Chapter 301: Suddenly, a Madman Sharpens His Blade in the Night

"The Magic Energy Shield is truly impressive."

Nightfall had arrived, and at this moment, the train was still speeding along the tracks.

Seeming to realize that the iron lump before them was not easy to deal with, the swarm of gold-eating insects had long since departed, and the few people inside the carriage, seeing this, pulled the metal sliding door in front of the window back open.

"It's so beautiful." At this moment, the train passed by a lake; the deep blue ice reflected the figure of the train as it passed, and on both banks of the lake grew emerald green pine trees, while a crescent moon slowly rose from the distant horizon. "Yes, it really is beautiful." Hearing Iliyasi's words, Yun Mu looked out the window and nodded in agreement.

The Federal Capital was deep in the interior, very far from the seaside.

It would take many hours of train travel to arrive.

Therefore, tonight, they would rest inside the train carriage.

"Wow~ hot water after a workout is so comfortable." Inside the bathroom, Lita's voice drifted out.

"Haa~" Brenna leaned against the bed in the carriage, flipping through a book in her hand, and let out a silent yawn.

"I feel a bit tired," she said.

"If you're tired, get some rest early." Hearing her words, Yun Mu turned her head and said, "Don't push yourself too hard."

"Mm, I know." Brenna closed the book in her hand and tossed it into the storage item she carried with her.

She pulled up the quilt on the bed and lay down on her side: "Miss Yun should also rest early; we have to get up early tomorrow."

The train was expected to arrive at the Federal Capital at four o'clock tomorrow morning, and the current time was ten twenty-three in the evening.

Hmm. For a Transcendental, this amount of time was perfectly sufficient for rest.

But Iliyasi was just an ordinary person; this time was already considered very late for her, and besides, she had to get up early at four o'clock tomorrow morning. "It's getting late, everyone should rest early." Thinking of this, Yun Mu said to Iliyasi, who was sitting by the window admiring the scenery.

"Oh, um, okay." Looking at the lake outside with some reluctance, Iliyasi nodded in agreement.

"You'll see it again in the future." Yun Mu noticed her expression and said softly.

While speaking, she silently committed the scene outside to memory, intending to draw this lake when she practiced painting tomorrow.

Just consider it a surprise for Iliyasi; she hoped she would be happy when she received it tomorrow.

"Good night."

After Lita came out of the bathroom, the four people in the carriage lay down on their comfortable beds one after another, and under the moonlight shining through the train window, they slowly drifted into dreamland.

"Inhale, exhale."

"It really is quiet."

Inside the head of the Magic Train, a middle-aged Minotaur wearing a conductor's uniform had a cigarette dangling from his mouth, his gaze fixed on the pitch-black road ahead as he spoke.

"Thump, thump, thump."

Several heavy knocks came from behind; the Minotaur conductor pressed his cigarette into the ashtray to extinguish it, then stood up and walked toward the cabin door: "Who is it, coming at such a late hour..."

Click.

The door opened, and appearing before him was someone the Minotaur conductor was very familiar with.

"It's Kesa, is something the matter?"

The person who had come was a kind-faced young Dog Beastman; on top of his head grew a pair of pale yellow ears, and behind him was a tail with almost all its fur shed.

The young man wore a pair of glasses, his eyes narrowed beneath the frames, looking as if he were a bit sleepy.

"Sorry, Senior, I can't seem to fall asleep," he said. "Could you let me watch the train?"

"This..." The Minotaur conductor looked somewhat hesitant.

The Magic Train itself had no motive power, but inside the driver's cab at the head of the train, one could control the train's movement and functions like the activation of the Magic Energy Shield by issuing commands.

Actually, it made no difference whether someone was watching or not, but for the sake of safety, someone usually had to be on guard in the cockpit at all times.

Kesa was the deputy conductor, specifically responsible for driving during the day, while he was responsible for the evening shift.

"You should know, Kesa, this isn't according to the rules." After thinking for a moment, the Minotaur conductor still shook his head in refusal.

"You're needed for your shift tomorrow morning, go back and rest."

"Even if you can't sleep, it's still better than not resting..."

"No, as for resting, forget it." Kesa interrupted him, a somewhat eerie smile suddenly appearing on his face.

"Hmm?" The Minotaur conductor sensed something amiss and subconsciously frowned.

However, before he could react, a sharp pain came from his heart on the left side of his chest.

"You, you..."

Staggering backward, the Minotaur conductor opened his eyes wide, staring fixedly at the blood-stained deputy conductor, Kesa.

"Please, Senior, go and get some more rest. From here on out, I will be the one to control this train."

"Hehe, hehehe, hahahahaha!" Kesa could not stop laughing aloud.

He kicked the corpse on the floor away, then locked the cockpit door from the inside, took a connection cable from the back of his neck, and plugged it into the cockpit's control console.

First, he had to lift the Federation's control restrictions on the train, then open the Magic Energy Shield, and then push the train's speed to the maximum... In just two hours, this train would lose its traction on the tracks due to excessive speed, and then derail and fall apart in a runaway state.

The moment it broke free from the traction, everyone inside the train would be subjected to immense force, and he, naturally, would be no exception.

But what of it?

A world like this might as well be destroyed sooner rather than later.

Kesa opened his eyes at this moment, his lifeless pupils filled with suppression and madness.

"Miss Yun, Miss Yun!"

Brenna's voice came to her ears, and Yun Mu, who had only just fallen asleep not long ago, opened her eyes.

"Mmm... is something the matter, Brenna?" She opened her eyes and looked at her with some confusion: "Didn't you say earlier that you were very sleepy?"

There was no need to check the time; thanks to the effect of the Reversing Pocket Watch, Yun Mu knew very clearly that the current time was 12:00 AM on November 20th, Heral Calendar year 4243.

It had only been about an hour and a half since they had fallen asleep.

"The speed is a bit off," Brenna said to her with a solemn expression.

"Speed?"

"What speed?" Yun Mu looked at her, somewhat bewildered.

"The speed of the train, of course." Brenna pointed toward the scenery rapidly receding outside the window: "This is already about 1.5 times the daytime speed!" "Ah?"

"This, isn't it a good thing that the speed has increased?" Yun Mu was a bit puzzled, but she reacted quickly, her brain, just awakened from sleep, instantly clearing up.

"1.5 times!?"

"That's not right, is it?" She stood up, looking somewhat surprised.

"Could it be over at the engine..." Before she could finish her sentence, the expression on her face became very serious: "I smell blood, right inside the train's engine."

"Someone is dead."

"Someone is dead!?" A surprised cry suddenly came from Lita's bed. The two looked toward the sound and saw her looking at them with a shocked expression.

"Shh, keep it down!" Yun Mu subconsciously held a finger to her lips, warning her in a low voice.

However, her reminder was ultimately a bit late, as Iliyasi slowly opened her eyes, looking at the few people in the carriage with a dazed expression.

"Mm... what are you all doing?" She asked, rubbing her eyes as if she lacked energy.

"Sigh." Yun Mu sighed with slight helplessness, then simply explained her and Brenna's discovery to them.

"I intend to go to the engine to investigate the situation," she said.

"I'll go with Miss Yun." No sooner had she finished speaking than Brenna immediately spoke up to add.

"Mm." Yun Mu nodded lightly, not intending to refuse.

"Let's all go together; that way we can look out for each other."

She felt uneasy leaving Iliyasi here; it was better to bring her along so that even if they encountered any danger, she and Brenna could protect her.

"Mm, let's go together!" Lita nodded in agreement upon hearing her words.

Having made up their minds, everyone in the carriage left their beds one after another.

Yun Mu quickly put on her gear, and once the other three were mostly ready, she led them forward toward the front carriage.

Their carriage was not far from the engine, and it was only a two-minute walk.

Every door lock encountered along the way was opened by Yun Mu using her lockpicking skills; it turned out that even in the Federation, where Magic Technology was quite advanced, the doors used on the train were merely normal mechanical structures.

They were all items she could unlock in just a few seconds.

However, thanks to these locks, her lockpicking skill had unexpectedly leveled up! It even provided her with a quite useful trait.

【After arduous training and study, your passive skill 【Lockpicking lv5】 has increased to 【Lockpicking lv6】】 【You have gained the trait 【Touch of Unlocking】!】 【Your lockpicking craft has transcended reason; simply by touching it with your hand, you have a certain probability of unlocking everything, including magic locks!】

Good, good, good; now she doesn't even need a lockpick.

Furthermore, even the combination locks and magic locks that Yun Mu previously had no way of dealing with now had the possibility of being undone.

Although she wasn't very clear on the probability of this unlocking, it didn't matter.

With the increase in skill level, she believed that sooner or later, no lock in the world would be able to block her path.

"Click."

Yun Mu touched it lightly with her hand, and the metal lock leading to the forward carriage was opened.

By now they had reached the engine of the Magic Train, and just as they entered, they saw the corpse of the minotaur conductor lying on the ground.

And the Dog Beastman youth Kesa, who was sitting in the train's driver's seat with a connection cable extending from the back of his neck, linked to the Magic Train's control system.

"Bang!!"

The other party seemed to have anticipated that Yun Mu and the others would come. The moment the door was opened, following a deafening gunshot, the pistol in Kesa's hand spat out a scorching tongue of flame, firing a bullet toward Yun Mu, who was walking in the lead.

"Clang~"

An earthy-yellow Earth Dragon Shield flashed before Yun Mu, directly deflecting Kesa's bullet! The bullet ricocheted around the cramped driver's cabin with a clatter, scaring Brenna into immediately shielding Iliyasi behind her.

Yun Mu, however, gave the other party no chance to fire a second shot; she took a step forward and with a "bang," punched the youth, knocking him fiercely to the ground!

"Without a doubt, this guy is the one who killed the conductor," Yun Mu said after subduing Kesa, looking at the corpse of the minotaur conductor lying on the floor.

"The reason for the train's acceleration is likely this guy's doing as well..."

Brenna walked to the control console of the train's driver's cabin and reached out to adjust the gear controlling the train's speed downward.

"It's no use, there's no response." She shook her head helplessly, then began to test the train's other functions.

Fortunately, aside from the brakes, speed control, and Magic Energy Shield, the train's other functions were normal.

It was just that the train's current speed showed absolutely no sign of decreasing.

If things continued this way, even if the train didn't derail, they would crash headlong into the station at the Federal Capital!

"Do you want me to interrogate this guy?" Lita said, looking at Kesa with an unfriendly expression.

As a former Guard of the Frost Kingdom, she still had some experience in how to interrogate prisoners.

"Hehehe... do whatever you want to mess with me; no one can save this train." At this moment, the Dog Beastman Kesa suddenly let out a sinister laugh, his tone cold as he spoke.

"Why do this?" Iliyasi appeared very puzzled: "If the train has an accident, you wouldn't be able to escape it either."

"Need you ask?" Hearing Iliyasi's words, Kesa grinned: "Anyway, I never intended to keep living; wouldn't it be perfect to take a whole train of people with me as cushions when I die?"

"Hmph, there's no point in talking to a lunatic like this. The most urgent matter is to find a solution as soon as possible." Yun Mu gave a light huff and looked at Brenna: "Can we disconnect the carriages from each other, or where they link to the engine?"

"No, it can't be done," Brenna answered without hesitation: "The train's Magic Energy Shield is locked; unless we shut that thing off, it's impossible for us to disconnect the train's couplers."

"Moreover, the Federation's Magic Train is different from our Steam Train; the engine itself has no power. The true power source comes from the tracks, so even if we disconnected the couplers linking the carriages to the engine, it wouldn't affect the train's speed in the slightest."

"Damn it... then what should we do?" Lita appeared somewhat anxious.

There were still so many passengers in the train's carriages; if an accident occurred as Kesa envisioned, the consequences would be simply unimaginable.

"Besides this guy and the dead conductor, are there any other staff members who can alter the train's operational commands?" Brenna pondered for a moment and said.

"We probably don't have that much time... Wait, I suddenly thought of a method."

The Cat Ear on top of Yun Mu's head twitched lightly, and she took the item 【Phylactery of the Necromancer】 out from her bosom.

Ever since she obtained this piece of equipment, she hadn't used it even once; she didn't expect the first time she used it would be under these circumstances— "Come out, Necromancer!"

(End of chapter)