Chapter 966 - 34: Desert Sea Survivors on the Train

But right now, dwelling on such things is meaningless. Sun Hang switched to a backup subway card, swiped it, and slipped into the compartment of the ghost train.

Under Zuo Jun's "escort," the other members of the team also safely boarded the train—apart from the subway card Sun Hang initially used, none of the other cards had insufficient balance issues.

As the compartment doors closed, Mr. Wang immediately stood up from his seat and moved to the adjacent compartment.

She walked up to a standing passenger's virtual projection, examined it for a moment, then passed straight through the projection.

"Hey, that's interesting," Mr. Wang said with a smile. "Feels like a holographic projection. Maybe there's a lens hidden in this compartment to project images."

"Those people… are they ghosts?" Watching Mr. Wang playfully passing through the projections, Bai Lingqiu turned to Sun Hang and asked quietly.

"In a way, yes." Sun Hang nodded.

"Tsk, I didn't think much of it just now, but now that you mention it, I can't help but feel a chill when I pass through them. It makes the hairs on my neck stand on end," Mr. Wang said, but she didn't stop—her fingertips sparked a small flame the size of a rice grain, sending it directly into a virtual projection's chest.

However, nothing happened; the projection continued to stand unaffected, with one hand holding the strap and the other clutching a bulging briefcase, allowing the flame powerful enough to melt steel to dance within its chest.

"Where did they come from?" Bai Lingqiu asked again.

"According to those lab coat folks, the virtual projections on the ghost train are mostly unlucky ones who, due to unknown reasons, mistakenly boarded the ghost train without alighting at the correct station," Sun Hang explained. "Once they miss the chance to disembark, they turn into wandering spirits, forever imprisoned on the train."

"There's another theory that these individuals have already died; the projections are merely residual information in the compartment," Candle Dragon, who had been collaborating with the researchers from Dubhe Tower to study the ghost train, spoke up. "But given the last incident, I tend to agree with Sun Hang's explanation."

"The last incident? What happened last time?" Bai Lingqiu couldn't help but ask.

"The members of an advance team who were obliterated for having insufficient subway card balances—their physical bodies were mangled by the ghost train, but a duplicate projection of them was left behind and entered the compartment," Candle Dragon explained. "That might explain the 'ghost' part of 'ghost train'."

"Subway card with insufficient balance?" Bai Lingqiu instinctively touched the pocket holding her subway card, a flicker of fear flashing in her eyes.

"But now that we have him with us, such an incident is unlikely to happen again," Candle Dragon said, glancing at Zuo Jun sitting nearby.

Zuo Jun was holding a paper book, engrossed in reading it... He seemed to have a peculiar addiction to reading, using every fragmented moment during tasks to absorb the contents.

This couldn't help but remind Sun Hang of those high school seniors who would answer math questions while in the toilet. Sun Hang wasn't sure if he had attended high school, but shortly after waking up, he saw a humorous news story on TV: In Celestial City, a high school senior was studying in the toilet late at night so intensely that, upon finishing a practice set and attempting to stand, he found his legs had lost circulation and plopped directly into the toilet bowl, resulting in multiple pelvic fractures and spinal dislocation...

However, this bookworm was lucky; the Eternal Night phenomenon forced the college entrance exams, originally scheduled in less than a month, to be postponed for several months... He was probably discharged and fully recovered by the time exams were held.

It's uncertain whether this incident would leave psychological scars on this poor child.

"Ghosts can also be considered residual information," Zuo Jun closed the book. "Both theories are accurate, or rather, everything in the material world can be deconstructed into the most primitive form of information."

"Are ghosts considered material world entities?" Sun Hang casually asked.

"They are if you can see them," Zuo Jun replied.

At that moment, Nuer suddenly started shouting incoherently as he gazed toward another compartment. Using his very stilted Xiazhou language, he shouted to everyone, "Here! Here is! A! Settlement's! Person!"

Everyone immediately looked in the direction he pointed, and saw, across two compartments, a virtual projection standing in the aisle, dressed almost identically to the Desert Sea nomads, glancing around with a face full of fright.

"Is he one of your settlement's people?" Sun Hang immediately asked.

Nuer shook his head: "He must be a hunter, but the totem on his body doesn't belong to our settlement or any settlement I know."

"So, most likely, this guy accidentally ran into the ghost train docked at some stop while chasing the Sinking Sand Giant Worm and was killed by the ghost train's rules for boarding out of curiosity without swiping a card, becoming one of the ghosts on the ghost train," Sun Hang quickly deduced the entire sequence of events.

"If the other party had a subway card, would they be able to use the ghost train to enter the Xiazhou Federation?" Candle Dragon frowned.

"Where would they get a subway card?" Mr. Wang returned to the compartment where Sun Hang and the others were located. "Isn't that place ravaged by the Sinking Sand Giant Worms, leaving nothing behind? Even if there are remnants of the old civilization, finding a Xiazhou Federation subway card seems too difficult..."

"No... they have them," Sun Hang shook his head. "Not only do they have them, but they are newly-issued cards with plenty of balance..."

"You mean the advance team?" Candle Dragon immediately caught on.

"For some reason, I have a bad feeling," Sun Hang murmured. "I hope it's just my imagination."

"Are you worried that the Desert Sea nomads might attack the advance team and steal the subway cards to invade the Xiazhou Federation?" Mr. Wang raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Their technology level is about that of primitive people. Even if they could somehow travel to Xiazhou via the ghost train, modern military alone could defeat them without needing Mysterious Creature Hunters."

"Ordinary Desert Sea nomads are indeed comparable to primitive people... But let's not forget, each of them carries latent Mysterious Creature memes within," Candle Dragon stated seriously. "Our immediate priority is to contact the advance team at the outpost..."