks.

Lin Chichi watched He Ao, and almost the second after He Ao bit into the meat, she did the same.

Rich but not greasy, firm but not dry.

Hmm, it’s pork.

After eating the meat, He Ao shoveled down two mouthfuls of rice.

The taste was good, apparently the craft of a top-notch chef.

Lin Chichi quickly ate the meat in her mouth as well.

Then she noticed He Ao looking at her with a somewhat amused smile, "Shouldn’t you have waited for me to finish eating and see if it was safe before starting to eat?"

Lin Chichi’s cheeks reddened, and she hugged her small bowl, burying her face behind it. She had eaten some food and regained some energy,

"Brother Hao Yi is so smart, he would surely see through whatever I’m thinking.

"If I were to eat only after Brother Hao Yi had tried the food for poison, taking advantage of his testing, even if I survived, Brother Hao Yi surely wouldn’t like me anymore.

"It’s so dangerous in this car, I’m the weakest and not very clever, and Brother Hao Yi is the only one I can rely on. If Brother Hao Yi doesn’t protect me, I might just die at any moment.

"It’s better to eat together, even if there’s poison, at least on the road to the netherworld, Brother Hao Yi would have someone to keep him company."

This young girl had more courage than He Ao had imagined.

He Ao laughed softly and said slowly, "But have you considered, what if there is poison, but it doesn’t affect me because our physical constitutions are so different, and you die?"

Lin Chichi: (⊙...⊙)

The young girl obviously hadn’t thought of that possibility.

"Don’t worry, there’s no poison."

He Ao laughed once more and continued eating.

Watching He Ao eat so casually, Lin Chichi let out a slight sigh of relief and then began to wolf down her food madly.

In the meantime, she even went to the food service area and got a bottle of soda.

But she exercised restraint, not gorging herself, but instead eating slowly, in small bites, controlling the quantity.

Eating is a problem that everyone needs to solve, and it was evident that the physically weakest Lin Chichi needed to solve this problem the most.

Seeing the two of them eating so deliriously, Luo Luo carefully approached as well.

She hadn’t ordered any food, having been the last to board and more resilient, and she wasn’t very hungry, but He Ao still stuffed a pair of bowl and chopsticks into her hand.

······

"···You see, doesn’t what I said make a lot of sense?"

Meanwhile, far away, Ruoti was still trying hard to explain the pros and cons to Jin Ya.

The blonde girl, who had been in a Wandering Spirit state, twitched her nose and tilted her head slightly.

"You also think it makes sense, right?"

Ruoti thought his persuasion had had an effect and immediately became excited.

But Jin Ya only glanced at him and asked calmly, "Are you hungry?"

"Huh?" Ruoti was taken aback, "I mean, what do you think of my suggestion?"

"Huh?"

Jin Ya paused, tilting her head in confusion,

"Did you say something just now? Sorry, I was so hungry I got distracted... If it’s not too much trouble, could you move aside? I’d like to get something to eat."

Ruoti: ······

In the end, he stepped aside.

He turned his head and looked at He Ao and the others, who were enjoying their meals near the food pick-up counter, and swallowed hard.

"There must be something strange inside, you’re all going to die."

He was indeed a bit hungry, but he didn’t go to order food. Instead, he spat quietly to himself and walked straight back to his compartment.

Jin Ya ordered a yogurt and a large sandwich, and sat at the table next to He Ao, slowly finishing it by herself.

When everyone was nearly done eating, the piercing alarm sounded again,

and everyone returned to their own compartments.

He Ao closed the door of his compartment and looked at the countdown clock behind it. This time, the hour hand was pointing at 4, starting a four-hour countdown.

Back in his main body in Xidu, he checked the time. An hour had passed since the last time they exited the tunnel.

In other words, after each tunnel passage, they had four hours of free time.

If one tunnel passage plus one free time interval counted as a cycle,

then, without any interference from special circumstances like the Research Institute blocking, a normal cycle should be five hours.

If the Murderer committed a crime with every tunnel passage, then every five hours, one person would surely die.

The frequency was quite high, considering there were only six passengers in total.

Five could be dead within a single day.

In the free time just now, no one voted to push someone into the vortex, because everyone still had moral reservations in their hearts, they weren’t frightened enough yet.

But as time went on, with more and more people dying and fear spreading, all the survivors would inevitably start voting to kill each other.

If the voting method was used for killing, deaths would occur even faster, and the game could end before a full day had passed.

Moreover, one must consider the scenario where no one in the team took the risk of eating—the combination of hunger and fear would make people lose their rationality even more quickly.

Taking into account the time passengers boarded the vehicle, the average time for this train to complete ’one game’ should be within a day.

According to the Research Institute’s data, the Velora was discovered by the Transcendent organizations of the main world in recent days, but that does not mean it only arrived in the main world within this timeframe.

With the train’s will to survive, it’s very likely that it had been wandering in some remote mountains and forests for ten days to half a month before being exposed to human eyes.

So how many passengers boarded the train during that time?

He Ao sat back down on the small bed.

And why did the train suddenly expose its condition in these last few days—had it sensed something?

He Ao recalled the murmured words that flashed by once.

The ruins are drawing close to the main world...

These clues were like a tangled ball of yarn; untangling one knot only revealed another.

He Ao sighed and brought his thoughts back to the present.

He reached into his clothes and took out the leaf carved with an array.

This leaf was his Prop; likely, the others had similar Props as well.

Props had different effects, so was there someone whose Prop could guess the real identity of the Murderer?

He Ao put the leaf back into his clothes, leaned against the wall, and stared at the distant compartment door.

Following the logic of the ’Murder Game,’ the liveliest, most active person, who seems the smartest, is likely to be seen by the Murderer as a dangerous thorn to be killed first.

And He Ao was now that most active person.

······

Click—

On the silent, dimly lit corridor, the door of a slender compartment was slowly opened.