Carriage 4 was different.
When Kavian pulled the connecting door lever, he expected the smell of blood as pungent as the rear carriage. However, what greeted them was a piercing chill and the scent of... jasmine?
The smell of rotting jasmine flowers, mixed with the aroma of sterile hospital medicine.
"It's freezing," Arka complained, pulling his tattered flannel shirt tighter. Thick steam escaped his mouth with every breath.
There were no torn corpses here. No blood splattered on the walls.
There was only mist.
A pale white mist floated knee-high across the entire carriage floor. The lights in this carriage flickered with a nauseatingly slow rhythm. On... Off... On... Off...
And the passengers?
Kavian stepped carefully. He saw a mother sitting in the priority seat. She was intact. No wounds. She was hugging her shopping bag while smiling widely. Her eyes were open, but her eyeballs were milky white—covered in thick cataracts that moved like clouds.
The mother wasn't breathing. But she was mumbling.
"My son is number one... number one... hehehe... nothing is wrong... everything is beautiful..."
Next to her, a university student sat cross-legged on the floor. He was also smiling, drool dripping from his mouth.
"GPA 4.0... GPA 4.0... no need for thesis... the lecturer is dead... hahaha..."
They weren't dead. They were trapped.
Kavian felt a dizziness in his head. Not physical pain like when Inner Sight was active, but a dizziness like seasickness.
[ENVIRONMENTAL WARNING]
Area: Delusion Zone.
Effect: Sanity decreases by 1% every 30 seconds.
Cause: Uncontrolled Mental Ether Leak.
"Kav, I feel... weird," Arka's voice sounded heavy, as if he were speaking underwater. The giant's steps began to stagger. His sharp eyes started to dim. "I'm so sleepy..."
"Don't sleep," Kavian hissed sharply, slapping Arka's arm. "If you sleep, you won't wake up again like them. Your Sanity is low, Arka. You're vulnerable to mental attacks."
Arka shook his head violently, trying to stay conscious. "Damn. Where's Clara?"
Kavian pointed to the center of the carriage.
There, the mist was thickest. So thick it formed a slowly spinning cocoon vortex. And at the center of that vortex, a girl with shoulder-length bob hair sat curled up hugging her knees.
Clara Adair. 23 years old. Psychology student who loved debating nihilism.
The girl wore an oversized yellow cardigan that now looked faded. She hadn't fainted. Her eyes were wide open, staring blankly into the air. Her mouth was moving at high speed.
"If God is omnipotent, can He create a stone He cannot lift? If He can, it means He isn't strong enough to lift it. If He can't, it means He doesn't have the power to create it. Paradox. This universe is a paradox. Nothing is real. Kavian is just an NPC. Arka is just a 3D texture. Hahahaha..."
"Clara!" Arka called out, about to run closer.
"Wait!" Kavian held Arka's shoulder.
Kavian's Inner Sight caught something terrifying. Around Clara, reality was... breaking. The air near her cracked like glass. Small objects (trash cans, water bottles) floated without gravity, then exploded into dust, and reassembled into other shapes.
Above Clara's head, her status wasn't blue or red, but an unstable Neon Purple.
Name: Clara Adair
Rank: 9 (Awakening Incomplete)
Sanity: 15% (CRITICAL)
Status: Mana Overload.
"She's 'Leaking'," Kavian said coldly. "Her brain failed to process the incoming new power. She's projecting the chaotic contents of her head onto reality. This mist... this is the manifestation of her subconscious fears."
"So what do we do?" Arka snapped in panic. "Sanity 15%?! Isn't it if it hits 0% she becomes a monster?"
"Correct. We have less than two minutes before Clara blows her own brains out or turns us into dream mush."
Kavian stepped forward. "Arka, watch my back. If any 'sleeping' passengers wake up and attack, knock them out. Don't kill if possible."
"Okay," Arka stood tall, fighting his drowsiness with leftover willpower.
Kavian walked through the thick mist. The closer he got to Clara, the heavier gravity felt. The whispers in Kavian's ears grew louder. Screams, laughter, crying—all of Clara's emotions spilled over.
"Kavian?" Clara turned suddenly. Her face was deathly pale, but there was a crazy lopsided smile on her lips. "Oh, Hello. You're the quest giver NPC, right? What's your dialogue today? 'The world has ended'? So cliché. The scriptwriter is lazy."
Kavian stopped one meter in front of her. He looked straight into Clara's misty eyes.
"Clara. Validate reality," Kavian said calmly, using his most logical and authoritative tone.
"Reality?" Clara chuckled. The mist around her turned into sharp knife shapes pointing at Kavian's neck. "What is reality? Just electrical signals in the brain. If I say you're dead, you're dead, right?"
The mist knives shot forward.
Kavian didn't dodge. Not because he was brave enough to die, but because he was gambling with his own [Trait] mechanic: Logic Anchor.
He activated his will. His power path, [Path of the Abyssal Monarch], though not perfectly formed yet, had one basic principle: Domination.
"Quiet," Kavian ordered.
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a strange weight.
Hidden Initial Skill: [Minor Coercion].
The mist knives stopped an inch from Kavian's eyes, then dissipated into harmless vapor.
Kavian knelt in front of Clara. He grabbed the girl's shoulders roughly, forcing her to look into his eyes.
"Your hypothesis is wrong," Kavian said coldly. "I am not an NPC. Pain is real."
Kavian pressed his thumb hard into Clara's collarbone. A painful pressure point.
"Ouch!" Clara gasped, her eyes blinking. The white mist in her eyes began to recede for a moment. "It hurts, asshole!"
"Good. Pain is a constant variable. If you can feel pain, you are still human," Kavian didn't let go of his grip. "Clara, listen. Your brain is overclocking. You're downloading data from a broken universe. Stop thinking. Stop analyzing. Breathe."
"But... the voices... they're so loud, Kav," tears leaked from the corners of Clara's eyes. "They said I can make anything... I can..."
"That's a lie. You're just a final year student whose thesis isn't finished. You are not a god," Kavian cut in brutally. "Focus on me. Count backwards from ten. Prime numbers. Now."
Clara trembled. She gripped Kavian's arm until her nails dug into his skin. She fought the chaos in her head.
"Seven... eh, no. Ten isn't prime..." she mumbled, stuttering.
"Seven," Kavian corrected.
"Seven... five... three... two..."
As Clara recited those numbers, the mist in Carriage 4 began to be sucked back into her body. The lights stopped flickering. The mumbling sounds of other passengers slowly went silent.
"...One?" Clara exhaled a long breath.
Her eye color returned to normal—intelligent light brown, though now surrounded by tired dark circles. The Sanity barometer above her head stopped falling, then slowly rose to 35% (Danger Zone, but stable).
The mist vanished completely.
Clara went limp, falling into Kavian's arms. "Damn. I had a really weird dream. I became mist, then I saw a tentacle monster attacking Arka..."
"That wasn't a dream," Arka replied from behind, already leaning tiredly against an iron pole. "That was a spoiler."
Kavian let go of Clara, letting the girl sit back.
[Target Analysis: Clara Adair]
Rank: 9 (Awakened)
Path: Path of the Pale Mist
Role: Illusionist / Crowd Control.
Status: Mental Unstable (Prone to madness if Mana is depleted).
"Did I... did I make those people crazy?" Clara looked around, staring at the passengers who were now fast asleep (fainted) after the mist cleared. Her face was terrified.
"They survived because your mist protected this carriage from physical monsters," Kavian lied. Half-lied. The mist did protect, but it was also slowly eating their souls. Kavian chose a pragmatic narrative to keep Clara's mental state stable.
"Really?" Clara asked hopefully.
"Technically, yes," Kavian answered while standing up, dusting off his pants. "You're Area Mage. Arka is Tank. I'm Strategist. Classic MMORPG composition. Now get up, Sleeping Beauty. We can't camp here."
Kavian turned his back to them, hiding his trembling hands.
Using [Minor Coercion] earlier had drained his Mental Energy drastically. His own [Sanity] bar dropped 5% just from that one command word.
Turns out the cost is high to be a King, he thought bitterly.
"Where to?" Arka asked, helping Clara stand.
"Head of the train. Driver's Cabin," Kavian pointed to the front door. "This train is completely dead. I need to check if the control panel or emergency communication radio still works. We need information on what's out there."
"And if the driver has already become a monster?" Arka asked skeptically.
"Then we have an enclosed space with a thick steel door to hide in, after we evict the occupant," Kavian replied pragmatically.
Kavian stepped first. Outside the window, the terrifying static view remained the same. That purple darkness didn't move, but seemed to be waiting. This train was just a silent sardine can in a sea of monsters.
"Let's go," Kavian invited without looking back. "Don't let us become free loot for them."