"Welcome aboard the Lost Train!"
Su Baiye woke up in a carriage. Besides him, there were no other passengers.
Unlike a normal train, the entire carriage had only a single seat, no windows, no luggage racks, and only one entrance and exit at the front.
A huge, eye-catching table was placed in the very center of the carriage.
"Did I get on the wrong train?"
As far as Su Baiye could remember, he had pulled two all-nighters to meet a deadline for a Charity Project. After the project was completed, he had taken the first subway home...
The next thing he knew, he was waking up in this carriage.
Su Baiye got up and surveyed his surroundings. He walked around the table and headed straight for the exit, only to be stopped by an invisible barrier.
"An air wall?"
This was beyond Earth's technology...
Su Baiye frowned. Could it be that he had been transported to another world?
Had such a wonderful thing like a corporate slave dying from overwork and getting transmigrated finally happened to him?
Being an unsung hero on various websites, helping people find seeds and source images, really did count as accumulating good karma. This was all what Su Baiye deserved!
A peaceful life to all good people!
Looking back on his life as a corporate slave, Su Baiye suddenly realized there wasn't much to look back on... He couldn't even edit a five-minute highlight reel for a Funeral VLOG from his twenty-plus years of life. Since that was the case, he accepted his current situation with great composure.
But what was the deal with this air wall?
Just as Su Baiye was wondering, a gentle voice sounded in his ear again.
"Name: Su Baiye."
"Status: Temporary Passenger"
"Location: Lost Train, Floor 1, Carriage No. 1"
"Points: 1000 (Initial)"
"Subsequent information prompts will be changed to a visual panel..."
Text in a faint blue light appeared before Su Baiye's eyes. After a flash, it changed to a new prompt:
【Welcome to the Lost Train. This is the Paradise of the Dead, the Purgatory of the Living. Obtain Passenger status and strive to survive the games. Keep surviving...】
【Please proceed to Carriage No. 3 within 7 days to obtain Official Player status.】
【Countdown: 168:00:00】
【To embark on the Lost path is to walk the No Return Path.】
【Current Points: 1000】
Su Baiye was confused. "What are the points for?"
【Points can be used for Revival. Points required for Revival in the current carriage: 1】
【Please explore other uses on your own.】
After this sentence popped up, the panel no longer responded, no matter what Su Baiye said.
【Carriage No. 1 Game Loading...】
【Game Loading Complete】
Two glasses of water appeared out of thin air on the table.
Su Baiye was no longer surprised.
Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.
In a place that had air walls and visual panels, what was so strange about two glasses of water suddenly appearing?
The bizarre loses its power when you stop being surprised by it.
【First Level】
【Drink the single glass of Non-toxic Water to pass.】
【Clear Reward: 2 Points】
Two glasses of water, one poisonous. A 50% chance? Was this a game of luck?
Su Baiye searched the carriage again and confirmed there were no other exits. His only way out was to play the game.
There was no point in waiting around. Su Baiye focused his attention back on the game.
But... just how poisonous was the Poisonous Water?
Su Baiye read the game rules carefully three times. He only needed to drink all of the non-toxic water to pass.
How to detect the poison became the key to clearing the level.
The two glasses of water looked identical and had no smell.
Su Baiye plucked out two strands of his hair and tested them in each glass. The water wasn't corrosive.
He lightly tapped the wet hair on the back of his hand. There was no burning sensation. The poison didn't seem to penetrate the skin...
After trying various methods, Su Baiye was certain this was a pure game of luck, with a 50% probability.
If points really could be used for Revival, then even if he died once, he would still earn 1 extra point after clearing the level...
However, Su Baiye had no way of knowing if the Revival was real or not.
Su Baiye reached out with his left hand, chose one of the glasses, and prepared to drink it.
Suddenly!
Su Baiye felt as if his soul had left his body. His first-person perspective shifted to a third-person view, floating above the carriage, looking down on everything.
He could clearly see 'his own' every move!
'Su Baiye' drank the water. Out of caution, he only took a small sip.
After drinking the water, 'Su Baiye' began to spew black blood from all seven orifices and died on the spot!
This water is definitely poisonous!
Su Baiye snapped back to his senses. His soul returned to his body, and the glass of poisonous water was right there in his hand!
What happened? Did time reverse?
No! Su Baiye quickly realized. Just as green beans must be cooked through, time could not be reversed. The scene he saw was more like... a prediction!
I can foresee death?
His pupils focused, his gaze falling on the glass. Su Baiye quickly put it down.
If his prediction was correct, this glass contained the poisonous water.
Should he trust the vision he saw?
The moment this thought popped into his head, Su Baiye couldn't help but laugh at himself.
It was already a 50/50 chance. If he didn't trust his own cheat ability, was he supposed to trust his luck?
He directly chose the other glass and drank it all in one gulp!
Nothing happened.
It was even a little sweet...
Was the vision real? Or were both glasses non-toxic, and the game was just a bluff?
Regardless, for Su Baiye, the outcome was good. He had survived.
【First Level, Cleared】
【Points +2】
The glass in Su Baiye's hand vanished, and in its place, four new glasses of water appeared.
【Second Level, drink the single glass of Non-toxic Water to pass.】
【Clear Reward: 4 Points】
As the level's difficulty increased, the probability decreased. Last time it was 50%, now it was only 25%.
The last level could have been passed with luck, but this one would truly require skill...
Good thing my cheat is pretty powerful!
I've got a cheat, what's there to be afraid of?
If you have to gamble on luck before you have a cheat, and you still have to gamble on luck after you get one, then what's the point of having a cheat in the first place?
I, Su Baiye, have survived to this day all thanks to my own hard work... Cheat, give me a prediction!
Death is always one step behind me!
That strange "soul out of body" sensation came over him again. Su Baiye quickly eliminated the three wrong options and chose the non-toxic water.
【Second Level, Cleared】
【Points +4!】
Just like last time, the table now held eight glasses of water. The number of glasses corresponded to the point reward.
【Third Level, Cleared! Points +8!】
【Fourth Level, Cleared! Points +16!】
【Fifth Level, Cleared! Points +32!】
【Current Points: 1062】
Relying on his ability to foresee death, Su Baiye blazed through the levels, unstoppable.
Soon, Su Baiye had successfully cleared Carriage No. 1. The air wall disappeared, and he could now proceed to the next carriage at any time.
Su Baiye didn't leave immediately. Instead, he looked at the new prompt before him:
【Challenge Level (Optional): Drink the single glass of non-toxic water from among a thousand glasses. Note: Dying once will result in mission failure.】
One in a thousand? A bit of a challenge, but not by much!
If Su Baiye didn't have the ability to foresee death, he would have said that one-in-a-thousand odds were ridiculous; it was simply not a game that could be cleared in one life. But, in the face of his death prediction ability, all Su Baiye could say was, he could use more practice with challenges like this!
"I accept the challenge!"
The moment he accepted the Challenge Task, the carriage expanded. Ten tables appeared out of thin air, each holding 100 glasses of water arranged in a 10x10 grid. The glasses were also labeled with corresponding numbers underneath.
Su Baiye took a deep breath and started his attempts from No. A001.
A dozen or so minutes later, Su Baiye walked out of the first carriage, rubbing his eyes and his stomach.
【Current Points: 2062】
The moment he stepped into the second carriage, the door behind him suddenly slammed shut. Su Baiye wasn't the least bit panicked. His death prediction hadn't activated, so what was there to be afraid of?
As long as I won't die, I can be as reckless as I want!
There was someone in Carriage No. 2. Su Baiye breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a single-player game after all.
The person greeted Su Baiye, looking somewhat crestfallen as he muttered,
"The game in Carriage No. 1 is too hard."
Obviously, the difficulty of the game in Carriage No. 1 had left a deep impression on him, perhaps even traumatized him a little.
"It really is hard." Su Baiye couldn't agree more, nodding repeatedly. He let out a full-sounding burp. "I drank so much I'm stuffed. Almost choked to death."
"Yeah, I died several times... huh?"
The man, who had been in 'yeah-yeah-you're-right' mode, suddenly switched to 'right-right-no-wait-that's-not-right' mode. He stared at Su Baiye, his eyes filled with utter shock!
"Stuffed? Choked?"
Are we even playing the same game?