Chapter 127: Substitute
This platform was still B-grade, which made Lu Jinzhao breathe a slight sigh of relief.
After obtaining her fate, she was no longer in a hurry to raise her own passenger level, after all, the higher the level of the platform, the more powerful the ghosts, and she needed some time to improve her fate to get more life-buying money.
Now after communicating with the parchment, she was even less inclined to head to a higher-level platform quickly.
If what the parchment said was true, then she only had one chance to enter a Class A platform, and after getting the first-class seat and becoming a first-class passenger, she would enter the death platform the next time the train arrived.
If it was said that passengers had an extremely high mortality rate during the newcomer period after being selected by the train, and the mortality rate only slowed after becoming high-level passengers, then the mortality rate of the special platform was a meat grinder even more terrifying than the newcomer period.
It wasn’t without reason that some people simply called the death platform the “elimination mechanism.”
Simply because its mortality rate was too high; even the passengers who entered were elites from their group, inside there they were just existences like cannon fodder.
Special class passengers could only be born on the special platform; as long as they completed the boarding ticket inspection, the level on the train ticket would become special class, but even special class passengers couldn’t guarantee they could come out alive.
Rumor had it that surviving ten special platforms would allow one to touch the train’s secrets.
But this was just a rumor, because no one had ever truly succeeded in breaking through ten times, or even five times, which was almost nonexistent.
In the past, a death platform appeared almost every six months, and the people selected to enter were randomly screened; even with extremely good luck, one could only complete it twice a year.
Ten times would take at least five years.
But this was just the ideal situation; so far, a death platform had never consecutively selected the same special class to enter.
And the process of becoming special class, the shortest time so far, still took two years.
Some speculated that perhaps the fixed number of “ten times” was just fake news released by deceased seniors to give hope to later ones.
A carrot dangling in front of one’s eyes, yet forever unreachable.
Lu Jinzhao had a premonition in her heart: if she didn’t die in the upcoming mission, then she might be able to break the minimum time to become special class.
But this wasn’t good news.
It meant the time she had to adapt to the platform and collect resources was far less than other passengers.
And this rapid growth wasn’t because she was exceptionally talented, but because there was a dog chasing behind her.
[Were you just thinking something rude?]
On the way to the train station, the parchment suddenly popped up.
“Huh? What nonsense are you saying?”
“Can you read minds now?”
Lu Jinzhao didn’t change her expression.
[No, but I sensed it.]
“Sensed what?”
[Emotion.]
Since that day when the parchment had exploded with her, it had become much more honest in speaking, seemingly thinking that since Lu Jinzhao already knew these things and would die sooner or later anyway, it might as well say whatever it wanted directly.
“Mine?” Lu Jinzhao asked knowingly.
[Of course, who else? I only ate your soul.]
The parchment looked somewhat speechless, probably thinking she was stupid for asking such a question.
“So, do you plan to tamper with this mission?” Lu Jinzhao confirmed what she wanted to know and changed the topic.
[No]
[Am I that idle?]
Aren’t you idle?
However, the parchment’s thought of wanting her dead was very certain, but it hadn’t been tampering with the platform all along, which could only be because it couldn’t.
“Looks like you’re not that omnipotent after all.”
[Heh, don’t get too smug, thinking you’ll have it easy if I don’t tamper.]
“Wow, so scary.” Lu Jinzhao brushed it off with a blank expression.
Of course she didn’t think that without the parchment tampering, the B-grade platform mission would become easy.
Just that, even if she said this, the parchment still had no intention of doing anything, so it seemed it really couldn’t.
Even though it was very powerful, its power was still limited; even though she was the only existence Lu Jinzhao knew of that could somewhat intervene with the train and platform, it apparently couldn’t intervene too much.
“That’s good.”
Lu Jinzhao no longer tried to talk to the parchment; she and the parchment seemed to have entered a “ceasefire period,” no longer constantly at odds every moment, of course, only on the surface.
She knew clearly in her heart that the parchment was waiting, waiting for the moment she entered the death platform.
And she was also waiting.
Yuncheng Train Station was as lively as ever; this somewhat outdated-looking platform carried a great deal of Yuncheng people’s memories about the era, and also carried the destinies of all passengers.
Lu Jinzhao entered the underground platform and saw this time’s teammates in the waiting room.
She didn’t come too early; as soon as she entered the platform, she saw two strangers.
“Eh, only three people?” Her gaze looked somewhat doubtfully at the waiting information, and then she discovered something that surprised her.
[Arriving Train Level: B]
[This Yuncheng Station Platform Boarding Personnel: Three]
[Personnel List: Lu Jinzhao, Qin Wan, Zhou Zimo]
[This Station: Substitute]
[Be careful, don’t let it see you, don’t let it get close, it will take everything from you.]
[Survive 12 hours.]
“So, there are more than just us participating in this platform mission?” Lu Jinzhao looked hesitantly at the two beside her and asked.
She had seen the description in the pinned post: when the waiting information showed “Yuncheng Station” in the boarding personnel column, it meant this number only represented the local city platform, and if the personnel list had a [.], it meant the list was incomplete.
This also meant that this train’s stop stations included more than just Yuncheng.
“Yes.” In the waiting room besides Lu Jinzhao, there was one male and one female; at this moment, the quite young-looking girl nodded: “You’re Lu Jinzhao?”
“Yes.” Lu Jinzhao nodded.
“What a coincidence, to cooperate with a newcomer so soon.” Qin Wan smiled, her tone very gentle, her temperament especially approachable, looking very girl-next-door.
“Cooperation platform, the other side probably also three people.” The Zhou Zimo beside her first nodded toward Lu Jinzhao, then pointed at the names to explain to her: “But it’s unclear now how many platforms are cooperating; generally speaking, B-grade missions are two platforms cooperating, six people, not low difficulty.”
“And all three of us have fates.” Qin Wan added.
“Right, Little Lu, you probably don’t know; my fate effect is luck exchange, I can swap someone’s luck for a period of time. Zhou Zimo’s fate is a bit more practical, spirit possession, very reliable.” Qin Wan said softly.
Lu Jinzhao blinked, not expecting her teammates to be so candid; she looked at Zhou Zimo’s expression, who didn’t mind at all what Qin Wan said.
Seeming to notice Lu Jinzhao’s doubt, Qin Wan explained: “As long as you survive a few more times, everyone can basically figure out their teammates’ fate effects more or less; this isn’t a secret for us, plus this time there will be people from other platforms participating.”
Qin Wan frowned: “Still don’t know which platform; although our goal is to complete the mission and deal with the ghost, it’s still best not to get too close to people from other platforms.”
Some words seemed to be swallowed by her, only saying this one piece of advice.
