Kisaragi Station || Apocalypse Paradise #3

200: Residential Area

Ever since Lin Sanjiu arrived in Kisaragi Station World, The Invisible Place was a station with a name that could be most easily associated with the supernatural. The train slowly pulled into the station and stopped, and the train doors opened with a swoosh. Even though the train carriages around them had already been cleared of duoluozhongs, they saw a few people with greenish faces alighting from the other carriages as if they had reached their destination.

The pale, naked man, with eyes as large as rice bowls, was right before Lin Sanjiu. His eyeballs rolled around obnoxiously. Then, using his legs and arms, he crawled speedily to the side of the doors like a gecko and poked his head in.

The siblings did not pay attention to it but looked at the view outside. Rena beckoned for the grayish brain with her hand. "Let's go. We should look at each station," Rena said cheerfully as if they were out on a picnic.

Rena's attitude provided Lin Sanjiu with some sense of ease—after those duoluozhongs killed her, she would be lying if she said that she wasn't traumatized by that experience.

"That's right. It is such a waste of time if we always return to the same station!" Reno said as he kicked the man at the door. Smoke immediately rose from the spot he kicked. The pale man hissed sharply before turning and escaping far into the dark tunnel.

The man from the urban legend of 'the man staring from the window of a traveling train' was pretty weak.

'People from Twelve Worlds Centrum certainly deserve their reputation.' Lin Sanjiu floated to Rena and sat on the girl's shoulder. Then, she spelled: WHY CAN YOU TOUCH THEM. Spelling out the long string of words seemed difficult, but she was starting to feel, perhaps mistakenly, that it was easier for her to control her Higher Consciousness now. She could almost control it as fast as her thoughts, and she completed the question in a quick, smooth sequence.

"Oh, didn't I mention this before?" Reno replied distractedly while looking at the station. "We specially prepared our outfits for this world. Our shoes act as a sort of dark matter medium. We shouldn't be able to see them either, but we allowed dark matter to corrode our eyes."

"We used all sorts of water, like eye drops, eyewash... My eyes were red for a few days," Rena quipped.

'That's a method!' Lin Sanjiu almost lamented. Mrs. Manas shouted predictably, "Look at them!"

Ignoring Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu surveyed her surroundings. The station appeared deserted, much like the others. Lin Sanjiu noticed the absence of the duoluozhongs that had disembarked earlier. There wasn't a single living thing apart from the three of them. Through the train windows, Lin Sanjiu could glimpse the quiet streets of the residential area.

Despite only a few hours passing, she sensed a significant recovery in her Higher Consciousness. With each improvement, her vision sharpened, and she could perceive greater distances. Simultaneously, she felt her brain form expanding gradually from where the cards were stored. 'Is my Higher Consciousness returning? Should I attempt to form a mouth?'

"Don't even think about it," Mrs. Manas said. "I already used Higher Consciousness to scan the entire structure of your head. Every time you gain a bit of Higher Consciousness, a part of your current form will be sculpted according to your original body. Have you ever seen anyone with a mouth on their brain?"

Lin Sanjiu stopped thinking about it. That was right. If she had to sculpt her body, she didn't know how it would turn out and what she would do if it didn't match the original.

As the siblings were not spirits, they couldn't hear Lin Sanjiu and Mrs. Manas's conversation. Aware of the caution required in a B-level world, especially on their first visit, Reno led the group with a flashlight while Rena brought up the rear. The grayish brain floated sluggishly between them as they left the train station.

For Lin Sanjiu, it was a relief not to bear the burden of ensuring the group's safety for once. Nobody expected her to be the first person to rush out to fight if anything happened. Although she was extremely relaxed, she found it difficult to adapt to her new status. She could only observe their surroundings, hoping it would help the siblings a little.

Reno's flashlight pierced the darkness, illuminating a serene residential area with rows of similar-looking buildings. The roads were orderly, dividing the area into districts with precision. Shops like supermarkets, convenience stores, and tobacco shops lined the streets, their doors left ajar as if the doomsday struck during business hours. Some cars were parked along the greenway, partially obscured from view.

The place would be considerably peaceful if they could ignore the fleeting human-shaped shadows behind the various windows in the buildings. "There seem to be only a few duoluozhongs around here," Reno muttered. He shone his flashlight into the distance, waving it around.

Lin Sanjiu bobbed on the spot, expressing that she agreed based on what she saw. Since the siblings' eyes were the only things corroded by dark matter, there might be special occurrences where they may miss some duoluozhongs. However, that was not a problem for Lin Sanjiu in her Higher Consciousness form.

"In that case, let's find a place to rest. We haven't finished our conversation on the train." Reno certainly wasn't bothered by this small residential area. He grinned as he ran toward the residential building closest to them.

They opened the gate of the residential building while the sound of Rena's accessories jingled. This was a modern residential building, so the security room and elevator lobby were on the first floor, while the residential apartments were upstairs.

Reno reached the elevators; he looked at the floor display, which indicated that the elevator had stopped on the 26th floor.

He called out to his sister and the grayish brain, who were about to climb the stairs. "Are you two stupid? Why take the stairs when there are elevators here?"

He pressed the button for the elevator, and the upward arrow on the button lit up. Following this, the elevator gradually came down, the number on the display slowly decreasing.

'There are many supernatural stories surrounding elevators,' Lin Sanjiu thought. However, she had two capable teenagers with her, and she was just a Higher Consciousness entity, so she didn't have much to fear. When the elevator doors opened, she followed Reno in without hesitation.

"Rena, hurry up!" Reno urged.

The girl hurried into the elevator. "Which floor should we go?"

"Why don't we go where the elevator was previously? The 26th floor."

Reno pressed a button, and the number 26 lit up. The elevator glided upward.

"Wait, who suggested the 26th floor?" Rena asked.