IWBL: Chapter 52

Generally speaking, when it came to games with ghosts, the outcome was that winning against the ghost meant survival, losing meant death.

Currently, Sherlock was the first to play rock paper scissors with the mirror ghost, but no one could guess who the next one was. That’s why Tian Ji substituted himself and analyzed it with great caution.

In Tian Ji’s tense sight, the ghost arm in the window moved from top to bottom, slowly falling. Once the position was beside the waist, the palm of the hand formed a rock. This rock didn’t last long and completely changed to scissors. On Xiao Li’s side, he originally started with paper, midway down he changed to rock but in the end, he turned into scissors.

A good win had become a draw!

Tian Ji couldn’t figure out what Sherlock was thinking. He couldn’t help glancing at Sherlock’s side profile and found that the other side wasn’t surprised by the result. He had even created the draw.

Xiao Li cocked his head to the side. This time, the train went over a few bumps as he looked at his right hand and smiled. “It is a draw, I won.”

The indignant Tian Ji, “???”

Wasn’t it a draw? How did he win? Did he win in an outlandish way?

Then to Tian Ji’s surprise, the mirror ghost in the window was pale. It changed from Xiao Li’s reflection back to its original appearance, a ghost that was about to melt. Tian Ji noticed that originally, Xiao Li’s right hand was mirrored by the ghost’s left hand. Now the ghost’s left hand seemed fixed and not moving.

Xiao Li extended his left hand to the train window ghost and said, “Come again.”

The ghost was motionless as it stared at Xiao Li. It might just be Tian Ji’s illusion but he felt like the ghost’s eyes were showing a bit of panic.

It spoke hoarsely, “You have won.”

Tian Ji, “……”

He really won? What was this world’s rock paper scissors like?

“I know.” Xiao Li used his right hand to touch the ghost in the window. He hit the window with a rhythmical rhythm, knocking on the ghost face again and again. “I won once and you can’t kill me. If I win a second time, what do I get?”

He spoke up to here and added thoughtfully, “Or will you lose something?”

“I’m a bit curious.”

Xiao Li didn’t wait for the mirror ghost’s answer. He stretched out his hand again and played rock paper scissors with the mirror ghost. The mirror ghost seemed unable to resist this force and had to synchronize with Xiao Li. The fist first formed scissors before becoming fixed on rock. On Xiao Li’s side, the paper changed to rock.

A draw.

The mirror ghost’s right hand was also fixed to the window. As a result, the two guessing hands were rigidly stuck to the window of the train. It was unable to leave unless it could cut off its own arms.

Xiao Li looked at the ghost’s painfully struggling expression and suddenly reached out to open the window. The mirror ghost in the window was sandwiched between the other glass and its entire face was squeezed and shaped. He seemed to find it interesting, opening and closing it twice, so that the ghost kept squirming between relaxation and squeezing.

Tian Ji saw this scene, secretly pinched himself and felt the pain. Then he turned back to Jiang Yishe and asked, “Am I blind? Wasn’t that a draw?”

Jiang Yishe turned to look at the pained ghost in the window and there was some fright in his heart. This fear was because of Sherlock’s cheerful smile. He cleared his throat and said, “I also saw it was a draw… Sherlock, what’s going on?”

Xiao Li closed the window, blocking the cold air from outside. He turned back and asked, “What do you think?”

“Is there another meaning to rock paper scissors? Similar to black sheep, white flower and the sun.” Tian Ji thought to himself. “You have the same symbol which means you have caught up with its ideas. The white flower and white flower offset each other…”

He stopped there, unable to make up anything else. He looked at Xiao Li with innocent eyes and said, “Seeking an explanation.”

Xiao Li was listening to his complicated conjecture. “Offset each other, do you think this is Happy Music?”

Tian Ji, “…”

He wouldn’t have gone for this type of profound imagery if it wasn’t because of Sherlock! Before Tian Ji became full of anger, Xiao Li patted the young man’s shoulder and changed his words, asking with enthusiasm, “The water surface and window, what do they have in common?”

This time, after a moment of reflection, Tian Ji thought about what the window showed them and answered, “Mirror.”

“That’s right.” Xiao Li nodded. “That is the key to the rock paper scissors game.”

“In the rock paper scissors once, once the mirror ghost asked you to play, you have to maintain the same action as it. That is the meaning of the mirror.”

“Whether you win or lose, the result will run counter to the mirror. Winning is losing, losing is losing, only a draw is winning. This is a real ‘mirror’ and the mirror doesn’t think for itself. It can only stay in place, reflecting the real person.”

Tian Ji looked at the ghost. “Only two minutes passed from when you first saw it to the game starting. How did you think of a draw?”

“Does this take a long time to think about? If you know that it is a mirror ghost then you should think of it directly.” Xiao Li added regretfully, “I won twice and it is nailed here, becoming a real mirror. I didn’t expect this or I would’ve carried a mirror fragment with me.”

Bring the mirror ghost back to study. He touched the window again and knocked on it. He felt its thickness and spoke to himself, “It doesn’t seem like it can be broken.”

Both the mirror ghost and Tian Ji showed an expression of horror. If it could be broken, what did he want to do?

Jiang Yishe was the most stable among them and he promptly interrupted Xiao Li’s actions by proposing, “Thanks to Sherlock, the crisis of the third station ghost has been lifted. We only need to face the pen fairy ghost. Then it is better to go and see the itinerary.”

Xiao Li had no objection to this. He said goodbye to the ghost on the window and came to Deng Kang’s room with the other people. The original itinerary showed [April 29th, 21:30 to 21:35, Liu’an Station.] Then after the blood modification, no stops were shown.

“The interval has been lengthened again.” Jiang Yishe was worried. “There is still the fourth station and the fifth station. Maybe they will be five days apart.”

Xiao L leaned against the table, his hand pressed against the itinerary. Then he suddenly said, “Too long.”

“There’s no way, who told us now to protect the passengers?” Tian Ji shrugged. “Still, the mirror ghost is now nailed to the window. We can breathe more easily.”

“There must be a way to end it early but we haven’t thought about it yet.” Xiao Li spoke firmly.

According to the style of the tasks, there were generally two ways to respond. One was to actively attack and the other was to passively avoid. This time, the two tasks were passive avoidance then it can only be explained that the solution to the active attack was hidden very deeply.

Xiao Li looked out the carriage window for two seconds. Now the scenery that the ghost train was travelling past had changed a bit. It was going through some trees. Then he suddenly remembered the words spoken by Old Wang. The reincarnator used the ghost ticket to come up. How did the ghost train know this to let him get on board?

Xiao Li seemed to have found a clue. He turned and walked out of the room.

“Hey—Sherlock!” Tian Ji was half a beat slow and by the time he shouted, the other party had already left. He had to ask Jiang Yishe and Wu Tianyi, “Catch up and see?”

Jiang Yishe nodded and chased after Xiao Li.

*********

Xiao Li’s destination was very simple. It was the very first room of the train. The original driver should’ve been killed by ghosts. It was unknown if it was a spiritual power or a real ghost currently driving the train.

Xiao Li walked through the carriages and finally stopped in front of the locked door of the driver’s room. Tan Li’s head protruded from his pocket. Instead of using her hair, this time she stretched out a finger and inserted it into the keyhole, opening the door.

The room was empty and there was no light. It was dark which was in stark contrast to the carriages that didn’t have their lights turned off for 24 hours a day. In front of the driver’s seat was a console with countless buttons, pointers and a complicated road map.

The control facilities seemed to be fixed by some type of power and could only be driven along a fixed route. Xiao Li tried to touch the steering wheel with his hand and tried to hit the right side, but it didn’t move. It couldn’t be shaken by humans.

He looked at the road map in front of the screen. It spread out from the third station but the fourth station hadn’t yet been shown. It was the same as the itinerary. Then this could only be explained by…

The next stop hadn’t been decided yet? Each station was decided half an hour before the time arrived. This was simply a ghost train that didn’t have a fixed route. If they wanted to reach the terminal, they only needed to—

Xiao Li turned, let go of the steering wheel and ran towards Deng Kang’s room. He ran into Tian Ji and the others at the door of the driver’s room. He told them, “I know” and kept running.

Tian Ji looked around the driver’s room before quickly turning to chase after Xiao Li. “What do you know? Can you stop being so mysterious?”

He wanted to return to his calm self but when facing Sherlock, he couldn’t help wanting to growl out. They returned to Deng Kang’s room and saw Xiao Li leaning over the table with a pen in his hand. He seemed to want to drop the pen on the itinerary.

Tian Ji was surprised. “What do you want to do with the pen?”

Xiao Li’s pen paused in midair and he explained to Tian Ji, “The driving route of the ghost train isn’t fixed. It is based on the stations shown on this itinerary but the next stop hasn’t been shown yet because it isn’t decided.”

Sometimes there was no need to speak a lot. Jiang Yishe heard these words and immediately understood. “We were deceived by the task.”

“Yes, we only need to write the terminal on the itinerary and the next stop is the terminal.”

Xiao Li bowed his head and scratched out the original time of the station with a pen. Then he wrote under the revised third station: [April 26th, 23:11, S City’s Terminal.]

The specific time and place wasn’t important. They could write any place and the time was very close to the present. The only important thing was the word ‘terminal.’ The time filled in by Xiao Li was only five minutes away. In five minutes, they would arrive at the terminal and end the task.

This was the solution for task one. Otherwise, if they kept waiting, even if they waited until the fifth stop, there would be a steady stream of new stations because this was a never-ending ghost train. It didn’t have a terminal.

Wu Tianyi had long been ready to end this world and was still holding the bottle of water that Xiao Li gave her. The girl spoke gratefully, “Thank you, Brother Sherlock! You are amazing.”

Xiao Li was stunned for a long time. He touched his nose because he wasn’t good at facing such sincere gratitude. After a while, he replied, “Yes, thank you.”

Jiang Yishe smiled. “It would be nice if I could have a teammate like you next time.”

“This is my personal phone number in reality. In order to show sincerity, I will give it to you and there is no need to exchange numbers.” Jiang Yishe took a piece of paper from his pocket and borrowed Xiao Li’s pen to write a string of numbers and his name. “Don’t misunderstand. I think you are very good and want to make friends in advance. If you want to team up with me then please call this number.”

Xiao Li put away the paper and pen and nodded.

Tian Ji didn’t talk. He wanted for Jiang Yishe to give his number to Xiao Li before pressing on his phone with a blank expression. This time, the sound of the old calculator APP gave out another number: 136XXXXXXX7680

This was clearly a phone number.

Xiao Li, “………”

He didn’t move or take out his phone to remember the phone number, making Tian Ji feel a bit lost. Xiao Li didn’t discover it at first. Then his gaze fell on Tian Ji’s eyes and he raised a finger to his temple. “…I wrote down the number.”

Tian Ji nodded with satisfaction. Then he moved his fingers and entered another string of numbers. The old-fashioned calculator made the sound of a rainbow fart: 999999999

It was 6 turned upside down. As the number 9 repeated, the five minutes soon passed. The moment the ghost train stopped, the little yellow book jumped out.

【 The reincarnator Xiao Li has completed the original task one, evaluation level A. The task completion is 90%. 1,000 survivor coins have been obtained.  】

【 Scenario conversion. 】

【 3, 2, 1—】

【 Great. 】

【 Applause, call. 】

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The author has something to say:

Mirror ghost: I hate you. You are gone but could you let me go? I don’t want to be fixed on the window. Ahhh, I’m not like your Tan Li who likes to watch the scenery!