Chapter 1 - Sent to prison:Car no.7
Chapter 1:Car no 7
“Di–”
“Pa.s.senger no: 963 has successfully checked the ticket. Please enter car no.1 to find a seat to sit down on.” An announcement sounded. The pa.s.sengers of the no.1 compartment held their breath and stared in the direction of the door observing the newly arrived taskers.
Every new tasker will receive such a baptism of glances because there were too many partic.i.p.ants in this task and there were bound to be many newcomers.
In the dungeon world, oftentimes if the number of partic.i.p.ants is too many and newcomers are in a considerable amount, the situation becomes very chaotic. Even with some experienced missionaries, it was difficult to unify all the voices in such an environment.
Fortunately, the huge group of taskers were divided into different compartments. Besides, this time the newcomers were trained(informed) by the system in advance. So the scene was not particularly chaotic.
However, the experienced older taskers were not relieved in the slightest by the reduced pressure. They were either watching out for potential enemies and compet.i.tors or looking for familiar faces.
Taskers who had successfully checked tickets would usually enter their compartments within two minutes after the announcement but this time even after waiting for a long time like five or six minutes the tasker still didn’t arrive.
Moreover, for the previous taskers only their pa.s.senger serial number was announced but for no.963, the compartment number was also revealed.
The people in the carriage got energized hearing the announcement, stared at the door with burning eyes trying to find out the reason behind the special announcement of no.963.
Under everyone’s attention, the door was pulled open from the outside and a humanoid flight attendant wearing a mask in a uniform came in. Standing at the door made of tin, Its green eyes quickly glanced at the taskers of car no.1.
Just after that, a cane resembling a table leg appeared before everyone’s sight. The cane tapped on the ground and a tall, handsome in a stone yellow colour shirt carrying a black backpack slowly appeared in view.
The young man was very beautiful with short flaxen hair looking soft making him look harmless. He had pointed chin and eyebrows, thin pink lips and slender looking. An extremely beautiful, sharp and glamorous man.
It was a pity that he had no pupils in his eyes looking cloudy like broken clouds were fluttering and flocculating in his eyes.
Though his beauty was incomplete, it gave people the illusion that they were looking at flowers in the fog or looking at the moon in the water so close yet out of reach.
Everyone in the carriage got stunned for a moment after seeing him. But the young man seemed to be unaware of everyone’s sight. He tapped his cane lightly and moved forward with slow but steady steps.
The flight attendant said in a m.u.f.fled voice behind the mask, “Find a seat and seat down. ”
After that, he closed the door and went out.
Xiangnu smiled and nodded toward the attendant, groping forward.
The pa.s.sengers looked at him silently with scrutiny, amazement and vigilance in their eyes. But no one came forward to help him find an empty seat.
Xiang wasn’t anxious though, he walked forward slowly with his cane knocking back and forth on both sides of the seats.
Suddenly he stopped beside a man and everyone followed his movements subconsciously. The man was wearing a white military uniform with fringed epaulettes.
He wore a military cap of the same style as the uniform. The brim of the cap covered the upper half of his face revealing only the lowered half of his perfectly curved chin and beautiful lips.
His posture was leisurely and calm with his fingers crossed in his lap. Just by looking at him, everyone could feel the difference in him between others and the inexplicable pressure he exuded.
Xiangnu had an eye disability so he didn’t see it. Under everyone’s eyes, he moved slightly sideways holding his cane and stretched his right hand to the seat where the military man sat.
The man raised his hand to clasp Xiangnu’s wrist, Xiangnu’s face showed a trace of confusion at first then turned apologetic, he said in a clear and soft voice, “So, there is already someone in this seat. I can’t see, sorry for bothering you.”
The man slightly pursed his lips thinning his lips then became indifferent again.
He relaxed his hand and pushed Xiangnu’s wrist away, pushing him to lean back to the seat behind him and stand up. With the loud sound of his military boots on the ground, he stepped out of his position and went back a little from his seat. He opened his mouth, his voice was cold as a cup of porcelain collided, “It’s empty inside, go in and sit.”
The beautiful young man was pushed by him to sit on the armrest of the left side seat. His eyebrows slightly frowned. Hearing the military man he showed a dazed look. Then he pulled the corners of his lips into a smile and said happily, “Thank you.”
Then he grabbed the cane and walked slowly to the window seat, put the cane against the seat, then took off the backpack and sat down. the man in military uniform glanced coldly at the people looking at them.
Xiangnu said softly, “h.e.l.lo my name is Xiangnu, can you tell me your name?”
The man in military uniform said succinctly, “Yu Su. The broadcast is not over yet and someone was arrested for making noise affecting the effect of the broadcast.”
Xiangnu was slightly startled and finally understood why the carriage was so quiet. He closed his mouth wisely, opened the zipper of his back, took out a half-drunk bottle of mineral water and sipped against his pale pink lips.
After Xiangnu sat down the broadcast rang again, “All 321 pa.s.sengers have boarded the train, and the ticket checking has stopped. ”
Xiangnu was stunned thinking in his heart. There were 321 pa.s.sengers but his number was 963. The reason behind this was the numbers were multiple of 3 and arranged in the order of 1369.
There were a total of six compartments and the compartment numbers were 1,2,4,5,7,8. There was no number related to three.
Is there anything special about the number 3?
“Next, start broadcasting the rules of the journey. ” The mechanical broadcast sounded.
“h.e.l.lo to all pa.s.sengers, welcome to take the G369 train. This train departs from Xinzhen hospital and heads to the Old Capitol Prison.”
“The train pa.s.ses through six stations and the train stops for five minutes at each station. Pa.s.sengers can get off the train during the stop. If no pa.s.senger gets off the train in the previous station, the train will start after five minutes. If there is, the train will stop for thirty minutes.”
“After the train starts, all taskers can communicate freely between compartments. Fifteen to ten minutes before the stop, please return to your compartment and sit down. Ten minutes before the stop, a flight attendant will randomly select one carriage to check all pa.s.sengers in the carriage and if a pa.s.senger is detected to be in another carriage illegally, the flight attendant will impose mandatory imprisonment on the pa.s.senger. ”
“The train will move in five minutes. I hope all pa.s.sengers will arrive at their destination safely. All crew members on this train wish you a pleasant journey. ”
The broadcast started the countdown from 300 and all the missionaries on the train remained silent and didn’t dare to make a sound.
“…5,4,3,2,1!”
The train started moving, making a rumbling sound in the background matching the countdown.
The announcer sounded like a rusty mechanical voice, “The train has started, all pa.s.sengers can move freely now.”
This sound was like the start b.u.t.ton and the atmosphere in the carriage suddenly became lively and the missionaries who had been holding back for a long time whispered in wonder, “This mission is so strange, it only told us to get on the train. ”
In addition to pure newcomers like Xiangnu, the other taskers on this train have partic.i.p.ated in at least 3 missions. No matter how they pa.s.sed the customs, they were still experienced and could a.n.a.lyze a lot of things from the situation.
After one person opened the topic, everyone gave their views and opinions.
“The existence of the tasker is to find the weaknesses of each copy ghost, tackle them using those weaknesses and then complete the purpose of sealing them and our tasks often have a main ghost as our enemy. But this time we were only asked to get on the train with no further directions. The only monsters here are the flight attendants but they are not our target. If we don’t violate the rules they won’t bother us. We can even be called friendly. ”
The man who spoke paused and glanced in the direction of Xiangnu in a vague way saying in a low voice, “For example, they are willing to lead a blind man. ”
“You’ve gone off-topic.” a beautiful female voice sounded with a slight magnetism. Yaoyao said hoa.r.s.ely, “At present, the rules broadcast by the flight attendant mainly focus on three aspects. ”
“One, number 3. Everyone must have discovered the problem of pa.s.senger serial numbers and carriage numbers, so I won’t say more. What I want to say is that I kept taking notes since the broadcast started. There are 53 people in other carriages but we have three people more in our carriage than others. It can be a consideration. ”
After the woman’s reminder, some inexperienced people tightened their backs subconsciously and glanced at the crowd vigilantly thinking if any of them were ghosts.
The woman sighed and continued, “Second, the stop. All the rules broadcast revolve around stopping stations. We can be sure that there must be a danger at the site.”
“Three, the final destination of the train. The purpose of sending us to Jiudu prison is unknown. But the ‘prison’ itself is a place with only entry no exit.And if we don’t get half off the train then we have to go to prison. After that, our mission has a 99 percent chance of failure. ”
A male voice continued, “So, we must exclude the option of reaching the terminal and leave before that. Put the main observation target on the stations and look for opportunities to escape from the station. ”
Xiangnu was a newcomer so he listened carefully to everyone’s theories without expressing his own opinions.
Until the young man beside him whispered in a hoa.r.s.e voice, “You first ruled out the option of reaching the prison… have you ever thought that maybe this is the real mission? ”
“The flight attendants focused on the rules about stopping at the stations may have served to blur the focus, deliberately moving our target to other wrong options. Of course, getting to prison may not necessarily be a safe option. Getting to the prison itself is also very difficult, but it is a possibility and we should not directly rule the possibility out.”
“An overly arbitrary idea is irresponsible for your life. I can even maliciously guess the purpose of some ‘old people’ making such a stupid decision and biasing everyone’s thinking. ” The young man in the military uniform said coldly.
The atmosphere in the carriage suddenly became strange and Xiangnu looked at him in surprise. He didn’t expect the person who made him feel cold and silent to say a lot when he began to a.n.a.lyze and he was not stingy at words at all though the words were quite sharp.
The man who proposed to exclude the option of reaching the train terminal silently accepted the gazes of his companions in the carriage, straightened his expression and walked towards Yu us and said apologetically, “h.e.l.lo, my name is Chen chengen, your words make sense, sorry I was a little arbitrary just now.”
Yu Su stretched out his hand and shook hands with him lightly. Though he introduced himself, “Yu Su”, he still looked very cold.
Xiangnu blinked, his fine eyes slightly trembling, expression becoming focused and serious, he drank the water slowly, took a sip and put it down, stuck out his tongue and licked the corners of his lips, whispered his opinion, ” The prison is a long way to go. Whether we can reach the prison, we can consider the issue in the next few stops. The most important issue at present is to find out the situation of the stops.”
“The first stop hasn’t arrived yet. We don’t know anything about them. The current discussions are all castles in the air, baseless and easy to collapse. So everyone and the lady just now…”
The lady replied lazily, “My name is Feng hejia.”
“Fenghe!”
A female with a clearer voice suddenly shrieked, followed by a male voice saying comfortingly, “Lulu, don’t be afraid. This is another world, don’t be afraid.”
Fenghejia sat in her seat, lit the cigarette in her hand, and bit it in. her mouth and exhaled a long puff of smoke, she chuckled, ” This lady is so excited, is it because your surname is Fanghe too?”
The girl was silent for a long time before she spoke, her voice full of fear and reluctance, ” My name is…… Fenghe lulu.”
Fenghe jia smiled slowly, “It seems we are from the same place.”
First of all, Fenghe is not a common surname. Secondly, people can have common surnames, they don’t necessarily come from the same place. It was evident that Fenghe jia and Fenghe lulu didn’t know each other before. So everyone doesn’t understand how Fenghe jia can judge that they are fellow villagers just by a surname.
What is special about this surname ‘Fenghe’? Why does Fenghe lulu’s boyfriend keep comforting her to not be afraid after hearing the word?
After listening to the nonsensical answers of the two, most of them had blank expressions. But there were also a few people who had strange expressions, their pupils shrunk, eyes full of fear.
It stands to reason that everyone should ask Fenghe jia and Fenghe lulu what special meanings their names have.
Strangely, several active taskers such as Yu Su, Chen chengen and w.a.n.g nan who spoke at the beginning, all kept silent.
Xiangnu thought about it and asked, “Is there any third person with the same surname in our carriage? ”
No one answered, the surroundings became even more silent and the question got pa.s.sed confusingly.
It was a little embarra.s.sing that no one answered his question but Xiangnu didn’t care, he smiled to himself and fell silent.
The broadcast suddenly sounded again breaking the tense atmosphere, the mechanical voice rigidly reported, “h.e.l.lo, all pa.s.sengers. The train will arrive at a nearby station in fifteen minutes, please hurry back to your compartments and sit in your seat. After five minutes the flight attendant will randomly select a car for ticket checking. ”
“All pa.s.sengers…. ”
The broadcast repeated three times before it stopped. Chen chengen frowned, “It’s about to arrive at a station so soon? It has been only five minutes since the train started, right?”
Fenghe lulu said coldly, “It may be the case for the first station. This arrangement makes it easier for us to quickly integrate into the dungeon and find clues. But it does not rule out the possibility that the station travel time is fast. If it is like this for the other stations we don’t have much time left.”
Everyone was a little irritable and depressed by her words and the missionaries went to their seats and sat down, but they began to feel restless and started twisting in their positions.
A few seconds later, Xiangnu tightened the bottle cap and stuffed the water bottle into the bag, ‘gazing’ at Yu su bowing his head slightly with his cheeks floating up. He asked in a low voice, “Mr Yu Su, I drank too much water and wanted to go to the washroom. Could you please help me?”
After he finished speaking he paused slightly then said sadly, “This train should be similar to the trains in the real world with toilets? Sorry, I can’t see clearly…”
Xiangnu’s face was full of apologies but the main issue now was not whether there was a washroom on the train but the time chosen by him.
The warning announcement sounded, everyone sat in their seat, dare not move, but he wants to go to the washroom at this time?
Yu su asked lightly, “Intentional?”
The beautiful young man blinked his eyes tilting his head looking extremely innocent, well behaved, beautiful and supple.
Yu su immediately fell silent and said nothing. He grabbed Xiangnu’s arm and helped him up then walked to the bathroom.
The moment they got up everyone frowned and looked over wanting to say something but in the end they didn’t say anything just watched them leave their seats in silence.
Xiangnu and Yu Su didn’t seem to notice others’ predicament, their expression unchanged and they walked to the bathroom under everyone’s eyes.
Yu Su pressed his right hand on the doork.n.o.b and glanced at Xiangnu from the corner of his eyes.
As soon as he came in, Xiangnu asked in a soft voice, “Where is the washbasin?”
Yu su gave a slight push in the direction of the basin. Xiangmu moved to the left, groped to the pool and opened the thin stream of water falling on his white and clean palm.
Yu su looked on coldly for a few seconds and asked, “Are you not going to the toilet after washing your hands?”
Xiangnu turned his head and winked playfully at him, looking so gorgeous that one could not bear to look at him directly.
Yu Su’s eyes flickered slightly and heard him say,” I have kidney deficiency, so I frequently have to go to the bathroom. I am going to have to go to the bathroom in a while.”
Then what are you doing here now?
Yu su didn’t ask the question out. If he couldn’t see that the beautiful young man was playing tricks on him, then he would be a fool.
After having this realization, Yu Su didn’t get angry though. He just took off his cap in front of the bright porcelain wall. His face still looked cold and solemn.
Xiangnu turned off the faucet then turned around and raised his hands towards Yu su saying in a soft and sweet low voice, “My hands are wet.”
Yu Su’s face was stained with impatience but seeing Xiangnu’s bright and stunning face and his slender fingers he paused, took out his handkerchief from his breast pocket and carefully wiped Xiangnu’s hands clean.
His expression was serious, looking a little indifferent but his movements were gentle.
Feeling the meticulous and tender movements of the other person, Ciangmu’s lips raised slightly. His lips were very thin, when he smiled his beautiful face became even more ethereal.
Then his toes touched Yu SU’s shoes lightly.
Yu su didn’t respond. After drying his hand he said lightly, “The time is almost up. Let’s go out.”
Xiangnu nodded and seeing that Yu su didn’t open the door, he twisted the door handle by himself.
At the moment when the door was pulled open, Yu Su’s cold and mocking voice came from behind, “When you used your cane to explore the road before, it touched my shoes so I know you knew someone was sitting there. I also know you are deliberately looking for reasons to approach me. You don’t have to do that.”
His military boots also touched Xiangnu’s shoes making heavy noise.
Xiangnu paused, Yu Su walked out from behind him and supported him towards their seat.
During this period, Fenghe jia had changed her position and sat in the left aisle where the two of them were seated. She looked dazed when they came over.
After Xiangnu and Yusu sat down, she breathed a sigh of relief and said lazily, “You both took so much time, were you not afraid that you would not be able to come back in time?”
Xiangnu turned his head to look at her, he smiled making his eyes curve into a crescent moon, “I had an emergency now, so I had to go.”
Yu su put on his hat and closed his eyes.
Immediately afterwards the broadcast sounded, “This time the carriage randomly selected to be inspected is…. ”
Xiangnu’s voice was very soft and low, only Yu su could hear it clearly as he said, “Car no.7.”
“…Car no.7.”
The voice of the broadcast and Xiangnu qinglin’s voice overlapped, Yu Su opened his eyes and looked at him in surprise.