Clear

The young priest's curse was that unless someone broke it, Jack the Conductor and Mary's personalities would remain trapped in the Death Train for all eternity.

Jack was human, just an ordinary man.

After being cursed, even though he remained alive within the loop, only he was trapped in the loop—not time itself.

As time passed, Jack would eventually grow old, fall ill, and die.

Unfortunately, it seemed that even after Jack had reached the end of his life, no one had broken the curse.

If he were simply allowed to grow old and die, then the curse would be broken...

But without outside interference, the curse could not be broken.

That was also a rule!

Thus, at the end of their lives, Jack and Mary's personalities fused into this neither-human-nor-ghost thing.

That was why the ghostly thing before them wore a red dress, and why no one could make a sound in her presence.

That was a flaw in Mary's personality. She had always been criticized for the way she dressed.

Thus, a rule had formed: no speaking.

Yet it also carried a hunting rifle, obeying Jack's patrol rules and attacking players who tried to escape.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The ghostly shadow had now arrived in front of Qin Shang, only inches away from the young man.

A foul stench mixed with the smell of blood assaulted his nose...

But after Qin Shang finished speaking, it was as if something invisible had blocked the distance between them. El's ghostly shadow could no longer advance even an inch.

Ding! Congratulations, you have completed the main quest of the Death Train.

Exploration: 100%

Generating your game rewards...

Hearing the notification that the main quest had been completed, the flush on Qin Shang's cheeks eased slightly.

He had dared to recklessly rush out and report his guess because of his understanding of the Divine Path.

Balance!

That was right—balance.

This boss, "El after being resurrected," was simply not something ordinary players could deal with.

Although she was restricted by rules, as long as Qin Shang and the others did not move or make a sound, she would not attack the players.

But the players had also lost the ability to communicate.

The Divine Path instance was like taking an exam. The students had to be given a chance to turn in their papers, right?

The rules did not prohibit turning in one's paper early. So all he had to do was let the Divine Path know that this student wanted to hand in his paper!

The next moment, an electronic notification rang out in his mind...

Rewards: 25% EXP, Cursed Red Skirt, Holy Cross (consumable) ×3, Rename Card (consumable) ×1, 25 points

Level: Level 1, 25% EXP

Congratulations, you have become a Level 1 Con Artist.

Class: Con Artist

Skills: Inheritance, Decryption (05:22 remaining), Healing (05:22 remaining)

Only five hours remained?

When Qin Shang saw the remaining usage time on the two inherited skills, a trace of relief flickered across his face, almost imperceptibly.

Time really passed quickly in this eerie instance...

Cursed Red Skirt: A skirt cursed by a young, fallen medieval European priest who had lost his beloved and sacrificed his life. Since it was an item that did not belong to the user's class, using it required paying a price.

Skill 1: Summons the vengeful spirit of the red skirt to fight for one minute. Remember its rules: do not make a sound, do not move, and do not attempt to attract the red skirt's attention. Otherwise, the summoner will also be hunted.

Skill 2: Wearing the red skirt allows the wearer to enter a state of "nothingness" comparable to a ghostly shadow for five seconds. During this time, the wearer cannot be harmed by physical attacks.

Note: This item inherited the priest's basic {Night Vision} skill. The wearer can briefly use the {Night Vision} ability.

Passive Skill: Rewind.

Description: Because of the priest's curse, two fragmented souls were trapped within this skirt, enduring an endless cycle. After the wearer dies, they can use the Cursed Red Skirt to rewind once.

Note: This is an item's passive skill and cannot be activated manually.

Cost: Using it for more than five minutes will cause blindness for one day.

By now, the entire incident had become completely clear.

At the beginning, Jack the Conductor had been sent to the train as a reemployed deserter, tasked with maintaining order and serving as the conductor.

However, because of what he had experienced on the battlefield, he would always dream at night about his missing comrades.

He began to panic, wondering whether passengers would go missing as well.

He hated his own cowardice. Thus, one day, a weak personality was born, inheriting her nightmares.

From then on, Jack, the primary personality, began imagining that he was actually a war hero.

The Mary personality that split off had a fetish for women's clothing and liked to wear women's clothes during the day and parade around in front of the passengers.

Although the passengers noticed that something was wrong, they all turned a blind eye.

The only one who dared to raise the issue was El.

She found Jack the Conductor and told him the truth, but Jack did not believe her—until one day, he discovered that El had a habit of writing letters.

She had also been constantly trying to report the matter to the outside world.

The Jack personality lost control, believing that he, a "war hero," had been insulted.

After he killed El, that personality could not bear it and hid away.

The Mary personality awakened and began acting like a worker who was terrified because a colleague had gone missing.

She openly appeared before everyone, but the passengers continued to act as though they were blind, paying no attention.

Even when another worker went missing, no one noticed.

Then, El's ex-boyfriend boarded the train to investigate her disappearance.

He realized that the sealed-off Carriage Three might be hiding some secrets. After discovering the diary of the Jack personality, the young priest completely lost control.

He blamed everything on the passengers. It was not that El had failed to try to send word outside, and Jack had worn women's clothing in public more than once.

But the passengers had all turned a blind eye to protect themselves, adopting an attitude of minding their own business. That was what had caused El's death.

Thus, he cursed the train, cursing the Jack and Mary personalities to continuously relive the events after the third day recorded in Mary's diary.

Then Jack's actions became a cycle...

Every time the train departed, the Mary personality would convey a message to the Jack personality.

El has gone missing!

Then the Jack personality would begin patrolling at night, attacking the passengers indiscriminately.

When the Mary personality awoke, she would discover that people were disappearing every day, sinking even deeper into fear.

After that, she would gather the passengers together, reasonably enough, begin an evacuation, lead everyone into Carriage Three, and sever the carriage.

Finally, she would watch helplessly as El killed all the passengers before returning in the role of the Jack personality.

Then the train would depart again, and the same cycle would repeat.

Only the Jack and Mary personalities endured endless fear, carrying out the same actions day after day.

That was why the diary's contents repeated themselves day after day...

Of course, the logic here could not be examined too closely. After all, this was merely a game instance. For example, why could Jack continue to be appointed conductor after the passengers disappeared? Or how had this cursed carriage returned?

Hmm, it was probably a bug in the Divine Path instance?

After all, this instance had originally been called Train Exploration. Because of the source of contamination, it had directly become the Death Train.

The contents of the source of contamination might have been related to the priest's curse. Qin Shang also did not know whether, after the Divine Path instance was cleared, it would refresh or time would continue moving forward.

If the Divine Path had such a concept as time, then perhaps Jack the Conductor, after growing old and dying, had been forced to comply with the curse's rules and fuse with El's neither-human-nor-ghost form.

Thus, the source of contamination had been formed.

Of course, all of this was Qin Shang's speculation. Unless he met the developer of the Divine Path and asked about the instance in person,

there was no way to investigate the minor bugs in the Death Train any further.

"W... We cleared it?"

The security officer and Elder Priest also heard the electronic notification in their ears at the same time.

Both of them stared at Qin Shang in shock. The young man's upright figure was staring straight at the ghostly shadow in the distance, yet the ghostly shadow showed no intention of attacking him.

The security officer and the elder immediately understood that the instance had definitely been cleared.

Otherwise, the NPC would certainly have continued attacking Fiercely Licking Cockroach Jade Feet.

Damn?

They had won by lying down?

The security officer was somewhat dumbfounded.

This contaminated A-rank instance had been cleared just like that?

Before entering the Divine Path this time, he had even prepared himself to die.

Who would have thought that after a terrifying night, he would somehow complete the main quest!?

His face was filled with astonishment and shock.

Holy crap... I was actually led by a beginner player to clear an instance that had never even been officially recorded?