At that moment, Qin Shang felt that the stench he had first noticed upon entering Carriage Two had intensified somewhat. He did not know whether he had developed a resistance to it or simply adapted to the environment after spending so much time inside.
Surprisingly, the smell in the carriage no longer made him feel as sick.
"Hey! Wait, this is strange. Aren't these newspapers on the windows written in English? How come I can actually understand them..."
"Ever since I started working on the train, I feel that my illness has improved considerably. I also met Mr. Jack. He is the train conductor, and a good man as well. Every day while driving the train, he shares interesting things with me. I learned quite a bit about the outside world from him. Unfortunately, some of it concerns politics, while other parts concern the military."
"Although he is witty and humorous, I am not actually interested in those things. What interests me more is his past. He said that he had once served on a battlefield in the Middle East, and he even showed me the wounds on his body. Every one of them was horrifying. They were a soldier's medals, and I feel honored to work with him."
"However, the train seems to be hiding some kind of secret. My colleague El is terrified every day and keeps writing letters, as if she wants to send some information outside. Recently, whenever she looks at me, she seems to want to say something but stops herself, as if she has discovered some terrible secret. Yet whenever I ask her, she never gives me a direct answer. I suspect that the train is hiding some kind of secret."
Mr. Jack!?
There had just been a Miss Mary, and now there was a Mr. Jack?
Damn, the developers of this Divine Path game must be Chinese. Otherwise, they would never have chosen such generic foreigner names.
Qin Shang grumbled, but he could not help frowning.
These things that looked like newspapers were not actually newspapers.
They were someone's diary?
He finally understood why he had suddenly been able to understand English.
As a vocational-school dropout whose academic ability was practically nonexistent, Qin Shang considered himself impressive just for being able to recognize all twenty-four letters!
Decipherment, the teacher's skill!
It allowed him to instinctively understand the language of any country.
Judging from the contents, the person who had written this diary was probably a train attendant?
"But this attendant is seriously ill. The entries before and after this are in complete conflict. First he says Mr. Jack is witty and humorous and likes talking with him, then he complains that he isn't interested in what Mr. Jack talks about."
Qin Shang curled his lips and continued reading.
"I told Mr. Jack about El writing letters. He was very surprised. I wanted to continue asking about the train, but Mr. Jack seemed afraid that I would discover something. Recently, he has kept giving me time off and avoiding many of my questions."
"I have the day off again today. I heard several attendants saying that they heard strange footsteps last night. Unfortunately, I slept too deeply. It is obvious that everyone is somewhat afraid, so I think I should ask Mr. Jack, the train conductor, about it."
"Today I went to the conductor's room, but I did not see Mr. Jack. However, I saw the letters El had written. I can confirm that all the letters in Mr. Jack's room belong to El. They were all thrown into a corner. When El was writing the letters, she asked me how to put on postage stamps. Those stamps belong to El."
"Her letters do not seem to have been sent. I do not know why they all ended up here with Mr. Jack..."
Qin Shang's expression stiffened. It seemed that the employee named El had been the first to discover that something was wrong with the train. She had then tried to send some kind of information to the outside world, but for some reason, the conductor had intercepted her letters.
A chill suddenly shot from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head.
Why was Mr. Jack hiding the train's secret?
He had an ominous feeling that something had probably happened to that employee named El!
"Today I am still on leave. On days when I do not need to work, I can simply lie in the dormitory and rest. However, I was very bored. I had not worn a skirt in a long time, so I changed out of my usual clothes and walked around the carriages. When the passengers saw me, they also seemed somewhat surprised. The way they looked at me was strange and made me feel that they had ill intentions. They had no gentlemanly manners at all."
"I fled back to the dormitory. By evening, my roommate El had still not returned. Something dangerous may have happened to her. The next day, I went to find Mr. Jack, the train conductor, and he told me not to go outside for the time being."
Wait! Wasn't there something wrong with the wording!?
It first said, 'I am still on leave today,' and then said that the events of the next day had happened in the diary entry for 'the same day'?
Why did this sound nothing like the narration of a normal person? Damn, his CPU was starting to smoke.
If this was written the day after the events had happened, shouldn't yesterday's events have been described as taking place the previous day?
Damn, why was his head starting to itch?
What was going on?
Strange. When he had played Plants vs. Zombies as a child, it seemed that the brain that got eaten was growing back!
"On leave. I am on leave again today. I was so bored. I heard them say that someone else had gone missing after El."
Someone else had gone missing!?
So the first one was the attendant El, and then passengers had begun disappearing one after another?
The person who had written this diary clearly was not mentally sound either.
That made sense. If he were a train attendant, and ever since boarding this train everyone had been constantly panicking, with one person after another disappearing—first a colleague, then passengers—then it would be a miracle if he did not go insane from the horror-movie atmosphere!
"Mr. Jack said that someone knocked on the door last night, and that something was wandering through the corridors. Before El disappeared, she had also told Mr. Jack about the knocking. It seems that everyone who opened their door after those knocks disappeared, whether they were attendants or passengers. That thing seemed to be knocking on doors to scout them out!"
That thing!
This was the first time the writer had referred to it as that thing!
What was that thing?
Was it the truth behind the passengers' disappearances?
No... not he. It should be she. The person who wrote the diary was probably a woman.
She wore skirts, so the attendant who wrote the diary was a woman...
"On leave. Mr. Jack told me not to go outside and to stay in the dormitory. I agreed, but I was still very afraid. I hoped Mr. Jack would stay with me, but he refused. Then, no passengers disappeared for the next three days."
The logic at the beginning and end of this sentence was wrong too!
Resting today—and no passengers disappearing for the next three days...
What terrible grammar!
This attendant was truly mentally unwell!
"On leave. These people are so annoying, chattering nonstop. One passenger made fun of the way I dressed, and then he disappeared the next day. That's right, people have started disappearing again, but it was just as well that he disappeared."
Qin Shang frowned.
"Today I am still on leave. It is the last day. I think I should be able to make it back alive. I am so frightened. But last night, I also heard knocking at the door—thump, thump, thump. Will it be my turn today?"
"Mr. Jack said he would investigate by starting with El's letters. I did not see Mr. Jack at night. Perhaps he discovered something."
Qin Shang's Adam's apple rolled involuntarily. He had not expected the owner of the diary to have encountered harassment from that thing as well.
This was a foreigner's diary, yet the Divine Path's decipherment function had translated it so naturally, even producing an idiom like trembling in fear?
If he encountered such an immersion-breaking translation in a game under normal circumstances, Qin Shang would have started complaining. But now, he could not laugh at all.
The surroundings were too eerie and gloomy.
And what exactly was that thing in the diary!?
His gaze immediately moved downward, and he saw a line of text that made his eyes bulge with fury.
It was as if someone had thrown a C4 explosive into his mind and detonated it.
His thoughts instantly became a tangled mess.
"Mr. Jack is missing!"
Before you continue