Chapter 279: Inhuman (87) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]

"The City of the Dead is dangerous at night, so can't we get off at another stop?" Xiao Tang blinked and glanced at the license plate above his head. "At worst, we can just not get off at the City of the Dead."

"Right," Huangmao reacted immediately, "Why don't we go to another city to spend the night? Isn't it true that we can't go out at night in every city in the Novice Village?"

Didn’t Yuan Shanming only say that the nights in the City of the Dead and the City of Violence were special?

"I see there's quite a lot of space on this sign..." Xiao Tang looked up, "We can't go to Port N, so we can go to District W. Isn't that guy, Hang Yiqing, in District W? We can go look for him. The incident on Purple Street back then is definitely not over yet."

The two of them talked back and forth and soon decided on the next route.

"Brother Yuan, let's go," Xiao Tang turned and looked at Yuan Shanming.

Yuan Shanming let out a long sigh: "Those who have registered..."

The irritation on his face faded a lot after he made sure everyone was alright. Yuan Shanming looked around at the team members, rubbed his temples, and sighed tiredly: "Well, it would be fine under normal circumstances, but something happened today. It's really a double whammy..."

"Have you ever taken a train?" Yuan Shanming rubbed his temples and looked up.

Everyone nodded.

"Before entering the subway, the team leader had already registered the team's riding section at the ticket office," Yuan Shanming's voice sounded tired, but he still explained, "We generally believe that this registration is to facilitate the determination of which section the newcomers on the subway need to be assigned to, and then to allocate shifts according to this riding section, and to determine the number of people who need to die this time based on the energy that the shift needs to consume."

He gave an example: "Let's say we only take three stops this time, then the number of people who may need to die is 1% of all the new passengers who took three stops that day. If 1% of the passengers die, the remaining 99% can leave the ghost story and get out of the subway. If we take ten stops, then the number of people who may need to die is 3% of all the new passengers who took ten stops..."

"So the number of deaths each time is uncertain, right?" Guan Hongyan asked, "Is this number determined based on the number of people who take the subway for the same distance?"

That is to say, the number of passengers each day is different, and the number of deaths is also different.

"That's about right..." Yuan Shanming nodded. "We guessed it was like this. Just like the rules of many strange stories in the Novice Village were figured out by leaders from generation to generation, the specific rules of the subway were also figured out by everyone. It may not be correct, but it must be the one that has the most people agreeing on it at the moment."

"That means we can only get off at the station we registered at and cannot change the location midway?" Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows.

"Not really. The subway is just a transportation network that radiates throughout the Novice Village. The station can definitely be changed, but the tour leader needs to go to the customs to register again. Because the tour leader needs to register again, whether getting off early or later, if the address is changed, the newcomers will need to enter the strange story again," Yuan Shanming sighed tiredly, "but now..."

Everyone has seen the current situation.

The subway space collapsed, causing the death toll of all newcomers in the subway ghost story to exceed the normal value. All the tour leaders were queuing in the passage waiting to leave. It was estimated that the subway would not accept new passengers and would not reopen the registration window until all the tour leaders had left.

That means they can't make up the ticket.

"What if we insist on getting off? Or get off early?" Xiao Tang blinked. "Even on a train, passengers can get off and buy tickets at their destination. If we don't leave, what can it do to us? Pull us out?"

"There are many ways..." Yuan Shanming twitched his lips, "You'd better not have such suicidal thoughts. A team leader tried to get to the station but couldn't get in, and no one saw him again."

"What if we get off early?" Xiao Tang was unwilling to give up. "Do we have to get off at the foot of the City of the Dead?"

"Yes, we must get off at the City of the Dead." Yuan Shanming nodded. "If you get off early, you will be forced to enter the ghost story. The moment I walk out of the subway station, I will return to the customs again. According to the fuel required to start the subway, if the four of you go in, at least one of you will die before you can get out. At this time, no leader will take this risk, no matter how dangerous the destination is."

"And even if I dare to let you in, don't forget that the nightmare heart is still in my hand," Yuan Shanming sighed softly, "You can't enter the ghost story at all. Once you choose to get off the train early, everyone will return to the customs platform like me in an instant, and then your identity will be exposed. The problem will be even greater..."

"...Tsk," Xiao Tang leaned back unhappily, "Forgot about the customs."

She and several other teammates looked at each other and saw the same denial in everyone's eyes.

No, I can't go back.

The reason why Yuan Shanming is worried about their going back is that their identities might be recognized if they go back. Yuan Shanming doesn't know that the collapse of the subway space was most likely caused by them.

If I go back at this time and run into the staff who are handling the subway space, I will be caught red-handed.

It would be troublesome if something happened then.

"Who knew it would become such a big deal..." Xiao Tang put his hand on Huangmao's shoulder in annoyance, waving it back and forth, "I shouldn't have gone there if I had known!"

Huangmao closed his eyes in repentance: "My fault."

If he had known earlier, he would not have taken that detour.

Who knew that this group of teammates would be so curious about the well that they even ended up collapsing the subway space.

Several newcomers here said that they knew it well and would not have gone down the well. Yuan Shanming also stood up and turned around in annoyance.

Even the old leader of City S couldn't help but turn his head and curse at this moment: "I should have taken the above-ground route earlier!"

Both sides are not talking about the same thing, but regret is common.

For a moment, everyone in the car was unexpectedly silent.

After a long while, Huang Mao perked up and looked at Yuan Shanming: "Brother Yuan, what should we do later?"

"Later..." Yuan Shanming sat down and rubbed his forehead. "The City of the Dead at night doesn't have the city guards of the City of Violence. Let me check the time first. It will be... one o'clock in the morning."

The sun doesn't rise until six or seven in the morning.

"The bad news is that we have to stay in the subway station for at least five or six hours," he raised his head, "the good news is..."

The subway door opened silently.

There were faint voices coming from the platform.

Yuan Shanming stood up first.

"The good news is," he looked outside, "S City just had a buff a few days ago, and a large portion of the people trapped in the customs team must be planning to go to the City of the Dead."

"This night, countless people like us are trapped in the night city of the dead."

Following Yuan Shanming's words, everyone stepped out of the car.

The subway platform was crowded with team members.

Seeing another group of newcomers coming down, all of them except the leader were covered in blood, and many people secretly took a breath.

In the distance, an overjoyed male voice came: "Brother Yuan! You are here tonight too!"

"This is Captain Yuan!" The crowd parted like the sea, and several leaders who seemed to be in charge walked out from behind the crowd. The man in the middle was introducing the team members behind him, "We are so lucky! Captain Yuan is the gold medal leader of S City. He has been leading the team here for at least ten years. He is familiar with this place like his own home. He has been in and out of the City of the Dead at night for at least several times! We are saved tonight!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone on the platform looked over.

Cold, numb, and joyful faces.

Under the pale light, Yuan Shanming, the center of attention in the crowd, frowned slightly.

He secretly let out a sigh of relief in his heart and cheered himself up: "Don't flatter me, I'm not sure about tonight."

"Don't say that, brother." The man stepped forward and said admiringly, "When I first entered the Novice Village, you were the one who led me there. I know your level best. Now I'm the team leader. I feel much more at ease with you here, Brother Yuan..."

"Okay, stop praising me," Yuan Shanming stopped him from continuing. He raised his head and looked around. "How many people are here on the subway platform now? How many tour leaders are there? How many of them are from S City and how many are from other places? How many newcomers are there? How many of them have just come in and how many have been exploring for a while?"

"Take a count," he looked around, "as quickly as possible. The numbers don't have to be too accurate. Everyone, please stay away for now."

"Did anyone go up there just now?" He turned his head and looked around.

“No…”

“It seems not…”

“No one dared to leave the platform.”

There are a few answers around

"That's good. From now on, no one should go up," Yuan Shanming exhaled. "Count the number of people first. Is there anyone from S City among the team leaders?"

*

"Brother Yuan is so awesome? All these people listen to him?" Xiao Tang opened a bag of beef jerky and ate the water from the vending machine while moving closer to Bai Jinshu. "Do you want some beef jerky?"

She had already changed her bloodstained clothes. A kind-hearted person among the newcomers who had been trapped in the City of the Dead and had brought some clean clothes lent two sets of clean clothes to Xiao Tang and Guan Hongyan.

"No need," Bai Jinshu tugged at his coat and looked at the ice water in her hand. He felt that Xiao Tang really had an iron stomach. If it were a normal person, people without stomach problems would have a stomachache after eating ice water with beef jerky. "Have you finished counting the number of people?"

"Not yet." Xiao Tang found a clean place to sit down and patted the beef jerky on his hands. "Brother Yuan is still over there discussing countermeasures with the team leaders. When I first went over, he told us to eat something and take a rest to save our energy."

Having said that, not many people can eat nowadays.

A team member like Xiao Tang, who runs around with a bag of beef jerky and asks his leader for a bunch of cash to buy food in front of a vending machine, is obviously carefree.

Most of the team members who already understood the current situation had begun to worry about how they would get through the night, while those who were not aware of the situation could always tell that something was not right.

Only Xiao Tang was still eating beef jerky enthusiastically at this time. It can only be said that this was the absolute confidence brought by absolute strength.

"Give me something hot." A hand stretched out from Bai Jinshu's side, with a steaming bucket of instant noodles on it.

He was stunned for a moment and looked up, following the hand holding the instant noodles, he saw Huai Jiamu standing next to him with a bucket of freshly brewed instant noodles in his hand, which he estimated were also sold from the vending machine next to him.

Behind him, Guan Hongyan was also holding two dishes in her hands: "Xiao Tang? Which one do you want, the braised beef or the pickled cabbage?"

"Instant noodles!" Xiao Tang's eyes lit up, and he immediately got up from the ground and ran over, "Sister Hua, where did you get the hot water? I was wondering why Ersi didn't want my beef jerky! So there are instant noodles, why didn't you tell me earlier!"

She unceremoniously went over to the braised beef that Guan Hongyan had taken from her left hand, opened the lid, squatted on the ground and took a bite: "Hot, hot, hot!"

"It's from the hot water room in front," Guan Hongyan pointed to a restroom at the end of the subway station, "It takes a while to boil. We just waited for a long time."

"Have you finished counting the number of people?" She handed the other bowl in her hand to Huangmao and asked while sitting on the ground.

"No," Bai Jinshu shook his head. "At the customs, I guess the people haven't finished their work yet. There will be a team coming down from time to time."

What you say will come true.

As soon as he finished speaking, a leader who looked very tired walked out of the subway door.

The person who had been waiting nearby immediately stepped forward and said, "You are the leader, right? Are you from the City of the Dead?"

"No," the leader shook his head and mentioned an area they had never heard of, "I'm from here."

"How many of your team members are still alive?" the man continued to ask.

"Six." The leader said.

"Not bad," the person at the door wrote something on the notebook in his hand and pointed to the front, "Your team members can take a rest first. The team leaders are all over there."

The team leader said something to the team members behind him and walked towards Yuan Shanming.

"Is this the 30th one tonight?" Xiao Tang raised his head and glanced around. "There are at least a few hundred people on the platform."

All those here now are newcomers and team leaders who are trapped on the subway due to the subway space and time control.

Most of the people who take the subway to S City are other team leaders. There are very few local team leaders here. The few local team leaders did not return to S City with their team members from other areas, but just returned to the Novice Village with a team of newcomers who just died and didn't know what happened.

Compared with newcomers in normal situations, these newcomers can be said to be in hell mode at the start.

As soon as they entered the Novice Village, they faced the dangerous night in the City of the Dead. These newcomers who had no idea what they were about to face had much more anxiety on their faces than the seniors who had been in the Novice Village for a while.

But speaking of anxiety, the misfortune of the newcomers is that they have been facing the hell mode since the beginning, and their luck is that the newcomers do not have to complete the ghost story when they first go to the subway. On the contrary, they do not have to face everything that happened more than ten minutes ago.

So they also don’t know how much blood was shed on the hands of those predecessors whose faces looked numb or indifferent in order to be able to stand here.

Huangmao came over late with two bowls of instant noodles. Guan Hongyan picked a bucket from them and found a clean place to sit down.

The aroma of instant noodles instantly filled the entire platform, arousing the appetite of many team members.

"Oh my god, it smells so good..." Someone was a little impatient.

Soon, the team members stood up from the ground in groups of three or four and walked towards the vending machines.

"Don't you need it?" Bai Jinshu turned his head to look at Huai Jiamu.

"No need." Huai Jiamu shook his head slightly and looked ahead: "What are Yuan Shanming and the others discussing? Haven't they finished discussing yet?"

"I don't know," Xiao Tang answered vaguely, "It seems like they were talking about how to minimize the losses and get out of here. Brother Yuan wanted everyone to leave the subway station, but the other team leaders disagreed and thought it would be better to just stay here until tomorrow morning."

"When I went to get the money, they were arguing quite loudly," Guan Hongyan swallowed the noodles in her mouth and continued, "Brother Yuan said that the subway station is not safe either, but the team leaders think that since they can stay here now, it means that the undead won't find us here. If Brother Yuan leads us out, their presence will be exposed. So now no one can convince anyone else and the situation is at a stalemate."

Huai Jiamu sneered faintly.

"What are you... laughing at?" Xiao Tang shuddered. "Are you laughing at Brother Yuan or at someone else? Don't laugh for no reason. You're a... a big man. It's scary if you laugh like this without any explanation!"

She did not forget that this great weirdo who was extremely familiar with the City of Violence actually came from the weirdos in the City of the Dead. As everyone was talking about this, he sneered. This was too scary.

"Laughing at those team leaders who refused to leave?" Guan Hongyan guessed.

No matter how you look at it, Yuan Shanming is one of us now, so there is no need to mock him.

"They just said they would listen to Brother Yuan," Xiao Tang rolled his eyes speechlessly, "But now Brother Yuan said he wanted to go out, and they stopped him from leaving. Why did they say they would listen to him? If they had known, Brother Yuan shouldn't have said that no one should go out."

"Yeah," Guan Hongyan also frowned, "Brother Yuan is the local leader of your S City anyway. He must have a reason for leaving. Isn't it okay to just listen to him?"

"They said nice things," Huang Mao complained, "They said they didn't want to leave because they didn't want to abandon the other team leaders who hadn't gotten out of customs yet, and they wanted to wait until everyone was together before leaving. They also said that Brother Yuan wanted everyone to leave together because he wanted to find someone to take the blame, and since their team members were all new, they could be the perfect scapegoat."

After hearing what Huangmao said, a glimmer of enlightenment appeared in Bai Jinshu's eyes.

Only the team leaders who bring newcomers across the region are exempted from points. Those who bring newcomers here do not have this benefit.

If all their new recruits died, they would really be finished. No wonder conflicts arose.

"Brother Yuan must have a reason to leave," Bai Jinshu frowned, "but now the talks have obviously broken down. What will happen if he stays here?"

"It's not safe here," Huai Jiamu said calmly after looking around. "There are too many people. The subway in the City of the Dead is not a truce zone."

"What do you mean?" Xiao Tang looked up while holding the bowl.

"The subway station is just a ghost story," Huai Jiamu glanced at her and mercifully answered the question that should have been answered by Yuan Shanming, "Didn't you see it in Purple Street, the City of Violence? Undead spirits and ghosts will kill humans. The subway station only prohibits other ghost stories from bringing in new people, but it does not prohibit other ghost stories from hunting humans here."

"It's okay now, it's just because the undead haven't arrived yet."

Once we get here, with so many people around, that's when we'll really be the ones taking the blame.

Anyway, Xiao Tang and Guan Hongyan will definitely be safe, and Huangmao is also protected by his teammates. With so many people around, it will be obvious who will be in trouble.

"But those who oppose it..." Guan Hongyan frowned, "Aren't they also local leaders?"

Local leader, don’t you know that the subway is not a truce zone?

When the undead arrive, won’t their new recruits be dead?

"It's just that Yuan Shanming is betting, and they are betting too," Huai Jiamu stood up, "Your team Yuan is here."

Xiao Tang looked up and saw Yuan Shanming indeed walking towards this direction.

"The talks broke down," Yuan Shanming said straight to the point, "Pack up your things and we'll leave from the side later."

"Just us?" Xiao Tang opened his eyes.

"There are four other teams," Yuan Shanming shook his head slightly, "The others have to stay here until tomorrow morning, we'll leave first."

"Didn't they just say they wouldn't let us leave?" Guan Hongyan was a little surprised.

Yuan Shanming uttered a disdainful sound with his nasal voice.

"Don't worry about them," he said with a cold expression. "If they want to stay here and die, then let them go. It will just serve as a distraction for us. Follow me, they won't dare to stop me."

"Those who plan to stay here for the night won't dare to make any noise," he said calmly. "We will charge directly upwards and then meet up with other teams. Don't go out yet. I will take a look at the situation."

Under the angry glares of several team leaders in the distance, Yuan Shanming walked straight over and said to the team members behind him: "Get out of the way."

"Since you plan to stay here and die, we will leave first."

Several leaders also stood up in the distance.

Behind them were team members in twos and threes. It was obvious that they were not newcomers, but team leaders who had lost their teammates in the ghost story.

"Yuan Shanming! You'll be courting death if you go up there. If we're discovered by the undead, we'll all be killed!" Someone spoke angrily. It seemed that he was one of the local leaders in City S.

Several foreign team leaders behind him responded, "Yes, yes."

It seems that there was a disagreement among the local leaders, which caused the foreign leaders to take sides and split into several factions...

Bai Jinshu followed behind Yuan Shanming and observed the team leaders on the platform. Those who stood up with him were probably the team leaders from other places who were in the same group as Yuan Shanming.

Yuan Shanming stood at the front and sneered at the local leader who spoke: "I don't care if you want to drag these people who don't understand the situation to take the blame for you, but don't think of dragging me down with you. Go!"

He actually pushed aside the team leader who was blocking his way and walked up the stairs.

"You!" The team leader was about to take action.

Several team members behind him raised their weapons.

"Are you sure you want to fight us here?" A leader who was also preparing to leave said coldly, "If the sound of fighting attracts the undead, are you sure you can survive?"

The men hesitated.

During this moment of hesitation, their group quickly ran up the stairs and walked towards the outside.

"Brother Yuan!" The leader who had just spoken with a cold face ran over quickly, "What should we do? What should we do if we get out?"

"In the night of the City of the Dead, all kinds of dead spirits are coming and going on the streets outside," a group of people around gathered together, about twenty of them, and the subway platform behind them was getting farther and farther away. Yuan Shanming lowered his voice and quickly explained, "The dead spirits are not friendly to humans, and they will hunt them when they see them, so the safest way is to quickly hide in a safe place after leaving the subway and wait until dawn."

"But the ghost stories also know this, so the ghost stories that appear at night are also here to hunt humans. There are very few blind spots that they don't know about," he said quickly, "so as long as they go out, there will definitely be a fight."

"We're going to fight?" The yellow-haired man said tremblingly, "Can we win if we fight them?"

"No." Yuan Shanming spoke quickly.

He paused and looked back at the leaders who were glaring at him below the platform.

"So," he narrowed his eyes and said what Huai Jiamu had said a few minutes ago, "They are betting that these undead will not notice this place, and I am betting too."

"I was betting that such a large number of humans would have been discovered long ago," he signaled everyone to be quiet, and then followed him and quietly went around to the escalator above the subway station. "It seems that my bet is right now."

"Come with me, a few people," Yuan Shanming pressed the elevator button, motioned for someone to block the door, then took a few steps up and opened the elevator's skylight, "Come up."

"The most dangerous place is the safest place," he said as he pulled everyone up, "Tonight, we'll stay in the subway station."

"Xiao Tang, you are quite skilled. Climb up and take a look. The elevator door on the first floor of the subway station is transparent."

Following Yuan Shanming's whispers, the quick-footed Xiao Tang had already climbed up and saw outside the subway through the transparent elevator door on the ground.

“Shit…” She whispered and immediately lowered her head, “Outside, the ground outside is full of all kinds of undead!”

"Did you see it?" Yuan Shanming lowered his voice.

Xiao Tang covered his mouth with one hand and nodded frantically.

Yuan Shanming signaled everyone who was on the elevator to stand still or find a good place to hang, and then covered the ceiling.

"You can't start a ghost story in a subway station, but that doesn't mean you can't enter here. It's just that they can't drag other people into the ghost story here." His voice was very light in the narrow elevator shaft. "So, if we are forced outside the subway, we're done."

In the distance, the first footsteps were heard on the steps of the subway station.

"Look," Yuan Shanming narrowed his eyes, "They are being forced out."

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First 20 + Random 20~