Chapter 200: Residential Area
Translator: Pluto Editor: Vermillion
Ever since Lin Sanjiu arrived in Kisaragi Station World, The Invisible Place was a station with the name which 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 in front of Lin Sanjiu. His eyeballs rolled around obnoxiously. Then, using both 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 seem to pay any attention to it but were instead looking 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 she was killed by those duoluozhongs, 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 agreed as he delivered a kick to 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.
Apparently, 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 over to Rena carefreely and sat on the girl's shoulder. Then, she spelled the words, "Why can you two 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 found herself completing the question in a quick, smooth sequence.
"Oh, didn't I mentioned this before?" Reno replied while he looked at the station distractedly, "We prepared our outfits specifically for this world. Our shoes act as a sort of black matter medium... Originally, we can't even see them but we intentionally allowed black matter to corrode our eyes."
"We used all sorts of water, eye drops, eyewash... My eyes were red for a few days." Rena quipped.
"That's a method!" Lin Sanjiu almost lamented. Needless to say, Mrs. Manas shouted in a predictable manner, "Look at them!"
Ignoring Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu 'surveyed' her surroundings. This station was as empty as the other stations. Lin Sanjiu had no idea when those duoluozhongs, which just alighted, disappeared. There wasn't a single living thing apart from the three of them. Lin Sanjiu realized that she could see the quiet streets in the residential area through the train windows. It had only been a few hours, but Lin Sanjiu could feel that she had recovered a significant portion of her higher consciousness. Every time she regained some of her higher consciousness, she could see clearer and further, as if someone whose eyesight was improving. At the same time, she felt that the size of her brain form was increasing, it was slowly expanding from the portion where the card of her body was hidden. " Am I slowly regaining my higher consciousness? Should I try to make a mouth?"
"Don't even think about it," Mrs. Manas made her give up her plans. "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 would 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's right." If she had to sculpt her own body, she really didn't know how it would turn out and what she could do if it didn't match her body.
As the two siblings were not spirits, they naturally couldn't hear the conversation between Lin Sanjiu and Mrs. Manas. As they were in a B-level world, and because it was their first trip there, all of them knew that they had to be cautious. Reno led their group, holding a flashlight, while Rena stayed in the rear. Meanwhile, the grayish brain floated sluggishly in the space between them. In this formation, the three of them left the train station.
This was the first time that Lin Sanjiu didn't have to be responsible for the safety of the group. If anything happened, nobody expected her to be the first person to rush out to fight. She was relaxed and even felt that it was a little too hard to adapt to her current status. All she could do was to 'look' at their surroundings, hoping that it would help the siblings a little.
A strong beam from Reno's flashlight tore through the darkness revealing a quiet residential area. There were rows and rows of similar-looking residential buildings. The roads segregated them into a few districts and each of these districts was very orderly. It was as though they were designed with very strict measurements. There were a few supermarkets, convenience stores, tobacco shops, and other merchant shops along the roads. Their doors were still open, as if the apocalyptic event occurred when the shops were still operating. The greenway in the districts hid some of the cars that were parked along the roads.
If they could ignore the fleeting human-shaped shadows behind the various windows in the buildings, the place would be considerably peaceful. "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, base on what she saw. As the siblings only had their eyes corroded by black matter, there might be special occurrences where they may miss some duoluozhongs. However, that basically 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 happily 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.
"Are you two stupid? There are elevators here, why do you want to take the stairs?"
Reno reached the elevators first, he paused and looked at the elevator which had stopped on the 26th floor. He called his sister and the grayish brain which was flying toward the stairs. He pressed the button for the elevator and the upward arrow on the button lit up. Following which, the elevator gradually came down, as the number on the elevator display slowly decreased.
"There are many supernatural stories surrounding elevators..." Lin Sanjiu thought inwardly. However, she had two capable teenagers with her and she herself was just a higher consciousness entity. Naturally, she didn't have much to fear. When the elevator doors opened, she followed Reno and entered without any hesitation.
"Rena, hurry up!"
The girl only hurried into the elevator after her brother urged her impatiently. "Which floor should we go?"
"Why don't we go to where the elevator was previously? 26th floor."
Reno pressed the button showing 26, and it lit up.
The elevator glided upward.
"Erm, who was the one who suggested 26th floor just now?!" Rena asked in shock.