Chapter 57
Chapter 57
[Xu You: We’re teammates anyway, so I don’t mind who eliminates the Doom Beast.
Lin Xiaoxue: It definitely won’t be me. Good luck, everyone! I’m just going to get carried this round~~~
Huang Xinze: Even though you’re all beauties and little brothers, I’m not going to go easy on anyone!
Xia Susu: Ah, not even on me?
Huang Xinze: Uh… we’ll see. We’ll see.
Zhu Zhaoyang: Hint Three means the Doom Beast is hiding among these passengers, right?
Xia Susu: There are 132 passengers and crew members on this plane. We’re supposed to find the Doom Beast with just three hints?
Lin Xiaoxue: Why don’t we take something red and test them one by one?
Huang Xinze: Bad idea. Hint Two said that once the Doom Beast wakes up, it’ll bring immense misfortune! What if we provoke it awake and it kills us all?
Xia Susu: Don’t all of you have life-saving Anomalous Artifacts?
Huang Xinze: I don’t!
Wei Sen: The only thing we can confirm about the Doom Beast’s identity right now is that it’s afraid of red, so passengers who ordered red wine can be ruled out first. @Huang Xinze @Xia Susu, you two had better record which passengers ordered red wine.
Huang Xinze: No problem!
Wei Sen: Keep searching for clues. Pay special attention to the passengers on the plane. Anyone carrying red items can be eliminated from suspicion.
Xu You: Agreed! Narrow down the suspect pool first, then investigate further. After all, we still know too little, and we’re not sure what abilities the Doom Beast has.
Huang Xinze: This humble subject seconds the motion!
Xu You: OK, I’ll keep patrolling!
Lin Xiaoxue: Roger that!
Zhu Zhaoyang: Got it.
Xia Susu: Just you wait. I’ll definitely be the first to find the Doom Beast!]
“Sister Sen, you can do it. I have a feeling you’ll definitely find the Doom Beast!” Lin Xiaoxue looked expectantly at Wei Sen beside her.
“Even if we find the Doom Beast, the rules don’t say what method we need to use to eliminate it.”
Lin Xiaoxue froze. “Oh, right. Eliminate should mean kill, I guess…”
“Killing a person isn’t easy, and killing a beast will probably require the power of an Anomalous Artifact.”
As Wei Sen thought this, she silently weighed whether she should use that one Card Draw chance from the System. If she could draw some kind of offensive Anomalous Artifact, it would be a huge boost.
“Too bad the Substitute Paper Figurine’s rule is taking death in our place. It can’t kill people for us…”
“I’ll go to the restroom and see if there are any clues or Anomalous Artifacts there.” As Wei Sen spoke, she prepared to stand.
“Ahem! Sensen, where are you going?” Mom, by the window, turned her head and stared straight at Wei Sen.
“The restroom.”
“Hey, look what time it is!” Mom said, waggling her eyebrows meaningfully.
Wei Sen glanced at her watch. Takeoff had been at 02:00. Now it was 02:36. What was wrong with this time?
Just as Wei Sen was feeling puzzled, two flight attendants came straight toward them from the rear of the plane, pushing a small service cart.
On the cart sat a pink bear-shaped cake, with candles in the shape of the numbers “1” and “8” stuck into the front.
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you…”
The two flight attendants in red uniforms wore strange smiles as they pushed the birthday cake into the aisle beside Wei Sen. Their eyes were fixed directly on Lin Xiaoxue.
“What’s going on?” Xu You heard the commotion and hurried back, only to see this scene.
Mom also smiled and began singing along. “Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you…”
In the midst of her immense shock, Lin Xiaoxue suddenly remembered something. She took out her ID card again. The digits in the middle of her ID number that represented her birthday were 20040321.
“So… today is my birthday?” Lin Xiaoxue slowly came back to herself, dazed.
Wei Sen sat quietly in her seat without speaking. The two flight attendants who had pushed the cake over were the same two who had been serving water to passengers from the front earlier.
But what was different was that at some point, both of them had changed into red uniforms, filling Wei Sen with intense unease.
The Hidden Rule behind Article Two of the Passenger Identity Rules was: No matter when or where, for the personal safety of you and the other passengers, you must obey the flight attendant’s instructions. However, this is only on the condition that she is wearing this airline’s work uniform! Otherwise, please ignore any request from him and do not answer!
At that moment, Lin Xiaoxue was already immersed in overwhelming emotion.
The flight attendant said, “Miss Lin Xiaoxue, this is a special surprise your mother prepared for you. A birthday surprise at thirty thousand feet. We hope it leaves you with a wonderful memory!”
With tears in her eyes, Lin Xiaoxue looked at Mom. Ever since she was little, her birthdays had always been spent with the family’s nanny.
She often wondered that if her mother were still alive, maybe her birthdays would not be so lonely. Maybe her father would come home too and blow out the candles with her.
In her seat, Mom smiled and, as if performing a magic trick, produced a gift box from behind her. She gazed lovingly into Lin Xiaoxue’s eyes. “Mom isn’t good at expressing herself, but my dear daughter, from today on, you’re an adult. Mom may not be able to stay by your side forever, but you must remember this: Mom’s love has always been with you.”
As she spoke, Mom held the gift box out to Lin Xiaoxue.
Lin Xiaoxue looked at it, deeply moved, and slowly reached out with both hands.
The scene was warm and touching, but Wei Sen kept her guard up around the two flight attendants.
They were dressed in red. If they made any request right now, she must not agree to it or respond!
Lin Xiaoxue was just about to take the gift when the plane suddenly jolted. The present slipped from Mom’s hands and went tumbling under the seat in front of them.
“My present!” Lin Xiaoxue cried, anxiously trying to pick it up.
“Passenger Rules, Article Four: in the event of turbulence, return to your seat immediately and fasten your seat belt!” Wei Sen was reminding Xiaoxue, and also Xu You, who was still standing.
At that, Lin Xiaoxue looked reluctantly at the gift box, but for now, she could only tighten her seat belt and sit properly in her seat.
Xu You did not waste a word either. She shoved the two flight attendants aside and returned to her own seat.
By then, the plane was shaking even more violently. The entire fuselage let out a piercing, droning roar.
The two flight attendants had no time to get back to their seats. They could only desperately grab the seats on either side, while the cart and cake flew straight into the air before crashing heavily back down.
“Wahhh, my birthday cake!” Lin Xiaoxue was heartbroken. That had been the birthday surprise Mom prepared for her!
“What is going on?” Xu You clutched the armrests on both sides. “This turbulence is way too intense!”
Wei Sen’s face gradually paled. She looked toward the window and said, “Look outside.”
Everyone turned to look. A pitch-black Crow Spirit slammed straight into the plane window. As expected, it smashed against the glass and burst into a bloody pulp.
Then came a second, a third, a fourth…
The window was stained a strange red-black by the crows’ blood and flesh, and the plane shook harder and harder.
“Ah!” Some people who had not fastened their seat belts in time were flung straight into the air.
One flight attendant wrapped her arms around Wei Sen’s leg, dangling with difficulty in midair. The other was struck by the service cart and sent flying toward the tail of the plane.
“Mom!!!” Lin Xiaoxue screamed, terrified by the overwhelming sensation of weightlessness.
“Help!” The other passengers on the plane erupted into screams and cries for help.
The broadcast sounded: “Attention, all passengers! The aircraft is about to encounter severe turbulence. Please sit down immediately and fasten your seat belts! All crew members, please take your seats at once! Repeat, everyone must remain seated and avoid moving around!”
“Sister Sen, Mom, I’m scared!” Lin Xiaoxue clutched Wei Sen tightly with one hand and Mom on her right with the other.
“Don’t be scared, don’t be scared. It’ll be over soon.” Mom held Lin Xiaoxue’s hand in both of hers.
Wei Sen stared at the Crow Spirits that kept slamming into the window. A crack seemed to have already appeared in the glass!
The fourth rule in the second half of the Passenger Rules stated: If you see crows outside the window striking the aircraft, hide in the restroom immediately until the cabin becomes quiet again!
But the first half of the rules also stated: In the event of turbulence, return to your seat immediately and fasten your seat belt!
These two rules contradicted each other. How could they appear at the same time?
One of the rules had to be true, and the other false!
But this was only a C-Rank Instance. Not only did it have a Hidden Rule, it also had true and false rules?
But if both were true, then that meant… it was a dead end!
Wei Sen looked at the glass. In the next instant, it shattered.
Freezing wind and the stench of blood rushed in. A tremendous suction force was the first to drag Mom, who was sitting by the window, outward. Her shoulder became brutally wedged in the tiny window.
“Mom!” Lin Xiaoxue panicked and grabbed Mom’s arm with both hands.
At the same time, the oxygen masks in the cabin dropped down.
But Wei Sen no longer had time to put one on. Through the window on the other side, she saw a massive blaze burning along the wing, nearly lighting up the night sky outside.
Immediately afterward, the plane began to tilt. The immense weightlessness and the sudden drop in temperature caused everyone who had not put on an oxygen mask in time to faint.
“Holy… Sister Sen, we’re not all going to die, are we…?” Xu You forced out with difficulty.
Wei Sen’s own consciousness began to blur from lack of oxygen.
What now…? This was a dead end…
The wing was on fire, the plane’s control system had failed, and they were plummeting rapidly. At this point, even if they hid in the restroom, the outcome would still be the plane crashing and everyone dying.
As Wei Sen’s consciousness faded, she heard a thunderous explosion. She seemed to see the plane disintegrate in midair, the fuselage turning into countless fragments of flame as it fell toward the ground. And she, like all the other passengers, was reduced to ashes by the scorching heat the instant the explosion struck.