Chapter 116 - Escaping from Arcanum Train (IX)

Editor: Kitty

“Are you alright?” Seeing that Owl had a hand placed on his wound, Crow could not help worrying. However, whenever he tried to get close to Owl, Owl instinctively avoided Crow’s touch, and when he voiced out his concerns, Owl did not reply. Crow hesitated in place for a while and didn’t know what to do.

“He can’t even shed blood. There’s no need to worry about him.” Wolf stood opposite them and coldly sneered. He licked the back of his hand. There was a cut he had gotten from being scratched by Owl. The wound was not deep, but when his gaze swept over his b.l.o.o.d.y palm and the back of his hand, his action of licking his own wound was especially just like that of a wild animal.

At this time, Black cat, who had gone to the crew’s lounge to turn off the lights, also came back. Under the illumination of the fluorescent powder, it was as if the whole carriage was flooded with a faint dark blue hue, and the gla.s.s fragments on the ground also shone, making the entire ground appear dazzling.

Crow sighed, raised his voice, and said, “Okay, my friends, let’s get rid of our prejudices and any unhappiness we have with one another. If you really want to fight, please keep in mind that you can probably fight after we escape from this train, right? At that time, no matter how fiercely you fight, no one will care.”

Seeing that several people were finally willing to shift their attention to him, Crow was satisfied. With a wry smile, he said, “The hint left on the door said that one among the four of us has evil intentions and wants to chop someone down…”

“That is definitely talking about me!” Wolf interrupted suddenly. As if he had told a joke, he treacherously laughed.

“I don’t care whether it’s describing you or not!” Crow repressed his temper and continued, “But the last sentence is the important hint. The door mentioned: ‘Don’t let blood stain the gla.s.s.’ In fact, I don’t quite understand it, but obviously, the gla.s.s is the key point. When I discovered that the gla.s.s in this train car appeared very bright and looked transparent, I asked Black cat to turn off the light, and the scene became as you can see now…”

“But this doesn’t prove anything.” After a long silence, Owl finally spoke, the look in his eyes somewhat chilly, “They are just gla.s.s coated with fluorescent powder.”

Crow thought for a while. Indeed, even if they found that the gla.s.s was coated with fluorescent powder, it would only serve to illuminate dark places. Wait… illuminate?

“I say, why coat these gla.s.ses with fluorescent powder?” Crow began to speculate calmly: “And why should we not let blood stain on the gla.s.s?”

“Could it be that if blood covers the fluorescent powder, it will stop emitting light?” Owl still kept a hand over his wound and seemed absent-minded.

Mr. Wolf suddenly opened his mouth. Although he was not gregarious, he had a lot of unexpected knowledge: “Some fluorescent powders are toxic. They are mixed with radioactive toxic substances so that it can emit light for a long time, but it’s not highly toxic.”

“Can you wash these fluorescent powders out with water?”

Wolf raised his head to look at Crow and said, “Of course.”

Crow froze, saying, “Can everyone do me a favor? Let us wash out the fluorescent powder.”

This required a lot of work, but it was very easy to do it because several people soon found that there was a long soft hose in the toilet of carriage No.11. So Crow simply connected the hose to the faucet, pulled the hose into the train car, aimed it at the shining gla.s.ses and mirror fragments, and began to flush it out.

Most of the fluorescent powder was smeared on the mirrors, and when the powder was diluted by the water, the light became a lot dimmer. Crow flushed away most of the powder with the hose, uncaring that the water sprayed out by the hose had made the sofa seats wet. Wherever he saw a glimmer of light, he would use water to flush it away.

Although Crow was only using the water gushing out from the hose to spray, Owl, Black cat, and Wolf were all dealt damage because they had fought. Due to the fight, their clothes were covered with a lot of fluorescent powder, so Crow blindly sprayed the water wherever he saw a light source.

Therefore, soon after, the whole train car that was shining bright became very dark again, so dark that one was not able to see their five fingers. But in such a dark environment, several people also found that there was a place that shone brightly.

It was a gla.s.s water bottle on the table that emitted a faint blue light. But it was not the bottle itself that shone; it was the liquid in it—oh, no, it was not the liquid but the little gla.s.s key lying in the bottle.

“The key was actually in such a place…” After Crow hesitated for a moment, he took a look at the gla.s.s bottle and expressionlessly glanced at the people around him. He sighed again. He put on a smile as he gazed at Black cat: “Mr. Black cat, can you turn off the tap? While you’re at it, turn on the lights, too.”

Black cat was obedient and went away to do it after nodding. Soon the hose in Crow’s hand stopped gushing water. Crow threw it aside and reached for the small gla.s.s bottle.

“Now we can get out of here,” Crow said as he opened the gla.s.s bottle. The opening of the gla.s.s bottle was so large that he could directly put his finger in to get the key. But before Crow could do so, Owl stopped him.

“Wait a minute,” Owl said, frowning, “You should be more careful. The liquid in this bottle has a strange smell.”

Crow stopped, sniffed, and said, “You’re right. What should we do?”

“It smells pungent. Seems like it’s poisonous.” Mr. Wolf grinned grimly.

At this time, Black cat, who went to turn on the light, had turned the light on and returned. He seemed to have heard Crow and the duo’s conversation. When he came back, he brought a pair of rubber gloves.

“I found it in the crew’s lounge.” Black cat took the gloves and put them on his hand. He found another plastic cup, took the gla.s.s bottle from Crow, and poured the liquid out of the gla.s.s bottle carefully and slowly, making sure that the key did not slide out.

When half of the poisonous liquid in the gla.s.s had been poured out, Black cat took out the key directly with his gloved hand.

They found that the key was still emitting a weak light. This key was made of gla.s.s. It seemed that some liquid had stained the key. It was the liquid in the gla.s.s key that emitted the light, and it was estimated that it was a special liquid mixed with fluorescent powder; one could just think of it as a make-shift fluorescent rod.

“Ah, the key is made of gla.s.s… It’s fragile. Will it break when we open the door with it? ” Mr. Wolf made an awful joke.

Black cat looked at Mr. Wolf and whispered, “I will be careful.”

So Black cat took the key and went to the door connecting train car No. 11 to the other train car. Several people followed with Crow at the end. He turned back to look at the poisonous item that was still on the table. The liquid was colorless and transparent, and it was still shaking slightly due to the movement of the train.

At this time, Black cat, who was standing in front, carefully inserted the key into the keyhole of the connecting door. The gla.s.s key was very fragile and also highly toxic. Therefore, it was necessary to be careful when using it, which was why the few people following him rarely argued and caused trouble but instead waited silently for Black cat to open the door.

Fortunately, the gla.s.s key was finally able to get the job done. When Black cat completely inserted it into the keyhole, he tried to turn left and right, and found that he should turn it to the left, so he tried hard to do so. The door snapped open, and a gap was revealed. But when Black cat tried to retrieve the key, he found that the gla.s.s key broke because it was too fragile.

“At least the door is open,” Crow walked behind and said optimistically.

Several people then took several steps as they entered carriage No. 10 one after the other.

Maybe the theory of even and odd numbers that Crow and Owl had come up with was accurate because when they entered carriage No. 10, they found that it was as clean as carriage No. 12, with neat seats, no garbage or snacks littered everywhere, and the upper racks were also not stuffed with luggage.

But there were some b.l.o.o.d.y footprints on the floor of carriage No. 10.

It was probably the footprints of a man who was not wearing shoes; only prints made by bare feet could be seen. The bloodstained footprints had dried up, turning black.

Crow avoided the footprints when they entered the carriage. They then went to the door connected to carriage No. 10. The hint provided in carriage No.10 are as follows:

[The killer who killed the poor little black cat has pa.s.sed by here]

[He used the key]

[And threw the key by your feet]

Several people saw this simple and clear hint, and all of them subconsciously lowered their heads down and found the key to carriage No. 10 lying at the foot of the door. Because it was Black cat who took the lead, it was him who bent down to reach for the key. But he did not open the door. He simply turned back to look at Crow and the others and asked:

“The killer of the poor little black cat—what does that mean?”

“That black cat doesn’t mean you,” Crow explained, “Owl and I woke up in carriage No. 13. As we pa.s.sed by carriage No. 12, there was a black cat killed by some kind of creature, and the key to carriage No. 12 was found in the cat’s stomach.”

“In the cat’s stomach…” Black cat paused. He no longer pursued the problem but took the key to open the door.

Carriage No. 10 was surprisingly simple to escape from. Black cat opened the door easily with the key, and the crowd swarmed into carriage No. 9.

The theory of odd and even numbers was accurate because compared to the clean and tidy carriage No. 10, carriage No. 9 was dirty, messy, and terrible.

As soon as they entered through the door, they were shocked by what they saw even before they could observe the environment inside carriage No. 9. They saw a man standing in carriage No. 9, and what was worse was that the man seemed to have just killed another person.

The murderer had refreshing-looking short hair. Lowering their heads down, it could be seen that he was holding a weapon in his hand…… It was not known where he got the baseball bat from, but there was a poor victim lying at his feet. The victim was lying on the ground on his back. He had not shed much blood, probably because he died due to the impact of the bat hitting his head.

The murderer and the victim wore the same garb as Crow and company. They were dressed in a greyish-blue prison uniform…… They all noticed the name card on the murderer’s chest, and on it, a string of English letters was engraved on it:

【Two-headedsnake】——Two-headed snake.

T/N: Dun, dun, dun!! Who do you guys think is who?