dmims Chapter 124 Abyss Labors and Temporary Passes
Chapter 124 Abyss Labors and Temporary Passes
The text on the screen instantly turned a blinding purple, accompanied by a faint scream.
"A spirit? What the hell?" Xiao Zhang exclaimed, pointing his rifle haphazardly at the ceiling.
Jiang Ming suddenly drew his Thunder Prison Horse-Slaying Sword.
"Spread out! Back to back!"
As soon as he finished speaking, puddles of viscous black water suddenly seeped out from the black leather floor in the center of the carriage.
The black water seemed to be alive, wriggling and gathering on the ground, and finally slowly stood up.
Those were three monsters, each about two meters tall.
They have no physical form; their bodies are composed of translucent black smoke, and their heads are simply a constantly shifting nebula.
Most terrifyingly, a huge iron hook was tightly locked in their chest cavity, and behind the hook was a long, gleaming iron chain.
[Abyss Laborer (Lv.15 - Ethereal)]
[Specialties: Physical Immunity (80%), Soul Chains.]
[Weaknesses: Lightning attribute, Psychic attack.]
"Physical immunity?" Chen Qi's heart sank when he heard Jiang Ming's low murmur. "Then what about our guns..."
"Fire! Don't let them get close!" Jiang Ming shouted.
Da da da da!
Five rifles simultaneously unleashed their fire.
The bullet pierced the black smoke monster's body, creating slight ripples, before finally clanging against the opposite carriage wall.
The monsters didn't even flinch; instead, they let out a series of sickening laughs.
"It's no use! Captain, the bullet went right through it!"
"Grenades! Use grenades!"
Chen Qi pulled out a grenade and was about to pull the pin when Jiang Ming stopped him.
"Idiot! Detonating a grenade in a closed carriage? Are you trying to send us all away too?"
Jiang Ming took a step forward, and the lightning patterns on his Zhanma Sword instantly ignited.
"Sizzle!"
A purple arc of electricity ripped through the darkness.
Instead of slashing directly, he used the tip of his sword to flick up a streak of lightning, which he then lashed out like a whip.
Snapped!
The lightning struck the first "Abyss Puppet," and the monster let out a shrill scream. Its body, made of smoke, began to boil violently as if it had been doused with sulfuric acid.
The originally illusory body actually became more solid under the baptism of lightning.
"Physical immunity isn't absolute!" Jiang Ming felt the feedback from the sword tip. "Lightning can break their ethereal form! I'll lead the attack, you guys use your bayonets, aim for the iron hooks on their chests!"
"Those iron hooks are their true form!"
Jiang Ming moved like lightning, and the Thunder Prison Horse-Slaying Sword danced in his hands, turning into a purple storm.
With each strike of his sword, a thunderous roar accompanied the forceful suppression of the spreading black smoke within a narrow area.
"roar!"
Enraged, a deep-sea laborer swung its chain violently.
Splash!
The iron chain, like a venomous snake, bypassed Jiang Ming's sword and hooked directly at the shoulder of a teammate behind him.
"Be careful!"
Chen Qi reacted quickly; he shoved the teammate, but lost his balance and fell to the ground.
The iron hook grazed his scalp, tearing the tactical camouflage netting on his helmet to shreds.
"Damn it, I'll fight you to the death!"
Chen Qi was also a ruthless man. He took advantage of the momentary stagnation created by Jiang Ming's lightning to pull out a tactical dagger from his waist and stabbed it hard into the iron hook on the monster's chest.
clang!
Sparks flew everywhere.
The dagger actually pierced the object.
The monster let out a piercing scream, and its body trembled violently.
"It works! It really works!" Chen Qi was overjoyed.
But before he could draw his dagger, the monster's body suddenly contracted inward, like a black hole, trying to suck Chen Qi's arm in.
"Back off!"
Jiang Ming arrived just in time, his sword carrying immense force, delivering a powerful horizontal strike.
boom!
The heavy blow struck the iron hook, sending the abyss laborer flying. He crashed heavily into the carriage wall and turned into a wisp of smoke.
Before everyone could breathe a sigh of relief, the "skull door" at the end of the carriage suddenly emitted a heavy scraping sound.
"Click...click click..."
The door slowly opened.
A deathly aura, a hundred times stronger than before, rushed towards us.
In the darkness, a hand dressed in a tattered, dark red uniform, with skin as dry as old tree bark, slowly rested on the door frame.
In that hand, she was also carrying a rusty copper bell.
"Ring ring—"
The bell rang crisply, yet it plunged everyone present into an ice cellar, as if their souls were being lured away by its sound.
A hoarse, hollow voice, as if squeezed from the back of a throat, drifted through the carriage:
"Ticket check..."
Jiang Ming gripped his sword tightly, his eyes fixed on the figure slowly walking out of the doorway.
He was a train conductor wearing a crooked, wide-brimmed hat, with two green will-o'-the-wisps flickering in his eye sockets.
It didn't even glance at the scattered "Abyssal Puppets," but stared straight at Jiang Ming and the others, its lips curving into an exaggerated arc, revealing its dark throat.
"Passengers... please present... your... soul credentials..."
Chen Qi was so frightened that he dropped the gun in his hand.
A token of the soul?
What is that thing?
Jiang Ming snorted coldly, leaning forward slightly, the electric arcs on the Thunder Prison Horse-Slaying Sword had reached their peak.
"I don't have any receipt, do you want this?"
The train conductor's ghostly eyes flickered, and he slowly raised the brass bell in his hand, his voice becoming cold and mechanical:
"Passengers without tickets...shall be...executed!"
As its voice fell, the entire train suddenly let out a deafening roar, its speed increasing once more, as if it were about to plunge into the deepest depths of hell.
The air in the carriage seemed to be sucked out in an instant, leaving only the crisp sound of that broken copper bell, each strike like a chisel striking the top of one's head.
The train conductor had already stepped into the carriage with one foot. The hem of his dark red uniform looked like a hardened shell that had been soaked in blood and dried in the sun, making a "crackling" friction sound with his movements.
Through the crack in the door behind it, a dozen withered arms flared wildly like seaweed, seemingly trying to drag all living things in front of them into the abyss.
"ah--!"
A special operations team member whose psychological defenses had long since collapsed suddenly screamed, and his rifle went off accidentally, a burst of bullets sweeping haphazardly toward the train attendant.
Puff puff!
The bullet struck the train conductor's withered body as if it had hit tattered cotton, only kicking up a few wisps of gray-black dust, not even enough to make him tremble.
The train conductor's eyes, which flickered with green ghostly light, shifted slightly, locking onto the person who had fired the shot.
"You cowards dare to...disrupt the train's order!"
It raised its withered hand and made a grasping motion in the air.
The team member seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant hand, his feet off the ground, his whole body suspended in mid-air, desperately kicking his legs, his face instantly turning a purplish-red, and his eyeballs bulging out.
"Help...help me..."
Chen Qi roared, "Let him go!" and was about to rush forward when Jiang Ming kicked him in the back of the knee, sending him sprawling to his knees.
"Don't go and get yourself killed."
Jiang Ming's voice was as cold as ice shards, but his gaze passed over the struggling team member and stared intently at the iron hooks left behind by the "Abyss Laborers" he had scattered on the ground.
The iron hooks did not disappear as the monster vanished; instead, they emitted a faint blue light.
【Broken Soul-Hooking Rope (Materials)】
[Contains a faint amount of soul energy; it is the universal hard currency used in the deepest parts of the abyss.]
A faint trace of soul energy?
A universal hard currency at the bottom of the abyss?
The gears in Jiang Ming's mind were spinning rapidly.
Since this train is called "Pioneer" and has "ticket sellers," it must follow some kind of transaction rules.
Every rule has loopholes.
"Tickets, right?"
Jiang Ming suddenly spoke, his voice not loud, but it sounded particularly abrupt in the deathly silent carriage.
The train conductor's withered hand paused slightly, and the team member who was about to die fell to the ground like a broken sack, clutching his neck and coughing violently.
Those ghostly eyes turned to Jiang Ming: "Show... your credentials..."
"I don't have the receipt, but can I use this to settle the debt?"
Jiang Ming flicked his toe, and a heavy iron hook flew up, which he caught firmly in his hand.
Without the slightest hesitation, he strode toward the terrifying train conductor.
Chen Qi felt a chill run down his spine. What was this guy up to?
Should we use an iron hook to smash that monster?
However, Jiang Ming did not attack.
He stopped two meters away from the train conductor, and with a thought, his attribute panel instantly opened.
[Synthesis initiated.]
Main Material: Broken Soul-Hooking Rope (x3)
[Supplementary Material: Special Operations Team Operations Manual (Paper)]
"Turn it into tickets!"
A white light, visible only to Jiang Ming, flashed in his palm.
The three cold, heavy iron hooks in his hand melted instantly, like a pool of black molten iron seeping into the small notebook he was holding in his other hand.
Synthesis successful!
[Received: Temporary Pass (Inferior) x7]
[Note: These are temporary tickets forged using remnants of inferior souls. Although crudely made, they can barely fool those brainless ticket inspectors.]
[Special Effect: Single-pass.]
It actually worked!
This talent is practically for exploiting bugs!
Jiang Ming's lips curled into a sinister smile. He casually tore off a piece of paper that emitted a faint black aura and slapped it directly onto the train conductor's outstretched withered hand.
"The tickets for all seven people are here."
The train conductor's fingers, as bark-like as withered tree bark, pinched the piece of paper, brought it close to the eyes of the will-o'-the-wisps, examined it, and then took a deep breath.
The stench of the "Soul-Hooking Rope" clearly pleased it.
"Soul content... barely meets the standard..."
The will-o'-the-wisps in the train conductor's eyes flickered twice, and the murderous intent that almost froze the air slowly subsided.
It stuffed the paper into its mouth, chewed it up with a "crunch crunch" sound, and swallowed it.
"Second class seats...fully booked..."
It pointed to the door behind it, its voice still hoarse and grating: "Go... to the freight car... and stay there..."
After saying that, it turned to retreat back into the darkness, and the withered hands that had been stretched out seemed to shrink back as if they were afraid of the light.
"etc."
Jiang Ming suddenly called out to it.
The train conductor stopped, his head spinning strangely 180 degrees as he stared intently at Jiang Ming.
"Is there... anything else?"
Jiang Ming pointed to the remaining fragments of chain on the ground, a typical shrewd businessman's smile spreading across his face: "Now that you've taken the ticket, shouldn't you provide some services? Like... selling some food?"
Chen Qi and several special operations team members were so shocked by what they heard that their eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
Buying food from a ghost?
Do you want to die too long or do you want your stomach to hurt enough?
The train conductor clearly hadn't expected this human to be so bold. After a few seconds of silence, it pulled out a dark, jerky-looking thing from its tattered uniform pocket and casually tossed it to Jiang Ming.
"So long-winded..."
With that, the skull door slammed shut with a bang.
The suffocating sense of oppression in the carriage finally disappeared.
"Huff... huff..."
The special operations team member collapsed to the ground, his entire body drenched in cold sweat.
He stared at the dark, mushy piece of dried meat in Jiang Ming's hand, his voice trembling, "Mr. Jiang... what is that?"
Jiang Ming glanced down.
【Abyss Rat Jerky (Common Food)】
[Restores a small amount of energy after consumption. Side effects: mild diarrhea, sanity -1.]
"Pig feed."
Jiang Ming casually tossed the jerky to Chen Qi, "Eat it when you're hungry. At most, you'll have mild diarrhea and lose some sanity, but it won't kill you."
He ignored the group of terrified men and turned to walk to the skull door.
The train conductor just told them to go to the "freight car," which means this door is now secure.
"Get up, stop pretending to be dead."
Jiang Ming kicked one of his teammates at his feet, "If you want to live, follow me. Or are you going to stay here and wait for the ticket inspector to come back and collect tickets a second time?"
Chen Qi gritted his teeth and got up, helping up the teammate who had almost been strangled to death.
Looking at Jiang Ming's tall and straight back, he felt a mix of emotions.
Anyone would have been terrified in that situation. How could this person do business with a ghost?
"Mr. Jiang, wouldn't the freight car be even more dangerous?" Chen Qi asked cautiously.
"Danger?"
Jiang Ming pushed open the heavy skull door, and a smell mixed with mold, engine oil, and some kind of wild animal stench hit him.
He glanced back at Chen Qi, a hint of mockery in his eyes.
"On this train, if you're not strong enough, even breathing is dangerous."
The world behind the door was not the dark abyss one might imagine, but a long, narrow metal corridor.
Various unidentified instruments of torture were hanging on the walls on both sides, some of which were still stained with fresh blood.
At the end of the corridor, faint, muffled growls could be heard, like the restlessness of countless wild beasts locked in cages.
"Load the bullet."
Jiang Ming gripped the Thunder Prison Horse-Slaying Sword tightly and strode inside.
"Since it's a freight car, it must be filled with...good stuff."
The metal corridor was longer than I had imagined. The floor beneath my feet was a perforated grid, through which I could see dark red streaks of light flashing past below – those were the train's power transmission pipes.
"Da, da, da."
The sound of tactical boots stepping on metal grilles echoed in the narrow space, each step feeling like it was stepping on everyone's nerves.
"Brother Jiang, this taste...is not right."
Chen Qi covered his nose, his brows furrowed.
The fishy, pungent smell in the air grew stronger and stronger, mixed with a cloyingly sweet aroma, as if something had rotted and fermented.
"If you're afraid of dying, put on your gas mask," Jiang Ming ordered without turning his head.
His own physique is already as high as 30 points, and with the added boost of [Iron Will], this level of poison gas has little effect on him, but if these ordinary people don't take any precautions, they will probably be lying down soon.
Seven special operations team members frantically pulled gas masks from their backpacks and put them on their faces. The muffled breathing sounds coming through the filter canisters made the situation seem even more oppressive.
At the end of the corridor was a huge circular gate, covered with various valves and rotary valves like a submarine hatch.
Jiang Ming reached out and grasped the largest red wheel.
Squeak-!
A piercing metallic scraping sound rang out, as if a mechanism that hadn't been used for centuries had been forcibly awakened.
As the wheel slowly turned, a visible stream of cold white air shot out from the crack in the door.
"Prepare for battle."
Jiang Ming gave a low shout and suddenly pushed the gate open with all his might.
boom!
The gates were flung open, and the sight inside made everyone gasp in shock.