Non-Human Seeking Re-employment

(It is not like we are bad people)

Edited by Silver Wind

"…All have to die!"

Once the last word landed, the ceiling lights in the train compartment brightened and darkened, before it sparked and sizzled, extinguishing completely.

But that was alright, since the complete darkness did not last for long. The white incandescent lights made a final struggle before the dying flash lit up their surroundings again.

In that short instant, the Train Attendant standing at the door of the first train carriage had stepped in soundlessly, her ashen-pale face sticking closer to the person closest to the door. Just a little bit more, and said human and ghost would have come into intimate contact.

"AH—"

That survivor screamed as they retreated, a little short of falling to the ground butt first.

The dying flash from the incandescent white light did not last long as it was extinguished again.

In the darkness, the players' panicked and flustered voices rang out: "Where is she? Where did she go!?"

"Ahh she's coming over!"

"Don't panic, does anyone have a torchlight or handphone?"

A beam of cold light shone over.

All of the players went quiet.

Not because there was light, but because they had been scared silly.

The artificial and mentally-deficient travellers that were originally seated in their chairs had all squeezed into the entrance, stretching their hands towards the players in the first carriage.

All of them were wearing identical smiles. Their smiles were not terrifying, but when a group of people were using the same smiling expression that seemed carved out of the same mould, staring at them fixedly, it was hard for them to not tremble in fear.

All of the players shuddered.

Someone suddenly said: "They're coming over!"

Every time the players blinked, the travellers at the entrance would take a step forward, and without needing much time, they broke through the door and entered, arriving by the players' side.

The pitiful players did not dare to close their eyes, and they kept their eyes wide open in desperation, staring at the guests outside.

"What should we do now?"

"Train ticket, we need to find the train tickets!"

"Where are we supposed to find them? They're coming over!"

One of the players remarked coldly, "Actually, they will only kill one person."

Chequered Skirt turned her head back abruptly "What did you just say?"

That person said: "Every time the Train Attendant checked for train tickets, only one person died.

Panel Cap died during the first time, the second person to die was the player who took someone else's ticket.

Like they could care less about anything else, they continued to say: "It means that we don't need to rush to find the train tickets, I just need to guarantee that the person who dies isn't me."

After that person was done talking, he promptly pulled the person beside them and pushed them towards the door entrance.

Chequered Skirt: "Don't—"

But she could not stop it in time, the person being pushed had already reached the door, and he was a mere step away from the group of travellers.

Shen Dongqing raised his hand and waved it in greeting. "……Hi?"

Travellers: ……

The player who did the pushing looked at his own hand, then looked to the side, slightly baffled.

The person he was trying to push just now was not Shen Dongqing…

The smiling expressions on the travellers' visage was slightly rigid.

What was going on?

Could you give us some face, it's alright even if you're only pretending to be scared for a moment!

Shen Dongqing stopped the Train Attendant from running before he asked kindly: "I would like to ask you a question."

The Train Attendant was already going to have a psychological shadow from all the questioning as she replied on reflex: "I don't know anything!"

Shen Dongqing stared at the Train Attendant for a long moment.

Under his stare, the Train Attendant felt sweat gathering on her forehead. She stuttered out, "What, what are you trying to do……"

How could she possibly maintain the expression she typically used to scare players under such circumstances?

Shen Dongqing shook his head. "Too unprofessional."

Train Attendant: Ah?

Shen Dongqing: "Do you know what it means to love what you do? Even if you became a ghost, you're still a train attendant on this train, how could you be so impolite to the guests? Furthermore, I haven't even asked you the question."

The Train Attendant paused and stiffened due to his words. While his words were quite sudden, they seemed to be logical, so she nodded her head stupidly.

Satisfied, Shen Dongqing patted the Train Attendant's shoulder. He gave her an approving look first before he uttered, "Do you know where the Train Operator is?"

The two words "Train Operator" seemed to have flipped some kind of switch, since the Train Attendant froze for a moment before her ashen-pale face became warped, a trail of blood trickling down from the corners of her eyes. Underneath the dim and dark lights, it appeared particularly terrifying.

The female players were scared to the point that they cried out in alarm.

Shen Dongqing retracted his hand as well.

Thinking that she had scared Shen Dongqing, the Train Attendant smiled in satisfaction. However, she could not keep her smile for long, since she did not know how to respond.

—Because she saw Shen Dongqing wiping his hands resentfully. "Absolutely disgusting."

The Train Attendant, who was crying tears of blood: …What should I do, I really feel like crying.

Shen Dongqing asked again: "Where is the Train Operator?"

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The Train Attendant replied ominously. "The Train Operator is…" She widened her eyes, sweeping her eyes across the players at the scene, not in the rush to divulge the Train Operator's whereabouts.

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The Train Attendant laughed strangely, "He's in your midst!"

In an instant, all of the players became vigilant, doubting the male players in their group.

The Chequered Skirt vouched for her companion, saying: "I entered this copy with him, he can't be the Train Operator."

The other players started to explain themselves.

After being stuck in a deadlock for a moment, the man standing in the corner suddenly exploded. He stretched his hands towards the player closest to him, wanting to hold him hostage.

However, it seemed like his luck was failing him, because the person standing closest to him was Zhou Wenyan.

Compared to Shen Dongqing who had been tearing the ghosts apart, Zhou Wenyan appeared a lot quieter. However, his external appearance was sharp and keen; anyone who noticed him would never dare to underestimate him.

Now that the Train Operator who had been concealing himself in their human group suddenly acted, he did not even last for two seconds against Zhou Wenyan before he was pressed into the ground.

The pair's strengths were two different types of cards.

Shen Dongqing relied on his strong foundational constitution and any casual move he made was capable of causing extreme damage, and there was no technique to speak of at all. Whereas Zhou Wenyan was proficient in all kinds of techniques; his movements were exacting and vicious, and rather than calling it a wrestling move, it looked more like art.

As Zhou Wenyan folded the Train Operator's arm behind his back, it issued a teeth-aching noise.

The Train Operator breathed harshly, struggling desperately, but his lifeline was being pressed down, and no matter how hard he struggled, he could not break free.

After realising this point, he changed his method and he started to sell his misery: "They're going to kill me, please I beg you let go of me, save me, they're all ghosts!"

The players were by no means sweet, young and naïve women; all of them expressed that this was your train's conflict, it had nothing to do with them.

Train Operator: "If you hand me over to them, you'll be killing someone by technicality!"

Shen Dongqing: "Weren't you the one who acted first?"

The Train Operator's face flushed red. Gritting his teeth, he spat out, "All of them are sluts and prostitutes, they deserve to die!"

Frankly speaking, the story of this train was quite complicated.

The wife in the elderly couple had an extramarital affair with an eminent and handsome man online, which was also the Young Gentleman. He deceived the older woman into killing her own husband to gain the sizable life insurance. The older woman poisoned him, but it was discovered by the Elder, who proceeded to stab her with a dining knife moments before his death, hence causing the double death.

The net that the Young Gentleman casted online was not limited to the elderly woman, even the Train Attendant was his partner. He specifically did these things on the train because he knew that the Train Attendant could deal with the aftermath for him.

The bear child was particularly mischievous, and he liked running along the aisle, only to bump into the Train Attendant and Young Gentleman discussing how they were going to divide up the large sum of life insurance money. After the older woman died, the Young Gentleman was afraid that the plot would be exposed, so he tricked the bear child into coming out before he secretly strangled him to death and stuffed him in the luggage compartment.

The Train Operator was the bear child's father. After discovering that the bear child was strangled to death, he did not choose to report it to the police; rather, he used a belt to strangle the Young Gentleman to death.

After doing everything, the Train Operator was preparing to go back to drive the train but he flirted with the Train Attendant who was also his lover.

This was witnessed by the White-skirted Lady, who proceeded to kill the Train Attendant and cut into her face using a dining knife. Afterwards, she hid the Train Attendant's corpse underneath the chair.

Subsequently, she ran over to threaten the Train Operator again, telling the Train Operator that she was pregnant, and if he did not divorce and marry her, she would abort the baby and then deliver the dead baby to the Train Operator's family and company, thereby allowing everyone to know that he started affairs randomly only to abandon them in the end!

She did not expect that the Train Operator would be such a vicious person, to the extent where he would drag the White-skirted Lady into the toilet cubicle and force feed her all the abortion drugs, which led to the White-skirted Lady's eventual death via excessive blood loss.

The Mother did not discover that the bear child was gone. She carried the quiet infant to the partitioned area of the train carriage and placed the infant on the basin. As a matter of fact, the infant had already been suffocated to death by then.

Because the baby was not the Mother's and Train Operator's child. Owing to her husband's constant absence for most of the year, she had extramarital affairs with other people and accidentally had this infant. For the sake of not letting anyone discover this fact, she chose to allow the infant to die unknowingly.

This was subsequently discovered by the Train Operator. Both of them got into an intense argument, and the Mother was pressed into the basin by the Train Operator in the end, hence dying from the lack of air too.

Every member was evil.

None of them were innocent.

As for why the train was not stopping, it was probably because the Train Operator who was supposed to die in the ghosts' revenge was not dead. He hid in the first train carriage, mixing himself among the players, borrowing the players' identity to conceal himself from the ghosts.

After the Train Operator explained everything, he said hoarsely. "All of you are men, you should understand, and understand me. Every man would have done the same!"

Shen Dongqing shook his head, "I don't really understand."

From what he could perceive, humans were way too complicated!

Zhou Wenyan expressed: "I don't really understand either."

Shen Dongqing hauled up the Train Operator, and like he was throwing trash, he tossed him towards the door entrance. "Here you go."

The elderly couple looked at the Train Operator with equal disdain. The White-skirted Lady, Mother, and Train Attendant looked like they had gone insane as they pounced over, each pulling him from one side.

"Mine."

"This is mine."

"Give him to me, give it to me."

As Shen Dongqing watched them try to snatch one man, he suddenly had an idea. "Maybe you should share him, if each of you takes a chunk, you don't need to fight for him."

The movements of the White-skirted Lady, Mother, and Train Attendant ceased.

They pondered briefly. It did make a lot of sense, hence each of them tugged one side and they started to pull outwards with all their strength.

SI LA—

"No, don't!"

"It hurts! Let go of me, wife, darling, babe, let go of me alright?! I will treat all of you well!"

"AH—"

Amidst the miserable and blood-curdling screams, the Train Operator was evenly split into three parts. The trio hugged the chunk that belonged to them, satisfied.

The players closed their eyes, unable to watch.

This image was quite bitter and cruel, but they could not muster their pity. After all, all of the victims on this train were not innocent; they harmed others and were harmed in turn, it could be considered a type of retribution.

Pa—

The ceiling lights brightened again, and the train carriage looked brand new. The travellers squeezing into the train carriage were gone, and only the players remained.

The players looked at each other: "What just happened?"

"Where did they go?"

In the midst of the great confusion, the sound of the train moving came from outside, and the broadcast rang out concurrently.

"The train will be departing in three minutes, may the travellers…"

A lady wearing a white skirt jogged over hastily, finally boarding the train. She braced herself on the back of the chair, panting lightly, and when she finally recomposed herself, she gave the players inside the first train carriage a smile before she walked further inwards.

The players came back to their senses. The bug in the copy had been eliminated and it had restarted.

But the players who previously died were not resurrected.

Someone quickly said: "Find the train tickets as soon as possible."

Having experienced the scene where the Train Attendant was chasing after them for the train tickets, the players were genuinely afraid that the next dead person would be them. Hence, they quickly scattered and looked for their train tickets, their figures disappearing in a short moment's work.

Only the Chequered Skirt stood there without moving. She glanced at the two Big Bosses, somewhat hesitant. "Are both of you really here to eliminate the bug?"

Why were they still here after eliminating the bug?

Shen Dongqing: "Yeah."

Seeing that the two Big Bosses were wearing calm expressions, Chequered Skirt wavered momentarily before saying: "I'm going to go and look for the train ticket then."

Subsequently, she departed from the first train carriage.

At that moment, the train doors slowly closed, and the train began moving once more. The scenery outside the window sped away.

Zhou Wenyan retracted his gaze as he said placidly, "We've been trapped."

In this copy, only the people who possessed train tickets and alighted the train at the location designated by the train ticket, were capable of clearing the copy.

Needless to say, every player had a train ticket that belonged to them.

But Zhou Wenyan and Shen Dongqing were temporarily thrown into the game by the system to eliminate the bug, they did not belong to the category of players in this game premise, and logically speaking, they were supposed to leave after the bug disappeared.

However, the game seemed to be dead since it was not responding in the slightest.

Since they did not have train tickets, they could not clear this game.

The game was using the rules of this game premise and the bug to trap them.

It was no wonder that the game remained unresponsive the entire time; he had assumed that it had submitted to its fate and given up on all hope, but he did not expect that it had dug such a good pit and was waiting to trap them.

Shen Dongqing was not overly anxious either. He offered a suggestion: "Can we steal someone else's train ticket?"

Zhou Wenyan: "Eh… that doesn't work."

The train ticket had a system for identifying users, and the final destination was made for someone else too.

The clearance condition required them to get off on the correct stop. If they took another person's ticket, the stop they were alighting would be wrong too, and it could not satisfy the clearance condition at all.

Shen Dongqing slid into a chair, cupping his chin with both hands as he blinked: "Let's have a meal first then."

In any case, they could not go out, they might as well eat something tasty.

Zhou Wenyan laughed. "Okay."

Soon after, Shen Dongqing's eyebrows knitted together tightly upon encountering a complication.

His kitchen card needed him to burn rice straw before he could gain access to the back kitchen of the hotel, and no matter how he looked at it, it was impossible for there to be rice straw on this train.

Zhou Wenyan resolved Shen Dongqing's frustration in a timely fashion: "There's a dining carriage on the train."

However, once Shen Dongqing ate the food provided by the train, he declared in an exceedingly resolute manner: "I want to leave this copy as soon as possible!"

The food here tasted terrible!

Shen Dongqing could not continue eating after taking a bite and put down his chopsticks, enraged.

It tasted horrendous; it was worse than the food in the cafeteria.

Zhou Wenyan drank a mouthful of water: "Let me think…"

Before he could finish his words, a human figure ran inside, staggering. His complexion was pale, and upon seeing Shen Dongqing, it was like he had found a life-saving straw as he kept saying: "Save my life! Save me!"

Not long after he entered, the sound of the Train Operator's footsteps travelled over from behind him. "Ticket check, dear traveller, where is your ticket?"

The player was sweating like rain as he said hurriedly, "Please save me!"

Shen Dongqing glanced at him, feeling like he looked familiar.

Still under the assumption that this was a game, that player sidled up to Shen Dongqing quickly.

It was alright when he had yet to walk over, but once he walked over, Shen Dongqing immediately recognised him. It was the player who sold out his teammates.

Although the selling of teammates was human nature, he had bad luck because the person he tried to sell out was Shen Dongqing.

Shen Dongqing rubbed his chin. "You still have time to run right now."

Hearing and understanding that Shen Dongqing did not have any intention to help, that player's complexion changed. He turned on them, pointing at Shen Dongqing as he said: "They don't have train tickets either, if you want to check, check all of us together!"

In any case, since only one person without a train ticket would perish each time, he might as well drag the pair in front of him down the water, which would mean that there was a one-third probability, and it was highly likely that he would not be chosen.

Even at this juncture, he did not forget to pull other people under the water.

The Train Attendant's footsteps faltered briefly as she looked at the pair with a complicated gaze. In a prompt and decisive manner, she chose to ignore them and headed for that player directly.

That player turned around and fled.

Unfortunately, the other exit was being blocked by someone. Hence, he could watch the Train Attendant walk closer and closer,  and each step seemed to trample on his heart.

"AH—"

After issuing a shattered scream, the player collapsed to the ground softly, and an emaciated and dried up arm dragged him into the toilet cubicle.

Following closely, bursts of flushing noises travelled outwards.

The Train Attendant walked out, and when she was passing by the two plague gods, she deliberately sped up her walking speed.

Please do not call on her, please do not call on her—

Unfortunately, the Train Attendant's prayers were useless. When her shoulder brushed against Shen Dongqing's seat, she heard a familiar sentence once more.

"I would like to ask a question."

The Train Attendant nearly fainted on the spot.

Shen Dongqing: "How many stops does the train have?"

Having been lectured several times, the Train Attendant finally learned to answer the question obediently: "… Five stops."

Shen Dongqing rapped his fingers, "There's five stops huh, which stop should we alight on?"

Train Attendant: "It's written on your train ticket, please do not get off on the wrong stop or miss your stop."

Zhou Wenyan opened his mouth, "Can we go out and buy a late ticket?"

Train Attendant: "… No."

Dissatisfied, Shen Dongqing remarked: "Your rail stations are not standardised at all!"

The Train Attendant lowered her head, accepting the criticism with a modest attitude.

After being a grandson in the dining carriage, the Train Attendant went to catch the players who did not have their train tickets with an aggressive momentum.

She could not bully the Big Bosses, but she was still capable of cleaning up the newbies, alright?

While Shen Dongqing was thinking about how they should leave this train, there were already players who had found their train tickets. Following closely, they reached their first stop and the train stopped.

Shen Dongqing looked outside through the window.

The train station appeared quite ordinary, and it was not very different from normal train stops. It was just that there were no travellers getting on board, and there were no travellers alighting.

"What if we don't get off the train?" Shen Dongqing asked curiously.

Zhou Wenyan replied: "We'll have to keep staying on the train and wait for the game to begin its next iteration."

And this was precisely the plan that the game had conceived; it wanted to trap them on this railway train. Players would come and go, while they would be trapped on this game premise forever, unable to leave.

Shen Dongqing: "What if we get off on a random stop?"

Zhou Wenyan: "I've never seen that happen."

The probability of a bug appearing in the game was miniscule, and it would only happen once or twice over the course of countless games. Zhou Wenyan had never experienced this sort of situation and he did not know what would happen.

"However…" Zhou Wenyan said pensively, "We can try it."

Shen Dongqing stood up. "Let's try it then."

Zhou Wenyan pressed him down. "Let's observe for one stop first."

They ought to test out what kind of mysterious principles that this train station was ruled by first before they talked.

Shen Dongqing's cheeks puffed up. "But I'm really hungry." Despite saying that, he still sat back down obediently.

Zhou Wenyan felt around his pockets before he took out a handful of snacks and placed them on the table.

Shen Dongqing's eyes brightened. "Why do you have so many?"

Zhou Wenyan pinched his cheek. "I need to be prepared to feed my darling at any time."

Shen Dongqing peeled open a large white rabbit milk candy and stuffed it in his mouth, which caused one of his cheeks to bulge. When he bit down on the milk candy, his mouth was suffused with a milky taste.

Zhou Wenyan chuckled lowly, "Come over here."

Shen Dongqing did not understand but he still leaned over.

Pinching Shen Dongqing's lower chin, Zhou Wenyan borrowed his mouth to savour the taste of the milk candy, and after he tasted it, he even murmured: "How sweet."

Shen Dongqing smiled with crinkled eyes. Flipping his body, he leaned towards him, allowing Zhou Wenyan to savour the taste of the milk candy once more.

Thus, the pair shared the milk candy, and they ate with a great deal of relish too.

The bear child lying in the luggage compartment covered his eyes silently.

They arrived at the second stop very quickly.

At this moment, there was a player that got off the train with his corresponding ticket. Once he got off the train, his figure disappeared from the train station. It seems like he had cleared the copy.

The train only stopped for three minutes before it set off on its journey again.

Meanwhile, another player finally found his ticket, but before he could muster any happiness, he saw the destination listed on top and his vision darkened for an instant.

The first stop was written on top, but the first station had already passed.

Clutching onto his ticket, the player went to look for the Train Attendant to ask: "What if you miss your stop? Does it travel back?"

The Train Attendant was full of smiles, and her tone of voice was gentle. "Apologies, if you missed your station, you can only wait for your death."

This train only went forward without returning;[1] if you missed out on your stop, there was no other recourse. Who could you blame for your bad luck apart from yourself?

It was apparent that the player could not accept this result, since his entire body crumbled. He sat on the ground powerlessly, sinking to the ground and pounding on the floor surface forcefully. He mumbled under his breath: "Why is it like this?!"

No matter how desperate a player was after they found their train tickets only to realise that they missed their stops, or how confounded a player was because they failed to find their ticket, they still arrived at the third stop right on schedule.

The Chequered Skirt's destination was the third stop precisely. Before she alighted, she specifically looked for Shen Dongqing and Zhou Wenyan to thank them seriously. Afterall, without the two of them, it was highly likely that their group of players would have folded here.

After thanking them, she alighted the train. The Chequered Skirt's skirt swayed briefly, and then she cleared the copy.

The player who had missed his stop chose to get off on the third stop.

He gripped onto his train ticket, praying for a fluke in his heart. Afterall, he still had a ticket in his hands, it was possible that it would be judged as a clearance.

His imagination might be absolutely wondrous, but reality proved otherwise.

Once he got off the train, the originally peaceful train station went through a strange chain: a distorted figure crawled out from the shadow, grabbing hold of the player's limbs before it pulled him under the railway.

It was unknown how many people were under the railway tracks, but it still set off as scheduled.

PFFF ZIII—

After a smothered hiss, the train continued forward steadily.

Zhou Wenyan stood up: "Let's get off the train."

Shen Dongqing issued an "oh", picking out all the unfinished snacks on the table and carrying it in his arms before he followed Zhou Wenyan towards the door to get off the train.

[1] 有去无回 (pinyin: you qu wu hui) – gone forever.