See the Law of Deception

Chapter 18 Back to reality
The scenery outside the train window quickly disappeared as the train moved forward.

As we left the platform, darkness enveloped the area outside the train window.

Lu Jinzhao was tired but curious. Where exactly were the tracks for this train laid so that it only took ten minutes to travel to any destination?
Unfortunately, she couldn't see anything from the pitch black outside the window.

Lu Jinzhao leaned back in her seat, her body slumped so languidly it was almost unnatural. If she could, she would even close her eyes and go to sleep, but she was afraid that she might miss her stop on this train.

"If only there were other people who survived."

She still has many questions about the train, but now she doesn't know who to ask.

Moreover, according to Jiang Yingzhi, the [D] level is clearly the lowest level, and the platform mission should logically be the least dangerous. How could it be normal that everyone except herself was wiped out?

Lu Jinzhao couldn't be sure. All she knew was that, in her understanding, for a newbie to start with a dungeon of this level was a bit too overpowered.
Or perhaps the train mission was so dangerous that even the lowest level of danger could easily wipe out an entire trainload of passengers?
"Perhaps for the next mission, I can ask someone else."

"No, it's best to prevent a next time."

In a daze, the train returned to the Yuncheng underground station.

A notification sound, which we had heard when we boarded the bus, rang out again.

Dear passengers, this train has arrived at the station. Please disembark promptly. Have a safe journey and goodbye!

Upon hearing the sound, Lu Jinzhao mustered his strength and stood up. When the train doors opened, the familiar Yuncheng underground platform appeared outside.

"They're really back."

Even though the platform was still empty, Lu Jinzhao felt incredibly warm and familiar with it.

The moment she stepped off the train, it seemed as if the train behind her already knew that no more passengers would get off. The doors slammed shut with a bang, and without any waiting time, the train that had buried countless lives sped into the unknown darkness.

"."

Lu Jinzhao didn't want to think about the future anymore. She was extremely tired. Even though the physical pain had been cured, her brain was still throbbing. All she needed to do now was rest.

However, as she passed the waiting room, Lu Jinzhao paused, choosing not to leave the platform directly but instead walking into the waiting room.

Upon entering, the place was completely empty.

This is of course.

The screens in the waiting room were also off; they might only light up again when the next train arrives.

Seeing this, Lu Jinzhao did not linger any longer and turned to leave.

Going up the stairs where she met Jiang Yingzhi, she reached the ground-level platform of Yuncheng Railway Station. As she stepped through the door of the stairwell, a noisy and bustling sound suddenly entered her ears.

She returned to the normal world where the living reside.

Seeing the flow of people coming and going in the lobby, Lu Jinzhao was momentarily dazed. The crowd did not pay attention to a tired-looking girl. Lu Jinzhao quickly hailed a taxi outside the station and returned to her dormitory.

Before this, she had already thought of an explanation for her long "disappearance," but no one mentioned it.

When she returned to the dormitory, it wasn't a holiday, and she hadn't announced it beforehand. But her roommates' reaction when they saw her was as if she had just finished a class and returned to the dormitory.

"It seems the train intervened?"

This abnormal reaction was as if she was unable to utter Lin Zhao's "last words" no matter what she did.

Exhaustion washed over her again, and Lu Jinzhao didn't want to think about anything anymore. She lay straight down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.

She slept for a full fifteen hours without being disturbed.

When Lu woke up this morning, the lingering pain in her brain had finally subsided.

She sat up in bed and her mind tensed up when she saw the empty dormitory. She quickly looked out the window and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the normal scene downstairs and the students coming and going.

But it was at this moment that Lu Jinzhao's normally functioning brain made her realize that she might have developed some kind of PTSD because of what happened on the platform. She didn't know if other passengers would have the same condition, but it seemed unlikely that anyone who experienced something so terrifying would remain unchanged after returning to their daily life.
However, now that Lu Jinzhao's mind has returned to normal, he is finally able to review what happened before.

"It's still a matter of experience."

She thought about it and realized that as a newcomer, she didn't know anything, so she was very passive in the [Summoning Ghosts] quest. In the early stages, she didn't know what to do or what might happen.

Later on, even if you guess the key points of the mission, there is very little you can do as a defenseless newbie.

While her intelligence and composure were undoubtedly the biggest reasons she survived, luck also played a crucial role.

Is there a better way to crack this dungeon?

Lu Jinzhao began to think.

"Delay the ghost-seeing ritual until the train is about to pull into the station?"

"No, the result will be the same."

Lu Jinzhao shook his head, rejecting the idea.

"Intentionally performing an extra ritual to create two ghosts to fight each other? After all, the train only stipulates that the ritual must be completed, not that extra rituals cannot be performed."

Then she shook her head again: "No, that won't work either. The risk is too great. Unless you're desperate, doing this is no different from committing suicide."

She considered several other solutions, but they were all rejected.

"It seems there really are no loopholes in the rules."

But she came up with one last solution, which wasn't really a solution.

"The most dangerous part of this platform is that you'll face multiple ghosts trying to stop you when boarding the train. What if..."

“Kill everyone else at the beginning so they can’t perform the ghost-seeing ritual, and no more ghosts will be summoned.”

"The difficulty of the platform will be greatly reduced."

If you want to survive, it's much simpler!

Lu Jinzhao shook her head, explaining that she had only come up with this idea now that she knew all the mission information.

It would be hard to imagine anyone making such an inhumane decision at the very beginning of a mission.

During the debriefing, Lu Jinzhao recalled an extremely important matter once again.

".ticket!"

Jiang Yingzhi's train ticket is still with her.

When she reached into her pocket, besides her own ticket and the strange box, Lu Jinzhao did indeed find another ticket.

There was no information on this ticket.

The name and amount are both blank, waiting to be filled in.

It's like an unclaimed train ticket.

Lu Jinzhao suddenly recalled Lin Zhao's words before she died.

Looking back now, I wonder if she also left an unclaimed train ticket in the locker back then.

And after touching that ticket, I was locked onto the train and became a passenger?!

(End of this chapter)