Transforming Succubus: Almost Doomsday

"Your journey is decided by the gods."

Zhou Baiyu mulled over these final two sentences, pondering their significance.

The train conductor said:

"The places I can go to are more distant than the ones you are summoned to, even closer to the future. But all this is premised on having a passenger."

"The train seeks destined passengers, the spirit of the train will appear in the dreams or hallucinations of some. It will tell these people where to board. And I will pass through these places, picking up those fated to be on the train."

"I might travel from 2.15 to 2.14 or perhaps from 2.15 to 2.16... Who knows, the train needs a master, and while I am the master of the train, it's our passenger who decides my and the train's final destination."

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The train conductor looked at Zhou Baiyu with a rather friendly gaze.

Zhou Baiyu more or less understood.

The train conductor was a Purifier. By rights, the train conductor, like the Forerunners, should be able to go to all sorts of summons, just like Constantin or himself, to various versions.

Like occasionally heading to version 1.01, sometimes to version 2.49... Continuously answering summons within this scope.

Exploring the mysteries of the whole world.

But currently, there were two distinctive points about the train conductor.

Firstly, the train conductor had become a Purifier much earlier in the timeline than any Forerunner Zhou Baiyu knew of.

So much so that Zhou Baiyu suspected that the train conductor might be a Purifier from the end of the last era.

Secondly, the train conductor worshipped the God of Trade and Choice.

One of the duties and privileges of a Purifier was to be able to go to different versions and purify the pollution.

And the train conductor... seemed to have traded this duty and privilege for the identity of train conductor.

He could follow the train to any version, any place. The price was that he also lost the ability of a Purifier to go to various summons and timelines.

So this was a trade of equivalent value.

"A trade of equivalent value, you traded the authority of a Purifier for the authority of a train conductor?" Zhou Baiyu asked.

The train conductor nodded approvingly:

"You really are a very smart person. I think our cooperation will be very pleasant."

Zhou Baiyu frowned again:

"Cooperation? What cooperation? According to what you say, you've been alive in several worlds for decades, and you can follow the train through different versions..."

"Your experience, abilities, all surpass mine, and the passengers on the entire train revere you, so why do you need me?"

The train conductor had long known Zhou Baiyu would ask this:

"Those rule passengers will be updated periodically... After some rules are eliminated, they will be replaced with new ones."

"Your journey is decided by the 'gods,' or 'us,' and my journey is decided by passengers."

"Although those rule passengers are afraid of me and my crew members..."

"But any other passengers, except for those who are very powerful beings... Most need to deal with the rule passengers."

"Very few passengers who board the train reach the final station. And we cannot intervene in this process."

"This is the principle of fair trade, the most fundamental principle of the god I worship."

"Everyone who boards the train must undergo a trial. Boarding the train means they can go to the place they long for. That is the good, and for goods, there must be a price to pay."

"And the price is to survive on the train. The crew will provide information about the rules, whether true or false, and all passengers on board must survive in a carriage full of rules to possibly reach their destination."

"This also leads to many passengers failing to arrive at all. I'm not afraid to tell you, out of a hundred passengers, probably only one can successfully reach the final station."

"And even that is being optimistic."

"If they die before arriving at the final station... it means that I too cannot reach the passenger's destination. When a passenger dies, I will stop immediately, no longer continue to the passenger's destination, but turn around to look for a new passenger."

Zhou Baiyu roughly got the picture.

The train needs a passenger to start.

Without a passenger, the train is useless.

And even with a passenger, the train might still encounter problems halfway through.

Because the passenger can't endure, under the myriad rule-based oddities, they might die before reaching their destination.

Then the train would have to stop heading for the destination and instead look for a new passenger.

"What happens if no passengers ever reach their destination?"

Zhou Baiyu undoubtedly hit on a critical point.

The train conductor said with a grave expression:

"Then the Pantheon might deem the train not valuable and might think of ways... to destroy the train."

The Pantheon?

Zhou Baiyu did not expect to hear these words here.

He had a feeling that in the land of Longxia, the seven Demon Emperors and Stitches were the greatest rulers, and in the upcoming version 2.49, there would be a battle for sovereignty between the seven Demon Emperors and Stitches.

But beyond Longxia, it was the Pantheon that was the real behemoth.

Hearing about the Pantheon, Zhou Baiyu's interest was wholly piqued.

"The Pantheon might be an existence even more dreadful than Stitches, than the seven Demon Emperors."

"If I could gather information about such a colossal being before it notices me, it might be of great help when I go to war against them later."

"Most importantly, the train conductor's remarks seem to be... at odds with the Pantheon?"

"This means that the train conductor could be a potential ally."