“A dedicated communicator from Truth Corporation?” Lin Yu asked with curiosity.
Pang Kedo nodded. “Exactly. This device is a top-tier confidential communicator... it’s only used to transmit the highest-level orders from the company’s headquarters board to various supervisors. Whoever holds it has at least B-1 level privileges within the company.”
“Ordinary people who get it can’t open it—only authenticated users can normally use it.”
“Not only that... even if you kidnapped a senior executive, you still couldn’t force them to unlock this box, because this thing can even detect whether the user is under threat.”
“That powerful?” Lin Yu found it hard to believe, his skepticism obvious.
But after taking the unassuming black box Pang Kedo had “seized” and reading its item description, Lin Yu saw confirmation of Pang Kedo’s claims.
[Classified Communicator]
[Description: A communicator able to automatically recognize the user’s soul state. Only authenticated users who are fully conscious and emotionally calm can open and use its encrypted communication functions.]
Lin Yu shared the item description with Li Nian and Chen Zhuo, then tossed it to Wang Yuyang.
Li Nian raised an eyebrow. “This is pretty thoroughly designed. It gives the impression that if a senior executive gets kidnapped, they aren’t expected to die.”“Even if they die, the company’s interests are above their lives,” Pan Yuqiang commented. “Very Truth Corporation style. But it’s genuinely disturbing.”
Hearing such a respectful, normal view of human life come from a Psychological Society member made Lin Yu’s expression somewhat odd.
It seemed Miss Pan Yuqiang was an outlier in that twisted organization.
That made Lin Yu even more curious—how did she decide to join the Psychological Society, and how did she awaken as an Assassin?
However, this wasn’t a good moment to pry. Right now Lin Yu’s focus was the current dungeon.
“So among those dead people, was there a Truth Corporation supervisor?” he asked.
Pang Kedo shook his head after thinking. “I don’t think so. The person I found the communicator on earlier looked like just a Sleepless City criminal... tattoos, a vicious face, cheap worn clothing. The emotional residue on the corpse was muddled and mixed—nothing like a company executive.”
Pang Kedo walked to the center of the dining car and lifted the corpse from which he had removed the communicator—indeed, the clothing and demeanor made him look like a brutal gang member who’d lived on the fringes of society for years.
“But he could have been the squad leader or head of this group of thieves. That communicator might have been looted by him or ‘rewarded’ to him by some big shot.”
“After all... if that big shot was also sent onto the Despair Train, just like me—exiled here—then the communicator loses its core purpose and becomes nothing more than a slightly better signal, interference-resistant device.”
Pang Kedo analyzed calmly and logically, though his expression darkened slightly when he mentioned being “exiled.”
Li Nian showed an approving look. “Not bad, Mr. Pang Kedo. Didn’t expect a combatant like you to be so sharp.”
Wang Yuyang chimed in to back up Pang Kedo’s point. “Indeed, that guy did carry some authority in this dining car... If I’d known his connections ran that deep, I wouldn’t have killed him outright.”
His voice carried a hint of regret as he spoke.
Pan Yuqiang smiled and added, “Luckily, while they had only been dead a short time and I was collecting train tickets, I used my Spirit Ring to ask a few questions.”
Wang Yuyang looked at Pan Yuqiang, his face softening into a sweet smile. “I knew you wouldn’t overthink hurting scum like them, so I naturally helped you fill in the blanks.”
“Anyway, I probably wouldn’t have needed to act in the fight,” Pan Yuqiang said, and Wang Yuyang ruffled her hair. “Well done. Truly worthy of being Yuqiang.”
Li Nian couldn’t help but scoff. “Ugh, can you speak seriously for once!”
Pan Yuqiang looked at Li Nian with a neutral expression. “Of course—those thugs did, in fact, have a higher-ranking figure trapped on the train leading them...”
“Not only that, I also have a fair understanding of the general layout of the Despair Train.”
“We came from Carriage 4. In the previous carriage we met two-wheeled robots and defeated them. After that, we encountered three people from Carriage 3 who called themselves the ‘Airport Gang.’”
“Before Yuyang killed them, he got information through interrogation—on the Despair Train, if you harm other beings with souls and emotions, you can be rewarded at the dining car.”
“Delicious food, cigarettes, clean clothes, weapons... even ‘ticket fragments.’”
“And once you collect enough ‘ticket fragments,’ you can assemble a complete ‘train ticket.’”
“The ‘train ticket’ is the proof to leave the Despair Train—although the Despair Train never stops, Truth Corporation has a way to put people on board, so naturally it has a way to let people leave.”
“After hearing this, Yuyang and I went to Carriage 3—that’s the dining car and the Airport Gang’s stronghold, with thirteen members.”
“I had wanted to negotiate with the Airport Gang, but the gang members all seemed to be criminals who’d been placed on the train by Truth Corporation. They were rude to me at first sight.”
Wang Yuyang sighed. “I hate those who can’t control their desires. They live like beasts, squandering the human ‘nature’ they were born with.”
Pan Yuqiang shrugged. “So Yuyang killed them all...”
“Luckily I have a Spirit Ring,” Pan Yuqiang jingled the pretty silver-and-green ring on her right-hand middle finger. “The dead are more honest than the living, so I learned the situation on the Despair Train.”
“Because the train’s rules encourage the trapped people to kill each other, whenever there’s an announcement that new passengers have boarded, nearby ‘veterans’ prepare to hunt them.”
“Veterans usually appear after the train automatically releases two- to four-wheeled ‘weapon tests.’”
“And if those newcomers show sufficient strength, the veterans will try to recruit them into their factions—after all, it’s not only the newly boarded passengers who must face the weapons Truth Corporation drops.”
“Every 24 hours there’s a random weapon drop that targets random carriages and chases passengers for one hour... that can be handled by running, so it’s not a big problem.”
“But roughly every 72 hours, the entire train undergoes a massive three-hour purge—that’s not something you can just hide and run from.”