Did Liu Hong do anything out of the ordinary in any of those movies?
He really couldn't think of anything right now.
In the first movie, he was thrust straight into a mortal crisis with an earthquake and tsunami striking, and no memories whatsoever.
He was just a nameless extra who died instantly; after returning, the pain of death lasted for nearly ten minutes, and the items he brought back turned to ashes.
In the second movie, he time-traveled once more straight into a mortal crisis with a tsunami striking, and no memories whatsoever.
He survived until the very end, yet he was still just an extra among the main cast, without influencing the plot in the slightest, though he didn't die either and got to see the ending credits.
Consequently, upon returning, he suffered no death pangs and even brought back usable items.
In the third movie, after time-traveling, he was still thrust straight into a mortal crisis, with zombies right beside him starting to devour people, and no memories whatsoever.
Yet in this movie, he altered the plot!
To steer clear of the zombie army at Daejeon Station and to save the brawny man, he had warned the others that Daejeon had already been overrun by zombies.
Although those people went to check anyway, they retreated back onto the train swiftly and cautiously because of that warning.
Not a single person died.
When the train was blocked and unable to move, only a few members of the main cast plus the train conductor and the executive survived in the original film.
Yet due to Liu Hong's intervention, most of the people on the train ended up living.
Many of them didn't even expose the ugly side of human nature, and it seemed as though everyone was a good person.
Thus, even if the ending of Train to Busan wasn't one where everyone survived, it certainly wouldn't end up with only a pregnant woman and a child left like in the movie.
Though in the end, held back by his own hesitation, he didn't step off the train, and for some unknown reason the train capsized, causing a zombie to get inside and bite him to death.
The items he brought back turned to ashes once again.
Yet this was the only difference.
In the previous world, he had changed the plot and saved many people who were supposed to die according to the story.
Therefore, this world granted him memories.
Although they weren't as clear as his own memories, they were still much better than having no memories at all.
After all, not every world was like the previous few where everyone was a complete stranger.
Who knew, in Train to Busan, there might even have been people traveling with him right by his side, only he hadn't known it.
However, none of this could be verified yet and would require subsequent experimentation.
Just as Liu Hong was pondering these matters, a commotion broke out from somewhere in the corner.
Liu Hong immediately stood up in alertness.
There still hadn't been any aftershocks after all this time—what if it wasn't a natural disaster at all, but some other catastrophe?
He had to go and see what was happening.
Drawing closer, he discovered that it was an argument between the Black lawyer from earlier and the white Painter with a child.
The two of them seemed to have been involved in a lawsuit before, and there was some deep-seated conflict between them.
Liu Hong had just walked over and had no idea how their argument had started.
The lawyer stubbornly insisted that the Painter had just hit him, and everyone else here could vouch for it.
His voice was rather loud.
The bespectacled store clerk stepped forward to speak up in defense of the Painter.
He even started shouting, calling everyone over and declaring that this matter concerned every single person present.
Hearing this, the other people gathered around as well.
The store manager stepped out to try and stop him, not wanting him to use the Painter to stir up conflict.
He said he would register everyone present and report them to the police.
For some reason, the clerk paid no attention to the manager at this point and directly told the manager to shut up.
His tone was even somewhat fierce.
Then, he told the Painter to step forward and explain what had actually happened.
Observing the situation, Liu Hong looked at the Black man and then at the Painter.
He felt that either of them looked like the protagonist.
Since he had no idea what was going on, he decided to listen in first.
The Painter said he had no idea what was in the mist, even asking Dan to corroborate his account.
He went on to say that the few of them had gone to the back warehouse, where the exhaust vent of the generator was blocked; one of the store employees had gone out to clear the exhaust vent and ended up being dragged away by something inside the mist.
The rest of them had trouble understanding what he meant.
"Dragged away? Dragged away by what?"
Seeing that everyone was perplexed, the female clerk voiced the question on everyone's mind.
The Painter continued explaining to them that the employee had been dragged away by something he couldn't identify.
He had tried his best to hold onto the employee, but he wasn't strong enough against that thing.
All they caught a glimpse of were some tentacles.
The others refused to believe him and even began to mock the Painter, assuming that he and the others had teamed up to lie to them.
Liu Hong, however, grew vigilant. Unlike the others, he knew this was a doomsday disaster world.
Instead of standing around asking questions all day, why not go in and see for yourself?
Liu Hong turned around, squeezed through the crowd, and walked toward the warehouse area.
He wanted to inspect the scene and find out what was truly going on.
Upon entering the back door warehouse, nothing seemed out of the ordinary yet, but the closer he got to the back door, the more bloodstains began to appear.
Moving further forward, Liu Hong caught sight of the tentacles the Painter had mentioned.
No! You couldn't call them tentacles! To call them tentacles was to vastly underestimate them.
This stretch of fleshy material looked roughly as thick as Liu Hong's thigh.
That wasn't quite right either—it was flat!
Liu Hong didn't know how to describe it, but it was definitely not something that could exist on Earth!
Liu Hong didn't dare touch it either.
In movies, weird things like this usually came with a close-up shot, which could easily lead to a jump scare.
He could only watch from afar, not daring to get close.
Right at that moment, the Painter walked in accompanied by the store manager and a few others.
Seeing them enter, Liu Hong even greeted them.
"Hey, you guys came in too! Looks like what he said is true!"
Seeing Liu Hong, the others glanced at him and then looked toward the doorway he was pointing at.
Sure enough, they saw a severed tentacle lying there.
Looking back at the Painter, they all wore expressions of shock.
The manager blurted out directly:
"What the hell is this?!"
Liu Hong shrugged.
A man in a leather jacket picked up a broom from the side and poked the tentacle with the broom head.
As Liu Hong had expected, the tentacle wasn't completely dead and even started wriggling.
Yet it wasn't as perilous as he had imagined, lacking any sort of jump scare.
After twitching slightly, it simply began to smoke, turned black, and dissolved into liquid.
Even so, it startled everyone into taking a couple of steps back.
After all, it was something outside the realm of human understanding; anyone would be frightened upon seeing it.
Then Liu Hong and the others exchanged glances.
"What should we do?"
Liu Hong asked, casting his gaze primarily toward the Painter.
Judging by his previous account, he was the one who had chopped off the tentacle, which meant he might well be the protagonist.
Liu Hong wanted to see if the protagonist had any ideas.
Everyone looked at one another, completely at a loss as to what to do in the face of such an unprecedented creature.
Ultimately, they decided to go outside and tell everyone about it.
As soon as they stepped out of the warehouse, the manager announced to the crowd that they were in trouble.
The Black man and a few others went inside to take a look.
All they found were pools of blood and a large puddle of water.
They still harbored doubts about the Painter.
However, since the manager corroborated the Painter's story, no one argued openly anymore.
Even so, it was clear that the lawyer and a few others had formed their own little clique.
Liu Hong began to waver once again.
American political correctness was far too strong, and the probability of a Black man being the protagonist was extremely high!
Besides, protagonists generally had their own entourage.
Over on the Black man's side, a clear main character group had already formed.
Once more, he couldn't figure out who the actual protagonist was.
The Painter asked everyone to work together to pile the pet food from the warehouse and the supermarket against the front doors.
This was to block the monsters that remained unknown to them.
So that was why they had been arguing in the first place—the Painter had sought the lawyer's help in barricading the front entrance.
The lawyer hadn't trusted him, which was what sparked the dispute.
Watching people carry bags of pet food one by one and seal the glass windows with packing tape, Liu Hong found it somewhat ridiculous.
If that tentacle from earlier was truly just a tiny fragment of the unknown monster as the Painter claimed,
what could such lightweight pet food possibly stop?!
And how much use could packing tape really be?
Yet there were no heavier items to be found in this supermarket.
Liu Hong felt quite helpless himself, as he couldn't think of any better solutions either.
For now, he could only wait and see what actions the two protagonist-like candidates he had singled out would take.
The Black lawyer was still championing his rationalist approach, claiming that the evidence presented by the Painter was insufficient and that he was deceiving them.
The white Painter refuted him, and the two looked on the verge of another argument.
The store clerk persuaded the white Painter to ignore the man, saying that some people would refuse to trust others even when disaster was staring them in the face, only ever blindly arguing against everyone else, and urged the Painter to focus on building the defenses instead.
Hearing the clerk say this, the Black lawyer was visibly displeased and even incited the others to think for themselves.
Liu Hong simply stood by and watched, truly unable to tell who the protagonist was.
He had no idea what he should do next.
He felt like an ordinary member living in this small town, possessing no advantages whatsoever.
He could only rely on his own efforts, yet he was terrified of how the plot characters might affect him.
Just then, a woman unexpectedly barged in.
She started preaching theology!
This movie had theology in it?!
Was this a psychological disaster film?!
Liu Hong felt like he couldn't make sense of anything anymore.
At first, he thought it was a natural disaster; then tentacles appeared, making him think it was an alien creature disaster; and now theology was involved as well.
Did this movie have way too many elements piled into it?!
How could he have never watched a movie with so many elements before?!
That made no sense at all!
The woman preached her theology to everyone in the supermarket, and even leaned over to whisper a few words into Liu Hong's ear.
The Black man invited those who wanted a rational discussion to gather around him, and Liu Hong went over to take a look; they were truly just debating, lacking any substantive plans or opinions.
When Liu Hong walked away from the lawyer's group, the woman was still preaching theology, and somehow nobody was stopping her.
Could it really be a theological apocalypse?
Liu Hong had watched a few religious-themed doomsday movies, like Exodus: Gods and Kings, so could this be one of them too?
Liu Hong wasn't quite sure.
Toward the end, the woman even proposed a blood sacrifice!
This caused Liu Hong to lose whatever trust he had left in her.
He couldn't be certain about real-life America, but the protagonists in movies were always paragons of righteousness and heroism; they would never suggest offering a human being as a sacrifice.
The moment she put forward that suggestion, Liu Hong immediately dismissed any possibility of her being the protagonist in his mind.
The woman grew more and more agitated, and seeing that everyone was staring at her, she raised her voice even louder.
The blonde beauty whom Liu Hong had previously pegged as the female lead walked straight up and slapped her across the face, shutting her up.
The woman remained unrepentant, declaring that something would come tonight to take someone away from this place.
She spoke with absolute certainty, telling everyone to wait and see if they would come.
Meanwhile, the white Painter's group started preparing weapons, gathering around to discuss whether anyone had a firearm.
An old man mentioned he had a hunting rifle in his car.
Casting a glance back at the thick mist outside, the group dismissed the idea.
At that moment, the beauty walked over and pulled out a handgun.
Not a single gun could be found anywhere in the supermarket, yet one was carried by the person least likely to have it.