The copy took an unusually long time to load, and Wen Shi felt as if he had been floating in the darkness for a long time. He now really hoped to hear the game squeak to prove that it was not dead yet.
The system's prompt sound satisfies this wish.
"Reminder: An anomaly has been detected in the data of this copy, and a temporary adjustment has been made."
"Repair is almost complete, reloading..."
You fix the problem before you even start playing. What a shady game. I doubt your business ability.
Unfortunately, Wen Shi could only keep this sentence in his heart. He fainted and could not even feel the darkness.
"arrive."
An unknown amount of time had passed before this was the first sentence Wen Shi heard after regaining consciousness. The intermittent sound of the radio reached his ears: "Today is September 4th, Sunday. It will be cloudy, with temperatures ranging from 17 to 21 degrees Celsius. There may be light rain in the afternoon. Please bring rain gear when going out..."
Along with the weather forecast came a puzzled question: "The old train station has been out of use for a long time. What are you doing here?"
With some effort, Wen Shi finally opened his eyelids and saw the taxi driver's face. The seat belt was very uncomfortable, and when he unbuckled it, a wallet slipped out of his pocket.
The aftereffects of this teleportation were particularly severe. Wen Shi saw double in everything. He squinted his eyes and asked the driver to withdraw money from his wallet. He then answered the driver's previous question: "I'm an adventure broadcaster. I specialize in going to places with terrifying rumors."
After hearing this, the driver muttered something to himself.
Wen Shi knew there was something interesting going on, so he asked, "Do you know anything? I just need a catchy title."
Many taxi drivers are talkative, and this man was no exception. He lowered his voice unconsciously: "I heard that several people have disappeared in this place, and that living people who walk in will lose their shadows."
"Lose shadow?"
"There are so many strange stories in the city, and they are probably just rumors." The driver didn't really believe them, otherwise he wouldn't have taken this business.
He pressed the meter again, indicating that Wen Shi should get out of the car so as not to affect his business.
The car had already driven out, but in the end, he couldn't go against his conscience and retreated, saying, "Go back early and don't let your parents worry."
When you encounter this group of bad teenagers, you have to be in a dilemma, whether to help them or not. It's really troublesome.
Wen Shi was stunned for a moment. Everything he saw made him feel dizzy. After knocking his head to calm down for a moment, he began to fumble in his pockets. In addition to his wallet, he also found a mobile phone in his trouser pocket.
It is now 4:24 pm.
When Wen turned on the camera function, he saw a slightly childish face. The boy had a refreshing short hair, a sports suit, bright eyes, and a straight body. The youthful vigor he had as a teenager could not be imitated as an adult.
In addition, his sleeves were sloppily rolled up, his shirt was only half-zipped, and he had an exaggerated tattoo on his neck, looking like a typical bad boy.
"What the hell?"
It was obviously not a time travel, there was no memory loss this time, and he had never been to a similar place in his youth.
It would be fine if I could just go back to my youth, but it has to be at this time.
"Are you kidding me?" Wen Shi muttered.
His father was very powerful, but he never allowed him to seek revenge, always saying that it was not the right time. On the other hand, he encouraged him to do good deeds every day. As a few years passed, Wen Shi's depressed mood could not be relieved, and he fell into a short rebellious period.
It is no exaggeration to say that during this period, even dogs annoyed me.
The sun overhead was scorching the earth, and a gust of hot wind blew over. The weather was completely different from what the weather forecast had reported.
Wen Shi didn't want to think about it anymore. He just wanted to find a shady place.
Looking around, right in front of me was the gate of the train station. It was in tatters and had been splashed with red paint.
Wen Shi checked his wallet and found only two things in it: change and his ID card.
The dungeon description mentioned some precautions for getting on the train, but he had no clues at the moment. If he wanted to get on the train, he had to at least get a ticket. Although the driver mentioned that the train station was abandoned, Wen Shi still walked towards the ticket office to see what was going on.
The lock on the train station gate was just hanging there for no reason.
The lock felt hot to the touch, and Wen Shi frowned. There must have been no other players entering here before him, otherwise the lock would not have been hanging outside like this.
The moment the door opened, a wave of heat washed over me. Even during the day, the lights were on, making the room exceptionally bright. The tiled floor was thick with dust, feeling gritty. I had no idea when it had last been cleaned. The ticket machines on either side all had signs saying "Under Repair."
There are four manual windows right in front, and except for the one on the far left, there are people queuing at the other ones.
Wen Shi hesitated for a moment, then decided to give it a try. He walked straight in that direction, handed over his ID card, and said, "Get your ticket."
"Please wait a moment."
During the short wait, all the customers at other windows suddenly turned around, walked behind Wen Shi one by one, and started queuing again.
When they lined up, their ID cards and train tickets were handed out through the window.
"Your ticket."
"Thanks."
Wen Shi's fingers had just touched the edge of his ticket when a pale arm suddenly stretched out from inside and grabbed his wrist. Through a small window, the ticket seller poked his head in, revealing a ferocious mouth. "Sir, please give me a good review for my service."
The service evaluator was long ago eliminated and the window was not placed at all.
The ticket seller was particularly persistent on this point, "Good review, sir."
Seeing that Wen Shi was still not moving, she pressed harder with her fingers, and black palm prints appeared on her delicate skin.
As if the situation wasn't chaotic enough, the person behind him patted Wen Shi's shoulder, and a chill ran down his neck and up his spine.
"Hurry up, young man." A hoarse voice urged.
"I'll give it to you right away..." Wen Shi's smile was even brighter than the ticket seller's.
He fished out his phone from his pocket and the next second, slammed it hard on the conductor's wrist, causing him to flinch in pain. Wen Shi seized the opportunity to snatch the ID and ticket, turned around, and kicked the person behind him in the most vulnerable spot.
"Ah——" The miserable screams echoed in the empty hall.
Thanks to him for returning to his youth, when he was not too tall and could kick the lower body.
Wen Shi pretended to attack others. His kick was too fierce, and the monster more or less avoided it. After a fake move, Wen Shi suddenly rushed outside.
Five or six people behind him reacted and chased after him relentlessly.
There was no one checking tickets at the entrance, so Wen Shi jumped over the gate and ran all the way. When he finally entered the station, his pace gradually slowed down.
The legendary abandoned place was not as desolate as imagined. The inside and outside seemed like two different worlds. From the moment Wen Shi entered, the entire train station was bustling with people. The waiting seats were full of passengers, and some were lying on the ground. However, none of them had any luggage. When Wen Shi appeared, these people all looked over at him.
Wen Shiyou looked at the people sleeping on the floor. The sunlight came in through the glass, and there were shadows of bedding but no people.
What's even more strange is that his shadow has been gradually fading since he entered the train station.
Only two special lines were scrolling on the LED display: K6666, K9999.
The departure station is the same and the departure time is also the same: 16:44.
There are only twelve minutes left in Wenshi.
He couldn't afford to delay and had to take the elevator to get to the waiting room upstairs. Even though there were many suspicious people gathered around, Wen Shi could only walk up with his head down.
I didn't see any of the players who went to the dungeon with me. They said they were a tour group, but I didn't see any tour guide holding a small flag.
Thinking of this, Wen Shi frowned impatiently and said to the people blocking the elevator entrance, "Make way."
The person in front didn't move his body, but turned his head 180 degrees and laughed.
Pop.
The man who had been standing behind Wen Shi in the ticket office reappeared, still standing behind him, patting Wen Shi's shoulder repeatedly. Gradually, his hand moved from his shoulder to his neck, and his other hand fixed on Wen Shi's ear, as if he wanted to break his neck all at once. The people sitting on the stainless steel benches around him also stood up and rushed towards Wen Shi, forming a circle around him.
"Stay." The monster team with a human face and a beast's heart kept sending invitations.
"Stay with us, and stay here forever."
There was no other way to get out except violence, so Wen Shi took out a weapon from his backpack with an expressionless face.
This is something my parallel-world self had the game bring me. Using it doesn't require points, and there aren't many restrictions. There's only one tip: [When you use it, your force increases, but your sanity decreases.]
After entering the station, his skills were locked, and Wen Shi had no more choices. Now he could only rely on this weapon to escape.
Although the game is crappy, it is fair to everyone. I don't know what changes the recommended target will bring, but for now, his life depends on the weapons of the parallel world.
Gripping the weapon tightly, a chill washed over him. Wen Shi shook his head vigorously, his rationality still partially overshadowed, his primal attack instinct taking over, becoming his primary consciousness.
The system sent a second prompt:
"Hint: You are using a killing weapon that does not belong to you."
"I'll only say this once." Wen Shi didn't want to fight either. He raised his hand, lowered his head slightly, and warned: "Everyone take a step back. It's good for you, it's good for me, and it's good for everyone."
The people around did not retreat but advanced. Strange sounds of laughter came from all directions, and the same three words were repeated over and over again: stay.
"Very good." Wen Shi's mouth curled up. He changed his mind and now only wanted to see blood.
He turned around like the wind, and the weapon drew a perfect arc. Dark and sticky blood sprayed on his face. Wen Shi was excited by the smell of blood, and a thought emerged uncontrollably in his mind: he finally experienced the happiness of his 'crazy brother-in-law'.
Wen Shi didn't notice that his gradually fading shadow began to get out of control little by little, moving towards a position near the window, and finally gradually evaporated in the sunlight. There was one more person in the waiting room silently.
All the passengers stranded in the station were obsessed with preventing anyone from entering the platform. When that person appeared, monsters immediately surrounded him.
Wen Shi had tried to suppress his desire to kill, but the person transformed by the shadow did not. Without saying a word, he was the one who attacked first.
There was a fierce fight in the waiting room. At the entrance, two green trains were waiting to depart and were welcoming the arrival of passengers.
A breathless man ran from the front of the train to the back and finally saw an inconspicuous little colorful flag on the last carriage.
He and Wen Shi had entered the game using a team item. Li Nan had specially called in a player from the Mockingbird Guild, named Qian Laiye. After deciding which train to take, Qian Laiye immediately boarded.
All the doors at the back were closed, so he could only keep moving forward. The information about the train number on the ticket was quite vague, but the location of the carriages was clearly listed. He needed to get to carriage 04.
When we were almost at the target carriage, there was an extra attendant at the door of carriages 4 and 5, as well as the opposite train.
The attendant blocked the door of the carriage and smiled sweetly, "Please change your ticket."
I don't know why we have to do the things after getting on the bus here. It's not easy to force the money, so I handed it over cautiously.
The flight attendant's limbs were uncoordinated and his movements were very slow, much slower than a sloth, as he slowly searched through a thick stack of cards for the one with the same number.
The broadcast came from the hall and could be heard from the outer platforms.
"Dear passengers, trains K6666 and K9999 bound for Xiyang City are about to depart. Please board as soon as possible if you haven't already."
Now Qian Lai finally understood why the flight attendant was so slow. He was deliberately wasting time.
She was afraid that when the train departed, she would not get on and would not let others get on.
His eyes rolled around, and he tried his best to think of food that he didn't usually eat. When he imagined mixing durian and coriander together and stuffing it into his mouth, Qian Lai's face turned pale and he vomited on the spot.
For fear of angering the NPC, he didn't vomit on the flight attendant, but he soon retched at the flight attendant a second time.
The flight attendant's sweet smile froze, and she quickly handed him the changed ticket.
Qian Lai got on the bus as he wished.
The players were divided into two carriages, 04 and 05, and now everyone is gathered in carriage 04.
There were about twenty players crowded in here, the air was not circulating, and some of the players had blood on their bodies, which mixed with the smell of sweat and filled the carriage.
Qian Lai also wrinkled his nose. He immediately spotted the two guild leaders: Li Nan and Yu Xingzhou. Everyone else consciously kept a distance from them.
Yu Xingzhou wears a mask all year round, so not much change can be seen. Li Nan is obviously several years younger, with skin as tender as a pretty boy. Of course, Qian Laiye himself has regressed to the age of eighteen or nineteen, but unfortunately he was very dark at that time.
Qian Lai was about to speak when he was interrupted by a player's complaint.
"This teleport was rubbish," a buzz-cut player near the window cursed. "I was right under the platform the moment I opened my eyes, and the train pulled in before I could even figure out what was going on. I managed to climb up, but the guy next to me was in a terrible situation."
"Oh, you used a petrifying tool to make the other person's body stiff, and then climbed up by stepping on him." Someone exposed him without giving him face.
The man with the crew cut curled his lips and refused to admit it: "Which eye did you see it with?"
At about the same time, panicked voices came from the other end of the carriage.
"Where is this? Why am I on a train?!"
You don't need to look specifically to know that it is a new player. The difficulty level of this copy is not clearly given, and it is a unique copy, so it is not surprising that a new player comes.
Twenty people, each with their own mouth, would be noisy enough.
"As people get younger, do they become more talkative?" Yu Xingzhou's voice was a little unhappy under the mask, and the noisy discussion suddenly stopped.
The scene suddenly became quiet, and the two new players subconsciously shut up as well.
Yu Xingzhou had been watching the train on the opposite side and asked, "When did your shadows disappear?"
Qian Laiye quickly answered first: "I didn't have any when I arrived."
"Me too." said the man with a crew cut.
"I had a faint shadow at first, but it disappeared after I entered the platform."
"Same."
The players finished talking at once, and many of them complained about teleportation.
Unlike previous times, this time, each player's teleport point is not only different, but also widely dispersed. The closer to the platform, the easier it is to board the train earlier, but the higher the risk factor.
For example, there were three other players like the buzz-cut guy, all of whom were teleported to the bottom of the platform while dizzy. In the end, only the buzz-cut guy survived. But he was ruthless enough, happened to have a petrification item, and climbed up using a human ladder.
Thinking of that terrifying moment, the buzz-cut man couldn't help but speak again: "What the hell is going on? How did we become younger?"
Many people looked at Yu Xingzhou and Li Nan, wanting to get answers from the big guys.
Because it was a team battle mission, Yu Xingzhou didn't bother to elaborate further, but he still explained: "The tour group claims to help people rediscover their original selves. The key is how original they are. As far as the current situation is concerned, we should have returned to the year when our mindset underwent a significant transformation."
He looked across at the train with its curtains closed and blurted out his conclusion: "On that train, there's another 'me' sitting there, a completely identical 'me', but with a completely opposite personality."
In this way, it will be clear at a glance what kind of enemy is standing on the opposite side of the team battle.
The guy with the buzz cut seemed to have grasped something: one was K6666, the other was K9999, as if everything was reversed. He now said generously, "I'm not a good person, but the other me is definitely kind enough..."
Yu Xingzhou interrupted him coldly: "Light and shadow, we represent the light, and what we lose is the shadow."
The buzz cut man who had survived by stepping on others suddenly changed his expression. "So, our personalities are completely opposite. Does that mean that compared to me in the car across the way, I'm kind?"
Where is justice? Where is fairness?
Without even looking at him, Yu Xingzhou asked the team members who were going down to the dungeon with him: "Xiaohua, how much has the temperature increased?"
The female player who was leaning against the window of carriage number five to measure the temperature said loudly, "It's still 35 degrees. The change is too small to be noticeable."
Qian Lai also reacted: "With every additional passenger, the temperature will rise?"
Xiaohua walked back and said, "The temperature started to rise when there were 18 people on the bus. You were the 21st. The temperature rose by one degree Celsius when the previous person arrived."
She used props to measure, and was very precise.
The carriage was very stuffy and there was no air conditioning, so shortly after getting on the train, Yu Xingzhou sent team members to keep an eye on the temperature changes.
According to their current observations, the worse and more severe the shadow, the greater the temperature rise.
Qian Lai also looked grim: "If there are more people, won't they die of heat?"
"No, the one who came before you was Guild Master Li, so that only increased the time by one degree. The other people's increase can basically be ignored."
The difficulty points of the game are arranged within a reasonable range, and the greatest difficulty in the early stage of the copy has been set at the teleportation position.
In any case, being in the same carriage with the presidents of the two major guilds was like taking a reassurance.
Qian Lai also looked at President Yijie, who had not spoken since he got on the car.
As if sensing his gaze, Li Nan leaned back on the blankets on the lower bunk, closed his eyes, and said, "You should be concerned about other issues. For example, the weather forecast on your phone shows cloudy skies. The temperature rise caused by the passengers boarding the train obviously only occurred later. Why was it sunny as soon as we arrived?"
"For example, the players in this car..." Li Nan paused with a smile: "Are they really all players?"
A word, neither light nor heavy, instantly chilled the atmosphere in the car.
Everyone suddenly realized a fatal problem.
The game gives them a heads-up in advance, letting them board the car with the colored flag. While this may seem like a well-intentioned reminder, it actually makes it easy to overlook another point: it doesn't explicitly prevent others from boarding.
What if a player got on the wrong bus, or was killed before entering the station, allowing a shadow to sneak in... At the thought of this, all the players began to distance themselves from the people around them, and the vigilance in their eyes could not be concealed at all.
Vigilance, hostility, worry, everyone's expression is so impeccable, this is the state that only players can have.
Several skilled players wanted to find clues from the changes in everyone's expressions at the first moment, but they simply couldn't detect a trace of guilt.
A girl forced a smile and said, "Let's think positively. Maybe it's not..."
She herself didn't even finish saying this sentence. The reason why this copy became a unique copy must be related to this.
The atmosphere fell silent again, this time it was dead silent. Everyone's muscles were tense and their breathing was short. Suddenly, someone spoke weakly, "That..."
The one who spoke was the new player who was pulled in.
In this story, all the passengers are successful people, including the new players, who have all achieved something in real life. After the initial shock wore off, they quickly forced themselves to calm down and digest this analysis.
"So the first challenge we face is to find the 'shadow' that represents evil among us?"
Compared to those newcomers who were always making a lot of noise, these two people were already considered to be of high quality. The players nearby did not look happy, but still nodded.
The newlywed pointed out the window at a distance and asked hesitantly, "Which of those two do you think represents light?"
Following his pointing, I saw a young man in tracksuit holding a kitchen knife, a group of people chasing him. The young man swung the knife, the sharp blade severing veins, flesh turning inside out, blood spurting out. Those invisible men, women, and children who came close were all killed by the knife. He was simply a murderer.
Nearer the front of the car, a man who looked exactly like the boy, dressed identically, was also wielding a steel pipe and killing people. His movements were swift, and the clang of the steel pipe hitting people's heads could be heard clearly from a distance.
When there are two Wens, one kills more crazily than the other.
When the shadows were trying hard to pretend to be players and integrate into the light side, these two people were a breath of fresh air.
The tightly closed curtains of the opposite train were opened a little, and the shadows observed secretly, trying to find clues that could identify the differences. In the end, thousands of words turned into a swear word.
Damn, who is ours?
"Dear passengers, trains K6666 and K9999 bound for Sunset City are about to depart..."
The locomotive made a buzzing sound and the crowd chasing the young Wen Shi retreated when it was five or six meters away from the platform. The two of them stopped in the fourth and fifth carriages respectively.
The place behind him was littered with bloody corpses. The corpses melted very quickly and soon rotted in the sun.
The attendants at the door of the carriage all spoke the same words, with a sweet smile: "Hello, you need to change your ticket first."
As he spoke, he slowly raised his arm, trying to delay the remaining time.
"You're too slow." The young man in carriage 04 grinned, grabbed the attendant's hair, and wiped his neck directly like slaughtering a rooster.
Everyone looked outside Car 05. The man was even more brutal. Without a word, he thrust the steel pipe straight through the attendant's fragile throat, piercing all the way through, sending foul-smelling blood spurting out. The number plates scattered all over the floor, and he picked them all up and stuffed them into his pocket.
Inside the carriage, the new player once again raised a soul-searching question: "Everyone, which one is the light?"
"…"