Pei Ran continued to summon W in her heart.
She was in a hypnotic state and couldn’t hear his voice, but he should still be able to hear hers, right? She couldn’t possibly have lost even the ability to emit neural waves.
Last time, the two people who were hypnotized at the station entrance were both slapped awake by Sheng Mingxi. At that time, Ai Xia hadn’t arrived yet and didn’t know about the “slapping method.” But what was W doing? Why hadn’t he quickly slapped her awake yet?
Since he wasn’t taking action, Pei Ran raised her hand and slapped herself.
The sensation on her face was strange—faint and dull, not particularly painful. The foggy, scattered feeling in her mind didn’t change at all.
Perhaps the real sense of pain had dulled, or maybe her hand had lost its strength. Pei Ran couldn’t tell.
She pinched her thigh again, but it still didn’t feel very painful.
It seemed that waking herself up wasn’t very feasible.
Pei Ran quickly passed through the passage between the driver’s cabin and the carriage, casually steadying herself by holding onto the partition door.
The touch of the door felt correct.
Then she passed through the aisle of the first carriage, and the touch of the seat backs beside her also felt correct.
Pitter-patter.
A series of dense sounds came, as if the train were caught in a hail of bullets, with the train’s body being struck by many bullets. Holes suddenly burst open one after another in the ceiling, and the window glass shattered with a loud crash.
Countless gray tentacles, as thick as arms, snaked their way into the carriage from outside. They were soft and slimy but moved with incredible speed, rushing toward Pei Ran from all directions.
There were simply too many of them to dodge. Pain shot through her body, one blow after another.
Pei Ran glanced down. One tentacle had pierced through her chest, blood gushing out and soaking her front. Another tentacle had skewered her abdomen diagonally. In a matter of moments, her body was riddled with countless tentacles crisscrossing through her.
The pain was excruciating, and the scene was horrifying—likely meant to make her scream.
The tentacles thrashed wildly throughout the carriage, and the surrounding passengers were all too terrified to move.
One tentacle seized the opportunity and thrust into Pei Ran’s ear, bringing sharp pain. Another tentacle aimed straight for her eye, but Pei Ran quickly tilted her head to avoid it.
She had already reached her position.
Inaya had originally been standing in the aisle, but now there was no one there. The passengers sitting in the surrounding seats were all staring at Pei Ran in panic.
She had arrived quickly, in just a few short seconds. The hypnotist couldn’t have gone far.
Pei Ran grabbed one of the passengers by the shoulder, then immediately let go and grabbed another one next to them.
The touch of a real shoulder—the people in the illusion corresponded one-to-one with those in reality.
Just like earlier in the driver’s cabin, where Kirill had turned into Ai Xia and Ai Xia had turned into Kirill, it seemed the hypnotist’s abilities were limited. They couldn’t create a person out of thin air or make an existing person disappear; they could only alter their appearances.
If this was really the case, then that was great.
The tentacles were illusions, moving as fast as ghosts. Seizing an opportunity, one finally succeeded in piercing Pei Ran’s left eye, plunging deep into her skull through the eye socket.
A sharp pain shot through her brain, but Pei Ran had already seen clearly.
A few steps ahead, in the next set of seats, sat the young man with the ball gag, his face, like everyone else’s, filled with panic.
This man was far too memorable, and Pei Ran remembered clearly that his original seat wasn’t here.
Pei Ran rushed over and grabbed the young man by the shoulder.
Her palm pressed against something—it was the texture of a braid.
She had found her target.
The tentacles attacked even more frantically. Ignoring the densely packed tentacles piercing her body, Pei Ran lifted the young man, slammed him onto the floor, and tightly gripped his throat.
The young man was terrified, struggling wildly, but Pei Ran didn’t loosen her grip, her fingers tightening.
In the illusion, her senses were dulled, and she couldn’t gauge the strength in her hands. Pei Ran thought to herself, If I accidentally strangle you to death, it’s really not my fault.
The young man struggled but couldn’t break free from her control. Finally, his head tilted to the side as he passed out.
The moment he lost consciousness, it was as if the void had shattered and the earth had flattened. Pei Ran abruptly woke from the nightmare, and everything around her changed in an instant. Various sounds flooded back in.
Just as she had guessed, the person she had pinned to the ground and choked was Inaya.
Her face was flushed red from the choking, her eyes closed, unconscious.
The surrounding passengers were also somewhat panicked, mainly because they had seen her suddenly pin someone to the ground. However, they weren’t as terrified as the passengers in the illusion who had seen tentacles thrashing wildly throughout the carriage.
The Nuomituan, which Inaya had hidden inside her clothes, crawled out and flew to the back of a nearby seat, flapping its wings and shouting loudly:
“Murder—!”
“Murder—!”
In her ear, W’s voice was still calling, “Pei Ran? Pei Ran? Are you awake yet?”
Pei Ran let go of Inaya and stood up. “Why didn’t you try to wake me up? Were you too scared to slap me?”
He really was being polite.
“You’re finally awake,” W said, sounding relieved. “I just increased the volume when speaking to you, but I was worried that if it was too loud, it might permanently damage your auditory nerves.”
He continued, “Of course, I was also trying to wake you up with pain. A slap only causes level four pain, so I used the mechanical claws to create level seven or higher pain on your body continuously, but you still didn’t wake up. You should check your waist, legs, and arms later—I suspect I might have bruised you.”
Even level seven pain hadn’t woken Pei Ran, which showed that her level of hypnosis was clearly deeper than the others. Someone was afraid she would wake up too quickly.
W said, “You acted very quickly. I was just about to take further measures when you woke up on your own.”
Pei Ran sorted through her thoughts.
When Inaya had been standing in the aisle staring at her, a flash of green light had appeared in her eyes, and Pei Ran had fallen into the illusion. The moment Inaya lost consciousness, the hypnotic effect had automatically disappeared.
There were two possibilities: either Inaya was the hypnotist herself, or someone had deliberately synchronized these events to frame Inaya.
The first possibility was more likely and made more sense. Otherwise, there was no reason for Inaya to stand in the aisle staring at the driver’s cabin and later hide in the seats over here.
If the hypnotist was indeed Inaya herself, then it seemed she needed to maintain eye contact with her target to initiate hypnosis.
When Kirill had been alone in the driver’s cabin operating the train, he had also been in a hypnotic state. At that time, Inaya had been lying on the small table, either asleep or pretending to be asleep. The door to the driver’s cabin had been closed, and from her angle, even if she had lifted her head, she wouldn’t have been able to see Kirill inside.
This might suggest that once the hypnotic state was induced, maintaining eye contact was no longer necessary.
However, this time, Inaya had kept her eyes locked on Pei Ran without letting go, even after disguising herself as the young man with the ball gag. She hadn’t let Pei Ran out of her sight.
Pei Ran guessed that this was why her hypnotic state was deeper than the others’ and why she couldn’t be easily awakened.
Still, these were just guesses and couldn’t be verified yet.
Pei Ran suddenly rushed to the passenger carriage, where Ai Xia had already followed, looking completely baffled.
She pointed her finger and asked, [What’s going on?]
[You suddenly grabbed my arm, touched my shoulder, and then turned and left.]
Pei Ran thought: I almost dislocated your arm.
Pei Ran also noticed something: Ai Xia had remained clear headed the entire time, which suggested that the hypnotist could only create illusions for one person at a time.
The hypnotist’s goal was to make them turn on each other. If they could have created an illusion for Ai Xia as well, the effect would have been even better. They wouldn’t have chosen not to do it.
Pei Ran pointed at the unconscious Inaya on the floor and raised her hand, tapping her knuckles:
[I just saw an illusion, and I think she’s the one behind it.]
W’s voice sounded in her ear, “Pei Ran, remember the bet we made? I won.”
“Possibly, but not necessarily,” Pei Ran said.
She glanced at the carriage behind her. The aisle was empty.
Pei Ran pulled out a roll of tape from her bag—finally finding the cheap one—and used it to bind Inaya’s hands and feet. She then wrapped the Nuomituan in a scarf and handed it to Ai Xia.
She tapped a long series of knuckles to Ai Xia: [Find something to cover her eyes. If she starts to wake up, knock her out again.]
Ai Xia immediately nodded, gestured for her to wait, and dashed back to the driver’s cabin. She quickly returned clutching a large, heavy wrench.
Pei Ran: “…”
One hit from that wrench, and even an elephant would probably be knocked out.
Ai Xia untied the scarf and firmly bound it around Inaya’s head, tying a tight knot to cover her eyes.
She was reliable. Pei Ran, carrying the metal ball, walked toward the rear of the train.
The train was still speeding backward, and the diversion fork of the Tanggu Dam should be very close now.
Rumble—
A series of dull sounds suddenly came from somewhere, like thunder.
“Is it going to rain?” Pei Ran glanced out the window.
Outside the window, there was still a faint moonlight, and the wilderness and trees were vaguely visible. It didn’t seem like the sky was overcast enough for rain.
As she thought this, Pei Ran opened the door to the next carriage and scanned the area.
She grabbed Yulianka, who was sitting in the seat closest to the door, leaning back with his eyes closed.
This guy had clearly been staying at the rear of the train, but now he was pretending to sleep here.
W: “Pei Ran, you lost. You can’t just cheat like this. A bet is a bet.”
Pei Ran: “Hmph. I still think he’s up to something.”
W sighed: “You insist that Yulianka is behind this. Do you have any evidence?”
Pei Ran twisted Yulianka’s arm. “Why do I need evidence? I’m not a sheriff. I’ll just tear him in half and see if there’s any green light inside him. If there is, I’ll test the function of the green light. Simple, right?”
W: “…”
Pei Ran: “You’re the one who taught me this. You said, ‘Who cares? Just do it, kill him,’ ‘So simple, so convenient.’ I think it makes perfect sense.”
Yulianka, now grabbed by the front of his shirt, finally opened his eyes. Seeing Pei Ran, his face was full of surprise, his blue-gray eyes seemingly asking: What’s going on? Did something happen? What are you doing?
Pei Ran ignored him completely. She grabbed his lab coat, lifted him up, and swiftly turned him around, pinning him against the carriage partition door.
When she said she was going to tear him apart, she meant it literally.
She raised her left arm, pressing her elbow against his neck, while her right mechanical hand firmly gripped Yulianka’s upper arm and yanked outward.
There was a crack as his bones shifted.
She was utterly unreasonable, giving him no chance to explain. She acted the moment she decided to.
Yulianka’s face was pressed against the cold glass of the door, his soul nearly scared out of him.
Over the past few days, he had thought he had adapted well to the new rules of this apocalyptic world—and even enjoyed it.
The strong preyed on the weak, the powerful controlled everything, decided everything, while the weak were treated like playthings, trembling and barely surviving.
But now, with his shoulder in excruciating pain and on the verge of being torn apart, he suddenly realized he hadn’t truly understood what the apocalypse meant.
His mindset was still stuck in the framework of the normal world.
All along, he had been thinking about how to hide, how to avoid leaving any evidence, how to ensure no one could pin anything on him.
But the girl behind him was truly like a devil from the apocalypse.
When she suspected you, she didn’t look for evidence, didn’t care about proof, and didn’t give you a chance to explain. She acted immediately, killing without hesitation.
Innocent or not, it didn’t matter.
Her mechanical hand was terrifying. If he didn’t fight back now, his arm would really be torn off. Once she ripped off his right arm, she would probably use that horrifying mechanical hand to gut him, pulling out his intestines like she had done to the turnstile fusion entity at the station entrance.
At this life-or-death moment, Yulianka finally stopped pretending. He opened his mouth.
A glimmer of green light appeared in the dark void of his mouth.
The glass of the door reflected that bright green light. Pei Ran sneered inwardly: Finally dropping the act of the pure, delicate white lotus, huh?
Even though she hadn’t fully figured out what his ability was, Pei Ran had already summoned the green light that could write in her mind.
This time, Green Light No. 1 was obedient, probably well-rested. It appeared instantly, full of energy, hovering in her mind.
Pei Ran didn’t stop with her hands either. Earlier, when she had grabbed his arm and pretended to tear him apart, it was just a bluff. This time, she used real force.
But her body suddenly staggered, taking a step backward.
The train, which had been moving in reverse, came to an abrupt halt. The wheels screeched against the tracks, emitting a sharp, ear-piercing noise as the train stopped.
At the same time, everything in front of her suddenly went dark.
Pei Ran’s first thought was: Is this another illusion?
Just one second ago, through the glass of the carriage partition door, she had clearly seen Inaya still unconscious on the floor in the next carriage, with Ai Xia seriously clutching the wrench, standing guard beside her.
Could it be that Yulianka’s special ability was also creating illusions?
In the moment Pei Ran staggered, the arm in her mechanical hand suddenly changed shape.
An ordinary person would never have been able to break free from Pei Ran’s mechanical grip, but Yulianka’s arm strangely thinned out, slipping out of her hand like a slippery snake, slithering away.
Pei Ran instinctively reached forward, grabbing for his neck, but his neck did the same—flattening and disappearing into the darkness.
A strange sound followed, a rustling noise, not like human footsteps but more like something sliding across the floor.
Thud. Then a series of thud-thud-thuds.
W’s voice sounded in her ear: “I fired.”
W’s voice was still there, which meant she wasn’t hypnotized. The train had simply lost power.
His metal ball was sharp-eyed and sharp-eared, able to see clearly even in the dark.
W said, “Yulianka suddenly transformed into a strange shape. It looks like he turned into a fusion entity in a state of madness. They are extremely dangerous and pose a serious threat to others. I have the authority to shoot.”
Pei Ran was a bit puzzled. Yulianka had been normal just moments ago. Even if he had an ability, he was a fusion entity in a normal state, in human form. How could he suddenly go mad?
W explained: “I aimed and fired a few shots—covert mode, with silencer and muzzle flash suppression. One shot hit the head, several others hit the upper abdomen—but it didn’t stop him. He escaped down the aisle toward the rear of the train.”
Pei Ran understood why he had targeted the upper abdomen.
The last time, they had found that strange heart inside the pipeline worker—it had been in the upper abdomen. Based on their experience dealing with both the pipeline worker and the gate-machine fusion entity, it seemed that once that heart stopped beating, the frenzied fusion body would die.
Pei Ran asked, “Could he not be in a madness state—just a shapeshifter?”
“No,” W replied. “Normal fusion entities are structurally identical to humans. They don’t change form. They wouldn’t survive that many bullets. With what I just fired, a normal one would already be dead.”
W suddenly said, “Pei Ran, look outside.”
Pei Ran turned to look out the window.
Outside, it was pitch black, like a pool of solidified ink.
There had been a moon tonight, faintly hidden behind the haze, but there had been some light earlier. It shouldn’t have been this dark.
The surroundings were eerily quiet.
With the sudden loss of power and the overwhelming darkness, no one in the carriage knew what was happening, and no one dared to make a sound. The silence was as if there were no living people on the train.
Pei Ran asked W, “Where are we?”
W replied, “According to my calculations, we should have already returned to the Tanggu Dam.”
From the map, the Tanggu Dam was a massive structure built on the Yala River, with the tracks of Yehai No. 7 running alongside it.
The heavy, impenetrable darkness was suddenly torn apart by a faint glimmer of light.
Outside the left window, a large, ghostly green light floated in mid-air, moving slowly and eerily.
The green light reflected on the faces of the passengers in the carriage, each one filled with terror: What kind of ghostly phenomenon is this?
This wasn’t a ghostly phenomenon—it was the light of a fusion.
Inside Pei Ran’s body, Green Light No. 1 and Green Light No. 2 immediately stirred, as if they had spotted a delicious midnight snack.
Pei Ran thought to herself: Don’t get too excited yet. That thing is huge. It’s not clear who’s going to be the snack here.
The problem was, wherever the green light passed, it didn’t just illuminate the carriage—it revealed something else.
The scenery outside the window had also changed. It was no longer the endless wilderness and trees they had been passing through, but a towering wall.
The wall was only a few meters away from the train, stretching upward. From the limited view through the window, its top was completely out of sight.
The wall was a pale gray, with water stains still wet on its surface. The smooth wall seemed aged, covered in a network of cracks.