novelraw Chapter 564 - 490: The Only Way to Victory [Double]
Chapter 564 - 490: The Only Way to Victory [Double]
"We must go to the control room and stop the train."
"But the train has already triggered the alarm system, and the autonomous unit is heading in our direction..."
Several RoboCops fired their guns at this moment, the flashing fire dispelling people’s last doubts.
"Don’t forget, we have weapons too."
"Even without guns, we have sticks, without sticks we have fists and arms, without hands we have teeth!"
"Yes, we still have weapons."
"So what are we waiting for, charge to the control room, drag the conductor out!"
The dormant bloodthirst and killing intent spread among the crowd.
At this moment, the tunnel door opened, and the long-desiring Jason rushed in, roaring at the people.
The people turned in unison, hundreds of pairs of red eyes fixed on Jason, while the sinister-faced RoboCops, with cigars in their mouths, locked and loaded their guns.
Jason’s twisted expression froze on his face, not understanding why in just one stop, people would show such strong hostility towards him.
But he didn’t care; subconsciously, he still believed that according to the rules, he was invincible, no one could harm him.
Even if these people want to stop him, with their fragile bodies?
Just tear to pieces all who block his path!
Jason roared, his eyes locked onto Xu Xiaoyou, approaching rapidly. His agility had exceeded 1800, no one could stop him!
Xu Xiaoyou’s expression did not change, her hand slowly reached into her arms, under Jason’s wide-eyed disbelief, she drew a Gel Bubble Gun, aimed at him...
In the blink of an eye, a foam gel statue appeared in his place, the man’s twisted expression frozen on his face, his open arms menacingly furious.
"Kill him."
After instructing the RoboCops, Xu Xiaoyou turned and left.
Her current score was 1, the minimum value, except for Chichu Chun, everyone in the team’s score was only 1. The total score dropped to 181. The firepower of the nine RoboCops was enough to clear Jason’s health in one wave.
The lower the score, the more freedom of speech, which is one reason she prioritized lowering her score in the previous carriages.
With the help of the ’Natural Orator’ and a pile of social cards, inciting others through speech to achieve her goals wasn’t difficult for her, especially when it’s what she excelled at.
Amidst the crowd’s fervent support, Xu Xiaoyou led the way, as the final battle with the train’s autonomous unit began. Beside her, explosions occasionally wove golden roses, blowing her coat in a frenzy. Behind, the dense gunfire echoed, and the system notification popped up.
"Player OE3604 ’Pursuing Light and Holding Flowers’, you have killed ’Tag Catcher Jason’, achieving one of the victory conditions for the instance!"
She glanced at it, dismissing the notification with a wave.
This game should be over.
...
"Why isn’t that guy chasing us anymore?"
In another group of Skyline trains, four serial killers looked back at the dark-haired girl, full of confusion.
Not long ago, the latter seemed to have suddenly realized something and stopped pursuing them.
Tang Xin dispelled the "Cangmo Ceremony Attire," paused in place, started playing the cello, and her body swayed gently with the mournful melody. She was singing a requiem, her expression dignified as if standing before the graves of countless people, comforting the wandering and anxious souls. The girl Ning Ran’s eyes seemed to be pondering something.
"Don’t know, probably gave up." Michael said casually. "Probably realized the difference in strength, Light Chasing Garden is nothing special, looks like we don’t need to do anything, as long as the train reaches the end, we’ll win."
Beside the four serial killers, passengers’ corpses piled into mounds, blood flowing like rivers, their faces still terrified. They killed wherever they went, from start to finish, not a single one escaped from their knives, whether it was the autonomous units on the train, innocent passengers, or RoboCops.
Yet even so, their team’s score only fell to 86, shared among each, it was not enough for Hera to deem them as high-risk Awakened.
"That Hera has no vision, she doesn’t understand this kind of art." Pennywise appreciated his masterpiece. "Only deducted this much of my score, looking down on who?"
"Looks like our actions aren’t enough for Hera to find us very dangerous." Freddy squinted his eyes slightly, the dangerous glint casting from within.
"Once outside, how about we kill them all cleanly?" Pennywise suggested excitedly.
Skin Face lifted the chainsaw, pulling it, responding with an excited "oh" and "oh."
The moving train slowly reached its destination, the font on the electronic sign fluctuating and changing.
{"New Union Federation Forest Park→Skyline｜Arrived"}
"This is a win, how boring." The serial killers approached the door, Michael looked back and waved at Tang Xin.
"Want to have another go at killing us, or we’ll just get off?"
Tang Xin, like a singer at the end of a performance, bent slightly, lifted her skirt in salute to them, disappearing under a fallen blue petal.
The serial killers didn’t bother further, but once on the platform, they felt something was amiss, it was too quiet around, eerily quiet, no system victory notice, not even a single person in sight.
Suppressing their desire for slaughter and blood, the serial killers walked through the platform covered in neon graffiti, through the long since unmaintained underground passage, walls filled with people’s vicious curses.
Rubbish filled the passage sides, tables and chairs locked with iron chains, standing beside a sign reading {"Do Not Lift"}.
They passed through the underground passage, up a long staircase, following step by step as the light above grew brighter, as if hinting the end was near. The excitement for the unknown hastened their pace toward the ’end’.
Step by step, in a certain moment, the hurried footsteps were replaced by a severe warning sound, echoing in their ears were harsh alarms, the operational roar of large military armament.
They touched the light, saw the quenched Skyline of the city, and the iron torrent matching the light, moving in unison, the lethal cold glint flowing between the Black Gold armor coating.
The dark-haired girl walked toward the light, her face cold and grim, and then...
Raised the gun muzzle towards them.
"It’s time to end, Awakened."
...
With a long, harsh screech, the train stopped in the tunnel.
Just relying on the onboard autonomous unit, naturally couldn’t stop the people holding high the banner of rebellion, advancing triumphantly, three minutes after the riot began, the train’s autonomous facilities fell completely, the control room was breached, and the obstinate conductor was executed by the enraged people.
Treading on the cold and hard ground, barely seeing the tunnel scenery with the dim red light, severely rust-damaged facilities, walls engraved with slogans of freedom, the air filled with the burnt smell of gasoline, the people in the tunnel raised their dust-covered faces, their blood-stained eyes revealed in the flickering firelight. After the excitement of bloodthirst, came the confusion and unease about the future.
From the moment they fired the first shot on the train, they were destined to walk a path of no return, the long-cold blood in their veins flowing again, gradually warming.
After leading the people to take over the train, Xu Xiaoyou and the girls disembarked, the rules of the ’Huoxun Medical Center’ platform emerging in their minds.
—"Game Rule 4: Awakened cannot disembark at the platform"
This rule, too, is a trap rule.
Only when players attempt to disembark at the platform does it pop up, deliberately misleading players to think Awakened cannot leave the train, when in fact as long as the train leaves the platform, players can disembark.
Rather, to win, players must leave the train before reaching the destination.
This instance has no overt victory conditions, the so-called hidden ending is the only ending.
—"Game Rule 1: Evade the ’Tag Catcher’ pursuit and survive to the fifth station Skyline to end the game."
The initial rule already hinted at it, all the rule clues secretly linked together, collectively pointing to the game’s victory method.
Seemingly ordinary rules, actually filled with traps and the designer’s malice.
Surviving to the fifth station Skyline is just the game’s ’end’, not a victory.
Destruction is also one of the ways the game ends.