Demonic Infection

Eliza is a freshman at Skyline University this year. Her family runs a small gaming company and lives in the upper city. Her family conditions are quite good compared to most people in other urban areas. She studies hard and was successfully admitted to Skyline University in this year's college entrance examination.

In order to report to Sky University, she left Dark Star City for the first time and boarded the expensive psychic train through the wilderness to Sky City.

There was still some time before the reporting day, so she went there early.

It sounds simple, but it is difficult for an ordinary person to operate.

Not everyone can ride the psychic train that can travel between major cities. Not only is it expensive, but you also need a legitimate reason.

For example, company employees and executives who are responsible for conducting business outside the company need to apply to the road administration department of each city in the name of the company before they are eligible to purchase bus tickets. The company they work for must also be qualified.

Then there are ordinary civil servants in government agencies, who need the official seal of their unit and a written form stating what you are going to do.

Then there are those who go on vacation, they must be senior executives of the Sky Group or upper-class families of high-ranking officials and politicians. Of course, the most important ones are the nobles with power, influence and status.

Eliza's game company was not eligible to apply to go to other cities, but they had recently grown in size and paid more taxes, so they planned to expand their business. Coincidentally, Eliza was admitted to Skyline University, and her student status qualified her to directly apply for the right to purchase tickets.

Her parents hoped that she would take this opportunity to go to Sky City to get a feel for the area, familiarize herself with the environment and the needs there, and then open a branch there.

Because of her student status and the money her family gave her to make connections, the higher-ups naturally turned a blind eye and allowed her to buy the ticket in advance.

It can be said that Eliza went to Sky City with her parents' expectations.

With a blanket covering her legs and her chin propped up on her hand, she sat by the window of her small compartment in the passenger car, and the heating inside the car made her drowsy.

Taking a sip of black tea, Eliza looked at the darkness outside through the special one-way reinforced glass and imagined what it was like outside 20 years ago, before she was born.

Hmm... I can't imagine... But maybe she can take this opportunity to look outside and maybe find some materials that can be used to make a game.

Eliza raised her hand and pressed her temples, adjusting the dark viewing distance and recording function of the artificial eye through the implanted brain-computer interface.

Her family is in the gaming business, and Eliza is a genius in this area, so she is trusted by her parents and is given the responsibility of opening a branch in Sky City on her own.

Eliza was born 20 years ago after the Sky Dome Project, when the Sky Group was already very powerful. As a member of the new generation of young people, she is not as rigid and conservative as her parents and older people, and does not believe in the innovative technological transformation of the Sky Group.

To give an example, she thinks it is like when mobile phones were first launched, people did not believe in them and did not know how to use them. After a while, mobile phones became mainstream and the elderly who did not know how to use them were eliminated.

So prosthetic technology attracted Eliza's attention almost as soon as it was launched.

With the financial resources at home and the willingness to do so, in order to better create games, Eliza installed the Sky Group's most advanced implantable brain-computer interface and replaced her own optical prosthetic eyes with more functions than her natural eyes.

She adjusted her vision and looked outside through the darkness.

On the white frost plain, black dead trees with bared fangs and claws grow out of the frost and snow.

There is no sign of life, and the video can only be used as a game background.

Eliza listened to the soft jazz music in the carriage and tried to turn off the vision of her artificial eye, but suddenly, she saw strange colors and weird humanoid creatures that were out of place in this wilderness.

They were surrounded by an unknown black mist, and their exposed skin was covered with spider-web-like cracks.

Perhaps because they have been active in the wilderness for a long time, the clothes they wear are worn and old, and the colors come from these clothes.

However, they are allowed to walk in the wilderness without taking any protective measures!

No... not walking, they are running, running at full speed, they are chasing this train!

Eliza knew that the wilderness was dangerous, not only because of the harsh environment, but also because of wandering cults and various mutant creatures. But since the psychic train she was riding could travel through the wilderness, it was equipped with corresponding coping methods.

A fully enclosed protective layer, automatic turrets, electromagnetic weapons, psychic weapons, and the most advanced intelligent recognition system will activate those weapons and alarms to eliminate the danger as soon as it is detected.

But why didn't the alarm go off?

What are those creatures?

When she realized this, Eliza suddenly stood up from the sofa by the window and rushed out of her room: "There's something outside!"

The attendant robot, patrolling the soft carpeted corridor, recognized her call, stopped its wheels, and turned its mechanical head.

The black screen representing the face showed a confused emotion, and the ambiguous meaning could not be understood from the context.

The robot's information processor runs for a moment, and a calm and emotionless electronic voice comes out of the speaker:

[Please don't get excited, ma'am. Anything can be called a thing. It's normal to have something outside the window.]

Eliza shouted anxiously, "It's dangerous-looking creatures! They're chasing the train! The alarm didn't go off!"

[Madam, if it is a dangerous creature, the train will automatically identify it and send out an alarm to protect your life and property safety. Intelligent identification will not make mistakes, so please don't worry.]

The robot stood still, the light representing its eyes on the LCD screen staring at her.

Eliza looked confused and began to wonder if she had seen it wrong.

——Maybe the artificial eye was not adjusted properly and there was a problem.

Thinking this, she convinced herself to go back to her room.

When she sat down by the window again, she no longer noticed those strange creatures outside the window.

"Sure enough...I was wrong..."

Eliza scratched her head and picked up her cup of tea.

--Bang!

The sound of heavy objects colliding came from the window. Eliza looked up suddenly and saw the strange humanoid creature lying on her window, with a crazy laugh on its pale and cracked face!

Eliza's pupils constricted, and she let out a scream of fear almost belatedly and belatedly!

"--ah!"

She rushed out of her room and shouted to the robot at the door, which recognized her scream and approached, "They're coming in! At the window!"

The robot entered her room and scanned the car window with the scanning device on its chest.

[There's nothing in the window, ma'am.]

Eliza looked at the strange creature that had already scratched the reinforced and thickened glass of the car window in pursuit of the light in the room, and shouted at the robot in disbelief: "It's clearly there! Can't you see it? If you can't identify it, report it! Report it to humans! To humans who can handle this! If the window cracks and lets the cold air in, we will all die!"

The robot's expression draws a horizontal line:

[You are a little excited. In order to avoid harming yourself and other passengers in this car, we recommend that you take more rest according to safety regulations. Please stay in your room.]

Eliza opened her mouth and stopped trying to get the robot to report the news. She rushed out of the room and locked the door, hoping that the door would temporarily slow down the cold and the speed at which the monster invaded the carriage when it broke the glass.

After locking the door, she ran towards the crowded restaurant while quickly knocking on the surrounding rooms, "Turn off the lights in the room! There is something outside the train!"

Her shouting quickly attracted the attention of others, and a few people came out of the room and asked her what happened.

Eliza explained quickly as she ran to the restaurant with the people who believed her.

The restaurant in this carriage is preparing afternoon tea. The long table is covered with a snow-white tablecloth, cookies and desserts are placed on trays, and robots play the role of waiters, wandering back and forth with bottles of juice.

The lights on the top of the carriage were bright, and the windows automatically simulated scenes of gardens and green lawns in the sun. A holographically projected electronic band played soothing music on the stage, and the gentlemen and ladies in the seats chatted leisurely.

Eliza rushed into the restaurant with the other passengers behind her and shouted, "Turn off the lights! Turn off the holographic screens in the windows too! There's something outside!"

The restaurant suddenly became quiet, and there was confusion in the eyes of the gentlemen and ladies.

Suddenly, the holographic screen simulating a garden on a car window went out, revealing a black window with cracks that were not completely broken.

A face came closer, and it was particularly clear because of the lighting in the restaurant.

The whites and pupils of the eyes were all scarlet due to dense bloodshot, and there was black mist surrounding the body. When seeing this face, one could only feel confusion and madness.

The instruments hanging on the restaurant wall suddenly began to beat.

That was an instrument for detecting infection. Normally it would just be a decoration, but now, the numbers on it suddenly turned red!

[0→65]

[Mistake!]

[No infection type detected]

The alarm in the carriage finally sounded!

The holographic displays on the car windows all went out, showing the situation outside.

Those strange creatures were everywhere in the mountains and plains, surging over like a tide. They were everywhere where the light could illuminate and see clearly. They were rushing towards where the light was!

The saw chains on the psychic train's outer shell began to operate, crushing all the creatures that rushed in into minced meat. The noise could be heard even inside the soundproofed carriage.

The mounted turrets and electromagnetic guns protruded from each gun port and started up, and the bursts of fire and electromagnetics set the wilderness on fire!

The loudspeaker above the carriage starts the announcement:

[This is the Psychic Train Control Room. I am the conductor of Train No. 054. Please do not panic, passengers. Please hide in your rooms or safe places. The train will do its best to ensure everyone's safety.]

"No, there are too many!" A man who looked like a social elite had data streams flashing in his artificial eyes. After a quick calculation, he shouted to the people in the restaurant, "Observe them carefully. As long as their bodies are not completely damaged, they can still move. Their behavior is getting more and more manic, and they know to attack the turrets first. They seem to be intelligent.

There are so many of them, and they are trying to restrain us. The front bumper and turret of the train will definitely be destroyed by them, and they will block the track! When the train is stopped and the glass is broken, we will be torn into pieces by them or frozen into ice sculptures by the temperature outside! We have to think of other ways!"

A lady dressed as a mechanic suddenly thought of something, "Our carriage is the last one of the passenger carriages. When I boarded the train today, I found that the truck carriage behind us was temporarily connected to our passenger carriage this time."

Eliza asked quickly, "What can we do? Even if the freight cars are better protected than our passenger cars, we will all die when the train is forced to stop!"

"No, I've observed that it seems to be because there are important goods inside. Look at the box the robot is carrying, there are logos of the Finance Department of the Special Management Bureau on it, and there are even several spiritual masters who are specially accompanying it. The connection is to facilitate the robot to deliver food."

"Mr. Spiritual Master? There is more than one? Are you sure?" A man dressed as a company executive asked suspiciously.

Madam Mechanic assured, "It's absolutely true! I saw a Heroic Spirit! Although I didn't recognize which heroes from history they were, there's no way I could be wrong!"

"Great, we are saved! Let's go to the truck compartment and inform them! The broadcast from the passenger compartment can't reach the truck compartment... they may not know yet!"

People rushed to the passage leading to the truck compartment as if they were grabbing a life-saving straw.

Four necromancers were sitting on the cargo box playing cards. Another necromancer was standing in front of the metal gate connecting the cargo compartment and the passenger compartment. He looked at the people behind the door he had opened and said, "We know what you said. It was just announced throughout the train. I have asked my Heroic Spirit to check it out."

Eliza was the first to speak: "Sir, can you please let us in first? The passenger compartment is not safe. I'm afraid those things have already entered."

"I'm sorry, this batch of goods is very valuable. We must not let anyone else in, otherwise we will be dismissed and punished by the minister." The psychic pointed to the work recorder on his chest. "It will be turned on during the mission. When we return to Dark Star City and connect to the network, everything will be automatically uploaded to the Special Management Bureau database."

Eliza pleaded, "But we will die! This is a special case, sir! We are all adults, we know what we should and shouldn't do, and we promise not to touch those goods!"

Hearing her words, a spiritualist sitting on the cargo box shouted at the young spiritualist below in dissatisfaction, "Hey, Ah Cai! Haven't you changed your identity yet? You are no longer an inferior person. There is no need to be so polite and waste your breath answering their questions! Come back quickly, it's your turn!"

The young necromancer named "Alai" was silent for a moment, then said to the necromancers above, "You guys can have fun, I don't want to play anymore.

After receiving a few sneers, the young spiritualist shook his head guiltily at Eliza and the others, "I'm sorry, no matter whether there is a problem with the goods or not, we cannot violate the work rules. I don't have the final say here alone. But you can stay nearby. I will try my best to protect you without affecting your work."

"…Thank you, Master of the Spirits. Thank you very much."

The situation is stronger than the people. There are no nobles in this carriage. All of them are business people from small companies, otherwise they would not be assigned to the last passenger car.

Therefore, the status of the spiritualist is the highest here, and he must not be offended. Moreover, the spiritualist in front of them is helping them at the risk of violating the rules, and is being laughed at by his companions for it. It would be a bit inappropriate to make any more requests.

Those who work in small companies are not the second generation who are powerful and brainless. They all rely on themselves to survive and most of them have this kind of vision.

They smiled and thanked the young psychic in front of them named "Alai", and then expressed their gratitude to the psychics above them one by one. After all, the four psychics above might have allowed them to stay in the corridor and not chased them away for the sake of the psychic below. If they didn't thank them, they might be chased away directly if they met someone with a small mind.

Eliza sat down with the crowd in the aisle connecting the two carriages, waiting for the young exorcist's heroic spirit to return.

Unexpectedly, not long after, an elegant scholar dressed in the clothes of a Qian Dynasty official rushed over quickly, dragging a golden spirit with him, with an ugly look on his face. He said to the young spirit master, "Friend Alai, it's the devil's energy. They have been infected by the devil's energy. We can't get close to them, otherwise we will be infected too."

If Wu Ci were here, he would definitely recognize the identity of this heroic spirit.

A heroic spirit of great reputation [Chu Wanshu, a good minister in troubled times].

Of course, he also has a more direct identity, the governor of Xiling County, Chu Wanshu, the father of Wu Ci who simulated the identity "Chu Ci" during the Qian Dynasty, and served as a military advisor in the Tianye Army.

After Chu Wanshu mentioned the evil spirit, the spiritualist Alai asked in surprise, "The evil spirit from the Qian Dynasty?"

"That's right. Even heroic spirits can be infected, losing their intelligence and turning into demons. Even after death, if a spiritual master extracts their spiritual power and gathers their spirit particles again, they cannot recover." Chu Wanshu said seriously, "I used to be a military advisor in the Tianmai Army. I am most familiar with this thing with Taoist Tianjizi. Except for my son, the one you call [Daojun Du Nan Chuci], who uses the Tianmai Sutra to combine with people's evil intentions and swallows them together, and then takes the blame on them with his body. Nothing can suppress or strip it away."

After hearing this, the passengers in the connecting aisle panicked, attracting the attention of the other four spiritualists sitting on a cargo box not far away.

One of them shouted to Alai below, "Oh my god! Demonic energy? Why don't you close the passage quickly! Quickly! Alai! Don't let the demonic energy in! These people will die if they die. Let's seal the truck compartment and let the heroic spirits protect us, and then go directly to the city for help!"

Eliza jumped up from the floor of the carriage and could not help but shout back to the four necromancers above, "This is too much! We also——"

She suddenly stopped talking.

Because the four honorable spiritual masters who were speaking just now fell down.

Four heads were spinning, and they didn't even have time to summon the Heroic Spirits.

Necromancers are mortal beings, and it is easy to kill them as long as you avoid getting close to Heroic Spirits or before they can react and summon Heroic Spirits.

But how could it be so easy to kill four spiritual masters in an instant... It was really too unexpected.

"You killed these four people, and there is only one left. I will take care of the remaining one and the remaining witnesses."

A young man wearing a tight combat suit and a weird electronic smiley face on his helmet appeared out of nowhere, reached out from the bodies of the four spiritualists, and grabbed out four crystal clear beads.

"No need."

A young man also wearing a helmet walked out of the darkness and reached out to hold the boy's hand.

He shook off the blood dripping from the military folding sword in his hand, put it away and hung it back on the belt around his waist. Under the vigilant and defensive gazes of the spiritualist Alai, the heroic spirit Chu Wanshu and the passengers, he chuckled and said, "No need for that."