Inside the carriage, Yumi Hirano and Chiyo Yandeta maintained a seated posture facing each other. The advantage was to expand the range of their vision as much as possible, leaving no blind spots.
The train had already passed Old Valley Town Station, and Yumi Hirano took another photo and put down her phone, a wave of unease surging in her heart.
Under the shroud of night, the looming Youjian Mountain resembled a giant beast, silently crouching there, its exaggeratedly massive spine rising, blurring the distant horizon of the night sky.
If Youjian Mountain was likened to a giant beast, then the pitch-black Youjian Mountain Tunnel was a deep, unfathomable mouth, ready to swallow them whole.
An ominous foreboding swept over Yumi Hirano, as if this was a journey with no return.
Not long after, accompanied by the howling of the wind, the train plunged into Youjian Mountain Tunnel under Yumi Hirano’s increasingly anxious gaze.
Within the tunnel, darkness prevailed, and the only light source ca from the train itself, the windows resembling mirrors that clearly reflected the passengers’ silhouettes.
Yumi Hirano used the reflective windows to carefully observe the passengers throughout the carriage, temporarily noticing nothing amiss.
After confirming the safety around her, Yumi Hirano instinctively checked the ti, having recorded that it took approximately six minutes for the train to exit the tunnel.
She had already sensed sothing was amiss; she felt it as soon as the train entered the tunnel.
An all-encompassing chill enveloped her, making her raise her sleeve to reveal a rash of goosebumps on her arm.
This was an instinctual reaction of the body, a sixth sense beyond human consciousness, with her body foresensing the impending danger before she did.
She suddenly tilted her head to look at Chiyo Yandeta across from her, who clearly noticed the abnormality but maintained composure.
Seeing Chiyo Yandeta so calm, Yumi Hirano took a deep breath and steadied her mood, realizing the most dangerous person tonight was Watanabe Gou, who had received the Ghost Train Ticket in the adjacent carriage.
Ultimately, she belonged to the sa group as Chiyo Yandeta, and although she was unwilling to partake in the resentnt between her and Chu Xi, she considered her relationship with Chiyo Yandeta to be good enough that the latter would pull her out of small mishaps.
Of course, she would also lend a hand if Chiyo Yandeta encountered a crisis, doing her utmost to rescue her; mbers in the sa group during a nightmare task were of the sa kind.
After all, almost no one could survive alone in a nightmare task; everyone needed allies.
However, there was a precondition; their teammate to be rescued shouldn’t be completely locked onto by a Ghost, like Watanabe Gou tonight, or Mimura Kaori, who also received a Ghost Train Ticket the night before; such individuals were not worth a full rescue effort.
Snatching soone from the Ghost cos at a price, and a single mistake could cost their own lives. Fortunately, tonight, they had successfully diverted Watanabe Gou’s attention to Carriage No. 2.
Just as Yumi Hirano was contemplating the next steps, she suddenly noticed sothing abnormal and looked intently downward.
The vibration of the car body during train travel was normal, but it is typically stable, rhythmic, but presently the stability of the vibration frequency had been disrupted.
The car body was vibrating faster and more intensely, accompanied by an urgent "da-da-da" sound, like sound notes of doom.
She imdiately realized the situation; the abnormal vibration wasn’t coming from the train they were on, but... another train!
At this mont, on the very track they were traveling, another train had appeared, swiftly approaching.
Such an error was fatal, absolutely impossible under normal circumstances without a doubt; it was a Ghost Train, that Ghost Train had co! It had co for them!
More terrifying for Yumi Hirano was the fact that, seemingly, only she and Chiyo Yandeta could perceive the abnormality in the entire carriage. The other passengers remained undisturbed, either dozing off or playing on their phones like the young couple.
Before Yumi Hirano had ti to think, accompanied by a whistling sound, she could clearly see through the side window’s reflection another train chasing from behind.
It was an exceptionally old train, with a rust-covered body and dim, yellowish light emanating from within, eerily strange, as if the entire train had erged from hell.
The Ghost Train moved at high speed, and under Yumi Hirano’s near-despairing gaze, it accelerated and collided.
At that mont, Yumi Hirano felt a strong ntal impact, instantly losing consciousness.
Unaware of how much ti had passed, among a series of jolts, she awoke as if from a nightmare, her vision becoming clear, the scene before her completely overturning her perceptions.
She was still on a train, but it was not the one she had been on. The setting inside the carriage was clearly from decades ago, already obsolete in the current ti.
The sides of the carriage had continuous long seats covered in dark green canvas, and the wooden floor beneath slightly undulated with the vibration from the tracks, while the air was filled with a complex mix of oil, tobacco, and damp musty slls.
The doors were old-fashioned sliding doors, overhead hung a row of exposed spherical incandescent light bulbs, emitting a dim yellow light and occasionally flickering slightly with the swaying of the train, creating a strong sense of horror movie déjà vu while the pantograph’s sizzling sound reverberated in the enclosed dark tunnel.
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