Chapter 116
Shen Yan, surrounded by the passengers, his expression cold and aloof, his gaze icy, looked at Qi Yao.
“Join you?”
He held Xing Nuo protectively, gently patting his back, his face expressionless.
“Join you and die?”
Qi Yao’s face fell, but he just scratched his head awkwardly, trying to maintain his composure.
“It’s alright if you don’t want to, Mr. Shen. But everyone else is trying to contribute, for everyone’s safety.”
Xing Nuo, nestled in his brother’s arms, looked up at Qi Yao and suddenly asked:
“Uncle Qi, why you no give tasks before…but now…everyone do?”
Qi Yao, a military school graduate, had the principle of protecting the masses ingrained in him.
He hadn’t considered involving ordinary people before.
Firstly, they had no abilities and were less sensitive to danger, making them easy targets. Secondly, he hadn’t understood the situation on this train and hadn’t dared to form teams.
But after returning from the other car, his behavior had changed drastically.
Inciting fear and mobilizing the passengers, everything he was doing contradicted his usual principles.
His two teammates, looking at him, also realized something was wrong.
“Qi-dui? Are…are you okay?”
They cautiously took a couple of steps back, pulling the young people they had just rallied behind them.
Qi Yao just smiled, his gaze on Xing Nuo turning sinister.
“What’s wrong with me? Little one, you don’t want your brother to help, so you’re trying to discredit me?”
Xing Nuo, his face flushed from the heat in the train car, blinked and pointed at Qi Yao’s skin.
“Uncle Qi, your face not red…pale.”
The temperature in the car was around 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and everyone, dressed in thick winter clothes, was either sweating or flushed.
But Qi Yao’s face wasn’t red at all. He wasn’t even sweating.
Qi Yao’s eyes turned cold, his disguise slipping.
“Little brat, I’ll remember this!”
His carefully planned scheme had been exposed by a child!
His face grim, he walked to the front of the car, the other passengers shrinking back in fear, and sat down, closing his eyes.
A clear space formed around him, the other passengers keeping their distance, their gazes wary.
In the back.
Lin Tezhu, looking at Xing Nuo, his eyes sparkling, said:
“Xing Nuo is so amazing! And so cute! I want to pinch his cheeks!”
His cousin, however, his cigarette tucked behind his ear, his face serious, said:
“We also noticed something was wrong with Qi Yao, but we couldn’t confirm if he was a monster, so we didn’t act.”
One of the players had an enhanced sense of smell.
He had sensed something off about Qi Yao’s scent the moment he appeared and had discreetly informed the others.
But they hadn’t expected an ordinary person to notice it too.
“It’s a shame the kid is so young. If he were a teenager, we could recruit him.”
He sighed, then turned to the player with the enhanced sense of smell.
“Anything else?”
The player’s face was tense. He didn’t want to alarm the others, but he also didn’t want to withhold information.
“I’ve been sensing a powerful monster presence, S-level or higher, but it seems to be concealing its aura. I can’t pinpoint its location.”
To avoid disrupting Xing Nuo’s life in the human world, Shen Yan, Shen Wen, and Shen Baizhou had been suppressing their monster auras.
Unless you were a high-level monster or ability user, you could only sense a faint trace of their presence.
Even the high-level monster aura clinging to Xing Nuo had weakened over the years.
And with Qi Yao, a low-level ability user, living downstairs, Shen Yan, ever cautious, didn’t want to risk exposure.
Lin Yan’s cousin, his throat itching, wanted a cigarette, but with a powerful monster hiding in the train car, he couldn’t afford to be distracted.
“This is troublesome. We don’t even know what this monster’s objective is.”
He looked around the car, his expression grim.
“Can you sense which one is the real monster?”
The fake Qi Yao’s identity had been exposed, but there had been no system notification, which meant the real monster was still hiding.
His teammate shook his head and sighed.
“Too many different scents in here, a mix of human and monster. Honestly, everyone seems suspicious.”
The players, having no leads, decided to wait and observe.
Xing Nuo, having exposed the fake Qi Yao, hid his face in his brother’s jacket.
“Big Brother,” he whispered.
Shen Yan, his gaze fixed on some distant point, hummed.
“What is it?”
Xing Nuo, leaning against his brother’s chest, couldn’t hear a heartbeat.
And, he noticed that, like the fake Qi Yao, his brother’s face was pale and he wasn’t sweating, despite the heat in the train car.
Xing Nuo, his own palms damp with sweat, tucked his hands into his pockets and shook his head.
“Nuffin’. I wanna go home.”
He wanted to go home and hug Daddy and his other Big Brother.
Shen Yan’s lips tightened, and he looked around the chaotic train car, then stood up, holding Xing Nuo.
“Alright, let’s go home.”
Just as he was about to leave, another Qi Yao emerged from the passageway connecting their car to the next.
He immediately saw the fake Qi Yao sitting in the front.
He gasped, thinking, I’ve never seen myself look so creepy!
“Wait, what the—?! Who are you?!”
The other passengers, startled, looked at the two identical Qi Yaos, unsure which one was real, and remained silent.
The monster Qi Yao, for some reason, didn’t react, just sat there, motionless, his eyes closed, like a wax figure.
Qi Yao, after a moment of confusion, quickly understood the situation.
“I’m the real Qi Yao!”
But the other passengers, scared and confused, looked away, not giving him a chance to explain.
Even his own teammates sighed and said:
“Qi-dui, we can’t tell. What if he’s another fake? We can’t risk it.”
Qi Yao, frustrated, seeing Shen Yan standing up with Xing Nuo in his arms, hurried over to him.
“Xing Nuo, you’re best friends with Uncle, right? You can tell I’m the real one, right?”
Xing Nuo looked at Qi Yao, then lowered his head and shook his head.
“I don’t know. I not best fwiends with Uncle Qi. He always teases me.”
Qi Yao chuckled and pinched Xing Nuo’s cheek.
“How did I tease you? Did you not like the cake? Or the toy car I gave you?”
Xing Nuo huffed, covering his cheek, and glared at Qi Yao.
“Okay. But Uncle Qi, Big Brother and me…leaving now. Can’t help you.”
He didn’t want to stay in this strange train car any longer.
He wanted to go home and confirm something.
Qi Yao, puzzled, asked:
“Leaving?”
How could they leave?
The train was moving. Even if it stopped at stations, the names of the stations were terrifying, and no one dared get off.
Three hours passed, and the train, as predicted, slowed down, a mechanical voice announcing:
“Attention passengers, arriving at Zombie Town Station. Please watch your step as you disembark. We wish you a one-way trip!”
The passengers fell silent, looking at the open doors, no one moving.
Only Shen Yan, ignoring Qi Yao’s shocked “Are you crazy?!” expression, carried Xing Nuo out of the train.
Before leaving, he handed Qi Yao something.
“Qi Yao, before you die, turn this over.”
Qi Yao froze, hearing the monster’s guttural growl behind him, as the other passengers screamed and scattered.
Unable to stop Shen Yan, he watched helplessly as he and Xing Nuo disappeared.
He clutched his hair, cursing,
then turned to help his teammates fight the monster.
The players, still observing coldly, having confirmed that this wasn’t the real monster, didn’t interfere.
Just as Qi Yao was about to be overwhelmed, his lightning ability depleted, the hourglass Shen Yan had given him fell out of his pocket.
Someone kicked it, and it flipped over.
The players’ eyes widened.
“It’s a Reversal Hourglass! Quick, use your props!”
The dungeon time was being reset!
This high-level hourglass was a legendary prop, rumored to be possessed only by a few SSS+ level monsters.
Once activated, it would reverse time in the dungeon!
How far back it went depended on the user’s power.
And everyone in the dungeon would be returned to their previous state.
The players didn’t want to leave the dungeon yet, but their props were too weak to resist the hourglass’s power.
They quickly used their props to record the events of the past few hours,
so they wouldn’t forget what had happened after the time reset.
At Rongcheng Train Station.
Qi Yao and his teammates appeared in the waiting area, looking at the train in front of them, their faces blank.
“What are we doing here?”
“Where’s the monster?!”
“Check for energy fluctuations! Why are you all just standing there?!”
Time in the real world couldn’t be reversed, and a whole day had passed.
The logistics chief, who had been waiting at the station, walked over, his expression grim.
“Qi Yao, you were pulled onto the train. What happened?”
Qi Yao, his mind blank, couldn’t remember being on the train.
“Qi-dui, the energy fluctuation is gone!”
Qi Yao hurried over, looking at the readings on the device, his brow furrowed in frustration.
What’s going on?
Xing Nuo hadn’t returned home directly.
He and his brother had gotten off the train at Zombie Town. Shen Yan, effortlessly dispatching a few zombies, had led Xing Nuo through the deserted streets and back to the villa.
Xing Nuo, standing at the elevator, looked up at his brother, who was putting earplugs in his ears, his face puzzled.
