The moment Yan Mingguang opened it, Yan Wei sensed an eerie and ominous aura. A chilling cold crept up his spine, as if countless eyes were watching from the shadows.
Although there was no sense of impending death, a coldness still enveloped him, dropping the temperature in the entire sleeping compartment by several degrees.
“This is what we exchanged with the people who were targeted today,” Yan Mingguang said. “I gave them the information we currently have and told them how we avoided death last night. In return, they gave us this file they stole from the Attendant’s room.”
Though Yan Mingguang spoke casually, it must have taken considerable effort since he and Xu Miaomiao had been gone for so long.
Yan Wei glanced at Yan Mingguang.
He recalled Yan Mingguang’s style from when they used to tackle instances together. Given the man’s daily word count, it was likely that during the negotiation, Yan Mingguang simply stood there while Xu Miaomiao did all the talking, her throat probably parched by the end.
Yan Wei: “…”
He felt a bit of sympathy for Xu Miaomiao.
“Did they look through the file?” Yan Wei asked, then immediately felt it was a pointless question—who would get their hands on a clue and not read it thoroughly before exchanging it?
But this file was indeed very useful.
As Yan Mingguang slowly flipped through the pages, Yan Wei’s expression grew increasingly serious.
After a while.
Lost in thought, Yan Wei suddenly sneezed, instinctively leaning closer to Yan Mingguang to seek warmth.
Yan Mingguang closed the file, which they had already read from start to finish, his expression unchanged. He calmly took out a thick jacket and draped it over Yan Wei.
The jacket was clearly Yan Mingguang’s, much larger than Yan Wei’s frame, and when draped over him, who was already wearing a trench coat, it looked like a child wrapped in a large quilt. Yan Wei, who was used to wearing only a sleek and convenient trench coat no matter where he went, suddenly felt a bit awkward—if Lin Zhen saw this, he would probably call him “a little pet” without hesitation.
He raised his hand to grab the edge of the jacket, about to take it off, and said, “I’ll just put on another layer inside…”
Yan Mingguang, without hesitation, grabbed his hand.
The man’s large palm immediately enveloped the back of his hand, warmth spreading through the contact, but the grip was firm and unyielding. Not only could Yan Wei not push him away, but Yan Mingguang also used the opportunity to adjust the jacket, making it fit more snugly.
As he moved, Yan Wei caught the scent of soap on Yan Mingguang’s coat, the same clean and refreshing scent as the man himself, with a hint of coolness.
Yan Wei: “…”
He shot a sideways glance at Yan Mingguang, thinking that although this man hadn’t changed in the slightest since their reunion, his possessiveness and his knack for acting like a gentleman had increased tenfold.
It wasn’t a big deal, so he didn’t object anymore. Wrapped in Yan Mingguang’s coat, he leaned against Yan Mingguang, waiting for Ding Xiao and the others to return.
He said, “At the latest, tomorrow.”
“We really can’t afford to lose many more people. Four died last night, and we don’t know if those two today will escape their fate. If only ten people are left tomorrow…”
Then there’s already a greater than fifty percent chance that the bed numbers appearing on the blackboard tomorrow will be among the five of us.
Yan Wei sneered, “The consciousness controlling all this is quite the strategist. If this were a normal Eighty-ninth Floor Instance, no matter how difficult, with our stats and Items, we could brute force our way through at worst. It’s improved—the last top-floor instance I went to, it only increased the strength of the NPCs. Now it’s learned to level the playing field by sealing our stats.”
He wasn’t afraid yet, but that despicable thing was already scared.
If he and Yan Mingguang had their usual stats, based on all the clues they had now, they could brute force their way through immediately.
“The top floor can’t interfere with the form of the instance,” Yan Mingguang said. “We’ll get through this even easier than the Eighty-ninth Floor.”
They had saved their data from their first Ascension. Although the format reset had prevented Yan Wei from succeeding the first time, it also gave him the opportunity to accumulate additional values. Now, not only did he have the over ten thousand Body Index and Perception gained from his first Ascension, but he also had the several thousand Body Index and Perception from reaching the Forty-ninth Floor in his second Ascension. If their stats hadn’t been sealed in this floor, Yan Wei’s Perception would already be close to twenty thousand.
Even among the high-level Players who stood out from countless others, stats usually fluctuated around ten thousand. Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang’s stats were already double that of normal high-level Players.
No matter how long this train was, he could probably cover it instantly.
Yan Wei: “If the top floor dares to impersonate you again, I’ll smash its head in.”
Yan Mingguang chuckled softly but said nothing.
After a while, Ding Xiao emerged from the bathroom. Having stayed in that small, filthy space for so long, he reeked of decay. Lin Qing, who had dismantled and reassembled the floor, seemingly out of consideration for Yan Wei’s cleanliness, both hurried back to their respective sleeping compartments to clean up.
Xu Miaomiao arrived first, handing Yan Wei two key cards. “These are the key cards we took from Zhao Jingchen and He Dong’s bodies. Lin Qing went to get them while we were waiting for Sister Ding. It’s safer for you to have them tonight in case you need to access their room.”
“Thanks,” Yan Wei said, taking them.
“What did you find in the file?”
Yan Wei: “Let’s wait for Lin Qing and Ding Xiao to come back so we can discuss it together. That way, we won’t have to repeat ourselves, and we can cross-reference it with the Retrospection Ding Xiao saw.”
Xu Miaomiao sat down on the bunk opposite Yan Wei and Yan Mingguang. She glanced at the jacket Yan Wei was wearing and couldn’t help but say, “Are you treating this instance like a vacation resort? I’m going blind.”
Yan Wei, used to retorting, fired back, “Then close your eyes.”
“I was already deaf last night.”
“…”
Yan Wei fell silent.
“By the way, next time you talk to Sister Ding, be careful. I know you’re a bit arrogant, but Sister Ding actually has a terrible temper. The more she smiles, the angrier she is. Don’t just assign her tasks just because she smiles at you.”
Yan Wei: “Actually…”
“She only has patience when it comes to your Blackbird’s missing leader. That’s why, over the years, even though we didn’t know Lin Qing, our Manjusaka and Blackbird have had a good relationship, and Sister Ding has given you all some face. That person is indeed a legend, but in her eyes, you’re just a newcomer,” Xu Miaomiao spoke with rare sincerity. “You’re not that legendary leader of Blackbird.”
Yan Wei fell completely silent.
After a while, Lin Qing and Ding Xiao arrived. The cramped sleeping compartment suddenly felt even smaller with five people inside. Yan Wei’s feet could easily bump into Ding Xiao and Xu Miaomiao sitting opposite him, while Lin Qing had to stand by the door.
The cold air seemed to warm up a bit.
Having just spent a while in the foul-smelling bathroom, Ding Xiao showed no resentment and even smiled at Yan Wei. “I saw something crucial. What about you? What did you find in the file?”
“A lot. The entire framework of this instance is in there, but it’s missing one key piece. I think what you saw can fill that gap.”
Yan Wei shared the framework he had pieced together with Lin Qing and the others.
This train had never carried passengers—or rather, it had never carried normal passengers other than Players like them.
In the Tower World, the higher the floor, the more likely it is to encounter instances that no one has ever cleared. These instances are adjusted in terms of elements and content, then stored back into the Instance Pool, waiting to be entered by Players again.
This instance was one of those. The passenger list from the moment they boarded was recorded in the last part of the file. Yan Wei even recognized some names from his first Ascension.
All these people had died because this train held a secret that couldn’t be discovered.
This secret was called “Blue Sky.” Unlike the perpetual rain outside, this train originated from the Blue Sky Project, a plan that mobilized many talents with the goal of creating a train that would never stop.
Not an endless train, but a train that would never stop.
The train’s name was Blue Sky.
The file began with the contents of the Blue Sky Project, including the list of workers involved, expenditures, materials, time spent, and the project schedule. The investor, who was also the train conductor, was named Li Mao. He had spent over a decade of his life on this project.
Of course, it failed.
In the end, funding dried up, and the project was abandoned. Only a few dozen workers from the Blue Sky Project remained on the train, continuing the impossible plan.
The file contained the living information of these workers, starting from carriage number ten, which was also the range of carriages they could occupy.
Apart from that, at the end of the project schedule, there was only one sentence.
“I’ve thought of a way.—Li Mao”
“The handwriting matches the previous records,” Yan Wei said, as Yan Mingguang flipped to the relevant sections for them to see. “In other words, this file is like Li Mao’s personal log, all written by him. Pay attention to the way the numbers are written in each expenditure record. Doesn’t it look familiar?”
Lin Qing: “The Death List.”
“The Attendant is Li Mao,” Xu Miaomiao confirmed. “That makes sense, since those two said they stole the file from the Attendant’s room. What method did he think of?”
Yan Wei, his hands folded and his chin buried in the oversized coat, said, “It doesn’t say, nor does it explain why the train has become what it is now. Not only does it appear to never stop, but it also has no end. Yet the original design blueprint in the file mentions that the planned number of carriages was around two to three hundred.”
Yan Mingguang: “The only possibility is that some dark method was used.”
Yan Mingguang closed the file and placed it on the table. Yan Wei looked at Ding Xiao and said, “That’s the missing piece I was talking about.”
Ding Xiao nodded. “It aligns with what I saw in the Retrospection. The method to stop all this was also revealed…”
Yan Wei raised an eyebrow—although they had pieced this together step by step, wasn’t it a bit too easy?
Ding Xiao’s next words resolved his doubts. “Yes, obtaining the method to break the situation seems too smooth, but I think it’s because the method… is practically impossible to achieve.”
In the Death Oppression Instance, the method to break the situation is to find an Item closely related to everything. Once found by the Players, the Item would transform into a Stairway, leading them out of the instance.
Yan Wei chuckled, “At worst, we’ll just confront Li Mao or those dirty things head-on. How hard can it be?”
Ding Xiao: “The Item we need to find, which represents the Stairway, is at the front of the train.”
Yan Wei: “…”
Where the hell is the front of this train?
The front of a human head, maybe.
