“Totally true! And the driver has to cover themselves with yellow talismans and drive upside down with their hands, or else they’ll be possessed by ghosts!”
“Wow, driving upside down… so they drive with their feet?”
“I can vouch for it. My uncle is a subway driver, and after years of driving upside down, he’s developed a great skill—he can wrap dumplings with his feet while doing a handstand!”
“Whoa, can you even eat that…”
“Don’t listen to this nonsense. But there’s a real subway legend: the first station on Line 1 to the west is Apple Orchard, but its station number is ‘103’. Have you ever noticed? Next are 104, 105, and 106, but stations 101 and 102 are missing. Actually, there are two hidden subway stations past Apple Orchard: Station 101 is Gaojing, and Station 102 is Fushouling. Those areas are pretty deserted. If you hide and don’t get off at the final station, you can reach those two stations.”
“Those were originally military stations. You can still enter Fushouling, but Gaojing is off-limits. There are also two even more concealed stations—Heishitou and Sanjiadian—further west, leading to the Xishan Military Base. All of this was built during the ‘Dig Deep’ movement of the Cultural Revolution. The entire mountain was hollowed out, housing old aircraft that could take off directly from inside the mountain. If you visit, you’ll see it’s extremely desolate, with tall, white Soviet-style buildings with peeling paint, long, dark passageways lit by just a couple of dim lights. No one dares go down alone. There are countless parallel tracks used for parking and maintenance, and the space is enormous, stretching beyond sight.”
“You sound like you’ve been there. There used to be commuter trains running through, but they stopped that service. How did you get in?”
“I can confirm you can get there, but first, you need to bring your own joystick. After reaching Apple Orchard, you need to plug it into a socket at the base of the third column from the west on the southern side, then input ‘up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, B, A’. This activates the hidden mode, and you get 30 extra lives…”
“No way! Fellow player, that’s how I got in too! But the mobs in there are strong. Even 30 lives aren’t enough. You need to be at least level 80, dual-wielding egg-blades, and it’s best to form a party to grind!”
“Looking for a party! Veteran Youth League member here, specializing in ideological politics, has an area-of-effect skill!”
After that, it was all pointless chatter. Just as Chu Zihang was about to close the page, he noticed a reply that said, “Click here for entry instructions…” followed by a link.
Chu Zihang felt a slight impulse and clicked on the link, leading to a pitch-black blog page. It seemed like the blog’s owner had never updated it since its creation. Chu Zihang pondered for a moment before pressing “Ctrl” and “A” simultaneously. This key combination was for “Select All,” which highlighted all the text on the page. Hidden black text on the black background appeared:
“You need a transit card. In one day, enter each station on Line 1 and the loop line using this card. After that, the card will turn golden. Use this golden card to reach the hidden stations.”
“What’s this?” Finger had woken up at some point and crawled over to read.
“I’m not sure. But do you remember that the two agents’ job was to search along the subway lines every day for targets with dragon blood? One of the agents, Wan Boqian, had the Yanling ‘Blood Link,’ which was highly sensitive to bloodlines,” Chu Zihang said quietly. “I have some vague clues, but I can’t quite put them together.”
“Could the Dragon King be hiding in the subway?”
“Even though there are empty spaces there, the subway tunnels are actually places with extremely high human density. There are people patrolling them every day, so it shouldn’t be a suitable hiding spot.” Chu Zihang shook his head. “Any news from Lu Mingfei?”
“Five days straight without returning. Maybe he met some beautiful girl at an internet café,” Finger hesitated for a moment. “Or… I heard that in China, without a temporary residence permit, you could get taken to dig sand.”
Doggo commanded his last aircraft carrier fleet towards Lu Mingfei’s main base. This would be his sixteenth defeat today, and this fleet was just a symbol of his “undying spirit of resistance.” Lu Mingfei’s base was covered with anti-air towers and those damn science vessels. At this moment, Lu Mingfei’s tanks had already begun bombarding Doggo’s main base.
These past few days, Doggo came every day to get beaten, feeling both pain and joy. After playing Starcraft for so many years, Starcraft II was—
Lu Mingfei didn’t disappoint him again. Forget about anti-air towers or science vessels; before he even had the chance to see those… his aircraft carrier fleet had been wiped out by three consecutive nuclear bombs. The way Lu Mingfei used those nukes was nothing short of divine!
Doggo wanted to ask Lu Mingfei for advice on using nukes, but when he looked up, he realized the timing wasn’t right. There was now a girl by Lu Mingfei’s side.
In the smoky, chaotic internet café, the appearance of such a girl couldn’t help but draw everyone’s attention. She wore a white cotton dress with mid-heel square-toed shoes, her face clean and makeup-free, her eyes filled with a gentle sheen, like an actress from some third-rate teen drama.
The girl swept her eyes around the room as she entered, then went straight to sit beside Lu Mingfei, gazing at him tenderly.
Lu Mingfei felt a bit uneasy and glanced at her, “You…”
“You look a lot like my cousin…” the girl said softly.
Lu Mingfei thought to himself, Would your cousin agree with that statement?
“Can you teach me to play this game? I’ve never played it before,” the girl said, twisting her shoulders.
“…” Lu Mingfei was very nervous.
“Don’t be so distant,” the girl pouted charmingly. “I just thought you seemed really familiar and wanted to play together…”
Mai was listening through her headphones, and hearing this, she powerlessly knocked her head on the table.
She covered the microphone and glared at Chips, “Is this the ‘artsy young woman’ you found?”
“I told you not to choose her! Don’t be fooled by her innocent face. Her last role was as Sai Jinhua, before that she played Chen Yuanyuan in The Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, and her debut role was as Daji…” Chips shrugged.