Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 592 Ghost Subway
Mastermind: "Yes."

"If I click on it, will I be teleported to some kind of God's Space or something?"

“Unable to determine,” the mastermind replied. “Logically, 187 bytes of text shouldn’t contain any complex program, but considering that the pop-up might be a Type B or even Type A monster, my advice is not to click it and to seal the device for further research.”

Sun Hang glanced at the upper right corner of the pop-up window. Unlike the common pop-up ads that have a bunch of fake close buttons hoping you'll accidentally click on them, this pop-up only had one close button, and below it was a line of inconspicuous red text: "Pop-up window will close automatically in 18 seconds."

what is this?
Playing hard to get? Luring someone into a trap?
Hesitating, the countdown had less than ten seconds left.

After thinking for a moment, Sun Hang decided to use his "wish fulfillment" ability.

However, he did not directly use "wish fulfillment" to analyze the content behind the pop-up. Considering that the other party might be a type B or even a type A monster, using his ability to "go head-to-head" with the other party might just turn him into a dried-up corpse.

Instead of holding the mouse to click the pop-up, Sun Hang gave the mouse a command to "click" the pop-up "by itself".

Type A monsters often adhere to a "cause and effect" principle, while Sun Hang, by using his "wish fulfillment" ability, exploited a bug to place himself outside of this cause and effect.

Even if something bizarre happens after clicking the pop-up, the one who suffers from it is the mouse cursor, not Sun Hang, who is a "bystander".

“Pah.”

The mouse click sounded crisp, and after a slight delay, the flashy pop-up ads disappeared, replaced by a very simple TXT interface.

The TXT document contained only a few lines of Chinese characters, while at the same time, the mainframe's voice came to Sun Hang's ears: "Analysis complete. No hidden programs found, no memetic response detected."

In other words, it really is just a very simple TXT file.

Sun Hang shifted his attention to the text content.

The text does indeed describe an urban legend in Chunming City—it is said that at 11:23 PM on the 23rd of every month, nearly half an hour after the subway has stopped operating, a "ghost train" that cannot be detected by surveillance will enter the terminal station of Chunming City's Metro Line 23. As long as passengers have the corresponding metro card, this ghost train can take them to the station corresponding to the metro card.

"What does this mean?" Sun Hang was slightly taken aback. "Wait... does it mean that if I can find an Egyptian metro card, this ghost train can take me directly to Egypt?"

“Literally, yes,” the mastermind replied. “If the ghost train truly exists, then it is undoubtedly a Type A, Rule-based ghost.”

"Even if Egypt still has subway stations, they should have been destroyed by the Sand Worms by now... Could this ghost train just drive straight into the Sand Worms' lair?" Sun Hang muttered.

The mastermind did not answer this question.

"First, help me find the information for this station. Also, search the entire Federation for subway cards from Egypt," Sun Hang said. "With so many people in the Xia State Federation, there must be someone who went to Egypt, got a subway card, and brought it back to China. If we really can't find one, we'll have the technical department find a way to make a copy!"

…Chunming City has a total of 29 subway lines. In theory, 29 subway lines are far from enough for such a huge three-dimensional city. However, after Chunming City began to develop into the sky, the faster and safer "sky rail transit system" gradually replaced the subway and became the first choice for citizens to travel.

With the development plans for the "Huangdao" and "Houtu" layers, and the large-scale underground highway network, Chunming City no longer expanded its subway lines, and the total number of subway lines remained at the original 29.

Line 23 is a remote route that runs from the Subaru area of ​​Tianshiyuan to the southwestern suburbs, with a total of seventeen stations.

Only one-third of this route is located within the main urban area of ​​Chunming City; the remaining two-thirds are in the suburbs where the population and building density are very sparse.

As for Xiaojiazhuang Station, the terminal station of Line 23, it goes deep into the mountains and valleys, with a daily passenger flow of less than 5,000 people.

The mastermind immediately provided Sun Hang with the station's surveillance footage from the 23rd of last month at Xiaojiazhuang Station. Xiaojiazhuang Station closes at 10:35 PM every day. After cleaning and maintenance are completed, the station staff leave at 10:55 PM. After 11 PM, Xiaojiazhuang Station is as quiet as a tomb, with only a few constantly lit safety lights providing a faint light source in the darkness.

Sun Hang watched from 10:35 PM on the 23rd until midnight on the 24th, but nothing unusual happened in the subway station.

"Looks like it really can't be caught on surveillance cameras..."

“If the ghost train appears on the 23rd of every month, we can arrange for investigators to be stationed at the subway station,” the mastermind said. “There are six days left until the 23rd of this month.”

“No need to send investigators, I’ll investigate myself,” Sun Hang said. “Since this pop-up was sent to my computer, maybe only I can see this train.”

……

Two days later.

An express package was delivered to Sun Hang's desk. Inside the package was a slightly worn metro card. The front of the card was inscribed with "Cairo Metro" in Arabic, English, and French, while the back contained instructions for use in three languages.

This card came from a doctor in Shanghai. The doctor's grandfather was an engineer at an energy company in Xia State and lived in Egypt for a long time for work.

This subway card is the engineer's keepsake—the doctor found it in a hidden compartment of his grandfather's suitcase. To commemorate his grandfather's past life, the doctor carefully preserved the card until today.

Sun Hang picked up the subway card and examined it. At that moment, the mainframe's voice sounded from the side: "This subway card has undergone detailed testing. The chip is still working properly, but with our equipment, we can only find a segment of identification code. There is no other information."

The information on the metro card, including the cardholder's identity, usage history, and balance, was stored on the server of the corresponding metro company. However, the Cairo Metro has long since disappeared from the world, and the information behind this identification code has naturally vanished with the wind.

“The turnstiles in Chunming City’s subway system cannot recognize this card,” the mastermind said.

“But it’s not necessarily the case for Type A monsters,” Sun Hang added.

(End of this chapter)