A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

Carriage number 2 was eerily quiet, with only the buzzing of the overhead fluorescent lights. Carriage number 3 was also empty. By the time we reached car number 4, half the lights were off—the announcement said that the lights in car number 4 would be completely turned off at the next stop.

Zhou Lang's oil lamp provided the only light source. The green flame flickered in the enclosed carriage, distorting everyone's shadows.

Carriage number 5.

The moment the door opened, a pungent, sweet smell wafted out. The seats in the carriage were piled high with... suitcases. One after another, they were of different sizes, some were old-fashioned leather suitcases, and some were rolling suitcases.

All the boxes were closed, but several were vibrating slightly.

"Don't touch it," Fang Yan said.

He walked at the front, his steps steady and quick, skirting the suitcases and going straight through carriage number 5. Lu Yuan followed closely behind, whispering to Han Yingying along the way, "Brother Fang's intuition is incredibly accurate. He said things you shouldn't touch, because touching them will definitely cause trouble."

Zhou Lang walked in the middle of the group holding a lantern, with Tang Xiaoyu following behind him, tightly gripping his clothes—she didn't care whether they knew each other or not, she just grabbed him whenever she could.

There is a ghost in carriage number 6.

To be precise, it's half.

It was squeezed between two rows of seats, only its upper body visible, wearing a train conductor's uniform with a name tag that read "Ticket Inspector." It held a stack of tickets in its hand.

The five people stopped in their tracks.

The ticket inspector looked up. His face was intact, even sporting a certain professional, fake smile.

"Please show your ticket."

Han Yingying glanced down at the panel—there was no ticket item.

"We don't have tickets," Zhou Lang said bluntly.

The ticket inspector's fake smile froze for two seconds, then continued to curve into a smile: "Passengers without tickets, please get off at the next stop."

"Where is the next stop?"

"Jiahe North".

"Is that the final stop?"

The ticket inspector tilted his head slightly, as if dealing with a problem outside the established procedure: "The final stop is Anhun Station. Jiahe North is not the final stop."

What will happen when the Requiem Station is reached?

You'll know when you get there.

Zhou Lang grunted in response and walked past the ticket inspector. The ticket inspector didn't stop him, but just turned his head to follow his direction, making a cracking sound with his joints.

Carriage number 7 is black.

It was pitch black; the light from the oil lamp shone in, allowing visibility to only reach two or three meters. Beyond that lay a darkness so thick it was almost tangible.

"The last carriage is number 8," Lu Yuan said in a low voice, "The train conductor is most likely inside. But the lights in carriage 7 are already off..."

"The rules say that you can't enter the carriage when the lights are off," Han Yingying said.

"Then let's find another way." Zhou Lang squatted down to look at the connection between carriages 7 and 6. It was a metal panel with a maintenance cover and screws on it.

"You're going to climb over from the outside?" Zhou Lang probably expected to be laughed at when Zhao Qiang asked this. But this wasn't Zhao Qiang; it was Fang Yan.

Fang Yan only said one word: "Okay."

"No, no, no!" Tang Xiaoyu panicked. "Do you know what's outside? We can't even look through the windows—"

"Just don't look," Zhou Lang said casually. He took a piece of cloth from his inventory and tore it in two. "Crawl blindfolded. I've dealt with ghosts quite a bit in the manor before, this level of darkness is nothing."

Han Yingying opened her mouth, then swallowed back the words "Are you crazy?" She stared at Zhou Lang for two seconds, then pulled a hairband from her inventory: "I'll go with you."

"you--"

"Two people are faster than one," she interrupted him.

Zhou Lang stared at her for a moment. Her expression was calm, not the kind of calm that comes from feigning strength. He nodded.

Fang Yan took the oil lamp. "We'll wait at number 6."

A moment later.

The maintenance passage outside carriage number 7 was narrow and slippery. The metal surfaces were covered with a layer of slimy, unidentified liquid, and the wind blowing in from the tunnel made a piercing whistling sound.

Han Yingying was blindfolded, one hand touching the outer wall of the carriage, the other gripping the horizontal bar on the maintenance rack. Zhou Lang was in front of her; his movements were steady, as if he had done this many times before.

"Have you ever climbed outside a train before?" she asked in a low voice.

"I've never climbed a train. I've climbed the outer wall of my junior high school."

"...Why did you climb the school wall?"

"I'll sneak over the wall to go to an internet cafe."

Han Yingying almost lost her grip.

The two of them climbed in the dark for about three minutes before Zhou Lang stopped. "We're here. The window of carriage number 8 is up ahead. I'll kick it open."

A muffled thud. The glass shattered. The two men tumbled into carriage number 8.

When the blindfold was removed, Han Yingying's first reaction was—

The lights were on in carriage number 8.

Bright, warm white lights. The interior of the carriage was completely different from the front, with the layout of an old-fashioned green train, hard seats facing each other, and a small table in the middle with a pot of tea and two enamel cups on it.

An old man was sitting in the innermost seat.

A grey uniform, a peaked cap, and beneath the brim a wrinkled face. His name tag read: Train Conductor.

"Oh," the old man said slowly, taking a sip of tea from his enamel cup, "finally, someone alive has arrived."

"Are you the train conductor?" Zhou Lang asked.

"That's me. Sit down."

The two sat down. The train conductor pushed the teapot towards them, but neither of them moved.

"Clever," the train conductor chuckled. "You can't drink this tea. If you do, you won't be able to get off the train."

"How are we going to leave?" Han Yingying asked.

"Simple." The train conductor held up one finger. "When the train stops at the next station, pull the emergency brake. The doors will open for ten seconds. Jump out within ten seconds, and you'll be free."

Where is the emergency brake lever?

"There's one in each carriage. But only the levers in the carriages with the lights on are functional."

韩莹莹快速计算——7号已经熄灯，4号下一站也要熄灯。可用的拉杆在1、2、3、5、6、8号车厢。

"There's one more thing," the train conductor put down his teacup, his expression becoming more serious, "After the lever is pulled down, everything on the train... will wake up."

Zhou Lang glanced back at the dark carriage number 7 behind him.

"Those suitcases number 5?"

The train conductor didn't answer, but picked up his teacup and took another sip.

The way back was even more difficult than the way there. In the outer passageway of carriage 7, the wind picked up, mixed with a low-frequency hum. The two quickened their pace to climb back to carriage 6, and as they climbed through the window, Fang Yan steadily supported Han Yingying.

"How is the situation?" Lu Yuan asked.

Zhou Lang briefly repeated the train conductor's words. When he said, "Pull the emergency brake, and everything will wake up," the expressions on everyone's faces subtly changed.

Tang Xiaoyu couldn't hold back any longer: "Everything...including what's in the suitcase?"

No one answered her. But everyone knew the answer.

"Next stop, Jiahe North. Lights will be turned off at stop number 4 after we arrive." Lu Yuan adjusted his glasses and calculated the time. "There are probably three or four more stops from Jiahe North to the final destination. We need to apply the brakes at the second-to-last stop at the latest."

"After you're done, you still have to run," Fang Yan added.