At this moment, Suo Qingqiu was groping her way through a dark aisle.

When the train plunged into darkness, she tripped over something. She didn't fall, but the walkie-talkie in her hand slipped from her grasp and flew far away.

After boarding the train, she had been standing near the counter. The passenger who had wanted to place an order had inexplicably disappeared, so she had nervously stayed by the counter.

Suo Qingqiu didn't dare venture too close to the passenger area.

But now, she had no choice but to make her way there.

It wasn't just because her walkie-talkie had fallen in that direction, but also because after the carriage plunged into darkness, she heard the toilet door, diagonally across from the counter, CREAK open from the inside. She thought she could even hear footsteps coming from that direction.

Startled by the eerie sound, Suo Qingqiu quickly moved toward the passenger area, away from the toilet. Fortunately, even after the carriage went dark, occasional sounds from the passengers could still be heard, adding a sliver of human presence to the unsettling environment.

She carefully made her way to the passenger area and crouched down, feeling around on the floor.

The occasional exchanges between passengers and the rustle of their clothes brought Suo Qingqiu some comfort.

She quieted her movements and, after searching for a short while, finally found her walkie-talkie. It seemed to have fallen underneath a seat.

Suo Qingqiu gritted her teeth and stretched out her hand for it. But just as she grabbed the walkie-talkie, a sudden rustling noise came from a nearby passenger.

Startled, she was about to stand up and leave when a gentle voice drifted down to her from above. "Are you looking for something? Can I help you?"

Hearing the voice, Suo Qingqiu let out a soft sigh of relief and replied, "N-no, thank you."

However, a hand had already landed on her arm, seemingly intending to help her up.

Suo Qingqiu instinctively tried to push it away but found the arm disconcertingly soft, as if covered by a thick glove. With a light push, this "glove" rolled up and then fell to the ground with a SMACK.

Hearing that sound, a chill ran down Suo Qingqiu's spine.

What... what was that?!

That definitely wasn't the sound of a weightless glove hitting the floor!

Her hand was still frozen in place, her fingers having apparently brushed against something cool and utterly revolting where the person's arm should have been.

What fell to the ground?

And what did I touch?!

She wanted to scream, but something rigid, like a wooden plank, suddenly coiled around her neck from behind and began to tighten, strangling her.

Suo Qingqiu struggled, desperately trying to pry off the thing around her neck, but it was to no avail.

Her eyes were rolling back, her hands still unconsciously clawing at the object on her neck.

Just as Suo Qingqiu was about to lose consciousness, it suddenly occurred to her what the object strangling her might be.

An oxygen-deprived brain isn't usually conducive to thought, but in her final moments, she understood.

So, that's what it was...

"Say, did any of you hear something just now?" a passenger's voice came from Carriage Six.

A dismissive voice replied, "Probably just someone turning in their sleep."

After this brief exchange, the carriage fell silent. The earlier sounds of struggle had ceased, so no one said anything more.

At this moment, Guigu's voice came from Han Shan's walkie-talkie. "Damn, I think a head was just blowing on me from above!"

Gu Mian also turned on his walkie-talkie.

The surroundings were still pitch black. The train that had been approaching from behind had already overtaken them, its sounds gradually fading. Gu Mian guessed it wouldn't be long before they exited the tunnel.

Sure enough, just as Guigu finished speaking, their surroundings abruptly lit up.

The power was restored.

Han Shan's first reaction was to look down at what he had written on his arm using the "Pen-shaped Real-time Repeater."

His notebook was with Gu Mian, so he had been forced to write on his own arm.

It read—

"The 'Time Escape' train caught up with the 'Time Escape' train."

"Gu Mian on the 'Time Escape' train took a photo."

"Meng Shi Tian Ying on the 'Time Escape' train yawned."

"Suo Qingqiu in Carriage Six was heinously attacked."

"The 'Time Escape' train overtook the 'Time Escape' train."

Ignoring Suo Qingqiu's heinous attack, Han Shan frowned. "So, there really are two 'Time Escape' trains!"

Gu Mian, who wasn't far away, could also make out some of the writing. The name "Meng Shi Tian Ying" caught his attention.

"Meng Shi Tian Ying?" He stroked his chin. "That name doesn't belong to anyone on our train, does it?"

This obviously wasn't a name a normal person would have; only players had names like that.

"I see," Han Shan said, staring intently at his arm. "Those vendors aren't vendors at all. They're players, just like us! They're from another 'Time Escape' train."

No wonder the player count for this instance was unknown from the start. It wasn't a system glitch—they were being set up.

Gu Mian glanced at the notebook in his hand. "Moreover, these two 'Time Escape' trains are probably the same one... I mean, the same train, but at different points in time."

Two timestamps were recorded in Han Shan's notebook.

One was 11:56 PM, and the other was 9:25 PM.

These two times had been twisted into the same spacetime continuum. The vendor's location served as the dividing line: one step forward placed you at 9:25 PM, and one step back, at 11:56 PM.

Gu Mian and his group of six others were likely on the 11:56 PM train.

The vendors, on the other hand, were on the 9:25 PM train.

Their current time was later than the vendors'.

Gu Mian stroked his chin. "And I suspect the passengers on these two trains are actually the same group."

The same group of passengers? Han Shan frowned.

Gu Mian continued, "The instance information at the start said that the 'Time Escape' train only runs once a day, beginning at 11:40 PM. We should be on the correctly timed run. At 9:25 PM, this train should still be stationary. But, as you saw, the 9:25 PM train was moving."

"Let's ignore for a moment why the train was moving at 9:25 PM. From a temporal perspective, the vendors' train is on a timeline before ours. Their actions on that train could affect us here... Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Han Shan nodded. "Go on."

"If the passengers on both trains are indeed the same people, then imagine this: if a passenger dies on the nine o'clock train, that same passenger definitely won't be alive on our eleven o'clock train."

It's like if you died at age three; you couldn't possibly be alive at age twenty.

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