Chapter 113: The Investigator's Guide to the Train

A Guide to the Textile Train…

Chen Qi returned to his Traveler’s Box and carefully read through the guide written by his predecessor.

It was a PDF document, and the formatting of the entire guide had the distinct air of a college thesis.

Chen Qi skimmed through it and muttered inwardly:

“Hopefully this guide isn’t padded with too much filler.”

The guide was only four pages long, including its illustrations, so it was not particularly lengthy.

At the beginning, the investigator offered some basic information about the Textile Train.

The Textile Train was a massive train that traveled through the Land of Faint Light. It was extraordinarily long. The investigator had originally attempted to determine exactly how many carriages it possessed, but had failed.

According to the information he had gathered, the Textile Train spent one month of every year in the Land of No Light, two months in the Land of Faint Light, and the rest of the year in an unknown location within the New Capital.

During those two months each year, the Textile Train would begin moving, circling the outer regions of the entire New Capital. Those outer regions were the Land of Faint Light.

At the end of this section, the investigator had emphasized one particular point: although it was called a “train,” neither its internal and external structure nor the direction in which it traveled could be compared with that of an ordinary train.

The investigator stated in the guide that although the train’s route supposedly followed the pattern of “circling half the outer ring of the New Capital,” its actual journey was bizarre beyond belief. No one knew where it would go next.

A train capable of traveling through the Land of No Light for an entire month.

This train really was no ordinary train…

Chen Qi continued reading.

The document contained a roughly hand-drawn map, crude in the extreme.

It was a blurry, handwritten “Textile Train route map” compiled by the investigator.

Several major locations had been circled on the map, with notes indicating the times at which the Textile Train might arrive.

The investigator had even specified that if one waited at a marked location for three days without seeing the train, that meant the Textile Train would not be arriving there.

Chen Qi skimmed through the text and could not help frowning.

According to the guide, reaching the Textile Train would be no easy task.

Based on the times marked on the map, getting to the Textile Train required not only patience, but luck as well.

Chen Qi enlarged the map.

It did not depict the entire New Capital in detail. It merely marked several districts along the city’s outer ring and recorded the approximate times at which the Textile Train passed through them.

District Eight of the New Capital, marked with a crude sketch of a prison, stood out particularly clearly—for the simple reason that it was the roughest drawing of all.

District Seven, by contrast, had been drawn with the greatest precision.

Was the investigator a player who had started in District Seven of the New Capital…?

Chen Qi pursed his lips and looked at the times marked on the map.

The New Capital had a calendar as well, consisting of twelve months, with roughly thirty days in each month.

According to the information gathered by the investigator, the Textile Train passed through District Eight between the tenth and fifteenth days of the fifth month. During that period, there was a high probability of encountering the Textile Train in the Land of Faint Light.

Chen Qi rubbed his chin.

He would have to check the date.

Unlike on Earth, checking the date in the New Capital was somewhat troublesome.

Because the burning of the Day was unstable, the people of the New Capital could not record the passage of time according to the rising and setting of the sun.

Ordinary mechanical clocks, meanwhile, were extremely prone to damage. During the bitter winter, many clocks could not measure time accurately.

As a result, small settlements in the New Capital found it difficult to keep track of the date. Most people who wanted to know the exact date had to rely on places with great clock towers, such as Black River Prison, the Tower of Medicine, or the Seekers’ Headquarters.

Fortunately, Chen Qi was currently in the Tower of the Calamity Messengers. It was not some small settlement, but the headquarters of the Calamity Messengers.

The Tower of the Calamity Messengers possessed not only a library rarely found elsewhere, but also a clock tower devoted specifically to recording the passage of time.

Chen Qi opened the New Sun game, clicked on the Calamity Messengers’ map, and examined the various locations within the tower that he could visit.

The Crow Flock Cafeteria, the Crow Landing, the Clock Tower Chamber, the Observatory, and several others.

Chen Qi clicked on the description of the Clock Tower Chamber.

【Clock Tower Chamber: A place responsible for recording the passage of time. Once every month, a clockmaker comes to check and synchronize the clocks.

You have heard the Calamity Messengers say that this room is also where they relax and chat in their spare time.】

“I should buy a watch when I get the chance…”

After thinking for a moment, Chen Qi clicked on the Clock Tower Chamber and chose to depart.

【You straighten your clothes, take a piece of dried meat from your bag, and hold it between your teeth.

You leave the guest room and walk down the corridor.

You lighten your footsteps, carefully passing the room where the Calamity Messengers meditate. Then you cross the stairway, push open a door, and enter the Clock Tower Chamber of the Tower of the Calamity Messengers.】

【You arrive at the Clock Tower Chamber. The view here is excellent. Set into the wall of the room is a three-meter-tall, circular mechanical clock that turns ceaselessly, recording the passage of time.】

【Several long tables have been placed throughout the room. Calamity Messengers who have just returned from missions outside are drinking and chatting.】

【You find a seat and sit down. While eating your dried meat, you glance at the clock. Beside it, a date has been written in antique bronze lettering: the fifth day of the fifth month.】

The fifth day of the fifth month?

Chen Qi memorized the date and compared it with the calendar of the New Capital.

“Five days left…”

That meant that over the next five days, there was a chance he might encounter the Textile Train in the Land of Faint Light beyond District Eight of the New Capital.

If he failed to board this train, then unless he traveled to the Land of Faint Light outside another district, he would probably have no chance of visiting the Textile Train this year.

As far as time went, it was still sufficient…

Chen Qi picked up the invitation to the Textile Train. The invitation did not specify a time or place.

Having committed the date to memory, he continued reading the guide.

The next section listed several monsters.

Among the creatures mentioned were White Cocoon Spiders and Sky Wraiths, all of which were monsters that clung to the train.

They were powerful, high-level monsters. With his current strength, defeating one would not be a problem, but if they appeared in groups, they would become extremely troublesome.

The investigator listed several methods for avoiding these monsters.

Chen Qi committed their characteristics to memory.

In summary, the earlier sections of the guide served two primary purposes. First, they gave him a basic understanding of the Textile Train. Second, the map allowed him to use the date to locate it.

The following section, however, made his eyes light up.

Based on his experience, the investigator divided the carriages of the Textile Train into three major categories.

The first category consisted of ordinary carriages.

These were the carriages occupied by the investigator and most other players.

Many passengers who traveled to the Textile Train remained in the ordinary carriages.

There was only a simple order in those carriages, and no one was responsible for their safety.

Passengers from every district arrived there with all kinds of motives, and most of them lived in the ordinary carriages.

There were no strict restrictions in the ordinary carriages, and passengers could move about freely.

The investigator recommended finding a carriage inhabited by someone radiating the presence of a powerful being.

Since the conductors were not responsible for the safety of the ordinary carriages, powerful monsters occasionally appeared there after nightfall.

Having enough strong individuals in the same carriage could ensure one’s safety.

Ideally, one should choose a powerful person of the same sex who also possessed a normal temperament. The investigator stated that he had once encountered a powerful hunter in an ordinary carriage, and that hunter had made his journey considerably safer.

The second category consisted of the VIP carriages.

In the VIP carriages, the conductors provided various services. They also prohibited all fighting, making the VIP carriages the safest of all.

The investigator stated in the guide that he had not possessed the qualifications to remain in a VIP carriage at the time. He had merely passed through one.

To gain access to a VIP carriage, one had to obtain an invitation. The investigator knew of two methods.

First, purchase an “invitation” with a rare item found within the New Capital.

Second, complete a task assigned by the trainmaster.

The investigator repeatedly emphasized that obtaining an invitation required luck. He himself had failed to complete the task, and had not managed to obtain a ticket for this year’s Textile Train either.

Furthermore, those whom the Textile Train recognized as VIPs would receive special treatment from the conductors when purchasing treasures from the Land of No Light or undergoing those exquisite, peerless surgeries.

If someone tried to cheat a VIP with a counterfeit item, the conductors would personally step in and teach that person a lesson.

An invitation…

Chen Qi was startled and took out his own invitation.

According to the prompt, it was an item obtained in exchange for the Hand of the Prison Hunter.

As expected, this should be an invitation to the VIP carriage.

Chen Qi could not help feeling delighted. With this invitation, his journey aboard the train might go considerably more smoothly.

The third category consisted of workshop carriages. These carriages contained all kinds of strange workshops.

Some manufactured food. Some performed surgeries. Others handled transactions…

On the Textile Train, these carriages would open only at specific times.

Chen Qi committed this information to memory, then turned to the final section.

The concluding remarks served both as the investigator’s summary of the journey and as a source of considerable information.

They mainly explained three things.

First, there was an extraordinarily dangerous and bizarre monster aboard the Textile Train. It could impersonate one’s companions. Since the investigator had not ventured deeply into the train, he had never encountered it.

Therefore, it was best not to form a party with NPCs when traveling to the Textile Train.

Second, according to the train’s regulations, each passenger had a limited amount of time aboard the Textile Train. However, one should not wait until the conductor announced one’s departure before getting off, because it was very easy to be thrown into some strange location.

The investigator himself had once been dumped into a swamp and had nearly lost his life.

Third, if one could obtain an invitation to the Textile Train, one should do so by every possible means. Apart from strength, the invitation was extremely useful aboard the train, as it would cause a considerable number of neutral conductors to assist the holder.

At the end, the guide also listed the NPCs and players who had supported its creation, along with a warning forbidding unauthorized reproduction or redistribution.

Chen Qi glanced at the end of the document.

This guide was more than a year old and had been revised several times along the way.

It was a guide to the previous Textile Train journey. At that time, the investigator’s strength may not yet have been sufficient, and he had not ventured very deeply into the train, so the amount of information was limited.

Even so, the guide had provided Chen Qi with considerable assistance.

Resting his chin in his hand, Chen Qi let his gaze linger on the investigator’s crude map.

“This is going to be troublesome…”

Although he possessed an invitation, he was already stuck at the first obstacle.

According to the rough map, he did not even know how to reach the marked location, much less where that location actually was.

Chen Qi frowned, took the Herbalist’s Map out of the game, and compared it with the crude hand-drawn map.

Thank you all for the monthly votes and subscriptions!

There is only one chapter left. I’ve hit a block, and my thoughts feel a little muddled. The protagonist still needs more time to settle into himself, so I’ll sort out the upcoming chapters. Happy May Day tomorrow, everyone!

(End of Chapter)