From the moment Bai Liu stepped into the mirror and declared that this was the true reality of the game—and that the mirror had to be destroyed—the audience gathered around the small TVs fell into breathless silence.
When Bai Liu insisted on shattering the mirror himself and God Mu refused to allow it, the crowd erupted into anxious uproar. Grief and helplessness spread through the viewers alike.
“Bai Liu really cares about God Mu... They must be close friends. But this is a game. I still think God Mu should be the one to break the mirror...”
“...I’m a God Mu fan. Sigh. I used to hate it whenever people compared Bai Liu to him, but now my feelings are complicated... I don’t want Bai Liu to die at all, but I don’t want God Mu to die either...”
“Waaah, I can’t even watch anymore! I like both of them! I can’t accept either of them dying! Bai Liu’s so incredible—there has to /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ be another way, right?!”
“Bai Liu only has 1 HP left! What else can he possibly do? What, do you think he’s a god? Mu Shicheng should just do it already!”
When Bai Liu finally convinced Mu Shicheng to leave first, Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu, waiting behind the crowd, nearly panicked.
They didn’t know Mu Shicheng at all. All they wanted was for Bai Liu to clear the game safely. Watching him calmly shoulder death alone left them frantic with fear.
Some viewers strongly disapproved of Bai Liu’s choice, but even more admired the loyalty he showed his friend—
—Bai Liu said he wouldn’t let Mu Shicheng die, and from beginning to end, he kept that promise.
“Sigh... I seriously want to cry. What a waste. If Bai Liu and Mu Shicheng had both survived and formed a team, they definitely would’ve become a god-tier duo someday. At the very least, top five or six on the overall rankings.”
“Honestly, Mu Shicheng’s already incredibly strong. He just never had anyone who could properly support him. Otherwise, he would’ve surpassed Zhang Kui ages ago. His personal skill has insane potential. He’s the only player on the Rising Star Rankings who survived after stealing from Spades. If Mu Shicheng were willing to become the blade in Bai Liu’s hand, the two of them working together would climb the rankings terrifyingly fast.”
“Not to mention Bai Liu and Du Sanying also have ridiculously good compatibility...”
The instant the mirror shattered and the god-level NPC appeared, the audience in front of the TVs suffered a massive drop in mental value, just like what had happened during Siren Town. By the time the system sprayed mental-value bleach and the viewers regained their senses, Bai Liu’s small TV had already gone black.
A black screen only meant two possibilities—
—the player had died.
Or the player had cleared the game.
Wang Shun lowered his head heavily. Around him, the other players silently did the same.
It was a gesture of mourning and respect for a player they admired.
There was no way Bai Liu could still be alive.
Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu pushed desperately through the crowd toward the front. In their hearts, Bai Liu—who had avenged them—was no different from family. Seeing him disappear before their eyes overwhelmed Xiang Chunhua so completely that after only a few staggering steps, her knees gave out beneath her.
She collapsed to the ground, reaching trembling hands toward Bai Liu’s darkened screen, tears blurring her vision.
Liu Fu forced himself to stay calm. He helped Xiang Chunhua up, though grief twisted uncontrollably across his own face.
“If Bai Liu really ended up like Guoguo...” he said hoarsely, struggling to maintain composure, “then we’ll enter the game ourselves, earn points, and resurrect them!”
The next second, Bai Liu’s small TV lit up once more.
The emotionless mechanical voice of the system echoed through the lobby:
[Congratulations to player Bai Liu for unlocking all main storyline missions and the Monster Book, successfully clearing The Last Train to Blast Off.]
[System Notification: Player has reached the True Ending — “The Permanently Stopped Last Train.” Ever since that explosion, the dead passengers had remained trapped here day after day by that dreadful mirror, endlessly repeating the agony of the hour before their deaths. They screamed, cried, and hid throughout the train, secretly gathering fragments of the mirror. But none of it mattered. The mirror, devoid of human emotion, continued to burn them again and again in an endless cycle until they became nothing but ash and charred remains. Until one day, someone finally stopped this mirror-world train consumed by eternal flames. The passengers smiled and stepped off the train. Even in death, they had finally reached their destination...]
Wang Shun jerked his head up in shock.
After the violent emotional whiplash, Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu were too exhausted to stand. Both remained kneeling on the ground, covering their mouths as tears of joy streamed down their faces.
“He’s alive!!” Xiang Chunhua cried out in a hoarse voice, shattering the suffocating silence. “He cleared it successfully!!”
For several frozen seconds, nobody moved.
Then the entire audience exploded.
People shouted, laughed, cried—
“Holy shit!!! How did he survive that?! He only had 1 HP left!! That was a god-level NPC!!”
“Who cares?! He’s alive!! Hurry up and like, bookmark, and charge his stream!! Push him for the final promotion slot!! Hurry!!”
“Right, right, right!! Push him up!! Go, Bai Liu!! We can’t let a player this amazing get buried!! Everyone, rush!! Let’s see if we can send 6-ge onto the Nightmare Rising Star Rankings!!”
*(T/N: “6-ge” (六哥) is a pun on Bai Liu’s name.
The character for “six” is 六 (liù), which sounds similar to the “Liu” in Bai Liu’s name (柳, liǔ). In modern Chinese internet slang, “6” also means someone who’s extremely skilled or impressive. Meanwhile, “ge” (哥) means “older brother,” often used affectionately or admiringly.
So “6-ge” simultaneously sounds like Bai Liu’s name while also meaning something like “Cool Bro” or “Awesome Brother.”)*
“Du Sanying and Mu Shicheng already rushed to third and second place on the Nightmare Rising Star screen! I checked—the other ranking spots are still occupied too. Honestly, it’s probably impossible now. If those positions were empty, maybe we could’ve pushed Bai Liu to tenth place... Sigh. His luck really is terrible.”
“There are too many Rising Star players competing for promotion spots right now. It’ll be hard for Bai Liu to make the Nightmare Rising Star Rankings. There still aren’t enough viewers in the core zone to push him higher. Such a shame... this game was obviously incredible.”
“Then... are we still pushing? It kind of feels hopeless...”
Suddenly, the system notification rang out:
[System Notification: Player Du Sanying and player Mu Shicheng have strongly recommended player Bai Liu’s small TV!]
The crowd froze.
Then countless people immediately logged into the forums to check what had happened—and instantly erupted in shock.
“Holy crap! The moment Mu Shicheng exited the game, he pinned his own recommendation slot directly onto Bai Liu’s stream! He even posted on the forums saying he’ll randomly choose three viewers who support Bai Liu and personally carry them through a Level 1 game for free!!”
“Du Sanying did the same thing over here! He pinned Bai Liu’s TV too! He posted that anyone who likes, bookmarks, and recommends Bai Liu now has a chance to win system items worth six hundred points!!”
“Damn! These two are already sitting on promotion spots themselves, and they’re still going this hard to push Bai Liu upward! They literally shoved his TV into the center of their own screens! They don’t even care about maximizing their own promotion rewards anymore!”
“I’m actually crying... Is this what friendship between men looks like?! Bai Liu, I’m charging for you too!! I won’t give up on you either!!”
“Rush!!! Bai Liu!!! You deserve the title of Nightmare and Rising Star more than anyone!!”
Viewers flooded in endlessly.
Some came out of curiosity. Some knew nothing at all. Others had only heard about Bai Liu through Du Sanying’s and Mu Shicheng’s streams. They all wanted to know what kind of player could inspire people to cry, scream, and fight this hard for him.
But every single one of them understood one thing clearly—
—without Bai Liu, no player would have survived that nightmare of a game.
To the players who died, Bai Liu was a nightmare even more terrifying than the game itself.
But to those who survived—
—he was a rising star brighter than any other.
“Just a little more!! Ahhhhh, just a little more!!”
[System Notification: Player Fang Ke and player Liu Huai have strongly recommended player Bai Liu’s small TV!]
Wang Shun slowly exhaled.
He raised his head and looked at Bai Liu’s small TV.
At first, it had been an unnoticed screen abandoned in the corner of the central lobby.
Now, tens of thousands of people were looking up at it in awe.
No player had ever entered the Nightmare Rising Star Rankings within only two games—
—except for the legendary player ranked first on the overall leaderboard:
[Spades].
But Wang Shun had a feeling—
—that record was about to be broken by Bai Liu.
[System Notification: Final data calculations for player Bai Liu’s small TV are now in progress...]
The viewers stopped frantically charging and liking.
Everyone stared nervously at the screen, whispering among themselves.
“Ahhhh, I’m so nervous! Can he really make it?!”
“We already did everything we could! If he still can’t make it... waaah, then I’ll just cry properly and help 6-ge rush the rankings again next time!”
“My expectations really aren’t high... even tenth place on the Nightmare Rising Star Rankings would be enough. Though honestly, even asking for that is already ridiculous...”
[100,007 users liked player Bai Liu’s small TV. 126,700 users bookmarked player Bai Liu’s small TV. 41,190 users charged player Bai Liu’s small TV. Player Bai Liu has earned 67,100 points.]
[Player Bai Liu has received over one hundred thousand likes and over sixty thousand points in charges within one minute! The audience is passionately, frantically in love with you!]
[Congratulations to player Bai Liu for obtaining the final promotion slot and advancing to second place on the Nightmare Rising Star Rankings on the central screen. Current viewership continues to rise rapidly...]
Silence.
A long, stunned silence swept across the crowd before the small TV.
It was as though time itself had frozen solid.
Then, slowly, people opened their mouths in disbelief, unable to process what they had just witnessed.
And finally—
—the silence shattered into wild screams, laughter, cheers, and hysterical crying powerful enough to overturn the entire small TV zone.
“OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH——!!!”
“Bai Liu is the absolute fucking best!!!!”
“Holy shit!!! Nightmare Rising Star Rank 2!!!!!!!!”
