The bulky locomotive sliced through the dense fog, the old and outdated steam train looking as if it had come straight out of the distant nineteenth century. Like a black ghost, it glided silently to a stop beside the station platform.
Two players had already been waiting at the station for quite some time.
The curly-haired woman, her face naturally carrying the look of someone deeply tired of the world, held a cigarette between her fingers.
She took slow, indifferent drags as her dark gaze settled on the man a few meters away, lingering particularly on the sleek, technology-laden electronic watch on his wrist. “An official ability-user? You reacted pretty fast.”
“Well, things blew up on the forum and workers are all the same, when the boss gives an order, what can you do except work overtime?”
At the sound of her voice, the man pushed one hand into the pocket of his white lab coat. The other hand absently rubbed the short stubble along his jaw. He took the initiative to sound friendly. “Don’t worry. My mission is only to investigate what happened with this train, of course, if I can help resolve this instance while I’m at it, that’d be even better. Our goals are aligned, after all.”
Having said that, he paused briefly, turning his head toward the fog-shrouded distance.
The churning fog swallowed the horizon and the already faint footsteps approaching from the mist were amplified against the silence.
Tap…
Tap…
The footsteps drew nearer at an unhurried pace and the newcomer’s silhouette gradually sharpened.
He was a tall, slender young man with slightly wavy black hair. His complexion carried the pallor of someone who rarely stepped into sunlight. His features had a mixed-race sharpness, his eye sockets deeper than a typical Asian’s and in those recesses rested irises as blue as the sea.
He walked with an easy, leisurely rhythm, as though taking a casual stroll through his own garden. Like any ordinary person absorbed in their phone, he kept his gaze fixed closely on the screen, seemingly chatting with someone.
But the more casual he appeared, the less anyone dared to underestimate him.
Wen Sheng watched him closely, quietly raising his guard.
Yi Fengchu’s real body was lying safely hidden elsewhere. The young man appearing before them now was a virtual body, “copied” out of his phone through unknown means.
Unfortunately, the phone currently couldn’t create a flawless, indistinguishable virtual body over long distances. So Yi Fengchu still had to act personally, finding a nearby, secure location within a workable distance and hiding himself there.
Yi Fengchu walked forward slowly, gradually adapting to this brand-new body. He finally stopped about ten paces away from Wen Sheng, recognized among players as a safe conversational distance.
With lazy nonchalance, he gave the two of them a slight nod and introduced himself with an easy tone, using a false name: “Chu Fu.”
“Wen Sheng.”
The curly-haired woman brushed her hair back behind her ear and offered a cool nod. “Zuo Yi.”
The train door slowly creaked open. The pallid, bloated ticket inspector, his appearance far more corpse-like than human, stood in the doorway with a chilling stillness. “Please hand over your tickets.”
A flash of crimson nails swept through the air. With a gesture like a magician revealing a trick, Zuo Yi drew a yellowed ticket stub out of thin air and, standing before the two men, held it out.
“Expired tickets…”
The inspector’s mouth curved into a grotesquely exaggerated grin, one that was unmistakably malicious. “Go on in, miss. Lower cabin, berth B042.”
Next, he accepted Wen Sheng’s ticket as well, speaking in the same hoarse, grating voice: “Lower-class carriage, berth B043.”
When it was Yi Fengchu’s turn, the ticket inspector suddenly froze like a machine that had lost power. His body trembled violently, enough to make one worry whether the half-detached eyeball in his socket would shake loose and fall.
After taking Yi Fengchu’s ticket, however, the inspector unexpectedly straightened with fluid precision and bowed deeply.
His voice shifted into something almost obsequious. “Welcome, esteemed guest. It is my greatest honor to serve you. Your room is in the special-class carriage, Room A006. If you wish, I would be honored to guide you there. I wish you a most pleasant journey.”
Zuo Yi and Wen Sheng, who had not even stepped onto the train yet, fell into stunned silence as they witnessed the entire exchange.
Why was the treatment so drastically different when all three tickets were the same kind of old stubs? This seemingly frail, delicate man, what exactly was his background…?
Instantly, the way the two of them looked at Yi Fengchu shifted completely.
Yi Fengchu remained calm. He nodded politely to the inspector. “Thank you but I can find my way.”
He had visited several real-world instances before. Inside those instances, the creatures were either cowed by the presence of his phone, fleeing immediately or adopting an attitude of extreme servility. He was long used to this kind of reaction.
It was just that this time, with ordinary players beside him as contrast, the effect became… overwhelmingly obvious.
The three of them boarded the train. They should have headed to their respective carriages yet instead they all paused at the same spot, simultaneously falling silent. For a moment, they simply stared at one another, the quiet thickening in the air.
Wen Sheng was the first to break the silence. He looked at Yi Fengchu with a solemn expression and asked, “I suppose… you’re no longer just a player, are you?”
Recordkeepers rarely manifested inside instances and Judges were far too distant from the physical world. Thus, Zuo Yi ventured a guess. “A Sin-Arbiter?”
Yi Fengchu hadn’t had time to prepare any background settings for this persona. He didn’t know how to answer, so he simply gave a faint, ambiguous smile, leaving room for their imaginations to fill in the blanks.
As they parted ways, he suddenly lifted his eyes from his phone and told them, “A hint, don’t let yourselves be trapped by surface-level assumptions.”
Wen Sheng frowned, wanting to ask something more but before he could speak, the young man waved dismissively and stepped into the shadows.
Passing through the first-class carriage, Yi Fengchu found the environment completely different from the second-class section. A soft, elegant floral fragrance filled the air and the floor was covered with a plush, thick red carpet.
Passengers seated by the windows were dining in extravagant attire. The food and desserts adorning their tables were dazzling in variety and wine glasses shimmered with brilliant reflections under the crystal chandeliers.
So these were the so-called “nobles” mentioned in the instance’s name?
Had it not been for the phone’s earlier warning, he would have unhesitatingly agreed but now… as he studied these passengers enjoying their luxurious meals, something felt profoundly off.
Their eyes lacked vitality. Beneath their numb expressions lay a dead stillness, as though they were eating their last meal before death.
Even though their clothing was refined and immaculate, they did not resemble pampered aristocrats who lived above the world. Instead, they looked more like unfortunate souls crushed by hardship to the point where they no longer even dared to resist.
What felt even more out of place were their hands. Even with layers of lace sleeves obscuring them, Yi Fengchu could see the marks, hands weathered by wind and rain, the backs wrinkled by labor and patches of darkened skin left behind by harsh sunlight.
Deep in thought, Yi Fengchu closed the door behind him and stepped into the special-class section, locating the room assigned to him.
“Tell me, do you think anyone lives next door?” Once inside, he flopped lazily onto the sofa, then knocked on the wall beside him, asking on a sudden whim.
The phone hesitated for a moment before replying: [There is. In truth, only the lower-class and first-class carriages belong to the instance. They’re completely isolated from the rest of the train. Even if a massive explosion occurred inside the instance, the other carriages would continue operating normally, completely unaffected.]
[And the remaining carriages serve actual passengers. When you passed through second class, did you not notice that most compartments were locked from the inside? Those are all genuine ticket-holding passengers.]
Yi Fengchu paused for a moment, then spotted the key point. “But if the train became an instance, then something must have gone wrong at some point, right? Why would anyone still dare to board a train like this?”
The phone answered:
[Only humans care about such things. This is the sole train that connects the real world and the Shadow Realm. There will always be Shadow Realm beings who must rely on it to enter or leave the mortal world.]
[In occult lore, there is a belief that the Shadow Realm does not exist within any physical universe but instead lies within the closed eyes of the great Goddess of Misfortune and Mother of Shadows while she slumbers. Unless one possesses a pass personally issued by the goddess, all other beings, living or nonliving, can only travel through this one train…]
[The story behind this train is far more complicated than you imagine.] the phone said, its tone suggesting much left unsaid.
Ah. So it had a monopoly. No wonder, even if the train fell apart, there would always be fools lining up to pay.
Yi Fengchu understood instantly.
After a moment of silence, the phone abruptly reminded him:
[That member from the Abilities Management Bureau has also been exposed to your presence. You must not reveal any unusual abilities in front of him, otherwise he may link you to the identity of the “Narrator.”]
“But since I live in this world, it’ll be impossible to avoid contact with them forever,” Yi Fengchu said, folding his hands and propping his chin on them thoughtfully. “Up until now, every ability I show originates from you. They’re bound to notice the connection sooner or later.”
[And how do you plan to handle that? Will you let them investigate until they conclude the ‘Narrator’ is nothing but an elaborate hoax? Or let them dig up your real identity, then restrain or suppress you?] the phone asked, dripping with sarcasm.
Yi Fengchu had long grown accustomed to the phone’s occasional sharp tongue, so he didn’t mind. He answered in an unhurried tone, “They like investigating… then I’ll let them investigate.”
As he spoke, Yi Fengchu let out a soft laugh. “People that are clever are always the most convinced of their own deductions. As long as you give them the slightest bit of misdirection, you can watch them stubbornly force themselves down the wrong track.”
“Now I finally know how to construct the identity of ‘Chu Fu.’”
He lifted his gaze. The gleam of the carriage’s lights reflected faintly within his deep blue eyes but the phone seemed to see through this surface façade, catching a glimpse of Yi Fengchu’s true eyes beneath, ink-black and fathomless like a shard of cold, gleaming obsidian. “If we can’t avoid the connection to the ‘Narrator,’ then we won’t avoid it, ”
“Let them know, from the very beginning and in broad daylight, exactly where this identity’s abilities originate. That is why the similarities will naturally appear, as if stemming from the same source.”
The moment Zuo Yi stepped into the carriage, she frowned.
“What’s wrong?” Wen Sheng looked over at her.
The lower-class passengers were curled up in their respective seats, dozing fitfully. Each person was allotted only the narrowest sliver of space. In a dark corner, a couple of disheveled people were clutching their children and quietly weeping, while nearby someone smoked a cheap cigarette with visible irritation.
The instant Zuo Yi and Wen Sheng entered the carriage, they drew many gloomy, unfriendly glances. People resting with hats pulled low over their faces lifted their eyes from beneath the brims, staring at them with unreadable expressions.
Feeling those gazes, Zuo Yi didn’t answer Wen Sheng’s question. Instead, she flicked away some imaginary ash, deliberately raised her voice and cursed loudly, “Damn you, how dare you betray me?! Don’t you even think about showing your face in front of me again today! Who would believe your sweet-talking lies?!”
With that, she slammed the door shut. The worn-out door shuddered from the force, bouncing twice and nearly hitting Wen Sheng in the nose.
Wen Sheng stood frozen before the door, utterly bewildered. Then it clicked, Zuo Yi was helping him. She had created a believable excuse for him so he could linger naturally inside the carriage, blend in with the passengers and take the chance to gather information through casual conversation.
After all, since ancient times, domestic quarrels were always a topic people loved to gossip about.
Understanding this, Wen Sheng’s face cycled rapidly through shock, panic, anger and embarrassment. He paced agitatedly in front of the door, then finally adopted an expression of humiliation mixed with helplessness and found a seat to collapse into.
“Had a fight with your wife?” the man beside him asked with sympathetic curiosity. Very quickly, Wen Sheng was drawn into conversation, trying to extract information about the instance’s background.
Fortunately, the other man was talkative, so Wen Sheng didn’t have to work hard to learn quite a lot. Unfortunately, he was too talkative, Wen Sheng nearly drowned in the flood of useless chatter.
“You asked if anything major has happened lately?” the passenger said. Though his clothes were tattered, his manner of speaking was unexpectedly refined. After pondering briefly, he smiled. “There is indeed something, something everyone in the streets and alleys knows about.”
Sensing he had touched on a key element of the instance’s backstory, Wen Sheng immediately pressed, “What happened? Apologies, I come from a very distant country, so I’m not familiar with these events.”
“Oh, a foreigner? Yes, I can tell.”
The man narrowed his eyes and examined Wen Sheng’s face. Because Wen Sheng’s features were very different from those typical of Europeans, the man did not doubt him.
A sly, crafty glint flashed in his gaze as he continued, “In our country of Ilran, the governing authority is always contested between different factions, each backed by multiple religious orders. The cycle lasts twenty-two years and this year, the cycle began anew. The Lunar Church Party, having won, drove all the nobles belonging to their greatest rival, the Solar Court Party, out of the capital.”
As he mentioned the event, the man couldn’t help grumbling resentfully, “But those blind fools in the Lunar Church Party don’t understand, ‘Sunlight’ is something that can never be dispelled… No matter how many times they try, the sun will always rise, illuminating everything.”
It sounded like a system where human political power and divine authority were tightly intertwined. Wen Sheng was not surprised.
In worlds ruled by gods, this was nothing unusual. Even if the divine beings themselves cared nothing for mortal wealth or status, their followers, who walked the earth, would always devote everything in their name.
And the passenger before him seemed deeply devoted to the Solar Court Party, his tone dripping with hatred and resistance when mentioning the Lunar Church Party.
After chatting a while longer, Wen Sheng asked, “I’d like to learn more about your country but I feel bad bothering you. Is there anywhere I can find newspapers or similar publications?”
“There are some in front of the first-class carriage door but if you’re going to take one, make sure those train attendants don’t catch you. They hate thieves more than anything.”
The passenger offered the warning with a look of apparent goodwill but his eyes gleamed with the kind of delight one had when waiting to watch a spectacle.
After bidding him farewell, Wen Sheng left the carriage, keeping his guard up. He deliberately lingered, moving slowly and only after a long delay did he approach the first-class carriage, where he stopped at the corner.
Two train attendants were stationed before the door, searching for something.
“Look again, did anyone hide over there? We absolutely cannot let those filthy things crawling out of the slums contaminate the newspapers!”
“No… the newspapers don’t seem to have been touched. We’ve waited so long and still haven’t seen anyone. That despicable thief probably isn’t coming.”
“No, I’m checking over there again!”
One of the attendants walked straight toward Wen Sheng’s direction. When he reached the dim corridor, he rounded the corner, only to find it empty. With no other choice, he walked away disappointed.
At that very moment, Wen Sheng had already teleported back to his room.
Serves him right. Wen Sheng had abilities. Spatial ones.
He thought it over carefully. Those two attendants had clearly received a tip-off, which was why they were patrolling the door in advance. It was impossible not to suspect the man who had encouraged him to steal the newspaper.
As expected, they were all monsters inside the instance. When it came to setting traps for players, both the attendants and the passengers were equally complicit.
But judging from the conduct of the train attendants, the people in the lower-class carriage had absolutely no human rights in their eyes. They were not even regarded as the same kind of beings…
Then how had that man managed to contact the attendants so quickly? Why did the attendants obey those who so contemptuously dismissed the “lower classes”? The moment they heard someone might come to steal a newspaper, they rushed over to patrol the area.
The more Wen Sheng thought about it, the more off it felt.
Unable to figure it out, he rubbed the heavy dark circles under his eyes, lay down on the hard wooden bunk and let himself nap for a dozen or so minutes.
Only when he heard the sound of Zuo Yi’s door opening next door did he force himself up. Under the curious, gossip-hungry gazes from the entire carriage, he walked over and knocked on her door.
“Dar…” He paused, the address clearly unfamiliar on his tongue, then called softly, “Darling, are you still mad at me?”
The room stayed silent. Wen Sheng had no choice but to keep acting, lowering his voice as though apologizing meekly: “I can explain, can you at least let me in first? You can decide how I make it up to you afterward…”
Just as snickers and whistles were already breaking out across the carriage, the door abruptly opened just wide enough for one person to slip through. A hand yanked Wen Sheng inside, then slammed the door shut with a heavy bang.
Inside, there were none of the crying, fighting or dramatic wrestling matches the others outside might have imagined. The two of them sat facing one another, both completely calm.
Zuo Yi recalled what she had discovered that day. “The instant I stepped into the carriage, I felt something was wrong, the smell was too clean. With so many people packed together and none of them having bathed for days, there should have been the stench of sweat everywhere. It didn’t match the identities of these passengers.”
“I found a way to slip into the conductor’s office and discovered a telegram. The telegram ordered the conductor to tamper with the first-class carriage and to disconnect its chains while passing the curve around Snow Mountain, sending the entire carriage straight off the cliff.”
“And the rear carriages, due to the rebound force, would derail and crash into the snow but the passengers in those carriages would be prepared in advance, so the casualties would be minimal.”
Zuo Yi explained everything effortlessly. In return, Wen Sheng didn’t hide anything either, recounting his entire experience to her.
“If the attendants treat poor people with such open disdain, why would the telegram instruct them to protect the lives of the lower-class passengers while sending the so-called nobles to their deaths?”
Zuo Yi let out a thin, mocking smile. “‘Don’t let preconceived assumptions trap you’… I understand now. Without that hint, it would have been far too easy to be fooled.”
Wen Sheng also caught on and continued along her line of thought. “No wonder this instance is only C-rank. The truth is actually simple, the people in the lower-class carriage and those in the upper-class carriage have collectively swapped identities.”
“Considering the political struggle between the parties, being expelled from the capital definitely wasn’t the final fate intended for the nobles of the Solar Party. Their enemies wanted them dead, banishment was merely the first step.”
“Those nobles who had temporarily lost power surely realized this. So they decided to swap identities with the poor, letting those displaced paupers die in their place and to put their enemies completely at ease, the Solar Party planned to stage this so-called ‘train accident,’ making sure that not a single first-class passenger survived… Sending the carriage off a cliff was probably meant to obscure the identities of the bodies.”
Zuo Yi gave a careless little laugh. “I’m guessing the real nobles, now sitting here in the lower-class carriage, will start whispering in your ear soon, fanning the flames and pushing you to cause trouble in first class. The more chaos, the more it benefits them.”
As she spoke, her craving for a cigarette flared up again. She pulled one out and toyed with it between her fingers, though she refrained from lighting it in front of Wen Sheng.
And just as she predicted, the very next day, while Wen Sheng was chatting casually in the dining area, a few people began talking in vague, insinuating tones about how the nobles in first class were arrogant, selfish and thought themselves above everyone else, urging him to “teach them a lesson.”
Wen Sheng was about to refuse but was caught completely off guard when he suddenly heard the crisp chime of a system notification.
The system, at this critical moment, issued a new quest: Kill the nobles.
Had he not known the truth, he would have assumed these instigators were harmless NPCs whose only purpose was to trigger a quest.
Internally cursing the instance for being so treacherous, Wen Sheng maintained a calm expression and readily agreed. Smiling, he clasped the hands of the men urging him on. “Sure, no need to wait, no day is better than today. Let’s all head over and find some excitement together, shall we?”
He deliberately stressed the word together.
The men who had been enthusiastically stirring trouble froze, exchanging baffled looks with one another.
“…???”
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
(≧▽≦)ﾉ☕ coffee!
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Mysterious letterChapter 2 · Divine MessagesChapter 3 · Gamer ForumChapter 4 · Invitation from GodChapter 5 · JudgeChapter 6 · TerminalChapter 7 · Destruction of recordsChapter 8 · Whale Bone Aquarium (1)Chapter 9 · Whale Bone Aquarium (2)Chapter 10 · Whale Bone Aquarium (3)Chapter 11 · Whale Bone Aquarium (4)Chapter 12 · Whale Bone Aquarium (5)Chapter 13 · Whale Bone Aquarium (6)Chapter 14 · Whale Bone Aquarium (7)Chapter 15 · Whale Bone Aquarium (8)Chapter 16 · Whale Bone Aquarium (9)Chapter 17 · Whale Bone Aquarium (10)Chapter 18 · Whale Bone Aquarium (11)Chapter 19 Part 1 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 19 Part 2 · Whale Bone Aquarium (12)Chapter 20 · Interlude: His ApostlesChapter 21 · Echoes in the pupa (1)Chapter 22 · Echoes in the pupa (2)Chapter 23 · Echoes in the Pupa (3)Chapter 24 · Echoes in the Pupa (4)Chapter 25 · Echoes in the Pupa (5)Chapter 26 · Echoes in the Pupa (6)Chapter 27 · Echoes in the Pupa (7)Chapter 28 · Echoes in the Pupa (8)Chapter 29 · Echoes in the Pupa (9)Chapter 30 · Echoes in the Pupa (10)Chapter 31 · Echoes in the Pupa (11)Chapter 32 · Echoes in the Pupa (12)Chapter 33 · Echoes in the Pupa (13)Chapter 34 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (1)Chapter 35 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (2)Chapter 36 · Interlude: Investigation by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs (3)Chapter 37 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (1)Chapter 38 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (2)Chapter 39 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (3)Chapter 40 · Small World: God’s Chessboard (4)Chapter 41 · Advertisement Coming Soon (1)Chapter 42 · Advertisement Coming Soon (2)Chapter 43 · Advertisement Coming Soon (3)Chapter 44 · Advertisement Coming Soon (4)Chapter 45 · Advertisement Coming Soon (5)Chapter 46 · Advertisement Coming Soon (6)Chapter 47 · Advertisement Coming Soon (7)Chapter 48 · Advertisement Coming Soon (8)Chapter 49 · Advertisement Coming Soon (9)Chapter 50 · Advertisement Coming Soon (10)Chapter 51 · Advertisement Coming Soon (11)Chapter 52 · Advertisement Coming Soon (12)Chapter 53 · Advertisement Coming Soon to EndChapter 54 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (1)Chapter 55 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (2)Chapter 56 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (3)Chapter 57 · Interlude – Tonight No One Sleeps (4)Chapter 58 · Childhood Ghost Stories (1)Chapter 59 · Childhood Ghost Stories (2)Chapter 60 · Childhood Ghost Stories (3)Chapter 61 · Childhood Ghost Stories (4)Chapter 62 · Childhood Ghost Stories (5)Chapter 63 · Childhood Ghost Stories (6)Chapter 64 · Childhood Ghost Stories (7)Chapter 65 · Childhood Ghost Stories (8)Chapter 66 · Childhood Ghost Stories (9)Chapter 67 · Childhood Ghost Stories (10)Chapter 68 · Childhood Ghost Stories (11)Chapter 69 · Childhood Ghost Stories (12)Chapter 70 · Childhood Ghost Stories (13)Chapter 71 · Childhood Ghost Stories (14)Chapter 72 · Childhood Ghost Stories (15)Chapter 73 · Childhood Ghost Stories (16)Chapter 74 · Childhood Ghost Stories (17)Chapter 75 · Childhood Ghost Stories (18)Chapter 76 · Childhood Ghost Stories (19)Chapter 77 · Childhood Ghost Stories (20)Chapter 78 · Childhood Ghost Stories (Complete)Chapter 79 · Interlude: His Kingdom (1)Chapter 80 · Interlude: His Kingdom (2)Chapter 81 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (1)Chapter 82 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (2)Chapter 83 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (3)Chapter 84 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (4)Chapter 85 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (5)Chapter 86 · Interlude: An Epic of Faith (Complete)Chapter 87 · Fate casually rolls the dice (1)Chapter 88 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (2)Chapter 89 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (3)Chapter 90 · Fate Casually rolls the dice (4)Chapter 91 · Fate casually tosses the dice (5)Chapter 92 · Fate casually tosses the dice (6)Chapter 93 · Fate casually tosses the dice (7)Chapter 94 · Fate casually tosses the dice (8)Chapter 95 · Fate casually tosses the dice (9)Chapter 96 · Fate casually tosses the dice (10)Chapter 97 · Fate Casually tosses the dice (11)Chapter 98 · Fate casually tosses the dice (12)Chapter 99 · Fate casually tosses the dice (13)Chapter 100 · Fate casually tosses the dice (14)Chapter 101 · Fate casually tosses the dice (15)Chapter 102 · Fate casually tosses the dice (16)Chapter 103 · Fate casually tosses the dice (17)Chapter 104 · Fate casually tosses the dice (18)Chapter 105 · Fate casually tosses the dice (19)Chapter 106 · Fate casually tosses the dice (20)Chapter 107 · Fate casually tosses the dice (21)Chapter 108 · Fate casually tosses the dice (The End)Chapter 109 · Interlude