I really don't want to work in the world of weird rules!

The woman gave a bitter smile.

"It's hardly intelligence, but everything felt too contrived. A perfectly good welcoming ceremony turned into this, and those people... died so tragically."

Before she could finish speaking, her previously composed face turned deathly pale, and she let out a suppressed gag. The bloody scene she had just witnessed had clearly broken through her psychological defenses.

Gu Changyuan actually understood this woman very well, and he wished he could immediately delete the relevant images from his mind.

"I'm sorry... I really can't think about it anymore." The woman covered her mouth tightly in pain, her body trembling slightly.

"It's okay, I'm the same. Anyone would break down in this mess." Gu Changyuan waved his hand.

The woman gave a weak, bitter smile: "Don't be modest, you were probably the calmest one here just now."

Gu Changyuan's lips twitched slightly, revealing her inner panic.

"Huh?"

A slightly hesitant voice suddenly rang out from the side.

Gu Changyuan turned his head and saw a young man with curly hair and an honest-looking face rubbing the back of his neck, his gaze shifting between him and the woman.

"Excuse me, are you the one who was sitting next to me just now?"

The man seemed unable to fit into any group; he tentatively extended his right hand.

"My name is Bai Tongyu."

Gu Changyuan's breath hitched, and his hand, which was suspended in mid-air, almost froze.

Bai Tongyu?

This is a truly pivotal character. A veteran employee who has repeatedly performed extraordinary feats in "Tales of the Strange and Mysterious," codenamed "Viper."

Gu Changyuan sized up the somewhat timid-looking curly-haired man in front of him, and a thought began to circulate in his mind. This timid, subservient demeanor—he dares to call himself a viper? The contrast was far too stark.

"Although the situation is bad right now, let's exchange names." The woman next to her extended her hand at the opportune moment, "My name is Gao Xinying."

A name I have absolutely no recollection of. Characters from the original work that Gu Changyuan doesn't recognize usually only have two fates: either they have a smooth and successful career and leave early, or they are killed off at lightning speed.

Even ruthless characters who only leave behind code names will have an aura that is different from ordinary people, and Gao Xinying is obviously not one of them.

Gu Changyuan suppressed his worries and calmly clenched his fist.

"Gu Changyuan".

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, the three of them naturally sat down in their seats.

The crowd inside the carriage had subtly split into several small groups. Gao Xinying pointed to the connecting area between the carriages and lowered his voice.

"Those people seem to want to talk to the people in the carriages ahead."

Gu Changyuan glanced at it.

"A waste of effort."

The premise of this ghost story is that moving between carriages is strictly prohibited. Sure enough, after gesturing and shouting for a while, those people finally retreated dejectedly.

"What should we do? They're completely ignoring us, and it looks like they're fighting." Someone said anxiously, scratching their head.

Just as everyone was feeling anxious, the train's public address system came on again.

[Next stop: Ecstasy Station.]

The noise inside the carriage stopped abruptly.

"ecstasy?"

"This name sounds pretty positive! Maybe it'll work!" A man exclaimed, his eyes wide with hope.

"Completely wrong," Gu Changyuan gritted his teeth. These idiots, if they had taken the words literally, would all have lost their lives here.

The left-side door is about to open...

Accompanied by an electronic sound, the view outside the train door was revealed: brightly lit and clean, just like a newly built subway station.

This seemingly normal scene instantly shattered everyone's psychological defenses.

"Let's go! Let's get off here and ask someone for help!"

"Yes, yes, this looks perfectly normal!"

Several people, their faces beaming with joy, eagerly crowded to the car door.

Absolutely not.

His "cannon fodder" cannot just die in vain, and Gu Changyuan absolutely cannot bear to witness that kind of tragedy again.

Gu Changyuan rushed forward and spread his arms to block the car door.

"What are you doing?!" The man at the front was startled and scolded him angrily.

"Wait a minute, everyone!" Cold sweat beaded on Gu Changyuan's forehead.

[A system notification sound is playing; the security door is about to open.]

"Do you have solid evidence?" Gu Changyuan pressed, his voice rapid. "Or even a plausible deduction that can prove this place is absolutely safe?"

The man paused for a moment, then stammered.

"Huh? This..."

Gu Changyuan deliberately turned his gaze toward Gao Xinying, who was standing to the side.

"Everyone knows that the current situation cannot be explained by common sense; it's like a real-life ghost story."

Gao Xinying flinched slightly, but did not refute.

The train doors will close in 30 seconds; this station will not be served again.

"Whether in ghost stories or horror movies, how many of those who blindly stumble upon things based solely on intuition actually survive?" Gu Changyuan continued to press the issue.

"But……"

"How can you risk your life without any reasoning or evidence?"

The initially agitated crowd was rendered speechless by his rapid-fire retorts, but their fear quickly turned into anger and embarrassment.

"Stop pretending! What amazing reasoning do you have?!" A hot-tempered man pointed at Gu Changyuan's nose and yelled.

"Exactly, all they say are discouraging things!"

"Get out of here! Deduction? Do you think this is some kind of quiz show? What kind of bullshit hints are you giving me!" The irritable man reached out to shove him.

Gu Changyuan took the push as steadily as Mount Tai and spoke in a cold voice.

"The hint has always been there."

The irritable man's hand froze in mid-air.

"What did you say?"

Gu Changyuan adjusted his breathing and pointed to the speaker on the ceiling of the carriage above.

"broadcast."

Just then, a mechanical female voice came from the speaker.

Please pay attention to train announcements to ensure a comfortable journey to your final destination.

Gu Changyuan looked around at everyone.

"It made it clear from the beginning that we must always pay attention to and follow the instructions broadcast. So..."

The radio broadcast happened to be a supplementary announcement.

If Ecstasy Station is your final destination, please follow the announcements to disembark.

Gu Changyuan coldly posed the question.

"Now, who here is headed for 'ecstasy'?"

Everyone seemed to have been frozen in place, as if a pause button had been pressed.

"At a time like this, who cares about the destination! You can't even save yourself, what are you pretending to know and giving useless advice for?!"

"If we had listened to you and missed our chance to escape, could you take responsibility for that?! Huh? Would you take responsibility?!" someone roared hysterically.

"You'll take responsibility, right?" Gu Changyuan showed no sign of backing down. "Fine, I'll take responsibility."

Those people had their mouths open, as if someone was choking them.

"I said, if anything really happens, I'll take full responsibility," Gu Changyuan said without hesitation. This kind of question didn't even require thinking. He was counting on getting this group through the checkpoint together; getting off here would be suicide.

This resolute attitude of risking one's life clearly caused the other party to waver, and the struggle on their face was visible to the naked eye.

During this brief stalemate...

The car door is about to close...

The heavy metal door slowly closed.

Gu Changyuan then stepped aside, and the few people who had been shouting the loudest earlier clung to the car door like soulless puppets, but no one dared to get angry again.

Finally, things stabilized, and Gu Changyuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Everyone in the front carriage has run off!" someone shouted in terror.

Gu Changyuan's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately peered out the car window. Five or six figures had already swarmed onto the platform.

He suppressed the urge to swear, squinted, and used his eyelashes as a kind of artificial mosaic.

"They're running!" someone in the carriage exclaimed.

The group that escaped clearly didn't want anything to happen, so they got off the bus and ran like mad, rushing desperately towards the platform stairs.

Unfortunately, it was too late.

"what!"

A piercing scream ripped through the platform. Suddenly, the platform floor glowed with a blinding yellow light, churning like boiling lava.

"Gold, gold?!" Someone stared at the scene in disbelief, uttering the words in a trembling voice.

The men's feet sank into the ground as if they were ice cubes falling into a hot pan. Their lower bodies visibly transformed into pure gold, firmly welded to the ground.

They screamed in despair, struggling desperately to pull their legs away, but the gold was spreading faster and faster.

Finally, his upper body tilted forward like a puppet with broken strings, crashing heavily in front of the stairs.

The last remaining part of the body hardened completely the moment it touched the ground, turning into a pile of glittering pure gold nuggets.

Gold truly brings ecstasy.