MC Creative Mode: Wholesale Perpetual Motion Machine

Chapter 310 Seeking Knowledge in Reverse
Woohoo—Boom boom boom—

Amidst the resounding whistle, the green train, carrying a full load of passengers and goods, once again arrived at a station in a bustling city along the long railway line.

"Oh," Fang Zheng looked curiously at Zhang Kun, who was carefully fixing his clothes in front of the mirror and even sharpening his razor to shave off half of his face, which was covered with a thick beard. "Why are you dressed like this all of a sudden? Is there someone important you want to see?"

Zhang Kun, who has always looked like a giant, upright bear since I met him a few days ago, surprisingly went out and bought a decent-looking black trench coat after leaving the train station this morning. He also got a haircut, and even took off his bearskin hat in the freezing cold to apply hair oil to his new hairstyle from the barbershop.

Zhang Kun carefully examined himself in the mirror, feeling a little embarrassed, and wanted to scratch his hair. But as soon as he touched his head, he quickly put his hand down, took out a comb, and straightened his messed-up hairstyle.

Zhang Biao, standing to the side, rubbed his thick beard, looking like he'd seen a ghost: "Hey kid, you haven't been replaced by some kind of evil spirit, have you? In the past twenty-odd years, I've never seen you look like this before."

"When I was little, I was covered in mud all the time. Every few days after practicing my skills, I would take my family's big black dog to hunt in the mountains. I was almost soaked in sweat every day. Even when I grew up, I was still sloppy and couldn't wash my clothes. Why did you suddenly change your personality today?"

"Could it be..." Zhang Biao's eyes widened, and he grabbed his son's shoulder. "You little rascal, you wouldn't have secretly found someone outside behind our backs, would you?"

Zhang Kun smiled awkwardly and said somewhat embarrassedly, "Well... we haven't officially started dating yet."

"We're not even boyfriend and girlfriend yet, so I'm too ashamed to tell my family."

"You little rascal!" Zhang Biao slapped him on the shoulder: "You've already started dating, you'd better get your old man a wedding banquet soon."

"Speaking of which, when exactly did you start knowing that girl?" Zhang Biao looked him up and down with a strange expression. "You've never been able to keep a secret since you were little. When did you grow up to be so shrewd that you managed to keep it from us?"

“Hehe,” Zhang Kun chuckled, a little embarrassed, “More than 10 years ago, we were seriously injured by the blood corpse and spent two whole months in the hospital. That’s when I met her.”

"She was on that train with her parents at the time. Her leg was broken because of the riot caused by the bloody corpses. She lived next door to us."

"Oh!" Zhang Biao slapped his forehead, recalling. "So it was that little girl. No wonder you were always sneaking out back then."

"But it's been over 10 years, hasn't it? If you've known each other since then, why haven't you confirmed your relationship yet?"

Zhang Kun replied, "After I recovered from my illness more than ten years ago, we never saw each other again until last year when I went to the city to ask the 749 Bureau for information after dealing with an evil spirit, and that's when I met her again..."

While casually chatting about their dating experiences, the group tidied their clothes again before heading to the 749th branch station in the city.

The 749 Bureau's station in this city is located in an inconspicuous little office in the ** building. The person on duty inside is a young girl, about 20 years old, with a delicate face and a good figure.

"Isn't this Kunzi? How come there's... umm cough cough... Hello, I'm liaison officer Cao Chunlan, how can I help you?"

The duty officer, Cao Chunlan, had just warmly stood up to welcome Zhang Kun, but when she saw Zhang Biao and Fang Zheng following closely behind, her face suddenly froze, unsure whether to stand or sit.

"I'm going to the restroom..."

She hurried out of the office, Zhang Kun following closely behind. She pulled him aside, poked his waist, and whispered, "Are these your father and relatives?"

Looking at Zhang Kun, dressed in a black trench coat, looking upright, handsome, and imposing, she said somewhat awkwardly, "We haven't officially become boyfriend and girlfriend yet, and we haven't even met each other's parents. Why did you bring your parents to meet me? It's so embarrassing!"

“Hehe,” Zhang Kun grabbed Cao Chunlan’s small hand and wrapped it in his palm, whispering, “Chunlan, isn’t it almost time to see you? I happen to have some work to do to deal with evil spirits, and it’s on my way, so I came a few days early.”

"So, were you surprised?"

Cao Chunlan rolled her eyes first, then reached out with some concern to smooth Zhang Kun's collar, while carefully examining his face for any wounds. "What surprise? I'm just terrified. Didn't you always say you were so powerful? Did you encounter some powerful evil spirit this time that you had to bring your uncle along?"

"But that doesn't make sense. Even if it really is some kind of evil spirit that requires you two to work together, why would you need to bring a child along?"

Zhang Kun muttered under his breath, "It's like this..."

After exchanging a few quiet words about everyday matters, the two returned to the office. Zhang Kun began to recount the information he knew about the strange train incident and the process he had taken to resolve it, while Cao Chunlan took notes and sent the information to the General Administration via encrypted telegram.

A dozen minutes later, as the beeping sound rang out, Cao Chunlan rewrote the information of the encrypted telegram using the codebook—(Intelligence received. We will contact the railway department to check the passenger list and establish an investigation team to investigate the relevant incident.)
……

"Tsk, 'Received' again..." On the way back, Zhang Biao clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction and said unhappily, "These bastards, they always say 'Received' and 'We'll follow up on the relevant events,' but they always end up doing half-hearted work and then ask us to clean up their mess."

"Kunzi, you better remember this," Zhang Biao slapped his son on the shoulder, "This matter is reported and that's it. After that, if they ask you to help with something, and you can't provide detailed information or if the logistics aren't in place, you're not allowed to go!"

“Father, of course I understand. Do you think I don’t know what kind of people they are?” Zhang Kun pointed to his father’s and his own chest. “The scars from when we were almost killed by blood zombies more than ten years ago are still there. I can’t forget them.”

On the way back to the hotel, Zhang Kun looked somewhat worried.

The incident of the dark figure outside the train window, broadly speaking, could be considered an urgent matter, but in a less serious sense, it was actually insignificant.

According to historical records, the strange dark shadows outside the train window appeared nearly a hundred years ago, when the railway line was first built.

Only in recent months have there been a few suspected murder cases, but only bloodstains were found, and no body or victim was found.

However, based on Zhang Kun's experience of exorcising evil spirits over the past few days, these shadowy figures were not the vengeful spirits of railway track workers as he had initially imagined, but rather another kind of evil spirit, a different kind he had never seen before.

Although it didn't matter to him whether he recognized the thing or not, once he summoned the dog spirit to possess him, to put it bluntly, he could barely take care of one by just peeing hard.

Although the dark figure outside the window looked weak, it was only weak in his hands. It was definitely not a ghost or other evil spirit that ordinary people could deal with just by mustering their courage.

Although there have been some suspected murder cases in recent months, without any victims coming forward, judging from Zhang Kun's experience with exorcising evil spirits, there must have been quite a few passenger victims in previous years, but no one knew about them or they were discovered.

Those who saw the shadowy figure mysteriously disappeared the next day, and there was no trace of their presence on the passenger list.

It's hard to say whether they were actually a phenomenon created by the evil shadows outside the window to deceive people, or whether they were indeed passengers who were unknowingly replaced by the shadows outside the window, thus mysteriously disappearing from the world, with even others' memories of them vanishing completely.

In the pitch-black night, in the dimly lit and chaotic carriages of the green train, how many people, how many passengers, disappeared without a trace, their identities replaced by another "person" without their knowledge?

Often, some evil spirits are not powerful, but their bizarre and strange abilities can leave a shadow on many people for a lifetime, or even continue to spread to generations below.

Since trains began running on this land over a century ago, railway lines have expanded in all directions, carrying a diverse array of passengers. Generations of passengers have traversed the length and breadth of the country; how many people have been unknowingly replaced by those shadowy figures outside the windows? And how vast an area has the railway network spread to?

Whether they have done anything to harm others, or whether they have had offspring, is all unknown.

These countless beings silently hide among the crowd. Perhaps at first glance, they seem no different from ordinary people; they laugh, cry, and get angry just like everyone else...

However, Zhang Kun has been exorcising evil spirits for nearly 20 years since childhood, and he has seen similar things before.

Those evil spirits that can change their appearance and replace other people's identities, no matter how similar they may look to ordinary people, their spiritual core is absolutely different from that of ordinary people.

It is a form that is neither human nor inhuman, and is difficult to describe.

Whether it's fox spirits, painted skins, or many other things whose names are uncertain.

When they play human roles, they can act so vividly that they seem like real people, laughing, feeling joy, sadness, and anger. They can live like the real person and may not even reveal their true colors until death.

But once exposed, or when there's no need for disguise in the dark, these things can ruthlessly tear apart the hearts and souls of those "relatives and friends" who were laughing and joking just a moment ago.

They even respond with a smile to the sweet cries of "Daddy" and "Mommy" from the "children" they have given birth to and raised, and then devour them alive, bite by bite, until they die.

The train ghost incident alone has a lot of related investigations, and only a very small number of people can handle such evil events. There are often far more people than available resources to deal with them.

Just like the Blood Tai Sui incident, which has been going on for decades, it still cannot be ended and still requires a lot of manpower to pay attention to and suppress it at any time to prevent any accidents from happening.

On this vast land, countless similar things have happened, are happening, or have ended.

The priority of the incident involving the shadowy figure outside the train window is uncertain; it may not be resolved for years or even decades.

only……

After Zhang Kun and the others left, Cao Chunlan put away her teacup with a hint of disappointment, slumped onto her desk, and muttered, "Kunzi is such an idiot. I've hinted at it so many times, and you still don't know how to take the initiative to confirm our relationship..."

She muttered under her breath, "When it comes to dating, it's always the man who has to take the initiative. Do you really expect me to be the one to make the first move? Honestly..."

She sat idly in the office, chin in hand, waiting for the end of the workday. "How much longer until I get off work... I want to leave early so I can go find Kunzi..."

With nothing else to do, she opened the record that Zhang Kun had mentioned she had written, intending to check for any typos or corrections.

“Huh? This train line…” Cao Chunlan frowned, some memories flashing through her mind. “When I was a child, my family was moving to another city, wasn’t that the train we took?”

She suddenly laughed. "That was really unlucky. The train suddenly exploded, and a lot of people panicked. Some bastard broke my leg."

A scene flashed in her eyes: the dim moonlight, and two tall figures, one large and one small, desperately fighting a blood-red monster. "But now that I think about it, that was the beginning of my relationship with Kunzi."

"Hey hey hey..."

"Oh right, what about the dark shadow outside the window?" Cao Chunlan thought with some relief, "Luckily we didn't encounter that thing back then."

"Otherwise, it's a bit scary to think about."

After slacking off for a while, she took out a photo frame from the drawer and looked at the family of three in the photo, muttering softly, "Mom and Dad, that idiot Zhang Kun keeps refusing to take the initiative. I can't wait any longer. I'll ask him out after I get off work so you can hold your grandson soon."

With a click, the photo frame was put back into the drawer, but on the photo, there were clearly three blurry black shadows.

……

As soon as he arrived at the hotel entrance, Fang Zheng glanced back and withdrew his gaze from the shadowy figure in the office, whose shadows were constantly shifting and staring intently at him.

"Ah! Fang Zheng, are you really not coming with us?"

“But didn’t you say you wanted to come with me to see more of the evil spirits… However, your abilities aren’t so bad that you’d be completely outmatched,” Zhang Kun said with a hint of regret.

"No, I have my own things to do. After that, I'll be embarking on my journey again." Fang Zheng looked at the countless dog faces in front of him, which looked like they had been skinned and were being randomly pieced together, biting and preying on each other in a twisted posture.

Looking at the distorted human figures on the bustling street just inches away, and the pairs of eyes staring intently at him, he smiled and waved his hand in refusal.

Fang Zheng blinked, Fang Zheng blinked, Fang Zheng blinked...

He endlessly switches perspectives, viewing things through an infinite number of different models, and then superimposing all these models, stripping away details, finding common denominators, and extracting the fundamental commonalities.

Next, using this distorted, bizarre dog face and the surrounding distorted postures as a reference for the simplest cognitive model, a subset is selected from the entire set of enumerations.

Tilting his head to think for a moment, Fang Zheng stretched out his hand, and countless twisted and bizarre shadows gathered in his palm, eventually superimposing into a bag of candy.

He handed the bag of candy to the blood-red dog face that was tearing at him, and said with a smile, "Take this bag of candy back with you as a parting gift for your little niece."

"Wait a minute?" Zhang Kun couldn't hold back any longer. His shoulders slumped, and his face flushed as he hugged the enormous bag that completely covered him. "Where did you get this at least 500 kilograms of candy?"

"Bye-bye..."

After saying that, Fang Zheng turned and walked out.

However, this time, Fang Zheng's surroundings were no longer like before. Without an observer like Zhang Kun, they gradually closed off, fell into chaos, and gradually fell out of this level.

Instead, as Founder gradually expands outward, the seemingly peaceful and prosperous city is being transformed by using it as the simplest model to reverse-engineer and exhaustively enumerate it, revealing an infinite number of different models.

(End of this chapter)