Pei Ran continued calling out to W in her mind.
She was in a hypnotic state—unable to hear his voice—but he should still be able to hear hers, right? Surely she hadn't lost even the ability to emit Netabor.
Last time, the two people hypnotized at the station entrance had been slapped awake by Sheng Mingxi. Aisha hadn't arrived yet and didn't know about the "Slap Awakening Method." But what was W doing? Why hadn't he slapped her awake already?
Since he wasn't taking action, Pei Ran raised her own hand and slapped herself.
The sensation on her face was strange—vague, dull—not particularly painful. The disoriented fog in her mind didn't lift at all.
Maybe her ability to feel pain had dulled.
Maybe she was too weak to hit herself properly.
She couldn't tell.
She pinched her leg—same thing, hardly any pain.
Self-rescue wasn't looking too promising.
Pei Ran darted through the passage between the cockpit and the passenger car, brushing her hand against the door.
The sensation was accurate.
She moved through the aisle of Car 1, fingers grazing the backs of the seats—again, the sensations were real.
Crack—crack—crack.
A burst of sharp noise erupted, like the train was under a hail of bullets.
Holes suddenly punched through the ceiling, followed by a shattering of the windows.
Dozens of tentacles, as thick as arms and gray as ash, writhed their way into the train from outside. They were soft and slimy but lightning-fast, surging toward Pei Ran from every direction.
There were simply too many to dodge. Pain exploded across her body in sharp bursts.
Pei Ran glanced down.
A tentacle had pierced through her chest—blood gushed out, soaking the front of her clothes. Another one skewered her abdomen.
In mere seconds, her body was riddled with countless tentacles.
The pain was excruciating. The scene was grotesque.
Clearly, it wanted her to scream.
The tentacles whipped through the cabin like lunatics. The surrounding passengers were paralyzed with fear.
One tentacle found its mark and drove into her ear, stabbing sharply.
Another lunged for her eye, but Pei Ran jerked her head aside just in time.
She was nearly there.
Inaya had been standing in the aisle, but now she was gone. Several passengers were seated nearby, all staring at Pei Ran in sheer panic.
Pei Ran had moved fast—just seconds had passed.
The hypnotist couldn't have gotten far.
She grabbed one passenger by the shoulder, then quickly let go and grabbed another.
The sensations were real.
People in the hallucination corresponded one-to-one with people in reality.
Like earlier in the cockpit—Kirill had become Aisha, and Aisha had become Kirill.
Apparently, the hypnotist's power had limits: they couldn't create people from scratch or erase them—only alter appearances.
If that were true, perfect.
The tentacles surged even harder, their movements ghost-like.
Finally, one jabbed into her left eye and drove deep into her skull.
A wave of blinding pain burst in her head—but Pei Ran had already seen what she needed.
Just ahead, a young man with a ball gag in his mouth was sitting in the next row, wearing the same terrified expression as the others.
His face was too distinctive—Pei Ran remembered clearly that he hadn't been sitting there before.
She lunged forward and grabbed his shoulder.
Her palm brushed against something—braided hair.
Got him.
The tentacles went berserk. Pei Ran ignored the dozen stabbing through her body, yanked the young man off the seat, and slammed him to the floor, fingers clamped tight around his throat.
The man thrashed in terror.
Pei Ran didn't loosen her grip.
In the illusion, sensations were dull—she couldn't judge her strength.
She thought, If I end up killing you by accident, that's not my fault.
The young man finally slumped, unconscious.
At that moment—like shattering glass or the earth splitting open—Pei Ran snapped out of the nightmare.
Everything changed in an instant.
The sounds came rushing back.
As she'd suspected, the person she had pinned on the floor with her hands around their throat was Inaya.
Her cheeks were flushed red, eyes closed, completely unconscious.
The surrounding passengers looked panicked, but not as horrified as in the illusion—they hadn't seen tentacles rampaging through the train car, just Pei Ran suddenly attacking someone.
Nuomituan, hidden earlier in Inaya's clothes, popped out and fluttered to a seat back nearby, flapping its wings and squawking:
"Murder! MURDER!"
W's voice came through her earpiece:
"Pei Ran? Pei Ran? Are you awake?"
Pei Ran let go of Inaya and stood up.
"Why didn't you do something to wake me? Too polite to slap me or what?"
He was a little too polite.
"You're finally awake," W sounded relieved.
"I increased our communication volume just now, but I was afraid it'd permanently damage your auditory nerves."
He added, "I also tried using pain to wake you up. A slap only causes pain at level 4. I used my mechanical claws to inflict level 7 and above continuously. You still didn't wake. You should check your waist, legs, and arms later—I might've bruised you."
Level 7 pain hadn't worked—clearly, her hypnosis had been much deeper than the others'.
Someone had made sure she wouldn't wake up easily.
"You moved fast," W said. "I was just about to take more drastic measures when you suddenly woke up."
Pei Ran sorted through her thoughts.
When Inaya had stood in the aisle and stared at her, there'd been a flash of green in her eyes—and that was when the hallucination began.
Once Inaya lost consciousness, the effect vanished.
That could mean one of two things:
Either Inaya was the hypnotist, or someone had deliberately synced those events to frame her.
The former seemed more likely—and more logical.
Otherwise, why would Inaya be staring at the cockpit? Why hide in a different seat afterward?
If she was the hypnotist, then she had to stare at the target to activate hypnosis.
When Kirill was alone in the cockpit under hypnosis, Inaya had been "asleep" at the table, unable to see him.
Maybe once the target was hypnotized, she no longer needed to maintain eye contact.
But this time, she had stared at Pei Ran the entire time—even when disguised as the man with the gag.
That might be why Pei Ran's hypnosis had gone so deep.
Still, it was all speculation.
Aisha had followed her into the passenger car, looking utterly confused.
She pointed at Pei Ran's hand:
[What was that about?]
[You grabbed my arm and shoulder out of nowhere, then ran off.]
Pei Ran thought, I nearly dislocated your arm.
She also realized something else: Aisha had remained fully conscious the whole time.
So the hypnotist could only cast illusions on one person at a time.
The goal was to make them turn on each other.
If Aisha had seen hallucinations too, the results would've been even bloodier.
Clearly, the hypnotist had done their best already.
Pei Ran pointed at the unconscious Inaya and tapped her knuckles:
[I saw a hallucination. Pretty sure it was her doing.]
W spoke again in her ear:
"Pei Ran, remember the bet we made? I won."
"Maybe," Pei Ran said. "But not necessarily."
She glanced at the rear cars—no one in the aisle.
Pei Ran pulled out some tape—finally, the cheap roll—and tied up Inaya's hands and feet.
She wrapped Nuomituan in a scarf and handed it to Aisha.
Then she tapped her knuckles again:
[Cover her eyes. If she wakes up, knock her out again.]
Aisha nodded immediately, made a wait gesture, and zipped back to the cockpit.
She returned with a giant wrench in hand.
Pei Ran: "..."
That thing could knock out an elephant.
Aisha unwrapped the scarf, bound it tightly over Inaya's eyes, and tied a dead knot.
Reliable.
Pei Ran grabbed the metal sphere and moved toward the back of the train.
The train was still racing backward. The Tanggu Dam's switchyard had to be close.
Rumble... rumble...
A low, thunderous noise echoed from somewhere, like distant thunder.
"Rain?" Pei Ran glanced out the window.
There was still some pale moonlight outside.
The plains and trees were faintly visible.
Didn't look like rain was coming.
As she thought this, she opened the door to the next car and swept her gaze across the seats.
She spotted Yulianka—sitting in the seat nearest the door, eyes closed, pretending to sleep.
W: "Pei Ran, you lost the bet. No cheating—pay up."
Pei Ran: "Hmph. I still think he's the one pulling strings."
W sighed: "You keep insisting it's Yulianka. Got any proof?"
Pei Ran grabbed Yulianka by the collar.
"Proof? I'm not a sheriff. I'll just rip him in half and see if there's green light inside.
If there is, I'll test what it can do."
W: "…"
Pei Ran: "You're the one who told me, 'Screw it. Just kill him already.'
'Quick and easy.' I think you made a lot of sense."
Yulianka opened his eyes, startled, blue-gray eyes wide in confusion:
What's going on? What are you doing?
Pei Ran didn't care.
She yanked him up by his white coat, spun him around, and slammed him against the car's partition door.
She meant what she said—she really would tear him in half.
She raised her left arm, pressing her elbow against his neck, while her mechanical right hand gripped his upper arm and wrenched it hard.
Crack.
No warnings. No explanations.
Pei Ran did exactly what she said she'd do.
Yulianka's face pressed against the cold glass.
He was scared out of his mind.
These past few days, he had come to believe he'd already adapted to the new rules of this apocalyptic world—and, in fact, was even enjoying it.
A world where the strong ruled everything, decided everything; the weak were treated like playthings, forced to survive in constant fear.
But the moment searing pain shot through his shoulder, as if it were about to be torn off, he suddenly realized—he had never truly understood what the apocalypse meant.
His mindset was still trapped within the framework of the old world.
He'd spent the entire journey thinking about how to dodge, how to hide, how not to leave any evidence—how to make sure no one had anything on him.
But the girl behind him—she was the real demon from the apocalypse.
When she suspected something, she didn't bother with proof. She didn't care about evidence or explanations. She didn't give you a chance to speak.
She just acted—killed—on instinct.
Guilt or innocence didn't matter.
Her mechanical hand was terrifying. If he didn't fight back now, his arm would really be torn off. And once she ripped off his right arm, she'd probably use that monstrous mechanical hand to open him up and pull out his intestines—just like she did to the turnstile-fused creature at the station gate.
In that moment between life and death, Yulianka finally dropped the act. He opened his mouth.
A flash of green light appeared deep in the darkness of his throat.
The glass door reflected that eerie glow.
Pei Ran sneered inwardly: So you're finally done playing the holy, delicate white lotus?
She didn't know exactly what his ability was yet, but she had already summoned her writing-light in her mind.
This time, Green Light No. 1 was well-behaved—probably well-rested. It appeared instantly, floating in her mind, sharp and ready.
Pei Ran's hands weren't idle either. Earlier, when she'd grabbed his arm and threatened to rip it off, it had just been a bluff.
But this time, she was using real strength.
Suddenly, her body staggered—she took a step back.
The backward-moving train screeched to a sudden stop, metal wheels shrieking against the rails.
At the same time, everything went black.
Pei Ran's first thought was: Another hallucination?
Just a second ago, she'd clearly seen through the glass door of the next car—Inaya still unconscious on the floor, and Aisha gripping her wrench, guarding her.
Could Yulianka's ability be illusion-casting?
As Pei Ran stumbled, Yulianka's arm suddenly shifted inside her mechanical grip.
Ordinary people had no chance of escaping her mechanical hand, but Yulianka's arm slimmed down bizarrely, slipping free like a snake.
She instinctively reached forward and grabbed for his neck—but his neck had changed too, flattening and disappearing in the darkness.
A strange sound echoed through the car—soft, slithering, not like footsteps, more like something gliding across the floor.
Then: thup. Followed by a series of thup-thup-thup.
W's voice came through her earpiece. "I opened fire."
W's voice still being present meant he hadn't been hypnotized. The train had simply gone dark.
His metallic orb gave him keen sight and hearing. Even in pitch black, he could see clearly.
"Yulianka transformed into something strange," W said. "Looks like a frenzied-type fusion creature. Those are extremely dangerous. I'm authorized to shoot."
Pei Ran was puzzled.
Yulianka had just been in a human state—even if he had abilities, he was still a standard fusion type.
Why had he suddenly become a frenzied one?
"I aimed for the head first, then the upper abdomen—stealth mode, suppressed and flashless," W said. "The headshot landed, and a few rounds hit his gut, but it wasn't enough to stop him. He escaped down the corridor, heading toward the rear car."
Pei Ran knew why W had aimed for the upper abdomen.
From the encounter with the pipe worker, they'd discovered the location of the bizarre heart—up near the stomach.
Their experience with fusion creatures like the pipe worker and turnstile abomination showed: once that heart stopped beating, the frenzied creature died.
She asked, "Could it be he's not frenzied, just a shapeshifter?"
"No," W replied. "Standard fusion types have human physiology—they don't change form. And they wouldn't survive those shots."
Then W suddenly said, "Pei Ran. Look outside."
Pei Ran turned toward the window.
Outside, it was pitch black, like thick ink poured across the landscape.
There was supposed to be moonlight tonight—dim and hazy behind the smog, but there had been some light just moments ago. It shouldn't be this dark.
The train was utterly silent.
Lights suddenly going out—followed by this unnatural darkness—left everyone paralyzed in fear.
It was so quiet, it felt like there were no living people on board.
Pei Ran asked, "Where are we?"
W answered, "According to my calculations, we should be back at the Tangu Dam."
From the map, Tangu Dam was a massive structure built across the Yala River. Night Sea Train No. 7's track passed right alongside it.
The oppressive darkness outside was suddenly torn open by a flicker of light.
Outside the left-hand windows, a massive, ghostly green light hovered in the air—floating eerily past the train.
The green glow illuminated the passengers' faces—every one of them filled with fear.
What the hell was that?
Not a ghost—
A fusion entity.
Inside Pei Ran, both Green Light No. 1 and Green Light No. 2 stirred excitedly, like they'd just spotted a midnight snack.
She thought, Not so fast, you two. That thing's way bigger than you—it might be the one snacking on us.
But the light didn't just reveal the train car—it lit up something else.
The view outside had changed.
Gone was the endless wilderness and trees they'd passed before.
Now there was a towering wall, just a few meters from the train—stretching upward out of sight, too tall to see the top from the window.
It was grayish-white, streaked with water stains, and cracked all over like weathered stone.