Volume 1, Chapter 32: Wild Speculations

The next moment, "Buddha Saves the Fated," not far away, offered a playful smile and remarked indifferently:

"Once this kid is dead, I want that item."

"At the very least, it’s a Tier 2 piece of defensive gear. As for the point reward for killing the Deceiver, I can make a concession."

"You take two-thirds, I only want one-third."

Upon hearing this, "Justice Eagle" showed a flash of displeasure, but noticing the tower-like, red-dressed specter blocking his path, he retreated several steps, not daring to engage the red-dressed figure rashly.

After all, even though they had each hidden some trump cards during the dungeon, hadn't they been beaten into a panicked retreat when facing "Ail's" ghostly spirit?

This psychological shadow made the officer, "Justice Eagle," unwilling to face the specter summoned by Qin Shang alone.

Furthermore, a priest is the bane of all dark spirits, and "Buddha Saves the Fated" was a Level 2 priest.

With his help, taking this kid down was a certainty.

With his thoughts racing like lightning, "Justice Eagle" said coldly:

"Fine, deal."

Only then did the elderly priest, "Buddha Saves the Fated," place the crucifix in his palm and truly join the battlefield.

He raised his clasped hands above his head, staring straight at Qin Shang with a gaze as cold as ice.

As a white light surged from his palm, the old priest's stature seemed to grow, and his steady, middle-aged face took on a look of holy majesty.

"[Purify]!"

The moment the two words fell, Qin Shang felt his head splitting with agony.

The red-dressed figure blocking the way between them let out a "hiss," as if struck by an invisible attack.

However, it still dutifully shielded its master from the incoming "Justice Eagle."

Qin Shang clutched his temple, his expression fearful.

So this is the skill of a God’s Path player!?

No, that's not right...

This must be an item skill!

After casting that move, the old priest’s energy and spirit withered rapidly, like a deflated balloon, looking significantly more sluggish.

[The Price].

The price of using an item!

His own red dress seemed to have something similar.

The old priest looked as if he had just had his life force sucked out by a female ghost; he had definitely paid a price to use the item!

At the same time, the hissing sound vanished.

However, nearly half of the gray-black, mist-like filler inside the red dress had also dissipated.

If the red dress had previously looked like a burly young adult, it now resembled a girl of barely twelve, her body yet to fully develop.

This caused the sense of security in Qin Shang’s heart to plummet!

He endured the intense cranial pain; it was hard to describe, as if his temple had been struck by a basketball.

His vision became dizzying and blurred.

But he knew the red dress could hold on for a little longer.

He didn't know how to use items, which was his shortcoming.

Since the God’s Path game had a leveling mechanism, surely player confrontations weren't just about pulling out items for a chaotic brawl.

Otherwise, taking Honor of Kings as an example, if a Level 1 Li Bai were given a Blade of the Shadow, he could easily crush a Level 15 Baili Shouyue—what would be the point of setting levels?

Therefore, players must be able to provide bonuses to their items.

But he didn't know how to operate that...

"Damn it, being a newbie is a disadvantage..."

It was precisely because he considered this that Qin Shang hadn't rashly tried to wear the red dress and flee.

As a newbie player, even if he were handed the [Gauntlets]—clearly an item—from the officer, or the [Crucifix] from the old priest, he wouldn't necessarily know how to use them.

The next moment, he communicated with his character card to open the panel.

[Time: 15 minutes]

Damn!

Qin Shang twitched his mouth and turned to run toward the second carriage behind him.

The officer met the red-dressed specter head-on, the phantom of his white-gloved fists slamming into the hem of the dress, causing the specter to emit continuous "hissing" sounds.

It seemed that after being struck by the old priest's attack, the red dress was struggling to hold off "Justice Eagle"!

At the same time, the moment he looked back, he glimpsed the old priest, who had been resting in place, fixing his gaze upon him.

In an instant of eye contact, the old priest began to chase after Qin Shang!

"Screw your mother!"

These two were both veteran players; he was certainly no match for them in a head-to-head fight.

Watching the officer engage the red-dressed specter while the old priest summoned white light from his palm, an outsider might think they were Taoist priests from Maoshan.

He, on the other hand, felt like a pathetic weakling. Among his three skills, two were about to run out of time...

But [Inheritance] was useless in this situation.

[Decipher] and [Heal] were also useless...

If the old priest caught him, he was surely dead.

"That shouldn't be right. Doesn't the God’s Path game always maintain a delicate balance mechanism?"

The number of God-Slayers and accomplices could never exceed the number of team leaders plus passengers—that was a clear indicator.

Otherwise, with the enemy outnumbering him, this round of the dungeon would be a dead end; no one could possibly clear it!

Everything existed for the sake of balance.

Then God’s Path must also know that if the game were cleared by relying on the Deceiver, the Deceiver would inevitably be backstabbed by other players.

As a public enemy, a walking stack of cash, those people had no reason not to knife him for money once the game ended.

As the saying goes, "Men die for wealth, birds die for food." Although he hadn't fully grasped the use of points, he had a rough idea of what they meant to the vast majority of God’s Path players.

God’s Path couldn't possibly leave no path to survival for a Deceiver player, could it?

The game’s matching mechanism was designed for balance, so there must be some way for a Deceiver player to retreat unscathed after the game ended.

It’s just that I haven't discovered it yet...

Just then, Qin Shang suddenly noticed the diaries in the corner of the second carriage.

A diary?

"Cow Grandpa cosplaying a maid to seduce Zhuangzhuang's mom" seemed to have torn out a page from a diary when the two of them entered the second carriage for the second time.

At the time, Qin Shang thought the little girl was just desperate to survive and curious about what clues she might find on the wallpaper...

It was through that detail that Qin Shang judged that this woman was definitely not a priest!

After all, a priest possessed night vision and had no need to specifically tear off the diaries on either side of the carriage window to see their contents.

With this thought, a terrifying realization dawned on Qin Shang.

"Damn! I was completely wrong. I analyzed one part incorrectly!"

"The fact that those two bodies disappeared was not a hallucination, and I was not hypnotized."

"I wasn't hypnotized in the round with 'Cow Grandpa'; I couldn't see the bodies simply because they had been eaten by the ghost created by 'Ail'."

"So, every time the personalities of Mary and Jack entered the loop, began the trial, and led the passengers into the third carriage, the passengers were slaughtered by Ail and then eaten."

"That is why the third carriage always smelled of rot, yet no corpses were to be found."

"The only remains were those of Jack, who died of old age in the third carriage. The old priest found the final diary—the one belonging to Vane—on that very corpse..."

'Kind Sister' died right before his eyes, and the fact that her body was eaten by Ail was the proof.

That monster really did eat people!

"Normally, when not contaminated, the [Train Exploration] dungeon shouldn't have a second phase."

"In other words, if the first round of [Death Train] was the entire content of [Train Exploration], and the scene remained unchanged, then these things were actually seals preventing the ghost—formed by the fusion of the souls of 'Ail,' 'Jack,' and 'Mary'—from entering the carriage."

"[Death Train] is just expanded content for the [Train Exploration] dungeon!"

As this guess emerged, Qin Shang’s mouth twitched.

But based on his years of gaming experience, this speculation held up.

Because whether it was [Train Exploration] or the contaminated [Death Train], the dungeon code was 0927.

This meant that the Death Train was not a dungeon that appeared out of thin air.

It was an expansion dungeon.

That was why the dungeon code remained unchanged...

Thinking of this, Qin Shang swallowed hard.

So, when 'Cow Grandpa' tore off the diary on the wall, she was breaking the seal to let 'Ail' from the expansion dungeon enter the second carriage?

And I had been immersed in reading diaries in the first carriage all that time.

I didn't move, and I didn't make a sound.

That’s why I didn't attract an attack from 'Ail's' specter at the time?

The monster just left after it finished eating the people...

That was the whole process of the corpses disappearing!?

Then...

As this thought crossed his mind, Qin Shang swallowed again, a glint of madness in his eyes. The footsteps in the carriage behind him were growing closer.

Clearly, "Buddha Saves the Fated" was about to catch up to him.

Heaven knows how much longer the [Cursed Red Dress] could hold out against the officer.

He looked at the windows on both sides; the parts of the diary the little girl had torn off had indeed returned.

The entire second carriage was dark and enclosed, the diaries on the windows blocking all light...

Refresh!

The dungeon sent us back to the first and second carriages, returning us to a refreshed dungeon.

Thinking of this, Qin Shang took a deep breath.

Time to gamble!

The next moment, he turned to face the old priest and grinned ferociously:

"Old man, do you really think you've won?"