"It's a trap."

Angel Slaughter took a deep breath and then said, "When I was on the platform, I spoke very briefly, pressed for time. Basically, 'The Doctor said if you take the stuff from here, you'll fall into a trap.'"

Angel Slaughter hadn't expected her words to convince Han Shan and Gu Mian so quickly. When Han Shan turned and walked back immediately after listening, Angel Slaughter, who had been prepared for a lengthy persuasion, was stunned.

The three of them were back on the train now and had time to discuss things in detail.

Just then, the mechanical voice sounded from above again— "Next stop, Sweet Manor. Passengers who wish to disembark, please prepare in advance."

Angel Slaughter, unaffected by the announcement, was about to continue speaking.

But when she opened her mouth, she found her mind a bit muddled. Although she generally understood the trap, she couldn't articulate it clearly, so she passed the problem directly to Gu Mian.

"I'm quite flustered right now, and my mind isn't clear. You should ask the Doctor in the fourth car directly. Anyway, he was the one who speculated about the trap and told me."

Gu Mian, suddenly saddled with this question, felt a bit of a headache.

However, he then spoke, not about the 'trap,' but asked, "What was the tablet the hawker gave you for?"

Gu Mian had seen the tablet on the train. Although he had his suspicions, he still needed to ask a few questions to confirm.

Han Shan answered succinctly, "To pre-order goods. Any amount can be pre-ordered. The people at this station will notify the hawker at the next station to prepare them for us in advance."

At this point, everyone else was clutching their walkie-talkies tightly, waiting for the Doctor's response. From the moment they heard the word "trap," they had a vague sense that something bad was about to happen.

After a few seconds, the Doctor's voice came through the walkie-talkie. "How many of you pre-ordered raw meat?"

The voices of Xiao Tiantian, Suo Qingqiu, and Guigu sounded one after another.

Angel Slaughter had gone out a bit late; by then, Guigu had already pre-ordered the resources needed for the next station.

Gu Mian's voice then followed, "You should have realized some things from my question. The trap is related to this raw meat."

"From the moment we boarded, we saw the passenger list on the counter showing the number of passengers in our respective cars. However, each of us discovered an extra person in our own car."

"And the attendant's rules state we cannot refuse a 'passenger's' order. We need to understand that the official passenger count is clearly written on the list, meaning the extra person isn't considered a 'passenger'…"

Han Shan's brow smoothed. "So, we can absolutely refuse the requests of that extra person."

The meaning of this instance was very clear: they were meant to refuse.

Xiao Tiantian hesitated before asking, "Are you saying the one who ordered raw meat from us is 'the extra one'? How can you be sure?"

Gu Mian stated confidently, "Because I checked the tickets!"

Xiao Tiantian was speechless.

COUGH COUGH. Gu Mian coughed twice and began to explain, "Actually, I noticed earlier that everyone who ordered raw meat went to the counter to do so personally. They could have placed their orders when an attendant passed by, but they didn't."

"The woman in my car who ordered raw meat, for instance. When she wanted to place her order, I was right beside her, but she didn't ask me directly. Instead, she walked to the counter and waited for a long time."

"This shows that those placing the orders didn't want the surrounding passengers to know what they ordered. They knew they were different and were afraid of attracting attention, so they deliberately went to the counter."

"Afraid?" Guigu's sarcastic voice interjected. "Can we not describe ghosts as being so weak?"

Gu Mian continued, "In fact, the ghosts placing orders are probably indeed very weak. They likely just want to eat meat. I even suspect that if you punched one, it wouldn't dare to fight back and might even whimper…"

Han Shan cut off Gu Mian's 'whimpering' promptly. "Alright, stop the nonsense and get to the point."

Gu Mian immediately stopped his vocal imitation. "Initially, I thought this was a misdirection from the instance, intended to mislead us into fighting amongst ourselves for the limited supply of raw meat."

"That's why I had Angel Slaughter go down to stop you. I originally said not to buy raw meat, but other things were fine. However, I don't know why the three of you took nothing and came back on the train empty-handed."

Angel Slaughter faltered. "Time was too short; I misspoke."

But that wasn't a major issue, as their supplies of ordinary goods were still ample.

Gu Mian twisted open a bottle of orange-flavored soda and continued, "I just said I suspected the instance was trying to misdirect us. But Han Shan, after you came up and described the situation, I suddenly felt that wasn't it."

He took a sip. "As long as items are pre-ordered, resources become plentiful. With abundant resources, even if players are misled, the likelihood of them resorting to killing each other is quite low."

Guigu muttered, "Why do I seem to hear someone opening a soda bottle?"

Angel Slaughter replied, "I saw him drink it with my own eyes."

So, if the chance of players killing each other is low even when misled, then the danger in this instance must come from somewhere else.

Where exactly…

Han Shan frowned in confusion.

Just then, a frightened voice came through the walkie-talkie. It was Xiao Tiantian. "Wait! I just realized... in my car..."

However, just as he was mid-sentence, an announcement blared from overhead—"Next stop, Sweet Manor. Passengers preparing to disembark, please get ready."

The announcement was too loud, completely drowning out Xiao Tiantian's voice.

Immediately after this announcement, another followed—"Attention passengers, we are about to enter a tunnel area. The train's power will be temporarily cut. Please prepare yourselves."

A tunnel area again!

Another power outage!

How could this be!

As the tunnel announcement was halfway through, darkness suddenly enveloped everyone.

The two announcements had completely drowned out Xiao Tiantian's voice.

Guigu grew anxious. In the darkness, he strained his ears, pressing the walkie-talkie almost to his head, but only managed to catch two fragmented words.

"Count… less…"

The moment the word "less" came through, Xiao Tiantian's voice cut off abruptly.

It was as if someone had suddenly cut off his walkie-talkie; the other end went silent.

At the same time, the overhead announcements also ceased. The dark train plunged into an eerie silence. No one spoke.

After a long moment, Suo Qingqiu's trembling voice broke the silence from the darkness, "He... what happened to him? What did he say at the end?"

"Less." Gu Mian stated, sensing the train slowing down. "The number... has decreased."

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