2026-08-15 06:34:19[Countdown: 00:52]
The glowing red numbers of the digital timer materialized in Kael’s peripheral vision, ticking down with ruthless speed.
Panic gripped the carriage. The terrified woman screamed, pressing herself frantically against the farthest set of train doors. The businessman, whose pristine grey suit was entirely free of blood, looked at Kael with eyes wide in sheer horror.
"Stay away from me!" the businessman yelled, scrambling backward against the plastic seats.
Kael looked down at his own clothes. His heavy canvas jacket was completely saturated with the teenager's blood. The rule was clear: The passenger with the most blood on their clothes will be expelled.
Taking the jacket off seemed like the most obvious solution.
Without a second thought, Kael unzipped his jacket.
Suddenly, the blinding blue interface of the Death Game System flared in his mind.
[Ability Triggered: 3-Second Precognition.]
Vision: Kael rips the jacket off and throws it to the floor. The timer hits zero. The mechanical voice announces: "Evaluation complete." The rusted doors slide open. A terrifying, unseen vacuum force grabs Kael. Why? Because the blood seeped through the jacket, staining his white undershirt just enough to make him the target. He is sucked out into the abyssal darkness, screaming.
The vision shattered. Kael gasped, his hands freezing on the zipper.
[Countdown: 00:38]
Taking it off wasn't enough. The only way to guarantee his survival was to ensure someone else had exponentially more blood on their clothes than he did.
Kael's cold, calculating gaze shifted from his stained shirt to the massive, horrifying pool of crimson spreading across the floor where the teenager had been slaughtered. Then, his eyes locked onto the businessman.
"Don't you dare..." the businessman stammered, realizing what Kael was thinking. His hands trembled as he reached for his leather briefcase.
Kael lunged.
[Ability Triggered: 3-Second Precognition.]
Vision: Kael charges straight at the man. The businessman’s terrified expression vanishes, replaced by cold malice. He snaps the briefcase open, pulling out a concealed, snub-nosed revolver. Bang. Kael takes a bullet straight to the chest and collapses into the blood pool.
The real world snapped back.
[Countdown: 00:22]
He has a gun! Kael’s mind raced. This was a death game; assuming anyone was a harmless civilian was a fatal mistake.
Instead of charging straight, Kael violently threw his blood-soaked jacket directly at the businessman’s face, simultaneously diving to the right.
"Get off!" the businessman roared. Just as the precognition showed, a deafening gunshot echoed through the carriage.
The bullet tore harmlessly through the floating jacket.
Before the man could adjust his aim, Kael swept his leg out, kicking the man's ankle with bone-bruising force. The businessman shrieked, losing his balance and dropping the revolver.
Kael didn't hesitate. He grabbed the man by the lapels of his expensive grey suit and brutally shoved him face-first onto the floor—directly into the deepest part of the teenager’s blood pool.
"No! NO! Let me up!" the businessman thrashed wildly, screaming like a slaughtered pig as the thick, warm liquid instantly soaked through his suit, his tie, and his shirt.
Kael planted his knee firmly on the man's back, pressing him deeper into the crimson puddle, turning the grey suit into a horrific shade of red.
[Countdown: 00:03]
Kael rolled away, panting heavily, his own white undershirt only showing a few minor stains compared to the businessman, who now looked like he had bathed in a slaughterhouse.
[Countdown: 00:00]
The carriage lights flickered. The mechanical voice crackled through the intercom.
"Time is up. Evaluating passengers."
The businessman scrambled to his feet, crying hysterically as he looked at his ruined, dripping clothes. "Please! Please, it wasn't me! He pushed me!"
"Passenger identified. Rule enforced."
HISSSSSS.
The double doors directly behind the businessman violently slid open. Outside was nothing but an endless, swirling vortex of absolute blackness.
A localized, hurricane-force wind erupted inside the carriage, sucking strictly toward the open door. The businessman didn't even have time to scream. He was violently yanked backward, swallowed instantly by the dark abyss.
SLAM.
The doors shut tight. The wind vanished. The carriage was dead silent once again, save for the terrified sobbing of the woman cowering in the corner.
Kael slumped against a metal pole, his chest heaving. His 3-Second Precognition had just saved his life twice in less than a minute.
Before he could even process the adrenaline, the train's brakes shrieked. The intense deceleration threw Kael to the floor as the train screeched to a violent halt.
Outside the dirt-caked windows, flickering neon lights appeared.
"Congratulations on surviving the tutorial phase," the intercom announced, its synthetic tone chillingly cheerful. "We have arrived at Terminal One: The Flesh Market. All remaining passengers must disembark. The doors will remain open for exactly thirty seconds. Anyone left on the train will be incinerated."
The rusted doors slid open, revealing a foggy, blood-stained platform bathed in flickering crimson light.
Kael picked up the businessman's dropped revolver, checked the cylinder—four bullets left—and stepped out into the unknown.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 18: The Blind Dance
Whoosh... Whoosh... CRACK!The deafening roar of massive steel pendulums slicing through the freezing air was enough to shatter a normal person's sanity. The transparent glass bridge trembled violently beneath their feet with every near-miss.To Chloe, who could see the colossal, rusted axe blades swinging out of the pitch-black abyss, it looked like they were walking into a mechanical meat grinder.But to Kael, whose eyes were sealed beneath the heavy metallic blindfold, the world was a canvas of hyper-calculated trajectories.He didn't walk; he flowed.[Ability Triggered: 3-Second Precognition.]Vision: A blade sweeps low from the right, aiming to sever his legs. Reality: Kael casually stepped over the invisible blade, the wind of its passing tugging at his jacket.Vision: Two blades crisscross in a scissor motion directly at chest height. Reality: Kael suddenly dropped to one knee, letting the deafening clash of steel ring out mere inches above his head, raining rust down onto his
Chapter 17: The Blind Wager
The heavy pneumatic hiss of the vault door sealing shut behind them echoed into absolute nothingness.Kael and Chloe found themselves standing on a small, circular platform of solid white light, suspended in a boundless, pitch-black void. This was a Transition Sector—a rare, temporary pocket dimension bridging the gap between nightmare zones.Before Kael could even take a breath, the blindingly bright, holographic blue interface of his system expanded, filling his field of vision with a cascade of rapid text.[ATTENTION: ANOMALY DETECTED.] [Player 'Kael' has repeatedly bypassed execution protocols using unintended logic pathways.] [The VIP Observers are highly entertained.]"VIP Observers?" Chloe whispered, reading the floating text over Kael’s shoulder, her voice shaking. "Who... who is watching us?"Kael didn't answer. His cold eyes tracked the shifting text. He had suspected it from the very beginning. The elaborate traps, the theatrical intercom announcements, the impossible geome
Chapter 16: The Biometric Tribute
The blade flashed in the dim red neon light, swinging with lethal force straight toward Chloe’s skull.Chloe didn't even have time to scream. The sheer, overwhelming terror paralyzed her vocal cords. She squeezed her eyes shut, her mind completely shutting down as the cold steel descended to claim her life.SHCK!A sickening sound of severing meat and snapping copper wire echoed in the narrow, claustrophobic corridor. A shower of black, viscous fluid splattered across Chloe’s pale cheek.But she felt no pain.Chloe cautiously opened one eye, trembling violently. The matte-black blade of Kael’s combat knife was buried to the hilt in the rusted metal wall, literally a millimeter from her left ear. Pinned beneath the razor-sharp edge was a thick, writhing, leech-like black cable. It had a mechanical, jagged maw that had silently dropped from the ceiling, hovering inches away from plugging directly into the back of her spinal cord.Kael hadn't been aiming for her head. He had been aiming
Chapter 15: The Voice on the Line
RING!The third ring was already echoing through the claustrophobic, cable-choked corridor.Above them, the massive bundles of black wires were vibrating violently, shedding decades of dust and rust. Something heavy, metallic, and utterly terrifying was crawling rapidly through the cables, descending toward them.Kael didn't hesitate. Ignoring the burning fatigue in his muscles and the dizziness from his blood loss, he launched himself forward. His steel-toed combat boots pounded against the iron grating, closing the thirty-yard gap in a dead sprint.The mechanical gears inside the rotary phone whirred, preparing to disconnect the line the moment the third ring finished.Clack.Kael slammed his hand against the wall, snatching the heavy black receiver off the hook a fraction of a millisecond before the call dropped.He pressed the cold plastic to his ear."Rule Number One... you must never be the first to speak."Kael clamped his mouth shut, his chest heaving violently as he fought to
Chapter 14: The Static Apartments
The heavy iron door slammed shut behind them, the massive deadbolt echoing with a final, definitive clank.Kael and Chloe stood in the pitch-black stairwell, the frantic, demonic shrieks of the Mourner fading into a muffled thud against the thick metal. Kael leaned his head against the cold concrete, his breathing shallow. He had just successfully bypassed a rigged execution, but the physical toll was immense. His arms were shaking from the sheer adrenaline crash and the severe blood loss."Are we... are we safe?" Chloe whispered, her voice trembling in the dark."For now," Kael replied, his tone as cold and detached as ever. He didn't waste energy on relief. He pushed himself off the wall and began his descent down the concrete stairs.They walked in silence for what felt like hours. The air grew progressively staler, losing the humid, ashen scent of the gardens and replacing it with the sharp, metallic tang of ozone and burning copper.Finally, the stairs ended at a battered, reinfo
Chapter 13: The Unorthodox Bypass
[Countdown: 23:45]The faceless woman in the mourning dress sat perfectly still beneath the rusted iron gazebo, the falling ash bouncing harmlessly off her black lace parasol."The exit is just behind me, traveler," her voice echoed directly inside Kael’s mind. It sounded like a choir of whispering widows, laced with a hypnotic, toxic sorrow. "But the door is secured by three heavy locks. You cannot pass without the keys."She slowly extended her pale, featureless hand. Resting on her black velvet glove were three pristine, gleaming silver keys."The three keys to salvation," the Mourner whispered. "To earn them, you need not spill blood. You must simply step into my gazebo, sit before me, and play a game of truths. Confess your greatest sin. If your guilt is heavy enough to satisfy my sorrow, I will grant you passage."Chloe nervously tugged at the back of Kael’s blood-stained shirt. "A confession? That... that doesn't sound too bad. We just have to tell her the truth."Kael didn't m
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