Chapter 12
Chapter 12
“So…”
“Can your magical pocket produce some anti-itch spray?”
“Even a tube of 999 dermatitis cream would do.”
After resurrecting, Qin Lan fought the urge to scratch and looked at Xue Chuan.
Xue Chuan smiled more miserably than if he were crying.
“You think I don’t want to?”
“The moment I move, my hands try to scratch. I can’t possibly draw an item…”
They were deadlocked.
Qin Lan looked equally grim as he searched desperately for a solution.
The itching intensified. At first, pain from pinching their thighs could suppress it, but eventually it would exceed the limits of willpower.
The moment either man gave in, the yaksha would record him and summon subway security for a two-on-one beating.
“How do we break this?”
The growing need to scratch disrupted Qin Lan’s thoughts.
The yaksha watched like a predator, her phone trained constantly on them. They could not even sneak in a scratch from a hidden angle.
“Use the rules against the rules… But there are no fucking rules here to exploit!”
Qin Lan ground his teeth.
Xue Chuan spoke through a trembling jaw.
“Brother, I have an idea, but I don’t know whether I should say it.”
“If we can’t scratch ourselves, could we…”
His entire face was tense and his hands shook. He had reached his limit.
Qin Lan’s mouth twitched.
“Let me warn you very seriously.”
“If you stick your hand into my pants and grope around like a pervert again, I’ll fight you to the death after we leave this instance. I’m not joking.”
Xue Chuan froze.
“Oh, all right… Wait. Why did you say ‘again’?”
Qin Lan drew a deep breath, and his gaze hardened.
He decided to try one final method.
Moving too quickly for anyone to stop him, Qin Lan thrust his hand inside his waistband.
“Disgusting man! I caught you!”
The yaksha was overjoyed. She raised her phone and shouted eagerly.
“Everyone, look! This man is doing something obscene in pub–”
Rip.
After a scalp-numbing sound, Qin Lan pulled out his hand, his face white.
“Brother, you…”
Xue Chuan stared.
Qin Lan held a large, bloody chunk of his own flesh.
Blood poured down and soaked his pants.
Beads of sweat covered Qin Lan’s forehead and ran down his face as the color steadily drained from his skin.
The two dutiful subway guards arrived as expected, but they did not attack.
Qin Lan slid from the seat. Blood loss and agony made it impossible to rise, but he held the piece of flesh high and spoke weakly.
“Look carefully…”
“I wasn’t doing anything obscene… I was only…”
“Hurting myself!”
His lips trembled and his vision blurred, but he forced up the corners of his mouth and gave the recording yaksha a provocative smile.
“Well?”
“There shouldn’t be any law that says I’m not allowed to injure myself on the subway, right?”
The two faceless guards stood in silence, watching Qin Lan. Then they slowly turned and left.
His gamble had worked.
Qin Lan breathed out in relief, only for his vision to go black as he collapsed.
“You… You lunatic…”
The furious yaksha pointed at him, bitter that her plan had failed.
[The train has arrived at the station.]
The yaksha hurriedly stuffed her phone into her bag and fled the train.
As the announcement sounded faintly in his ears, Qin Lan sneered inwardly.
“Just as I thought. The arrival time was never fixed. Someone was manipulating it…”
“If we tried to endure, the journey would stretch indefinitely until we finally gave in…”
“That fucking Conductor…”
Qin Lan was now certain that the entire instance had been under the Conductor’s control from the very beginning.
Compared with the two overwhelmingly powerful guards, the mysterious Conductor was the truly dangerous anomaly.
“Holy shit! Brother, don’t die!”
Xue Chuan sprang to his feet and frantically searched his clothes.
“Medicine, medicine! I need medicine! Give me some medicine, damn it!”
“Kidney-tonic tablets? Fuck off! Not that kind of medicine!”
As Xue Chuan pulled one bizarre drug after another from his clothes, Qin Lan narrowed his eyes and gripped his waistband with his left hand, ready to tear off his pants.
This was his final safeguard.
If his good teammate proved unreliable, Qin Lan would turn himself into an exhibitionist and violate passenger regulations. Subway security would come beat him to death, allowing him to resurrect at full health.
He had no other choice. Resurrection required him to be “killed by an anomaly.” Bleeding to death from a self-inflicted wound did not qualify.
Fortunately, Xue Chuan finally proved somewhat reliable.
[Yunnan Black Medicine (Counterfeit)]
[Description: A miraculous folk remedy from a special world. Spray it on any bruise or injury to heal it… Incidentally, rumor has it that this product has a brother with a similar name.]
Xue Chuan pressed the medical spray. An unknown substance rapidly coated Qin Lan’s wound.
The pain remained intense, but Qin Lan clearly felt the bleeding status disappear.
“Hah… That was close.”
His face remained pale, but he managed a smile.
Xue Chuan stripped off his jacket and bound it around Qin Lan’s injury, his face full of admiration.
“I’m not flattering you, brother. You’re the toughest man I’ve ever met.”
“Tearing off your own flesh… I don’t think I could do that even if I tried.”
Qin Lan gave no particular reaction.
“Better than dying.”
[Attention, passengers. The next station is this train’s terminal.]
[Passengers preparing to disembark, please collect your belongings and get ready.]
The announcement sounded at the perfect moment, and the subway began to slow.
“The terminal?”
Qin Lan looked toward the doors but saw only darkness beyond the glass.
When the train finally stopped, a brightly lit platform appeared outside.
The other passengers filed out until only Qin Lan and Xue Chuan remained.
[Passengers preparing to disembark–]
Qin Lan interrupted the announcement.
“Aren’t you going to show yourself?”
“Conductor.”
The mechanical voice stopped abruptly.
Qin Lan did not speak loudly, but his words carried clearly through the silent carriage.
Xue Chuan looked around and asked weakly,
“Brother, don’t scare me. Who are you talking to?”
“They say dogs can see things humans can’t. Are you also–”
Before he could finish his nonsense, the announcement sounded again.
This time, it was no mechanical synthetic voice, but a low male voice.
[You are a very interesting passenger.]
[So weak, yet you survived far longer than expected. And you seem to understand my work perfectly…]
[Why?]
“Your work?”
Qin Lan raised his voice.
“You call this pile of garbage, which no one could distinguish from shit even after dumping it into a toilet, a work of art?”
[You seem dissatisfied.]
Anger crept into the Conductor’s voice.
Qin Lan scoffed.
“Obviously!”
“A shitty premise, shitty rules, and shitty character models…”
“Let me guess. You’re furious because we never followed the script you imagined.”
Qin Lan chuckled mockingly.
“At the first station, you wanted to see us swallow the accusation, humble ourselves, and settle the matter by accepting the blame for secret photography.”
“At the second, you wanted to see the victim crushed by public opinion, surrender his dignity, and submit to the guilty party.”
“By the third station, you had lost patience. You intervened directly, controlling our senses and the arrival time to force us to yield.”
The Conductor gave no answer, but the atmosphere inside the carriage grew increasingly oppressive.
“I know you’re in a hurry, but calm down.”
“I haven’t finished insulting you yet.”
[Enough.]
The carriage plunged into darkness as every light went out at once.
When the lights came on again, a gaunt middle-aged man had appeared from nowhere.
He wore the same uniform as subway security, though epaulets symbolizing authority adorned his shoulders.
[After saying so much, have you decided you no longer wish to live?]
The Conductor slowly approached Qin Lan, followed by the two security guards who had appeared so many times before.
His features were sinister, and an uncomfortable evil aura radiated from his entire body.
[The train has already reached the terminal. All you had to do was get off obediently, and you could have left alive. Why did you go to such lengths to anger me and force me to appear?]
The Conductor bent down and stared into Qin Lan’s eyes.
An extreme chill spread throughout Qin Lan’s body, making it difficult to breathe.
Yet he was still smiling.
“Actually, I’ve had a theory for some time. I just don’t know whether it’s right.”
The Conductor’s expression shifted faintly.
Qin Lan continued,
“You control many things aboard this subway, but your will doesn’t govern it completely. Am I right?”
Shock finally entered the Conductor’s sinister eyes.
[What are you talking about…?]
“I’ve always wondered,” Qin Lan said with a cough. “Why do all the ordinary passengers look human, while the key characters in your scenarios are two pig-people, a kappa, and a yaksha?”
“They don’t seem to fit your intentions at all.”
“Then I figured it out.”
Qin Lan licked his dry lips.
“To the victims who truly endured those incidents, that was what those creatures looked like.”
“Two fat, greedy, ugly bitches framed someone for taking secret pictures, pinned the crime on him, and left him powerless to defend himself.”
“A devious kappa stole someone’s property, yet the victim was forced to swallow the grievance to ‘prevent the situation from escalating.'”
“Someone merely scratched an itch, only to be entrapped by a vicious yaksha and publicly disgraced.”
“These are the curses those victims could never escape. Their silent screams.”
Qin Lan’s gaze gradually turned cold.
“The same is true of the two bodyguards behind you. They appear to maintain order aboard the subway, but in truth they use the banner of ‘order’ to crush the victims’ voices.”
“You, Conductor, and your train represent authority. You are the true object of those victims’ hatred.”
[You are correct.]
[But you have also made me very angry.]
The Conductor stood over Qin Lan and looked down at him.
[I decide how long the train remains at a station. And now, I intend to depart.]
[Since you failed to disembark, then–]
Qin Lan waved and smiled brilliantly.
“Conductor, after talking to me for so long, did you never wonder why I kept you chatting?”
The Conductor froze, suddenly sensing something.
Behind him, Xue Chuan, who had remained silent, breathed out and produced an Embroidered Shoe.
A bloodstained Embroidered Shoe.
“A while ago, I quietly asked my friend whether he could draw absolutely anything.”
“His answer delighted me.”
Qin Lan grinned and added in a voice only he could hear,
“It took twenty-five attempts, but as long as it kills you, that’s enough.”
This was not Qin Lan’s first time meeting the Conductor.
More precisely, this was his twenty-fifth resurrection.
In every loop, Qin Lan had Xue Chuan draw frantically from his pocket, trying to produce something capable of confronting a 3-Star instance.
At last, they had hit hard pity.
Tap, tap.
Tap, tap.
Light footsteps echoed through the carriage, seemingly belonging to a slender woman.
The sound alone evoked a graceful figure.
But it was accompanied by terrifyingly dense resentment.
[No. Impossible!]
[This subway is my domain! How did you get in?!]
Terror entered the Conductor’s voice.
“Hard pity,” Qin Lan said, looking at the woman who had appeared in the carriage. He took a deep breath and smelled only icy air thick with blood.
“Resentment this strong… That should make those Embroidered Shoes a 4-Star cursed artifact, right?”