Chapter 18

Su Cheng tore open a bread roll and checked her phone. There was still no reply from Yan Yu, but she had received a message from Hai Shuang.

[Hai Shuang]: Chengzi, do you need supplies? The group owner's buyback prices are way too low, so I'm planning to sell to other people in the apartment building.

Su Cheng raised an eyebrow. Before she could send the question mark she had typed, the other party sent an explanation.

[Hai Shuang]: Trading isn't allowed inside the apartment building, so we'll go outside! Someone already tested it. You can trade outside the building as long as you buy an access card and rent a car to go out.

People really did find ways.

This indeed didn't violate the apartment's rules.

But Su Cheng no longer had the points to buy an access card and rent a car, so she could only decline Hai Shuang's kind offer.

[Hai Shuang]: All right, I won't bother you, then.

Although Su Cheng couldn't exactly claim to have excess supplies, she had enough of everything she needed. Even if she had an access card and the points to rent a car, she wasn't particularly desperate to trade with anyone.

Su Cheng lay on the sofa and turned on the television.

The program at this hour covered wilderness survival. It was set in a forest, and the camera swayed slightly as the host described the mushrooms beneath a tree in an animated voice...

With the host's voice in the background, Su Cheng took a nap...

By the time Su Cheng woke up, it was already three in the afternoon.

The television was still playing, though the program had switched to a horror movie. Unlike the horror movies Su Cheng usually watched, the female lead was calmly searching for clues to exorcise ghosts...

The programs on television were either wilderness survival, educational shows, or horror movies... They seemed to be teaching obscure knowledge that might prove useful in instances.

Su Cheng had been in good shape when she returned to the apartment this time, and after a nap, she felt even more refreshed. She decided to keep the momentum going and prepare to enter a special instance.

As usual, the Smart Bag's three slots were still reserved for food, medicine, and weapons.

The food slot could only hold four tubes of nutrient solution, five bottles of water, and a pack of ten bread rolls. Half a blister pack of every type of medicine still didn't reach the weight limit. For weapons, she brought the shovel, chainsaw, and Soul-Pointing Needle.

When she placed the nutrient solution in the Smart Bag, she actually found she could view its details in the storage slot.

[Special high-grade nutrient solution (4): Category: food. Effect: rich in concentrated nutrients, replenishes energy, and provides a feeling of fullness. Weight: 0.04 kg]

"The Smart Bag only displays an item's details when a special item is placed inside... Does this count as a hidden effect?"

Su Cheng patted the Smart Bag. It had been well worth buying!

She took out the cinnabar-soaked dagger she always carried and placed it in the Smart Bag:

[Enchanted dagger: Category: supernatural weapon. Effect: has a weak soul-repelling effect. Weight: 0.06 kg]

It had originally been an ordinary dagger. To her surprise, that monk hadn't lied to her. The scarlet cinnabar really worked!

Thinking of the cinnabar's price, Su Cheng no longer found it expensive. She only felt it was worth the money.

This time, Su Cheng wore a short-sleeved shirt and long pants with a trench coat over them. Both her shirt and pants had pockets, so she could fit another four chocolates.

She could also tuck a dagger beneath her trench coat, close to her body, just in case.

Su Cheng turned off the television and checked her phone again. There were no unread messages.

She opened her private chat with Yan Yu and sent another message: Have you heard of the Gene Lock? I'm planning to enter a special instance this time. I'll tell you more when I get back.

To be honest, Yan Yu had left Su Cheng with a very good impression.

Su Cheng was approaching her relationship with Yan Yu with a long-term partnership in mind. Beyond exchanging information, she hoped that if she needed teammates someday, there would be someone reliable in her contacts.

With everything ready, Su Cheng put down her phone, donned her newly purchased black sunglasses, and headed out to the elevator lobby.

Elevators ① and ② had just closed and were heading down. A young man waited nearby.

Today, Su Cheng was taking the special elevator that no one used. The moment she pressed its button, the doors of the elevator that had long been waiting opened.

Su Cheng heard the young man mutter in surprise.

The elevator doors closed.

Without hesitation, Su Cheng pressed her lucky number, 6.

With only her inside, the elevator descended straight to the sixth floor.

"Ding~"

The elevator doors opened.

Su Cheng's fingertips twitched slightly as she stepped into the darkness, her expression calm.

Author's note:

Time for a special instance.

Chapter 18

Su Cheng opened her eyes. She was sitting in a train seat.

The train was traveling at a steady speed. The carriage was brightly lit, while outside the windows, scattered silhouettes of trees flashed past in the darkness.

Her wristband displayed the instance time: 20:00.

[Welcome to the special instance: Train of Terror]

[1. Main quest: Successfully disembark at the final station. Complete the quest to receive 1,000 points and return to the apartment.

2. Side quest: Old Case Reenacted, 500 points.

3. Side quest: The Extra One, 800 points.]

As expected of a special instance, it started with three quests.

Compared with ordinary instances, the points rewarded for a single quest equaled those from two or three ordinary instances.

The generous rewards were vaguely unsettling.

After all, as far as Su Cheng understood, points were tied to quest difficulty.

Unlike ordinary instances, a special instance was no longer solely about survival. Neither side quest provided a clear method of completion, leaving Su Cheng to investigate the relevant information herself.

[Ding~ The Smart Bag has changed form.]

Su Cheng steadied herself and found an extra wallet in her pants pocket. Touching it allowed her to see three storage slots.

After confirming the Smart Bag's location, Su Cheng discreetly observed the carriage.

The train's air conditioning was on, keeping it pleasantly cool. There weren't many passengers in this carriage, and they sat scattered throughout.

Su Cheng was alone in her row. Diagonally ahead to her left sat a girl wearing headphones.

Apart from a child's crying, there weren't any other particularly loud noises.

There was only so much she could observe from her seat, so Su Cheng simply got up, stepped into the aisle, and walked forward.

A married couple sat in front of the girl with headphones. The child crying incessantly was their son.

The couple seemed to be sulking at each other. Both were equally red-faced and bristling, deliberately avoiding looking at one another while letting the boy seated between them cry.

No wonder the girl behind them was wearing headphones. The boy really was noisy.

Farther ahead, on the right, sat a mature woman with large, permed waves, a flowing red dress, and a purple silk scarf.

She sat with her legs crossed, her short red skirt making her thighs look particularly fair. Lazily propping up her chin, she tapped the handbag at her waist with her fingers and gazed out the window.

The woman in red seemed extremely sensitive to other people's gazes. She turned straight toward Su Cheng, her red lips curving into a smile.

She wore heavy, vivid makeup, and when she smiled, she looked like a blooming red rose, dazzling to behold.

Caught in the act, Su Cheng felt no embarrassment. She gave a slight smile and continued forward.

Diagonally ahead of the woman in red sat a balding, potbellied middle-aged man.

Su Cheng caught him stealing glances at the woman in red from time to time.

Farther ahead were a sleeping, white-haired old woman and a young man playing on his phone.

At the junction between carriages stood an electric hot-water boiler, but a locked door blocked the way to the next carriage.

Su Cheng tried pushing it, but it wouldn't open.

"What are you doing?"

Su Cheng turned around. The white-haired old woman had woken at some point. Her features were kindly, and she seemed to be asking out of simple curiosity, without malice.

Su Cheng's expression didn't change. "Isn't this the restroom?"

"Of course not. The restroom is at the back."

Su Cheng put on a look of realization. "Oh, thank you. Then why won't this door open?"

The old woman frowned in confusion. "It won't? I think it opened before..."

Su Cheng continued, "Grandma, how much longer until we reach the final station?"

"Oh, child, the next stop is our final station. We'll arrive in about ten minutes."

"All right. Thank you, Grandma."

After thanking her politely, Su Cheng retraced her steps. She had only gone a few paces when she heard the old woman behind her shake her head and sigh. "Young people these days don't even know where the restroom is on a train..."

They would arrive in ten minutes?

Impossible.

A special instance definitely wouldn't be this simple.

Su Cheng passed her own seat and continued toward the restroom at the rear.

In the back were a couple nestled together, two middle-aged women-one fat and one thin-chatting, and a listless middle-aged man with heavy dark circles under his eyes.

When the middle-aged man sensed Su Cheng sizing him up, he looked up and gave her a cold glance. Although he said nothing, his presence was intimidating.

Only a young man in a white T-shirt occupied the seats near the restroom.

He was very tall and sat curled up in his seat with his head in his arms, his hair disheveled, paying no attention to people passing by or the sound of footsteps.

The air near the restroom was fouled by a terrible stench. Su Cheng couldn't help covering her nose.

She glanced at the young man slumped over. With a smell this strong, couldn't he smell it...?

Including her, there were fifteen people in this carriage. There was plenty of room, so everyone sat scattered about, sharing seats only with people they knew.

Normally, when there were plenty of empty seats, most passengers would choose somewhere far from the restroom...

That raised a question: why had the young man chosen to sit here?

Since she had already reached the restroom door, Su Cheng simply opened it and went inside to take a look, locking it behind her.

The restroom wasn't large. It contained only a yellowed squat toilet and an old-fashioned, manually operated flush tank.

The trash can was more than half full, and a large mirror above the sink reflected a person's upper body.

Su Cheng took out the Soul-Pointing Needle. She had been watching its movements all along the way, and the long needle hadn't turned.

Everything was as calm as the eve of a storm.

She frowned slightly. She kept feeling that the stench she had smelled while approaching the restroom was somewhat different now that she was inside.

There was a stink both inside and outside the restroom, but the smell inside was more like accumulated excrement, while the foul odor outside carried a trace of the rotten stink of a dead rat.

An ordinary person would only find it terribly smelly and wouldn't be able to distinguish the difference.

Only because her five senses had been enhanced after unlocking the Gene Lock could Su Cheng detect that subtle difference.