Chapter 182: Anomaly On The Train
After Lu Jinzhao replied to Divine Calculator’s message, no more than half a minute passed before the other party’s message came back.
[Congratulations, you made it out alive.]
[When are you free? As soon as possible. We need to meet in person; it’s very important.]
[Best if it’s now.]
Lu Jinzhao thought for a moment and gave an address near her home.
“If you’re in a hurry, we can meet there.”
[Okay, meet there in half an hour.]
Half an hour?
It seemed she was indeed very urgent.
When Lu Jinzhao got home, she only had time to quickly rinse her body and change into clean clothes before hurrying to the agreed destination.
When she arrived, there were only about five minutes left until the agreed half hour, and soon she saw Madam Divine Calculator.
The other party was still wearing that yellow work clothes, riding a motorcycle, with a hat on her head that had a pair of rabbit ears.
Her appearance was very ordinary, skin somewhat rough, but her eyes were very bright, and her overall temperament had an indescribable cheerfulness; she was someone who seemed “lively” at first glance.
She spotted Lu Jinzhao at first sight and naturally asked as she approached, “You probably haven’t booked a compartment yet, right? I reserved one on the way; shall we go in now?”
“By the way, you just came out so you definitely haven’t eaten; I ordered some food. Eat a couple bites if you have an appetite. I’ve been delivering takeout all day and haven’t eaten either.”
Lu Jinzhao sensed a kind of “ease” from her.
The two sat down in the compartment, and Lu Jinzhao directly asked, “So what’s the matter?”
“In one sentence, someone wants to invest in you for free.”
After Divine Calculator finished speaking, she looked at Lu Jinzhao’s reaction before continuing, “Then I’ll explain in detail next.”
“Your promotion speed is very fast, but that’s not rare; after all, as long as you get a high-level supernatural item, there will always be passengers who promote quickly.”
“But you just came out of one platform not long ago and immediately entered a higher level platform; that’s too strange.”
“Unusual things happening on the train always attract attention, so I did a fortune telling.”
Divine Calculator took out her mobile phone, and the screen showed an electronic compass?
Probably seeing the subtle expression on Lu Jinzhao’s face, she explained, “This… um… is just a tool, you know, to assist with fate.”
“Of course I have a real one too, but I don’t carry it around usually; the mobile phone is so convenient.”
Scientific fortune telling; Lu Jinzhao nodded to show she understood.
“For things related to the train, I usually can’t divine too deeply or too precisely, but one thing I can confirm.”
“This platform of yours is not within the train’s cycle.”
Divine Calculator introduced a new concept.
“What is the train’s cycle?” Lu Jinzhao asked.
Divine Calculator thought for a moment and carefully answered, “Based on data from our observations and those of other deceased seniors over a long time, the train’s operation and platform appearances follow some kind of pattern.”
“I won’t go into specifics; I’ll just tell you the conclusion.”
“The train is controlling the number of passengers, whether low level passengers or high level ones.”
“It’s like constantly circling around in a loop, constantly cycling; over these years, the train has kept the number of passengers within a certain range, and this cycle has never been broken.”
“One method of control is the frequency of platform appearances.”
“Low level passengers are like cannon fodder on the battlefield, line fillers, appearing the most and most frequently, so newcomers have extremely high mortality rates.”
“On the contrary, second-class passengers have a drastically reduced mortality rate, even the lowest.”
“Many second-class passengers are the backbone of platforms, and their numbers are the highest.”
“But when passengers rise to first-class, the mortality rate starts increasing again.”
“Do you know what this means?” Divine Calculator asked.
Lu Jinzhao immediately shook her head; she was too lazy to think.
Damn it, just out of a platform, and now she had to use her brain?
Politely declined.
Seeing Lu Jinzhao not playing along, Divine Calculator pinched the duck plushie in her hand: “Fine, it means the platform difficulty is extremely unreasonable.”
“Especially for newcomers.”
“Just like many games set up newbie tutorials and some bot matches to help newbies through their most confused period, but platforms clearly aren’t like that.”
“It’s practically hunting newcomers.”
“At first, everyone thought it was cruel selection, but after decades of data were laid out, we made a shocking discovery.”
“Class D instances hunt newcomers, death platforms hunt those with talent.”
As she spoke, her eyes lit up extremely brightly, flashing with a look similar to unwillingness.
“First-class and second-class passengers can be selected for death platforms, but without exception, no mediocre high level passengers are selected, even if she is considered powerful.”
“Every one selected can be called a special existence; sometimes, we can even judge from a person’s fate whether she will be selected for a death platform.”
As she spoke, she looked at Lu Jinzhao.
The meaning in her gaze was self-evident.
“So, you mean you think I’ll be selected?”
“Almost inevitable.” Divine Calculator nodded.
“We haven’t posted this on the forum because it sounds a bit despairing.”
“The train selects those with potential, talent, ability, but then kills them off just as they are about to grow and realize their potential and talent.”
“It’s practically toying with us.”
“It wants talented people, yet doesn’t allow talented people to truly grow; why?”
When Divine Calculator said this, her tone didn’t have much doubt; she just stated the question plainly.
“Somewhat off-topic.” She paused: “Anyway, now you know; platform appearances carry some unspoken rules.”
“Even if you are exceptionally talented, if the train wants to kill you, it will do so through platforms within the cycle, not temporarily pulling people into more dangerous platforms, but… your platform this time was somewhat unusual.”
“After I learned you entered a Class A platform, I did some calculations; at first I thought it was because of your new supernatural item, but the divination showed otherwise.”
“Or rather, the reason isn’t just that one.”
“There are other factors that affected you, letting you enter a Class A platform early and breaking the cycle.”
“This situation is extremely, extremely rare; it must be very important, but I don’t know exactly why, so I hope you pay attention yourself.”
“Most importantly, this anomaly represents the train’s different attitude toward you compared to other passengers; do you understand?”
“You will… be even more dangerous.”
Divine Calculator sighed here: “We hope you can survive, so you can request one supernatural item, and we’ll find something similar in effect to provide you.”
“Consider it angel investment in you, to increase your survival probability; at least, find the reason why you caused an anomaly in the train’s cycle.”
