Death Train: SSS-level talent right from the start!

Chen Ye turned his gaze away from the window and brought up the ranking list again.

Currently, only he and Gu Qinghuan are in the first tier, and there is already a gap between them and the second tier, which includes Su Jin, Lei Xing, and Li Tianran.

If he and Gu Qinghuan continue to level up normally, based on the rate at which their experience points increase, they will be the first to reach level 20 after two or three more trials.

Level 20 means a three-star trial.

The Trials of Three Stars: Multiple trains compete on the same stage, with older passengers having earlier numbers, stronger monsters, and more complex rules.

Even without other trains participating, the difficulty of the three-star survival trial is far greater than that of the two-star trial.

Take the Mirror City Trial for example; without five level 10 players, you'd definitely fail.

Given the train's current overall configuration, recklessly entering the three-star trial would be tantamount to suicide.

He has to hold back his rank and wait for the people behind him.

Just as he was pondering, the system panel suddenly popped up automatically. A blue light screen unfolded in front of him.

[Su Jin has invited you to join the group chat. Would you like to accept?]

Chen Ye raised an eyebrow; Su Jin was creating a group chat again.

The first time Su Jin created a group chat, she suggested lowering the level requirement, but Tang Jingxin refused.

He clicked "accept".

The moment the group chat interface opened, a message popped up in the message box.

[Su Jin: Everyone in the group now has reached level 11 or higher after this trial. I called you in to discuss the level suppression issue again.]

Chen Ye glanced at the group member list; including himself, there were a total of sixteen people in the group.

Gu Qinghuan, Lei Xing, Li Tianran, Zhao Hai, Wen Ning, Jiang Ning, Wang Ze, Xia Yan... and some other names he wasn't very familiar with, but they were all top-ranked faces on the leaderboard.

He didn't rush to speak; he first observed the reactions of the others.

[Lei Xing: The Three-Star Trial involves multiple trains competing simultaneously, meaning we may have to face other train teams at the same time. The overall strength of the trains, especially those with higher numbers, is still very important.]

[Li Tianran: Chen Ye and Gu Qinghuan are currently the highest level players. Do you want them to slow down their leveling speed?]

[Su Jin: That's what I mean, Chen Ye, Gu Qinghuan. I'd like to ask you two to slow down your leveling and wait a bit for the others in the group. Try not to let the gap between you widen too much. We need enough level 20 passengers to be safe when participating in the three-star trial.]

After the message was sent, the group was quiet for a few seconds before Gu Qinghuan sent another message.

[Gu Qinghuan: I have no problem suppressing train levels, but only if train merging doesn't happen again. If trains are merged again, especially if they merge into trains with earlier numbers, then suppressing levels becomes the opposite of what I intended.]

There was a moment of silence in the group chat.

Su Jin replied with a message.

[Su Jin: Gu Qinghuan's words make sense, but we don't know at what number of survivors on the train will trigger the merge mechanism. We currently have one hundred people left; if we maintain that number, we should be able to hold out for a while longer.]

Looking at Gu Qinghuan's message, Chen Ye thought that this woman was quite thoughtful. If the number of people decreased sharply and the trains were to merge, and there were still level 20 passengers on the merged trains, then his and Gu Qinghuan's suppression of levels would indeed be the opposite of what they were doing.

He thought for a moment and then sent a message in the group.

[Chen Ye: There are currently 100 people. The next survival trial is still at level two. We don't know what number of survivors will trigger the train merging again. What we can do now is to keep as many people alive as possible and postpone the train merging time as much as possible.]

[Lei Xing: You mean in the next trial, everyone on the train will act in unison?]

[Chen Ye: This isn't a coordinated action across the entire train. There are 34 people at level 10 on the ranking list; these people can protect themselves. There are 50 people below level 10, and we must minimize their deaths.]

[Li Tianran: There are only 16 people in the group who are above level 10 right now. It's still a bit difficult for 16 people to protect 50 people.]

[Su Jin: There's nothing we can do about it. Of course, we can take a gamble and bet that the merged trains will be merged with those numbered later, so we won't have to worry about those lower-ranking trains.]

[Lei Xing: Then let's try our best to protect those of lower rank. It's hard to say whether the trains will merge forward or backward.]

[Su Jin: Then let's do as Chen Ye says. In the next survival trial, the 16 of us, along with the 50 passengers below level 10 on the train, will do our best to protect their safety. I will organize them then.]

The group chat fell silent.

The plan was proposed by Chen Ye, and Gu Qinghuan did not object. Su Jin was the organizer, and the three of them were among the top three on the ranking list, so naturally no one raised any further objections.

Chen Ye turned off the control panel and leaned back in his seat. He had already suppressed his level in the previous trial, so now he just had to see what the next trial would be like.

……

Carriage number one.

Su Jin closed the group chat, and the blue light screen shrank and dissipated in front of her.

She leaned back in her seat, her hands resting on her knees, her gaze fixed on the empty seats in front of her.

Yang Qing sat to her right. She glanced at Su Jin, then looked at the now-vanished light screen and asked, "Sister Su, did Chen Ye and Gu Qinghuan agree to suppress their levels?"

"Yes, Chen Ye and Gu Qinghuan have both agreed. In order to prevent the trains from merging too early, we need to take care of the lower-level passengers in the next trial."

Su Jin's voice was soft, carrying a hint of relief.

She turned to look at Yang Qing: "Your current level is 10, right? You'd better catch up quickly in the next trial."

Yang Qing nodded, but her expression was not relaxed: "I know, but there are quite a few low-class passengers, and it won't be easy to get them all to follow our instructions."

Su Jin paused for a moment, then shook his head slightly: "People are naturally inclined to seek advantage and avoid harm. They have a higher chance of surviving by following the main group than by fighting alone, so they will naturally obey."

She continued, "Besides, the survivors aren't stupid. They might even be eager to follow us. What you need to do is level up quickly, accumulate points to exchange for S-level skill selection chests, so that you can survive the later three-star survival trials."

Yang Qing nodded thoughtfully.