What malicious intent could NPCs possibly have? C39.1

Hey, first of all, thanks for reading my lousy Machine Translation. To be honest, I’d really like it if you guys corrected the mistakes I made. But please speak nicely and politely. My heart is not strong enough to read your too-harsh comments. Have a nice day. 🙂

Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!

Chp39. part1

Ning Ge tugged at the hem of her T-shirt, pondering. “So that’s not it. And even from the initial description, it doesn’t add up.”

Pei Han turned to look at her. “Hmm?” he asked, his voice tinged with curiosity. “What description?”

He was uncharacteristically slow to follow her line of thought.

Ning Ge knew his mind had wandered off somewhere, and he hadn’t snapped back to attention yet.

“Are you two done yet?” Owen called impatiently from the other side.

He’d been too afraid to look around, so out of sheer boredom, he’d left a sliver of the cloth covering the partition window ajar and was peeking into the next carriage.

People in the carriage ahead were also searching for the mark.

The broadcast had announced that the Imposter’s mark was on their back—a place no one could see themselves. This left everyone uncertain whether they truly had the mark.

If someone did have the mark, they’d be thrown off the train, a certain death. But if no one was found with it, everyone would die when the countdown ended.

The result was a chaotic scene: everyone wanted to check others’ backs, hoping to find the mark and end it all, yet no one was willing to let others check their own.

They started fighting again.

People tore at each other’s clothes, shoving and punching, a desperate struggle.

Ten minutes had passed since the countdown began.

When Owen and the others returned, Ning Ge said, “I don’t think this is right. A game where an Imposter is hidden among the players shouldn’t be played like this.”

She explained, “Normally, in these kinds of games, the Imposter is secretly informed of their identity from the start. This way, they can actively hide themselves and avoid being discovered, instead of having a mark on their back that they can’t even see.”

Ning Ge pondered for a moment. “And in terms of rewards and penalties, players win if they find the Imposter, while the Imposter wins if they remain undetected. That’s how you motivate the Imposter.”

“Exactly,” the high school student agreed. “All the games I’ve played recently are like this.”

Owen understood Ning Ge’s point. “Their mission is pretty straightforward: players win if they find the Imposter, and everyone dies if they don’t. It’s like the Imposter is cursed for eight lifetimes—no matter how they play, they’re doomed.”

“So I don’t think that’s it,” Ning Ge said. “Let’s recall the broadcast’s description: ‘An Imposter is hidden in each carriage.’ It didn’t say, ‘An Imposter is hidden among the players in each carriage.'”

“You’re right.”

Pei Han’s mind, which had been drifting in some mysterious dimension, finally returned to the dungeon mission.

He recalled, “And the broadcast described failures as ‘the affected carriage will be cleaned.’ The word used was ‘cleaned.’ So the Imposter is likely not a player at all, but something else entirely.”

He stopped talking and immediately began searching the carriage.

The carriage was simple and easy to search. After sweeping his gaze across the entire compartment, his eyes landed on a corner.

There, on the carriage wall, was a square object. Its shape suggested a hidden panel, about the size of a typical fire equipment compartment door.

The square frame was riveted to the wall, with four hex screws at the corners.

Pei Han rummaged through the tools scattered on the floor and in his shoulder bag, finding a hex screwdriver of the right size. He twisted it in his hand and strode over.

With a few turns, he easily opened the small door.

As expected, a dark brown object shot out.

It lunged at Pei Han, and Ning Ge finally saw it clearly: a monstrously large spider, as big as a watermelon including its legs, like a Halloween decoration.

The spider was covered in fur, but the most striking feature was a vivid red circle on its back—a clear sign of venom.

Ning Ge retreated backward faster than she’d ever moved in her life, putting as much distance between herself and the creature as possible.

Let someone else deal with that thing, she thought. I’m staying far away.

Someone retreated even faster than Ning Ge, she had never seen him move at this absolute fastest.

Owen shot through the carriage like lightning, instantly reaching the other end. The seats in this carriage hadn’t been removed. With a single stride of his long legs, he sprang onto a seat, pressing himself against the windowpane with a pitifully helpless expression.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, “Ahhh! A giant spider!”

Ning Ge: “…”

Fortunately, they had Pei Han. Such creatures were no match for him. Without even raising an eyebrow, he twisted the screwdriver in his hand, piercing the giant spider’s head through and through with a precise thrust.

The spider struggled for a moment before going completely still.

Ning Ge remained standing at a distance, unwilling to approach. She peered over and asked, “All done?”

“All done,” Pei Han said, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

She had always been fearless, even daring to stare down ghosts in dungeons. Who would have thought she’d be afraid of this?

Ning Ge slowly approached, cautiously.

“It’s pretty ugly,” Pei Han commented. “Don’t look if you don’t want to. I’ll throw it out.”

Ning Ge didn’t really want to see its face either, but she had no choice. “I have to look. What if there’s a clue for the Anchor Point?”

The high school student chimed in, “Why are we looking at this? The Bracelet clearly says the Anchor Point is at the Terminal Station.”

Ning Ge replied, “Trust me, the dungeon would never make it that easy.”

Ning Ge painfully admired the Giant Spider’s beautiful design one last time.

“I’m done,” she said. She turned to Pei Han. “Want to show it to the next carriage?”

Whatever Ning Ge said, Pei Han did. He impaled the now-motionless, curled-up Giant Spider on his screwdriver and carried it to the partition door of the carriage they had just left. He knocked on the glass.

After a long time, the brawling people inside finally heard him.

The chaotic crowd turned their heads and simultaneously spotted the Giant Spider with the red circle on its back pressed against the glass, startling them.

Then they recognized Pei Han, the one who had violently dismantled the chairs earlier, holding it.

Through the glass, Pei Han pointed to the corner wall at the end of the car. The bald man, quick-witted and the fastest to react, immediately rushed to the small door.

Pei Han moved to the other partition door of the carriage, where the fight was still raging, and repeated the process.

Only after the people in that car finally noticed him and the Giant Spider, and understood his meaning, did he carry the “Imposter” to the open car door and toss it out.

As soon as the spider left the carriage, the countdown on the screen froze and was replaced by a single line of text: [Imposter Cleared.]

They had handled it, while the people in the carriage ahead and behind were still battling the Giant Spider.

For Pei Han, this creature was nothing, but it was actually difficult to deal with.

The moment it emerged from the small door, it darted wildly around the carriage, its eight legs whirring like they were equipped with motors. It scurried across floors, walls, and ceilings, swinging from strands of silk overhead.

Most critically, it lived up to its vibrant red markings—it was truly venomous.

In the chaos, someone in the adjacent carriage was bitten and lay convulsing on the floor.

Owen only feared the spider in his own carriage, showing no fear of the one in the next carriage.

Pressed against the thick, wrench-proof partition, he pressed his face against the glass window, barking excited commands:

“Up there! Up there!”

“It’s going down! Quick, quick, stab it!”

“Watch out! It’s climbing behind you!”

“Ahhh! It’s going to bite you! Dodge! Ahhh!”

He hammered on the glass and stomped his feet, more agitated than the people in the next car.

The commotion finally drew the Giant Spider’s attention. It swung toward the partition and, through the glass, lunged forward, landing squarely on Owen’s face.

Owen fell dead.

The people in the next carriage, after two of them were bitten, finally smashed the spider’s head into a pulp with a wrench.

Owen gasped for breath, cheered, and pulled Ning Ge along.

Ning Ge: ?

“Hurry! We haven’t caught the spiders in the back carriages yet. If we’re late, we’ll miss them.”

It felt like rushing through a zoo to catch animal shows.

While Ning Ge and the others watched the spider hunt, Pei Han didn’t join the spectacle.

He gathered all the tools scattered across the carriage floor into his single-strap backpack, examining each one carefully. He meticulously stored them in the bag’s layered compartments before slinging it over his shoulder.

This bag had been provided by the dungeon, fully stocked with every tool imaginable. Having used its contents in two consecutive missions, he decided it was best to keep it with him.

With seven minutes left on the countdown, the intercom crackled to life again.

Hai guys, it will be nice if you support our website~ so we can extend the term of web hosting + domain next year. 🙂