Chapter Thirteen: A Casual Stroll Around?
After Jumeng took the initiative to start a conversation, Luxianbei clearly felt that the low pressure surrounding her since leaving in the afternoon had dissipated.
She looked at Jumeng, propping herself up with her arms, leaning to the side, stretching her delicate neck, and staring intently at Jumeng, who was focused on the mobile phone screen. It seemed that she had noticed Luxianbei’s gaze and lifted her head, her emerald-like eyes blinking, with long and thick eyelashes.
“What are you dawdling for? Hurry and help me out here!”
“Oh.” Luxianbei responded as she shifted her attention back to the phone, explaining while manipulating the game.
“See, you should position yourself like this here, and this character needs to have this skill. Don’t always think that high damage means a good skill. This skill can enhance teammates; teamwork is key.”
Luxianbei always felt that even if she could help Jumeng clear difficult levels, it was necessary to teach her the most basic clearing strategies to help her become “strong”!
After all, skipping class or having someone else help clear levels doesn’t provide the sense of achievement one feels when passing through with their own “skills.”
“Hey, did you have a nightmare at that rundown elementary school last night?” Just as Luxianbei was seriously explaining, Jumeng suddenly asked.
Luxianbei paused, responding, “Yeah, I had a nightmare.”
“What was it about?” Jumeng pressed.
“I dreamed that my mom came back and was right next to me, but I couldn’t see her.” Luxianbei said calmly.
“Oh, that’s tough,” Jumeng nodded thoughtfully, then softly said, “I’m sorry.”
She must have felt very bad at that time, Jumeng thought.
Luxianbei didn’t catch what Jumeng said and tilted her head in confusion, “Huh? What?”
“Nothing!” Jumeng lifted her chin, crossed her arms over her chest, turned her face away, and mumbled, “Hurry and help me clear this part! I want the S-rank rewards costume.”
“Pfft, Stinky Sister!” Luxianbei spat, “What’s so good about that costume? It’s just a Shiba Inu head.”
Jumeng rolled her eyes, refusing to back down. “Hmph, you dog! Haven’t you heard? The weirder the costume, the more damage it does!”
“Then at least make sure you look like a person during the cutscenes, right?”
“Why should I, the illustrious master of the eight hundred miles of Peach Spring, look like a person?”
The distance from Huacheng to Shancheng isn’t too far but not too close either; it takes about four hours by high-speed train to reach there.
In the first two or three hours, Jumeng enthusiastically pulled Luxianbei to play games together, but when they reached the last hour of the journey, Jumeng’s phone battery was low and she was tired from playing. She leaned her head on Luxianbei’s shoulder and fell asleep within seconds.
Luxianbei wasn’t sure if she was just pretending.
Seeing this, she didn’t try to wake up a possibly pretending Jumeng but quietly looked out at the night scenery, letting her chaotic thoughts rise and fall in her mind.
Before asking the Proxy Player Sister, she had never expected that the Solar Eclipse Society really had “offline registration points.”
Although the Proxy Player Sister insisted that it didn’t count as an offline registration point, Luxianbei thought that beginning with a company recruiting employees to filter initial candidates and, after some time of evaluation, recruiting talent into the Solar Eclipse Society wasn’t really different from offline registration points.
Moreover, various subordinate organizations of the Solar Eclipse Society also appeared in major universities, “booking” members from students through scholarships or recruiting high-end talent.
Every time she thought of this, Luxianbei couldn’t help but sigh. For most people, being poor in studies means they can’t even qualify to join the Solar Eclipse Society and be “bad guys”, creating a feeling somewhat similar to the saying “to k*ll the heart after killing.”
Another unexpected thing was that such cities existed where the Siye Society and the Solar Eclipse Society could coexist.
Indeed, Shancheng is a city where the Siye Society and the Solar Eclipse Society coexist, at least on the surface.
The reason for this coexistence was simple. The Solar Eclipse Society, occupying Shancheng, appeared on the surface either as well-known tech companies or popular internet celebrity nightclubs, running legitimate businesses while also participating in charitable activities.
It was difficult to catch the Siye Society operatives committing crimes; naturally, there was no way to trouble them.
Being tax contributors and enthusiastic philanthropists, one couldn’t just forcibly invite them back to have tea without valid reasons, right?
As for those members of the Solar Eclipse Society, although there occasionally appeared extreme extremists, the vast majority had very restrained styles and wouldn’t actively seek trouble with the Siye Society.
Thus, in Shancheng, the Siye Society and the Solar Eclipse Society formed an apparent situation of mutual indifference.
It wasn’t that there were no conflicts or struggles between the two parties; it was just that those struggles were fragmented, decentralized, and shifted underground.
This state oddly reminded Luxianbei of a police and gangster film she had once watched, where gangsters and police stood face to face, smiling and shaking hands while the other hand behind their backs had a g*n that might have already been unlatched and the b*llet chambered.
From a certain perspective, such members of the Solar Eclipse Society were even trickier than those reckless members.
Additionally, according to the Proxy Player Sister, apart from Shancheng, there are many large cities around the world where the Solar Eclipse Society maintains similar relationships with officially recognized spiritual ability organizations, and it wasn’t uncommon to see them cooperate against external formidable enemy urban legends.
Though all this sounded a bit far-fetched, on second thought, many things weren’t strictly black and white; chaos, the gray area in between, was also the norm.
However, this chaotic state might actually be beneficial for me?
The more chaotic, the more opportunities there are to find loopholes and exploit them, Luxianbei thought.
Just as she pondered, the train’s announcement sounded, and the train began to slow down, slowly pulling into the train station.
“Bang bang—bang—bang bang bang!”
As the train came to a stop at the platform, before the doors could open, there was a rush of chaotic and hurried footsteps coming from the platform.
Hearing this, Luxianbei snapped out of her wandering thoughts, looked in the direction of the sound, and saw a group of passengers running towards the train station exit.
Like nighttime flights, high-speed trains at night are not only relatively cheap but also have fewer passengers. It was 8:45 PM, and the platform was somewhat empty, the absence of noise made the frantic footsteps of the passengers distinct.
They seemed to be frightened, with panic written on their faces. Some even left their luggage behind on the platform just to run faster.
At that moment, the train’s announcement sounded again.
“Due to a sudden incident, this train has been delayed. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused. The train broadcast office represents the railway department.”
After the announcement, the few passengers in the carriage began to whisper among themselves.
“Didn’t we already arrive at the station? Just open the doors and let us off!”
“Hey, do you think those people running on the platform are related to the so-called sudden incident?”
“Yikes, could it be an urban legend incident? I heard that a while ago, there was a train urban legend event near Xiangping, where a train that fell into a valley during the War of Resistance replaced the train that was supposed to arrive, bringing passengers in, and everyone on the train died with distorted expressions.”
“Ah? I want to get off! I want to get off!”
In the silence, Luxianbei shot a harsh glare at the young red-haired man telling the urban legend.
d*mn it, why are there always people who love to stir up trouble during such times?
Isn’t telling urban legends just making things worse? If this were in Huacheng, they’d probably arrange an 18-wheeled urban legend house visit tonight.
However, it was indeed a bit strange; the train had clearly arrived, and there were appropriate notifications, yet the broadcast issued a delay notice. Normally, the train announcements shouldn’t make such mistakes. It felt like a choice made in a panic? Luxianbei thought.
Just as she was thinking, Jumeng, who had woken up due to the announcement, elbowed her and pointed out towards the platform.
“Over there, you…”
Following where Jumeng pointed, Luxianbei frowned.
After the crowd of passengers fled, the platform was empty, shrouded in a thin mist, making the man who walked out from the diagonally opposite train compartment particularly prominent.
The man’s clothing was disheveled, as if he had been pulled violently by someone. The collar of his shirt was widely open, and a large bruise could be seen on his chest.
His complexion was pale, one hand holding his stomach and the other covering his mouth, as he trembled while advancing. Every few steps, his body would convulse violently, and even through the train window, they could faintly hear his cough.
When he reached the center of the platform, another fit of severe coughing hit him, as if it had drained his last bit of strength, causing him to collapse to the ground.
In that instant of falling, a large spurt of red gushes forth from his mouth and nose—not just bl**d, but mixed with some bright red pulpy matter and small dark gray particles resembling coal slag.
The previously noisy carriage instantly fell into dead silence, and there was something unsettling brewing in the air, but due to the limited number of nighttime passengers, chaos didn’t erupt immediately.
However, all of this was merely the sight seen by ordinary people.
Accompanied by the uncomfortable fluctuations of spirit energy in the air, Luxianbei and Jumeng saw much more.
They saw the bulging tumor-like shadow on the man’s chest.
Those tumors, with strange apertures, resembled a sea anemone; it seemed to possess its own consciousness, continuously writhing and exuding thick black smoke, extending twisted limbs that melted into the foggy night, as if connecting to some terrifying existence hidden in the darkness.
Shortly after, as the man who had collapsed breathed his last breath, the tumor shadow clinging to his body scattered like being blown away by wind, merging into the thin mist swirling under the night sky, disappearing without a trace.
A hunting of urban legends was thus completed, but the intangible “hunting” continued.
Luxianbei exclaimed, “What the hell is this? Is it a side story of Biohazard in Shancheng? Where are the Siye Society’s operatives? Hurry and come manage this!”
“Is that it? I thought it was a more serious urban legend incident!” Jumeng mumbled softly.
For Cataclysm-grade urban legends, this could indeed only be considered a minor scene.
Luxianbei looked at the passengers in the carriage and said, “But there are too many witnesses; some just rushed outside.”
From her year-long experience with the Siye Society, incidents with so many witnesses would be quite tricky. Even if the witnesses aren’t affected by the Night Erosion, some rumors would inevitably spread, strengthening the urban legend’s power and causing severely negative repercussions.
Seemingly understanding Luxianbei’s point, Jumeng nodded, “That does make some sense.”
Indeed, it was proven that the Siye Society would not ignore urban legend incidents that had such detrimental effects.
Less than three minutes later, a group of muscular men dressed like SWAT but without police badges appeared on the platform, setting up a barrier around the suddenly deceased man, blocking the crowd’s view with their imposing figures.
From the weak spirit energy fluctuations they emitted and their style of action, they seemed to be members of the Special Action Team of the Siye Society.
At the same time, train attendants also brought hot drinks to the passengers, continually calming their emotions.
Through the attendants, Luxianbei learned about the “reason” for the incident.
The explanation from the attendants was that just before the opposing train was about to depart, a late-stage lung cancer passenger suddenly coughed up bl**d, causing panic and chaos among the passengers who mistakenly thought it was an infectious disease; the train station would soon manage the situation and restore order, allowing everyone to disembark.
Sounded quite reasonable?
Noticing that the attendant bringing the hot drinks was not the same batch as the earlier ones, Luxianbei and Jumeng tacitly avoided touching those drinks.
Those drinks should have had “something” added to them. Luxianbei’s classmate, dear Yang Yi, had the misfortune to experience an urban legend event and had the privilege of tasting them.
Although the method of “drugging” is not very honorable, it is better than allowing urban legend tales to spread and strengthen the power against the respective urban legends.
About five minutes later, operatives from the Siye Society also appeared on the scene.
The first to arrive was a tall, slender man with slightly curly hair and metal-framed glasses, dressed like a doctor, who might hold a position similar to An Qing in the Siye Society.
He quickly examined the man’s body and, with a serious expression, instructed the members of the Special Action Team to place the body into a corpse bag and remove it from the scene.
At that moment, three more figures hurried to the scene—a hot blonde girl, a petite figure wearing a small red hat, and Jiang Li?
Upon seeing Jiang Li, dressed in a white shirt and double-breasted knee-length skirt, with her silver hair floating behind her, Luxianbei almost jumped out of her seat and leaned against the window.
Just as Luxianbei noticed Jiang Li, Jiang Li seemed to catch her gaze and turned around, her face showing joy, but upon noticing Jumeng behind Luxianbei, her expression gradually shifted to one of menace.
That was an utterly cold gaze that could “k*ll.”
Jiang Li: [A casual stroll around?]
[Do you want me to explain now or later?]
Luxianbei responded with her eyes, but Jiang Li had already turned away, focusing her attention on the urban legend incident, and didn’t glance back at her until the body was taken away, as if she were a complete nonentity.
