FEG | Chapter 5

Chapter 5, Clear the Level

The muscle man shoved Sun Fangchi in front of him and used him as a shield, hiding his own sturdy body behind Sun Fangchi. Sun Fangchi looked as if he had been terrified stiff, not struggling in the slightest.

The bespectacled man and the blond man were each on guard.

As before, the temperature inside the carriage began to drop.

Sun Fangchi did not blink, silently counting his own heartbeat. He was waiting for a chance.

Even without a head, the floral shirt still walked straight toward the four of them as if it could see.

As its footsteps drew closer, the surrounding air grew even more icy, and all four of them held their breath at the same time.

Now!

Sun Fangchi exerted all his strength, pivoting on his right foot in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn, circling around behind the muscle man, and then thrusting both hands forward with all his might.

Because he had dodged aside, the muscle man was forced to face the floral shirt head-on. His mind abruptly stalled, and he was shoved forward by the unprepared force from behind.

In Sun Fangchi’s line of sight, a very thin, very black line spread out at the height of the floral shirt’s neck and flashed by in an instant. The muscle man came to a stop.

The bespectacled man gripped his left wrist tightly with his right hand. There was a watch there, and a faint white glow spread from the watch to block in front of him. Meanwhile, the blond man hooked a finger around his ear stud, and used a soul item as well.

Who exactly had the floral shirt attacked?

With a thud, the muscle man’s head fell to the floor. Blood splattered everywhere, and the smell of blood instantly filled the carriage. The floral shirt bent down, picked up the muscle man’s head, placed it on its own empty neck, and sat back down in its seat.

“...Not dead?” The blond man had narrowly escaped death, and his legs were soft as if all the bones had been pulled out of them. He leaned against the carriage wall and slowly slid downward.

The bespectacled man pushed up his glasses, and in passing wiped the sweat off the tip of his nose. “It attacked more than one person.”

“You all?” Sun Fangchi frowned. This was bad. The previous three times, it had always been a single-person attack. Once in car 3, the floral shirt died. Once in car 1, the muscle man survived. Once in car 4, Sun Fangchi survived.

Why had it suddenly changed its attack method this time?

Could it be that the difficulty had increased? Sun Fangchi fell into deep thought.

The bespectacled man said, “I think we were wrong before. The number of people attacked is very likely related to the carriage order. Aside from the time in car 1, the other two times, it wasn’t that the ghost only attacked one person, it was that there had only been one person in the carriage at that time. And this time, there were four of us, and the ghost attacked three people, in car 3.”

“Possible!” Sun Fangchi said with certainty. “At the next stop, we have to go back to car 1!”

“But I’ve already lost my chance to save my life!” The blond man covered his face and let out a low roar. “If I run into it one more time, I’m dead for sure!”

Sun Fangchi said, “I’m the same. Precisely because of that, we need to go to car 1 even more. There, at least each of us will have a two-thirds chance of surviving. If we stay here, we’re dead for sure!”

The bespectacled man knew very well that Sun Fangchi was absolutely right. At once, he went around the muscle man’s corpse and moved close to the car door to wait.

Sun Fangchi dragged the blond man to the door. Outside, the station with its dim yellow lights slid past, and together with the arrival announcement, the subway slowly came to a stop.

Right outside the car door stood a new passenger.

All three of them changed color at once.

“Dead for sure... dead for sure...” Tears and snot streamed down the blond man’s face together. He used both hands to tug hard at his messy yellow hair. “I don’t want to die, I’m scared...”

The bespectacled man looked utterly desperate. “A dead end... impossible...”

A dead end?

Wasn’t there supposed to be a sliver of hope?

Where was the way out?

At this moment, all of Sun Fangchi’s useless emotions were blocked out, leaving only the clearest reason. From the moment he entered the game, everything that had happened, every bit of information contained within it, passed one by one through his mind. There had to be some detail he had overlooked. What exactly was it?

The detail that could solve the current predicament?

Sun Fangchi’s thoughts raced.

The subway is about to arrive... Please pay attention to safety!

The broadcast ended, and the subway doors opened with a ding.

The new passenger’s tongue stretched all the way down to its chest, its eyes bulging out. It stood at the doorway facing the three of them, and the bespectacled man and the blond man both stepped back at the same time.

“This is it!” Sun Fangchi had a flash of insight and blurted it out.

“What?”

“There’s a hint in the announcement, get off first, then get on!” Sun Fangchi said. “We shouldn’t be attacked if we get off the train.”

The bespectacled man said, “Just because of that? The risk is too great!”

Each stop lasted about two minutes. If they did not leave now, it would be too late. “Go!” Sun Fangchi made the decision at once. He stepped right up to the long-tongued ghost, coming so close that there were only two fists’ distance between them, then began sidestepping out, and safely reached the platform’s yellow line.

The bespectacled man’s heart pounded so hard that he could barely bear it. Sun Fangchi’s actions had gone beyond anything he had imagined. He had never seen anyone so bold. When faced with a terrifying ghost that could take a life at any moment, other people would have wished to stay as far away as possible. Only Sun Fangchi had actually taken the initiative to walk up to the ghost in search of a path to survival!

And he had actually done it!

The bespectacled man copied Sun Fangchi’s movements and hurried down after him.

The blond man’s legs were trembling. As he stepped out, his body lost its balance and he nearly lunged into the long-tongued ghost. Sun Fangchi grabbed him at once, barely avoiding disaster,

but he still came extremely close to locking eyes with the long-tongued ghost’s terrifying gaze, and the blond man was so frightened that he nearly went limp.

“Quick! Run toward the front of the train!” Sun Fangchi pushed him.

“Ah, uh!” The blond man ran desperately. “Bro, thanks. I’m the kind of person who may not live with any dignity, but I still have an old mother to support. If I can survive today, it’s all thanks to you, bro...”

Sun Fangchi did not answer. His slippers had long since been lost, and the floor tiles under his feet were as cold as ice, the chill piercing straight through to his organs.

After a mad sprint, the three of them finally reached car 1 before departure.

The skinned ghost sat motionless in its seat, like the human models used by medical students.

Final stop, final attack. As long as they held out, they would survive.

Among the three of them, the one with the most confidence was the bespectacled man. He still had one chance left to use the watch. As long as he made no mistake in responding to it, survival was basically guaranteed.

Sun Fangchi and the blond man could only leave it to fate and gamble on luck.

The blond man’s yellow hair was soaked with sweat, and mixed with hair oil, it hung down in wisps over his forehead. He used one hand to pat Sun Fangchi’s upper arm, and the place his palm touched was left with an irregular wet mark. It was clear he was extremely nervous.

Time passed, and death came without warning.

As the temperature dropped, the skinned ghost turned its head to look at the three of them.

Sun Fangchi’s whole body went taut. He felt that the skinned ghost’s gaze was fixed directly on him.

“Ah ah ah ah ah ah...” The blond man screamed in agony. The skin on half of his body suddenly began to dissolve. The unimaginable pain made him fall to the ground and struggle, but wherever the dissolved skin touched, it stuck, causing even more intense pain.

Sun Fangchi could no longer bear to watch.

The flesh, turned to minced pulp by the skin, slid off piece by piece. The blond man’s bright red muscles were exposed to the air. On the half of his face that remained, his expression was twisted, and the muscles all over his body trembled.

Little by little, his movements became smaller and smaller, and his breathing weaker and weaker.

Sun Fangchi crouched beside him and looked at his half of a youthful face. The first time he saw him, he had thought the face had only stupidity and no cuteness. Now it looked even uglier.

The blond man gazed up at the ceiling lights and slowly uttered the last three words. “So... painful... ah...”

His expression froze at that moment.

Sun Fangchi reached out and helped him cover his only remaining eyelid.

The bespectacled man leaned against the carriage wall and stared at his reflection in the window, refusing to look at the gruesome scene on the floor.

“From the way you look, do you seem used to scenes of dead people?” Sun Fangchi only felt a painful pressure in his chest, with nowhere to vent it.

The bespectacled man gave a bitter smile. “No matter how many times, I can’t get used to it.”

Ding dong, the train is about to arrive at the terminal. Please keep your personal belongings with you and get off in order.

A brightly lit subway station appeared outside the car door. Just before stepping out, the bespectacled man said, “Ten days later, the next mission will begin.”

Sun Fangchi let go of the blond man and took one last look at the carriage. The skinned ghost had already vanished without a trace. Aside from the blond man’s corpse, there was nothing unusual about the subway. The moment he stepped out of the carriage, Sun Fangchi’s vision blurred, and he found himself already in the living room of his two-bedroom apartment. The horror movie in front of him was still playing, and beside him, Bu Xiling, wearing a white dress, was looking at him with concern.

“Xi ge, long time no see.” Sun Fangchi forced out a smile. Seeing Bu Xiling again, he actually felt as if he were seeing the world again after a long separation.

“Xiaofang, you’re hurt?” Bu Xiling said anxiously.

Sun Fangchi looked down at the blood on his collar and the sticky blood on his palm. “I’ll take a shower first, and talk later.” After taking two steps toward the bathroom, he muttered to himself, “Ah, I also need to buy another pair of slippers.”

“Xiaofang...” Bu Xiling looked worriedly toward the bathroom.

Hot water sprayed from the showerhead. Sun Fangchi washed the blood off his body and changed clothes. There was no wound on his neck, so it should have automatically healed when he exited the game. He took a can of beer and threw himself onto the sofa.

Bu Xiling asked cautiously, “Xiaofang, you... are you okay?”

Sun Fangchi drained half a can of beer in one gulp. “Refreshing! With my personal charm, demons and ghosts all bow down in worship. Xi ge, you just didn’t get to see what I was like when I showed off my divine power.”

Bu Xiling let out a breath. “What nonsense. Like you said, can you get stuck in a door?”

Sun Fangchi shook his head. “That was my carelessness. Xi ge, how did you get over here?”

“I was just about to ask, what was that place? You suddenly disappeared. I hadn’t even looked for you for two minutes before I was pulled into a black hole, and then I was at your side.”

Two minutes... Sun Fangchi estimated that he had spent nearly fifty minutes inside the subway. “How long have you been back?”

“Probably about two minutes too...” Bu Xiling said uncertainly.

“Hmm...” Sun Fangchi pondered. The flow of time in the game and in reality was different. The exact ratio still needed to be verified.

“You still haven’t said what exactly happened?”

Sun Fangchi took a sip of beer, his expression extremely grave. “On the distant planet Namek, their world was destroyed by monsters. In order to save their planet, they created the soul growth game. They selected people with good qualities from all the planets in the universe, let them grow through the game stages, and waited for the right moment to save Namek...”

“And I am one of the chosen children.”

“How come that sounds strangely familiar?” Bu Xiling tried hard to remember.

“You’re overthinking it...” Sun Fangchi quickly took a sip of beer to calm himself.

“A grown man in his twenties pretending to be a child? And besides, you actually have good qualities?” Bu Xiling did not believe it at all.

“Of course!” Sun Fangchi said confidently. “Being handsome is my greatest strength!”

Bu Xiling: “...”

“Annoying! Annoying!” Bu Xiling was so angry she could not speak. She swung a pillow and beat him mercilessly. “I’m talking to you seriously, and you’re spouting nonsense!”

“Don’t, Xi ge, show mercy...” Sun Fangchi’s screams rang through the rental apartment.

While the two of them were roughhousing, the front door was suddenly opened, and the landlord’s fat body rushed in, waving a cross in his hand as he shouted, “The Holy Spirit is with you! Satan, step back! Step back!”

“Uh... Uncle Zhang?” Sun Fangchi blocked the pillow attack and showed his displeasure at the landlord’s sudden visit.

When Uncle Zhang saw the pillow floating in midair, he almost lost his breath. “Xiaosun, let’s run!”

“Cough, cough...” Sun Fangchi gave several very fake coughs. “Uncle Zhang is here, I’ll pour Uncle Zhang a cup of tea.”

Uncle Zhang shook his head frantically. “...You didn’t see it?”

“Hmm?” Sun Fangchi turned his head. Bu Xiling innocently put down the pillow. “See what?”

“This house can’t be lived in anymore. Quick! Go! Go!” Uncle Zhang was babbling incoherently, gripping the cross so tightly that his knuckles went white.

“I think this house is pretty nice to live in. Uncle Zhang, go back quickly. It’s fine.”

Uncle Zhang was about to cry. “Xiaosun, I’m begging you, really, go live somewhere else. I’ll give you one month’s rent...”

Sun Fangchi was very awkward. “Don’t, Uncle Zhang. I’m doing just fine living in this house. I’m not moving.”

Tears filled Uncle Zhang’s eyes. Choking up, he said, “Xiaosun, what grudge do I have against you exactly? Must you die in my house?”

Sun Fangchi: “...”