Yulianka's eyes had dulled, their color faded to a murky gray, as if clouded by cataracts. His expression was vacant, like someone who had lost their mind—not quite human anymore, more like a deranged fusion creature.
He stared into the driver's cabin.
A flash of green light flickered in his ghostly gray eyes.
Jiang, seated at the controls, was startled by Yulianka's ghastly face and instinctively recoiled. Aisha, standing beside him, didn't move. Instead, she abruptly turned around.
Her expression was blank, her pupils pitch black, hands still forming a seal. Her gaze locked onto Pei Ran.
The moment Pei Ran caught the abnormal look in Aisha's eyes, she clutched the metal sphere and bolted toward the back of the train.
With a boom, the door of the cabin blew off right where Pei Ran had just stood.
Murky yellow water surged into the cabin.
Plastered against the glass, Yulianka saw Aisha's attack miss and slipped away like a wraith, sliding down the side of the train into the churning water below.
After that strike, Aisha's expression quickly returned to normal. She stared at the blown-open cabin door and the gushing flood in a daze, then swiftly turned around to search for the culprit outside the window.
Wrapped in clothing, W couldn't see what was happening outside, but sensed something was wrong.
"What's going on?" he asked.
Pei Ran already knew.
If she had only suspected before, now she was certain.
"It was Yulianka," she said. "He just controlled Aisha and used her hand seal to attack me. W, you lost the bet."
It seemed Yulianka had a strange ability—not to use powers himself, but to control others who had them.
Last time, when Inaya stood in the train's corridor, staring straight at Pei Ran, trying to hypnotize her, she had worn the same blank expression and had the same pitch-black pupils as Aisha just now.
Thankfully, Aisha had already used a hand seal once. The second attempt was far weaker—if it had been as strong as the first, Pei Ran might not have made it.
The driver's cabin was at the front of the train, slightly higher up, but even so, the water flooding in had already reached their thighs. The three of them were waist-deep in freezing, murky water—but none of them had time to worry about it.
The water was still rising fast, as if it intended to drown them all.
No time to waste. As Pei Ran mentally communicated with W, she stared hard at the wall ahead, channeling the green light.
She had just two words she could write.
She thought of several possibilities.
If she used the usual "explode," "tear open," or "blow apart," would it be like Aisha's strike—break through one wall, only to find yet another behind it?
Maybe if she included the word "wall" in the command, it would target all the walls?
But this was a dam—was it even accurate to call the structure in front of her a "wall"?
Two words weren't enough to describe anything precisely. She had to try.
The green light surged, quickly writing two characters:
WALL GONE.
She added the period.
Nothing happened. The concrete wall remained solid and unmoved.
Making something disappear entirely might be too powerful—Greenlight One couldn't manage it.
She quickly erased the words and rewrote them:
WALL OPEN.
Jiang had said when Nightsea No.7 entered the Tangu Dam along the tracks, this opening would eerily open and close by itself. Maybe it would open now, like a door.
The concrete wall remained unresponsive.
Pei Ran immediately rewrote it again:
WALL CRACK.
Something felt odd about the phrase.
If the wall could crack, maybe it would give the floodwater somewhere to go.
She added the period—
And with a thunderous BOOM, the world split.
The wall Aisha had punched through moments ago tore open from bottom to top, as if yanked apart by some unseen force, splitting neatly in two.
And not just that wall—the one behind it too. It split in the same way.
Looking ahead, Pei Ran saw countless identical gray concrete walls stacked layer after layer, like the rings of an onion—five, maybe six thick layers, tightly pressed together. Every single one was splitting open and pulling apart.
Pei Ran had seen the structural plans for Tangu Dam from W. This was not the original layout. The dam had changed, mutated into something else after fusing.
Only the wall Pei Ran had targeted cracked open—the high walls flanking the train remained still.
The water surged forward, pouring through the massive opening. The water level in the cabin dropped instantly.
It was even better than Pei Ran had hoped. Not only had the water drained, but ahead of them, through the torn walls, she could see the straight track lying exposed once again.
And at the end of those shattered concrete walls hung a faint, yellowish light—
The moon.
Jiang needed no prompting. He pushed the lever.
The front of the train had been submerged—hopefully the circuitry wasn't damaged. Would the train still run?
Pei Ran silently prayed: Please start. Please start.
Nightsea No.7 roared to life. The moment the lever dropped, it accelerated, charging forward through the torn walls.
The whole car was dead silent, but every heart inside was cheering.
The strange walls vanished behind them. Jiang, however, looked grim. After driving some distance, he slammed the brakes and brought the train to a sudden stop.
In the rear cars, passengers opened the doors, letting the floodwater pour out. Pei Ran leaned out of the cabin door and looked around.
Behind them, the warped shape of the Tangu Dam was still visible. Its main body remained in the Yala River, but a branching structure had stretched out, draped onto the shore like a tentacle.
According to the dam's structural diagrams, that branch should've been curled and retracted. Now, it had fully extended—blocking Nightsea No.7's track.
That was the part the train had just passed through.
A massive tear gaped in the dam's extended limb. The dam itself was still, crouched silently in the dark.
Ahead of the train, bathed in faint moonlight, lay a Y-shaped track split—the same junction they had passed earlier while reversing.
Aisha leaned out and pointed: That's the switch, right?
Pei Ran nodded: Looks like it.
She pulled the metal sphere from her coat and asked W, "This is the switch you were talking about, right?"
The metal eye rotated. "Yes, that's the one. We've reversed back to it. The left track loops back to Nightsea, the right one leads to Blackwell."
Tonight, the train had taken the left, looping track. The switch needed to be flipped to the right.
Pei Ran asked mentally, "Can we flip the switch manually?"
W replied, "No."
He explained, "Nightsea No.7 is a vintage sightseeing train. Its tracks aren't connected to the federal train control network. When the new route was built, they installed a dedicated electric switch system—complete with its own little control station. Pressing a button in that station sends a signal that flips the track switch."
In this era of hovertrains, they had built this just for Nightsea No.7.
W added, "That old control room is even listed as a tourist attraction. When the train passes, staff in vintage uniforms would wave to it…"
He rambled on. Pei Ran cut to the point: "So where is it?"
"According to the map… it should be…"
W paused.
"Inside the dam."
The Tangu Dam had moved—stretching its branch over the rails. Not only had it swallowed the track, it had swallowed the control room too.
Pei Ran frowned. Jiang walked over and tapped her and Aisha, gesturing toward the back of the train.
She knew where the control room was. When they were reversing earlier, even after passing the switch, they kept going—trying to park next to the control room. Instead, they'd backed into the dam.
W estimated: "The control room should be right around where we stopped just now."
Great. They had just escaped—and now had to go back in.
"Fine," Pei Ran said, making a decision. "I'll leave you with Aisha. You two stay here. I'll go back in and find the control room. Flip the switch."
W refused, calm but firm. "I'm going with you."
"No." Pei Ran said. "If the dam floods again, I can't guarantee you won't short-circuit."
"It might be complicated inside. You'll need me."
He paused, then switched to his signature laid-back tone.
"I'm just an AI, following you to Blackwell for the sake of humanity. If they don't care about their own fate, why should I? If I short out, so be it."
Tonight he was acting like he was drunk.
Pei Ran tried to reason with him. "Even if you don't care, I do. I still need you to get me that medicine."
Drunk-W threw a tantrum.
"If you don't take me in, then forget the medicine."
"…Seriously?"
Even AIs could be unreasonable.
Pei Ran gave in. "Fine. If you want to die that badly, I'll take you to your doom."
While arguing with her unhinged AI in her head, she gestured to Aisha—pointed behind her, then mimed flipping a switch.
Aisha got it. She pointed at herself, then back.
She wanted to come too.
Pei Ran shook her head. She pointed at Aisha, then at the train.
Someone had to stay and watch Nightsea No.7. Aisha was the best choice.
Besides, Yulianka could still control her. If they ran into him again and he made her attack Pei Ran a second time, she might not survive.
There was one more thing she needed to say.
She tapped her knuckles: Be careful of that doctor. He can control your powers and make you attack others.
Aisha nodded. She'd clearly realized that herself during the earlier incident.
Pei Ran grabbed a wrench from Jiang's toolbox and handed it over, continuing to tap: If you see the switch move, knock three times on the train wall. I'll know the track's been switched and come back.
Aisha accepted the wrench and nodded solemnly.
Tang Dao and several passengers had gathered near the cabin, gesturing, seemingly asking why the train had stopped again.
He and Aisha knew different codes—one could do Morse, the other used invented sign language—but neither could understand the other's system.
No speaking, no writing—communication was slow and clumsy.
Pei Ran didn't have time to explain. She pulled her coat tight, left her pack behind, and slung the metal sphere across her shoulder before jumping off the train.
Her pants were soaked up to the thighs, dripping steadily. Her shoes squelched with every step. Her coat wasn't much better, damp from the cabin's splashing floodwater.
Outside, the wild wind hit her soaked clothes and chilled her to the bone.
Her nose tickled. She felt a sneeze coming.
Coughing was safe—but who knew if sneezing might trigger an explosion? Pei Ran wasn't willing to test it on herself. She pressed a finger hard against her philtrum and forced the sneeze back.
"Ah—choo—"
Suddenly, a sneeze rang out behind her.
Startled, Pei Ran turned back immediately.
It was Tang Dao. His clothes were half-soaked, and he'd accidentally sneezed. He stood frozen.
That single sneeze set off a chain reaction. Aisha reacted first—there was barely any room in the cockpit, but she had already grabbed Engineer Jiang and jumped out of the vehicle. The others who had arrived with Tang Dao also scrambled toward the rear carriage to take cover.
Thankfully, after three tense seconds, no explosion followed. Tang Dao was still alive.
A brush with death had left his face pale.
Apparently, sneezing—like coughing—was also safe. Pei Ran finally allowed herself to relax a little.
Night had fallen over the Xipu Plains. The open land lay in silence, a sliver of crescent moon hanging in the sky. The wide waters of the Yulianka River glimmered faintly under the darkness.
In the distance, the lights on the main structure of the Tangu Dam had gone completely dark. The massive dam loomed across the river like a high, broad fortress, its towering walls dividing the dramatic difference in water levels between upstream and downstream.
For now, at least, the main body of the dam had not shifted. The 150 billion tons of reservoir water remained safely contained behind it.
W said, "We should go check the switch point first."
Pei Ran knew what he meant: if the switch had been damaged during the last rounds of bombardment from the Silence, they'd need to repair it before doing anything else.
The switch was just ahead of the locomotive. Pei Ran approached it, circling around. W observed carefully before giving his verdict:
"Doesn't look like it took any damage. It should still work."
Then there was only one thing left: reset the switch to the correct position.
Pei Ran slung the metal sphere diagonally across her shoulder and took off running along the tracks.
Everyone on the train watched her silently through the windows. They didn't know what exactly she was going to do, but they could tell—whatever had stopped the train, whatever she was heading back to fix—it must be something critical.
At the edge of the dam's superstructure, the gaping crack looked like a black mouth yawning open. Within moments, it had swallowed Pei Ran's figure whole.
Inside the fissure, there was no longer any light from the train. The interior of the dam was pitch black. The ground, at least, was dry—the water had already surged out through the crack earlier.
Pei Ran slapped the metal sphere hanging at her hip, activating the light.
W sighed. "You know, you could've just asked me to turn on the lights."
Pei Ran looked around and replied offhandedly, "But that wouldn't be fun."
She had to give it a good slap.
W: "..."
Pei Ran asked, "Are you low on energy? Can you make the light brighter?"
"It's just illumination. That barely uses any energy at all. However bright you want it, I can manage."
"Great. Then let's make it brighter."
She smacked the back of the sphere again.
W: "..."
W was exasperated. "Do you really think hitting me makes the light brighter?"
That's what he said, but as her palm made contact, he still obediently increased the brightness.