Players, Please Board the Train

Xie Ling took out a string of illumination items.

Behind the wax figures lay the main venue, though this first room appeared to be only a part of it. The space was barely over a hundred square meters, with wax figures in various walking poses evenly distributed throughout the room. Their ages and attire differed, but some were covered with white cloth.

Xu Ruosi reached out and pulled off a piece of white cloth, examining it before saying, “No different from the other wax figures.”

Xu Huo and the others also checked all the wax figures in this room, dismantling what needed to be dismantled. There was no possibility of corpses being hidden inside.

Next, they moved to the second room, identical to the previous one. Only a few small lamps of various colors were arranged in the corners, casting a oppressive light. But when Xie Ling shone her items on them, the entire room brightened up again.

Just like before, the room was filled with wax figures of all types, except this time they were kneeling or lying prone, their limb movements and expressions appearing agonized. Some broken hands and feet were scattered on the floor.

“Have you noticed that these wax figures are the same as the ones in the previous room?” Xie Ling swallowed nervously. “The clothing and numbers match.”

“Not just that,” Xu Ruosi said. “The broken wax figures in this room are the ones we smashed earlier.”

The wax figures were hollow, and most could be judged by weight alone to know they couldn’t hide anything inside, so they hadn’t dismantled every single one to check.

Long Aotian crushed one under his foot. “There’s no sensor device inside.”

“Then how did the wax figures break?” Xie Ling looked at the others, startled and uncertain. “Could there be ghosts in the wax figure hall?”

Everyone gave her a helpless look. Bai Wenxian said, “Rather than worrying about ghosts, you should consider whether there are other players here. Not running into anyone when we came in doesn’t mean no one arrived first.”

“I have a question,” Long Aotian said. “Even if there were players hiding here to scare us, they’d have to know which wax figures we damaged. No one approached us earlier.”

“It might not be people.” Xu Huo walked to the wall and inspected it, then pried open the baseboard to find the wiring inside. Based on the distribution, the wiring seemed to connect to the bases of the wax figures.

He lifted a wax figure crouched in the corner with one hand raised as if begging for help and set it aside. The displaced figure immediately slid through the gaps between the other wax statues, moving to the side of those damaged ones, then raised its arm and struck at them.

“The wax figures’ feet must be linked to sensor devices under the floor,” Xu Huo said. “When we damage wax figures in the previous room, the ones in this room automatically break the corresponding figures. The positions look identical, but it’s only approximate.”

“The beauty of this method is that it’s hard to detect. In theory, only one wax figure needs to move.”

“But there are plenty of wires down there, so other wax figures should be able to move too.”

“If there are wires running underground, could the corpses be buried beneath?” Bai Wenxian said as he pried open the floor with a tool and pulled out a thermometer-like device, inserting it into the groove smeared with coating. After a moment, the item beeped twice. He stood up and shook his head.

“The ground is full of wires. No way to hide bodies in such narrow gaps.” Long Aotian walked over. “Can that thing detect underground? Maybe the corpses were buried in the soil during renovations.”

“That’s unlikely,” Xu Ruosi said. “The disappearances didn’t happen all at once; they occurred gradually. If someone buried bodies during construction and renovations, the target would be too obvious. Besides, the Museum City can’t have renovation sites year-round, let alone excavation. Those spots would be the first to be searched.”

“Actually, I was thinking earlier—just because people go missing doesn’t mean there have to be corpses,” Xie Ling said.

There were too many ways to dispose of a body.

“No body found, no way to know how they died. And with such a high frequency of disappearances, it’s unlikely to be just one serial killer,” Xu Ruosi said.

“Maybe,” Long Aotian said. “The person who built the Museum City had a genetic disease, so his son likely has it too. If the father dared to conduct human experiments, why wouldn’t the son? He just wouldn’t be as blatant about it.”

“If that’s the case, the corpses would be more concentrated in one place rather than scattered across the city,” Bai Wenxian said. “Otherwise, it’d be too easy to expose.”

“What if there really are no corpses?” Xie Ling said. “I think if it were me, having seen a precedent, I’d find a way to ensure no one found evidence.”

“What do you think?” Bai Wenxian asked Xu Huo, who hadn’t spoken.

“I think both are possible,” Xu Huo said. “We can’t be sure if there are corpses or if they’re hidden in the Museum City. The city was open for entry and exit, so moving bodies out wouldn’t be difficult.”

“Instead of searching for corpses, we could focus on the cause of the disappearances.”

“The biggest reason for the disappearances should be human experiments,” Xie Ling said. “With the genetic disease background, it wouldn’t be surprising for the son to follow in the father’s footsteps, maybe even using living people for experiments. But the mystery of the disappearances doesn’t seem to point to that.”

“The cause definitely needs to be investigated, but I don’t think it’s the work of just one person,” Xu Ruosi offered her view. “Frequent disappearances would definitely attract someone’s attention. This place is under the boss’s wing, a tourist hotspot with high personnel turnover—very deceptive. It’s not impossible for someone looking to commit crimes to choose this place.”

“The clearance task’s mystery of the disappearances might cover multiple factors.”

“If that’s the case, maybe we will find corpses after all,” Xie Ling said.

“Regardless, corpses provide the most direct evidence. Let’s keep searching and look out for other clues along the way,” Bai Wenxian said.

“Since the Strange Tales at Night pavilion is right next to the Wax Figure Hall, let’s finish here and check it out, then search the shops on the way out,” Long Aotian said.

After a brief discussion, they moved to the next room. The third room was similar to the first two, except all the wax figures were in a “death” state—each one lay on the ground covered with white cloth. When lifted, the bodies even showed details of rigor mortis.

“So lifelike,” Xie Ling said, crouching down to examine one.

To be safe, they checked every wax figure before moving on.

The next room was arranged as a funeral hall. Dozens of coffins were neatly lined up, each containing a wax figure with a smiling face and flushed cheeks, all wearing matching burial clothes and caps. Nearby were wax-made wreaths and other items.

The air conditioner hummed, sending a cold breeze blowing up from the floor.

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