Apocalypse: I Built the Infinite Train
Chapter 360: Being inferior to others

"Are you sure?" Lin Xian was a little surprised. The Divine Revelation had always kept a low profile. Aside from the fact that it was a fanatical organization that worshiped dark powers, not much else was known about them.

He had just gotten his hands on a device capable of detecting Forbidden Items, and initially figured the organization must be quite formidable—maybe even more so than the Phoenix Society, the Federation, or even Crimson World—if they knew that much about these objects.

But to his surprise, the Divine Revelation member that Zhou Lei mentioned—the one who had control over him, nicknamed “Old Ghost”—had just been captured quietly by Monica, without causing a ripple.

Still, considering that the guy was a member of Divine Revelation and had the power of a Forbidden Item on him, Lin Xian exchanged a cautious glance with KIKI.

KIKI understood immediately and used her telekinesis to search the man. Sure enough, she found a peculiar metal box on him. Once she took it out, Lin Xian's pupils shrank slightly. It was the exact same kind of box Hu Lushou had used to hand over the Flicker Bullet.

“Interesting. Looks like Divine Revelation really has done deep research on Forbidden Items—they even have custom containers for them.” Lin Xian picked up the box and opened it. A wave of shadowy light spilled out, casting a gloomy hue over the brightly lit train carriage. Even Monica’s crimson lips across from him seemed to dull a shade—eerily so.

Inside the box lay a black candle, less than 10 cm long and about the width of a finger. It looked like it had been half-burned. Aside from the charred wick with a metallic tint, it looked just like an ordinary candle.

In this day and age, candles were rare—only used for art pieces or collected by niche hobbyists. They had no real practical use.

Seeing the candle in the box, Zhou Lei—locked away in the quarantine chamber—not only widened his eyes but practically bulged them out. He pointed at the black candle, urgently and incoherently shouting, “That’s… that’s it! I found that thing in an underground bunker and then those bastards took it from me!”

Due to the Flicker Bullet incident, Lin Xian didn’t touch the black candle directly. He simply held the box up to examine it closely and said, “Didn’t you say this thing would kill you if it went out? Sure doesn’t look like it’s still burning to me.”

Zhou Lei paused in shock. “Huh? Yeah, you’re right! That guy told me it was always lit!”

“Simple fix,” Monica said lightly, giving a glance toward a subordinate standing behind Old Ghost. The man twisted a dial on an electric baton and rammed it directly under Old Ghost’s ribs.

Hiss!

A sharp sound of pain rang out. Old Ghost jolted, screaming, “Ahhh!!”

The scream snapped him out of his daze. As he looked around and realized he was in a sealed train car, restrained and unable to move, his furious gaze swept over everyone—until he spotted Zhou Lei in the quarantine chamber. His expression instantly shifted in fear, like he’d seen a ghost.

It took a moment for him to steady himself before looking at Lin Xian and asking, “Who are you people? Why did you catch me?!”

“Oh? Pretending not to recognize us now?” KIKI folded her arms and stepped back, smirking. “Look closely—do you know this guy?”

Old Ghost shook his head. “Fk no! Why would I know this fat dude named Zhou? You guys just randomly nab people? I’m a legal resident of Silent City! I want to file a complaint! Where the hell are the Mecha Inspectors?!”**

Hearing that, Lin Xian and KIKI’s pupils twitched. This guy... did he seriously sound this dumb?

“Old Ghost! You btard, you don’t recognize me?! Bullsh*t! I could recognize your ashes!”** Zhou Lei shouted, visibly on edge. He was terrified Lin Xian might think he was lying and kill him with a flick of his finger. So hearing Old Ghost deny everything made him snap.

“Is he fking stupid?!”** Old Ghost frantically signaled to Shi Jian. “Why the hell did you rat me out? The first rule of Divine Revelation is never to expose your handler, you idiot! How am I supposed to save you now?”

“Him? Save you?” Lin Xian looked surprised, then let out a mocking laugh. “Wasn’t he the one who claimed I wasn’t his servant? I was his scout for seven days—got sent into zombie nests, Eerie hives, even had to dig through some zombie guys’ filthy underwear looking for Forbidden Items. Now you’re talking ‘doctrine’? Said he was coming to rescue you? Hell, he couldn’t rescue a train exhaust pipe! Fking idiot!”**

Lin Xian got increasingly worked up. If not for the quarantine chamber between them, he would’ve spat on Old Ghost already.

“Fk you, Lin Xian!”** Old Ghost went red with rage and barked back.

“Go light your damn candle, Teddy. Stop acting like some enlightened b*stard!” Lin Xian snapped again.

And suddenly, the two of them were furiously trading insults. Zhou Lei’s eye twitched at the absurdity, and even Monica raised an eyebrow. Underwear-checking zombies? Train exhaust pipes? This guy’s... quite a character.

“Enough already!” KIKI finally lost it, pinched Old Ghost’s mouth shut with two fingers, and silenced him in an instant. Only muffled growls of rage came through.

Zhou Lei, on the other hand, looked visibly calmer. With both the black candle and Old Ghost in custody—and the candle extinguished—it was likely Old Ghost had been lying. That meant he wasn’t about to die. In fact, Old Ghost’s situation was now worse than his. Zhou Lei didn’t have much to worry about anymore.

(To be continued in next message...)

(Continued Translation)

Lin Xian was observing Zhou Lei. Based on the latter’s long-held frustration, he figured Zhou Lei was probably telling the truth. That made Lin Xian even more curious about the black candle’s real properties. If it granted someone the ability to go unnoticed by zombies and Eerie Entities… could he use that to avoid detection entirely?

“Done shouting?” Lin Xian walked up to Old Ghost and materialized a metal chair from thin air. Then he gestured for Monica’s men to strap Old Ghost in and leave the carriage.

“So, are you going to spill willingly, or do we have to make you?” Old Ghost stared at the conjured chair with wide eyes, visibly shaken. Sitting on the cold metal seat, staring at the chains on his hands, he nervously muttered, “Spill what? Bro, I don’t even know you! We don’t have any beef, do we?”

“Really?” Lin Xian turned to KIKI and Monica.

“Technically speaking, we’ve never had direct dealings with Divine Revelation,” Monica replied.

“But they’ve partnered with Crimson World. That makes them bad news. Let’s just kill him.” KIKI said coldly.

“We’ve partnered with the Phoenix Society too!” Old Ghost shouted defensively. “And the Federation! Even the North American United Front! That doesn’t mean anything! We just study Forbidden Items and Blood Scourge Flora! We’re not the bad guys!”

“Oh?” Lin Xian raised an eyebrow. “So you’re saying the Fish-Lion Colossus in Abyss Zone No. 5 has nothing to do with you either?”

“Of course not!” Old Ghost replied instantly. “We only test for properties! We couldn’t even contain that thing if we tried! Crimson World’s the one hurting people—not us!”

“And how exactly do you identify a Forbidden Item’s properties?” Monica asked.

“Like I’d tell you that!” Old Ghost puffed up. “Divine Revelation has its own methods. Trade secrets! You wouldn’t just give away your secrets, would you?”

“Captain Lin!” Zhou Lei suddenly shouted. “Don’t believe this crap. No one in Divine Revelation is a good person! They worship Eerie Entities like gods! You think this b*stard looks like a decent guy?!”

“You—you fking…”**

“Shut it.” Lin Xian silenced Old Ghost with a wave. “So you're not talking. Fine. Monica, any suggestions?”

Monica’s gaze swept coldly over Old Ghost. “Easy. Start with his balls.”

Old Ghost immediately flinched, turning pale. “No, no, no! Let’s talk—no need for violence!”

Lin Xian glanced at Monica. This woman sure knows how to hit where it hurts. From what Zhou Lei said, Old Ghost was a known pervert—Monica had gone straight for the kill.

“Start talking. What are you after here?” Lin Xian held up the detector device.

Old Ghost licked his lips and nervously glanced at Zhou Lei. “Of course I’m here for a Forbidden Item. That detector’s for that exact purpose. I swear, I didn’t come with any hostile intent…”

“That so?” Lin Xian pointed at the black candle. “Then tell me what this is for.”

“That’s a Forbidden Item!” Old Ghost suddenly took on a serious tone. “Once ignited, it allows you to enter shadow-state—makes you almost invisible. Even dark invasion gets suppressed, and Eerie Entities are less likely to detect you!”

“Huh? Then how come it’s not lit, but you’re still hidden?” KIKI asked sharply.

“It—it doesn't need to be constantly lit. Just once and then… then…” Old Ghost stammered, trying to make it up on the spot.

Zhou Lei’s eyes practically popped. “Bullsh*t! You told me if the candle went out, I’d die!”

“Duh! If I didn’t say that, would you have listened and gone into Abyss Zone for me?” Old Ghost’s eyes turned sharp.

“Fk you…”** Zhou Lei was about to erupt again, but Lin Xian cut him off with a wave.

Old Ghost smirked at Zhou Lei. “He’s no angel either. Don’t tell me you’re gonna make enemies with Divine Revelation just to defend him?”

“So if I light the candle, I get to hide, right?” Lin Xian asked, still staring at the candle.

“Yes, yes, exactly!” Old Ghost nodded vigorously. “But there are side effects. I wouldn’t recommend using it lightly.”

“Got it.” Lin Xian snapped the box shut and pocketed it.

“Huh? You’re not going to try it?” Old Ghost was stunned. Most people would be dying to test such a power. Why was Lin Xian so restrained?

“Didn’t you just say it had side effects?” Lin Xian replied calmly.

“I mean, yeah but—”

Before he could finish, Lin Xian suddenly conjured a pistol from thin air and pointed it directly at Old Ghost’s forehead. Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

Old Ghost didn’t expect it—his eyes narrowed, a flicker of malice flashing in them.

BANG!

A loud gunshot echoed through the train car—but no bullet came out. It was a blank. Yet the moment the trigger was pulled, Old Ghost vanished from the chair like smoke, leaving only an empty seat behind.

“Whoa—he disappeared?!” KIKI exclaimed.

Monica instinctively scanned the surroundings. No sound, no trace. Old Ghost was gone.

“He teleported?!” Zhou Lei gawked.

But Lin Xian remained calm. “Teleportation? No. He’s right in front of us.”

He dissolved the pistol into thin air, then casually reached out. A spark crackled—bzzt bzzt bzzt—and a transparent, ash-gray silhouette flickered into view. Old Ghost reappeared, stunned and terrified.

“How… how did you know?” he stammered.

“Drop the act.” Lin Xian’s voice was cold. “If lighting the candle meant you controlled it, then Zhou Lei would’ve been its master. But clearly, you’re the one using it through deception—tricking others into lighting it so you can control them. I’m right, aren’t I?”

(Translation continues in next message...)

(Final Part of the Translation)

From the start, Lin Xian had found it odd. If Zhou Lei was the one who picked up the candle, how did he end up under someone else’s control? Did Forbidden Items have a concept of ownership hierarchy? That didn’t make sense.

Zhou Lei’s face twisted in realization. “Fk! This son of a bch is even more conniving than me! I actually thought he had some unique control method over the candle... turns out the damn thing already belonged to him! Fk your grandma’s leg!”**

Old Ghost’s eyes darted around, clearly shaken. He tried to pull at his restraints. “Lin... Lin Xian, right? You and I don’t have any real beef. Look, just let me go, or when my people find you, those eight Forbidden Items on your train? You won’t be able to protect them!”

Zhou Lei’s eyes lit up. “He knows we have eight Forbidden Items?”

Old Ghost instantly regretted his slip. He clenched his jaw and tried to play it cool. “So what if I do? How do you think they knew to trap you with the Fish-Lion Colossus and drag you into the Abyss Zone?”

“You planned the Aksai incident?” Lin Xian’s voice turned ice cold.

Old Ghost cursed himself internally. Seeing Lin Xian’s rising killing intent, he panicked and blurted, “Now you understand how dangerous we are, right? Our boss can wipe you all out with one move. Be smart, let me go. I’ll forget everything that happened here. You might even make it out alive.”

“So you set your sights on my Forbidden Items,” Lin Xian said slowly. “Teamed up with Crimson World, dragged us into the Abyss, hoping to wipe us out and scavenge what we had. Now you’ve personally delivered yourself to my door, and you're still trying to threaten me into letting you go? So you can report back and come after me again?”

“I—That’s not—” Old Ghost stammered, sweat pouring down his face. “Aren’t you afraid?”

Monica stood off to the side, eyeing him coldly. “You're quite the negotiator. Divine Revelation is clearly full of hidden talents.”

Zhou Lei, watching from the isolation chamber, couldn’t believe it. He muttered, “I actually got played by this dumb*ss... what terrible fking luck.”**

Lin Xian slowly stood up. His finger shifted into a mechanical form as a bright energy beam began to charge, aiming straight at Old Ghost’s forehead.

“Thanks for giving me such a good reason to kill you.”

“Wait! Wait!!” Old Ghost paled completely, trembling. “If you kill me, you’ll never know how to properly contain the candle!”

“Sure I do. I just have to kill you.” Lin Xian’s expression was calm.

“How do you know that?!” Old Ghost’s eyes bulged.

“You came here because you were wondering why Zhou Lei was still alive after the candle went out, didn’t you?”

“How do you know that?!!”

“I guessed.” Lin Xian said flatly.

“Lin Xian, fk you—”**

ZAP!

The Kinetic Cannon’s energy beam blasted a hole clean through Old Ghost’s forehead. He never even got to finish cursing. Just like that, he left this world.

“Finally…” Monica let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Lin Xian dusted off his hands. “You were worried I’d ask you to lock this guy up again, weren’t you?”

Monica looked coldly at the corpse. “I wouldn’t have minded helping, but I was a little concerned about Queen Monica’s exhaust pipe.”

KIKI gagged in disgust and shot Lin Xian a glare. “How the hell did you know how to contain the candle?”

Lin Xian shrugged. “How many times do I have to say it? I guessed.”

“What?! You really guessed?!” KIKI looked like she couldn’t believe it. Just now, she’d thought Lin Xian might have hit god-mode.

Beep.

The carriage’s sensors picked up Zhou Lei’s presence. Monica’s power armor radar scan showed that he no longer had any concealment abilities. That confirmed it—the black candle’s power was gone.

“This guy’s mind was shot, so I bluffed him to test the waters. Didn’t expect to be right.” Lin Xian explained.

Those last two questions weren’t random. He had deduced that the candle couldn’t be activated by simply lighting or touching it. It had already been under Old Ghost’s control before Zhou Lei found it. Old Ghost must’ve manipulated Zhou Lei into triggering it, establishing control that way.

And the fact that Old Ghost came straight to Queen Monica’s train—despite knowing where the Forbidden Items were—proved he had some sort of connection to Zhou Lei via the candle. He needed to confirm Zhou Lei was dead. That urgent reaction when he first saw Zhou Lei had tipped Lin Xian off.

He glanced at Zhou Lei and chuckled quietly.

That guy was lucky. The candle burned out and he survived. Lin Xian figured it might’ve had something to do with their spatial shift in the Abyss Zone—whether it was because of the Silver Dragon Ten-Thousand Error or the Fish-Lion Colossus was anyone’s guess. Either way, Zhou Lei had lost the candle’s power, meaning he was free of its control.

In the quarantine chamber, Zhou Lei was dumbfounded, staring at Old Ghost’s corpse. He felt dazed. He, a cunning survivor, had been manipulated by a moron—just because the guy had a Forbidden Item. He wanted to laugh... but couldn’t. He looked up at the surveillance cam, realizing he was finally free of the candle’s curse. That made him smile—until he remembered he had lost his invisibility and was now a prisoner again. That killed the smile just as fast.

KIKI watched him alternate between smiling and not, then rolled her eyes and told Monica, “Another one snapped. You were right—this group really is full of buried dragons and phoenixes.”

Monica snapped her fingers. The quarantine chamber instantly turned black, cutting off vision and sound. Then she turned to Lin Xian and asked, “Looks like he’s no longer of any use. What do you want to do with him?”

Lin Xian scratched his head. “He monitored the Replicants in Baicheng for a while—might know a few things. He’s got a weird kind of luck, surviving this far. Lock him up for now. If it’s too much trouble, I’ll hand him over to Moonlight Shinji. Silent City has plenty of cells.”

“Nah, we’ll keep him here.” Monica crossed her arms. “I prefer to keep unpredictable variables within my grasp.”

“Fair enough.” Lin Xian glanced at the box in his hand and Old Ghost’s corpse and exhaled. “Well, now we know—Divine Revelation and Crimson World are both watching us. What an honor.”

“Let them.” KIKI said coldly. “These Descent Faction nutjobs are enemies of all humanity. They deserve to die.”

“Agreed.” Monica looked at Lin Xian with interest. “Right now, the various continents are being forced into order by the Abyss siege. The era of chaotic scavenger convoys is dying. In the face of extinction, scheming means nothing. Anyone sane wants to band together and head for the poles. Europe Storm Alliance, North American United Front, Dawn City, Silent City, Arctic Wind Alliance, the Wanderers—all of them. The Phoenix Society points to a future. So… don’t you want to build your own faction?”

Lin Xian looked back at her and smiled. “You want to join me that badly? Doesn’t seem like your style to serve under someone else.”

Monica smiled sweetly. “First, I respect you. Second, I’m interested in that Sky-Dome-Class Superstructure Train that can fly into space.”

As she walked past him to leave the train, she whispered in his ear, “And who says being beneath someone can’t be fun?”

Lin Xian watched her leave, baffled and amused. What is with this woman? Always a queen—and now she says being underneath makes her happy?

After leaving Queen Monica’s train, Lin Xian put the black candle away. He and KIKI headed toward the upper deck’s transport ship dock to find Old Hu. If he could absorb the Dragon-Class Transport Ship, its nuclear engine and propulsion systems alone might net him thousands of Mechanical Core Points—maybe enough to upgrade his Mechanical Heart to LV.6 and trigger his second awakening.

Next stop: Jinhai. That’s Dawn City’s territory. According to Zhou Lei, Crimson World’s HQ might be there too. Silent City was too large to avoid attention. He had to use every moment of these two days to strengthen his Mechanical Heart.