Free Web NovelChapter 777: Chapter 687: Hong Shadow on the Subway (2)
Passing through the dark passage, Chichu Chun followed the stairs down to the third basement level.
In the darkness, incandescent lights alternately flickered, and the platform was desolate and deep. An abandoned train was parked on the right side, and the aging advertisements on the left wall were blurry, everything here seemed to have frozen in time a century ago, forgotten by the world.
Chichu Chun slowly came to a stop, gazing at the mirror beside her. Her reflection gradually became clearer, a cold face tinged with a hint of wickedness.
Chichu Chun shook her head, noticing a flyer scattered on the ground about ’favorite food,’ seemingly an advertisement for an izakaya.
Favorite food...
Fried tempura, cheese tart, yakitori, thick omelet, she welcomed anything delicious with open arms.
Her special physique meant she would never gain weight no matter what she ate, unlike Tang Xin, who needed to manage her figure. She found bland tastes unacceptable; she couldn’t even indulge herself with food.
Right then, a noise came from the right. Chichu Chun raised her hand to aim, but upon discovering it was just a rat, her frown relaxed, before promptly knitting again.
How could there possibly be rats in a place like this?
Such small-sized rodents should have long been devoured clean by the Insect Race.
Speaking of which, aside from the corpses scattered on the ground, she hadn’t seen the Insect Race.
She hadn’t seen even a single Textile Lady...
Scenes she saw before flashed again in Chichu Chun’s mind.
A giant brain entrenched in the train, eerie murmurs, swarming Insect Race.
Chichu Chun stepped in front of the platform, crossing the warning line to enter the carriage.
Inside the carriage, all the facilities were defunct. Rust covered the floors, ceilings, and railings in the aisles. Cobwebs filled the seats, and a skeleton was suspended from the ceiling by silk netting, black insects crawling from its eyes.
Chichu Chun inexplicably felt like she was being watched.
Apart from these traces of Textile Lady, the carriage was empty, she saw no sign related to the giant brain.
It seemed those people had already emptied out this subway station.
After a few steps, Chichu Chun saw another flyer stuck to a seat——’Which one would you most want to go to a horror house with?’
If she had to choose, Angelina was the only option, the other three clearly did not have the time.
What is this, a truth or dare game? After just encountering a crisis, she still had time to ponder such things.
Chichu Chun chuckled softly, crumpling the flyer into a ball and tossing it aside.
She looked around, seats were littered with many similar question-and-answer flyers, most were illegible, some were clear.
For some reason, Chichu Chun suddenly took an interest in this coincidence.
——’When you’re sad, what kind of comfort do you hope for the most?’
A hug?
Chichu Chun thought for a moment and vetoed the idea.
She hoped someone would find her, ask nothing, pull her into a sports car, take a ride around the bustling city center of Chichu City, and finally take the elevator to the Sky Tower to scream until people cast strange glances, until she was hoarse.
Chichu Chun wrote down her thought.
——’If you meet someone you like, will you take initiative?’
"Of course I will." Chichu Chun said.
Precisely because of this, she left leverage in Xu Xiaoyou’s hands, eager to go back and strangle the infatuated version of herself.
——’If the world were to destroy tomorrow, and you had a machine to return to the past, would you bear everything alone for the people around you or return to close ones to spend the last moments with them?’
Returning to the past meant becoming a nameless being, only watching the past self interact with close ones. Those who were close in the past wouldn’t be her close ones. And she would lose everything.
This was a harsh reality.
The one who travels to the past saves the past self, not herself.
Even if she saved the past,
she would never return to her future.
After the crisis was resolved, she would watch the past self grow, having a happier future than hers.
While she would drift alone in an eternal solitude.
Chichu Chun calmly wrote down that she would return to the past.
A mischievous thought suddenly arose in her heart.
What kind of joke was this, to die lonely in a corner where no one cared? If it were her, after saving the world, she would surely find a way to quietly eliminate the past self and take over.
Why should the good deeds be done by her, while the past self enjoyed the fruits?
——’Are you afraid of death?’
Without thinking, Chichu Chun wrote down ’Not afraid.’
She had faced death many times, yet remained optimistic, as long as she cherished every day alive, there was nothing to regret in death.
——’Are you willing to sacrifice for someone precious?’
Chichu Chun rested the tip of the pen on her chin, struck a thoughtful pose.
"Provided that doing so saves the precious ones."
The girl wrote down her answer.
If sacrificing herself couldn’t save the precious ones, then what was the point of her sacrifice?
If she had to choose one, it would be to survive, to protect more precious people.
——’Are you afraid of loneliness?’
Chichu Chun slowly peeled off this flyer, staring fixedly at the text for a long time.
Looking at the QA answers on the flyer, it seemed she suddenly realized something, slowly turning her head.
Her reflection appeared in the mirror, only, her mirror ’self’ had a changed expression of shock, the corners of the mouth curled into a manic arch.
Chillingness crept up Chichu Chun’s spine, she swiftly drew her gun, aiming at the mirror ’self.’
The gun flame flashed in the darkness, a red-haired girl leaned over, leaped into the carriage, rolling to land in front of Chichu Chun.
It was only then Chichu Chun realized something was wrong,
there was no mirror between platforms.
Since the beginning, she had never been looking at her reflection.
"Who are you?"
"Who are you?"
In the dark, two distinct voices echoed, one childish, the other coolly husky with amusement.
The red-haired girl stepped forward, the metal pull ring fell to the ground. She forcefully shoved a grenade into Chichu Chun’s mouth, simultaneously delivering a fierce knee strike to Chichu Chun’s abdomen.
"The game of pretend is over, I envy you so much, I’m almost going crazy."
"This time I want to change the gameplay."
Intense pain caused Chichu Chun to clench her teeth as scorching light suddenly erupted.
"How about we do an identity swap?"
Boom!
The explosion thundered, shaking the entire subway station, the carriage where the two girls were collapsed onto the platform.
Gray smoke slowly dissipated, March’s silhouette emerged from within, five grenade pins spinning in her slender fingers.
Chichu Chun half-kneeling on the ground, clutching her bloodied jaw, pupils slightly trembling, blood continuously flowing through her fingers to the ground.
"Finally, it’s time to reveal identities, I’ve looked forward to this moment for so long."
"Before this, I was the nameless," March said, "and after, I am Chichu Chun."
"My dear, next I plan to replace you."
"Let’s play a game."
"My real self is standing in front of your immersive pod, catch me within a minute and I’ll leave."
"One minute. If you can’t do it or break the rules halfway, I’ll kill you."
"Use all your struggles, let me have some fun."
