When the Wild Beast is Trapped in the Nightmare Cycle (BL)
Chapter 282: Did I Just...?

Chapter 282: Did I Just...?

When they arrived at the train station, there were only three minutes left from the allocated twelve. Shen Nianzu had initially feared that their attackers might have set up an ambush inside, and thus he was pleasantly surprised to find that the entire station was empty save for the three of them. After some contemplation, he reckoned that it must be because their different course of action had triggered a butterfly effect, leading to different circumstances even with their enemies.

Most importantly, they had really succeeded in seizing the firearms for themselves!

Contrary to his expectations, Chrono Junction Express turned out to be a rather ordinary train station without any special features. A few zombies loitered around, but the trio quickly took care of them and claimed the whole place for themselves.

As the train had not yet arrived on the platform, they positioned themselves in front of the window on the upper floor where they would be able to monitor the situation outside. And if Shen Nianzu was not wrong, their attackers must have also stationed themselves here last time.

Once they settled in, Shen Nianzu immediately put the heavy containers and rifle down and turned to his two teammates. "In the previous timeline, they were already here when we arrived at the last minute, which means that they could arrive at any moment now. I want them to have the exact taste of their own medicine..." a vicious glint flashed through his pale purple eyes. "Everything we have suffered, I will make them go through the same thing. Any objections?"

"Oooh, revenge," Jin Jiuchi flashed a roguish grin. "That sounds sweet. I’m in."

Gu Luoxin’s cheeks were flushed in excitement as he clutched the grenade in his pocket. "Does it mean I will get to throw this? Oh my God, I have always wanted to know how it feels!"

"Me too, me too!" Jin Jiuchi chimed in eagerly. "They blasted my head, so it’s only fair that I get to fire back!"

"Good." Shen Nianzu was relieved that his teammates were not the kind of saint who claimed that they should not hurt others. In this vicious realm, there was no place for the weak and kind-hearted as they would only be exploited. Offense was the best defense. Before their attackers could screw them up again, they had to put up a fight to defend themselves!

And thus, the trio started to set up an ambush.

Dealing with the machine gun for the first time, it took them a while to assemble it on a tripod and load the ammunition belt into the feeding mechanism, ensuring that each cartridge was snapped into place. Just as they finished, Jin Jiuchi’s keen ears picked up the sound of a car engine from afar, and he exclaimed in excitement, "I hear them coming! They’re using a car this time!"

"How fate has changed, huh?" Shen Nianzu sneered. Although the tall trees partially obstructed his view, he could still make out a few figures rushing out of the car towards the station, along with a crowd of growling zombies behind them. With his arm crossed, Shen Nianzu gave a cold order, "Xinxin!"

"Aye, aye, Sir!" Gu Luoxin bit down on the safety pin, ripped it off with his teeth and hurled the grenade out of the window, laughing out loud in satisfaction. "Take this, you bastards!"

In the next second...

BOOM!

A massive pillar of fire shot skyward, turning the night into a hellish inferno. The crimson from the explosion was reflected in Shen Nianzu’s pale purple eyes and he kept them open, taking in the fiery spectacle without a flinch despite the searing heat on his face and the window frame trembling from the explosion. His silver ponytail fluttered behind him, each strand shimmering under the blazing fire. He reached out to pat Jin Jiuchi’s shoulder, "Your turn."

"Aye, aye, Sir!" Jin Jiuchi learned yet another new vocabulary from Gu Luoxin and immediately put them to use. With a grin, he adjusted his position on the ground and nestled his cheek against the machine gun’s stock, aligning his eyes with the iron sights. His index finger tightened on the trigger, and in the next instant, the weapon roared to life, spitting out a deafening burst of gunfire!

Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta-ta!!

"Woo-hoo!!" Jin Jiuchi cried out in the mixture of surprise and exhilaration as recoil surged through his body. Brass casings were ejected forcefully to his side, creating a cascade of metallic clinks. Stray bullets shattered the glass window into a hail of shards. The air was filled with the acrid scent of burning gunpowder as Jin Jiuchi unleashed a one-sided massacre. "Take this, you bastards!"

Gu Luoxin cheered beside him, "Go, go, Da Shen! Take them all down!"

"I sure will!" Jin Jiuchi bellowed in response. But in the next moment, a faint cry drifted to his ears,

"JIN JIUCHI!"

"Huh?" Jin Jiuchi turned to Shen Nianzu beside him and rubbed his ear on his shoulder to dispel the lingering ringing noises. "Did you just call me, Nian’er?"

However, Shen Nianzu’s gaze was focused on the thick fumes outside, seemingly seeing through something, and he only snapped out of his reverie once Jin Jiuchi addressed him.

He blinked. "What is it, Da Shen?"

"Did you just call me?" Jin Jiuchi repeated his question again, only to realize that something was amiss. The voice he heard just now belonged to Shen Nianzu, that’s for sure. But instead of coming from beside him, it sounded faint like it had come from quite a distance away. Not only that, it also carried a sense of... overwhelming despair, horror and agony.

Shen Nianzu had never called his real name in the Cycle except for that one time when—

Jin Jiuchi was dumbfounded when an absurd idea flashed through his mind. Impossible, how... how could there be two Shen Nianzus?

Alas, the suspicion had taken root in his heart and he could not, for fuck’s sake, bring himself to dismiss it. He immediately released his finger, causing the barrage of bullets to halt. In an instant, silence blanketed the scene, with only the rumble from the explosion below echoing through the air.

Shen Nianzu and Gu Luoxin turned to him in confusion, noting the unease in his expression. "What’s wrong?"

"Nian’er..." Jin Jiuchi shifted his gaze to Shen Nianzu. The earlier scream was still reverberating in his ears. He couldn’t have been mistaken; that was the same scream he had heard right before the bullet pierced his skull. His throat tightened and he let out a hollow laugh, "Why did I hear your voice?"

"You heard my voice?" Shen Nianzu echoed, perplexed by Jin Jiuchi’s claim.

"Uh-huh. I heard it just now..." he pointed outside the window. "From there. I heard you scream my name."

Shen Nianzu’s expression remained blank for a second, and then he seemed to have thought of something, painting extreme shock over his features. "How..." his voice quivered. He instinctively wanted to run down to investigate, but at that precise moment, a ’ding-dong!’ reverberated through the station’s speaker system. Following it, the familiar cheerful female voice they had grown accustomed to rang out, though this time it no longer sounded garbled, but loud and clear.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to inform you that the train to [beep] is arriving on platform two. Please stand behind the yellow safety line and be prepared to board. Thank you for choosing Chrono Junction Express, and I wish you a pleasant journey!"

In the distance, the sound of the approaching train echoed throughout the desolate station, yet the trio remained rooted in place as if time had been suspended between them.

Gu Luoxin looked at them back and forth with growing concern, still unable to comprehend what was going on. And then he saw Shen Nianzu rushing to the window and craned his neck outside, his gait so unusually anxious and frantic that it caused Gu Luoxin’s heart to thump.

"What’s wrong? What is it?" He tried to seek answers, but Shen Nianzu and Jin Jiuchi’s gaze was fixed below, on the ground full of zombies and the lifeless bodies of their attackers.

A sudden gust of wind swept through, dispersing the thick smoke and revealing the gruesome scene beneath. There, amid the blood-soaked chaos, lay two corpses side by side as though locked in a poignant embrace even under the clutches of death.

One of them had their skull shattered into smithereens, while the other bore a body marred with horrid bullet wounds, resembling a sieve dripping with crimson gore. The two’s appearance was almost unrecognizable beneath the layers of blood and tattered clothing. However, there was one particular sight that stood in stark contrast against the dark and bloody asphalt, searing itself into the trio’s eyes akin to a laser beam.

Silver hair.

One of them possessed the familiar silver hair tied in a high ponytail, just like Shen Nianzu’s.

The three of them stared at the lifeless bodies with their jaws agape. Shock was not even adequate to capture the intensity of their emotions right now. Alas, the universe did not seem willing to offer them any respite, as the train came to a halt on the platform on the lower floor, sliding open to reveal a brightly lit and unoccupied carriage. The announcement chimed in once more,

"Please be careful with your steps! The train will be leaving in ten... nine... eight..."

In that instant, Shen Nianzu snapped back to his senses. Though his complexion still looked pallid, he forcibly dragged his two dazed teammates along with him to the direction of the stairs, "Let’s get onto the train first!"

The three of them bounded down the staircase and scrambled aboard one second before the door closed behind them. Bathed in the train’s bright interior lighting, their ghastly faces resembled that of a corpse, still reeling from the shock of what they had just witnessed.

"Wow..." Jin Jiuchi remarked in incredulity, shattering the frozen spell in the air. "Did I just blow my own head off?"

Gu Luoxin stammered out, nearly hysterical, "D-D-Did I just blast my own body... into countless pieces of charred flesh?!"

Recalling something, Jin Jiuchi’s hand flew over to cover his mouth in extreme shock, "Holy fucking shit, did I just kill Nian’er too?!"

.

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Mini theater

JJ and Xinxin: SHOCK x2

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A/N: Okay hehe who has seen this coming? *raise hand* from the start, there have only been the three of them alone! Isn’t it interesting how time seems cyclical rather than linear? Meaning that present will affect both the past and future, and there will be no beginning or the end! Now the sequence of cause and effect has finally come to a full circle!!

*cough* let me stop here before my fanatic self gets too carried away. Will slowly include an explanation in the future Chapters ^^