This Doesn't Make Sense

"The secret of Carriage Three was the mystery of the passengers disappearing. If the culprits were Mary and Jack, who suffered from multiple personality disorder."

"The clues from the first round were already enough. There was no need for a second round at all."

"In other words, that ghost must still be hiding an even deeper secret."

Qin Shang's expression shifted slightly, his face filled with bitterness.

Who the hell had developed this Divine Path game? It was seriously messing with people's minds.

But then he thought about it again and felt that this thing didn't seem human-designed at all.

He had never heard of anyone entering a virtual reality game, only to truly die when they died in the game.

Much less had he ever heard of someone playing a game and gaining skill packages in reality.

"Ah..."

Just then, a sharp scream came from nearby.

Qin Shang hadn't heard the sound of anyone being teleported out of the instance.

In other words, could the Team Leader in the group still be alive?

His face lit up, and he was just about to move when he saw a phantom in a red dress charging past him with heavy steps and repeated screams.

It moved as fast as a speeding car. Qin Shang had no doubt that if he had happened to step forward and block its path just now, it would have sent him flying.

The sight gave Qin Shang quite a scare.

What had happened to this ghost?

Why did it look as though it had been provoked?

That sharp shriek and cry of pain had clearly come from the phantom's mouth.

Could the constable and Elder Priest have some way of dealing with this thing?

Qin Shang glanced over there and saw the constable and Elder Priest poking their heads out of the sleeper compartment, both looking as though they had just survived a disaster.

When they saw that Qin Shang and Little Loli were unharmed, strange expressions appeared on both their faces.

At the same time, Qin Shang saw a faint glow slowly fading from Elder Priest's palm.

What was that!?

Was that thing what had suppressed the ghost?

Qin Shang froze.

He wanted to ask, but he was afraid of violating the rules and drawing the phantom's attack.

He had no way to resist it.

Just then, the constable glared at Qin Shang with a gloomy expression and walked over with a cold laugh.

Elder Priest was equally wary, staring at him with hostility in his eyes.

"Let go of that girl. Fiercely Licking Cockroach Jade Feet, you've hidden yourself well..."

Qin Shang's heart gave a sudden thump.

Damn, had the identity on his Deceiver Character Card been exposed?

There were only four players left now.

Among us were the Team Leader, the accomplice, the God Slayer, and the passenger. There were only four of us.

If Elder Priest and the constable reached an agreement and trusted each other completely,

they could easily deduce who the Deceiver hiding in the group was.

Damn it, I was careless...

Qin Shang was about to argue when heavy footsteps came from nearby again. The phantom that had just fled had returned for another attack.

Qin Shang's expression changed drastically. He immediately covered his mouth, thinking that Elder Priest's method could suppress it for a while.

Who would have thought this thing would come back so quickly?

Bang, bang, bang—

"Damn it! That thing's back again. 'Buddha Crossing,' do you still have a cross item?"

"How could I? That's a consumable item. One cross costs two points..."

Seeing the phantom's ferocious appearance, the constable was badly frightened.

He grabbed Elder Priest and dragged him into another compartment, trying to evade the attack.

However, Qin Shang could still hear their conversation beside him.

Those two actually still dared to keep talking?

It seemed that they had survived not because they had figured out the rules, but because Elder Priest had used an item.

With that thought, Qin Shang communicated with his Character Card and opened his inventory again.

His inventory was empty, containing only El's Letter.

No wonder the inventory function had unlocked after the first round ended.

The Divine Path game really was a game. It even had items as an element.

They couldn't die yet. At the very least, not before I found the Team Leader...

"Shut up! It attacks us through sound and movement. Don't move or make a sound, and it won't attack..."

Qin Shang shouted sternly, then, at the instant the red-dressed figure attacked the two men, he suddenly grabbed Grandpa Niu and lunged forward, crashing into a sleeper compartment.

Almost in the next moment, heavy footsteps rang out beside Qin Shang's ears.

At the same time, the spot where he had been standing was blasted full of holes by a Hunting Rifle.

Immediately afterward, the foul-smelling body of the Red Skirt Phantom entered the sleeper compartment where Qin Shang was hiding. Its heavy breathing and footsteps gradually drew closer.

Qin Shang felt as though his heart were about to leap out of his throat, but he had moved extremely quickly.

He had waited until the phantom was already following the constable and Elder Priest into the compartment before speaking up.

That thing probably hadn't seen him. It had only located him through the sound and judged where he had been.

At that moment, he was hiding under the bed with Little Loli. The Red Skirt Phantom probably wouldn't attack them.

After all, they hadn't moved or made a sound.

This aggressive phantom should be an NPC, but it still had to follow the principles governing NPCs.

Sure enough, after a while, the phantom carrying the Hunting Rifle walked out of the compartment. It then continued patrolling as before, stopping whenever it reached a room.

After a few seconds, it would raise its hand and knock on the door.

"Hey! Even NPCs have rules. Even if they're the souls of players who died in the past, the special group known as God Slayers should have rules as well."

"So that was why Heart-to-Heart Sister's clue had indicated that NPCs didn't lie."

That meant that once the players discovered the rules, clearing the game actually wouldn't be difficult.

Qin Shang relaxed slightly. Looking at Little Loli beside him, an idea came to mind.

He took the girl's hand and, while she stared at him in confusion, traced lines across her palm with his finger.

He wrote a sentence: Are you a God Slayer?

That's right. I can't speak, but I can ask questions this way!

After understanding what Qin Shang meant, the girl froze for a moment, then shook her head.

NPCs couldn't lie, so she really wasn't a God Slayer?

The next moment, Qin Shang wrote a second sentence on the girl's palm.

Are you the Team Leader?

The girl still shook her head.

Qin Shang felt slightly disappointed.

It seemed that the Team Leader and the God Slayer were probably those two men.

If she wasn't the God Slayer, she wouldn't be bound by the rule that NPCs couldn't lie.

Wait!

No, that wasn't right. I've saved this girl so many times. She had no reason to lie to me...

Are you the accomplice?

Qin Shang frowned and wrote a third question.

The girl probably didn't understand why Qin Shang was asking her these questions...

But she still answered with a shake of her head.

What was going on!?

Qin Shang's eyes widened.

Could the girl really just be an ordinary passenger?

That didn't make sense. Of the four people still alive, including himself,

there was one God Slayer, one accomplice, one Team Leader, and one passenger. He was the passenger, so there had to be one God Slayer and one accomplice.

If the constable and Elder Priest were the Team Leader and God Slayer, didn't that mean the harmless-looking girl beside him was the group's accomplice?

But if she wasn't the accomplice, then the identities of the God Slayer and Team Leader became uncertain again.

Assuming the girl still didn't trust him and was the Team Leader, then the God Slayer and accomplice would be the constable and Elder Priest.

The God Slayer was only an NPC. Even if he could retain his abilities as a player, surely he wouldn't still have an inventory and items, right?

According to the constable, God Slayers had once been players as well. The exploration mission in the first round of Death Train wasn't difficult.

They merely had to beware of the werewolf in the group, then endure their fear and walk through more than a dozen carriages.

The real danger that caused players to die in large numbers came in the second round.

Assuming Elder Priest was an NPC, when he had been a player and the instance exploration had been so dangerous, he hadn't taken out any items.

But now that he had died and become a God Slayer, he knew how to use items?

"This doesn't make sense!"