Am I really hallucinating?

Chapter 364 Panic Entity
"Huh?" Lin Yilin looked around.

She was certain Zheng Fan wasn't joking. Although their connection hadn't been severed, Lin Yilin could immediately sense the uncomfortable feeling of the distance between them rapidly widening until it exceeded their sensing range. Since Mr. Illusion hadn't immediately teleported back after being left behind, it meant the subway train itself had done something to sabotage it.

Fried realized this as well, after all, the pressure on him was considerable when that illusion was present.

"what happened?"

“My hallucination…” Lin Yilin frowned, then looked at Fried halfway through her sentence: “What about your hallucination?”

"It's still...it's still here..." Fried was startled by the dangerous look in his eyes and quickly pulled out one of the pincer-like mechanical hands from the coin-operated illusion to prove it.

"A sense of crisis, a fear of Mr. Illusion?" Lin Yilin quickly came up with this somewhat exaggerated idea, and looked at the roof of the car in surprise.

However, based on current experience, this seems to be quite normal for Mr. Illusion.

Lin Yilin was only slightly surprised, but then she didn't panic.

Compared to the situation where she was so terrified by the earthquake illusion that she forgot about Mr. Illusion and even lost contact with him, this current situation is a trivial matter.

She wouldn't panic over such a trivial matter.

"You're so calm. Isn't that your trump card?" Zheng Fan was gone, and although he didn't know what had happened, Fried was relieved, and his tone became nonchalant again.

“He is my support, but not my crutch.” Lin Yilin glanced at him. “Mr. Weekday Fog had better put aside any thoughts that might make him lose track of what day of the week it is tomorrow.”

She was rubbing a fluffy cat's head inside her fanny pack.

Fried broke out in a cold sweat and raised his hands in a salute: "Just kidding, just kidding. We've been online friends for years. Let's not be so tense."

He was telling the truth. Although it was terrifying to almost get solo killed in the subway station, he really didn't have any intention of taking revenge on Lin Yilin. There was still a certain distance between them.

However, after Miss Number One lost that illusion, her personal aggressiveness did indeed increase significantly.

Isn't this a bit backwards? Isn't it usually when my Uncle Fang is around that I'm more confident?
If it were him and the coin-operated machine suddenly disappeared, he would probably burst into tears on the spot.

"Excuse me, what's the situation with this subway?" At this moment, some students who were relatively close to the two asked Lin Yilin and Fried somewhat uneasily.

"Isn't tomorrow the weekend? Wandering around outside in the middle of the night instead of sleeping, knowing full well that there shouldn't be any subway running at this hour, yet still daring to get on. Is this the kind of quality students in the Raphael School District have these days?" Fried immediately revealed their identities and made no attempt to hide his sarcasm.

Several students were immediately embarrassed and frightened, but one of them, the tallest male student with a slight smell of alcohol on him, stepped forward and asked, "What do you mean by this?"

"Can't you understand human language? Do you even know where you are? You dare to come up here? The earthquake didn't hurt you, but it's made you bolder. It's only been three months, and you don't even know what's going on in Xixi Keke's condition, yet you dare to come here in the middle of the night. You're really asking for trouble," Fried said disdainfully.

Lin Yilin didn't offer any support, because Fried was telling the truth.

Students in the school district, even college students, would not be here at this time if they had thought things through. To be honest, Lin Yilin would not be surprised when they die or what the cause of their death is.

The tall male student clearly didn't have a good temper, and with a bit of alcohol, Fried's words were enough to make him lose his temper.

"Calm down, everyone. We might be working as a team from now on, so let's not start fighting amongst ourselves." At this moment, the three people who seemed unapproachable before actually came over, and one of the men stepped forward to act as a peacemaker.

He then said to Fried and Lin Yilin, "You two must be experienced passengers, right?"

Fried and Lin Yilin did not answer, but it was a tacit agreement.

"Let's explain the situation to you guys first." The man turned to the students and continued, "My name is Yu Hao. You don't need to be too scared. Getting on any bus is not a good habit, but it's also an opportunity for you. You can experience a more exciting life and win more things for yourselves that you could only imagine before."

As he spoke, he explained the Zero Subway to the four students. Except for not going as deep into the realms of illusion and the capital, his description of the subway mechanism was roughly the same as Fried's.

Furthermore, the subsequent details will be even more elaborate: "We will be sent to a scene, like a dungeon in a game, where we can encounter many incredible things, and we can take them with us as long as we can handle them."

"Really? Really?" The students were a little confused.

"Of course, whether it's gold and silver treasures, or anything else, or even..." The man flicked his hand, lightning crackling at his fingertips, "...fantasy factor. Fantasy factor with absolutely no risk."

Lin Yilin and Fried were both somewhat surprised, but considering the recent situation in Xixi Keke's underground, they quickly accepted it.

The main unexpected point is that there is "no risk".

Illusionary factors, unless the resulting hallucination is confirmed to be dead, always carry the risk of being linked to and targeted by the source hallucination. Therefore, even if you randomly find an illusionary factor, you cannot use it without any burden. It is impossible to verify whether the source of these illusionary factors exists.

The only channels that can reliably produce "risk-free" fantasy factors are those controlled by the majority of official channels and the grassroots organizations.

However, in principle, they only provide this channel to most internal staff, and even if there is some circulation outside, it is still very valuable.

The students didn't understand much, but what the man said was enough to sway them. "Really, I can just take whatever I want?" They imagined themselves wandering through an unattended vault.

“Of course, but we can’t forget the dangers. And if you want to take what you get out of the subway, remember to find this.” The man took out a small ticket. “This is the internal currency of this subway. It’s called currency, but it’s easy to obtain as long as you dare to take on the challenge. It’s much more convenient than outside. That’s where we need to cooperate.”

Lin Yilin and Fried looked at each other in bewilderment.

Fried shrugged.

He hadn't heard of such a thing, but it was normal for the revived Zero subway to be different from the past; Fried had been one of the earlier ones gathering intelligence. They took it as fact for the time being.

After finishing his explanation, Yu Hao clapped his hands and said, "Now, everyone, please introduce yourselves."

After Yu Hao introduced himself, the students developed a good impression of him and, after thinking for a moment, told him their names without much hesitation.

Lin Yilin wasn't interested, but Fried put on a smile and said, "Just call me 'Sunday Fog,' it's just a temporary nickname. Call that lady over there 'Number One,' she has a terrible temper, so please bear with her."

Several students still felt hostile and displeased with him. If it was a matter of whether someone had a bad temper or not, they thought that Fried, who started off with a foul mouth, had an even worse temper.

“We all give our names, are you two the only ones using code names? That’s too formal,” said the tall man who had just introduced himself as Su Long.

Yu Hao and the other two didn't mind at all and greeted them with smiles.

Two office workers were standing nearby. The drunk one had already passed out, while the other, who had been listening to their conversation, had sobered up considerably and was now quite reserved.

Just as he was wondering whether he should introduce himself, a cheerful voice came from the side.

"My name is Zheng Fan. Please take care of me from now on."

As soon as the voice came out, everyone looked over in surprise and found a mysterious man sitting in the corner of the carriage, wearing a black trench coat, with his legs crossed and a smile on his face.

A pair of gray eyes reflected everyone in the carriage, sending a chill down one's spine.

"Holy crap!?" Fried couldn't hold back.

Grandpa, weren't you dumped? How come you suddenly reappeared dressed as someone else?!
Lin Yilin learned the situation after a brief moment of surprise and a brief eye contact with Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan's original body was feared and rejected by Metro Zero, and what he is now in is an empty shell formed by the power of panic.

This is an application that Zheng Fan could only make after absorbing Chegodoia and even "Lossevier," and his panic-inducing abilities had further developed.

Lin Yilin herself was one of Zheng Fan's earliest test subjects for his ability to panic, and she still retains some of that ability, including earthquake hallucinations and remnants of "Lossway." Zheng Fan was somewhat enraged after being thrown off the subway, so he took action from this angle.

Relying on the lingering panic in Lin Yilin's consciousness, a physical entity was formed in the independent space-time of Subway Zero.

An ordinary body that, apart from having physical strength comparable to Lin Yilin, contains no other supernatural elements.

In a sense, this is Lin Yilin's "mental image," which Zheng Fan took a small part of, shaped into his own image, and then solidified into a physical form.

Performing this operation in the real world is quite difficult. The further away the Lamplighter is from the real world, the stronger they become, while getting closer actually weakens them.

However, this illusionary world of Metro Zero, an independent space-time, perfectly meets this condition.

With this ability, Zheng Fan can find and sneak over to any illusionary realm that tries to secretly abduct its host in the future, making it an excellent insurance policy.

Of course, this empty shell, with strength comparable to Miss Binary's normal state and lacking even supernatural powers, seems to serve little purpose even as an emergency backup...

However, Zheng Fan, who likes to take advantage of others, can always find a loophole to exploit.

There is no supernatural power, but that's only true under normal circumstances; Zheng Fan's very existence is abnormal.

"Sorry for scaring everyone, I almost fell asleep in the corner just now." Zheng Fan stood up gracefully, ignoring the somewhat dazed looks from the others, and began to speak fluently: "Let me introduce myself in more detail. My name is Zheng Fan. My hobby is fireworks, whether I watch them or set them off myself, the bigger the better. My favorite food is donuts, and my favorite drink is pure milk tea. As for work, I currently have four jobs: working at an agency, as a cleaner, as a guitarist in a band, and as a mecha pilot."

"It's great to see you all here. I hope we can interact a lot during the rest of the trip!"

It was a long-lost and wonderful feeling to be able to openly and earnestly introduce myself to so many people, and for them not to utter a sound.

He clearly looked like a handsome man, and had a kind and approachable smile, but for some reason, everyone present except Lin Yilin felt a chill in their hearts.

Besides the sound of the subway running, I could also hear the sound of some kind of plant slowly growing.

(End of this chapter)