Everyone in the train car understood the predicament they were in, but no one knew what to do next.
"If this really is a space that loops like a Möbius strip, then it means this subway will never reach its destination..." Zhao Gang frowned deeply as he looked out the subway window at the pitch-black surroundings.
Outside, there were no signs of the usual billboards or station markers. If it weren’t for the faint sound of movement and the slight swaying of the car, the people inside wouldn’t even be able to tell if the train was still moving.
The entire subway seemed to be running through an endless abyss, leading everyone onboard towards an inevitable death.
This situation made everyone feel hopeless, and no one could come up with a way to escape.
Zhao Jun also looked worried. "Yes, the Overseer gave us the mission to survive until the subway reaches the final station. If this train never stops, then we might really be trapped here forever."
Despite this, Zhao Jun didn’t want to give up hope that was so close at hand. He began discussing the boss monster with Zhao Gang, trying to find its weakness and increase their chances of survival.
But the hope was slim, and both men wore solemn expressions. The heavy atmosphere soon spread to the nearby passengers, making them anxious as well.
"What are we going to do? I don’t want to die!"
"Why hasn’t the police come to save us?"
"It will never stop?! I don’t believe it! Someone will save us…"
Although the remaining passengers didn’t fully understand what Zhao Gang and Zhao Jun were talking about, they understood one thing: they might never escape from here.
This ghostly subway would soon become their grave.
Despair filled the passengers, and the low sound of crying began again, filled with sorrow.
Ke Su listened to the crying around him and silently turned to look out the window at the flashing advertisements.
He couldn’t understand why these people were being so dramatic.
The train was still moving, wasn’t it? And it hadn’t gone off course.
But it seemed like it had been a long time since he’d heard the announcement for the next station. Had he missed it because he was too focused on listening to music?
Ke Su, slightly confused, glanced at the slowly approaching subway platform outside the window.
And then—
Ding dong—
“Great Earth Mall, Station No. 2 has been reached. All passengers, please kindly exit the train.”
The gentle female AI voice rang out, silencing the crying and discussions in the car.
“…”
The atmosphere of sorrow and despair was once again interrupted, and under the dazed gazes of the passengers, the doors slowly opened.
Meanwhile, Zhao Gang and Zhao Jun were still discussing the boss’s weakness before the announcement.
Zhao Gang was serious. “I was crouching near the left side of the third seat from the front, about 1.5 meters away from the monster. I had a gun in my hand, one eye was covered in blood, and my stance was like this—”
Zhao Gang demonstrated his position, crouching awkwardly against the wall of the car.
Zhao Jun, just as serious, crouched down to carefully observe the stance that had unexpectedly saved Zhao Gang from the boss’s attack.
“So, what was around you at that time? Anything unusual—”
Ke Su sat in his seat, expressionless, watching the two burly men crouch together, heads nearly touching, hands almost meeting, their expressions solemn. They looked like two mental patients discussing their symptoms.
As the announcement ended, Ke Su calmly looked away from the two “philosophical” men, glanced at the navigation map on his phone, and decided to get off the train.
Though it was still far from his destination, as a normal person, he felt out of place staying here any longer.
“…”
Zhao Gang and Zhao Jun listened to the announcement, their heated discussion abruptly stopping. Their eyes widened like saucers as they simultaneously looked at the open door a short distance away, and at the police officers and executors rushing in from outside.
Seeing the obvious real-world scene beyond the door, Zhao Jun and his team, who had been in the Overseer’s space for so long, were left speechless with shock.
“Ahhh!!! The door’s open! It’s open, ahhh!!!”
A scream pierced the tense atmosphere in the car, and the first passenger to come to his senses rushed out of the train, not wanting to stay in this death trap for another second. In fact, he never wanted to take the subway again for the rest of his life.
“Ahhh! We’re out! We can get out!!”
The rest of the passengers scrambled to exit the train as well, their despair turning into a desperate longing for life and ecstasy. The transition in their expressions was so abrupt that their faces twisted in unison, making them look like a pack of mad dogs rushing out.
“This… how… how is this possible?”
Zhao Jun’s teammate stuttered, his face full of shock.
“Can we… can we really leave too?” Hong Lan clutched the team leader Zhao Jun’s arm, tears welling up in her eyes as she watched the passengers pour out of the car.
God knows how long it had been since she left the real world. The days of struggling to survive in the horror game instances had nearly erased her memories of her peaceful life in reality, though she missed it terribly.
If… if they could really escape the Overseer’s control and live as an ordinary couple in the real world, how wonderful that would be.
Hong Lan gazed at the scene outside without blinking. The beautiful real world was just within reach. Countless wonderful fantasies flashed before her eyes, and she couldn’t help but take half a step forward, but was stopped by the team leader’s hand.
“Hong Lan, calm down. Look, our bodies are starting to fade. This must be the Overseer’s mistake…” Zhao Jun smiled bitterly as he pointed to his and Hong Lan’s gradually transparent bodies. He knew how much his lover longed for the real world, but as they had already been completely controlled by the Overseer, even their souls had been captured. There was no chance of escape.
Hong Lan looked down at her fading body, her eyes dimming as all hope vanished from her heart. Her mind cleared, but she couldn’t help but continue to gaze at the world outside the door, gripping the team leader’s hand tightly.
Just a few steps away was a beautiful world.
But she and the team leader were going to be dragged back into that dark hell. She wished… never mind, as long as the team leader was with her, nothing else mattered.
Turning around, Hong Lan, with reddened eyes, gently kissed the captain's pale cheek due to blood loss, her gaze tender and soft.
The remaining members of the Overseer's space team started to fade, their bodies slowly vanishing from the compartment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the other side, Ke Su was about to follow the crowd out of the compartment. But just as he was about to step out, at the same moment the Overseer's space team began to vanish, he caught a whiff of an extremely enticing scent.
It was the smell of incredibly delicious roasted meat, slightly spicy, as if freshly grilled, with juices still sizzling on the grill. The rich aroma, coated with sauce, was wafting towards him, blown by a fan, filling his nostrils so intensely that it was impossible to ignore.
"It smells so good..."
Ke Su's eyes widened slightly. The stomach that had just been filled with buns suddenly felt incredibly empty, and an unprecedented hunger made his expression hazy. He turned his head to look.
What was that thing? How could it smell so good... Did someone buy roasted meat? Could he have a taste?
He was willing to pay for it.
In front of Ke Su appeared a blurry spatial rift, from which the aroma was continuously emanating.
The smell was so tempting that it made Ke Su drool.
It seemed like there was some delicious food hidden inside.
Ke Su slowly walked over. Unbeknownst to him, his face was now covered with countless tiny eyes, all rotating, hungrily staring at a shadow deep within the rift that seemed to want to escape.
He reached out, wanting to probe into the small spatial rift and pull out the delicious food inside.
In an instant, the compartment before his eyes faded, replaced by a kaleidoscopic, strange space, twisted and oddly beautiful like a five-dimensional space imagined in a science fiction novel.
In the colorful and beautiful depths of this space, a spiked, ball-shaped figure with countless nerve-like tendrils controlling multiple spaces firmly caught Ke Su's gaze.
At this moment, outside, no one noticed Ke Su's abnormality because, almost simultaneously, a massive tremor shook the interior of the subway station, more devastating than any earthquake.
Boom——!!!!!!
An invisible spatial ripple spread out, and the soul-shaking vibration caused those closest to the center to wail in pain, clutching their heads as they rolled on the ground, feeling the world spin.
What happened?
What's going on?
No one knew the answer. The members of the Overseer's team, with slightly stronger mental resilience, struggled to get up, staring in shock at their now re-solidified bodies.
Zhao Gang, panting and enduring the pain in his head, looked up to see that, at some point, the sky had turned into a kaleidoscopic color, and in the center of that color, an enormous figure appeared before his eyes.
That was—clad in the Nameless Mist and Chaos, a deity with a majestic aura, making it impossible to look directly at it. Even in the vast, boundless space overhead, it appeared incomparably immense.
"This is... what's..." happening?
Zhao Gang's mind went blank, stunned into silence by everything before him.
What was this incomparably gigantic being?
Why did just looking at it cause an inexplicable fear and a deep-seated urge to prostrate and worship?
Zhao Gang had no idea, only standing there, almost losing the ability to think.
Ke Su was unaware of the outside commotion; all his attention was focused on the food.
Walking over to the delicious food, Ke Su tore off almost half of the spiked ball's tasty tissue and eagerly stuffed it into his mouth.
"Mm..."
The moment he bit down, rich juices seeped out from the tissue, the sweet and spicy flavors dancing on his taste buds, leaving a strong aftertaste.
This food was unbelievably delicious.
Ke Su swallowed the food in his mouth, squinting his eyes, savoring the long-lost sense of fullness in his stomach.
But just as he was about to tear off another piece, he found that the food, now only half remaining, had disappeared.
The food?
It ran away?
Ke Su slowly furrowed his brows, inexplicably feeling very angry. He searched around with his hand but still couldn't find it, enraged to the point of tearing the surrounding kaleidoscopic space into pieces.
It was only after the last trace of the food's scent disappeared that Ke Su calmed down, slowly closing his eyes, returning to his usual calm demeanor.
[Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger!]
[Please immediately conceal Overseer-related information!! And apply rescue!!! Violators... shall... be erased @#&#￥%]
[Connection terminated]
The four members of the Overseer's space team stared blankly at the vast, kaleidoscopic space above. The Overseer's projection on their screens shifted from initial red warnings to a network disconnection status.
—The entire projection seemed to show the Overseer pretending to remain calm before giving up on fixing the situation.
The team members ignored the screen, only staring wide-eyed, watching as the colossal, majestic giant tore apart the spiked ball.
They watched in a daze, as if bewitched, their eyes turning bloodshot from not blinking for so long, yet still unable to wake up.
"What just... happened?"
After a long time, Zhao Jun spoke out blankly, an unconscious action, not even aware he had spoken.
"That... can't be the Overseer, right?" Hong Lan, lying dazed on the ground, muttered.
"What's that?" The short-haired young man responded blankly, his words slipping into dialect.
"What did you say?" Another team member added blankly.
"......"
No one said anything more; they just stared blankly at everything above, their minds blank.
Above them, the kaleidoscopic space gradually faded, and the majestic giant seemed to be enraged. With a casual wave, the colorful world shattered, revealing the chaotic spatial turbulence within. The turbulence, carrying spatial fragments, swirled around but could not harm the giant. Instead, it resembled a colorful ribbon, winding around the giant's figure, making the already god-like image even more awe-inspiring.
Moments later, the giant suddenly vanished from sight, the kaleidoscopic broken space slowly disappeared, and everything in the subway station returned to normal, except for the group of dazed humans, who bore witness to the mysterious and indescribable scene that had just unfolded.
"Ah, we've arrived." Ke Su stood at the exit, glancing at the navigation on his phone, tilting his head, feeling like he had forgotten something.
Also, there seemed to be a lingering taste of something incredibly delicious on his tongue.
Ke Su thought for a moment about what he had eaten, licked his lips, and decided to buy another bun from the shop downstairs next time.
The aftertaste was so good, he really wanted another bun.
Ke Su walked out of the subway station, thinking to himself.
On the other side, Ke Su was about to follow the crowd out of the compartment. But just as he was about to step out, at the same moment the Overseer's space team began to vanish, he caught a whiff of an extremely enticing scent.
It was the smell of incredibly delicious roasted meat, slightly spicy, as if freshly grilled, with juices still sizzling on the grill. The rich aroma, coated with sauce, was wafting towards him, blown by a fan, filling his nostrils so intensely that it was impossible to ignore.
"It smells so good..."
Ke Su's eyes widened slightly. The stomach that had just been filled with buns suddenly felt incredibly empty, and an unprecedented hunger made his expression hazy. He turned his head to look.
What was that thing? How could it smell so good... Did someone buy roasted meat? Could he have a taste?
He was willing to pay for it.
In front of Ke Su appeared a blurry spatial rift, from which the aroma was continuously emanating.
The smell was so tempting that it made Ke Su drool.
It seemed like there was some delicious food hidden inside.
Ke Su slowly walked over. Unbeknownst to him, his face was now covered with countless tiny eyes, all rotating, hungrily staring at a shadow deep within the rift that seemed to want to escape.
He reached out, wanting to probe into the small spatial rift and pull out the delicious food inside.
In an instant, the compartment before his eyes faded, replaced by a kaleidoscopic, strange space, twisted and oddly beautiful like a five-dimensional space imagined in a science fiction novel.
In the colorful and beautiful depths of this space, a spiked, ball-shaped figure with countless nerve-like tendrils controlling multiple spaces firmly caught Ke Su's gaze.
At this moment, outside, no one noticed Ke Su's abnormality because, almost simultaneously, a massive tremor shook the interior of the subway station, more devastating than any earthquake.
Boom——!!!!!!
An invisible spatial ripple spread out, and the soul-shaking vibration caused those closest to the center to wail in pain, clutching their heads as they rolled on the ground, feeling the world spin.
What happened?
What's going on?
No one knew the answer. The members of the Overseer's team, with slightly stronger mental resilience, struggled to get up, staring in shock at their now re-solidified bodies.
Zhao Gang, panting and enduring the pain in his head, looked up to see that, at some point, the sky had turned into a kaleidoscopic color, and in the center of that color, an enormous figure appeared before his eyes.
That was—clad in the Nameless Mist and Chaos, a deity with a majestic aura, making it impossible to look directly at it. Even in the vast, boundless space overhead, it appeared incomparably immense.
"This is... what's..." happening?
Zhao Gang's mind went blank, stunned into silence by everything before him.
What was this incomparably gigantic being?
Why did just looking at it cause an inexplicable fear and a deep-seated urge to prostrate and worship?
Zhao Gang had no idea, only standing there, almost losing the ability to think.
Ke Su was unaware of the outside commotion; all his attention was focused on the food.
Walking over to the delicious food, Ke Su tore off almost half of the spiked ball's tasty tissue and eagerly stuffed it into his mouth.
"Mm..."
The moment he bit down, rich juices seeped out from the tissue, the sweet and spicy flavors dancing on his taste buds, leaving a strong aftertaste.
This food was unbelievably delicious.
Ke Su swallowed the food in his mouth, squinting his eyes, savoring the long-lost sense of fullness in his stomach.
But just as he was about to tear off another piece, he found that the food, now only half remaining, had disappeared.
The food?
It ran away?
Ke Su slowly furrowed his brows, inexplicably feeling very angry. He searched around with his hand but still couldn't find it, enraged to the point of tearing the surrounding kaleidoscopic space into pieces.
It was only after the last trace of the food's scent disappeared that Ke Su calmed down, slowly closing his eyes, returning to his usual calm demeanor.
[Warning! Warning! Danger! Danger!]
[Please immediately conceal Overseer-related information!! And apply rescue!!! Violators... shall... be erased @#&#￥%]
[Connection terminated]
The four members of the Overseer's space team stared blankly at the vast, kaleidoscopic space above. The Overseer's projection on their screens shifted from initial red warnings to a network disconnection status.
—The entire projection seemed to show the Overseer pretending to remain calm before giving up on fixing the situation.
The team members ignored the screen, only staring wide-eyed, watching as the colossal, majestic giant tore apart the spiked ball.
They watched in a daze, as if bewitched, their eyes turning bloodshot from not blinking for so long, yet still unable to wake up.
"What just... happened?"
After a long time, Zhao Jun spoke out blankly, an unconscious action, not even aware he had spoken.
"That... can't be the Overseer, right?" Hong Lan, lying dazed on the ground, muttered.
"What's that?" The short-haired young man responded blankly, his words slipping into dialect.
"What did you say?" Another team member added blankly.
"......"
No one said anything more; they just stared blankly at everything above, their minds blank.
Above them, the kaleidoscopic space gradually faded, and the majestic giant seemed to be enraged. With a casual wave, the colorful world shattered, revealing the chaotic spatial turbulence within. The turbulence, carrying spatial fragments, swirled around but could not harm the giant. Instead, it resembled a colorful ribbon, winding around the giant's figure, making the already god-like image even more awe-inspiring.
Moments later, the giant suddenly vanished from sight, the kaleidoscopic broken space slowly disappeared, and everything in the subway station returned to normal, except for the group of dazed humans, who bore witness to the mysterious and indescribable scene that had just unfolded.
"Ah, we've arrived." Ke Su stood at the exit, glancing at the navigation on his phone, tilting his head, feeling like he had forgotten something.
Also, there seemed to be a lingering taste of something incredibly delicious on his tongue.
Ke Su thought for a moment about what he had eaten, licked his lips, and decided to buy another bun from the shop downstairs next time.
The aftertaste was so good, he really wanted another bun.
Ke Su walked out of the subway station, thinking to himself.
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