Chapter 1: Death Express (Part 6)
I ran, tears flying from my face. This damn train, this damn game, this damn trip!
I sprinted all the way back to the front of the train and saw the control room. Now I had only one thought: hide. Hide inside the control room, hide in a place where no one in the world could find me.
Just as I was about to reach the control room door handle, a figure lunged from the side, slamming me against the door. Then I saw Drake's nightmare-inducing blade-like face right in front of me!
His left hand gripped my throat, while his right arm raised the golden hook, still dripping with Quinn's warm blood. He pressed the hook against my face, his features twisting with manic excitement: "Kid, how do you want to die? Having your windpipe hooked out and slowly suffocating, or having your artery slit so you can listen to the sound of your own blood spraying?"
My entire body had gone limp. Not an ounce of fight left in me, like a lamb to the slaughter. Drake suddenly seemed to remember something: "OK, I've decided. I want to try a new move. Let's see if I can flip your skull clean off. Play along now, will you?"
Like the grim reaper raising his scythe, Drake lifted the golden hook above my head.
Tears and snot streamed down my face. My vocal cords spasmed, and I couldn't even form a single word of begging.
Suddenly, the train let out an excruciating "screech"—the sound of emergency braking. At the same time, Conductor Nana's sweet voice came over the broadcast: "The train has arrived at the terminal, North Millbrook Station. All passengers, please stop fighting immediately, gather your belongings, and disembark. Anyone who violates the rules will have their trip victory qualification revoked."
Drake glanced up at the camera, then released me, grumbling, "Kid, consider yourself lucky."
I collapsed on the floor, my body still trembling. Even after the train stopped and the doors opened, my legs felt like jelly.
At one in the morning, I stumbled out of that blood-soaked train and stood on the platform at North Millbrook Station. The night wind was desolate. Aside from the survivors of this trip, there wasn't a single ordinary passenger on the platform.
Everyone, covered in blood, exchanged glances. Just moments ago, they'd been locked in a fight to the death—now they walked their separate ways as if they'd never met. It was as if stepping off the train had transported them into an entirely different world.
I wandered toward the exit in a daze when I heard someone call my name. I turned around—it was Conductor Nana.
Nana handed me a ticket splattered with blood, but the passenger's name was still legible: Quinn.
"Since the passenger has died, the ticket stub is unclaimed. According to the trip rules, it can be transferred to their ally for an additional reward." Nana looked at me earnestly. "I've been monitoring the cameras. You and Quinn were allies, right?"
"Right..." I nodded mechanically.
"Then this ticket stub is yours. You can redeem it for an extra hundred thousand yuan. There will be staff at the exit to handle the exchange. By the way, regarding the next trip's schedule, we'll send you an email notification. Please keep an eye out for it." Nana flashed me a sweet smile. "Well then, goodbye, and have a pleasant life."
Everyone on the platform had left. I stood there alone, holding that blood-stained ticket stub.
An alliance?
Did Quinn and I form an alliance?
Oh yes, I remembered now. The last thing he said to me was: "Brother, run."
He didn't even know my name!
He'd protected an ally whose name he never got the chance to learn!
"My name is Ryan Knox! My name is Ryan Knox..." I dropped to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably, pounding the ground with my fists. "I never told you—my name is Ryan Knox!"
My tears flowed across the concrete like a river in the north.
I didn't exchange Quinn's ticket stub for a reward. I kept it instead. It was the only memento my former ally had left behind.
I turned in my own ticket stub, and soon a text message confirmed that five hundred thousand yuan had been deposited into my bank account.
I went to find Slade and paid off the two hundred thousand in loan shark debt. As I'd suspected, he knew nothing about the "Death Trip" internals. A higher-up in the city had ordered him to do it. But which higher-up, he didn't know.
I also tried searching online for anything about Death Trips, but there was absolutely no information.
I even tried to buy a ticket for the 23:15 Jinan to North Millbrook train, only to discover, to my astonishment, that no such high-speed rail existed.
That night's train route seemed like it had been created exclusively for that Death Trip.
I couldn't help but recall Quinn's words: "The world's operating mechanism is like the Dark Net. What you can see on the surface is only about 5%. The vast majority of data lurks beneath."
Just like that journey—there was no trace of it anywhere, as if it had never happened. The only reminder that it hadn't been a dream was the bite wound on my left cheek, which required over a dozen stitches at the hospital. When I looked in the mirror at night, the scar on my face was proof that it had all been real.
Days passed uneventfully, so much so that I eventually began to wonder: did I really participate in such a journey?
Until one day, about a month later. I'd just stepped out of the shower and was about to go to bed when my phone chimed with an unread email notification. I opened it, and every hair on my body stood on end.
"Dear Ryan Knox, we cordially invite you to participate in the 'Rose' cruise ship's international waters voyage. Trip duration: five hours. Victory reward: eight hundred thousand yuan. If you agree to participate, please click the 'Agree' button at the bottom right, and the system will issue your ticket immediately. If you decline, simply ignore this email."
Another trip was about to begin.
My life was already back on track. With the five hundred thousand from before, I'd paid off all my debts and even had some savings. I no longer needed to worry about money.
I could have just lived peacefully like this.
I turned around and saw the ticket stub in the frame on my nightstand, still stained with dried blood.
My ally, you must have been so unwilling. Why was I the one who survived?
I think you really wanted to see what the "Dark Net" truly looked like—to know what kind of force could drive your brother to willingly die for it.
After all, that was why you joined the trips, again and again.
But you'll never see it.
I'm sorry, Quinn. I'm not your brother after all. We were just strangers who crossed paths by chance.
But I can see it in your place. I also want to peel back the surface of this world and see its true face.
Now, that had become my reason to live.
I will take your blood and smear it across the heart of this world.
"Issue the ticket." I pressed the Agree button, my finger trembling with excitement. "Drake, I hope you're on this ship too."