Chapter 28: Chapter 25 Tracking Squad
Translator: 549690339
Leonard Churchill’s acting skills easily deceived the searching gazes.
But he didn’t rush to get on the car, instead he purposely walked around the train carriages.
He wanted to observe the train.
Just in case something unusual happened, how he would escape after boarding the train.
But after circling around, Leonard realized that this train was quite unique.
It was a sixteen-carriage steam train, with carriages much wider than the trains in his previous life, like a chubby iron beetle.
More exaggeratedly, the front of the train had a demon head-shaped metal bumper, and each carriage was covered with heavy steel armor plates bolted on by large rivets. Even windows were absent, only some air vents covered in iron sheet were visible. The defense was probably even more exaggerated than the tanks from his former world.
Obviously, this was set up to protect from monsters.
After all, there were claw marks and dried, darkened bloodstains left by unknown creatures on the carriage armor.
Safety was, undoubtedly, prioritized, but it was not ideal for Leonard.
Once on the train, it would be like entering an iron bucket, as if there was nowhere to run.
For a moment, Leonard hesitated, wondering if the risk of leaving by train now would be too great.
As luck would have it, while Leonard was observing the train, he overheard two men arguing about something.
One seemed like the station manager, and the other, a fellow wearing a trench coat and a hat, was desperately persuading him.
“Delay the train’s departure? For what reason?”
“An order from Upper City? Oh, seems like we have a big shot coming to Demon Cross Camp.”
“Haha, you guys from Blackwater Mercenary Group might want to brown-nose the nobles in Upper City, but we at the Hunter’s Association have no interest.
Speak up if there’s anything, don’t just beat around the bush. And don’t use that ‘big shot’ crap here! Unless monsters attack the camp, no one can halt the train!”
Though Leonard only heard snippets, he understood.
The man wearing the hat wanted to delay the train but was mocked by the train officer.
Upon hearing this, Leonard wondered, “Isn’t the Miller family in charge of Sinless City? So they don’t even have the power to delay a train?”
This was what he had been most worried about before.
He feared that Elder Master of the Miller Family would abuse his power to blockade the entire camp; then if a one-by-one search was carried out, Leonard would be like a sitting duck.
But it seemed… the governor’s influence wasn’t that big?
The hunters in Sinless City were quite something.
No wonder Camilla had previously suggested that he take the train. She must have known that the Miller family didn’t have the power to delay the train.
“Hoo…hoo…hoo…”
Just then, the train whistle sounded.
“Hurry up and get the train, it’s about to leave.”
The hunters who were still smoking and chatting under the carriage heard the whistle, and one after another they boarded the train.
Upon seeing this, Leonard hesitated no more and squeezed into the crowd to get on the train.
The moment he entered the carriage, Leonard’s brows furrowed.
The smell in a train without windows was simply overwhelming.
Hunters probably had little chance to bathe outdoors. The smell of sweat, stinky feet, smoke, bloody corpses, along with various other strange odors mixed together. The heat was suffocating, smelling stuffy and foul as if it were a sauna.
The hunters in the carriage seemed to be accustomed to it. Some even wore adventure-purpose gas masks to filter the smell, while some continued eating and drinking, completely unaffected.
But Leonard, observing this situation, thought that this environment was actually advantageous to him.
Camilla had used odor-removing potions before, in fear of being tracked.
That is to say, there must be extraordinary powers that enhance the sense of smell in this world.
Therefore, according to Leonard, the use of “odor-reducing potions” itself is a loophole.
It was correct to use it before.
But if someone really came chasing after him now and found that one person in a group had no body odor, it would immediately arouse suspicion.
The murky smell in the carriage perfectly covered this loophole.
Each carriage was probably packed with two or three hundred people, even without seats, as the smell was all mixed up.
More people crowded into the carriage, and Leonard followed the crowd and walked into the carriage.
As Leonard got on the train, several teams of people only had time to hurriedly board the train.
As the Miller family’s influence could not stop the Hunters’ Association from running the train, the people in the Blackwater Mercenary Group had no choice but to board the train, hoping to find their target.
As Leonard Churchill had speculated, even if the elder master of the Miller family knew that the “T-level Disaster Source” in the Alternate Dimension had been taken by someone, he wouldn’t publicize it broadly.
After all, if only one person knew about it, even if it was lost, there could be time to think of ways to retrieve it.
However, if the news spread out, there would likely be far more who covet the item.
No matter in whose hands it ends up, it would be more difficult to retrieve.
Therefore, he could only send people to search for it secretly.
In the first compartment, a four-person elite scout team hastily arrived and got on the train.
There was a muscular man with a flat head dressed in a military-green vest, a woman with seductive charm in a black leather jacket with brown hair, a thin man playing with a dagger, and the last was a sleazy man with a wine nose.
“Ah… Boss, what’s our mission? Why are we summoned in such a hurry?”
“An urgent mission just arrived from the top, we have to find two people on this train.”
“What people?”
“A man and a woman.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Damn, all the people on this train are either male or female. We can’t just catch everyone, can we?”
The group looked at each other in dismay.
But that was all the information given by the team leader.
“I have some clues. There was a message from the group saying that the Alternate Dimension of 407 disappeared.”
“What space?”
“407.”
“Impossible! Was that dimension conquered by someone? I heard from our group that a few B-level Catastrophes are hard enough for us to deal with, let alone for card master apprentices who have limited entry tiers. It’s impossible to break!”
“The news has not spread. But it is indeed the case.”
“Ah, wasn’t that Alternate Dimension under the control of our group? Seems like the team leader has been blind-sided, it wasn’t our people who broke it?”
Upon hearing this, the four all roughly understood who they were looking for.
That “Abnormal Creature Shelter 407” was first discovered by their Blackwater Mercenary Group, almost like private property.
In their view, outsiders who took away the treasure that should have belonged to their group naturally can’t be let go.
“The team leader issued a dire order to find those two people at all costs. I suspect that something very important was lost.”
“That Alternate Dimension has produced a lot of rare materials and even silver cards. If it was truly conquered, who knows, maybe a gold Quality Demon Mark would appear. We indeed can’t let the people go.”
“Yeah. Our stuff was stolen by someone. The team leader must be fuming, no wonder the mission is so urgent. I was just at the ruins hunting mutation monsters and was called back urgently.”
“The situation might be worse than we thought. The team leader means that it’s a matter of life or death for our Blackwater Group!”
“Ah? Life and death? Is it really that serious?”
The group immediately realized the severity of the matter and vaguely guessed what was going on.
But as urgent as the issue might be, finding a man and a woman among thousands on the train seemed like a tall tale.
“What the hell are we supposed to do with so little information to find people?”
“Old Dog, stop complaining. Moreover, we’re not completely clueless. First, those who just came out of the Alternate Dimension half an hour ago might have a distinctive smell, and their boarding time must be within the last half-hour. Pay more attention to those standing without seats; second, card master apprentice; third, body height; fourth, they may be traveling alone or in pairs. If we’re vigilant, this information is enough to find them.”
“Boss, you are asking too much of me. With all the smells in the compartment, I can hardly bear it, let alone finding people.”
“We’ve received a dire order from the higher-ups. Use that Mystery Card.”
“Really use it? If I use it, I wouldn’t be able to use my nose for months. And that card was not easy to get…”
“Use it!”
Upon hearing the team leader’s order, Wine Nose reluctantly took out a card with a hunting dog pattern on it.
He pulled a face, and lightly uttered: “Unlock!”
Looking again, the Hexagram Array on the back of the card emitted a blue light. The extraordinary power contained in it seeped into his body, and Wine Nose’s body went through immediate changes.
A series of cracking sounds signifying bone growth were heard. Wine Nose grew about a foot taller on the spot. Even weirder, his face slowly protruded, turning into a dog’s face with a long snout?
At a second glance, Wine Nose had transformed into a lean hunting dog standing on its hind legs.
Old Dog grudgingly put on his hood to hide his face and complained: “Boss, I’m going to take a walk in the compartment.”
Meanwhile, Leonard Churchill was playing poker with the hunters in the compartment..