Infinite Train
Chapter 679: How about you help me out again?
The giant waves were no more, and the sea was as silent as death.
Wen Jianyan walked forward at a brisk pace, observing his surroundings as he went.
He still remembered what this place looked like when he left. The deck had cracked, the ship’s hull was collapsing, and pale human faces screamed in the torrential rain, looking exactly like an apocalyptic scene.
However, all of this had unexpectedly vanished.
The ship’s hull had completely returned to normal.
The deck was intact, with no damage other than the massive hole just smashed by the train. The cabins that had been torn in half in his memory were also restored. Aside from a slight tilt to the ship’s body, it was almost hard to imagine the tragic state this place was once in.
Wen Jianyan withdrew his gaze, his expression solemn.
This ship was Nightmare’s channel to enter this world, and naturally, it was the place where its control was strongest—otherwise, it wouldn’t have chosen this place as a cage to force Wu Zhu into the trap.
Its restoration was by no means a good sign… This represented the recovery of Nightmare’s control.
However, things weren’t that simple.
It was too quiet here.
Wen Jianyan had imagined the scene of him re-boarding the ship many times, but absolutely none of those scenarios were this quiet.
Wu Zhu was nowhere to be found, and the pendant showed no movement at all.
The live broadcast signal was still cut off, which meant that Nightmare hadn’t temporarily recovered its observation of him yet.
Everything was so abnormal…
Wen Jianyan had to raise his vigilance to the absolute maximum.
Suddenly, he slammed on the brakes.
Not far ahead, the casino doors were wide open, and light as bright as day spilled out from within.
Wen Jianyan slowly approached and looked inside.
Everything inside was radiant and clean as new—the gambling tables, the bar, the slot machines… everything was neatly arranged in its original place, no different from when Wen Jianyan first came here. Yet, it was deathly quiet, without a single soul to be seen.
It was hard not to feel a sense of dread.
“…”
Wen Jianyan couldn’t help but feel the urge to retreat. He subconsciously turned his head and glanced behind him. The deck had already turned pitch-black. Looking around, there was not a single speck of light, and even the outline of the train was blurred in the darkness.
No matter how much he didn’t want to go in, staying on the deck was meaningless. Regardless, he could only continue forward.
He took a deep breath, steadied his nerves, and stepped forward.
The casino was brightly lit, illuminating everything down to the smallest detail. Chips of various colors were neatly stacked by the tables, the tabletops were clean and dust-free, and everything looked so bright and safe.
Wen Jianyan moved step by step, slowly walking inside.
However, he walked straight into the depths of the casino, and everything was completely peaceful with no anomalies appearing.
Looking at the tightly closed elevator doors in front of him, Wen Jianyan hesitated for a moment, but still raised his hand and pressed the “Open” button.
The sound of mechanical operation followed. Soon, a few seconds later, accompanied by a “ding,” the metal elevator doors slowly opened before him. A neatly dressed elevator operator stood at the door, and a faintly reddish light spilled down from above, illuminating her face.
It was a familiar face.
Her features were sharp, her eyes keen and alert.
“…Tong Yao!” Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank slightly, and an exclamation blurted out, “How are you—”
“Explain inside.”
Tong Yao’s tone was urgent,
“Hurry, there’s no time, I’ll take you to the next floor!”
Wen Jianyan had just stepped one foot into the elevator, but the next second, his heart suddenly skipped a beat—something seemed off—almost at the exact same moment this thought popped into his mind, his nose suddenly caught a trace of a bizarre, rotting floral fragrance. The smell was very faint, only vaguely floating in the air, but it was extremely familiar.
“!!!” Alarm bells blared in Wen Jianyan’s heart.
Tong Yao’s urging voice came to his ears:
“Hurry up, what are you waiting for—”
Wen Jianyan abruptly withdrew his foot, slowly backing away while staring unblinkingly at the inside of the elevator.
Tong Yao’s face was bathed in the red light, her expression identical to what was in his memory, but at this moment, in Wen Jianyan’s eyes, she appeared exceptionally foreign.
She asked, “What’s wrong?”
“You are not Tong Yao.” Wen Jianyan stared fixedly at her, his shoulders and back tense. “Tong Yao is already dead.”
She had become an elevator operator, her body, mind, and soul assimilated and occupied by the instance. It wasn’t until the final moment when the ship’s hull collapsed that her last remaining shred of consciousness barely awakened, using the last of her strength to send them back to the first floor.
Not to mention that the ship had now been restored, even if it hadn’t…
Tong Yao probably couldn’t be saved anymore either.
“Indeed.”
Inside the elevator, under the eerie red light, “Tong Yao” pulled up the corners of her mouth and slowly smiled.
“However, that doesn’t mean my proposal is detrimental to you.” The elevator operator’s facial features gradually melted and deformed, ultimately turning into the stiff and wooden appearance from Wen Jianyan’s memory, but the corners of its mouth still curled high. It raised a hand, using its fingers to stroke its bloodless, pale face. “What, don’t you want to see your other friends besides this face?”
“Don’t you want to know what exactly happened here?”
“After all, you have no other choice.”
The smile on the elevator operator’s face was exaggerated and bizarre.
The Lucky Cruise Ship was divided into two parts. The above-ground levels were nothing special; they were places open long-term for streamers to rest and entertain themselves. However, the underground levels, which couldn’t be entered before the instance started, were the true main body of this ship—returning to the outside from the inside was still somewhat achievable, but trying to invade from the outside was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
“Since that’s the case, why not—”
Before it could finish its sentence, Wen Jianyan, with lightning speed, violently spun around and sprinted wildly out the door along the path he had come from!!!!
“…”
The elevator operator stared at Wen Jianyan’s receding figure. The corners of its mouth, which had just been curled up high, drooped down bit by bit.
“Doing things the hard way, then.”
Like a rabbit whose tail had been stepped on, Wen Jianyan sprinted all the way toward the door. The rotting floral fragrance he had smelled earlier was rapidly growing heavier. It filled the air like a physical entity, choking people to the point where it was almost impossible to breathe.
Bzz, bzz.
The overhead lights flickered twice. In the alternation between bright and dim, everything around seemed to be undergoing a transformation.
From the corner of his eye, Wen Jianyan caught sight of the gambling table, which had been perfectly normal just a moment ago, deforming at a visible rate. Accompanied by tooth-aching creaking sounds, its edges twisted around bit by bit. Under the flickering light, it actually revealed human facial features!!
He couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air.
The peaceful disguise fell apart.
Even though he had mentally prepared himself, upon seeing the true appearance of this place clearly, a layer of cold sweat still violently broke out on Wen Jianyan’s back.
Those seemingly normal gambling tables, bar counters, and slot machines… all slowly stood up. Pale faces turned, and their lackluster eyes looked in Wen Jianyan’s direction.
The clothes they wore varied; there were waiter suits, and some wore clothes belonging to streamers.
And on their bodies, traces of plant parasitism could be seen to varying degrees. Bizarre bulges grew and squirmed beneath their skin like some kind of living creature, urging and driving them to act, stepping forward bit by bit.
This scene was so eerie that it was absolutely hair-raising.
Wen Jianyan’s hairs stood on end. Even though his ribs and internal organs were still aching sharply, he gritted his teeth and sprinted forward at top speed.
The train sat askew and motionless on the deck. Billowing thick smoke rose from above it, plated with an ominous red glow.
The train doors were jammed in their frames, completely deformed.
Bang, Bang… BANG!!
Accompanied by the intensifying sounds, the next second, the skewed door violently flew out, slamming onto the ground several meters away with a loud clang.
Hugo bent down and walked out from inside the train.
Under the force that erupted the moment they boarded the ship, the entire train had been overturned. During this process, everything inside the train was thrown into chaos, which was how he was able to break free from the restraint of those thin threads.
The blood-red light from overhead fell on his shoulders, and a long-absent voice sounded in his ears.
“Detected that your second execution mission has failed. You have one final chance remaining—please strictly abide by the contract and bring back or execute the target within the stipulated time limit. Otherwise, the relevant clauses will be voided.”
After the tangible shackles disappeared, a new cage took their place.
“…”
Hugo raised his head and looked around, but the deck was pitch black. Only the cold, damp sea breeze howled past. Looking out, not a single figure could be seen.
He had to admit, that guy was indeed smart.
He wasn’t blinded by the brief peace on the train earlier, nor did he hold any unrealistic expectations to try and bargain with him after he regained his freedom. Instead, he chose to run away immediately, getting far out of his hunting range.
Clearly, the best opportunity had already been missed. God knows when he would see him next.
In the top right corner, a blood-red countdown timer that only he could see ticked silently, like some sort of mute coercion.
Even though there was no need to use his Innate Talent for the time being, Hugo still lowered his head, held a crumpled cigarette between his lips, and lit it.
The flame flickered, and pungent smoke flooded into his lungs.
In his mind, the scene on the train flashed by rapidly.
Half of the young man’s face was bathed in darkness, but the expression in the depths of his eyes was clearly illuminated by the red light outside the window.
He had said.
Deluding yourself.
The next second, Hugo clenched his hand into a fist, and without warning, his knuckles smashed heavily against the surface of the train, letting out a loud bang!
He lowered his eyes, his expression extremely terrifying.
A thin stream of blood, like a red snake, trickled down his unprotected skin.
Hugo closed his eyes and calmly withdrew his hand.
He flicked the blood off his hand, took the cigarette from his lips, and stubbed it out.
There was no need to waste the item he used to manipulate his Innate Talent just out of momentary irritation. When the time came, he would—
Suddenly, a flurry of hurried footsteps rang out from not far away, rushing rapidly in this direction. In just the blink of an eye, they closed in. Hugo looked up in astonishment, only to see the target he thought had vanished without a trace—or at least wouldn’t be found anytime soon—sprinting straight toward him.
The other party was running and screaming at the same time: “Make way!! Make way!!”
Hugo: “…”
Huh?
The next second, the dense, hair-raising horde of corpses behind the other party came into view.
!!!
Hugo’s pupils shrank.
Not good.
Before he could even process what exactly was happening, he reflexively entered a combat state. The blue smoke that hadn’t completely dissipated condensed into threads the very next second.
At the same time, the corpse horde swarmed in.
A head-on clash broke out instantly!!
Blood-red light illuminated the deck, and chaos filled every corner of sight. The ash-gray smoke wove into a dense, fine net. Its flexible surface was as sharp as a blade, easily shredding the corpses that closed in into pieces. The pale corpse chunks smashed onto the ground with a splatter, yet what flowed out was not blood, but an amber liquid emitting a bizarre fragrance.
Hugo frowned, seeming to realize something was wrong.
He abruptly retracted his hands, and the smoke on all sides dissipated.
More corpses approached from ahead, but they didn’t stop near him. They didn’t seem prepared to clash with him at all; instead, they brushed past him, chasing straight in the direction where Wen Jianyan had just disappeared.
A severed head he had just sliced off rolled to his feet. Its eyeballs rolled around. Beneath its stiff skin, floral branches squirmed and grew.
It stared at Hugo and spoke angrily:
“Idiot!!!!”
Hugo: “…”
Wen Jianyan hid in the darkness inside the train, his back pressed tightly against the wall, his chest heaving rapidly.
He listened to the chaotic sounds coming from outside, took two deep breaths, and then raised his hand to wipe away the bloody foam that had spilled from his lips during the wild sprint just now.
Thank God, Hugo was near the train.
The reason he ran all the way in the direction of the train was naturally because he had this exact plan in mind.
Relying solely on himself to shake off the relentlessly pursuing horde of corpses was as difficult as ascending to heaven. However, if he diverted the disaster eastward and forced Hugo into a conflict with them, he would have a window of opportunity to escape for his life.
However, Hugo wasn’t someone who could be easily fooled. It probably wouldn’t take long for him to realize that he wasn’t the target the corpses were chasing, but rather, Wen Jianyan was.
Because of this, there wasn’t much of an opening left for him. He had to hurry.
Thinking this, Wen Jianyan propped himself up against the inner wall of the train and stood up.
But this time, he didn’t look for any other exit to leave the train. On the contrary, he shuffled step by step in the dark, heading deeper into the train.
The further forward he went, the less light from the deck could fall into the train. In the darkness, the train carriage was in complete chaos, looking especially bizarre and grotesque under the faint red light. The tilt of the floor gradually increased, until finally, the light disappeared completely.
It was pitch black all around, so dark he couldn’t see his own fingers in front of him.
Wen Jianyan had no choice but to support himself on the inner walls of the carriage, scooting downward step by step to avoid falling.
The elevator operator had said, “He has no other choice.”
In a sense, there was nothing wrong with that statement. Without taking the elevator, one couldn’t enter the interior of the cruise ship… But this time, a brand-new variable had appeared.
—The train had smashed through the deck.
This meant that a part of the train was above the deck, while its front end had violently and forcefully shattered the cruise ship’s shackle of “unable to be invaded from the outside,” plunging deep into the interior of the ship.
And this constituted a second passageway.
Finally, a sliver of light filtered in from outside a broken window. Wen Jianyan stepped on top of a seat, bent one arm, and shoved forcefully outward!
Accompanied by a burst of shattering glass, the window was smashed open from the inside.
Wen Jianyan vaulted out the window, his feet touching solid ground.
Clutching his throbbing ribs, he panted heavily and surveyed his surroundings.
Although it was made a mess by the train crashing straight in, he could still recognize from the luxurious furnishings around him that this should be inside a private room in the casino on Level B1. The floor was covered with scattered glass shards, various gambling paraphernalia, and chips.
Wen Jianyan raised his head, looking thoughtfully at the massive hole the train had broken through above.
It seemed that “cracking it from the inside” and “invading from the outside” operated on two completely different logic systems.
The last time he was in the Lucky Cruise Ship instance, he went directly from the ceiling of Level B8 up to the deck. But this time, by using the train to invade through the deck, he had arrived at Level B1 of the casino. This precisely proved once again that the basement levels of the cruise ship were divided into blocks and independent of each other.
Wen Jianyan walked softly to the door of the private room, pulled it open, and peeked outside—.
The strong rotting floral fragrance wafted in the air, frantically crowding through the crack in the door into the private room where he was. Unlike the neat, orderly, and brightly lit Casino Level 1, this place was simply like a perverted corpse exhibition.
Human corpses were on all fours. Their skin displayed a woody texture, and their backs were flattened and stretched out by some unknown force, turning into gambling tables.
Its skewed face was aimed directly at Wen Jianyan’s direction. The eyeballs were unfocused, yet they were still rolling.
Human traces could also be seen in the chairs around the gambling tables. Their limb structures were twisted into bizarre angles, standing stiffly next to the tables. Even the bar counter, which occupied the largest area in the center of the casino, was made by splicing one corpse to another…
They were connected head to tail, their pale limbs entangled with each other, ultimately twisting into a massive flesh and blood organism.
“…”
Just one look was enough to make Wen Jianyan’s hair stand on end. His stomach churned, feeling sick to the extreme.
He closed the private room door and took two steps back.
Wen Jianyan raised his hand, pinched the bridge of his nose, and forced himself to calm down.
Now he had to think about what to do next…
But before he could come up with anything, the door of the private room in front of him was suddenly shoved open from the outside!
“!!!!” Wen Jianyan gasped.
Not good!!!
He reflexively turned his head, wanting to run.
But just as he turned around, a voice came from behind him:
“Hah, it really is you.”
…Wait.
This voice?
Wen Jianyan froze. He stopped in his tracks and turned to look behind him.
Standing at the door of the private room was an exceptionally familiar figure.
The newcomer had a baby face that naturally carried a smile. Half of his face was still clean, but the other half looked terrifying and hideous, as if it had been parasitized by some creature. His once-crisp tailcoat was now dirty and ragged. Pinned crookedly on his chest was a black-and-gold name badge that read: “No. 8”.
Wen Jianyan was stunned: “…No. 8?”
His shoulders relaxed slightly. He had to say, seeing a familiar face at a time like this was quite touching, even if the other party was an NPC. Fortunately, it was one who had helped him before—
“Oh, so you still remember me.” No. 8 walked slowly into the room, expressionless.
Hearing the other party’s tone, Wen Jianyan’s heart suddenly skipped a beat.
Wait, why did it feel like…
Things were going to go bad…
He watched as the other party approached step by step. That normally smiling face was clouded with gloom, and his tone was cold and flat, without the slightest fluctuation: “You said that after killing Mesvis, you were going to destroy the entire ship.”
Wen Jianyan: “…”
He flipped through his memories.
It seemed there was indeed such a thing.
“I helped you.”
With every step No. 8 took forward, he tossed out a cold, hard sentence full of resentment.
“Showed you the way.”
He stared fiercely at Wen Jianyan, his ruined half-face incomparably hideous, a monster-like violence surfacing in his eyes. “But you broke your promise.”
Indeed, Wen Jianyan had already turned the entire cruise ship upside down, but at the final moment of collapse, the cruise ship had been fixed back in place…!
Unknowingly, Wen Jianyan had been backed into a corner. His back was pressed tightly against the train’s surface. Under the other party’s gaze, which stuck to him like a gangrenous ulcer, his hair stood on end, and he couldn’t help but stutter a little when he spoke:
“So—so isn’t that why I came back!!!”
No. 8 paused his steps.
Catching this tiny pause from the other party, Wen Jianyan’s heart immediately steadied.
He took a deep breath, and his speech instantly became fluent. “To tell you the truth, I came here this time to finish what was left unfinished last time… I’m here to destroy this cruise ship!!”
No. 8 sized him up evaluatively, not knowing what he was thinking about.
“I imagine you came looking for me for this exact reason, didn’t you?”
“Hearing the loud noise, you guessed the intruder was me, and then immediately followed the sound, searching private room by private room. Other than wanting me to fulfill the promise I left unfinished last time, there probably isn’t any other reason, right?”
Wen Jianyan raised his hands. “It couldn’t be that you simply wanted to see me—”
No. 8’s expression twisted for a moment, as if he had suffered some tremendous humiliation.
“What, did, you, say?”
“Okay, okay, it’s not that!!”
Wen Jianyan knew when to quit while he was ahead. He raised his hand and made a zipping motion over his mouth.
No. 8 looked at him grimly, his eyes flickering as if he was contemplating how to hack him into pieces.
“Anyway, rather than making me pay the price for breaking my promise, isn’t it better to let me finish what I started last time?”
“This time, my goal is exactly the same as yours,” he pushed on, stringing out sweet-sounding words one after another. “Otherwise, there would be absolutely no need for me to come back, right? I should have left this place long ago and flown far away! It’s precisely because I value our contract and our deal that I returned—I swear, this time I will absolutely make this ship completely finished, never to be restored again!”
“…”
No. 8 stared at him in silence. His ruined half-face was hideous like a malicious ghost. Finally, before Wen Jianyan’s forehead could break a sweat again, he slowly spoke:
“You better actually be able to do it.”
“Of course!” Wen Jianyan immediately guaranteed. “A hundred percent!!”
This time, No. 8’s expression finally softened.
In the small private room, the suffocating, oppressively terrifying atmosphere from just a moment ago eased slightly.
Wen Jianyan breathed a sigh of relief and propped himself against the wall to stand up straight.
Thank goodness, he managed to bluff his way through.
Not only was he injured this time, but he also didn’t have any teammates by his side. If he really went up against No. 8, he’d have absolutely no chance of winning. Outside the private room and on the deck, danger lurked everywhere. Hugo wasn’t even the only one out for his life…
It could be said he couldn’t win a fight and had nowhere to run.
Fortunately, he managed to pacify the guy in the end; otherwise, he was afraid he would have died before his mission even began.
Suddenly, Wen Jianyan seemed to think of something. His eyes flickered slightly as he turned to scrutinize No. 8’s expression, his tone suddenly shifting:
“Speaking of which, since our goals are aligned, why don’t we…”
No. 8: “…Why don’t we what?”
For some unknown reason, the current direction of the conversation inexplicably made him feel a bit familiar.
He watched as the other party indeed blinked, shamelessly putting on a pitiful look:
“Why don’t you do me another favor?”
