"Well... I actually stumbled into it by chance..."
Lin Qian chose his words carefully, afraid he might slip up and reveal that he was fishing for information.
"All right, all right, I get it. You're self-taught. Same as me."
The man waved a hand, signaling that Lin Qian didn't need to say any more.
"Let me introduce myself. My name's Wang Kui. The brothers in the trade are kind enough to call me Master Kui, but you can just call me Old Kui."
Lin Qian watched "Master Kui's" expression closely and noticed how visibly pleased with himself he was as he gave his introduction. He immediately played along.
"What? You're the Master Kui?!"
He widened his eyes in feigned astonishment, as if he were beside himself with excitement.
"What, you've heard of me too?"
Master Kui raised an eyebrow, looking smug.
"I've heard a little, just a little! People in the trade often talk about the things you've done."
Lin Qian leaned forward, afraid Master Kui might ask which heroic deeds he meant. He changed the subject without giving him a chance to get a word in.
"Master Kui, that thing... are you confident you can deal with it?"
More than anything, Lin Qian wanted to know what the special passenger mentioned by the system actually was.
At first, he had suspected he might be caught in a zombie outbreak like the one in Train to Busan. After encountering that zombie in the hotel room, it was only natural for his thoughts to go in that direction.
But Master Kui's appearance had put that idea to rest. From the sound of it, the man already knew what the thing was.
"Heh, hard to say, hard to say.
"But you seem like a decent young man. If things get dangerous, stay behind me. As long as I'm around, keeping you alive shouldn't be too hard.
"There are quite a few people in our line of work on this train, all here for that thing, but not many of them have real skills. The higher-ups gave us far too little information. Who knows what might go wrong?"
Lin Qian was utterly confused. His mind raced as he tried to process what he was hearing, but he didn't forget to flatter Master Kui.
"Then... I'll be counting on you, senior!"
Master Kui waved a hand with the air of a seasoned veteran.
"When you're out in the world, it's only right to look after one another.
"Besides, looking at you reminds me of myself back then: young and clueless, charging in on nothing but passion.
"We might not have the resources and deep roots of those great families, but we're willing to put our lives on the line! Can those flowers raised in a greenhouse say the same?"
By the end, Lin Qian could clearly hear the bitterness in his voice. He had evidently resented those so-called great families for a long time, though there was also a measure of envy and jealousy mixed in.
Lin Qian continued to play along as he pieced together what he knew.
First, there were probably others like Master Kui on the train. They had all received word in advance and come specifically for "that thing."
Master Kui had mistaken Lin Qian for one of them, most likely because all four of his attributes were now above normal after he spent his two attribute points. That also meant Master Kui was certainly no ordinary man. He was probably much stronger than Lin Qian, and might even possess some special abilities.
The system had probably not placed Lin Qian here by coincidence. The mission was to survive, not kill the source of the danger, most likely because he was no match for the thing as he was now. The key to survival might lie with Master Kui and the others in his line of work.
Lin Qian rubbed his temples, feeling like his CPU was overloading.
As he sat lost in thought, a hand suddenly appeared before his eyes.
"Hey! Hey! Put these away, quick. Don't let anyone see."
Lin Qian blinked and looked at what Master Kui was handing him. It was a stack of talismans made of yellow paper and marked with red ink.
He took them instinctively, and a system notification sounded in his mind.
[Blood Talisman: Suppresses evil entities. The stronger the entity, the shorter the duration.]
Lin Qian was startled.
When he looked at Master Kui again, there was surprise in his eyes.
"Did the system really arrange for this guy to be here? I butter him up a little and he drops equipment..."
He counted five Blood Talismans in total.
"Evil entities... The system classified that thing as an evil entity. Could it be a ghost or something?"
Scenes from countless movies and shows flashed through his mind, and his face began to pale.
It wasn't that he was afraid of ghosts, just...
All right, Lin Qian admitted it. He was a little afraid of ghosts.
He gripped the Blood Talismans tightly. The next moment, Master Kui gave his hand a hard smack.
"Easy! They won't work if you damage them!"
Lin Qian quickly loosened his grip and laid the talismans on his lap, carefully smoothing them out for fear that even a crease might affect them.
"Master Kui, I haven't really used these before. Is there some trick to them?"
Lin Qian was trying to find out how the Blood Talismans worked without asking outright.
"What trick could there be? Just use a little spit to stick one on their forehead," Master Kui replied casually.
Lin Qian nodded in understanding, then asked, "Didn't you say there was only one? Why give me all these talismans?"
At that, Master Kui looked at Lin Qian as if he were an idiot.
"Don't tell me you're planning to stick one of these on that thing?"
He was beginning to regret giving them to Lin Qian.
The kid was obviously a reckless greenhorn who didn't know a thing.
He was even worse than Master Kui had been back in the day.
"Get that suicidal idea out of your head now. I gave you these to use on the people it affects, so you won't get surrounded and trapped!
"As for that thing, don't even think about it. A rookie like you would just be throwing your life away."
He leaned a little closer and lowered his voice.
"I heard through the grapevine that the last time that thing caused trouble, it killed half the people on a whole street."
Master Kui glanced with pity at the passengers around them, who had no idea what was going on, and sighed.
"It wasn't easy luring it onto the train. That thing loves crowds. At least there's not much room to move sideways on a train. If we can block it in and finish it off, we can keep the losses to a minimum.
"If we can't, I'm afraid these people will all die along with us."
He let out another long sigh.
"There are more and more of these things nowadays. Sooner or later, we won't be able to keep them hidden..."
Lin Qian said nothing. Instead, he glanced at a newspaper spread over the table beneath a pile of odds and ends.
[RUMOR! Tiecheng Tunnel accident actually a collapse caused by substandard construction. Spreading panic is punishable by law]
[A ghost bus? The truth behind the story will make you laugh]
After a few quick glances, Lin Qian could roughly infer what kind of world this was.
"A resurgence of the supernatural?
"Looks like people like Master Kui are professionals who specialize in dealing with incidents like these.
"People in the trade...
"But from what he said, he's self-taught too. That means there must be an official force as well. I wonder if any of them are on the train.
"If they are, my chances of survival should go up quite a bit."
Based on what he knew, Lin Qian couldn't help against that thing at all. A conventional weapon like a handgun certainly wouldn't work, and he had no Transcendent abilities. At best, he was an enhanced ordinary person.
With that thought, Lin Qian looked at Master Kui again and spoke hesitantly.
"Master Kui, my skills are shallow. Could you teach me a thing or two to defend myself? I'm afraid..."
Lin Qian blushed as soon as the words left his mouth.
They were complete strangers who had only met today. It was already incredibly generous of Master Kui to give him those Blood Talismans, and now he was pushing his luck.
Master Kui glanced at Lin Qian through half-lowered eyelids but didn't say much.
In truth, he wasn't confident about what would happen tonight either. He had only been putting on a bit of a show to save face in front of a junior.
With a slap, Master Kui tossed him a thin black book, rolled up and tied with string.
"This is one of my signature techniques. How much you can grasp depends on your talent."
With that, he lay down on the bed.
"What good is cramming at the last minute, anyway?"
It was clear he wasn't as relaxed as he appeared. Even lying down, he showed no sign of sleepiness, merely closing his eyes to rest.
"He actually gave me something?"
Lin Qian had only been trying his luck. He hadn't expected to get anything out of Master Kui.
He hurriedly untied the string and flattened the book. A single word was written in large letters on its yellowed cover:
[Evilbreaker]
"Just the name tells me this is something incredible!"
Lin Qian eagerly flipped through it. Before long, a system notification sounded in his mind.
[Ding! Skill learned: Evilbreaker]
[Evilbreaker: Has the special effect of damaging evil entities and spirits]
The description wasn't particularly detailed, but Lin Qian's eyes lit up with delight.
The book's obscure wording had nearly crushed his hopes, but the system had given him a wonderful surprise: it could actually learn the skill for him automatically.
He put down the book and activated Evilbreaker with a thought.
The next moment, a faint white light appeared at his fingertip, no bigger than a mung bean.
Yet Master Kui caught sight of that almost imperceptible light from the bed. He sprang upright like a released spring, staring at Lin Qian with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Y-y-y-you..."
He looked as though he'd seen a ghost. He stammered for a long time without managing a complete sentence.