Kristoffer Pauly
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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Chapter -133
🕑 Added 2024-10-23 18:14:51 +0000 UTC-Previous chapter-
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Apologies for the delay in getting this to you. This is finally featuring an idea I've had in my mind ever since introducing the Metro Train around chapter 50ish.
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Chapter -133
Hitokui Chika the Japanese-made Metro Train pulled itself all the way into the track, before lifting the front of its head up onto the platform to block the only exit.
“Well, shit,” Chris muttered.
Nina flared to life and walked towards the hideous flesh-and-metal body, lifting her hand in the air and declaring to the monstrosity, “Eater of Worlds, take us to the Temple!”
To my surprise, a doorway opened in the side of the Metro Train. It was a black veil that was impossible to see through, and I wondered if we had to face down a boss inside the creature’s body. She immediately entered.
“I thought for sure it would have to eat us,” I said, following Nina.
“Me too,” Panda replied.
Steve and Chris shared a glance. Then the Backstabber sighed and went towards the new doorway as well.
Just before entering, I looked back to see Steve standing there on the platform, but, before I had to yell at him to come along, he moved forward on his own accord.
My vision went black as I stepped through the dark veil in the doorway, before the feeling of teleportation overcame me. As always, it felt as though I was sucked into the ground and then plummeted through darkness.
With a solid impact of my Schmonic Boots against metal, my vision cleared and I saw that I was in the middle of a Metro Train carriage. Unlike the metros I was familiar with, the benches all ran along the walls and faced the middle, with the support beams and overhead handles also only occupying the sides of the carriage interior.
“This must be how a Japanese metro looks like,” Panda guessed.
I swiveled my head around.
“Where’s the others?”
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Thank you for choosing to use your regional ‘Metro Train’ service!
It is now time to play “Destination or Death!”
You have three lives and nine carriages you must traverse in the correct order, before you reach your destination. Failure to follow the correct order results in a life being taken away.
Each carriage has the potential to be anomalous.
If you believe there is an anomaly, you must leave the carriage through the exit behind you.
If you believe there is no anomaly, you must leave the carriage through the exit in front of you.
Once your lives are used up or you arrive at your destination without traversing all carriages, your body will be consumed by the Metro Train.
Player Abilities and Passives are disabled for the duration of the Mini GAME.
Good luck!
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“Ah, it’s one of those,” I said, remembering the Taxi ride.
“That must be why they said it could be completed by almost anyone in the Appraisal,” Panda recalled. “Although this sounds way more complicated.”
“Question is whether this carriage is anomalous or not…” I considered.
“I think this one is to teach you what they’re meant to look like,” Panda guessed. “There’s only one exit after all.”
I turned around and saw that he was right. Behind where I’d arrived in the middle of the carriage was just a wall with a window peering out into a tapestry of faces. As I looked out of all the windows, I saw that it was the same.
“Wait, this place might count as a dungeon!” I realized. “I think I might still be able to use glitched skills.”
“Let’s hold off on jailbreaking it until it actually looks dire. You’ve got three lives after all. Plus, it’s moving you towards where Nina wants you to find a Wayward Minor.”
I frowned. “Fine.”
“Alright, take a good look around and make note of how everything looks.”
“I’m great at memorization games,” I bragged.
“I know for a fact that’s incorrect.”
“Just watch me.”
I walked to the back wall without an exit and then looked all the way down the carriage. There were three pairs of doors on the walls of the interior. Between each door was a long bench, making for four pairs in total. On the benches were ghostly apparitions, no doubt Players who’d died to the Metro Train and become trapped. On the first pair were 3 ghosts on the left, 4 on the right. Second pair was 1 and 4; third was 0 and 2; last was 1 and 0.
Besides the apparitions, who were all identical and just sat there motionlessly, were posters on the walls and bits of trash on the floor. Next to where I stood was a candy wrapper for something called ‘Hi-Chew’. The posters seemed a mix of advertisements and useful info, but all of it was written in an alphabet I couldn’t understand.
I moved past the first set of doors, while trying to burn the image of everything I saw into my memory. Panda was moving around on my shoulder, seemingly doing the same, while Lordie just chilled atop my head, purring in a way that made my molars tingle.
Along with the bits of random candy trash and the various posters, were also rectangular monitors embedded into the walls above the doors, which had an image showing the line to our destination. Given that there was no stops between Castleburg and Madeville, it was really just a yellow line and an expected arrival time at about twenty minutes. To the right of it was a simple CGI animation of the doors opening, but, as they opened, creepy eyes were revealed. A red warning text appeared alongside it, which, from the symbols accompanying it, was saying something like ‘Don’t put your hands out of the doors if they open’. Lastly, to the left of it was a screen that showed a blue background and the text ‘No Signal’.
“This is a lot to keep track of,” said Panda.
I ignored him and scanned each of the doors, seeing that there were five identical screen displays like the one I was looking at. I walked to the end of the carriage and made note of everything on the walls and floor as well.
Feeling like I had a fairly-robust idea of how the whole train looked, I went through the rest of the mental checklist of things to watch out for, although I knew that I was fucked if the foreign text changed, since it would be impossible for me to really notice.
There were 7 posters in total: 2 with a boy wearing a red cap and blue blouse, which seemed to have some info for children perhaps; 2 pink make-up adverts for some collection of lipsticks and blushes; 1 blue-and-white game advert; 1 map of the region with dots for ‘famous’ landmarks; and lastly, one that seemed to be an ad for a travel agency, which had an image of a sandy beach with a logo above that read ‘World’s End Vacations’ in English.
Besides the ‘Hi-Chew’ wrapper were 4 other pieces of candy trash: 2 with the name ‘Pocky’, one red and the other white; 1 small wrapper that was white-and-brown and called ‘Country Ma’am’; and lastly something I couldn’t read, but which had a picture of chocolate-and-cookie mushrooms on a green-and-sandy-brown forest background.
“Alright, I’m locked in,” I said confidently.
I was fairly sure that the first few anomalies would be obvious, since that sort of ramp-up in difficulty would make the most sense for a game of this nature. The main hurdle would be the insecurity in deciding there were no anomalies.
“Are you sure you’re ready?” Panda asked.
“I am.”
Putting my hand on the door, I pulled it aside and walked through the dark veil on the other side.
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Entering Carriage 1/9…
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I arrived in the center of a new carriage, nearly bumping into Steve and Chris who were already in here. Tina was nowhere to be seen.
“Please tell me you had a good look before you came here,” Chris pleaded, as soon as he saw me.
I raised a thumb. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this.”
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BAD CATCHPHRASE!
You have taken 1 point of damage.
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“Ow.”
“I’m telling you, there are no anomalies!” Steve insisted.
“Have either of you seen Tina?” Panda asked.
Steve looked at the plushie. “I didn’t see her,” he answered.
“What?” Chris asked, since he couldn’t hear Panda.
“Tina,” I repeated.
He shook his head. “I was the first to arrive here. I didn’t read the message until I’d already gone through the door. Maybe she’s still in the first carriage?”
Knowing her, she was no doubt already halfway-done. She was a total enigma when it came to games and puzzles. Once she’d driven a patient at the Asylum into full-on psychosis after playing just three games of chess against him.
While Chris and Steve continued to argue about whether or not they should go forward or back, I walked up and down the carriage, scanning the seven posters, six doorways, eight benches, and five pieces of candy trash.
Then I walked back to where the two idiots were arguing in the middle, before pushing past them to go through the forward exit.
“Come on,” I called to them. “There are no anomalies in this one.”
As I went through the veil of darkness past the exit, a message hit me:
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Correct!
No Anomaly Found!
Entering Carriage 2/9…
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I'm not a fan of playing scary games, but I really enjoy watching playthroughs of them. If you have ever played games like Platform 8, Shinkansen 0, Anomaly Exit, or Fractured Mind, you should immediately be able to tell where I got inspiration for this Mini Game from. If I had to recommend one, I think Fractured Mind is probably the scariest of them all.
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