Please don't question multi-week players

Chapter 146. Happiness Lane

"Wow..."

As soon as Jiang Jianxin entered the cool water of the subway tank, he felt the mud on his face.

Realizing her disguise might be ruined, she lowered her head and hurriedly squeezed into a corner of the carriage, next to two burly men who blocked her view.

"Drip-drip-"

The subway lights flashed twice, and the subway doors slowly closed.

There was a mermaid baring its teeth in the car before, but Jiang Jianxin hadn't paid close attention to the surroundings. Now that there were living people all around, the environment felt much safer.

She carefully examined the interior of the carriage and noticed a long horizontal strip on the ceiling, densely covered with station names. Jiang Jianxin couldn't understand the place names, but she found them all strangely peculiar.
"Happiness Lane Residential Area, No. 13 Experimental University, Pale Church, Quiet Valley, Orens Abbey..."

She muttered the place names under her breath while listening to the conversations of the other passengers on the bus.

"...What's going on? Why is the subway so crowded this time? Did everyone die and come back from the dead?"

"Stop talking. We all thought Experimental University No. 13 was safe. After all, we've been here for so long and no one has died... Who knew it would just trap people and kill them, and then send us all back here."

"Sigh, here's the thing, I thought I'd found a place where I could survive, but who knew... poor me, I only have two lives left now."

Jiang Jianxin glanced at the three people who were speaking.

A vibrant young girl with a high ponytail was gesturing and talking animatedly. Standing beside her were a middle-aged woman with a tired face but a determined look in her eyes, and a young man with a calm expression and a tactical backpack.

Such intergenerational combinations are not uncommon in the post-apocalyptic world, where the pressure of survival has long since shattered the age barriers of ordinary society.

The three, unaware of Jiang Jianxin's silent gaze, continued their conversation. The girl among them rolled up her sleeves, extending her arm to show the two men, muttering to herself:

"How come you still have two lives? I only have one left. If I die again, I'll only have my true life left."

The overhead light cast a dim, yellowish glow on the blood-red number "1" on her forearm, which looked as if it were branded into her flesh.

The middle-aged woman leaned against the handrail with her back to Jiang Jianxin, her work clothes stained with dark dirt.

She gently ruffled the girl's hair, her hoarse voice carrying the composure of someone with experience: "My old life only has one last insurance policy left. But as long as we are careful enough, there is still a chance of survival."

Jiang Jianxin withdrew his gaze, rolled up his sleeves, and glanced at his forearm.

She also had a blood-red mark, but unlike the girl, she had an "∞" symbol on her forearm.

Jiang Jianxin blinked, and suddenly understood something.

She whispered to herself, "Intuition!"
Hey, are you there?

Intuition responded somewhat slowly, perhaps because she had returned to her body and the signal was weak.

I'm here, I know what you want to ask.

Those people can also be resurrected, but only three times.

After saying those two sentences, Intuition fell silent, and no more notifications came in.

But these two sentences alone were enough for Jiang Jianxin to confirm his guess.

—This contaminated area was indeed affected by the lost items from the fourth playthrough. Everyone in the area gained the ability to resurrect, but they could only resurrect three times, and only in the graveyard.

With the help of her afterimage in the fourth playthrough, she gained the power to resurrect infinitely—she could even resurrect on the spot in the cemetery.

Jiang Jianxin sensed the white diary that had returned to his sword intent space, took it out again, and tied it to his right forearm, which conveniently covered the red mark.

She needed to conceal her unique features to blend into the crowd and avoid being noticed, especially since she was new to the area. While Jiang Jianxin was tying up her diary, the two burly men beside her, listening to the chattering of the people in the car, couldn't help but exchange a few words:
"Sigh, when will this ever end?"

The burly man in sportswear spoke first.

"There's nothing we can do. This contaminated zone is too large and too powerful. Even with so many elders from the Dream Pavilion, they couldn't destroy it. We little shrimps don't know when the contaminated zone will eat us up."

The burly man in a vest next to him struck up a conversation.

"Speaking of the Dream Pavilion, I remember a few days ago, didn't another elder jump in from upstream? I forgot what his name was."

The burly man in the tracksuit scratched his head and said:

"It seems someone came in; I heard they went to Xingfuli."

The burly man in the vest sighed deeply and remarked:
"That's good. I hope the boss will wipe out Happiness Lane first. I lost my first life there. I never want to go back to that awful place again."

Jiang Jianxin was slightly taken aback when he heard their conversation.

—An elder from the Dream Pavilion has visited Xingfuli Community?
It's unclear whether it's Zuo Siquan, Wen Yu, or perhaps another elder from the Dream Pavilion.

She had only been in the contaminated area for a short time and was still in a state of confusion, not knowing where to go.

She couldn't stay on the subway forever, after all, she had already gotten fish scales from soaking in the water.

Jiang Jianxin glanced at the horizontal bar above and happened to see the lights of the "Xingfuli Community" station flashing.

"Om——"

The airflow from the subway entering the station rushed into the tunnel, stirring up the scattered scraps of paper and dust on the platform.

With a crisp "click" from the mechanical lock, Jiang Jianxin heard the electronic announcement coming from inside the carriage:

"Xingfuli Community - We have arrived. Please open the right-hand door and disembark promptly if you wish to do so."

Earlier, when Jiang Jianxin squeezed onto the left-hand door at the cemetery station, she moved to the very back of the carriage—at that moment, the right-hand door slid open with a "whoosh" and was right in front of her nose.

A gust of cold wind carrying the smell of rust rushed towards me.

Across from the platform, an entire concrete wall was covered in graffiti that resembled splashed ink. The three scarlet characters "Xingfuli" (幸福里) were written in frenzied strokes, slanting across the wall. The paint, like undried blood, meandered downwards, reflecting an eerie color under the pale lights.

The twisted strokes ended with long, thin handprints, as if they were traces of the writer's last struggle.

Just as Jiang Jianxin was considering whether to get off the bus and go to Xingfuli to check on the situation, a casual shout came from the crowd behind her:

"Excuse me, everyone, I need to get off the bus."

The crowd behind him was moving, and Jiang Jianxin, unsure of what to do, moved two steps to the left to politely make way for those getting off the bus.

It was a young man with a small braid, who looked to be about twenty-one or twenty-two years old. He had a small spinning windmill on his head and a huge teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll that is about half the height of a person) on his back.

The teru teru bozu was dressed up very exquisitely, with a blue bow in her hair, a lace-trimmed bow tie around her neck, smiling eyes, and two rosy blushes under her eyes.

For no apparent reason, she sensed a deep malice in the smiling face of the teru teru bozu doll, and there was also a strange aura about the man.

Jiang Jianxin glanced at the graffiti wall in Happiness Lane and thought of the unknown Dream Pavilion elder who was inside.

She gritted her teeth and stepped out of the open subway doors.

Thank you to Xiaowanzi and SpongeBob SquarePants, Playing with Fate, Book Friend 20250201155532112, Narrow Eight Evils, Unknown Creature Weiweiwei, and Levinia Badwei for the monthly tickets, and tonight's brilliant dreamless donation for the reward. Thank you all for your support!

I've been having a writer's block lately. The story is huge, and there are too many characters involved. If I don't get the timing of the characters' introductions right at the beginning, it just won't flow smoothly later on, so my writing is a little bit slow (╥_╥).
After completing this dungeon, the female protagonist's abilities will be nearly fully developed, allowing her to withstand even more intense storms.