Chapter 14 Train Zero (End) The Fool's backpack was filled with notes...

【warn! 】

"Dear passengers, we have detected that train K0027 is currently overloaded, which seriously affects the safety of train operation. The train will be forced to reduce its speed every thirty minutes during operation. Please do not move around in the carriage during the speed reduction to avoid accidents."

After Huang Er left, Jiang Yang naturally understood what he meant.

As the broadcast started, he looked up, stared in the direction of the sound, and took off his glasses.

A slight smile crept across his lips, followed by an unexpected burst of laughter. Tears welled up in his eyes as his emotions surged, and his gaze gradually hardened.

He lifted his long, straight leg and walked straight to the end without looking at the surrounding shadows.

Inside the dining car of train K0027, the upside-down man waved his hand, and the dark wellhead gurgled out all the players and shadows he had taken in.

The countless dark shadows made the air in the carriage feel thicker, and the player's mind went blank and he felt a little dazed when he heard the announcement.

Huang Si was the first to regain consciousness, his gaze cautiously sweeping over the others.

There were 25 participants in this assessment competition, and with Jiang Yang included, there were a total of 26.

Excluding the players who entered K0027 based on their skills, there are about a dozen left on the periphery.

And carrying himself, the Hanged Man swallowed about ten people along the way.

But when he counted them, only five had come out of the well.

"Not everyone has the ability to come out of the Well of Despair," the Hanged Man explained kindly, which startled Huang Si, who quickly looked away.

"Plunder!"

Of course, some of those ranked higher were arrogant and stood up defiantly, saying, "Why should we listen to you? You brought those shadowy figures here too, didn't you?" A few people in the crowd echoed their sentiments.

"So, kill me?" The upside-down hand covered the mask on his face, a prelude to his attack.

[Zero Train Observation Room - The Hanged Man's Perspective]

"Holy crap, is the Hanged Man about to go on a killing spree?"

"Who would dare to make him take off his mask? The last batch of corpses that saw him take off his mask are probably rotting by now."

"But aren't you all curious about what he looks like?"

"I wouldn't dare be curious, thank you."

When Jiang Yang sent the Hanged Man away, the observation room was reopened. His appearance was a mystery not only among the players, but even few observers had ever seen him. It is said that when he rarely took off his mask, the observation room did not even switch to a close-up view.

"What a jerk! Who's being so inconsiderate?" Huang Er had been standing in front of the hidden door for a long time, and when he saw this, he walked over nonchalantly.

"Brother Huang," some players who knew him greeted him.

"What are you all doing gathered around the dining car? Don't bother looking for your tickets, get out of here!" Huang Erzhao urged them to leave, and the group hurriedly left with their heads down.

Upon seeing Huang Er, the Hanged Man nearly lost control of his already low-key and volatile emotions, shoving Huang Si aside and saying, "Your people, get out of here too."

Huang Er pretended not to care, and with a grin, he shoved Huang Si, "Hurry up and thank the middleman."

"No need," the Hanged Man stopped him, speaking coldly and indifferently.

"Alright, then we'll take our leave. If you want anything, come to Huangmen, I'll give you a 20% discount."

After saying that, he put his arm around Huang Si and walked towards the front of the train.

"Boss, I've lost money for you again..."

"Then you'd better earn it back for me."

The Hanged Man stood still. The hidden door not far away had disappeared when Huang Er came out. The Hanged Man opened the panel.

[Talent Cooldown: 3 hours]

His eyes darkened, and he turned on the recording function in the observation room below. Although he had turned off the observation room at the time, he had still recorded it.

I thought about it.

[Submit a bug recording?]

【yes】

Nan Ke and Xie Lu were the players with the most tickets on the train. It was as if they had broken through some kind of barrier. Even though they did not reveal their wealth, they were still attacked by many shadowy figures. It was not only the players who needed tickets to pass the level, but the shadowy figures also seemed to need tickets to obtain a "legitimate" identity.

"No, it just never ends!" Nan Ke clung to the dark blue back of the car seat, his stamina booster never stopping since he and the shadowy figure started fighting.

Xie Lu played with ease, but he had to keep an eye on Nan Ke's loose ends from time to time. After one round, his face turned quite pale.

“No…” Xie Lu trapped the two of them together, staring at the edge of his confinement.

"What's wrong?"

"There are too many human skin tickets... we don't have that many."

There weren't this many on any train.

At the feet of the endless stream of shadowy figures, almost all the shadowy figures they killed dropped human skin tickets.

[Unlocked from the Foreign Object Catalog: Human Skin Ticket]

The holder of the human skin ticket will gradually become a puppet of the ticket. The puppets will continue to replicate indefinitely. When the first puppet is killed, all the puppets will disappear.

Nan Ke and Xie Lu exchanged a glance, and there it was in front of them.

Either you kill all the puppets in the process of praying to kill them, and then you kill the so-called first one, and then all the puppets disappear.

Either find and kill the first one among countless puppets.

Hmm... that's not very realistic.

Xiong Bingxin successfully rescued Azi, and her battle with the shadowy figure was better than Nan Ke's.

After discovering the issue with the human skin ticket and unlocking the encyclopedia, Meng Jiang, who had the ticket, tried to throw it away, but it returned to his pocket the instant he threw it away, as if it had already been bound to its owner.

No one knows when the strange behavior of the Mengjiang puppet will suddenly erupt.

Jiang Yang took the remaining half-bottle of mineral water with him when he entered through the other door.

But once inside, a suction force pulled him in; the water was outside the door, and he was inside. He knew he was now in another carriage besides the dining car.

Although he didn't understand why carriage number 10 was classified as a dining car.

A gust of wind blew, and the iron gate closed tightly.

This carriage was even darker than carriage number 10. Without any lights, he walked almost in the dark, occasionally kicking a few bones under his feet, and only when he got very close to the top of his head could he see a skull. It was like a replica of carriage number 10, except there were no shadows.

So...where is the shadow...?

A gust of wind blew by, and Jiang Yang was almost covered in his face by the coat that was floating in mid-air.

"Holy crap... what the hell is this...?"

"No...it's an engineer's uniform?"

The coat stopped, its collar causing the garment to sway up and down, as if nodding.

"You can actually understand him?" The clothes spun around, and what was amazing was that Jiang Yang could actually understand what he was trying to say.

"So you're not going to attack me, are you?" The clothes nodded.

"You're looking for me?" The clothes shook their heads.

"No, it should be your master looking for me?" The clothes nodded quickly.

"You followed me here and discovered traces of your master. You're going to take me to your master, right?"

The clothes flew up, touching the ground.

"Lead the way."

Jiang Yang saw it. In the other corner, unlike the other shadowy figures hanging from the car roof, he was just sitting quietly with a huge iron chain around his ankle.

He looked up and calmly said, "Kill me."

Jiang Yang tightened his lips and carefully replied, "The reason."

“If you don’t kill me, the shadows outside will kill everyone,” he coughed, spitting out a mouthful of slime that covered the ground around him.

“But I have no reason to save anyone else either, you know that,” Jiang Yang said, squatting down unmoved. “I want to know what exactly happened on this train.”

"You got my notes, so you should already know that."

"I just don't know what TA wants to do."

"I'm sorry, I can't tell you."

"I'll ask you three questions. You choose one that you feel you can tell me and answer it, okay?"

He hesitated for a moment, then said, "Okay, but you have to finish me off after I answer."

"First, what is this train used for?"

"Secondly, what is Headless Mountain?"

"Third, who cut off carriage number ten three years ago, causing this train to stop running?"

He fell silent again. Jiang Yang stood up. "No rush, think about it and tell me later."

Turning around and relying on memory, I walked to the end of the carriage. Unlike carriage number 10, there was a small pile of suitcases at the end of this carriage. I pulled out one of the dark brown suitcases, opened it, ignored the various rare props placed on top, and reached my fingertips into the inner compartment of the suitcase and pulled it out forcefully.

"I regret it, Jiang Yang, I really regret it!"

"Jiang Yang, you can't do it, you can't do it, can you!"

Jiang Yang couldn't quite tell whether the sound was coming from the monster behind her or...

[Player Jiang Yang unlocks card skill: Resentment]

[Instructions for use: The Fool's backpack is filled with memories and regrets. If you feel pain, you can choose to seal your memories. When using it on others, both parties need to sign an agreement.]

[Number of uses: 3/3]

[Reset Instructions: Reset is possible when the usage count reaches zero. Memories returned after a reset cannot be stored again.]

[Player Jiang Yang uses a memory card]

[For player Jiang Yang]

[Confirmed sealed memories]

【confirm】

Jiang Yang squatted on the ground for a long time, showing no emotion or reaction. After a while, he jumped up, grimacing, "Oh no, my legs are numb..."

After regaining her composure, she bent down, took a silver ring from the box, put it on, returned to the engineer, and asked condescendingly, "Have you made up your mind?"

"This train...is carrying nourishment for the Tower of Judgment; those shadowy figures...are all nourishment..."

Jiang Yang was not surprised by the answer, but he was quite taken aback that the person who boarded the train three years ago must have been of a high status.

"Thank you," he said, flicking the ring on his index finger with his thumb, the ring rolling a little half a circle on his fingertip.

Three seconds later, the engineer's clothes fell to the ground, and Jiang Yang picked them up and gently covered the spot where he was lying.

[Congratulations to player Jiang Yang for killing the first puppet of the hostage!]

Congratulations to player Jiang Yang for collecting the Puppet Master's Last Tear!

[Time Travel Bottle Upgrade Progress: 1/3]

Train K0027 had already reduced its speed once during this period.

"Screw it, didn't I say not to move around? I haven't moved at all and it's already blowing up my face," Nan Ke said, clinging tightly to the chair.

Xie Lu held onto the back of the chair with one hand and used the other to hold onto the cloak, shielding Nan Ke from almost half of the strong wind.

The others weren't so lucky. As the train slowed down, it seemed to plummet straight down at a 90-degree angle. Except for the shadowy figures who remained in place, almost all the players were tossed around inside the carriages by the sensation of the fall.

The situation lasted for a minute before the train stabilized, and the sounds of passengers landing on their feet echoed throughout the carriages.

"A shadowy figure!"

"They're all gone!"

"Who is it, so brave?" Nan Ke wondered.

[30 minutes until the end of the trial on Train Zero]

[The final judgment phase has begun. Players must submit their final judgment before the trial ends, otherwise they will be deemed to have forfeited their eligibility for the final judgment.]

Players who fail to meet the completion requirements will have their final ranking invalidated.

Everyone, including Jiang Yang, received the message. Those without tickets understood each other implicitly, while those without tickets had different thoughts.

The Hanged Man gave up early, and the observation room was filled with groans. Many of his long-time supporters were confused, and all sorts of offensive comments flooded the screen.

After confirming his ticket, Jiang Yang decisively chose to stay in carriage 10 and not compete for the train ticket.

I was originally thinking of not staying with a fresh corpse, but after returning to number 10, I found that the small door disappeared automatically after it closed, as if it had never existed.

"Dear passengers, the train has arrived at No Man's Land Station. This is the final stop. Please disembark in an orderly manner."

After the broadcast ended, Jiang Yang walked out of the carriage. The person hanging upside down was sitting at a table in the middle of the dining car, and did not react when he saw him.

As soon as the car door opened, Jiang Yang immediately made his escape.

Train Zero

Number of participants: 26

Number of people who passed through: 13

The final rankings for this trial will not be made public; individuals can check their rankings via their in-system email address.

On the third floor of the trial tower, a woman in a moon-colored dress stood by the window. She was silent when viewed alone, wearing a mask, but when the other masked young men and women inside started chattering, she felt a chill run down her spine.

"What's all the noise about!" she couldn't control her emotions.

"Lord Deyue," a young man with the ID number 001 walked up to her. "A player has reported a bug."

"Why are there so many bugs every day? If you can't pass the trial, just die! What are you making up for with all these excuses!"

"It's a bug from the Hanged Man, along with a video that says the bug originated from a man," 001 observed Deyue's expression and, seeing that he had calmed down, quickly pulled up the video.

"Is this trial over?"

"It's over."

"Interrogate!"

A note from the author:

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