Chapter 358: Inhuman (166) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]

The structure of the subway station is very simple. According to my last experience, after exiting the subway station, there is a very long platform that seems to have no end. Then, walking forward, you will enter a very wide underground tunnel. Following the tunnel forward, you will reach the customs for the tour leaders.

There are few forks in the road along the way, only two at the tour leader departure area and the tour leader customs entrance. Just keep going straight and you will reach the customs.

But now, Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu walked inside for about ten minutes, leaving marks along the way, but still did not see any trace of the underground tunnel.

The thick fog reduced people's perception of space drastically. Bai Jinshu took out a climbing rope from his bag and marked a point inside. He walked a hundred steps to the left, backward, and forward in this direction, but did not see any walls.

One step for an adult male is about 0.8 meters, and one hundred steps is 80 meters. When he first came here, the width of the tunnel was about 50 meters. At the rate he walked, he should have hit the wall long ago.

This is definitely not the tunnel leading to customs.

That's strange.

Bai Jinshu squatted on the ground, collected all the climbing ropes, cut off a small piece from it, tied it to his and Huai Jiamu's wrists, and then said thoughtfully: "This place is not a tunnel, but it is not a platform either."

They had already walked out of the platform for more than ten minutes. Even if they were still near the platform, according to the way he was walking just now, he should have seen the edge of the platform.

"Yeah," Huai Jiamu nodded and adjusted the climbing rope in his hand, "Another space."

"You said this is an alien space? That would explain where this place is..." Bai Jinshu pulled up his backpack and looked around.

This patch of fog was larger than the two previous ones he had encountered, and the space within the fog was also stranger.

When I encountered the nameless fog with Shi Pang's team before, and when I saw the nameless fog in [Nightmare], both times the fog was in the surrounding buildings. The only difference was that when the fog appeared, all the indigenous people within the range of the fog would fall into a deep sleep that could not be awakened.

But in this fog, all the buildings belonging to the subway station disappeared, turning into a vast white space, and no matter how far you walked, you could never reach the end.

The two previous times I encountered the nameless fog, the distance I walked in the fog was also reflected in the outside world. That is to say, if I walked one hundred meters in the fog, then after leaving the fog, I would walk one hundred meters in the direction of the fog and appear one hundred meters away from the place where I entered the fog.

I don’t know if this characteristic will change in this fog, but the problem is obviously that if this characteristic does not change, then they will not be able to walk freely next.

After all, the subway station is underground, not above ground. If you just walk in one direction and walk out of the fog, you will reach an area that has not been developed into a tunnel. Wouldn't you be buried directly in the ground?

The fog around them showed no signs of dissipating on its own. Bai Jinshu took out some paper and pen that they had stuffed in his backpack earlier and roughly drew a map of the subway station on it according to his memory.

"We've gone astray." Huai Jiamu said firmly.

"Yes... we went astray. We walked straight forward after we came out of the platform, right?" He twirled his pen and looked at Huai Jiamu. "We walked straight forward for more than ten minutes. The middle number is fifteen. According to the normal standard for adults, one hundred steps per minute, so we walked about one thousand five hundred steps during this period of time, which is about one kilometer in distance."

Based on this distance, they are probably deep inside the subway station.

The problem is that without any reference system, people cannot walk out of a standard straight line.

"There is a step difference between a person's two feet. Without the reference system and sight correction, the path that we should walk is an arc. Even if we have sight correction now, we can only get an arc with a slightly slower curvature... If we walk this way, we should be in the soil now," Bai Jinshu pointed thoughtfully, "No, we can't go forward. We have to go back the way we came."

If you lose your reference frame and keep walking forward, who knows where you will end up? When you walk out of the fog, you will be buried in the dirt.

Fortunately, they left a lot of marks when they walked outside just now. Following the marks, the two slowly walked back and returned to the subway platform.

"Nothing has happened in such a long time, which means this thing is probably not coming for us." The subway was still parked next to the platform. Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu walked in and sat down under the slightly brighter lights in the subway car. "Now the live broadcast signal of the entire pseudo-human space has been completely disconnected from the Novice Village. It is unclear what impact the last earthquake had on the connection between the two spaces, but now the only entrance to the pseudo-human space is here. This must be a special geographical location."

What's so special about the subway? It's nothing more than being the "blood vessel" of the Novice Village, through which you can go to all places in the Novice Village.

"It's possible that they want to use the subway's features to reconnect with the Novice Village, so they opened the entrance here," Bai Jinshu pinched his chin, "Because the live broadcast signal can't be connected, so they want to enter the Novice Village directly through the subway? And then start from their own side and start replacing the newcomers again?"

The pseudo-human space currently appears to be a replication factory. The underlying logic of any biological action is driven by interests. These pseudo-people rush into the novice village one after another to replace the newcomers, enter the huge investment bank, and become one of the precarious employees in the exploration space chain. They are inevitably driven by interests.

They do not have the need to continue living like normal human employees. What allows them to leave their own space and choose to enter a precarious investment bank must be that there is something wrong with their original space, or their original lifestyle is not even as good as becoming an investment bank employee to explore the unknown space.

So when the novice village in the pseudo-human space was disconnected, the first to be anxious were the investment banks, and the second to be anxious were the pseudo-people.

They are eager to return to the Novice Village, eager to leave their own pseudo-human space, and eager to replace the identities of the newcomers. Otherwise, they would not open the entrance directly in the blood vessels of the Novice Village, a place where a large number of newcomers pass by every day.

Every newcomer who dies in the subway, every newcomer who leaves the fog and is buried directly under the ground, or every newcomer who cannot defeat his own fake person and is eventually defeated, will all be replaced by the fake person.

"But compared to the previous meticulous work, this is too hasty..." Bai Jinshu felt that he had caught some weakness of the fake person.

Before, we observed through live broadcasts, then came to the Novice Village through the Nameless Mist, and finally conducted a final rehearsal before replacing. Only after repeated confirmation would the replacement be made. Why are we so anxious this time?

They are so anxious, could it be that the rift between the two spaces is much larger than they imagined, and the difficulty and time of repairing it will be much longer than they imagined?

Will the investment bank agree to this hasty entrance placement?

Or was it that this fog entrance was placed by the pseudo-human space without the knowledge of the investment bank?

That's quite interesting...

"I understand." Bai Jinshu pondered for a few seconds, then stood up suddenly, forgetting that his wrists were still tied to another person with a climbing rope. The rope on his wrists tightened, "hiss..."

At the other end of the rope, Huai Jiamu raised one hand innocently and looked over.

The climbing rope has a rough texture and will leave a red mark when it rubs against the skin. A circle of red marks soon appeared on Bai Jinshu's wrist, while Huai Jiamu's hand, another wrist that was also suddenly pulled by the rope, had no marks at all.

Human physical fitness is indeed not as good as ghost stories.

"I forgot that our hands were tied together," Bai Jinshu held his forehead with his other hand. The red marks on his hands were nothing and would disappear on their own in a while. He was anxious to verify his guess, so he grabbed Huai Jiamu's hand and walked forward. "I see. According to this situation, except for those who left the subway directly, most of the newcomers should be in the subway car."

He still remembered that the two teams that had mistakenly entered the nameless fog had said that the fog would only dissipate when all awake people in the fog left.

New people are entering this place every moment. Doesn't this mean that the fog will never dissipate?

Some people will walk out of the car like them, while others will choose to stay put.

Once they step out of the carriage, they will enter into endless thick fog, and may face the danger of emerging from the fog in the soil hundreds of meters below at any time. However, inside the carriage, no matter how they walk, they will not get lost, and they may even meet other newcomers.

Once there are more people, even the fake people will not dare to approach without permission.

Every subway car was parked at the platform. Outside the door of each car was a pitch-black platform and thick fog. Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu walked forward for more than a dozen cars and vaguely saw some figures in the car in front of them.

Before they could speak, the figure spoke first: "Is there anyone there?!"

"It seems so?"

The two girls who were speaking sounded very nervous.

Bai Jinshu took the initiative to speak: "Hello?"

"You... don't move," the voice was a man's, "how many people are missing from your display?"

Bai Jinshu was stunned for a moment.

How many more people are missing?

Could he be talking about those "illusions" in the "Subway" ghost story that one can only leave after a certain number of people die?

Do they think they are still in the ghost story?

"This is not a ghost story," Bai Jinshu pointed around, "Can't you see? This is inside a subway car."

"You...what do you know about the situation?" the man's voice continued to ask tremblingly.

The idea of ​​pretending to be stupid flashed through Bai Jinshu's mind for a moment, and then was quickly suppressed.

"I roughly know," he said, mixing truth with lies. "Our leader said this place is a moving ghost story. After entering it, all the natives will fall asleep, and all awake people must walk out together to leave. If you don't believe me, you can ask your leader."

This statement is a collection of statements from Shi Pang, Yuan Shanming, and Yun Guang, the team leaders who had long known what the Nameless Mist was.

Those team leaders who have long known about the existence of the fake people have been using various rhetoric to cover up the true situation of the nameless fog. He said this, no matter whether the other team leader is there or not, whether he knows about it or not, he can't find any problems.

"Our team leader..." The male voice didn't finish before a female voice in the car interrupted him, "This is what the team leader is like, right?"

After a few seconds, a pretended calm "hmm" was heard in the carriage.

Huai Jiamu pinched Bai Jinshu's wrist lightly, and Bai Jinshu nodded.

He heard it.

The person who answered "hmm" was definitely not their team leader. The male voice almost said the truth that the team leader was not there, but the female voice immediately interrupted her and signaled the teammates next to her to pretend to be the team leader, creating an illusion for the two of them that their team was large and had the team leader.

Bai Jinshu really didn't care about these things. His goal was to gather as many people as possible, preferably so many that there would be too many eyes and the fake human wouldn't be able to secretly replace any one of them, forcing the fake human to let this group of people out of the fog.

And now it seems that all the team leaders have been separated separately. It seems more like the fake people are desperate and have rushed to put the entrance here without consulting the investment bank. In order to prevent the team leaders from reporting, they have separated all the team leaders.

From this perspective, Yun Guang might be judged as the team leader, after all, he is holding the team leader's terminal.

The fake people did not consult with the investment bank, so they certainly could not identify the team leader by the list, which left a loophole for them to exploit.

It’s not that he doesn’t believe Yuan Shanming, but Yun Guang is indeed his teammate with whom he has worked many times, and his reasoning and observation abilities are even better. He can be judged as the team leader and will definitely be able to collect more information about the pseudo-human space.

There was a hint of calculation in Bai Jinshu's eyes, but his tone did not change at all. With just a few words, he created the image of an unlucky guy whose "leader and team members were all missing, and who entered a ghost story with his teammates, and was halfway through the fight when he was suddenly teleported out and found himself in another ghost story, so he had to try to find out if there were other people who had strayed in."

It doesn’t matter how many people on the other team believe this, as long as they can act together.

What followed was exactly as Bai Jinshu had expected. After the other party listened to him recount in detail several of his fabricated "experiences of entering the nameless fog", he quickly agreed to go with him into the carriage to look for other newcomers.

This compromise was not surprising. After all, they were unfamiliar with the fog and had no idea where to start. In this situation, two team members with relevant experience appeared, and their number was smaller than theirs, and they did not seem to have much combat effectiveness.

The group walked forward for a distance and soon met other people.

The teams seemed to be separated from each other. There were only three people in this carriage. According to them, they didn't know where the other teammates had gone.

With these three people, the crowd suddenly became more than a dozen people, walking two by two in the narrow subway car.

Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu were walking in the middle. They noticed that both teams looked like the simple-minded type, so they quickly let down their guard and started chatting together.

One team came from L Tower, and the other team came from S City, which they were more familiar with. They were all young people of similar age, and they talked a little about real life when they chatted together. From their words, we could hear that these newcomers were ordinary people without any strange abilities before they died, and they regarded this opportunity for rebirth as a miracle in their lives, and were grateful for the help extended by the investment bank.

There was also a young man who said with great excitement that he had watched the infinite flow, but he did not expect to be able to enter it in person after dying in a car accident.

And if nothing unexpected happens, these talents will be the newcomers who will be replaced in large numbers in the Novice Village.

Investment banks absorb these ordinary people who are not capable of surviving in an unknown space into their own institutions, not to help them regain their new life, but to use their identities to replace them with fake people.

What happened next was just as Bai Jinshu had expected. After walking a distance in the subway car, he met some new people who did not leave the car but stayed here. They introduced themselves to each other and then continued to move forward together.

On the following journey, we actually met a few teams that had actually entered the Nameless Mist. The information from several parties confirmed each other, and soon everyone believed that the Nameless Mist was just a ghost story that wandered around. It might be because they mistakenly wandered into the subway this time, and mistook the people who had fainted in the ghost story as falling asleep, which led to the current situation.

The team leaders have immunity from ghost stories, and those teams that have entered the Nameless Mist are accustomed to the disappearance of their team leaders. On the contrary, the team that was bluffing in front of Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu at the beginning felt a little uncomfortable after being exposed.

The crowd grew larger and larger, and by the end Bai Jinshu roughly estimated that there were already several hundred people.

These people were led by several teams that had entered the Nameless Mist. In order to have a say in the next action, Bai Jinshu also took the initiative to grab a spot.

It’s just that because he and Huai Jiamu were only two people, they seemed much smaller among the group that had entered the Nameless Mist.

The crowd was almost gathered, and several teams that had entered the fog gathered together to discuss in a low voice.

"When we entered here before, all the awake people in the fog had to leave in order for the fog to dissipate successfully," a man in a flowered shirt frowned, "If the subway continues to go down, I don't know if we can reach the end."

"It doesn't have to be that the fog has to dissipate, does it?" a female voice retorted, "There are so many people here, and people are entering the subway all the time. How long will it take to find all the intruders? Can't we just go out directly?"

"Yes," someone agreed, "We have tried it before. If the fog doesn't dissipate, the teammates who entered and the sleeping natives will be unable to get out and neither will wake up. Now the subway is full of newcomers like us, and there are no natives."

This statement quickly gained the approval of most people.

After everyone discussed it, they unanimously decided to go out first.

Based on the stories told by the teams that had entered the Nameless Mist, most teams accepted the fact that they would be able to see their leaders as long as they left.

The few remaining teams did not dare to make decisions on their own in the unfamiliar ghost stories, and ultimately chose to follow the crowd.

A group of people walked out of the subway in a mighty manner, and soon got lost in the fog.

Bai Jinshu knew very well that if he walked into the soil without tunnels at this time, he would be doomed. There was information that a large number of new people had died, and the fake people might have to thank God for the gift. On the next road, he'd better lead this group of people and not go astray.

Fortunately, although there were many people, it was difficult to tell the direction in the fog. In addition, people who had entered the fog said that people with similar faces who were not teammates would appear in the fog, so everyone spontaneously walked together hand in hand. Team members in the crowd could not see the direction clearly, so they would blindly follow the teammates they were holding hands with and walk in the same direction.

This means that as long as there is someone leading the way, the people following will most likely not ask any questions and will follow subconsciously, thus leading the entire group to follow.

Along the way, Bai Jinshu studied and recalled the route he took last time he came here. He and Huai Jiamu slowly led the way according to their memory. After walking for an unknown amount of time, it suddenly became dark in front of them.

The fog gradually dissipated.

The crowd behind burst into a small cheer, and Bai Jinshu also breathed a sigh of relief.

Along the way, if Huai Jiamu hadn't often reminded them, and the line was really long, they could barely tell where they were by looking back to see if they had deviated from the line. They wouldn't have known where they had gone by now.

The crowd behind him burst into cheers and soon realized that something was wrong with this place.

Everyone seemed to have walked into a tunnel. This was not any inhabited area on the ground at all.

Bai Jinshu listened to a group of people speculating one after another. After they got out of the predicament, a lot of conflicts broke out immediately. He wisely kept silent.

He recognized this corridor; it was the corridor leading to the customs. According to what happened last time he came here, there should be a lot of tour guides walking back and forth here.

But now there is no one else in the corridor except these few hundred people. Where have the team leaders gone?

"Let's go?" Huai Jiamu lowered his head and whispered.

They came here to find the dragon, not to go through customs again.

Now that we're out, it's time to go find the dragon.

"What about the people behind?" Bai Jinshu's lips moved slightly.

Now the two of them were in the crowd, and if they wanted to leave and move on, they would definitely be noticed. If this group of people caught up with them, how would they explain the dragon?

"Ghost story," Huai Jiamu's eyes flashed, "Just say this is a ghost story. Don't let them know it's the customs. Newcomers may be killed after entering here. Even if they don't die in the customs, it may be more troublesome if they spread the news of the customs after they leave. I will start a ghost story on them later, and you lie to them that they entered the ghost story seamlessly after leaving the fog."

But it’s different if you call it a ghost story. Even if you hear something, it will be considered part of the ghost story.

The biggest problem with these troubles in the Novice Village is that once exposed, they will attract the attention of both the investment bank and the pseudo-human space. However, if they are embellished into a weird story, all the unreasonable things will be rationalized by them.

"...Okay," Bai Jinshu nodded quickly, and glanced at Huai Jiamu in surprise, "You said so much in one breath, did you remember something?"

He was already used to the way of communicating in which he said a lot and then only a few words popped out. Huai Jiamu suddenly said a long paragraph, which made him suddenly wonder if he had remembered something.

"I can't say I remember it," Huai Jiamu frowned, glanced around, and said hesitantly, "I just subconsciously feel that the dragon is very important."

"So you didn't remember it last time, but you remembered it this time," Bai Jinshu twitched his lips and muttered casually, then said seriously, "Since you said so, we have to go."

It might be difficult for just a few of them with a chainsaw to remove the pillar, but it might not be possible with hundreds of people.

That well might not even be able to hold so many old people.

Huai Jiamu did what he said. As soon as Bai Jinshu finished speaking, someone exclaimed, "I seem to have triggered a strange story!"

"Me too, me too!"

"【Like a shadow】?"

"Yes, yes, [Like a shadow]!"

"What kind of nonsense is this?"

“No rating…”

The crowd was immediately excited. Everyone opened their long-unwatched livestreaming rooms and started watching. The livestreaming still hadn’t resumed, but a logo of two stickmen holding hands appeared on everyone’s screen. When they opened it, it read: [Like a shadow] (in progress)

Now, without Bai Jin's explanation, the crowd became excited automatically. Soon, some people took the initiative to walk forward and explore this strange story.

Most of the newcomers here are ordinary people with mediocre qualifications. After triggering the strange story, their subconscious behavior is to choose to continue exploring instead of looking for a way to leave.

Without Bai Jin saying anything, the crowd took the initiative to move forward. He walked in the crowd and only said a few words to guide them when they were approaching the fork in the road: "Let's take this road first. The rating of ghost stories requires map exploration. Now we don't know where this corridor will lead to, let's take a look at the fork in the road first."

Except for a few teams that insisted on going down, the rest of the people agreed with his proposal.

The crowd moved towards the Dragon Locking Well. Bai Jinshu and Huai Jiamu slowly walked to the middle of the team, trying to reduce their presence as much as possible.

Just as the air around him was getting colder, Huai Jiamu slowly frowned and suddenly said, "Someone is here."

"What?" Bai Jinshu looked up?

"There is someone in front." Huai Jiamu looked ahead.

He had been driving the ghost story to cover this group of people all the way, and his perception of the surrounding environment was higher than before. He easily sensed that there were people on the road ahead.

"Could it be a staff member?" Bai Jinshu also frowned, feeling something was wrong.

"No," Huai Jiamu denied unexpectedly, then walked forward along the crowd for a while, and finally spoke slowly, "It should be... Guan Hongyan, or Xiao Tang and Yuan Shanming."

"They have triggered my strange stories before," Huai Jiamu added, "There are marks on my body, I can feel it."

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