Chapter 21: Qu Township

It now seems certain that Lin Zhao’s actions were entirely intentional.

"She chose me not by accident; there must be a reason."

Lu Jinchao pondered this. Judging by Lin Zhao’s behavior, she must have known the function of the ticket and that anyone who touched it would become a passenger. Was this intentional? Why? Because of the sheepskin? She had stolen the sheepskin only to return it—was that some kind of hint?

Lu Jinchao took out the sheepskin. It was completely blank, as if the writing that had once appeared on it were merely an illusion. Before she touched the ticket and became a train passenger, the sheepskin had always been just a commemorative "amulet" in her eyes. It might not have been common, but it was certainly mundane, an old object that had accompanied her throughout her entire life. She had never once imagined that this piece of sheepskin could be a paranormal item.

But... how did Lin Zhao know?

Lu Jinchao couldn't help but wonder: was there something wrong with her sheepskin all along, or did the problems only start after Lin Zhao took it?

"It’s a pity I can no longer ask Lin Zhao what this is all about."

Looking back, Lin Zhao would occasionally disappear for periods or even skip class, yet no one ever seemed to notice. Even after Lin Zhao died, Lu Jinchao hadn’t recalled these glaring "anomalies" until she herself boarded the train. Only then did the fog covering those abnormalities begin to disperse. Even if she wanted to investigate now, it would be extremely difficult, as no ordinary person would remember the peculiarities of Lin Zhao.

"If I want to investigate, I can’t just focus on Lin Zhao."

Although Lu Jinchao was anxious to get to the bottom of this, she knew it was impossible to uncover the truth quickly on her own. "Take it slow, then."

Over the next few days, Lu Jinchao tried to find clues about the train and the passengers in the real world, but she found nothing. It was as if an invisible barrier had completely shielded everything related to the train from reality.

"There must be some way for passengers to contact one another; I just don't know it yet." Even if there wasn't, surviving passengers would likely have spontaneously formed platforms for communication and information exchange. Unfortunately, everyone else at her station had been wiped out, leaving her with no way to access such information.

"It seems I’ll have to wait for the next station mission to start."

Beyond investigating the train, Lu Jinchao also tried to find clues related to Lin Zhao. Regrettably, just as she had suspected, the people she spoke to did not believe there was anything unusual about Lin Zhao before her death, and there was nothing more an ordinary student like her could uncover.

A peaceful life continued for half a month. Under the influence of some rule, the impact of Lin Zhao’s death faded quickly; her roommates acted as if the event had never occurred. Only Lu Jinchao remained troubled by it. As time passed, she went from waking up in a cold sweat every night to being able to sleep soundly, until one day in class, the familiar whistle of a train arriving sounded in her ears.

As if it were a prompt, Lu Jinchao’s heart skipped a beat. She reached out and took out the ticket she kept with her; sure enough, new information had appeared.

"C-grade train, from Yuncheng Station to Quxiang. Departure time... two hours from now."

A new station mission had arrived. And it was C-grade.

"I’m a newcomer, is the difficulty already increasing on my second mission?"

She didn't know if this was normal. She only knew that in "Summoning Ghosts," a D-grade mission, there had been passengers who had already completed three station missions, so the train grades couldn't possibly increase by one level every time. The clues visible on the ticket were limited, and worrying was useless.

"...I’ll just have to go and see. I hope the difficulty of this C-grade instance isn't too outrageous."

Lu Jinchao took a deep breath and stood up from her seat. Just as she expected, the teacher and students in class seemed not to notice her unusual behavior. Even when she walked straight out of the classroom, the teacher made no attempt to stop her, and no student cast a curious glance her way. At that moment, it was as if Lu Jinchao had become invisible.

Two hours was not a lot of time. By the time she traveled to the train station, there was less than half an hour left, but fortunately, she made it. As she stepped onto the stairs leading to the underground platform, the bustling train station fell silent once more. Lu Jinchao had grown accustomed to this silence and was no longer startled by it. On her way to the waiting room, she even found herself wondering what she would encounter in this station mission.

When she opened the door to the waiting room, she saw her teammates for this mission. There were quite a few of them; at a glance, the number of people in this instance seemed even higher than in "Summoning Ghosts."

The eyes that landed on Lu Jinchao held a hint of curiosity, but no one spoke to ask her anything. From this, Lu Jinchao realized one thing: there were no newcomers here, and everyone assumed that no newcomers would be participating in this station mission. Because of this, even though she was a new face, no one said a word.

The atmosphere in the waiting room was heavy, and everyone waited in silence until the door was pushed open again. Two girls entered. One of them peered around after stepping inside and then asked in a crisp, playful voice:

"This is my first time doing a C-grade mission! Seniors, do you have any tips to share?"

That was not a good question... Lu Jinchao thought to herself, then looked toward the speaker. She was a girl who looked barely an adult, with a shock of exaggerated, shoulder-length pink hair. Its texture was poor, making it look a bit frizzy. She was thin and small but looked healthy, with slightly rough, tanned skin from frequent sun exposure—a striking appearance that made Lu Jinchao remember her at once.

"Tips? I suppose the best one is not to go around trying to get close to people. After all, who knows whether the people you meet at the station are human or ghosts?" someone replied.

Anyone could tell at once that the comment was sarcastic. Did these two know each other? Was there some grudge between them?

Lu Jinchao watched them calmly. The girl who had been insulted didn't seem angry at all; she just smiled and replied, "Got it! I won't talk to you once we're at the station, because who knows? You might just turn into a ghost yourself!"

With that, she made a funny face. It was a blatant, intentional curse, as if she were wishing for the other person to die. Yet, the next second, the girl turned her gaze toward Lu Jinchao, looking at her with an air of curiosity. "Pretty sister, I haven't seen you before. Are you also doing a C-grade station mission for the first time?"

How intrusive... was she doing that on purpose? Lu Jinchao realized that this kid was truly top-tier at getting under people's skin.