Chapter 33
Episode 33. Endless Express (2)
The stage with the worst clear rate among the 12 floors. Endless Express.
The outside of the train is a polar region that seems to have come from an ice age, and it is a paradise for monsters.
The player had to survive and adapt to the huge train and make it to the engine room.
The unique thing about this stage is that there are intelligent creatures on the stage, not players.
Natives who live in a dimension called the Endless Express, so to speak.
NPCs are NPCs, but you can call them non-player NPCs.
The train was huge.
It was huge enough to accommodate thousands of people.
The natives socialized in the train and protected the train from monsters.
And they circulated all over the world to procure resources.
“So this is one big society.”
The goal of the players who fell on the train was simple.
‘Reach the engine room.’
stokehold. It is the head of this large train.
A place where the ‘engineer’ who drives the train stays.
Considering that trains are the foundation of society, it is a place that can be reached only with great power.
To begin with, it was terribly difficult to reach the engine room.
Inside the train, a rigid and absolute hierarchy was operated.
The highest ranks were of two classes.
Engineers responsible for the mechanical operation of trains, including the driver.
A guardian who protects the train against monsters.
The next class is the rich.
People who literally have a lot.
They did not have essential functions for train operation like engineers and guardians, but instead they had to do with political positions.
Like bringing in a lot of food in the early days of train operation, or wisely resolving conflicts between humans.
The most common category is the family and friends of engineers or guardians.
If you hit this far in the middle class, royalty and nobility.
These were about 30% of the population living on the train, but they were able to move freely in more than 90% of the space.
The rest were divided into two groups.
They make up 70% of the population.
workers and rats.
Workers literally for running trains. And they were those who lived by exploiting labor for the comfortable life of upper-class personnel.
When Guardians hunted monsters, they became meat shields and were put into chores or jobs requiring high-intensity labor when engineers were working.
Finally a rat.
Those who entered ‘without permission’ on the train, the last salvation of the perishing world.
If the worker was a commoner, the rat was a lower class.
All natives tried to exterminate rats when they saw them.
Workers alone were enough for the train.
The size of the train was limited, and the unnecessarily large population only increased the speed of resource consumption and called the monster’s attack.
“Obviously, are we ‘rats’ now?”
-yes.
Ran, not knowing the background, asked.
“A rat?”
The sun rose from its seat without answering.
“I need to figure out where I am now.”
Ignored, but Ran didn’t react much.
It was because, while experiencing various stages together, she knew that Taeyang communicated with ‘ghosts’ that she could not recognize.
Surprisingly, the ‘ghost’ is a very quick being in the dimensional labyrinth, so it was best not to interfere when communicating like that.
The starting position of the stage was different for each player.
The ‘tail compartment’, the residence of workers who account for 65 to 70% of the population, was the most common location, and it could fall into locations such as ‘engine room’, ‘cargo compartment’ and ‘guest room’.
Since the ‘engine room’ is at the head of the train, a player who lands in the ‘tail compartment’ has to travel a longer distance than a player who lands in the ‘cabin’.
But falling close to the engine room wasn’t necessarily a good thing.
Indigenous people belonging to vested interests excluded everyone except them.
In addition, all districts were formally or heavily screened on the move.
If you fall into the ‘Military Sector’, the Guardian’s residential area, there are cases where you die before you can do anything.
Woowook Huh.
Even if you breathe, white steam blooms.
-Looking at the ambient temperature, it’s either the tail compartment or the tail compartment.
“That is fortunate.”
Workers also tried to exterminate ‘rats’ when they found them, and acted territorial, but they were better than the wealthy and other high-ranking people.
It was because they, too, had a hard time earning a living every day.
In addition, because the population was so large, they also did not know each other perfectly, so there were many cases where they found a player and did not know that they were ‘rats’.
– Big Endless Express. This stage is no joke with volume.
– Can I go for more than a week?
-and. It’s over a week? How did other users break this?
-When you log out, you find a safe area and go there. If you log out, your in-game character will continue to sleep.
-But when I opened my eyes, it was an empty field, and there were a lot of cases like this. lol.
-The next time I log in, I’m on the first floor again lol.
-If you came to the 12th floor in the first place, aren’t you the ones whose life is Dantalian?
– Ha ha ha ha ha That’s right. volume? I didn’t log out and played full time.
-This is the reason why Dantalian attached an essential nutrient supply device to the capsule. lol.
The number of players who fell on the ‘Endless Express’ stage was estimated to be around 200.
In fact, it was very difficult to tell them apart.
This was because there was no way to distinguish between ‘player’ NPCs and ‘natives’ NPCs.
What is certain is that a considerable number of people are suddenly added to the ‘train’ where thousands of people live.
At the beginning of each stage, the movement to ‘exterminate the rats’ was almost mandatory, and surviving successfully was the primary goal of the players.
-The most popular is the ‘Guardian route’.
Guardian Route.
It is to show off one’s might by participating in a monster defense battle or a monster subjugation.
The guardian who risked his life to fight the monster was respected and enjoyed many things, and died a lot as well.
That’s why they often incorporated workers who fought well among themselves.
The monster defense war and subjugation war were the widest field of opportunity for workers to aim for a rise in status.
It is said to be the widest, but it is at the level of whether to pick up one person when hundreds of deaths pass.
“Let’s see the situation. First of all, the most urgent thing is to get rid of the ‘rat’ label.”
Getting off the ‘rat’ label was simple.
Even just one person is good, so I make people who know me.
Based on that, if you create a human relationship network and melt into it, you can enter the range of action of workers.
Taeyang and Ran were pretty lucky.
This is because there were few people where they fell.
Thanks to this, they were able to take time to understand their surroundings and the situation.
The place where Taeyang and Ran fell was the ‘food storage compartment’ in the tail compartment.
More precisely, a food storage compartment that has run out of food.
There were signs of people coming in and out of the area, but since they didn’t come in, it must have been a while since they ran out of food.
Then Ran’s eyes lit up.
“Who is coming? this way.”
The sun held its breath at her words.
Soon, two men who appeared to be men walked by talking about each other.
“ha. damn it When are you going to fix the wall on the left of block 8? Every time I sleep, the wind leaks in and my bones get cold.”
“You expect me to fix it? asshole. You still don’t know the guys above? You pick up the planks and nail them yourself.”
– Not a player. Judging from the harshness of his tone, he seems to be a native of the working class?
The sun agreed.
“Do you want to say X? If I had the time to do that, I would have fixed it a long time ago. I’m just working to the point where my eyes close as soon as my head touches them.”
“That’s right. damn it It’s not about fixing trains, it’s about creating a theme park in ‘guest rooms’. I am not even motivated.”
Taeyang and Ran’s eyes flashed at the same time.
room theme park.
It was useful information for those who were ignorant of the situation inside the train.
thump thump.
As the distance got closer, the voice became clearer.
“By the way, I thought it was that season again?”
“what? what season.”
“You have that. ‘rats’. It seems that close to 20 of them showed up at the steel mill.”
“Ah, is it already time for that? under. I won’t be able to eat meat for a while.”
“I’m more worried about not getting rid of the smell. fuck. Why don’t you let me get rid of the ‘rat’ corpse?”
Another reason to divide Endless Express into one dimension.
This place was the stage of the dimensional labyrinth and at the same time functioned as a ‘world’.
thump thump.
Ran picked up the fan and the sun began to flex its muscles.
The sun winked lightly at Ran.
Kill them as soon as they come in.
without sound.
Ran nodded.
We crossed the line several times together, and now it’s to the point where we can communicate simply with just our eyes.
profit.
There was the sound of flint rubbing at the door.
“Whoa.”
“hey. Smoke it lightly. When the smell spreads, beggar-like bastards come to ask for a sip.”
“You can burn everything before coming.”
A cloud of smoke came from the other side of the door.
Ran frowned at the beautiful Ami.
The smell was quite toxic.
“Whoa. under. ‘rats’. Can’t the Chamlong Sword wipe it all out at once from the start?”
“well.”
The sun’s eyes deepened.
Chamlongsword Salvation.
Guardian representative.
He was one of the three Transcendentalists who ruled over the train.
It used to show up when dealing with a predator-level monster aiming for a train.
“You cleaned it up like that last time. He even cleaned up the body. Good.”
“I do not want to. life is worth it Didn’t you see that Ali and Maru also got caught up in it with no luck?”
“… … That’s right.”
Woowook Huh.
Cigarette smoke continued to flow through the door.
The two of them seemed to be absorbed in smoking, so they couldn’t hear their words for a long time.
Ran asked with a mouth on the other side.
‘The outfit. secure. to do better Wouldn’t it?’
The sun shook its head.
Rumors of a ‘rat’ appearing were already more than money, and it was best to avoid meeting the natives altogether for a while.
Moreover, it was also a problem that Ran’s appearance was unnecessarily too beautiful.
Her skin was too fair and white for a working-class woman.
-I think Ran should take the engineer route.
Engineers sometimes referred to technicians who maintained trains, but they also referred to wizards.
Because the train itself is a huge magic tool, it was essential to have knowledge of magic to touch it.
-A disciple from a worker who an old engineer earned in his later years? I should go this far.
The problem is that because Ran is an NPC, she has no understanding of the background of the train ‘Endless Express’.
Then, the sound of loud voices was heard again.
“After that anyway. If we go to subjugation this time, will there be some guys who will be transferred?”
“It is not a tradition. There are quite a few guys who are recruited into the Guardian before and after the rat catcher.”
“Luke was shouting that he would get his share this time too.”
“That idiot? One of my limbs is eaten by the monster, and I smoke a dozen cigarettes on my way back.”
“me too.”
“which? Which one is going up?”
“Of course, it’s the way to come back while procrastinating.”
“what. Then you can’t bet.”
“Damn, you want to suck my pockets with the obvious?”
“Kuhm.”
Then a loud noise came from the other side.
“Hey, you bastards! Do you hide and smoke while others work like dogs?”
The authoritative voice full of anger seemed to be that of a person with a position of about the foreman.
“It’s X.”
“Didn’t you bring it with you?”
“I brought four cigarettes just in case, but we burned two. Would you like to see both?”
“good night. two cars. Trustworthy.”
With a quick whisper, the door slammed ‘Quaang!’ It made a sound.
Unknowingly, Ran shouted ‘Hee!’ I was startled and covered my mouth.
“You damn kids! Tell me how many times ‘Dragon Nest’ is right in front of you! If you don’t maintain it, the tail section and the head section will all go out? oh what Do you have two cigarettes?”
“This is all. It’s real.”
“fire.”
“yes.”
profit.
The guy who appeared to be the foreman lit a fire and watched it.
I thought I was expecting this in the first place.
“sorry. older brother. It’s nice to see these students go through high school just to build a room theme park. I want to know why you are suffering all this… … .”
“Whoa. hey. Sweet. greatness. I understand. not that it isn’t We’re not even their feet wipers. Sipal. It’s not enough to wipe the poo, so now I’m asking you to make me a bib. what is this doing?”
“The wall in Room 8, which was torn off during the last monster invasion, has not been repaired yet. Every time I wake up in the morning, my back is not straight. I’m going to freeze to death like this.”
“Whoa. I know. You don’t have anything to say. I’ll suggest that to the class president again.”
“I beg you, brother.”
Soon the voices of the three men faded away.
-I have a rough idea of what to do.
“I know.”
One word spoken in conversation determined the sun’s plan.
dragon nest.
The train seemed to be entering the realm of Untara, the White Dragon.