“Aren’t you the one who follows the train all the way to the terminus?”

 

After Shao Lin was taken away by the train police, the burned-out Car No. 1 could no longer be occupied. The now-awake passengers of Car No. 1 were extremely angry—their luggage had been inside Car No. 1 and had all been burned to ashes!

The train driver led the attendants in calming the emotions of the Car No. 1 passengers, guaranteeing that their losses would be recovered from the arsonist. Xing Ye did not know how the system planned to recover the losses, nor did he know whether Shao Lin would end up in debt again.

Car No. 1 had already been sealed off. The passengers from Car No. 1 were evacuated to the two first-class cars, Car No. 2 and Car No. 3. Yan Hebi and Xing Ye were placed together in Car No. 3. Xing Ye promptly refreshed the information on his phone and saw that the number of remaining hunters was 1.

Only one person remained. Xing Ye looked toward Yan Hebi.

Yan Hebi: “……”

He hurriedly handed over his phone, indicating that he was truly harmless. Flustered, he explained, “There’s only one QR code left on my phone—it seems to be a detection-type ability. You already know my initial skill; it has no attack power at all. I also have one item—it turns me into a paper person. I’ll give you the item. I really have no combat capability anymore!”

To prove how useless he was, Yan Hebi took out the paper substitute from his pocket and placed it in front of Xing Ye, looking obedient and well-behaved.

Xing Ye sighed. “If I suspected you, back at the fourth station when you had just changed shifts, I would have made you get off the train.”

As he spoke, he picked up the paper substitute and placed it into Yan Hebi’s hands, saying, “Keep it. You won’t need it in this world, but you might be able to use it in the next one. Paper figures can defend against physical damage as well as water and fire attacks—unless you’re unlucky enough to run into hot spring water, otherwise you…”

At this point, Xing Ye paused. With the luck of a Fate-defying Player, the probability of running into hot spring water should be one hundred percent.

So Xing Ye could only pat Yan Hebi on the shoulder and tell him to make it out for himself.

“I was just looking at you—not because you’re the only hunter left, but because I was thinking about one question. Why would the system arrange for a player to become the driver?”

“Isn’t it to let me screw you over and create a double-loss ending?” Yan Hebi asked.

Xing Ye shook his head. “If the system truly wanted the train to be destroyed, it wouldn’t need a player who can’t even drive a high-speed train. It would just need to set up a drunk driver. Even if the rules don’t allow a drunk driver, it could create someone with emotional entanglements with the driver who wants to die together on the train. In short, there are far too many ways to destroy the train and kill everyone—there’s absolutely no need to force a player to drive the high-speed rail. And there’s another strange thing: why are you the one driving the train?”

Yan Hebi asked in confusion, “Me… is there something wrong with that? I’m a Fate-defying Player—having bad luck is normal, isn’t it?”

Xing Ye said, “The problems with you are huge. First, you are a hunter. If the system wanted the hunters to kill me, it should not have arranged for you to become the driver. That would be a complete waste of your hunting time.

“Second, you entered the team together with me in a group format. Including this final train world, you and I have teamed up in a total of four worlds—half of my total game time. This proves that our relationship is very close. If you had any intention of betraying me, the system should have taken advantage of our relationship to let you deal me a heavy blow, instead of wasting four hours of your time. And if you didn’t intend to betray me, then the system shouldn’t have confined you for only four hours either—those four hours were effectively protection, and during the remaining six hours you could still help me. This kind of isolation makes no sense at all.”

Yan Hebi listened carefully. He raised his hand and said, “Boss, my focus is—teaming up for four worlds already accounts for half of your game time? How many worlds have you experienced in total?”

Xing Ye replied, “This is the eighth.”

Yan Hebi: “……”

“So if you achieve a perfect victory in this world, that means you’ll challenge the final stage before even reaching ten worlds? And if you pass the final stage, that means you’ll win the entire game with only a single-digit number of worlds completed?”

Xing Ye nodded. “More or less.”

Yan Hebi: “……”

There really was a gap between people. Hugging his knees, he quietly looked at Xing Ye and waited for him to continue analysing.

Xing Ye gave Yan Hebi one minute to calm down. One minute later, he said, “I thought about the two questions above for a long time and couldn’t find a perfect explanation. But just now, after seeing the number of remaining hunters on the hunting app, I began to understand a little.

“The first four hours you spent driving allowed you to avoid the period when the number of hunters was high. That was the elimination phase—there were too many players, the rules were unclear, and everything was in chaos. This was the period when players were most likely to die. You don’t have combat instincts as strong as Cao Qian’s, and you don’t have many life-saving QR codes on you. You would have been very likely to die in the chaotic fighting of the first four hours. With the luck of a Fate-defying Player, you might not even have survived long enough to meet me.

“Driving for four hours was a form of protection for you. And after you left the driver’s cabin, the battle had already entered a white-hot state, (NT: meaning extremely intense, in reference to the glowing state of a metal when it’s heated to a very high temperature). I knew exactly who the remaining hunters were, so there was no chance of accidentally harming you. This allowed you to successfully survive until the end.

“So here’s the question. If we hadn’t discovered the matter of passengers being reborn, and after eliminating Shao Lin and the others there was only you left as a hunter, what choice would we have made?”

After thinking for a moment, Yan Hebi said, “I’d probably eliminate myself. There’s still half an hour before the fifth station. After the fifth station I’d get off the train and be automatically eliminated. Then there’d only be you left on the train…”

He stopped mid-sentence, suddenly understanding the system’s intention.

Xing Ye nodded. “Exactly. You would leave the train right at the fifth station. And at the sixth station, a large-scale passenger disembarkation event would occur. If the train conductor and the replacement driver were also reborn, then the train would never reach the seventh station, and I would be permanently stranded at the sixth station.”

“A double-loss ending,” Yan Hebi said with lingering fear.

Xing Ye said, “Yes. At the very beginning, in the game’s introductory description, the system told me that the victory condition was to defeat nineteen hunters. But in the game background introduction after entering the game, it also mentioned that the train journey lasts ten hours, and that one should ‘enjoy the hunting game before reaching the destination.’ The story background casually mentioned ‘reaching the destination,’ which implies that after all nineteen players are eliminated, the Black-and-White Cube will not immediately send me back to the system space. It will only release me after the train completes its entire journey.”

Yan Hebi said, “But by then I’ll already have gotten off the train. After the sixth station, if the train staff leave due to rebirth—will you be able to drive the high-speed train?”

“Obviously not,” Xing Ye sighed.

Although he had mastered many skills, he was ultimately not a superhuman—there was no way he could drive a high-speed train.

Yan Hebi said, “You mean the game deliberately chose me to become the driver, letting me learn basic driving skills through QR codes, as part of this world’s inevitable losing ending, leaving the only hope for you?”

Xing Ye nodded in agreement. “Yes. And it requires that we trust each other. If you don’t trust me, betray me, I will surely lose; if I don’t trust you and choose to eliminate you, I will also surely lose.

“The game adopts this kind of battle royale mode (NT: ie. a survival competition where only one can win), using this method to test the trust between teammates and to test human nature.”

Yan Hebi asked in confusion, “Then why me, and not Cao Qian? You’ve spent more worlds with Cao Qian, and your relationship is closer—shouldn’t the system have chosen her instead?”

Xing Ye glanced at Yan Hebi. “Probably because if Cao Qian became the high-speed train driver, she could master it faster than you.”

Yan Hebi: “……”

Xing Ye continued, “Her new skill, ‘Transforming Girl,’ seems to give her this rapid learning ability. If she drove the high-speed train, after two hours of training, she could drive it perfectly and safely to the terminus. You’d have a much harder time—your risk is higher.”

Yan Hebi: “……”

The two discussed for a while. Half an hour later, they reached the fifth station, which was a major stop. The train stopped for fifteen minutes, giving the driver a chance to rest.

Having prior experience as a driver, Yan Hebi knew that before the train arrived at the station, the conductor would reserve the toilet nearest to the front of the train for the driver, making it convenient for them to attend to physiological needs. Although Car No. 1 was sealed off, the toilet could still be used. So he crouched by the Car No. 1 toilet. Sure enough, after the train stopped, he saw both the conductor and the replacement driver at once.

Seeing them, Yan Hebi immediately asked, “Are you two also reborn?”

The conductor and driver’s expressions changed, confirming that Yan Hebi’s guess was correct. Yan Hebi, looking as if he had seen a relative, grabbed the conductor’s hand and said, “Conductor, what are you planning to do?”

Although the conductor was male and not affected by Yan Hebi’s “Central Air Conditioning” ability or his personal traits, rebirth tends to draw people emotionally closer, and it made the conductor feel a sense of identification with Yan Hebi. He said, “I plan to use the excuse of a train malfunction at the sixth station to get all passengers and staff to disembark, and notify headquarters to request a delayed departure.

“According to my memory before rebirth, the landslide happens one hour after the sixth station departs. As long as I can delay one hour—if the train is delayed by an hour—when the news of the landslide comes, the train doesn’t need to depart anymore. We can quietly save all the passengers and still conceal the fact of my rebirth.”

Yan Hebi: “……”

If done this way, the passengers’ lives would indeed be safe, but Xing Ye would undoubtedly lose.

Yan Hebi asked, “Conductor, during the disaster in your previous life, were you on the train?”

The conductor said, “No. I had to temporarily switch shifts for some personal matters. At the sixth station, I got off, and a colleague took over for the remaining leg of the journey.”

Yan Hebi then looked at the replacement driver.

The driver said, “Why are you looking at me? According to the schedule, you and I switch shifts at the sixth station. You are the driver for the final station. Aren’t you the one who follows the train to the terminus?”

Yan Hebi: “……”

 

Translator : DarNan