...
A month flew by quickly, and this time, after the suspension, Xiaojiacun Station was far busier than last month.
The entire station was densely packed with surveillance equipment, with countless cameras aimed at the direction from which the ghost train would arrive. Over a hundred researchers and field agents were standing by, some staring intently at the deep tunnel entrance through their gun sights, while others kept their eyes fixed on the constantly flashing electronic screens in front of them, but not one person made a sound.
Sun Hang sat on a waiting chair on the platform, surrounded by seventeen elite agents selected as the advance team. Among these seventeen were Hunters and researchers from Dubhe Tower, as well as military champions and key technicians. Over the past month, they had been sent into the Tengger Desert for a twenty-day "simulation training."
During those twenty days, they not only used the materials they carried to establish a temporary scientific research station but also successfully eliminated more than a dozen supernatural targets that had been deployed as "hostile threats."
To simulate the movement of Sinking Sand Giant Worm, Dubhe Tower even mobilized six nuclear-powered shield machines to traverse back and forth beneath the desert, and the advance team successfully avoided the machine’s paths several times by monitoring underground vibrations.
From any perspective, their achievements in the simulation training were considered excellent.
"Twenty-three hours and twenty-two minutes," Sun Hang glanced at his wristband, "It’s coming."
He turned and glanced at the advance team members standing beside him, each showing varying degrees of tension on their faces.
The tension was normal—utilizing the abilities of Category A supernatural entities to venture into territories abandoned for nearly a century, separated by half a globe from human civilization, such thoughts alone were enough to seem insane.
The sound of the wheel hub grinding against the rails echoed from the depths of the tunnel, followed by two dim headlights—everyone in the station, not just these seventeen people, instinctively held their breath at this moment.
The ghost train entered Xiaojiacun Station, coming to a gradual halt under everyone’s watchful eyes.
Including Sun Hang, all eighteen had already swiped their subway cards five minutes ahead.
The carriage door opened and Sun Hang was the first to step inside.
The seventeen followers hesitated not a bit and immediately followed.
But as the fifth person stepped into the carriage, catastrophe struck suddenly!
A ring of red light flashed across the doorframe, followed by an emotionless synthetic electronic voice inside the carriage: "Your transportation card balance is insufficient!"
The fifth person’s body instantly turned into a bloody mist, but the next moment, a shadow looking exactly like him emerged from it, expressionlessly walked into the carriage, and sat down calmly.
Everyone froze.
"So... this is how those shadows come to be," Sun Hang muttered to himself.
The people still outside the carriage wiped the blood smeared on their faces, and their eyes showed a hint of fear as they looked toward the door—no one was sure whether their swiped transportation card... had a sufficient balance.
This was an Egyptian subway card, with balance information stored in Egypt Subway Company’s database... and that data had long turned to ashes with Egypt’s downfall. Even the best hackers couldn’t infiltrate a non-existent database.
"The train is departing in thirty seconds, please board promptly if you haven’t done so," the ghost train’s broadcast sounded like a death knell—among the remaining thirteen, the open door appeared more like a meat grinder’s feed inlet.
"Damn it... no matter what, I’m jumping in!" A hunter gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and jumped into the carriage.
Nothing happened.
"God bless..." another person muttered, and he entered the carriage safely as well.
"Ah... this should be a low probability event," a female researcher carrying a large hiking bag took a deep breath, stepped her right leg forward.
"Boom."
The female researcher’s body turned into a bloody mist instantly, her unsupported clothing and heavy backpack fell to the ground, and a platinum ring rolled out, slipping into the gap between the platform and the tracks.
"The door is closing in ten seconds, please board promptly if you haven’t done so."
The remaining few looked at each other, hardened their hearts, and rushed into the carriage all at once.
Fortunately, this time none of them turned into bloody mist.
The carriage doors began to close slowly, and the scenery outside the train window started to blur. Sun Hang glanced at the "survivors" whose breathing had become somewhat heavy, then turned to the two shadows sitting quietly, looking as though unaware of what had transpired, and asked, "Can you... hear me?"
The shadows did not reply; they just sat silently, facing forward.
Though Sun Hang was seated directly opposite them, he could clearly feel they weren’t looking at him—as if he were invisible, the shadows’ gaze pierced straight through him, resting on the carriage wall behind him.
"The two individuals erased by the ghost train were Captain Xu Hao of the 407 Airborne Brigade’s First Reconnaissance Company, adept in desert warfare and wilderness survival skills, and also an engineering expert; the other was Dr. Lyudmila, a senior researcher from Dubhe Tower responsible for ecological observation and recording in the operation area... both were irreplaceable assets for us," the advance team’s captain sighed and said to Sun Hang.
"How important?" Sun Hang asked.
"The mission can continue, but without Dr. Lyudmila, we may miss a large amount of detailed data on the ecosystem we could have collected; and without Captain Xu Hao, the efficiency of constructing the base will significantly decrease," the advance team captain replied.
"That’s not much of an issue, as long as you can survive a month in that Desert Sea, all the things you’re missing will be supplied to you afterward," Sun Hang said.
He took the subway cards from everyone else’s hands, while the cards belonging to Xu Hao and Lyudmila had turned to dust the moment they were erased—that was the only thing destroyed by the ghost train besides their bodies.
Sun Hang wasn’t part of the advance team. His task was to bring these subway cards back, then send the next group to the Desert Sea in a month.
"There’s one more problem," another researcher in the team suddenly spoke up, "something we can’t be certain about."
"What?" the advance team captain looked at him.
"We can’t be sure whether the ghost train consumes the card’s balance... if it does, the balance will decrease each time we swipe to board... meaning these keys might have... limited uses."