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

Chen Ye looked up at the light screen, his brows furrowing slightly. It turned out that the Ice Abyss Trial was only just beginning.

They only spent three days walking from the train station to the exam hall.

This first hurdle was so inhumane; it wasn't an intellectual game, but a multiple-choice question, and what was most infuriating was that they were given ten minutes to choose.

"What does that mean? Killing a Frost Guardian only increases your power by 0.1 degrees?"

"One death for each passenger raises the temperature by one degree? Is this rule forcing us to kill each other?"

"Isn't this ridiculous? Where's the Ice Lord? What the hell is this trial?"

The discussion in the hall paused for a moment, then erupted into a roar.

Someone has already started attacking the fallen ice door.

The light of the skill exploded on the ice gate, and the colorful flames hit the ice surface with a dull sound.

But the heavy ice door remained unmoved under their combined bombardment, without even a crack appearing.

A young woman rushed out of the crowd and ran straight to Cao Bing, her voice urgent and shrill: "Cao Bing! You can break down that outer gate, right? Break down this one too! Let us out!"

Cao Bing glanced at the unmoving ice door, then looked away, his tone calm but resolute: "What's the use of going out? If we don't kill the Ice Lord of Extreme Cold, we'll still be wiped out by the rules when the trial ends."

His tone wasn't harsh, but after he said that, the woman's expression froze for a moment, and the crowd surrounding the ice gate gradually quieted down.

The woman opened her mouth, but ultimately said nothing and retreated back into the crowd.

Cao Bing turned around, his gaze sweeping over Chen Ye, Lu Qingchuan, and Zhong Xiu: "What do you guys think? Should we wait ten minutes to kill the Frost Guardian and clear the level, or...?"

He didn't finish his sentence, but the meaning was already quite clear.

The air in the hall seemed to have been sucked away, freezing in that instant.

Zhong Xiu stood on the east side of the hall, her arms crossed over her chest. Almost immediately after Cao Bing finished speaking, she took over the conversation, her tone cold and decisive: "Kill people, clear the level quickly."

She turned her head to look at Cao Bing and continued, "Your G4921 train has the most people, so send ten people. The remaining ten people will be sent by us and five people each from the G4939 train."

Zhong Xiu spoke casually, as if the lives of these passengers were bargaining chips that she could use at will.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Hai's brows furrowed sharply. He took a step forward: "Wait ten minutes. Once those Frost Guardians come out, we can kill them and still clear the level. Why do we have to kill people?"

Zhong Xiu glanced at Zhao Hai, a cold smile playing on her lips: "Do you know the strength of the Frost Guardians? How many are there? How many people will die in the process?"

"Furthermore, every ten minutes, the temperature here drops by one degree per minute. One degree means one life. Don't you consider this at all? Rather than waiting for uncertain casualties, it's better to make a proactive choice."

Zhao Hai's lips moved as if he wanted to refute, but the words were swallowed back down.

Every word Zhongxiu said was true, but he still felt that doing so was wrong.

Cao Bing was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "What she said makes sense. After the Frost Guardians are activated, people will inevitably die. We have a maximum of ten people, so sending ten shouldn't be a problem."

Zhao Hai suddenly looked at Cao Bing, his facial muscles tensing up, but he gritted his teeth and didn't say anything.

Lu Qingchuan didn't say a word from beginning to end. His brows were slightly furrowed, and his gaze was fixed on the ice surface on the ground where the human figure was reflected.

Although he was the highest-ranking passenger on train G4939, he never intended to wield the power of life and death over the passengers.

But now that Cao Bing and Zhong Xiu are clearly going to sacrifice other passengers to get through quickly, his objections are pointless.

The atmosphere in the hall had completely changed. The passengers who had been complaining about the rules were now all quiet, their eyes darting back and forth between the people who were talking.

Some people had already started to retreat, backing up to the wall, to the very edge of the crowd, as if they were looking for a safer spot for themselves.

Zhongxiu gave no one time to hesitate any longer.

"In that case, let's not waste any more time." She said, turning to look at the passengers on train G4928 behind her, her voice cold and direct: "Show your attribute panels."

The moment she finished speaking, a commotion arose among the passengers of train G4928.

Some people had already summoned their attribute panels immediately. The semi-transparent blue light screen lit up one by one in the dim ice room. These people were all level nineteen or twenty, so they would not be chosen as cannon fodder.

Those passengers with lower levels hesitated to reveal their attribute panels; some lowered their heads, while others shrank back.

Zhong Xiu's gaze lingered on them for a moment: "Not lit up, huh? Then I'll just have to pick five randomly."

Before she could finish speaking, golden wings of light suddenly unfurled behind her.

Golden light suddenly shone in the dark blue ice chamber, and tiny specks of light fell from the wingtips, illuminating the tense faces around them, which were taut with fear.

The next instant, her figure vanished from the spot.

The golden wings left only a blurry afterimage in the air, moving so fast that most people didn't even have time to react.

The next second, she was already in front of a young man.

The man was huddled at the back of the crowd, his back pressed against the ice wall, trying to hide himself in the shadows.

His pupils contracted to pinpoints the moment Jong-soo appeared before him, and he opened his mouth as if to shout something, but before the sound could escape his throat, Jong-soo's right hand had already gripped his neck.

"Snap—!"

The cracking sound of bones breaking was exceptionally clear in the empty ice room.

The man's body stiffened for a moment, then collapsed limply like a puppet whose support had been removed.

Zhong Xiu did not pause.

Her figure disappeared from the spot again, and then appeared in front of the second person.

It was a middle-aged woman who was trying to run around the crowd to the other side of the hall, but her speed was meaningless in front of Zhongxiu.

The same throat-scratching, the same crisp sound of bones cracking.

Then came the third, the fourth, and the fifth.

Each flash was accompanied by the sound of bones breaking, and each pause lasted only a second.

The golden wings traced discontinuous arcs in the deep blue ice chamber, like a raptor swooping low in the sky.

In less than a minute, five bodies lay on the ice, their necks twisted at unnatural angles, and most of their eyes still open.

The hall was completely silent.

Zhong Xiu's figure returned to the front of the group. As she stood still, her golden wings retracted behind her, and the light at the tips of her wings slowly faded away.

She looked up, her gaze sweeping over the semi-transparent blue light screen above.

Current temperature: -15℃.

Five lives lost in exchange for a five-degree temperature rise.

She withdrew her gaze, turned her head, and glanced at Cao Bing, Lu Qingchuan, and Chen Ye: "It's your turn."