On the small table a little piece of paper could be found. It fitted completely inside my palm, upon feeling, it was definitely more akin to a credit card than a paper. Its surface was blank apart from a lone word, Ticket. Suddenly, another panel popped into my vision.

-Ticket Menu-

Name: Friedrich Mercer

Car clearance level: 01

Train Coins: 100

Inbox(2)

The ticket served as my passport, it held all relevant intel on me. The coins and the inbox were self explanatory, although I couldn’t figure what ‘car clearance’ meant, but I didn’t ponder any longer as it would be surely revealed soon enough.

I then pressed the inbox label and a new, smaller panel appeared.

-Inbox-

1- Rest Train's Rules (new)

2- Various information (new)

Obviously, it was a list of incoming mails. I once saw a movie, they had holographic phones resembling those panels, it was quite handy compared to the hefty cellular phone I had.

Talking about phones, I couldn’t feel mine in its usual place, my right pocket.

As I sought for it, I noticed something really strange, my clothes were switched for a tasteless white t-shirt and some jeans.

Sure thing, only our bodies were summoned here. Was it for the sake of a fair competition or by a lack of means?

-Rest Train's Rules-

1- Murder is prohibited.

2- Disruptions of the personnel work is prohibited.

3- The sole usable currency is the Train Coin.

4- A cabin shall only be opened by its owner.

5- Rules 1&2 are enforced by death.

The Rest Train seemed to be a regulated place. Although murder was illegal there were no rules against violence and fraud. Outside my cabin I should be vigilant at all times.

As there wasn’t much to read, quickly closed the panel and opened the second message.

-Various Information-

1- Each adventurer has an allocated cabin to their name, they are located in the ‘Lodging’ areas of every car of the Rest Train.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

2- Everything an adventurer needs can be found at the Market area such as: weapons, elixirs, food, equipment. The offered items are all synchronized between cars.

3- To avoid useless misunderstandings every bit of speech and prose are translated to the native language of the adventurer.

4- Between 6:00 and 21:00 the Rest Train and the Adventure Train are coupled. The Gates are operational during this time.

5- In order to progress in the Adventure Train an adventure must complete past trials.

6- A starter pack awaits every adventurer at the start of the first trial.

7- The Rest Train is composed of 10 identical cars to avoid overcrowding of services.

I didn’t understand quite a lot. So I decided to simply ignore everything that confused me and didn’t seem to be important at the moment. T

his left me with only the point #4, the Gates. As I understood, they were gateways to the Adventure Train, assuming I was currently at the Rest Train.

I immediately glanced at the clock, 5:46.

The adventure would soon begin. Not wanting to be left behind, I closed every holographic panel and stuffed the Ticket into one of my pockets.

I rushed to the door. I could hear several people walking beyond, quickly an idea germinated. Should I wait?

I ignored exactly how many people boarded the train, but I could try making a rough estimate from what I could remember of the otherworldly station.

If everybody accepted to embark, no more than 2 thousands should be here. Even if there were multiple Gates a truly fearful stampede could sweep me away, and it’s not as if I enjoyed crowds.

I could offset the beginning of my adventure for half an hour in order to avoid any useless stress.

I quietly laid on the bench and stared mindlessly into the vast sights for some time offsetting the burning anticipation of the unknown with rationality. As time passed by, I glanced upon the clock from time to time.

5:53, 5:59, 6:01, 6:08 and finally, at 6:15, the sounds of motion beyond the door were completely null. It was finally time for me to get going, everyone else should already have gone through the ‘Gates’.

I approached the sliding door; there were no handles. For several minutes, I desperately looked for the handle, everything in vain. At one point, I cracked and screamed,

"Open, goddammit."

And miraculously, the door moved itself.

"Voice commands, huh?"

The door opened onto a rather wide corridor, going by train standards at least. At least twice as wide as my cabin. Nothing special, everything was in the same brassy colours, even the brownish low pile carpet gave off a metallic feel.

Rows of the same sliding doors longed the walls for hundreds of meters left and right; luckily, they all had the name of the owner burned onto a metallic plate, so I could easily find my cabin without trying to open every one in my sector.

I was quite relieved walking down the hall; everyone was actually gone, I could explore the Rest Train worry-free. I found it odd that in such a magical place, the lighting was still done by simple incandescent bulbs.

North of 150 meters, I found a strange installation: a dozen or so man-sized capsules were cast into some sort of large glassy tubing.

The insides of the capsules were quite peculiar, with two metal bars on the sides and some leather straps. My best guess would be that those were some kind of transportation device within the Rest Train.

The small brass pipes that longed the hallway converged all here, emitting a dull sound.

As I entered one of them, the front shield quickly descended, sealing me inside. I could hear the pressurization process; it was quite worrying. I knew not what kind of elevator required such advanced hermetization. Shortly after, two round handles were pushed from the front.

The first one had three states: ‘Lodgings’, ‘Market’, and ‘Gate’; the second one had numbers ranging from 1 to 10. It was quite clear; the first handle was the selection of the zone, and the second took care of the car. I set the first handle to Main and left the second untouched at ‘1’.

It immediately set itself in motion, I felt my skin being dragged down due to the immense acceleration.

Although it had 'elevator' in its name, it moved in all directions, I was feeling more and more nauseous.

Thankfully, the capsule was opaque and unlit; perhaps it helped me from vomiting just yet. I heard no sound, as if the glassy tubing did not possess any friction at all.

Deprived of other senses, my smell seemed to have increased; a yet unnoticed smell of burning sulfur filled my nostrils.

After what felt like an eternity, this damned mechanism finally started to slow down. Once it stopped completely, the front shield slowly retracted itself.

It was hard at first for me to walk straight; my vision was all blurry, and I had horrendous nausea. This was even worse than teleportation. I decided to wait by the elevator station for a bit until my head cleared up a bit.

While waiting, one of the arrival tubes started shaking, and soon another capsule arrived. I felt tingling in my fingers, fearful I was. I wouldn't get murdered as it was against the rules, but I still feared the encounter with someone who did not rush to a Gate; they were at least as clever as me.

As the capsule opened, a large cloud of steam hid away the person behind it. But I saw a figure moving steadily with no visible impairment. Were they strong enough to resist this nausea or was I that weak?

Once the steam dissipated, I could see a tall man of Asian origin with shortish black hair and a pretty muscly complexion. He then looked straight into my eyes, and I zealously took my distance from him. He was dressed the same way as me and seemed irritated.

My heart started to quickly rampage; my mind got rid of any nausea left. I did not know how to fight and did not desire a first experience against an opponent visibly stronger than me. He uttered on a warm tone:

"Uhm Hi, I am Kim Jinhyung, from Korea."