Chapter 191: Don’t Go to Bamboo Grove Mountains Scenic Site (2)
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Lin Sanjiu swung her vibroblade violently. Garden of Eden Laboratories had specifically designed the knife so that it was extendable. That swing extended the vibroblade to its maximum length at once. Lin Sanjiu swept its almost two-meter length blade at the creature, yet under the dim light, she felt the blade hitting nothing. Lin Sanjiu wasn’t sure if she managed to cut that ‘thing’.
There is a folklore from medieval Europe which describes a tall man without any facial features. Supposedly, there were still eyewitnesses even today. People who had been stalked by him in the forest, or woke up seeing him by their bed, would disappear forever.
Of course, this was just some ghost story and shouldn’t apply to reality.
“Because in reality, that was not a ‘man’ per se.”
Lin Sanjiu’s [Ability Polis.h.i.+ng Agent] was lying on the floor as Lin Sanjiu dropped it when she was scared just now. It rolled to and fro on the ground, so the light from it wasn’t stable. Under this unreliable, wavering light, Lin Sanjiu stopped with her knife still in her hands—because the tall man had suddenly disappeared.
With the forest around her and the darkness, the man could simply disappear into the forest, and sneak up on her later at some unknown time. Lin Sanjiu stared in the direction where he disappeared off into. Then, she quickly crouched down and reached out for the small bottle of [Ability Polis.h.i.+ng Agent] on the ground with her trembling fingers. She knew she couldn’t stay, so she turned and quickly ran back down the road leading to this forest.
It wasn’t that the road leading here was any safer, but Lin Sanjiu just happened to glance at the forest on the mountain slope in the distant when the light from her [Ability Polis.h.i.+ng Agent] was still wavering. There was a white circular shape above every tree. Even though they didn’t have any facial features, those were obviously faces—and trees don’t have faces.
In the mountains, as far as she could see, there were numerous tall ‘men’ staring at her quietly, standing shoulder-to-shoulder.
Her fear caused her [Defence Forcefield] to glow brighter. Her upper body was s.h.i.+ning brightly, while her legs were totally dark. However, Lin Sanjiu couldn’t really care about controlling the flow of her higher consciousness right now, and instead subconsciously tuned her [Defence Forcefield] till it maximum effect. She felt a few bursts of warmth from her chest while she ran forward as fast as she could.
There was only one main road from the Bamboo Grove Mountains scenic site to the station’s public square. Most of the hotels and residential buildings were built along the two sides of the road. Lin Sanjiu rushed down the mountain road, she ran past the convenience store—she didn’t see the cardboard standee—and just before she reached the hotel she was staying before, she stopped abruptly.
Through her labored breaths, Lin Sanjiu squinted and surveyed the dark surroundings around her; she didn’t want to miss any sudden movements. All the lights from the hotel had been switched off, but the window from which Douglas had looked out was still opened. The room was dark, and there wasn’t a single silhouette in sight.
The old cloth shoes, Douglas, and many other things spying on her could be hiding anywhere. In this pitch-black darkness, it was basically impossible for Lin Sanjiu to attend to every direction with just the dim light from her [Ability Polis.h.i.+ng Agent]. To make things worse, she felt a constant stabbing in her head, as if that was a sign that she had almost used up all her higher consciousness.
Lin Sanjiu didn’t know what she should do if she didn’t even have that little bit of protection. She felt that she was breathing so hard now that someone on another street would hear her. Yet, other than herself, the ‘things’ around her seemed to be playing deaf.
“Douglas, I don’t know if you have realized this,” Lin Sanjiu tried her best to keep her voice steady while she probed and took one step forward, “but you’re actually dead. You died in the electronic store. I-I can give you a proper burial…”
Her mind was in such a muddle that she even recited what she heard on tv, “I can give you a proper burial, and I will even burn paper offerings. Can you just rest in peace?”
There was still only silence around her. Lin Sanjiu wasn’t sure if Douglas could hear her from the hotel—that’s if he was in the hotel. Lin Sanjiu listened carefully.
Darkness clouded everything around her, but she heard nothing. Lin Sanjiu’s heart pounded and she decided to take this opportunity to run and leave this area first. However, she would never antic.i.p.ate herself slowing down after just a few steps. Not far from her, there was a small little white cloth bundle lying on the floor. When Lin Sanjiu saw it, she instantly felt a burden off her shoulders and relaxed quite a bit.
“Who threw this here,” Lin Sanjiu s.n.a.t.c.hed a quick gasp of air and bent down to pick up her Teru Teru Bozu, but didn’t dare to stay a second longer. “Nevermind, it’s fine as long as I get it back!”
With her Teru Teru Bozu, she was no longer afraid that she would use up all her higher consciousness on her forcefield. Lin Sanjiu suddenly had a destination in mind and she dashed toward the train station.
As expected, when she was about to enter the public square outside the station, she saw a bit of white light coming out from the station entrance. The lights in the train station were still on! The train station was now like a lone lighthouse in the dark. Being drawn to light was just human nature. Thus, Lin Sanjiu immediately felt a lot safer.
Once she leaped over the gantry and reached the station platform, she deactivated her [Defence Forcefield]. After all, her higher consciousness was very valuable; if she used it all up, she might faint on the spot. The train platform seemed the same. It was quiet, s.p.a.cious and empty. A display screen showed the time in red digits; it was only six in the evening. Just when Lin Sanjiu was wondering where she could find a ladder so that she could hang her Teru Teru Bozu Defense System, she noticed something peculiar.
It wasn’t her paranoia… She slowly turned her head.
Outside the gla.s.s wall of the train station, she saw Douglas standing in the darkness. He was smiling at her. He raised his hand and pointed to the gantry. His smile grew wider while he nodded to Lin Sanjiu and started walking toward the platform. He was wearing the pair of old cloth shoes.
“Douglas is coming! Just like those students!”
Every hair on Lin Sanjiu’s body was standing on end; she froze for a second. Just then, the other end of the platform was suddenly lit by a strange white light. Then, without warning, she heard a loud rumbling noise. Almost as if it could sense that a pa.s.senger was on the platform, a train pulled into the station from the other end of the tunnel.
Lin Sanjiu watched in a daze as it stopped at the platform and the train doors of all its carriages opened. She saw the same carriage, the same green seats, and fluorescent lights… and the same cold wind a.s.saulted her.
“Should I board?” Just when that thought surfaced, she heard the click from the gantry. A human-shaped shadow was just around the corner.
“I’ll board!”
Lin Sanjiu didn’t have time to think so she just rushed into the familiar train carriage.