Chapter 180: Kisaragi Station
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
The monotonous sound of the train riding on the track continued rhythmically for a very long time. As it was traveling through a tunnel, the only rapidly changing scene outside the window was a patch of darkness. There weren’t any other posthumans, from other worlds, in the quiet and empty train carriages. Lin Sanjiu sat on the train for a long time before she could react to this situation.
[Isn’t this an apocalyptic world?]
Although, she didn’t see any survivors around, what could explain the working lights, escalator, and high-speed train?
[Besides, where is this train heading?] She stood up and walked around, feeling a little anxious. Even though she had already walked through the entire train once and checked every corner—even under the seats—Lin Sanjiu couldn’t help feeling a sense of constant panic when she sat down silently in a seat.
The train wasn’t that long, so Lin Sanjiu quickly reached the first carriage once more. When she reached the door of the driver’s compartment, she found that it was tightly shut, just as before. She couldn’t hear a single sound coming from the compartment and no one responded no matter how loud she yelled.
[If the train is moving, there should be someone inside, right? From the looks of this train, this shouldn’t be an auto-driving train.]
She looked at the lock on the door and felt that she could break the lock with a single punch. However, this place did feel abnormal. In the end, Lin Sanjiu decided that she would just take a wait-and-see approach and observe the situation first. But, it had already been two hours since she first boarded the train, yet, the train showed no sign of stopping.
Lin Sanjiu could read the route map in the carriages but their names were so foreign to her, that it was meaningless for her to know. On the route map, there were large gaps between the dots on the train line which represented the stations, so Lin Sanjiu concluded that this was a long-haul train. If that was the case, it wasn’t strange for the traveling time to be this long.
“Tennessee Farm Station, Gaonan Station… what are these stations?” Lin Sanjiu found the names of the stations very strange. She followed the route from the first station all the way till she spotted the station where she boarded the train, Kisaragi Station, and then she conveniently looked at the next stop.
“The next stop is… Mausoleum Elementary Station?” Ironically, this name which sounded relatively normal stood out from all the other weird station names.
“Forget it. I will just sit down and wait for the next station to alight.” Lin Sanjiu decided to deal with any possible situation by maintaining the status quo. She didn’t notice that once she arrived in this world, she unconsciously started talking to herself more frequently. Despite surviving two apocalyptic worlds, this was the first time she felt that she was the only living person in this entire world. Unconsciously, this matter stressed her greatly. Almost as to combat the pressurizing silence and loneliness that could drive her mad, Lin Sanjiu would talk to herself every now and then.
Her voice, which filled the empty train carriage, disappeared as quickly as it sounded. Every time she was only answered by silence, and this made her feel worse. The fluorescent light in the train flickered twice, probably because the electrical contacts weren’t that good.
There were some tears on the sickly green cus.h.i.+oned train seats and they squeaked when there were movements. The freezing winter air seeped through the gaps in the train and a.s.saulted Lin Sanjiu like whips. Soon, Lin Sanjiu found herself cuddling into a ball.
Even though she felt very uncomfortable sitting on the seats, she wasn’t willing to get up, as she felt colder and colder.
“Oh gos.h.!.+ Why did I board this train without thinking?”
It was so cold that she couldn’t think straight, she felt that the temperature was now -20 degrees Celsius. “When I alight at that M- whatever Elementary, I will get out even if I have to destroy the train station…” she slurred.
The unchanging patch of darkness that swept past the train as it moved forward had a sort of hypnotic effect. Furthermore, the weather was really too cold. Unexpectedly, Lin Sanjiu started to feel a little drowsy—when she was in Garden of Eden, she had to constantly stay vigilant, so she rarely slept well. Kisaragi Station was a very quiet world without much danger…
“I must not sleep…” Lin Sanjiu yawned and wiped a tear from her eyes. “Mrs. Manas, can you come out and talk to me?”
However, her mind was totally silent. Ever since she was forcefully pushed out from her School of Higher Consciousness, Mrs. Manas became very busy, and rarely answered her. Lin Sanjiu was so cold that she had no choice but to sit cross-legged while she tried to retain the little warmth from her chest using her body. She did not know when it started, but her eyelids grew heavier and heavier. She started nodding off.
Lin Sanjiu only realized that she had fallen asleep after she woke up abruptly when the train came to a sudden stop. She looked around. The train had stopped completely. The train already drove out from the tunnel at some point in time and was traveling on the outdoor tracks. Right now, Lin Sanjiu could see quite a few residential buildings and streets through the windows and the white morning mist. Perhaps she didn’t see anyone because it was too early.
Seeing the train doors open, Lin Sanjiu leaped up and headed for the door, wanting to alight. Holding the edge of the door frame, she was just about to step out of the train when she looked up unintentionally and took a glance into the distance.
[Mausoleum Elementary Station was indeed named after an elementary school—] She could suddenly confirm this seemingly useless information because she could now see the Elementary school. Lin Sanjiu had never seen a city designed in such a carefree manner. The simple train platform wasn’t that big. One of the walls of the train station was made of gla.s.s. A narrow road was built very close to the gla.s.s wall, and this road led into the gates of the elementary school.
As the train station was near the school, Lin Sanjiu could clearly see the facial expressions of the group of people standing at the school gate. Lin Sanjiu’s first reaction after suddenly seeing other humans in this empty, desolated world wasn’t of relief. Instead, she felt gooseb.u.mps all over.
A female teacher stood in the middle of a group of children and they seemed to be leaving the school. All of them were smiling. They did not move, even though their faces had turned red from the frigid wind that lashed at them. They looked toward the train station and were all staring directly at Lin Sanjiu.
This scene was probably the ideal image for any sort of propaganda poster. The children surrounded their teacher and were smiling widely at Lin Sanjiu. But no one moved, even after a long while. It was as if they had been standing at the gates for some time and were waiting specifically for her.
“Are they mannequins?” Lin Sanjiu took a deep breath and hesitated.
No.
Noticing her hesitation, the female teacher smiled even wider, revealing her set of pearly white teeth. She raised her hands, which were originally on the shoulders of the children and gestured to Lin Sanjiu, appearing to beckon for her to come over.
The train door made two beeping sounds. It was time for the doors to close but they were blocked by Lin Sanjiu’s hands. Startled by the noise, she finally drew away her attention from the smiling faces of that crowd of people. She quickly retreated back into the carriage. The doors closed instantly, separating her from the intense gaze of those people. She let out a sigh of relief.
[Those people don’t look that normal…]
“I will alight at the next stop,” Lin Sanjiu realized that she was drenched in cold sweat after the exchange of glances, which lasted less than a minute. As the cold wind bellowed, she was so cold that she started s.h.i.+vering. “The next stop is…”
It was still Mausoleum Elementary Station.