Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 105 Timetable

Bai Yu's gaze was fixed on the unfolded train timetable, as if nailed down.

The two Chinese characters written in scarlet ink burned in his pupils like two wounds that had not yet dried.

Bai language.

Beside his name, the "Eye of the Vortex" symbol, which made his soul tremble, stared silently at him.

The terrifying information violently assaulted his consciousness, which had just recovered from the chaos of the torn space.

This is not some random nightmare realm.

This is a trap.

A trap that had been set up for him from the moment he was marked by the "Eye of the Vortex"!

Bai Yu slowly closed her eyes, forcing herself to suppress the unease that was about to burst forth from the bottom of her heart.

It is precisely in times like these that we must remain calm.

He took a deep breath, the cold air filling his lungs and bringing a sliver of clarity back to his somewhat dazed mind.

His power was suppressed, he lost contact with his teammates, and he found himself in a bizarre space with completely unknown rules. Moreover, his name appeared on this timetable.

Without a doubt, this was a terrible start.

But it's not a completely hopeless situation.

Bai Yu opened her eyes again, all emotions gone, leaving only a calm as deep as an abyss.

He didn't touch the timetable again, but instead began to carefully observe the small stationmaster's office with an almost demanding and meticulous attitude.

Everything here feels out of place.

The old kerosene lamp, placed in the center of the table, had run dry and its wick was carbonized, yet it still emitted a faint, dim yellow light like a will-o'-the-wisp, providing the only source of light for this desolate space.

The old-fashioned rotary telephone in the corner had a broken cord, but the receiver was carelessly tossed aside, as if someone had just used it to make a call not long ago.

On the other wall hung a yellowed map. It was a hand-drawn railway map, with station names marked in faded ink, each one filled with a strange and peculiar meaning.

"River of Sorrow", "City in the Mirror", "Forest of Bones"...

These names made Bai Yu's pupils shrink slightly.

His gaze finally settled on the very top of the map.

There, all the railway lines converge like rivers flowing into the sea at a terminal station highlighted in scarlet ink.

The station name has only one character.

--"Door".

Bai Yu's heart skipped a beat uncontrollably.

This train... this eerie space... is actually directly connected to the "Gate of Rift" that Lu Yuanshan sealed with his life!
Just then, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from the window behind him.

Bai Yu's body tensed to the extreme in an instant! He turned around abruptly, his eyes like the sharpest blades, fixed on the dusty window!
Outside the window, in the thick, impenetrable gray fog, a blurry black figure flashed by!
The figure was moving so fast that if it weren't for Bai Yu's highly developed dynamic vision, he would almost think it was just his imagination!
Without the slightest hesitation, Bai Yu rushed to the window, trying to track down the shadowy figure.

However, outside the window, all was once again deathly silent. There was nothing but thick fog, as solid as hardened cement.

Bai Yu's brows furrowed tightly.

He turned his gaze back into the room.

His pupils suddenly contracted!

The train timetable that was lying open in the center of the table underwent a strange change at some point!

Below his name "Bai Yu", there was another name written in scarlet ink!
That's a name that's very Japanese in style.

—Lotus seeds.

A chilling coldness slowly crept up his spine.

This field... is "alive".

It was updating its "script" in real time in a way he couldn't understand.

Bai Yu knew she could no longer stay in this cramped room filled with the unknown and the eerie.

He had to go out immediately to find more clues and actively test the rules of this world.

He opened the wooden door, weathered by time, and returned to the desolate platform bathed in dim yellow light.

"when--"

The distant, ancient sound of the bell rang out once again from the depths of the thick fog, as if guiding him in a predetermined direction.

Bai Yu's gaze slowly swept across the entire platform.

The platform floor is made of thick, darkened sleepers eroded by time, with clumps of incredibly resilient gray moss growing between the sleepers.

Several wooden benches were placed at the edge of the platform.

Bai Yu walked over slowly, reached out, and gently stroked the surface of one of the benches.

No dust.

It even... still carried a faint trace of warmth.

It feels like just yesterday that someone left here.

His gaze then fell on the ground next to the bench.

There, lying quietly, was something that seemed out of place in this old, historic station.

That was a brand new smartphone.

The phone screen was cracked, and the body was also twisted due to some kind of external impact.

Bai Yu slowly squatted down and picked up the phone.

He tried pressing the power button.

However, the phone did not respond at all.

He turned his phone over.

On the cracked back of the phone, there was a cute sticker that exuded a girlish charm.

It was a lop-eared rabbit happily eating a carrot.

A barely perceptible ripple flashed in Bai Yu's eyes.

He recalled the warm and joyful date at the arcade, and the radiant, childlike smile on Lu Yueqi's face when she caught the rabbit plushie.

He slowly put the phone into his pocket, then turned his gaze back to the thick fog filled with unknowns and dangers.

He knew that the owner of this phone was very likely the dark figure that had just flashed past the window.

That is, the one that appears below his name on the timetable... "Hasami".

Like himself, he was also a "passenger" who had mistakenly entered this place.

Without further hesitation, Bai Yu took a step forward, walking steadily and resolutely into the depths of the thick fog, towards the direction from which the bell tolled.

He needs to find her.

Because he knew very well that in this lonely world full of malice, the existence of any "companion" could be the key to their ultimate survival.

The thick gray fog was thicker and colder than he had imagined.

Visibility was less than one meter.

He could only rely on the faint sound of the bell and the rugged path paved with gravel to barely discern his direction.

There was dead silence.

Apart from his own footsteps and breathing, there was no other sound.

That overwhelming loneliness, enough to drive a person mad, surged in from all directions like an invisible tide, trying to completely drown his reason.

Bai Yu forced herself to focus all her attention on observing her surroundings.

He discovered that the vegetation on both sides of the road had an eerie grayish-white color, as if it had lost all vitality and become a fragile specimen.

He even saw several gray birds, frozen in flight, on the branches of a dead tree.

The stillness here was even more thorough and more... filled with the aura of death than what he had felt before in the "Sea of ​​Stagnation".

I don't know how long it took.

Just as his nerves, which had been stretched to the limit by absolute stillness, were about to relax slightly.

A faint rustling sound suddenly came from the thick fog not far in front of him. Bai Yu's steps abruptly stopped!
He immediately hid behind a huge dead tree by the roadside, concealing all his presence to the extreme, like a top hunter lurking in the darkness, his eyes fixed on the direction from which the sound came!
"Shh...shh..."

The sound was getting closer and closer.

Immediately afterwards, several blurry figures slowly emerged from the thick fog.

Bai Yu's pupils suddenly contracted!
That was... a "passenger"?
It wasn't the terrifying monster he had imagined.

They were just a few ordinary people dressed in clothes from different eras.

Leading the way was a middle-aged man dressed in a Zhongshan suit reminiscent of the last century, carrying an old leather suitcase.

Following behind him was a young woman dressed in a modern office lady suit, her face showing a mix of professional competence and weariness.

At the very back was a Japanese girl who looked only a teenager, wearing a tattered kimono and with her hair tied up in a bun.

The three of them walked quietly along the rugged path.

Their faces were expressionless, numb, and empty, like dolls whose souls had been ripped out.

They seemed oblivious to the eerie surroundings and completely unaware of Bai Yu hiding nearby.

They moved mechanically, step by step, towards the direction from which the bell rang, like walking corpses.

Where are they going?

Were they also "passengers" who had mistakenly entered this place?

Or are they part of this field themselves?

Countless questions flashed wildly through Bai Yu's mind.

He did not show up immediately.

He silently followed behind the three people, maintaining a perfectly safe distance, calmly observing their every move.

Soon, he discovered some strange details.

Although the three people were walking, their feet never actually touched the ground.

Their bodies remained at an extremely small distance from the ground, like three ghosts floating in mid-air.

Moreover, no matter how long they walked, the distance between the three of them remained an absolutely fixed value, not a fraction more or less.

They were like three robots programmed with a fixed sequence of instructions, carrying out some unknown command.

Bai Yu's heart sank.

He knew that these people were no longer "living people".

They are very likely the "passengers" who disappeared in this eerie space before. Their souls have long been assimilated by this realm, turning them into "walking corpses" driven only by instinct.

Just then, the Japanese girl in the kimono who was walking at the very back seemed to sense something, and her steps, which had been moving forward numbly, suddenly paused slightly.

Her stiff head slowly turned around behind her at an extremely slow, ergonomically unnatural, and terrifying angle, with a series of clicks!

Bai Yu's breathing stopped for a moment!

He immediately shrank his body even further into the shadow of the withered tree, holding his breath completely!

The girl's face also lacked any features, consisting only of an unsettling blur.

Her blurry face was facing the direction where Bai Yu was.

Time seems to stand still at this moment.

After a long time, the girl did not seem to notice anything unusual.

Her stiff head slowly turned back at the same slow angle.

Then, she continued with her ghostly steps, walking deeper into the thick fog.

Bai Yu slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

He knew he couldn't go on any longer.

Although these things may not seem aggressive, no one can predict what rules they will trigger once they discover them.

He had to change course immediately.

However, just as he was about to turn and leave, he inadvertently caught a glimpse of the Japanese girl's right hand hanging by her side.

He was clutching something tightly in his right hand.

That was a brand new smartphone.

On the back of the phone is a cute sticker that exudes a girlish vibe.

That's a lop-eared rabbit happily eating a carrot.

Bai Yu's pupils suddenly contracted!
Lotus seeds!

She is that "Lotus Seed"!
A tremendous shock and an even bolder guess exploded in his mind like a thunderclap!
He didn't hesitate any longer!

He suddenly burst out of the shadow of the dead tree!
He did not attack the three "walkers," nor did he attempt to communicate with them in any way!

His goal was crystal clear!
He flashed past the three "walking corpses" like a white lightning bolt, moving at a speed that surpassed human limits!

He wanted to get there before them, to the place where the bell was ringing!

He wanted to see for himself what truth was hidden at the end of this bizarre world!
……

Meanwhile, on the gray sandy beach of the still sea.

An Mu, Mo Fei, Lan Ce, and Lu Yueqi were gathered around the ancient sextant that emitted a faint golden light, their faces filled with solemnity and anxiety.

"No! The signal is still too weak!" Lan Ce's voice carried an undisguised sense of frustration. "We can only confirm that Bai Yu is still alive, but we can't pinpoint the exact coordinates of his dimension! We're like... like searching for a planet that doesn't even exist in the vast universe!"

"Then keep searching! Even if we have to turn the entire universe upside down, we must find him for me!" Mo Fei's eyes were bloodshot, and his powerful voice was hoarse from excessive anger and worry.

"Mo Fei, calm down," An Mu's voice was low. "We're like headless flies right now; this can't go on. We must return to headquarters immediately and report the intelligence here. Only by mobilizing the entire Investigation Bureau can we have any chance..."

"It's too late!" Lu Yueqi's voice suddenly rang out, interrupting An Mu's words.

Her face was as pale as snow, her bright eyes fixed on the violently vibrating sextant in her hand, and her voice carried an uncontrollable panic.

“I can sense it… Bai Yu… he’s approaching an extremely dangerous place! The spatial barrier there… is getting weaker and weaker! He… he could be completely swallowed up by that force at any moment!”

"What?!" Everyone was shocked!
Just then, the sextant that had been vibrating violently in Lu Yueqi's hand suddenly burst out with an incomparably dazzling golden light!

A massive beam of light, composed of pure golden energy, shot out from the tiny sextant like divine punishment, soaring straight into the sky!

When the beam of light touched the gray sky that had been frozen in time, it was not swallowed up. Instead, it was like a red-hot iron meeting ice and snow, forcibly burning a slowly rotating golden vortex full of spatial power into the gray sky!
At the center of the vortex, one can vaguely see an old train carriage speeding along!

"It's the 'key'! It's responding to Bai Yu's call!" Lan Ce exclaimed in disbelief. "It...it actually forced open a 'temporary passage' to that unknown dimension!"

An Mu looked at the slowly rotating golden vortex, a resolute glint flashing in his sharp eyes!
He knew this was their only chance!
He didn't hesitate at all!

"Everyone! Follow me!"

He suddenly leaped up from the ground and charged headlong into the golden pillar of light that led to the unknown and death!
……

When Bai Yu burst out of the thick fog, the scene before him made his heart, which had long been accustomed to coldness and despair, clench violently.

At the end of that rugged path paved with gravel, there was neither a village nor any building.

Instead, it was a huge, almost exaggerated... cliff.

Below the precipice lies an endless abyss churning with thick gray mist.

The distant and ancient sound of the bell came slowly from the bottom of that abyss.

At the very edge of the cliff stands a massive clock tower carved from an unknown black rock.

The clock tower's design is full of Gothic eeriness and magnificence, with its sharp spire piercing the sky like a sword.

At the top of the bell tower, a huge bronze bell, already covered in verdigris, hangs silently.

It was not struck by any external force, yet the distant, fateful chimes still emanated slowly from within it, one after another.

Beneath that enormous clock tower, a hunched figure in a worn-out black priest's robe stood silently with his back to him, like a silent sculpture that had been waiting there for centuries.

Bai Yu stopped less than ten meters away from that figure.

He could clearly sense that the figure emanated a vibrant energy that seemed out of place in this desolate world.

Is he the stationmaster of this "platformless" station?
"You...you've finally arrived."

An old, dry voice, as if it hadn't been uttered for centuries, slowly came from the hunched figure.

The figure slowly turned around.

(End of this chapter)