Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 363 Get in the car
"Why? I've never heard of such a thing before?"

“Miss Number One, in this world of illusion, nothing is absolute. Real history can be concealed and rewritten, let alone illusory history. Although I am not a participant in the ‘Zero Subway’ myself, the senior members of our institute do have some insights into this, and it doesn’t have much of an impact when it’s occasionally used as a topic of conversation over tea.” Fried shrugged and looked at the empty tracks.

Lin Yilin followed his gaze and glanced at him, saying, "Is it really that easy to bring back those things that should be forgotten to reality?"

Nothing is absolute, but achieving some things is definitely not that simple.

Lin Yilin wouldn't be fooled by this claim, because she had a super illusion by her side that was constantly defying common sense and logic.

“That’s true.” Fried’s tone immediately relaxed. His feigned seriousness was obviously just to scare her, but as expected, this girl was quite the cold type.

"This thing does have a significant impact on the capital, but is that all it's meant to do?"

"Its existence itself does not contain any particular intention. After it took shape, it neither expanded further nor showed any direct aggression towards Dadu. It does not even make any further demands on each passenger. It simply operates in a strange state underground in Dadu."

Fried said, "Because of this, countless people profited from its nature, which was the beginning of the chaos. If it weren't for the lack of control, most people would have had a need for it. Unfortunately, the huge potential risks outweighed the enormous benefits that could be gained from it. In the end, it was targeted, sealed away, and fell into silence."

After hearing this, Zheng Fan quickly went through it in his mind.

A train travels through a fabricated past, where passengers profit, and the things they bring out can become reality...

It sounds a lot like a virtual copy mechanism, or, in his memory, an infinite flow, as commonly used on the internet.

"Does the subway have no requirements for passenger screening? Can I ride it as long as it's after midnight?" Lin Yilin began to ask for details.

Fried nodded and said, "There are no strict requirements, but even if you know it exists and actively search for it at Zero Point, it's difficult to pinpoint its location. It's mostly a matter of luck. It doesn't exist in the conventional sense of continuous spacetime. It can appear simultaneously in various corners of Dadu at Zero Point to pick up passengers, and then send them back to reality over a period of time, ranging from a few minutes to a few days."

Just as Lin Yilin was about to ask him how he pinpointed the location of the subway, Fried, anticipating her question, pulled out a gray letter that looked like it had been covered in dust for a long time.

“This is an invitation, something passengers can retrieve from inside the train. It can indicate the nearest location where it will appear for regular customers.” With that, Fried opened the envelope and pulled out a white card.

The document, printed in standard font, read, "December 3rd to 4th, midnight, coordinates..."

Lin Yilin quickly translated the coordinates to determine their location within the capital, which was their current position.

"That's very thoughtful, it prevents repeat customers from not being able to find a seat," Zheng Fan joked.

Fried felt incredibly stressed listening to this mastermind-like figure joking in that voice.

Lin Yilin, however, was lost in her own thoughts.

Fried, unaware of Lin Yilin's thoughts, said, "Currently, the scale of Subway Zero is not large. Considering the recovery process, the Bureau does not intend to amplify its influence or spread it around, and will try to handle public opinion in the form of urban legends. However, some agencies and even others who are familiar with this matter probably want to take the lead and seize the initiative, just like me."

"I understand," Lin Yilin said, but she just lowered her head and seemed to be deep in thought.

Zheng Fan knew that Lin Yilin had probably connected some fragmented information in her mind again.

The conversation came to an end, and Fried finally found a chance to sit down and rest on a bench in the waiting area.

Although the senior colleagues in the institute said that Metro Line 0 would be a formidable challenge, requiring them to confront countless crises, both large and small, that had occurred in the past...

But he hasn't even boarded the subway yet! Isn't this huge crisis coming a little too soon?!

He mentally called out "coin insertion" a few times, but it was clear that as long as this illusion remained, "coin insertion" wasn't going to come out.

The last bit of waiting felt incredibly agonizing.

Fortunately, when the time came to midnight...

Suddenly, the sound of a subway train passing by came from the tunnel that had collapsed due to the earthquake. However, Zheng Fan had already checked beforehand that the tracks below were already broken and twisted, and the tunnels on both sides were completely blocked by rubble and soil.

In other words, the subway that can still run on this track truly deserves the name "ghost".

Some blinding searchlights shone through, and the boxy gray subway train, its surface covered with black plant vine patterns, didn't look very proper.

After entering the station, the originally fast speed suddenly slowed down, and it seemed as if there was a visual misjudgment of distance, but in the end it stopped in front of them in an orderly manner, just like an ordinary subway train.

Looking through the train window, there was no one in sight for a moment. "Oh, we've arrived." Zheng Fan was eager to try it out, while Fly rubbed his hands together impatiently and stepped forward.

Lin Yilin and Fried went forward to observe briefly, and then boarded the train one after the other. They boarded carriage number three.

The moment they boarded the vehicle, the space seemed to change.

“When we boarded the train, we were already in another dimension, a dream world made up of a lot of illusions!” Fried cautiously looked at both ends of the carriage.

The empty carriages, looking through the connecting points at both ends of each carriage, make it seem as if the subway train has no end in sight, with the view constantly extending outwards, all the same.

At the same time they boarded the bus, several other people also boarded the bus through the staggered opposite door.

There was nothing wrong with their attire. There were two office workers in suits. One of them was so drunk that he needed his colleague to help him walk, while the person helping him seemed much more sober and looked a little hesitant when getting on the subway.

Then came a trio, two men and one woman, all of whom were quite old and had tattoos; the woman had dyed hair.

This group looked around as soon as they boarded the train, showing no surprise at the subway ride.

Suddenly, several more people entered through the car door that Lin Yilin and Fried had come from, standing right behind them. Lin Yilin and Fried only noticed them after they got into the car, but they weren't very surprised.

Everyone boarded at a different location. For example, the opposite door—the platform where Lin Yilin and Fried were just standing didn't have an opposite boarding passage; there should only have been tunnel walls and billboards on the other side.

Looking out the car window, all you could see was pitch black; you couldn't see anything else.

Although it's unclear whether it's too late to get off at this point, the eeriness of the ghost subway has already begun to emerge.

The next group to board were four young people, two men and two women. Lin Yilin could tell at a glance that they were students. They seemed to be sober and were asking about what kind of vehicle it was.

The earthquake happened so recently, how could they be so careless? Such a strange car just drove right up to us.

In this carriage number three, including Lin Yilin and Fried, there are a total of eleven people.

The two of them simultaneously analyzed information about the people around them, gathering preliminary intelligence.

Zheng, however, did not pay attention to this; his focus was on the car itself.

“That’s more like it, a texture similar to an illusion but distinctly different… Wait, if you put it that way, hmm, I see.” Zheng Fan chuckled to himself, then looked at Lin Yilin.

Although there was no direct communication, the two understood each other's thoughts.

"It seems you already realized that."

Lin Yilin nodded in response, "Yes, but we'll talk about the commission later. Let's see where this subway train will take us now."

No one boarded the bus, and after a short siren, the doors closed.

Because you can't see the outside world and there are no reference points, you can still tell the shape of the subway from the inertia and the swaying of the carriage.

The subway was moving very fast, and the students standing and the two office workers sitting on the chairs were all swaying and staggering.

Then, Lin Yilin suddenly turned around.

Where is Mr. Illusion?!

Watching the Zero subway train speed away, Zheng Fan stood somewhat awkwardly on the cold, dilapidated subway tracks.

He was still in that subway station.

"……what?"

Is this subway line zero discriminating? Are they refusing to let Zheng Fan board?

(End of this chapter)