WTNL Chapter 674

Infinite Train
Chapter 674: Old Friend

The train rumbled into the distance. Outside the window was pitch black, as the empty, deadly silent wasteland sped past.

Inside the carriage, the rhythmic clack-clack of wheels striking the tracks echoed.

“You mean, one section is for ghosts, and one section is for people?”
Hugo confirmed.

“Right,” Anise said with a dark face.
“If the seats are red, the passengers are ghosts. If not, they are meant for humans—however, they can’t pose much of a threat to us. These ghosts won’t move; this train exerts a very strong control over them.”

Even though Anise hadn’t been inside the train for long, it was enough for him to draw these conclusions.

“How many carriages are there in total?” Hugo asked.

“Didn’t have time to count,” Anise shook his head. “The train stopped for too short a time.”

Hugo nodded, indicating he understood.

He took out an unlit cigarette, held it between his lips, and took the lead walking toward the carriage door on one side.

As soon as he entered the next carriage, a freezing burst of yin energy rushed at his face.
The light dimmed almost instantly.

In front of the dark red seats stood several black silhouettes, their outlines almost blending completely with the shadows inside the carriage. Yet, one could clearly feel—that “something” was watching them.

Hugo paused his steps and turned his head to look at Anise, who had just confidently guaranteed that the ghosts “couldn’t pose much of a threat.”

Anise: “…………”
He didn’t know what was going on either!

However, Hugo didn’t seem to have any intention of blaming him. He just withdrew his gaze and looked once again into the dark, freezing interior of the carriage.
“First time seeing this. Let’s test the waters first.”

Hugo’s voice was very calm. Pale grayish-white smoke rose from his fingers.
After speaking, he took the lead and walked into the carriage.

Anise shrugged and followed.

Even though they had guessed how special this train was before boarding, it wasn’t until now—when they crossed the carriage in the simplest and most direct way, without controlling the ghosts or using smoke to conceal their forms—that they personally experienced it for the first time.

No physical form, no weaknesses, and even more impossible to kill.
Yet this train could allow these ghosts to ride in it, and even use its own rules to suppress them… This was simply unimaginable.

It was clearly only a short few minutes in total, but due to the danger and darkness of the process, it felt exceptionally long.
Finally, the carriage door closed tightly behind the two of them.

Bang! Bang bang!!

Inside the carriage, something forcefully rammed against the door again and again, making a mechanical and terrifying crashing sound.

“You’ve tried it now, how does it feel?”
Anise tightly grasped the door handle to prevent those uncontrolled ghosts from coming before him.
He said with a fake smile:
“Believe it or not… their current level of danger has actually already been suppressed by the train. If they got off the train, their terror level would only increase, not decrease.”

“Hmm.”
Hugo nodded, his expression remaining largely unchanged.

Looking at Hugo’s unperturbed face, Anise couldn’t help but twitch an eyebrow.
Motherfucker, acting so high and mighty.
However, given the other party’s obvious strength, no matter how much resentment he held against Hugo, he could only violently curse this guy dozens of times in his head, not daring to actually speak his true thoughts out loud.

Having briefly experienced the aggressiveness of the vengeful ghosts on the train, the two no longer deliberately created conflict. Instead, they chose to cross the carriages in the most efficient way, moving forward quickly to search for Pinocchio’s trail.

After crossing the pale-grey Carriage 1, which symbolized safety, what appeared before them was…
Carriage 7.

Hugo paused his steps, turned to look at the carriage he had just left, and confirmed it once more.
It was indeed Carriage 1.

Anise also realized it: “Wait, so… the carriages of this train form a loop?”

The seven carriages of this train didn’t have a head or a tail; instead, they formed a massive loop connected end to end—this couldn’t be seen from the outside at all. Only after entering and walking through it personally could one realize the existence of this rule.

If that was the case, then things would be easy.
Hugo lowered his eyes, flicked the cigarette ash, and said, “From now on, we split up.”
“I’ll go forward, you go backward.”

The pale grayish-white smoke rose, obscuring his cold and weary face.
“When you use your innate talent, don’t hold back like just now. The more efficient, the better.”

Anise’s eyes lit up: “…Oh? A pincer attack from both sides?”

The commotion they made breaking the window earlier was too loud, and that Pinocchio brat was too cunning. If they simply chased him like this, they wouldn’t be able to catch him. However, if they split up and blocked him from both directions toward the middle, the other party would find nowhere to hide.

“What a great idea.”
Anise’s expression turned slightly fierce, a sinister cold light flashing in the depths of his eyes. He rolled his shoulders and slowly revealed a hideous grin.
“Don’t worry, I won’t let him escape.”

In such a narrow, enclosed space, it could be said that there was almost nowhere to hide.
More crucially, the Nightmare live stream had no signal on the train. Because of this, all items were unusable… Under these circumstances, an unarmed person with no teammates to help them would find it impossible to escape, unless they jumped off the train.

Inside Carriage 4.

Wen Jianyan had just taken two steps forward when the carriage door in front of him was forcefully pulled open from the outside.
Separated by a short distance of five steps, he met Anise’s gaze directly.

“…”
“…”

Even Anise couldn’t help but be stunned to see the prey he had been thinking about for so long, the one he wished he could skin and dismantle but couldn’t find a trace of, actually appear directly in front of him just like that.

And while he was stunned, he saw the other person jump up, turn around very nimbly, and dart away like a rabbit.

“You motherfucker—!”
Anise suddenly snapped back to his senses. He gritted his teeth so hard that crisp cracking sounds could almost be heard, cold fury spewing from the depths of his eyes:
“Stop!!”

Just at this moment, the opposite carriage door was pulled open. Hugo, expressionless with deep, dark eyes, stood firmly outside the door.

“…!”
Wen Jianyan slammed on the brakes.

“Run, keep running.” Anise stepped in from outside the door. The faint light fell on his pale profile, the bizarre interplay of light and shadow making his expression look gloomy and twisted. “I love watching you run the most.”

Watching prey struggle, scream, and ultimately die miserably in a desperate situation was already very amusing. And if this person was Pinocchio… then this scene would probably directly ascend to become his favorite moment since signing with the Nightmare live stream.

The young man was trapped all alone in the center of the carriage, like a pitiful animal that had fallen into a trap.
He looked left, looked right, and finally could only raise both hands:
“…I surrender.”

“Surrender? No, no, no…” Anise let out a rough, loud laugh, his face filled with cold, unreserved murderous intent. “That was the option offered to you last time. This time, no one can save you—”

Wen Jianyan: “Even if I surrender directly to you?”

Anise’s gaze paused: “…What?”

“The Nightmare doesn’t have authority on this train, right?” Wen Jianyan shrugged. “So, it won’t know whether it was you or Hugo who killed me. Even if you complete the task, it will probably credit the person behind me. You know, after all, his strength is plain to see…”

Seeing Anise’s expression turn somewhat ugly, Wen Jianyan changed the subject:
“But, if I surrender directly to you, it’s different.”

He brought his two wrists together and offered them forward.
“As long as it’s you who takes me off the train, the Nightmare will know it was you who caught me, and all the credit will be attributed to you.”

Anise narrowed his eyes, staring intently at him, his expression unreadable.
But Wen Jianyan knew the other party was tempted.

“Although it said dead or alive… compared to actually killing me, it definitely still prefers capturing me alive, right?” Wen Jianyan pushed further. “Taking a step back, even if I really have some scheme in mind, isn’t Hugo right here next to us?”
He blinked, his expression taking on a bit of slyness.
“Given the past history between the two of us… if something goes wrong again this time, do you think the Nightmare will suspect you or him?”

“You know this, I know this, the Nightmare knows this, and even Hugo himself knows this. So this time, I think… he won’t let me escape no matter what.”
Despite having a very pitiful and innocent expression and a very soft tone, the words he spoke inexplicably carried a bit of veiled provocation.
“Or is it that you think, even with both of you on full alert, you still can’t keep an eye on an unarmed me?”

“…”
As Wen Jianyan’s words fell, the entire carriage descended into a deathly silence.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, Anise spoke slowly and methodically.
“Since you’ve named me specifically to surrender to, it wouldn’t be good for me to refuse, right?” Anise looked at Hugo not far away, revealing a fake smile. “I’m taking this credit, Brother Hugo. You don’t mind, right?”

“…”
Biting his cigarette, Hugo’s emotionless gaze landed on Anise. A few seconds later, he nodded.

“Very good,” Anise walked towards Wen Jianyan, a wide, satisfied smile on his face. “Since that’s the case, you are my prisoner.”
He reached out toward the young man’s wrists. In a flash, a hint of malice suddenly flashed across his face.

Crack!
The crisp sound of a breaking bone.

Wen Jianyan’s face instantly went deathly pale. Covered in cold sweat, he arched his body, in so much extreme pain that he didn’t even let out half a scream.
…His wrist bone had been forcefully broken.

Anise stared unblinkingly, intently scrutinizing the pained expression on Wen Jianyan’s face. The smile on his face gradually expanded, seemingly very satisfied with his masterpiece. He leaned his face closer, his voice cheerful and gloomy, full of vindictive pleasure:
 

“Pinocchio, I know what tricks you want to play. Don’t forget, I was played by you before—but, people learn their lessons.”

Anise tightened his grip even more. His pale, eagle-claw-like fingers sank deeply into the spot where the other’s wrist bone was broken, even maliciously grinding back and forth: “Speak! What exactly are you scheming!!”

“Anise.” Not far away, Hugo’s cold warning sounded.

“What… scheme?” The young man trembled, raising his cold-sweat-drenched face. He twitched his lips, revealing a rather pale smile: “You really wronged me…”
“Better a bad life than a good death. What a simple truth.”

He coughed and laughed out loud. Deep within his clear eyes reflected the other party’s gloomy and bizarre face, his tone carrying a light mockery.
“I thought, as someone who came out of that gallery and signed that agreement… you should understand this better than me.”

“…” Anise’s pupils shrank, a wave of hostility spontaneously arising from the depths of his eyes. His lips twisted, but he suddenly chuckled. “Good, very good—”

“Anise!!” Hugo shouted angrily.

This time, Anise finally looked up and sneered, “Hugo… what the fuck are you pretending for?!”

“You signed the agreement yourself, you chose to be an Executioner yourself, and you caught him with me. Now you’re acting like a merciful good guy… Bah!” Anise’s expression was ferocious. A sinister smile appeared on his face as he unbridledly spewed venom, “Stop pretending, you’re just like me, a cowardly, two-faced hypocrite who fears death! Don’t think I haven’t heard about your former ‘friends’. If you ask me, didn’t you, in order to survive, betray them—”

Before he could finish his sentence, his pupils suddenly contracted violently.

A thick pale grayish-white smoke tightly strangled Anise’s neck, tightening without hesitation, absolute lethal force behind the grip.

Anise’s face flushed red, his eyes bulged, and he opened his mouth wide. A bizarre gurgling sound came from his throat. He even had to let go of Wen Jianyan’s hand, frantically scratching at the terrifying murder weapon on his neck that was about to strangle him to death.

Wen Jianyan finally got a chance to breathe. Holding his wrist that was broken at a bizarre angle, he staggered half a step back, his body drenched in cold sweat at some unknown point.
He turned his head and looked in Hugo’s direction.

The other party stood in place, the shifting light and shadows of the train passing over his usually emotionless face.
However, at this very moment…
Hugo’s expression was absolutely terrifying.

Wen Jianyan had never seen such intense, furious emotion appear on Hugo’s face. His eyes were bloodshot, like an evil ghost crawling out of hell. Unconcealed murderous intent almost materialized, pouring out towards Anise—this time, Hugo was probably truly intent on killing him.

However…
Before Anise truly drew his last breath, the pale grayish-white smoke still dispersed.

“Cough, cough! Cough cough cough!!!” Anise fell sideways to the ground. Holding his neck that was almost snapped in two, he coughed hoarsely.

“…”
As light and shadows swept past, the expression on Hugo’s face returned to tranquility in the blink of an eye. The explosive rage from a moment ago subsided, vanishing without a trace like the smoke on Anise’s neck.

“If you say those words a second time, I won’t let you off so easily.”
Hugo said expressionlessly:
“I don’t care what you’re thinking, and I won’t interfere if you want to hand Pinocchio over to the Nightmare for credit. To me, as long as the mission is completed, that’s enough.”
“…But there’s one rule: don’t torture your prisoner.”

He cast a disdainful glance at Anise on the ground, as if looking at a twisted, bizarre, inhuman pathetic worm.
“Clean yourself up and stand up.”

“…” Anise swayed unsteadily to his feet. He stared at Hugo’s back, his venomous gaze almost shooting daggers. But ultimately, he just turned his head and viciously spat out a mouthful of saliva mixed with dark blood.
He looked at Wen Jianyan, revealing a gloomy sneer:
“You got off easy, brat.”

Wen Jianyan indeed persuaded him.
Even though the order was dead or alive, the Nightmare would rather see a living person than a corpse. And for Anise, who had already failed once and was far less valued than Hugo, a living Pinocchio was indeed a very good trophy.

However, “living” and “intact” were two different things.
After all, to the Nightmare, as long as the person had a breath left, it was enough.
Anise had originally planned to have some fun during the rest of the journey… starting with breaking the other’s fingers one by one.

The young man twitched his pale lips, bowed slightly, and let out a mocking light laugh.
“Thank you very much.”

The rest of the time on the train passed in silence.

Hugo and Anise sat at opposite ends of the carriage, and Wen Jianyan, as the “prisoner,” naturally sat beside Anise. His face was pale, his forehead covered in cold sweat. One broken wrist hung loosely, swollen from lacking proper care, the skin covered in shocking red, swollen, and bruised patches. His other hand was directly dislocated at the joint, showing how wary the other party was of any petty tricks he might pull behind their backs.

And Anise, who sat beside him with a dark face, didn’t look much better.
Although he was on the advantageous side, terrifying strangulation marks remained on his neck, making it look as if he had just taken a trip to the gates of hell.

The carriage door on one side of the aisle was sealed shut, and messy, stiff footsteps echoed from behind.
Clearly, even so, those “passengers” were still trying to enter this carriage—however, because it was Hugo responsible for sealing the door, the pale grayish-white smoke firmly filled the gaps on all four sides.

Finally… after an unknown amount of time, the train began to decelerate.

Accompanied by a hiss— sound, the train slowly came to a halt.

Through the blurry window, a rudimentary station could be seen outside.
They had arrived.

Hugo stood up and was the first to get off the train without looking back.

“Get up.” Anise roughly yanked Wen Jianyan up, ignoring the other’s suddenly deathly pale face, and shoved him as they walked off the train. “Hurry up!”

Soon, the three stood on the station platform.
The train rumbled on the tracks. The surroundings were pitch black and dead silent, save for a bright red wound stretching across the sky—it might have been an illusion, but it seemed slightly larger than before.

“Fuck.” Anise spat and cursed, “The signal still hasn’t recovered.”

Perhaps because their location was too deep within, or they had stayed on the train for too long, even though they were off the train now, the live stream signal showed no sign of reconnecting.

Hugo leaned against a pillar without a word, placing another cigarette between his lips.

Anise scratched his hair impatiently: “…Alright, looks like we can only wait a bit longer.”

Suddenly, Hugo seemed to sense something. He looked up toward the direction of the train.

Even after they had disembarked, the train still didn’t resume its journey. Instead, it remained parked motionless in the distance, continuously roaring, its doors wide open, revealing a pitch-black interior.

Hugo’s gaze slid down and landed on the steps. Suddenly, he was startled.
On the alighting steps, several footprints still stained with yellow soil had appeared at some unknown time.
One, two…
Those footprints got off the train and actually walked straight toward their direction.

Bzz… Bzzzt…!

The lights of the station flickered violently, and boundless darkness surged toward this direction.

“Something’s coming,” Hugo stood straight, his eyes fixed dead on the direction of the train. “Get ready!”

Anise was right about at least one thing.
The danger level of those passengers on the train had been greatly suppressed.
And losing the control of the train’s rules, the terror level of those passengers increased exponentially.

In the darkness, stiff footsteps sounded from all directions, densely packed and chilling to the bone.

Even experts like Hugo and Anise, under the siege of such a massive number of passengers, were still stretched to their limits, retreating step by step.

Anise stared fixedly at the darkness in front of him, black blood pouring from his nostrils, ears, and mouth. It was true he could control ghosts, but he couldn’t control so many incomprehensible, high-terror-level evil ghosts. The consequences of over-consuming his innate talent were already clearly showing on him.

And Hugo on the other side wasn’t having an easy time either.

“Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck—!” Anise cursed non-stop, reaching into his pocket wanting to pull out his phone. “Why the hell hasn’t the Nightmare reconnected yet!!!”

As soon as his hand reached into his pocket, his movement abruptly froze.

He felt something that shouldn’t exist in his pocket.

Anise looked down.
His hand was full of red train tickets.

“…”
In his brief shock, he seemed to realize something. Anise abruptly looked up, his terrifying, almost man-eating gaze looking around.

…At some unknown point, Wen Jianyan had disappeared.

“Pi-noc-chio!!!!!”
The gnashing, furious voice resounded in all directions.

Wen Jianyan ran.

In the empty wasteland, he fled forward without looking back.

The oppressive feeling brought by Hugo and Anise, two of the Nightmare’s Top Ten, was too strong. Wen Jianyan knew he was at a complete disadvantage right now and couldn’t escape no matter what—however, compared to those two, he had one single advantage.
—He understood the train they had just ridden very well.

As a creation of humans, its suppressive power over ghosts was extremely strong, but it was very lenient towards human passengers.
There were almost no restrictions on humans on the train, and the rules restricting vengeful ghosts did not apply to humans—this was also why the windows in the safe carriage could be broken so easily, while the doors responsible for restraining vengeful ghosts were indestructible—Hugo and Anise, these two uninvited guests, being humans themselves, were naturally treated extremely leniently. Furthermore, since they didn’t board through a station at all, they naturally weren’t subject to the rules on the train.

That was why they could stay on the train for so long without the conductor appearing even once.

And because they were unaware of this, Hugo and Anise wouldn’t know that all the active “passengers” they encountered were actually entirely Wen Jianyan’s doing.

While the two of them were searching for him carriage by carriage, he was also seizing every moment to complete his own plan—stealing the tickets from all the passengers, freeing them from the constraints of the train’s rules.

And after doing all this, the next step became very logical.

He had to be caught.
Only by doing so could Wen Jianyan find a chance to plant these tickets on those two.

This way, once they got off the train, those passengers would be activated, and they would naturally follow them off the train—just like in the Sweet Dream Orphanage—and begin their “hunt.”

A moving train was a sealed, independent space, and continuing forward would lead into the Nightmare’s controlled area.
If Wen Jianyan wanted to run, then this would be his only opportunity.

And although Wu Zhu’s heart couldn’t provide sanctuary like the man himself, it could still offer a certain degree of protective effect, at least enough to ensure he could escape from the group of vengeful ghosts amidst the chaos.

It was just that…
Wen Jianyan looked down at his wrist. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and seemed to have made a decision. Gritting his teeth fiercely, he pressed his dislocated wrist joint against his forearm, and using the leverage, pushed it upwards!

Crack!
With a crisp sound, the dislocated wrist bone returned to its position.

Intense, excruciating pain swept through his entire body. Wen Jianyan gritted his teeth and let out a miserable scream, his vision turning black, his whole body trembling. He panted heavily, the shirt on his body completely soaked in cold sweat, curling up from the pain.

Even though he had anticipated that when he fell into Anise’s hands, the other wouldn’t let things go easily, the price of having both hands disabled was not something he could afford to bear.

Wen Jianyan rested for a moment, then endured the pain and took out the Dead Sea Scrolls—since he had returned to his true timeline, the restrictions on his backpack were lifted, and the Dead Sea Scrolls could naturally be taken out again.

Perhaps sensing his pain, the golden heart hanging below his collarbone grew hotter, pressing against his cold, sweaty skin, radiating a scalding temperature, as if trying hard to dispel the cold.

Wen Jianyan knew that he wouldn’t have much time left to escape.
Hugo and Anise had also experienced the Changsheng Building instance. It wouldn’t take them long to realize the true rules. Once they connected with the Nightmare, they would quickly regain their advantage and catch up again.

So, before that, he had to figure out what he was going to do next…

Wen Jianyan breathed deeply, his eyes blurry from the severe pain, the sound of blood flow frantically crashing against his eardrums, making a deafening roar. He tried hard to steady his trembling hands, placing his pale grayish-white ticket on the book.

This station… he needed to know what this station was.

However, before he could clearly see the contents on it, he felt something cover his head.

In the next second, his vision went black.
The entire world went dark.

“!!!!”
This happened too strangely. Wen Jianyan was completely unprepared for it. He shuddered and struggled in a panic. In the chaos, his broken, untreated wrist hit something—

He screamed miserably, his whole body shivering as he curled up.

When that wave of pain finally passed, Wen Jianyan realized he was currently curled up on the ground, wrapped in a coarse, hemp-like material that blocked his vision, while beneath him was a vibrating, cold floor.

What’s going on?
Wen Jianyan shook his head, which was groggy from the pain, only feeling dizzy.
Where is he…
What happened…

The roar of operating machinery echoed in his ears, making him almost suspect he was in a vehicle.
But… that shouldn’t be right.
There shouldn’t be any vehicles in this area.

The only human settlement had already been wiped out. With the destruction of Wu Town, this area should have already become an empty ghost land… But, if that was really the case, what caught him?

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration crossed his mind, but before Wen Jianyan could grasp it, it had already vanished.

His breathing was rapid and trembling—yet he wasn’t even sure why he was trembling—he merely groped to take out the Dead Sea Scrolls again, and by the extremely faint light, tried very hard to identify the text on it.

On the yellowed ancient scroll, two small words were written crookedly:
“Origin.”

Wen Jianyan’s origin was the human world.
However, the station for Wu Town hadn’t been completed, having long been obliterated in the long river of history with the arrival of the Nightmare.

But the determination of the train’s terminus was relative.
Since it couldn’t send Wen Jianyan to his true origin, it could only settle for the next best thing and send him to the farthest place it could reach.

The first instance Wen Jianyan experienced in the Nightmare was “Decai Middle School”.
However, instances differed from one another. Only a very small number of instances truly existed and could be accessed even outside the Nightmare, while most instances were merely a cross-section in time, extracted and frozen by the Nightmare. Decai Middle School was exactly the former. Its old site in reality had long been replaced…

Screech—

Accompanied by a sharp braking sound, Wen Jianyan only felt the ground beneath his body stop vibrating.
It was like… the vehicle had stopped.

In the next second, through the roar of the engine, Wen Jianyan heard a cold female voice sounding not far away.
“…How is it? Did you find anyone?”

Wen Jianyan was stunned in place.
Because he was far too familiar with that voice.
It was a voice from an old friend, a voice Wen Jianyan thought he would never hear again in this lifetime.

Yes, Decai Middle School had disappeared.
It was demolished, banned, and ultimately left with nothing but a small artificial lake.

And on its remaining old site, new buildings rose from the ground. Years later, it welcomed a new principal, was twisted and transformed amidst new horrors, and finally became the appearance he was very familiar with later on—

【Yuying Comprehensive University】.

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