Volume One, Chapter 14: The Body... Has Vanished
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“I passed by the murderer several times. Every time I knocked on the door in the corridor, I could see the villain inside. Perhaps he saw me holding a gun and, out of fear, tried to escape. I fired at him, and he froze, but I knew he wasn’t dead.”
“He’s still hiding among the crowd.”
Brother, you’re seriously ill. Seriously, who knocks on their own door with a gun in the middle of the night?
Opening the door to see the conductor’s black gun barrel pointed right at you—any sane person would run, right?
Do you even realize what you’re saying?
You shoot someone, and they just stop moving? Isn’t that obvious?
“I gathered everyone together. I wanted to lead them into Car No. 3 for an interrogation. No one could escape my questioning—I’m a hawk on the battlefield. But every time we passed through the tunnel, I felt something stabbing at my mind. I could only helplessly watch as someone slaughtered the passengers.”
Qin Shang’s mouth twitched again. Reading this part, his thoughts suddenly cleared up considerably.
“I came up with a plan—to hold hands and get through the crisis together. Yes, if everyone held hands, the madman in the group would be immediately revealed once he let go. We could then catch him!”
“Yes, once we reach Car No. 3, the villain hiding among us would have nowhere to hide…”
Strangely, this also conflicted with the background story.
Qin Shang wanted to keep reading but found no more entries.
Indeed, much of these diary entries were repetitive; this was all the information he could extract.
Jack and Mary actually shared a hobby—printing out their diaries—more than one copy each?
Or perhaps, the game developers printed these out?
Qin Shang pondered, instinctively stroking the papers.
They were firmly affixed but, after two centuries, any external disturbance would easily cause them to fall.
He examined the text on the back of the paper.
“Name: Jack”
“Occupation: Middle Eastern Special Forces”
“Age: 33”
“Cause of illness: Psychological acne caused by war trauma, possibly related to seeing teammates disappear one by one during the war. He is a reservist, only dispatched and never deployed to the battlefield, mainly handling logistics. Thus, he never faced the bloody storm head-on. Unable to accept his teammates’ daily disappearances, he was under enormous pressure, leading to psychological repatriation and exile, assigned to frontline reserve duties.”
At that moment, Qin Shang’s pupils suddenly contracted sharply.
The content itself was irrelevant. What mattered was the texture of the paper…
His complexion changed drastically. Grabbing the little girl, he dashed toward the very front of the first carriage, where the staff roster was usually posted.
“Girl, tell me the names of the staff listed up front!”
“Brother, aren’t you a priest too? You should be able to read it. Actually, my English isn’t very good; I only recognize the name Jack…”
Qin Shang was exasperated. Forget it, he couldn’t rely on this little girl.
He sprinted to the front, taking a close look, his face changing dramatically.
Conductor: Jack
Attendant: Al
Attendant: Philip
Attendant: Debis...
Scanning the list, Qin Shang saw no sign of Mary.
No Mary. No such staff member at all.
“Damn it!”
At that instant, a wild idea crystallized in his mind!
He immediately dragged the “Grandpa Ox cosplaying as a maid to seduce Zhuang Zhuang’s mom” to Car No. 2, where Mary’s diary was posted on the wall. Qin Shang casually tore down one of the diary pages beside the window.
The next moment, his expression shifted to two “damn it”s.
“Name: Jack”
“Occupation: Middle Eastern Special Forces”
“Age: 33”
Qin Shang’s features twisted in disbelief as he instinctively exclaimed,
“Mary and Jack are the same person! That’s why each diary barely mentions the other.”
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“Because Jack is suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Miss Mary is Mr. Jack, and Mr. Jack is Miss Mary…”
When Mr. Jack led everyone out of Car No. 1 and No. 2 through the tunnel, the bizarre murders began to make sense.
The background story said it was Miss Mary committing these acts.
So these two clearly were the same person.
Qin Shang wasn’t just speculating; there were many subtle details.
For example, the repeated emphasis on clothing!
Both Mary’s and Jack’s diaries frequently mentioned their outfits.
“This matches the background story. No wonder both Jack and Mary kept stressing their clothes…”
“Cross-dressers openly showing off in this era get mocked relentlessly. Better castration than humiliation.”
“Male peers often hold their sacred relics with near-obsessive fanaticism, occasionally practicing and comparing sizes to check effectiveness!”
Qin Shang twitched his mouth. Jack was clearly a cross-dresser.
Another linking event was how passengers teased them.
Passengers died!
Playing Mary by day, Jack by night!
Hence, Mary’s diary had more entries.
As a train attendant, Mary would receive more information, while Jack’s personality only awoke at night to drive.
Being a conductor, Jack had little time to interact with passengers...
No, that’s not right.
Mary’s role as an attendant was probably tentative!
She never performed genuine attendant duties; her diary showed she was essentially on vacation every day.
That’s because she wasn’t really an attendant!
Whoever assigned her that job wasn’t some modern capitalist exploiting employees with multiple roles despite knowing about her disorder.
Even the cruelest modern capitalist, upon discovering an employee’s dissociative identity disorder, would never exploit them with two jobs.
They’d fire them immediately.
“It makes sense that Jack’s personality would find Mary’s disappearance normal, since he *is* Mary. When Jack awoke and patrolled, he would go to ‘Mary’s’ dorm and, upon opening the door, be surprised to find Miss Mary absent from bed.”
“Nonsense, you’re Mary yourself. Two personalities can’t exist simultaneously.”
“When one awakes, the other must be dormant…”
“His post-war trauma led to a deep-seated fear of losing people around him, giving rise to the second personality, Mary.”
“Therefore, he fabricated a lie: a war hero who could protect his cowardly personality as an extreme opposite.”
“Lu Xun once said, if you wear a mask too long, it grows onto your face, and to remove it would require breaking bones and tearing skin. Jack’s fantasy of being a war hero meant he couldn’t accept passenger disappearances, which is why he started patrolling!”
“So the passengers’ strange looks can be explained too!”
Qin Shang thoughtfully rested his chin.
“A male conductor, who during the day liked to openly flaunt his bizarre cross-dressing fetish.”
“And proudly assumed the identity of attendant Mary. Even the most gentlemanly would find it hard to hide their odd gazes!”
“No, this personality flaw must be cowardice; otherwise, the diary wouldn’t keep pleading for Jack’s help every day…”
“Passengers’ stares might be a sharp blade that nurtured this personality’s resistance.”
“But definitely wouldn’t drive Mary’s personality to kill—that’s a timid personality…”
“Combining both diaries, the murders mostly come from the ‘Jack personality,’ except in the tunnel.”
“So…”
“There must be a trigger!”
“Probably related to exploration. Without moving forward, I won’t get new clues.”
“Unless I inherit the ‘So Handsome He Got Slashed’ task and hints.”
Qin Shang lowered his eyebrows, deep in thought.
His teacher profession’s deciphering skill played a huge role here.
Perhaps the ‘Got Slashed’ martial artist task could also aid him.
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Of course, he was reluctant to accept an additional task.
As a trickster, he already had one extra task than the others. Though the trickster’s hidden task hadn’t appeared yet.
But Qin Shang guessed it was mostly about rooting out the god-slayer from the group.
With three tasks tangled, it was hard to say he wouldn’t be overwhelmed.
“Car No. 3 probably holds all the secrets, including why Jack’s personality suddenly went mad, lost control, and the motive for the killings.”
“Forget it, scratch the last one—madmen don’t need reasons to kill. But I still don’t understand why there are so many Hello Kitty decorations here.”
Could it be that the game developers liked cats?
Why not 7 Cat, another adorable cartoon character?
For some reason, cat cartoon characters almost never have mouths.
Except for Tom, the infamous little cat.
For example, Hello Kitty, or the 7 Cat logo.
Hmm… none have mouths…
Huh!?
No mouths!?
Qin Shang was stunned again, suddenly struck by an idea.
“Brother, shall we continue exploring?”
“I’m a bit scared now. Those three have been gone for over half an hour, and I can’t hear any sounds from them. Did you find something on those papers…”
At that moment, the little girl—Grandpa Ox cosplaying as a maid to seduce Zhuang Zhuang’s mom—trembled as she spoke.
Qin Shang noticed she was still holding a diary page torn from the wall.
Perhaps she was curious about its contents since he had been staring at it for a while.
But he wasn’t sure whether a priest without deciphering skills could understand British English...
In this situation, everyone’s survival instincts were at their peak; searching for any clue to stay alive was only natural.
Qin Shang sighed.
Now that Jack’s dissociative identity disorder was confirmed, he basically understood why passengers disappeared.
It was Jack the conductor, under the guise of investigation, recklessly taking lives. His mind was clearly unwell. At night, if any passenger tried to flee during his rounds, he shot them.
Could passengers not disappear?
But setting aside the background story, during the tunnel section in Car No. 2…
He still couldn’t grasp the god-slayer’s choice of victims!
At the start, when professions were revealed, only “Green Grass by the River” lied among six players.
That meant the others’ professions were accurate.
Then why did the god-slayer choose to kill the teacher and the martial artist first?
Was it really random?
Or did those two pose the greatest threat?
Sigh, if no more clues appear…
He’d have no choice but to inherit the ‘So Handsome He Got Slashed’ task and its hints.
At this moment, the two were in Car No. 2.
Cold winds swirled.
Thinking of this, Qin Shang turned to look at the corpse—and suddenly froze.
A chilling cold swept from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head, making his scalp tingle with dread.
Because the corpse…
Was gone!