Lu Mingfei kept his eyes shut tight, feeling the majestic force of the train coming straight at him. The spotlight was so bright it felt like it could burn his eyelids. But this was fine, too. Getting hit by a train was at least a more normal way to die.
It took a long time for him to come back to his senses. He didn’t seem to be dead. The train lights still shone in front of him, but the roaring noise had disappeared.
Lu Mingfei cautiously opened his eyes a crack, then jumped back in shock. It really was a subway train, and the blazing steam headlight was right in front of his nose, yet it was silently stopped there. It had been approaching at high speed, but all that kinetic energy vanished just as it reached him. The rusted accordion door slowly opened, revealing the same pitch-black carriage, waiting for this lost passenger. Lu Mingfei looked around, and the bronze skeletons that had risen from the fossilized rocks were gone. All that was left on the ground was some red brick dust.
He knew this time there was no choice, so he carefully boarded the train. The metal door behind him creaked shut, and the train started moving again. In complete darkness, Lu Mingfei stood with his hands by his sides, stiff as a stick in the corner, muttering, “You can’t see me, you can’t see me…”
But it was all in vain. His earplug fell out, and he clearly heard the rusty door between the old carriages being slowly opened, making the sound of rust flaking away.
Chu Zihang stood in the rain, his head lowered and his eyes on the ground. To be precise, he was standing on a subway platform, in the pouring rain.
Water poured in from every direction—the roof, the ground, the entrances, the vents. Any place you could think of was flooding. Chu Zihang was drenched, with steam rising from his body. He didn’t seem to feel uncomfortable though—his posture remained straight, his tall figure like a spear planted in the middle of the platform.
“Little White Rabbit Number Two must be a ‘too-cool-to-die type,’ right? Look at that expression—like he’s saying, ‘Ah, I’m just waiting for the subway,’ and ‘Isn’t it normal for there to be heavy rain in the subway station?’” Chips watched the surveillance footage.
“Notice the steam coming off him. His rapidly rising body temperature is evaporating the water in his clothes. He’s not trying to act cool; he’s focusing. He’s a natural killer. When he realized he couldn’t escape, he became even calmer. If crying and screaming don’t help, it’s better to stay calm and prepare for everything,” Mai said, turning on her microphone. “Team C, you can send the train.”
A few minutes later, a subway train splashed through waist-high water and stopped in front of Chu Zihang. The door opened.
“How exactly are you controlling the subway in the Nibelungen?” Chips asked.
“The boss taught me. It’s strange—Nibelungen isn’t an illusion or anything like that. It follows its own set of rules. Each Nibelungen is different, but this one strangely follows the rules set out in the ‘Beijing Urban Rail Transit Safety and Operation Management Measures.’”
Chips was stunned. “Is the Nibelungen under the Beijing government’s control?”
“No, it means it has copied some rules from reality. It’s a twisted version of reality, with different interfaces connecting it to the real world. Just like the real subway, the trains in this Nibelungen are controlled by circuits. We can tap into those circuits, just like we accessed its CCTV system.” Mai pointed at the surveillance screen.
She hesitated. On the screen, Chu Zihang remained still, head down, as if he hadn’t even noticed the steel train in front of him.
“Hey!” Mai became anxious. “What are you planning? Do you know how hard it was for me to get this train here for you? Are you dozing off? Or are you planning a sit-in to call for help?”
“No way. I had Team A hack his phone. He can’t make any calls for help, not even to 110,” Chips said.
Chu Zihang didn’t move until the train doors slowly closed with a “screech.”
“What do we do now?” Chips asked.
Mai shook her head. “I don’t know. They’re all such disobedient kids—it’s really troublesome! But the train can’t wait too long. Though the intervals aren’t that tight here, if it waits too long, it’ll collide with the next one.”
The train accelerated and left the platform. Then, suddenly, Chu Zihang moved, darting like a ghost, jumping off the platform and sprinting after the train, leaping onto it in silence, sticking to the back of the train, hidden in the darkness of the tunnel.
“As expected of Cassell College’s hidden ace agent,” Chips gasped. “Such high-speed movement, perfect calculation, and timing. If you weren’t paying attention, you’d think he just vanished!”
“People like him always stay on the edge of the plan. He’ll never take the door we open for him—he has to use the back door! I should’ve known. Respect!” Mai said. “No wonder that taciturn girl said that if Chu Zihang gave it his all, she might not have an absolute chance of winning. For someone as prideful as her, saying something like that is harder than doing a thousand push-ups.”
“Only this kind of little rabbit could deliver a fatal blow to Fenrir, right?”
“How else could he pave the way for Lu Mingfei?”
“Three players always needed a fourth, and we finally have a new player. Care to join us?” A ghostly voice echoed in the carriage.
Lu Mingfei froze for a moment, shocked and embarrassed. He wondered who this wandering spirit was that could be so unreliable. If it was a ghost, it must have been a rather useless one, right? At this critical moment, he managed to muster some guts and said in a hoarse voice, “Mahjong, or poker? Upgrade or tractor?”
“You little…! Lu Mingfei? Is that you?” The wandering spirit was shocked.
“Screw you! Zhao Menghua, are you trying to scare me?” Lu Mingfei roared in anger.
“Ah! A ghost!” A second later, as Zhao Menghua leaned in, Lu Mingfei screamed.
The ghost was startled by the sudden scream and crouched down, covering his ears, unable to get up for quite some time. Lu Mingfei clung to the door, trembling, cold sweat pouring down. The face in front of him was terrifying—skeletally thin, covered in scruffy stubble, with large pupils that glowed like an oil lamp about to go out. If it was a ghost, it was definitely one that had starved to death.
Two shadowy figures approached from either side and immediately grabbed Lu Mingfei.
“Cassell College, Class of ’04, Alchemy and Mechanical Engineering Department, Gao Mi, currently an Execution Bureau agent.”
“Class of ’05, Mechanics Department, Wan Boqian.”