The Truth

Qin Shang couldn't wait and immediately opened the diary.

[Day 5.6, El hasn't sent me a telegram in a long time. I want to go to her workplace to see. Priests of the Holy Church cannot leave their posts casually. I escaped, and from now on I can only be a wandering priest.]

"Priest?"

Qin Shang subconsciously glanced at the elder 'Buddha Saves the Predestined', only to find that the Sheriff and he were both staring at him with strange expressions.

He then realized that these two probably didn't understand English.

So even though they got this notebook first, they couldn't understand its contents.

Qin Shang's mouth twitched.

Damn, the skills of a Teacher profession seem to run through the entire instance!

What a con artist is a profession naturally suited for clearing instances.

If 'Don't Touch Me, I'll Turn Green' hadn't died, she would have probably gotten the most clues in the party after these few rounds.

After all, whether it was the diary of the split-personality Jack the Train Conductor on the wall, or the diary found by the Elder Priest in another bedroom just now, they were all in pure English.

Unless you majored in English, you wouldn't be able to understand what these foreigners wrote without the [Decipher] skill.

The next moment, Qin Shang refocused his attention on the diary.

[Day 5.8, I arrived on this train. There's a freak on the train who calls himself Mary, but he's clearly a man. He wears a red dress every day and plays the role of a conductor on the train. These passengers seem to be used to it.]

[Day 5.9, I discovered something strange. I haven't seen El. I didn't see El among the staff. I've walked through every carriage these past two days, and I haven't seen El.]

[Day 5.10, Carriage 3! This train has a secret hidden in Carriage 3.]

[El also told me before that her resting area was in Carriage 3, but I found that Carriage 3 is not accessible. I asked the freak, but he didn't know anything, yet his words were full of fear. I think El's disappearance is related to Carriage 3.]

[Day 5.11, I told the freak about my identity. I told him El was missing. I think that freak might know some clues because his eyes showed a lot of fear when he looked at me, as if I were some monster. But I couldn't communicate with him.]

[Day 5.13, I found a diary on the train. It recorded the freak's identity. This guy was actually the train conductor of this train...]

Diary...

Could it be the things he saw in carriages one and two?

If he saw those, it would be easy to deduce that Mary and Jack were the same person.

After all, the paper on the back was Jack's psychological diagnosis, and there was no conductor named Mary on the train. It wasn't difficult to figure this out.

[Day 5.14, This is the first time I've seen the freak acting at night since I boarded the train. He changed into men's clothes, but he picked up a hunting rifle and started wandering around the compartments, seemingly on patrol?]

[Day 5.15, Someone is missing. If I'm not mistaken, the freak did it. This madman chases anyone he sees moving in the hallway at night. His mind is completely abnormal...]

[Day 5.16, Another person is missing, a child. I heard he disappeared when the train entered a tunnel. Is the freak wearing men's clothes more and more, meaning his mental state is becoming more unstable?]

[Although he couldn't communicate when he disguised himself as a woman, at least he wouldn't go around killing people with a hunting rifle in a frenzy.]

[Day 5.17, While the freak was on his night patrol, I entered his resting room. El... El is dead. I saw El's body. The murderer was that madman in the red dress, that freak is the one who killed El. I saw El's letter to me!]

El's letter to me!?

Qin Shang's heart trembled.

Vien, this guy is Vien from El's Letter item!

[Day 5.19, Almighty God, please forgive my selfishness. Ignorant me still cannot glimpse the truth. I don't understand why that freak would hurt my El. I want to conduct a trial, I want to curse this train.]

Curse!?

Qin Shang felt a chilling hatred from the words!

[Day 5.20, The legendary Fallen Curse of the Holy See can resurrect a loved one with enough blood sacrifice. I cannot bear the grief of El's departure. These passengers' silence towards El pains me.]

[The madman showed signs of mental instability a long time ago, yet they didn't convey the slightest bit of information to the outside world. I want to sacrifice them all!]

[Day 5.21, I succeeded, El was resurrected, but she turned into a monstrous, bloodthirsty vengeful spirit. She can only move in Carriage 3 and craves blood.]

[So I made a curse, as long as someone embarks on the journey of the Death Train, companions will constantly disappear around them.]

[Day 5.22, I don't plan to kill Jack for revenge. I've roughly figured out the whole story. I cursed his two personalities to be trapped in this place forever, to undergo an endless cycle, trapped in endless fear for all eternity.]

[Every beginning is El's disappearance, then the Mary personality awakens and lives in a world of fear.]

[Breaking the curse is simple: uncover the truth about the freak and stop the train from moving. As long as someone discovers this freak's abnormality and breaks the curse, they can prevent the outcome of the Death Train's passengers being wiped out every time.]

[Please forgive my selfishness, adults of the Holy Church. I am not worthy of being a priest. I am a fallen one. The person I owe the most in this life is the Holy Church's nurturing. I am going to another world...]

The signature was Vien.

At this moment, Qin Shang's pupils contracted sharply.

Resurrection!?

Did priests from two hundred years ago have such abilities?

Whether the Death Train was a real-world event or a fictional fabrication of the instance, he didn't know.

But if the Priest in the background story had this ability, did it also mean that high-level player characters of the [Priest] class could obtain this skill?

Resurrection was a bit exaggerated, but thinking about the [Decipher] and [Inheritance] he had used.

Qin Shang felt that his acceptance of supernatural phenomena had soared.

High-level [Priest] class players might actually have a resurrection skill.

He didn't have time to ponder these things. In a flash of inspiration, a series of complex thoughts, like an electric shock, coursed through his mind.

I get it!

I understand everything now.

The next moment, Qin Shang pursed his lips and got up, walking straight out of the compartment. The Elder Priest and Sheriff beside him looked on in shock.

They wanted to stop the young man and prevent him from acting impulsively, but Qin Shang ignored them as if they were invisible.

Knock, knock, knock—

At the same time, almost as Qin Shang stepped out of the bedroom, a ghostly figure charged towards him with heavy footsteps.

Qin Shang stared coldly at the ghostly figure until it was close enough to reach him.

Qin Shang suddenly sneered and said:

"I've figured out the mystery of the missing Death Train passengers!"

"It's El. Every time passengers disappear, it's because they're about to reach the final destination. Jack, consumed by fear, begins his own judgment and leads all passengers to Carriage Number Three."

"El, who died unjustly, her spirit resurrected by her boyfriend, is here waiting to judge these indifferent and heartless gentry."

"In El's boyfriend's eyes, it was these people's inaction and silence that allowed the freak Jack to run rampant."

"That's why, with every departure of the train, Jack and Mary's personalities are essentially trapped in a loop. No matter how the surrounding passengers change, the content of Mary's diary remains the same."

"That's why she wrote so many identical diary entries day after day."

"It's the same for Jack."

"Mary's personality's memories are stuck in the first few days after boarding the train. Once she awakens, she returns to the day she first discovered El missing, reports El's disappearance to her colleagues, and then, in a vicious cycle, reports it to Jack's personality."

"After that, Jack's personality, who gave himself the identity of a brave dispatched soldier, begins patrolling and hunting innocent passengers at night, causing the gradual disappearance of passengers."

"During the day, Mary awakens to find passengers missing, further deepening her fear."

"The two personalities then plunge into madness again until, finally, according to the Priest's curse, they begin to pass judgment on those indifferent and heartless passengers."

"As long as no passenger discovers the freak and steps forward to stop the train's progress before he acts, the Death Train's cycle curse cannot be broken."

"That's why every group of passengers is ultimately sent to Carriage Number Three to face El's slaughter."

"No, to be precise, it's not just El. As time went on, the Train Conductor Jack's personality also developed problems."

"Perhaps this is the source of contamination, causing Train Conductor Jack and Mary's personalities to merge with El's spirit, transforming into a new being."

"No, a monster!"