Hell Express: The Survival Games

Chapter 7 - The Cakeland Kingdom

When the time hit 10AM, a screen appeared in front of Corinne.

Next Station: Cakeland Kingdom

A red button with block letters that said ‘Start’ was flashing on the screen.

Corinne and Claire exchanged a glance as they nodded. Both of them clicked on the button and Corinne saw that her passport flipped open, and the stamp that represented Cakeland Kingdom appeared on the page.

The stamp flashed a blinding white light, causing Corinne to pull down her rose-coloured sunshades from her hair and close her eyes at the same time.

When Corinne opened her eyes again, she found herself standing in the middle of a town square, surrounded by buildings that were made from various types of pastries and candies.

A few feet away from her was a chocolate fountain. A human statue holding a cake wand stood on top of the fountain and rainbow sprinkles rained down from the wand.

‘Cakeland Kingdom…’ this thought flashed in Corinne’s mind.

There were several people standing in the town square as well. Some looked wary while glancing around, whereas others just looked scared.

Claire was standing right beside the fountain. Corinne was about to walk towards her when the ground shook.

‘Earthquake?’ she thought, just before a shadow loomed over her.

A red, scaly dragon just stomped on a house and swiped its tail at them.

“Dodge!” Corinne cried, and back flipped herself to the fountain, distancing herself from the dragon.

Claire did the same thing and now, both of them were standing on the fountain, holding onto the human statue to balance themselves.

With Claire by her side, Corinne knew she had her back, so she took the chance to quickly look around their surroundings, searching for an escape route and a place to hide.

When they arrived at Cakeland Kingdom, the sun was already going down. Besides the other people with them here in the town square, the entire place seemed desolate, as if they were the only ones here.

Darkness painted the sky until one of the buildings in the distance lit up. It stood out among all the other dessert buildings with its huge LED shop sign that said ‘Cakeland Cafe’.

“Ah! Help!”

A person screamed, struggling to break free from the gripping tail of the dragon to no avail.

Before anyone could help that guy, the dragon tossed him up into the air and swallowed him.

Seeing that happen, everyone panicked and picked up their pace at running.

“Everyone! Run towards Cakeland Cafe!” Corinne cried.

She ran as fast as she could after screaming that to the other travellers, she didn’t know whether they heard her or not, but with that building being the only one with lights on, it was a clear direction for them, an obvious landmark.

The dragon chased after them, crashing and knocking down the buildings that were in its way.

“Ah!”

Hearing a scream, Corinne instinctively looked behind her while she continued to run.

Two guys were behind her, a guy with paler skin, who looked like he might have tripped and fell on the ground while a second guy with tan skin was helping him up.

When pale skin guy got up, the tan guy was practically dragging him as he ran. Corinne glanced at the dragon and then at their speed, the dragon would catch up to them any second.

She bit her lower lip and paused for only a heartbeat before she started running toward the two of them.

“Corinne!” Claire cried.

“You go! I’m going to help them!” Corinne said, not slowing down at all.

Being Corinne’s best friend, Claire knew that Corinne couldn’t leave someone who needed help behind, and she wasn’t going to leave her alone to face the monster. She turned around to chase after Corinne.

A guy in a blue shirt ran past them, storming towards the cafe. He was running speedily, but Claire still caught the flash of a wicked expression on his face. Claire narrowed her eyes as she looked over her shoulder, glaring at the guy’s retreating figure.

Corinne caught up to the two guys. The pale guy was panting heavily, looking like he was about to pass out any second. The tan guy attempted to pick him up, but he didn’t have enough strength.

Seeing that the dragon was closing in, Corinne dashed over, turning her back to the pale guy.

“Quick! Hop on!” she said.

The pale guy didn’t even hesitate, he jumped onto Corinne’s back and circled his arms around Corinne’s shoulders.

Dumbfounded, the tan guy was about to gasp in surprise when he felt himself being picked up by Corinne like a puppy.

The dragon growled angrily seeing that Corinne stormed off at the speed of lightning even though she was carrying two guys that were taller than her.

It lunged at Corinne, the tan guy squeaked like a timid mouse and threw a talisman at the dragon.

When the talisman hit the monster, a lightning bolt struck down, but it did not cause any damage to the dragon at all.

Corinne raised a brow when she saw the talisman. It looked exactly the same as her lightning tempest talisman, she could sense her spiritual energy in it.

‘Cutie Pie Princess?’ she thought silently.

Claire summoned her needle and thread, directing them towards the dragon. The needle flew towards the dragon as silvery thread began to circle around it, trying to wrap the dragon in a cocoon.

The dragon ran through the threads as though they never existed. Seeing that her attack did not work, Claire instantly summoned her weapon back without a second thought.

Corinne and Claire exchanged a glance, shock flashed through their eyes. They had no idea why their attacks didn’t work on the mighty beast.

Lightning tempest talisman might have been most effective on ghosts and spirits, but that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t work on monsters too, which was why Corinne was shocked to see that it didn’t even cause a scratch on the dragon.

Pushing down the confusion, Corinne picked up her pace and ran at full speed.

When they stormed into the café, the other travellers were already in there. Some of them let out relieved sighs when they saw them, while others worriedly glanced out to see whether the dragon was there or not.

However, they were all dumbstruck by how easy it was for Corinne to carry two guys while fleeing from the dragon and doing so without breaking a sweat. Claire knew that Corinne had inhuman strength, so it was an easy task for her.

Claire snuck a glance at the guy in the blue shirt. He was taken aback when he saw them and there was panic in his eyes. This made Claire even more apprehensive; the blue shirt guy was acting very suspicious.

As soon as they were inside the cafe, the door slammed shut. The dragon that was charging towards them halted in place as soon as the door was closed.

Both of the guys she had been carrying thanked Corinne for her help just before all the travellers’ attention were pulled to the screens that appeared in front of them.

Ding!

[Station: Cakeland Kingdom

Cakeland Kingdom had been producing many tasty treats for centuries until a dragon awakened in their land and started attacking the kingdom.

The Kingdom sent many brave warriors to slay the dragon to no avail, until a pâtissier came to the kingdom. Everyone was surprised that the kingdom was saved by a pâtissier that only know how to make tasty treats.

Being the hero of Cakeland Kingdom, he became the royal pâtissier in the castle. The dragon was not slain however. Instead, he was put into a deep slumber by the pâtissier using a pastry that he enchanted with a magical wand that had been passed down in his family for generations.

Every ten years, the pâtissier would make a tasty dessert and cast a spell on the treat before serving it to the dragon.

The dragon could not refuse a delicious treat made by the highly skilled pâtissier and would hibernate once again after it ate.

Things went smoothly until monsters around the kingdom started attacking small towns and villages at the outskirts of Cakeland Kingdom.

The King noticed treats made using the pâtissier’s recipe could calm down the monsters and decrease their desire to kill. Hence, multiple Cakeland Cafes were built around the outskirts of Cakeland Kingdom.

That year, the dragon awakened from hibernation and the royal pâtissier was supposed to put the dragon back to sleep.

Unfortunately, the wand had been lost, and the treat served without the spells did not work. The royal pâtissier failed his mission and is now dead.

Now, the Kingdom’s hope falls on the royal pâtissier’s heir, his only daughter who is recuperating at the pâtissier’s homeland.

Mission: Find the lost wand and put the dragon back to hibernation.

Identity: You are the staff of the Cakeland Cafe at the Kingdom’s capital.]

When everyone finished taking in the information from the screen, their respective screens closed.

“I believe everyone has finished reading the information for this station. Why don’t we start by introducing ourselves? I’m Ava and this is my sister, Mia.”

Corinne looked over and saw that the speaker was a tall, beautiful woman with an hourglass body. She had short hair and a pair of fierce fox-like eyes that hid behind a pair of glasses. She held out her hand, pointing towards the woman standing next to her as she made the introduction.

“Hello, everyone,” greeted the second woman, Ava’s sister, Mia.

In contrast to Ava, who gave out a mature and intelligent vibe, Mia seemed cheerful, with high pigtails and a gleaming smile.

When it was the pale guy’s turn to make his introduction, Corinne stood there, frozen like a statue, with her eyes widened in shock as the guy spoke.

His face turned beet red when he noticed everyone’s eyes were on him, and he flashed a soft, timid smile.

“I’m Quinn.”

Corinne’s hand went over and pulled Claire’s sleeve tightly.

Earlier, due to everything happening so fast, Corinne barely noticed the appearance of the guy and when they got to the cafe, her attention was grabbed by the introduction of their current station.

“Cl-Cl-Claire, am I dreaming? Why is Prince Florian standing right in front of me?” Corinne mumbled in a soft, stuttering voice that only Claire could hear.

Claire was as surprised as Corinne. This guy looked exactly like the visual novel character that Corinne was obsessed with.

Everyone’s gazes had already moved on to the next person who was introducing himself, everyone except for Corinne that is.

When Quinn noticed Corinne staring at him, he shifted his eyes away with blushing cheeks, but recalling that she was the one who saved him earlier, he moved his eyes back and gave her a friendly smile.

Corinne sucked in a deep breath and felt like she was going to pass out from that shiny smile.

Claire squeezed Corinne’s cheek, “Get it together!”