The Con Artist

(Caution: not for brainless feel-good fiction fans; no poison, infinite-flow, villains with brains, mainly suspense + instances + deduction, the pacing is somewhat slow, so please be patient, handsome men and beautiful women. This novice author offers his thanks...)

Welcome to the Divine Path Game

Information synchronization complete. Please bring your brain...

When Qin Shang woke up, he found himself in an exceptionally cramped environment.

Dark, damp, and so black that he could not see his hand in front of his face. There was barely any light.

Only after his eyes had fully adjusted to the surroundings did he look around.

It was pitch-black.

Faintly visible in the shadows were rows of seats and luggage compartments on either side. The space was narrow and cramped, resembling a train carriage.

Who knew how long this train had been abandoned? Every so often, an especially pungent smell drifted over.

Perhaps... it was the smell of moldy leather seats?

"Where am I?"

"What is this place?"

"Why did I appear here?"

The confusion in his eyes faded. He cautiously raised a hand and moved his arm, and a trace of relief crossed his handsome face.

He was not injured.

After searching his pockets, he found that his personal belongings, such as his phone and keys, had been confiscated.

There seemed to be voices conversing nearby. Qin Shang instinctively started walking toward the front of the carriage.

He had to figure out why he had appeared here!

After taking only a few steps, he vaguely saw human silhouettes in the darkness.

Qin Shang immediately became alert.

Just then, a slightly teasing voice came from somewhere ahead.

"Looks like another guy has come in. What exactly do the people who kidnapped us want? Why have they captured so many people?"

"Hey, officer over there... Can you tell us why we've appeared here now?"

Qin Shang was startled. So there were more than just him in this train carriage.

He hurriedly looked into the dark carriage and noticed six figures over there.

The one who had spoken was a young man with a sharp, ratlike face who looked somewhat like a street thug.

Aside from the thug who had spoken first, everyone else wore varying degrees of fear and wariness.

Qin Shang was looking at them, and they were watching him as well.

At that moment, an ethereal female voice suddenly rang out, echoing through the train carriage.

All players, please take note. The number of players for this round has reached its limit. The instance will begin in ten minutes.

A game!?

Ding! You are currently aboard the Death Train. The Death Train was a train in London, England, during the mid-nineteenth century. Passengers who boarded this train began disappearing one after another under mysterious circumstances. In the end, without exception, no one escaped. Strangely, aside from the disappearance of its passengers, the train continued traveling back and forth between its starting point and destination day after day, gradually becoming a famous ghost-train legend.

Rank: S

Number: 0927

Type: Exploration, Survival, Multiplayer

Your mission in this round: Explore the mystery behind the disappearance of the Death Train's passengers.

Time: Twenty-four hours

Exploration progress: 0%

Your identity in this instance: Passenger

Just then, a cold electronic prompt sounded beside Qin Shang's ear.

His pupils widened slightly. The reactions of the people nearby were basically identical.

"You all heard the instance prompt just now, right?"

"It's obvious that this is a game. The game is about to begin, and once we clear the instance, we can go back..."

A burly man in the crowd slowly spoke.

Qin Shang cautiously sized him up. The man was powerfully built and wore a pale-blue uniform.

A public security officer?

Was this man a public security officer?

However, the burly man's words did not comfort anyone. Instead, the slightly teasing and mocking tone made an ominous feeling rise in everyone's hearts.

The crowd's unease instantly reached its peak, and a barrage of voices followed one after another.

"A game? What game?"

"I'm telling you, kidnapping is against the law! If you imprison us, you'll be sentenced!"

"Even if you're a public security officer, you have no right to kidnap us at will! Who are you?"

Qin Shang also stared at the public security officer, his mind racing.

That electronic prompt just now was clearly a supernatural phenomenon.

A game? This place was a game?

A virtual-reality game?

"I'm a player just like you. You appearing here has nothing to do with me..."

At that moment, the public security officer calmly spoke.

"There are still ten minutes before the game starts, so let me use this time to give everyone a brief explanation."

"Judging by the looks of things, you should all be newcomers."

"This is the Divine Path Game!"

The Divine Path?

Qin Shang narrowed his eyes slightly. His chin looked firm and powerful, and his already handsome features appeared even sharper.

The crowd fell completely silent.

The next moment, the man dressed as a public security officer cleared his throat.

"We're all players in the game!"

"The Divine Path Game is called a game, but it isn't a game developed by humans. It is a supernatural phenomenon that the authorities have yet to fully investigate. I don't know much about it."

"I only know that we are all chosen people."

"The Divine Path Game comes in many forms. There are exploration instances, puzzle-solving instances, survival instances, and more. Usually, we can only return to reality after clearing an instance or completing a mission..."

The public security officer's voice was calm, yet indescribably eerie.

"What happens if we can't complete it?"

At that moment, a woman who looked like a young married woman suddenly cried out agitatedly.

This place was too strange. A group of ordinary people had inexplicably been dragged into a supernatural phenomenon to play some game. No normal person could accept it, no matter how thick-skinned they were.

At her words, the man dressed as a public security officer glanced indifferently at the beautiful woman.

"You die!"

Boom—

The instant those words left his mouth, the atmosphere in the entire carriage became unbearably oppressive.

Outside the windows, dense fog filled the air, making it nearly impossible to see anything.

The dark carriage, the dim yellow lights, and the indistinct faces of the people around them made everything even more oppressive.

Yet the mere words "you die" caused the atmosphere to sink to an extreme.

For an instant, Qin Shang's heart felt as if it had been struck by a cannon shell, and his breathing abruptly stopped.

"Are you kidding me?! We die?"

The young man who looked like a thug, who had been the calmest at the beginning, could no longer sit still.

"Damn it, then I don't want to play this game! What kind of game costs people their lives?"

"Besides, I didn't come here willingly. I only picked up a 'lady services' card by the roadside, and then I was dragged here."

"What did I do to deserve this? Fine, count it as soliciting prostitution. I'll turn myself in. Let me out!"

The beautiful woman excitedly agreed.

"Exactly! I was just depositing money at a bank when I noticed that the ATM had swallowed a card. I saw another card stuck inside and tugged at it, then everything went blurry and I ended up here."

"I didn't come here willingly either. Why should I risk my life?"

The others also began complaining loudly over one another.

Qin Shang remained silent, listening to their accounts.

He easily caught an important detail: it seemed that all of them had entered this place because of a card.

He had a card too.

Ninety days ago, his wife, Jiang Qiqi, had gone to Yanjing on a business trip and then vanished without a trace.

There had been no news of her. She had disappeared from the face of the earth.

During the three months since his wife's disappearance, Qin Shang had gone to the Public Security Bureau nearly every day to ask about the case.

But the answer he received was always a shake of the head.

Hundreds of thousands of people went missing across the country every year. Qin Shang knew that perhaps his wife could no longer be found.

But he was still unwilling to believe that a living person could simply vanish into thin air.

Three days ago, the Yanjing Public Security Bureau announced that the case was closed and mailed over the belongings Jiang Qiqi had left before disappearing.

Inside were a phone and a small silver-white card.

Character Card: Con Artist

The instant Qin Shang's palm touched the card, he lost consciousness.

When he woke up, he had appeared here.

"Since you were able to enter the instance, it means you've all bound yourselves to Character Cards. If you don't clear the instance, you can't go back."

"Instead of blaming heaven and earth, you should think about how to survive this round!"

At that moment, the public security officer impatiently interrupted the crowd's overlapping complaints.

Qin Shang slowly narrowed his eyes.

If he had been brought to this place called the Divine Path Game because of that card, then perhaps there was a clue about his wife's disappearance.

Now Qin Shang wanted to know something else even more.

Clearly, Jiang Qiqi's disappearance was very likely related to this Divine Path Game!

Could the Character Card I received be my wife Jiang Qiqi's?

"Then how do we take out the Character Card?"

"And can we give our own Character Cards to someone else?"

The public security officer seemed to know the most about the Divine Path among everyone present.

Qin Shang could only ask him to answer the questions in his heart.

"You mean undo the binding?"

The public security officer shot him a sideways glance.

"As far as I know, a Divine Path player's identity cannot be unbound. The only way to take out a Character Card is to die, and Character Cards cannot be transferred."

"That's because the Divine Path is more like a massive server. It has its own standards for selecting players, and someone who receives a transferred card might not meet the requirements to become a player."

"After a player dies, the Divine Path usually automatically recovers the Character Card and then issues it to another chosen player."

"The scenes in which chosen players obtain their Character Cards aren't fixed. Just as those people said, some picked up small cards on the road, while others encountered cards inside ATMs..."

"Mine was tucked inside my daughter's test paper!"

Death?

Whoosh!

Qin Shang's face instantly turned deathly pale. Had his wife died?

No, that was not right...

His mind raced as he rapidly extracted the information the public security officer had provided.

If a player died, then according to the public security officer, the Character Card would be reclaimed by the Divine Path.

Then how had his wife left the Character Card for him?

The Public Security Bureau had said that the package had been mailed before his wife disappeared. At the time, while investigating her whereabouts, they had intercepted the package. Only after closing the case ninety days later had they mailed it back.

Character Cards could not be transferred. Did that mean this was not his wife's Character Card?

Or did the public security officer have incomplete information? Had he received his wife's Character Card, which had somehow been preserved?

Regardless, according to what he had said, the Character Card had not been reclaimed.

Did that prove that his wife was still alive?

At that thought, Qin Shang's complexion finally improved somewhat.

What he needed to consider now was how to clear this instance...

The Death Train.

Was this a virtual-reality game instance similar to an urban legend?

At that moment, the public security officer interrupted the crowd, who were still arguing noisily.

"This should be an A-rank novice trial instance."

"Our Character Card professions and our player identities in the instance don't conflict."

"Different professions will have different professional skills."

"For example, someone whose Character Card profession is teacher can easily decipher foreign and ancient writing within the instance. Someone whose Character Card profession is priest can see objects in dark places."

"Everyone, report your professions to one another so I can better coordinate your assignments."

"After all, this is an A-rank instance. Without working together, the chances of clearing it are infinitely close to zero."

The public security officer still commanded considerable prestige among the crowd.

At a time like this, after he finished speaking, the people who had been arguing noisily all fell silent.

In the end, he resigned himself to his fate and looked toward the man.

He was right. If they didn't work together, they might very well die in the instance.

When Qin Shang arrived, he had taken a look around the train car. Everywhere, the entire train exuded an eerie feeling.

The seats in the first few rows still bore traces of use, but the seats farther back were inexplicably brand-new, as if they had never had any passengers.

Even stranger, newspapers had been pasted over the seats and windows in the first few rows, as though there were something terrifying outside.

Looking farther ahead, he could no longer see clearly. The entire train car was pitch-black.

If he wanted to figure out why he had appeared here and find out what had happened to his wife, he first had to make sure he could survive and leave this game alive.

The Death Train, and the mystery of the passengers' disappearance...

Where had those passengers gone?

Just then, an old man standing to the left of the sheriff suddenly spoke.

"My profession is priest. My class skill is night vision."

"I can indeed see in the dark. The car ahead is connected to this one..."

"So I can tell you right now what's in the next car. I hope you'll prepare yourselves mentally."

After saying this, the old man paused.

"The next car is full of Hello Kitty plush toys..."

"Hello Kitties are scattered all over the floor. Large ones, small ones, medium-sized ones... all kinds."

???

Hello Kitty?

This was way too bizarre, wasn't it?

Pink plush toys like Hello Kitty, beloved by girls, had appeared in a dark, enclosed train car.

They were clearly nothing more than plush toys, but in that eerie train car shrouded in darkness, they somehow carried an inexplicable sense of dread and intimidation.

Especially in a car on a train already filled with strange things, where the entire floor was covered in fuzzy pink cat toys.

The scene wasn't cute in the slightest. Instead, it added several layers of chilling absurdity.

Who had put them there?

The old man was a priest, and his class traits allowed him to see in the dark.

But wasn't his mental fortitude a little too good?

He had been able to see the bizarre scene in the next car.

He had kept such a low profile and held it in for this long?

As soon as his words fell, the others also displayed various expressions of surprise, fear, and worry.

Qin Shang, meanwhile, had already gone over the description of the Death Train instance in his mind.

The beautiful middle-aged woman who had initially panicked and raged had calmed down by now. The sheriff's composure clearly gave people a considerable sense of security at a time like this.

She understood that if she kept losing her head, she would probably be left behind in this instance without the sheriff's help.

Thus, she became much more cooperative.

Pressing her lips together, she said in a trembling voice, "I... I don't know what my profession is. When I pulled my card from the ATM, I didn't pay any attention to what was written on it."

Upon hearing this, the sheriff said indifferently, "You should all be new players. A new player's Character Card is on their person. Touching the Character Card with your palm will let you view the status panel."

The beautiful woman searched herself for a moment. When she finally reached into her pocket, she froze, then said, "I... I'm a teacher. My class skill is deciphering..."

Seeing this, Qin Shang did the same. Sure enough, he found a card in his pocket.

The instant his palm touched the card, a pale-blue screen appeared before Qin Shang's eyes. It didn't obstruct his vision, as if it were attached directly to his retina.

Name: Qin Shang

Race: Human

Game ID: Fiercely Licking Cockroach Jade Feet

Profession: Con Artist

Experience: 0%

The information at the beginning was basic enough, but when he saw the game ID,

Qin Shang's eyelid twitched.

A pair of bright eyes appeared in his mind, along with the charming, mischievous figure who loved wearing pink dresses. Once again, he became certain that this game card had to be connected to his wife!

Jiang Qiqi had this kind of twisted sense of humor. Her Taobao ID was also this name.

Qin Shang had suffered no shortage of social death whenever he went to pick up packages!

The information below was similar to the instance introduction from the beginning.

You are currently in the Death Train; the Death Train was a train in London, England, during the mid-nineteenth century. Passengers who boarded this train began mysteriously disappearing one after another. In the end, without exception, no one survived. Strangely, aside from the passengers disappearing, the train continued traveling back and forth between its starting point and destination day after day, gradually becoming a famous ghost-train legend.

Rank: S-Class

Number: 0927

Your mission in this instance is: Explore the mystery of the Death Train passengers' disappearance.

Time Limit: Twenty-four hours

Exploration Progress: 0%

Your identity in this instance is: Passenger

After familiarizing himself with how to use the Character Card, Qin Shang composed his expression.

However, a question surfaced in his heart.

According to the sheriff, different player professions had different class skills.

Then why the hell don't I have a skill?

The next moment, he discreetly glanced at the others.

The round of announcing their professions was still continuing. The street thug nearby pointed at himself.

"I'm a martial artist."

"I'm a physician. The panel says I can prepare potions and use healing magic..."

"Teacher. My skill is deciphering..."

"Priest, same as that old man earlier."

Some of them had duplicate professions. As everyone announced their identities, the atmosphere between them seemed to grow somewhat more harmonious.

The sheriff's expression also improved considerably.

Qin Shang's brows, however, drew together even more tightly.

That was because he hadn't seen anyone among them with a profession similar to his own.

Including himself, there were seven people in total: five men and two women.

The sheriff and the thug were both martial artists.

The beautiful woman was a teacher, while the other male companion was a physician.

The Elder Priest and the other Little Loli in the pink dress were both priests.

Only Qin Shang stood out from the rest.

"Young man, what's your profession?"

Now it was Qin Shang's turn.

In this unfamiliar environment, he was the only one with a special profession.

Qin Shang was inevitably somewhat uneasy.

Especially after he discovered more and more ways in which he differed from the others.

It seemed that everyone else had an initial class skill, but his skill panel was empty.

Did con artists not have initial skills?

Qin Shang's brows furrowed even more deeply.

Skill: ...

He was wondering whether he should tell them that he was a con artist, a profession that sounded somewhat strange, when...

A notification chime rang out.

The train is about to depart

Instance Exploration Progress: 0%

Instance Name: Death Train

Rank: S-Class

Number of Players: 6

Mission: Explore the mystery of the Death Train passengers' disappearance

Please note: One God Slayer is mixed in among the players. When the train reaches its destination, you must identify the God Slayer among the team.

A God Slayer!?

What was a God Slayer!?

Qin Shang had only just furrowed his brows when

he suddenly caught another crucial piece of information.

Wait...

The number of players was six!?

But there were seven people here!

In other words, something that wasn't a player had infiltrated their group?

Qin Shang's spine instantly turned cold, and his scalp went numb.

At the same time, Qin Shang saw that the sheriff, who had maintained an unruffled expression all this time, panicked for the first time.

"A God Slayer!?"

"A God Slayer has infiltrated our team?"

"Could one of us be a con artist?"

"Why would an A-Class instance have a God Slayer?"

"God Slayers only appear as NPCs in con artist instances! Is this Death Train a con artist instance?"

Con artist!

So my profession had finally been mentioned for the first time?

And there was another point...

Qin Shang had already noticed this difference, but he had never said anything.

According to the sheriff, this instance was an A-Class instance.

But according to his own panel, it had been S-Class from the very beginning.

Yet when the sheriff had mentioned an A-Class instance earlier, everyone had apparently shown no objection. In other words, the Death Train really was an A-Class mission on the others' panels.

Could my mission rank be different from theirs?

Was the mission difficulty increased because I was a con artist?

Or could it be that, because our professions had different traits, my mission was different from everyone else's?

Qin Shang's Adam's apple rolled involuntarily.

The next moment, he asked the sheriff,

"What kind of profession is a con artist?"

Qin Shang kept his expression calm, but he desperately wanted to obtain some clues about the con artist profession.

"Con artists are naturally suited for clearing instances. When challenging an instance, a con artist will obtain far more hidden clues than other players, but they'll also receive a hidden mission."

"Among all the players in the Divine Path Game, con artists have the highest survival rate."

"However, con artists are the public enemy of every Divine Path player!"

At this point, the sheriff's expression turned solemn.

Qin Shang's expression, however, changed slightly.

The public enemy of everyone!?

He had already gained a preliminary understanding of the Divine Path Game. The number of Divine Path players was perhaps far greater than he had imagined.

That also explained why people in the real world would occasionally suddenly disappear or go missing without a trace.

If he became everyone's public enemy, wouldn't that mean his enemies and opponents wouldn't be limited to the NPCs inside the instances?

There would also be other players?

Qin Shang was confused and blurted out,

"Why?"

This time, however, the sheriff didn't honestly answer Qin Shang's question. Instead, he suddenly turned to the young man with a solemn expression, then narrowed his eyes meaningfully.

"You... You haven't told us your profession or class skill yet, have you?"

"Could it be that you're the con artist in our team?"