Chapter 137: Out of the Depth of Misfortune Comes Bliss (1)

This was a subway car. The train had stopped at a platform out in the desolate wilderness.

The passengers consisted of eighteen players.

Through the windows, the night sky was visible with a bright moon hanging high. This was not an indoor station; rather, it was an outdoor, canopy-style platform, completely exposed to the elements on both sides.

The group noted the time before immediately taking in the environment of this new secret room.

Subway: Line 13.

There was a total of twenty-five stations from the starting point to the terminal. Both ends of the car were sealed shut, making it impossible to move to the adjoining carriages.

There were no internal displays indicating their current stop. However, peering through the windows, they could see the outdoor platform was marked as Self-Improvement Station. Cross-referencing this with the route map provided the necessary context.

Conclusion: Self-Improvement Station was the first stop.

Next stop: Earthly Virtue Road.

The fourth stop was: Mountain-Water Villa.

......

The eleventh stop: First People's Hospital.

The twelfth stop: Third Mental Hospital.

The thirteenth stop: Unity Road.

The fourteenth stop: Zhongtian Medical Aesthetics.

......

The twenty-first stop: Chengnan Police Station.

The twenty-second stop: Chengnan Elementary School.

The twenty-third stop: Chengnan Geological Bureau.

The twenty-fourth stop: Path of Reincarnation.

The twenty-fifth stop: Ghost Festival Street.

Seeing the words "Path of Reincarnation," all eighteen people could not help but shudder. Perhaps because they hailed from Hell, that phrase was a major taboo.

Aside from the twenty-fourth stop, the other station names did not reveal any immediate clues.

Inside the carriage.

The seats, handrails, and hanging straps were identical to those found on any ordinary subway.

The eighteen players felt their eyelids twitch. The carriage held absolutely no other clues, nor were there any items or props that did not naturally belong in a subway car.

'There is nothing inside the carriage at all, which means the only possible clues must be......'

'The names of the stations along the route!'

'There are two possibilities. One, we must escape this specific carriage and move to the preceding or succeeding one.'

'Two, we must escape the subway train entirely.'

The three Three-Star Players wore solemn expressions. After taking a long, deep look at the twenty-five station names, they remained silent, simply sitting in their seats with their eyes closed to rest their minds.

The remaining fifteen players gathered at the rear of the carriage, only to be blocked by a glass door.

They tried to push it open, but it felt as though it had been welded shut, completely unyielding.

Standing at the very front, Lin Xiuyuan looked toward where a handle should be, only to discover that this glass door had no handle at all, nor was there a lock.

This made him realize that their goal likely was not to escape into the adjacent carriages.

Consequently, he tapped lightly on the glass. Once he confirmed its solidity, he raised the butt of his gun and smashed it forward.

Thud-thud-thud!

The glass did not shatter. It did not even bear a single scratch, which confirmed his suspicion.

What they needed to escape was the subway itself.

They returned to the middle of the carriage and stared at their only clue: the list of station names.

Li Zhitong frowned in deep thought.

'Since the goal is to escape the subway, we have to figure out which of these twenty-five stops we are supposed to get off at.'

'First, list the station names that could potentially be our destination: Mountain-Water Villa, First People's Hospital, Third Mental Hospital, Zhongtian Medical Aesthetics, Chengnan Police Station, Chengnan Elementary School, Chengnan Geological Bureau, and Path of Reincarnation.'

'Among these, the hospitals, police station, and school can be prioritized as key locations.'

'Delving deeper, the police station can be ruled out. The reason is simple. To go to a police station, one would not normally take a subway. Usually, you could just walk a few blocks or search along the streets to find the nearest one. There is no need to ride the subway twenty-one stops just to reach the Chengnan Police Station.'

'How strange!'

'Following this logic, the clues provided by the station names completely cut off here. It is impossible to eliminate the hospitals, the school, or the geological bureau as destinations.'

'This means my line of thinking is wrong!'

Li Zhitong once again turned her gaze toward the platform outside the window, observing it meticulously.

A short while later, she noticed something on the platform, roughly three meters away from their carriage......

There was an Iron Bucket.

'What is that thing?'

Seeing the shift in her expression, the others followed her line of sight and peered out the window.

The Iron Bucket was positioned at a very tricky angle; without looking carefully, it would be genuinely difficult to spot.

However, due to the poor lighting, they could not make out any markings on the bucket. With the carriage doors sealed shut, there was no way to go down and retrieve it.

'This is a hint.'

Chen Ran remained silent. His gaze fell upon the One-Star Players among the two teams of Ghost Whisperers.

'The Hundred Ghost Feast is an event held by the Deceiver Alliance, where Veteran Players guide newcomers, helping them familiarize themselves with how to craft a Deceiver's Tongue.'

'Lin Xiuyuan's team was personally cultivated by him. Therefore, the One-Star Players in his group should all be Veteran Players.'

'Li Zhitong's team, on the other hand, is a temporary grouping. The One-Star Players in her squad......'

'Are all Newbies.'

'Newbies are great!'

At this thought.

Chen Ran organized his phrasing and spoke. "That bucket outside is likely a Gasoline Drum. It probably contains gasoline. We cannot get out at this stop, but perhaps the next station will have a Gasoline Drum as well."

"Did you say a Gasoline Drum?" Had Chen Ran's words not successfully bypassed the rules regarding lies, Li Zhitong would have shot him dead on the spot. Common Sense dictated that subways had security checks; bringing a Gasoline Drum inside would be utterly impossible.

'Wait!'

'Security checks?'

She looked out the window. The platform was open-air on both sides, and there were no fences nearby. In other words, there was no security checkpoint at this station.

Anyone could simply cross the tracks, walk onto the platform, and board the subway.

'That is completely unreasonable!'

'Does this mean the security checks have been removed, and the instance is based on the experiences of an NPC......'

'Which implies there is another hidden hint at the starting station: in the eyes of the NPC, subway security checks simply do not exist.'

'Deducing further: the NPC is a staff member working within the subway system, the kind of person who could bring in contraband.'

'An NPC carrying gasoline?'

'But why gasoline?'

Chen Ran said nothing more. Instead, they received an answer from an attractive youth. "His reasoning is spot on. That is highly likely a Gasoline Drum outside, and we are going to need it."

"For what?" Li Zhitong asked.

The Three-Star Trickster-Speaker turned his head. Looking at the face of Ignorance on Li Zhitong, he revealed a chilling smile and declared, "To burn the carriage!"

Dorje was much kinder. Unable to stand by while they frightened the newcomers, he explained, "Our destination should be the second eleventh station. The condition for clearing this instance might involve...... a scenario where the carriage is set on fire."

The three Three-Star Players did not elaborate. They only offered these few warnings because they were afraid the group would be led to their deaths by Chen Ran. After all, anyone who managed to survive the previous secret room had to have some use. The three veterans had no desire to watch them throw their lives away so soon.

Chen Ran: "......"

'With Three-Star Players holding down the fort, tricking a Newbie into telling a lie will be harder than ascending to heaven.'

Sure enough, seeing that the trio refused to say more, the rest of the group turned their gazes toward Chen Ran, who seemed to know the answer.

Chen Ran carefully weighed his words. "Don't you think these station names are a bit peculiar? The first stop: Self-Improvement Station."

"This corresponds to the first of the Sixty-Four Hexagrams, Qian as Heaven. Its meaning signifies self-improvement without cease."

"The second stop is Earthly Virtue Road, corresponding to the second hexagram, Kun as Earth, whose meaning represents bearing burdens with great virtue."

"The third stop, Jishuitun, likely corresponds to the third hexagram, Water-Thunder Tun, representing actively building merit."

"And so on."

"The eleventh stop is the Tai Hexagram, and the twelfth is the Pi Hexagram. There is a saying: 'Out of the Depth of Misfortune Comes Bliss.' However, right now, the Tai Hexagram is in front, and the Pi Hexagram follows. If we get off directly at the eleventh stop, the ominous meaning of the hexagram dictates that we would highly likely trigger a trap and die."

"Therefore, we have to alter this configuration. Only by placing the misfortune before the bliss can the true state of 'Out of the Depth of Misfortune Comes Bliss' emerge."

"The Pi Hexagram carries an inauspicious meaning. To change the layout, we must either negate this misfortune, or utilize something that can suppress it."

"Subway carriages are mostly made of metal, which belongs to the element of Metal in the Five Elements. Fire overcomes Metal. Thus, we have to burn this carriage down. And how could we possibly burn down a carriage without gasoline?"

The crowd: "......"

'Wait, what on earth is he talking about?'

'He is speaking the same language as us, so why can't I understand a single word?!'

'Furthermore, he seems to have skipped over a lot of crucial information. For example, on a subway moving forward, how could the twelfth stop possibly come before the eleventh? And he completely failed to explain why we need to get off at the eleventh stop in the first place.'