| WRIAWW | Self Defense | 03
The shout was like hot oil dripping into boiling water, instantly grabbing everyone's attention.
Wen Pushi stopped speaking and raised his flashlight.
The piercing white beam cut through the darkness, precisely illuminating the source of the commotion—
The old man who had been leaning on a cane was now slumped on the ground, his hands tightly gripping his neck. His face had turned a purplish-red, his eyes rolled back, and his limbs twisted in an unnatural, grotesque manner.
In his final moments, he clearly hadn’t understood what was happening. His wrinkled, orange-peel-like face was frozen in terror.
"I—I just saw it out of the corner of my eye with my phone..." The first witness to scream stammered in horror, "He—he strangled himself!"
The shocking statement sent ripples through the crowd, and the previously bold and brash young man with dyed hair was instantly struck speechless.
Under the flashlight's beam, fear began to creep onto everyone's faces.
No matter how you looked at it, a death in such a confined, pitch-black space was horrifying enough on its own.
But then, a college student noticed something odd.
"Wait, let’s forget why he would strangle himself—those corpse marks on his arms couldn’t have just formed. That level of discoloration means he’s been dead for at least twelve hours!"
Yet everyone present knew that just minutes ago, the old man had been alive and well.
"What are you talking about? Are you joking?"
"I’m not joking. I study forensic—how could I get something like that wrong?"
"That’s impossible. This isn’t some TV drama..."
"Could someone have killed him?! Call the police!"
"There’s no signal in the subway. We can’t even get out of this car—there’s no way to make a call."
Though they denied it, the fear had already reached its peak.
In their panic, people naturally turned to those who might be able to help in such a situation.
Zong Le was still puzzledly examining the body when someone spoke up: "Wait, didn’t those two say they were subway safety officers? They mentioned something about paranormal activity—they must know something!"
All eyes turned to them.
This was exactly the moment Wen Pushi had been waiting for.
"Calm down, everyone! Return to your seats!"
Seeing their hesitant, skeptical expressions, he decided to drive the point home: "You heard what the forensic student said. If anyone wants to end up like the man on the ground, feel free to ignore me."
Sure enough, his words shook many of them.
Once one person moved, others followed. Except for the young man with dyed hair, who was too proud to back down, almost everyone returned to their seats.
Zong Le, who had always considered himself poor with words, was impressed. "Senior Wen, you’re amazing."
"Hmph." Wen Pushi snorted, though inwardly he was quite pleased.
He had been one of the last to enter the infinite space, belonging to the lowest tier of survivors. Everywhere he went, he had to keep his head down, afraid of offending the higher-tier survivors. He had never imagined that in this mission, he’d get the chance to rise above and show off in front of the newcomers.
"Alright, stop flattering me. If you want to survive, just do as I say later, got it?"
"Okay, got it." Zong Le nodded vigorously like pounding garlic.
To be honest, he still hadn't fully grasped what Wen Pushi meant by the "Infinite Space" and the "Ultimate Dungeon," nor was he sure whether everything that had happened so far was real or just a delusion during one of his episodes.
However, as a qualified mental patient, he had excellent self-control. Since he could ignore the eternal night sky and the blood moon, he could also convince himself to treat all this as just another form of work.
"That's more like it."
Seeing that Wen Pushi was in a better mood, Zong Le seized the opportunity to learn more from the experienced: "So, senior, how do we complete the mission?"
"Just stay here and keep an eye on these NPCs. The main force of the mission isn't us. The other two big shots have already gone to the front carriages to handle the main storyline. We just need to take care of the side quests, and then we can sit back and enjoy our victory."
The newbie's obedience pleased Wen Pushi, and he was no longer as resistant to playing the role of a babysitter. He was even willing to offer a few more pointers: "But if you think every mission will be this easy, you're sorely mistaken."
"This mission is pure luck. We happened to run into two decent B-level big shots who are willing to carry us for free. If it were any other mission, being a bootlicker wouldn’t be enough—you'd have to offer something practical."
"Something practical?"
"Usually, it's survival points. That's the hard currency in the Infinite Space. Big shots can't carry you for free, right? Taking a cut of your mission reward points is only fair. Of course, that's for normal people. If you run into some eccentric or ill-tempered big shots, who knows what might happen."
Wen Pushi had heard rumors that some rare big shots had peculiar quirks. For example, during missions, if they saw a good-looking person of the same sex, they might demand that person to serve them in bed. If refused, they would either humiliate them or let them die at the hands of a weirdness.
"Alas." At this point, Wen Pushi couldn't help but sigh.
Looking at the handsome face of the black-haired young man in front of him, he felt a surge of pride in his own ordinary, average appearance for the first time: "The survivors are a mixed bag, and there are plenty of scumbags. As a young man, remember to protect yourself when you're out there."
Zong Le nodded, though he didn't fully understand.
Perhaps it was the shared plight of low-level survivors, but after saying all this, Wen Pushi found Zong Le even more pleasing.
"Every survivor starts this way. When you're low-level, you have to be humble. It’s the same as the unspoken rules in a workplace, but only more blatant. So, give the points when you need to, flatter when you need to, and don't be too proud. After all, it's about survival—there's no need to feel shame."
"Mm..." Although there were many things in Wen Pushi's words that Zong Le didn't agree with, as a newbie in the workplace, he still took note of them all.
"You keep mentioning NPCs. What does NPC mean?"
Wen Pushi: "..."
This newbie really has no tact. I've been hinting for so long, and he still doesn't offer anything in return.
"These basic questions can wait until after the mission. Go check the newbie Q&A on the forum yourself. Seriously, you really think I'm your babysitter?"
"Oh, okay."
The two of them continued their conversation as if no one else was around, but the eavesdropping blond-haired guy finally couldn’t hold back.
“Didn’t you say you were subway safety officers? How can you act so indifferent when someone has died? Instead, you’re chatting about things no one can understand.”
Zong Le hesitated, “Is it okay if they overhear?”
“It’s fine,” Wen Pushi replied nonchalantly. “Even if they learn about the Infinite Space, it doesn’t matter. After the mission ends, the memories of these NPCs will be overwritten.”
They might not care, but others certainly did. The blond guy’s words gave the panicked crowd an outlet for their emotions.
The passengers, who had just quieted down, began to voice their grievances again.
“We listened to you and sat down obediently, and now what?”
“Someone has already died, and you’re still talking about NPCs? Have you been playing too many games?”
“When can we finally get off this train? I don’t want to stay here anymore, ugh—”
Just as the crowd’s agitation reached its peak, another passenger suddenly stopped speaking. His eyes widened, his face contorted in pain, and after a moment, he slowly slid to the floor, blood seeping from his lips.
Wen Pushi finally moved. He rushed forward in a flash and pried open the man’s jaw, which had already begun to show signs of rigor mortis.
Dark blood gushed out, and half of the man’s tongue fell to the ground.
“The interval between the two killings is so short...”
Looking at the mess on the floor, the ease on Wen Pushi’s face vanished completely.
He had thought this mission would be a breeze, but now he realized things might be far more serious than he had anticipated.
Logically, this kind of silent killing could only occur in a Weird Domain. Weird Domains were the exclusive territory of high-level weirdness entities, and such an out-of-spec phenomenon shouldn’t appear in a C-level mission.
Setting aside Weird Domains, the methods of weirdness killings were limited to a few well-known patterns. Even a D-level tasker like him, who had only completed a handful of missions, could easily deduce the answer by carefully reading the beginner’s guide on the forum and using the process of elimination.
Recalling the brief, chilling sensation he had felt when the two passengers died, Wen Pushi had a rough idea of what was going on.
He straightened up and shouted, “Everyone, take out everything you’re carrying, now!”
However, the death of yet another person had completely shattered the passengers’ nerves. His words only made them tremble like sieves sifting flour.
“Why should we trust you again?”
Here we go again, these NPCs in the mission who couldn’t understand human language and only knew how to drag everyone down. If they could just communicate properly and be reasonable, this side mission wouldn’t be so difficult.
Wen Pushi was utterly fed up. He was about to say something when he heard a loud thud.
He turned around and saw Zong Le, with lightning speed, grabbing the blond guy’s head and slamming it into the ground.
The sheer impact of the scene left him stunned for several seconds.
It took him a while to find his voice again. “What... what are you doing?”
Zong Le scratched his head. “I don’t know. He suddenly started yelling something about us being a liar and not wanting to die, then charged at me.”
“He attacked me first. I was just defending myself.”
Looking at the innocent expression on the rookie’s face and then at the blond guy, half of whose head was now covered in blood, Wen Pushi was momentarily at a loss for words regarding the term “self-defense.”
It felt like something was off, yet it also seemed perfectly reasonable.
“Don’t worry, Senior Wen, I know how to hold back.”
As he spoke, the black-haired young man grabbed the yellow-haired guy by the collar with one hand. Unlike the earlier ruthless slam to the ground, he now handled him with care, effortlessly lifting him off the floor and placing him back on the subway seat.
The motion was smooth and fluid, as if he wasn’t lifting a person weighing over a hundred pounds but rather a small chicken.
Finally, he considerately crossed the man’s hands and placed them over his chest.
“See? He just fell asleep.”
“...”
Wen Pushi hesitated, struggling to find the right words. After a long pause, he managed only a soft “Hmm.”
But in reality, he was still stuck on the scene he had just witnessed, unable to fully process it.
Wait, could an ordinary person who had just entered the Infinite Space really have such a decisive and commanding presence?
And come to think of it, when the first death occurred in the carriage earlier, this newcomer didn’t seem to show any fear. In fact, he even went over to take a closer look.
Such a strong mental fortitude—if he wasn’t someone who enforces the law, he must be someone written into it.
Wen Pushi broke into a cold sweat, belatedly realizing something was off.
He glanced discreetly at the young man, carefully choosing his words: “So, uh, Xiao Zong, what did you do before this?”
“Me? I was just a jobless drifter.”
While answering, Zong Le didn’t forget Wen Pushi’s earlier instruction and casually rummaged through the yellow-haired guy’s pockets.
Unfortunately, all he found were a few coins—nothing else.
Wen Pushi couldn’t help but question his life choices.
“This doesn’t make sense. There has to be a medium for the weirdness to meet the conditions for killing.”
Too preoccupied to dwell on the earlier oddity, Wen Pushi crouched on the ground, scratching his head in frustration.
He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed—after all, the truly clever survivors had already risen to higher ranks.
So, he decided to enlist Zong Le’s help in figuring things out.
This time, he genuinely acted as a mentor to the newcomer, patiently explaining the principles of how weirdness kill.
“A weirdness can’t kill without leaving a trace. No matter how powerful it is, there must be constraints. We can try to deduce the medium the weirdness used to kill these two passengers based on the known conditions. If we can find the medium and figure out the rules, we can protect the other passengers.”
After listening attentively, Zong Le nodded in understanding but then looked troubled. “But Senior Wen, I’m not exactly the brainy type either.”
He consistently ranked at the bottom in the monthly written exams at the psychiatric department.
“...”
Seeing the newcomer’s face radiating pure, unclouded innocence, Wen Pushi completely dismissed his earlier suspicions about Zong Le’s identity.
It wasn’t unheard of for newcomers to be a bit slow on the uptake or to think in a more straightforward manner.
“Ah! What do we do?” He ruffled his own hair in frustration.
“Those two big shots specifically told me to complete the side quest and achieve a perfect rating.”
Aside from them, there were ten passengers in Carriage 4. The system’s task list clearly stated that the perfect rating for the side quest required the death toll to be less than or equal to two. If there’s one more death, it’s over.
“This is so annoying. The main problem is that these NPCs are impossible to communicate with.”
In fact, if they had done nothing after the incident and simply stayed put, they might not have attracted the attention of the weirdness, which had already spread its focus. These two NPCs must have done something during that time that inadvertently met the killing condition, leading to their untimely deaths.
"You should also think of a way. If we can't achieve a perfect rating, regardless of what those two big shots might think, the survival points we get will also be less!"
Zong Le had already equated the term "survival points" with "work compensation" in his mind.
Other things he couldn't understand could be pondered later, but the money absolutely couldn't be short!
"Senior Wen, I actually have an idea."
Zong Le quickly raised his hand to share his suggestion.
......
Five minutes later, Wen Pushi looked at the passengers sitting neatly in rows inside the carriage and fell into silence.
This should have been a very harmonious scene.
If it weren't for the fact that all these NPCs were peacefully closing their eyes.
And the culprit was skillfully arranging the last person, his movements so practiced it seemed like he had done this many times before.
"Ta-da! How about it, Senior? Now they're all obedient, right?"
Wen Pushi thought to himself, of course they're obedient—you knocked them all out.
But all he did was lift the corner of his mouth: "Hehe..."
"This is indeed, uh, not a bad idea."
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