Hell Express: The Survival Games

Chapter 6-The Cakeland Kingdom

Maddie had never been treated this way before, she felt so embarrassed and mad at the same time that she needed to let this out, so she started to spam in the night round crew group chat.

Lola, who was also one of the train crew that made night rounds, saw what Maddie said. Both her and Maddie’s role as night round crew was to make sure that all travellers were on schedule for bedtime.

She scoffed at what Maddie said and couldn’t help herself from laughing at her co-worker, however, what she replied to Maddie was different from her mocking expression.

Aww. Maddie, I’m so sorry that you had to go through that. Hope you feel better.

Lola put her phone away before she ran late in making rounds.

***

 

Danny could hear the footsteps coming down the hallway.

He had always been a night owl, asking him to sleep at 9pm was impossible. He had been tossing and turning around ever since the lights went out.

When he heard the footsteps, his whole body froze, and he kept telling himself to sleep.

‘You’re asleep, you’re asleep, you’re asleep…’ Danny mumbled in his head, eyes closed.

As he tried to force himself to sleep, he only felt himself getting more awake and the sound of the footsteps seemed to get louder.

That was when he remembered the coupon he got from the lucky draw wheel.

 

***

 

After Maddie left, Corinne felt like she should get to sleep... after she finished one more round of snake game.

Cutie Pie Princess has invited you to do a gift exchange.

When Corinne saw that notification pop up on her screen, she was stunned. Not because she got a gift exchange offer, she was stunned by the traveller’s name.

She clicked accept and the person instantly spammed like ten messages right into her inbox.

Corinne scrolled down, skipping through all the ‘Ahs’, ‘!s’, and GIFs.

Cutie Pie Princess: “Ahhhh!”

Cutie Pie Princess: “Thank you so much for accepting my gift exchange invitation!”

Cutie Pie Princess: “You’re the only one who didn’t reject me!”

Cutie Pie Princess: “And it was my last chance to send out an invitation! I only had three chances!”

Corinne rubbed her eyes, feeling slightly drowsy.

King of the World: “Do you need something in particular, Cutie Pie Princess?”

Cutie Pie Princess: “Yes, yes! Something to fend off the ghost!”

When Corinne saw what Cutie Pie Princess said, she thought that maybe Maddie or some other member of the train crew had made their rounds to her room. If that was the case, she knew exactly what Cutie Pie Princess needed.

Cutie Pie Princess: “But, I don’t really have any items. The only thing I got from the Travel Agency is this gift exchange voucher.”

Underneath that message was a picture with the things Cutie Pie Princess owned.

There was a PSP, some game cards, comics…

Behind all of those things was a wrapped burger that seemed to be untouched. When Corinne saw that burger, her stomach growled and she gulped.

King of the World: “I have something that will help you. I just want that burger. You haven’t touched it right?”

Cutie Pie Princess: “…”

Cutie Pie Princess: “I mean, yeah!”

Once they reached an agreement, a screen appeared in front of Corinne. The title said ‘Gift Exchange’ and underneath the box letters were two boxes.

The box on the left had Corinne’s traveller name beneath it and a ‘Confirm’ button.

The box on the right already had a wrapped burger in it and on top of the box it said ‘Triple Cheese Chicken Burger.’

Corinne threw in some lightning tempest talismans and when the items were in the box, she tapped confirm.

After she did that, the items switched places and the screen vanished. The burger magically appeared out of thin air and dropped into Corinne’s hand.

Cutie Pie Princess: “Thank you so much!”

King of the World: “No problem.”

Corinne looked at the burger in her hand and started unwrapping it. When she heard Claire turning in her bed, she flinched. Claire always nagged her about how unhealthy it was to eat something late in the night.

She stole a glance at Claire and was relieved to see that she was still sound asleep despite everything that was going on.

While Corinne happily ate the burger, she could not help but think how nice Cutie Pie Princess was; she must be a cute and kind girl. She did hope that Cutie Pie Princess would do more gift exchanges with her, she would accept the request every time if she was offering more burgers.

 

***

 

Cock-a-doodle-do!

Corinne woke up to the piercing noise of the chicken clucking throughout their cabin.

Then, the curtains slid open on their own and the sharp morning rays slipped into their room, almost blinding Corinne.

“Gah!” Corinne sat up, throwing a fit on the bed, annoyed by the noise.

She glanced at the clock on the wall, it was 8am sharp. Claire was up as well. In contrast to Corinne, who was looking mad, she was in a daze. She rubbed her eyes and sniffed.

“Uh… why do I smell cheeseburger?” she asked.

Corinne’s grumpiness from having her sleep interrupted was gone instantly, she was about to change the subject when the clucking of the chicken was finally replaced by a familiar ‘bzzz’ sound.

“Good morning, fellow travellers! This is the morning news by Hell Travel Agency. First of all, we would like to announce the opening of Hell Express Six! It is already up and running. Our travellers will be getting off at their first station today! Let’s hope Express Six Travellers enjoy their trip and stay alive. Oops, I mean have a safe trip!”

Corinne rolled her eyes upon hearing what the news anchor said. Those sly bastards, they were always up to something no good.

“On to the next news.

Congratulations Express Five Traveller, Bestselling Fantasy Author, for making Top One on Hell Express Five Traveller’s Ranking, and for earning the title ‘Bear Child Disiplinarator’.

A round of applause please.

Congratulations Express Five Traveller, Bestselling Romance Author, for earning the titles ‘Everyone’s Oppa’ and ‘Bear Child Disciplinarator Assistant’.

Another round of applause please.

That will be it for today’s morning news. Have a great day everyone.”

From the morning news, Corinne caught a few key pieces of information.

First, apart from Hell Express Six, which was the train she was on, there were other trains.

Second, there was actually a traveller’s ranking board.

Third, travellers could earn titles.

She still didn’t know whether there would be any benefits from taking the top ranks or titles.

But…

“I can’t believe traveller’s names will appear in the announcements…” Corinne said to Claire with a serious expression.

Claire blinked, then she remembered Corinne named herself ‘King of the World’.

Claire burst out laughing just imagining one day everyone would hear Corinne’s traveller name in the announcement.

Knock Knock Knock Knock

“Breakfast?” Someone called out by the door.

Corinne repeated her actions from yesterday, threatening to lightning strike before politely placing her order.

She pulled out her cellphone to pay with her e-wallet, but the staff outside said they don’t accept that currency anymore.

“Why?” Corinne asked.

“You have officially registered as a traveller. We only take traveller points now.”

Corinne tapped on the app, and after scanning the QR code, she stared at her phone in shock.

Checking the balance in her traveller wallet showed: -55 points

“...”

Corinne could not believe what she just saw, she hadn’t even figured out how she could earn points and she was already in debt!

Seeing Corinne all mopey, Claire patted her on the head.

“Don’t worry, I bet we’ll get plenty of points when we finish our trip at the first station. The titles the other travellers earned probably gave them points as well,” Claire said.

“You mean I can try to become ‘Everyone’s Oppa’ too?” Corinne asked with a serious look.

“Uh…” Claire had no idea how to respond to that question.

“Hey, the waffles look so tasty.”

“Oh, really? Wow, smells nice,” Corinne instantly redirected her attention to the food.

‘Works every time,’ Claire thought.

“Don’t think that I don’t know you’re changing the subject by talking about food,” Corinne said, taking a bite of her own waffle.