Free Web NovelAfter Ju Meng initiated the conversation, Lu Yibei clearly felt the low pressure that had been surrounding her since they left in the afternoon dissipate.
She looked at Ju Meng, who was leaning against the armrest, stretching her slender neck and staring intently at her phone screen. It seemed Ju Meng noticed her gaze, lifted her head, blinked her emerald-like eyes, and fanned her long, thick eyelashes.
"What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and help me pass this!"
"Okay," Lu Yibei replied, turning her attention back to the phone. She explained the game while playing.
"Look, you should stand here. This character needs to bring this skill. Don't always think that high damage skills are good skills. This skill can enhance teammates. Teamwork is king."
Lu Yibei always felt that when it came to playing games, even if she could help Ju Meng pass difficult levels, it was necessary to teach her the most basic strategy for clearing them and help her become "strong"!
After all, skipping classes or having others help clear levels doesn't provide the same sense of accomplishment as clearing them by yourself with "skill."
"You dog, you had a nightmare in that broken elementary school last night, didn't you?" Just as Lu Yibei was explaining seriously, Ju Meng suddenly asked.
Lu Yibei was startled for a moment and replied, "Yes, I had a nightmare."
"What did you dream about?" Ju Meng pressed.
"I dreamed my mother came back, she was right beside me, but I couldn't see her," Lu Yibei said calmly.
"Oh, that's difficult," Ju Meng nodded thoughtfully, then whispered, "I'm sorry."
She must have been very uncomfortable at that time, Ju Meng thought.
Lu Yibei, who hadn't heard what Ju Meng said clearly, tilted her head in confusion. "Huh? What?"
"Nothing!" Ju Meng lifted her chin, crossed her arms over her chest, and turned her face away, muttering, "Hurry up and help me get past this! I definitely want an S-rank score, I want the S-rank score reward outfit."
"Tch, Smelly Girl!" Lu Yibei spat, "What's so good about that outfit? It's just a Shiba Inu head."
Ju Meng rolled her eyes, not to be outdone, "Hmph, you dog! Haven't you heard, the weirder the outfit, the more damage?"
"Then you should at least make sure you look like a person during the cutscenes?"
"I am the dignified Lord of the Eight Hundred Li Peach Garden, why should I look like a person?"
The distance from Hua City to Mountain City is not far, but not close either. It takes about four hours to reach by high-speed rail.
For the first two or three hours, Ju Meng was still enthusiastically pulling Lu Yibei to play games together. When the journey entered the last hour, her phone battery was running low, she was also tired of playing, and she leaned her head on Lu Yibei's shoulder and fell asleep in a few seconds.
She didn't know if she was faking it.
Seeing this, Lu Yibei did not try to wake up a urban legend who might be pretending to sleep, but quietly looked out at the night scenery outside the window, letting the chaotic thoughts pop up in her mind intermittently.
Before asking Chatterbox Girl, she had no idea that the Eclipse Society actually had "offline registration points."
Although Chatterbox Girl insisted that it was not an offline registration point, Lu Yibei felt that recruiting talent to join the Eclipse Society from potential targets after a period of observation, by initially screening potential targets in the form of company recruitment, was actually not much different from an offline registration point.
In addition, various subordinate organizations of the Eclipse Society would also appear on the campuses of major universities, "reserving" members from students through scholarship funding or recruiting high-end talent.
Whenever she thought of this, Lu Yibei couldn't help but sigh. For most people, not studying well meant they didn't even have the qualification to join the Eclipse Society and be "bad guys." It felt a bit like killing someone and then crushing their spirit.
What surprised her even more was that in this world, there were actually cities where the Night Watch and the Eclipse Society could coexist.
That's right, Mountain City is a city where the Night Watch and the Eclipse Society coexist, at least on the surface.
The reason for coexistence is also very simple. The Eclipse Society entrenched in Mountain City is, on the surface, either a famous technology company or a very popular internet celebrity nightclub. They are all engaged in legitimate business and have also participated in many public welfare undertakings.
It is difficult for the Night Watch officers of Mountain City to grasp their criminal evidence, so naturally, they have no way to trouble them.
They are both major taxpayers and enthusiastic public welfare individuals. Without proper reasons, they can't just forcibly invite them back for tea, can they?
As for those members of the Eclipse Society, although there are occasional extreme fanatics, most of their actions are very restrained and they will not proactively seek trouble from the Night Watch.
Thus, in Mountain City, the Night Watch and the Eclipse Society have formed a situation where they mutually ignore each other on the surface.
It's not that there are no conflicts and struggles between the two sides, but those struggles are fragmented, decentralized, and have moved underground.
That state reminded Lu Yibei inexplicably of the state of coexistence between gangs and the police in a certain police and gangster film she had seen before. They stood face to face, even smiling and shaking hands, while the other hand hidden behind their backs might have already disengaged the safety and loaded the bullet.
From a certain perspective, such members of the Eclipse Society are more troublesome than those who act recklessly.
In addition, according to Chatterbox Girl, besides Mountain City, there are many large cities around the world where the Eclipse Society maintains a similar relationship with local Spiritual Energy organizations with official backgrounds. Sometimes, when facing powerful external Calamity urban legend, coordinated actions are not unheard of.
Although all this sounds a bit outrageous, upon second thought, many things are not inherently black and white. The chaotic gray between black and white is also a normal state.
However, this chaotic state might be beneficial to me instead?
The more chaotic, the more opportunities there are to find loopholes and exploit them! Lu Yibei thought.
Just as she was contemplating, the broadcast sounded, the train began to slow down, and slowly entered the train station.
"Dong dong—dong—dong dong dong—!"
As soon as the train stopped at the platform, before the doors could even open, a series of chaotic and hurried footsteps were heard from the platform.
Hearing the sound, Lu Yibei snapped out of her drifting thoughts and looked in the direction of the sound. She saw a group of passengers on the platform frantically running towards the train station exit.
Similar to nighttime flights, the nighttime high-speed rail services are not only relatively cheaper but also have fewer passengers. It was already 8:45 PM, and the platform was somewhat empty. Without the noise of human voices, the frantic footsteps of the passengers became clearer. freewebnoveℓ.com
They seemed to have been startled by something. Panic was written on everyone's face. Some people even left their personal luggage on the platform just to run faster.
Just then, the broadcast on the train sounded again.
"Due to the impact of a sudden incident, this train is delayed. The train broadcast room, on behalf of the railway department, extends our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience caused by the train delay."
After the broadcast, the small number of passengers in the carriage immediately began to whisper.
"Didn't we already arrive at the station? Why don't they just open the doors and let us off?"
"Hey, do you think those people who were running on the platform just now have something to do with the so-called sudden incident?"
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"Hiss, could it be a urban legend incident? I heard that not long ago, in Xiangping City, there was a train urban legend incident. A train that fell into a valley during the War of Resistance replaced the train that was supposed to arrive at the station and pulled the passengers into the station. All the passengers on the train died, and their expressions were all terrifying."
"Ah? I want to get off, I want to get off!"
In silence, Lu Yibei glared fiercely at the red-haired young man who was telling the urban legend story.
Damn it, why are there always people who like to watch the fun and make things worse?
At this time, telling urban legend legends, isn't that just adding to the chaos? If this were in Hua City, I'd arrange eighteen rounds of urban legend to visit your home tonight!
However, it is indeed a bit strange. The train has clearly arrived at the station, and there should be a more suitable announcement, but the broadcast issued a delay notice. Logically speaking, train broadcasts would not make such a mistake. It feels like a choice made in a panic? Lu Yibei thought.
Just as she was contemplating, Ju Meng, who had woken up from the broadcast, poked her with her elbow and then gestured towards the platform outside the window with her chin.
"Over there, you..."
Lu Yibei followed the direction Ju Meng pointed and frowned.
After the group of passengers fled, the platform was empty, with a thin layer of mist drifting, making the man who walked out of the opposite train carriage particularly conspicuous.
The man's clothes were disheveled, as if he had been violently pulled by someone. The collar of his shirt was wide open, and a large bruise could be vaguely seen on his chest.
His face was pale, one hand covering his stomach, the other covering his mouth, and he was walking tremblingly. Every few steps he took, his body would have a violent twitching spasm. Through the train window glass, his coughing could be vaguely heard.
When he reached the center of the platform, another violent cough struck, and that cough seemed to have drained his last bit of strength, causing his body to go limp and fall to the ground.
At the moment of falling, a large mass of bright red spewed out from his mouth and nose. It was not just blood, but mixed with some bright red paste-like substance, and some small gray-black particles that looked like coal slag.
The originally noisy carriage instantly fell into dead silence. Something unsettling was quietly brewing in the air, but because there were not many passengers on the night shift, the commotion did not break out so quickly.
However, all of this was only the scene seen by ordinary people.
Along with the uncomfortable Spiritual Energy fluctuations rippling in the air, Lu Yibei and Ju Meng saw more.
They saw the phantom of a large, bulging tumor on the man's chest.
Those tumors, with strange pores and resembling sea anemones, seemed to have their own consciousness, constantly wriggling, spewing out thick black smoke, extending distorted limbs, and disappearing into the misty night, seemingly connected to some terrifying existence hidden beneath the night.
Immediately after, as the man who had fallen to the ground also took his last breath, the phantom of the tumor attached to his body also seemed to be blown away by the wind, merging into the thin mist drifting under the night, and disappearing without a trace.
A urban legend hunt was completed just like that, but the invisible "hunt" was still ongoing.
Lu Yibei, "What the heck is this? Is it a side story of Resident Evil in Mountain City? Where are the officers of the Night Watch in Mountain City? Hurry up and take care of this!"
"That's it? I thought it was a much more serious urban legend incident!" Ju Meng muttered softly.
For a Calamity level urban legend, this is indeed just ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) a small scene.
Lu Yibei looked at the passengers in the carriage and suggested, "But there are too many witnesses. Some of them even ran out just now."
Based on her year of experience working for the Night Watch, a urban legend incident with so many witnesses would be very tricky. Even if the witnesses are not affected by the erosion of the night, some rumors will inevitably spread, strengthening the power of the urban legend that caused the incident, and the subsequent impact will be quite bad.
Seemingly understanding Lu Yibei's meaning, Ju Meng nodded, "That makes some sense."
Facts have proven that the Night Watch of Mountain City will not ignore such urban legend incidents with bad influence.
Less than three minutes later, a group of burly men dressed like SWAT officers but without police badges appeared on the platform. They set up a cordon around the man who had suddenly died, using their strong bodies to block the view of the crowd.
Judging from the weak, unranked Spiritual Energy fluctuations emanating from them and their style of action, they should be the Elder brothers of the Special Operations Team of the Night Watch in Mountain City.
At the same time, the train attendants also brought hot drinks to the passengers, constantly comforting their emotions.
From the attendants' mouths, Lu Yibei also learned the "reason" for the incident.
The attendants explained that before the train on the opposite track was about to depart, a passenger with late-stage lung cancer suddenly coughed up blood, which was mistaken for an infectious disease by other passengers on the train, leading to inappropriate remarks and subsequently panic and chaos. The train station would soon handle it, restore order, and arrange for everyone to disembark.
Sounds quite reasonable?
Noticing that the attendants who brought the hot drinks were not the same as the previous ones, Lu Yibei and Ju Meng tacitly did not touch the drinks.
There should be "something" added to those drinks. Lu Yibei's classmate, dear Yang Yi, had the fortune of experiencing it after successfully courting death and going through a urban legend incident.
Although the method of "drugging" is not very bright, it is better than letting the urban legend legends spread and strengthen the power of the corresponding urban legend.
About five minutes later, the officers of the Night Watch in Mountain City also arrived at the scene.
The first to arrive was a tall, thin man with slightly curly hair and metal-rimmed glasses, dressed like a Doctor. He might be holding a position similar to An Qing in the Night Watch of Mountain City.
After quickly examining the man's body, he solemnly directed the Elder brothers of the Special Operations Team to put the body in a body bag and remove it from the scene.
Just then, three more figures rushed to the scene: a hot-bodied blonde girl, a small person wearing a red hat, and Jiang Li?
Upon seeing the figure wearing a white shirt and a double-breasted knee-length skirt, with silver hair fluttering behind her, Lu Yibei almost jumped up from her seat and pressed her face against the window.
Just as Lu Yibei noticed Jiang Hao, Jiang Hao also seemed to sense her gaze. She turned around, a look of joy appearing on her face, but then, noticing Ju Meng behind Lu Yibei, her eyes gradually became terrifying.
It was a look that was extremely cold, yet could "kill" people.
Jiang Hao: 【Just look around on your own?】
Do you want to hear my explanation now, or later?】
Lu Yibei responded with her eyes, but Jiang Li had already turned around and focused her attention on the urban legend incident. She didn't look at her again until the body was taken away, as if she didn't exist at all.
