Chapter 132: Subway Space
Lin Ye entered the subway entrance, initially stepping onto normal stairs, but after two turns, the material, color, and style of the stairs changed.
Not just the stairs—the walls, lighting, indicator lights, decorations... everything transformed, as if someone had cut apart two different buildings and swapped and reconnected them.
Lin Ye paused appropriately, only continuing forward after hearing the command to proceed through his earpiece.
Following the passage into the ticket hall, he found it completely empty of people, but the floors and walls were everywhere stained with spray-patterned blood.
Lin Ye saw no corpses and noticed drag marks on some of the bloodstains.
"Continue deeper, what are you doing? Don't do anything unnecessary!"
The Captain's angry voice came through the earpiece—this Captain had an average temper.
"I want to get a ticket. I forgot to ask you all for money earlier."
Lin Ye smashed open the ticket booth door and carefully searched inside, only to find not a single ticket within.
"A ticket? Are you crazy? Looking for a ticket in a place like this?" This was the first time the Captain had seen such a law-abiding D-Class personnel, but now wasn't the time for following rules... besides, did smashing doors and stealing tickets really count as law-abiding?
"Use your brain. I'm trying to solve an anomalous event. Anomalous events follow certain patterns too. Since I'm going to ride the subway now, shouldn't I get a ticket first?"
Lin Ye didn't know if the ticket would actually be useful, which was exactly why he needed to test it.
"...You're not one of those, are you?"
The Captain suddenly lowered his voice and asked.
"No, but if you want to resolve this anomalous event quickly, you'd better tell me what happened to the previous D-Class personnel."
Lin Ye tried to operate the machine in the ticket booth to get himself a ticket, but found no tickets in the machine either.
It was as if something had cleared out all the tickets here.
"...They entered completely different subway spaces, all different from the one you entered, so telling you their experiences would be meaningless."
The Captain spoke in a hushed tone.
The organization didn't allow staff to communicate privately with anomalous entities—he was already breaking rules.
"Oh? Explain carefully—does the subway below connect to different spaces each time someone enters the entrance, or does the subway entrance connect to different spaces at regular intervals regardless of whether anyone enters?"
Lin Ye pried a metal pipe from a chair, then jammed it into the gap of a nearby ticket vending machine, forcibly prying it open to retrieve a pitch-black ticket.
"I don't know. I only know you're the fourth to enter, and all four of you entered different subway spaces. Number One was torn apart by a monster that emerged from the restroom while waiting for the train. Number Two entered an extremely dangerous subway space and died immediately upon entry. Number Three was the unluckiest—he entered a subway space filled with various tentacles, the ground piled with flesh and blood, and was directly swallowed by a mass of squirming flesh. You're the luckiest one. Show me that ticket."
The Captain urgently spoke when he saw the obviously abnormal ticket.
"Do you recognize the stations on it?"
Lin Ye held the ticket of unknown material up to the camera.
"Can't read it, but I feel you're right. You might actually need this special ticket to ride down there."
The Captain had experienced more than one anomalous event; he could sense the anomalous aura from the ticket.
"Of course I'm right."
With the system's help, Lin Ye could naturally understand the meaning of the text on the ticket.
Madhouse — Death Ground
Neither station name sounded like a good place.
Lin Ye used the metal pipe to pry open several more ticket vending machines, but found nothing inside.
Unlike the Great Hollow, spiritual energy was extremely sparse in this city. The subway space had slightly higher spiritual energy concentration, but only marginally so.
In this environment, Lin Ye couldn't even use runes with his current body and had to honestly rely on brute force against the ticket machines.
Finding no other tickets, Lin Ye carefully searched the ticket hall again, but unfortunately found nothing.
Lin Ye had no choice but to continue forward with his ticket.
The ticket gate showed no reaction to the ticket. Lin Ye bypassed the gate and descended the stairs to the platform.
There were no protective barriers on either side of the platform; passengers could freely enter the subway tracks.
At either end of the platform were restrooms and a staff lounge respectively.
In the center of the platform stood a row of orange plastic benches, where a man in military uniform sat, currently gesturing to Lin Ye, warning him not to make any sound.
"Not one of ours. I haven't seen that military uniform before. Be careful."
The Captain whispered a reminder.
Lin Ye moved quietly toward the benches and discovered the man was chained to the bench like a bicycle. His right leg had been severed at the root, the wound hastily wrapped with dirty dark red bandages.
"Get away quickly! There's a madman in the restroom. Don't make any noise. If it discovers you, it's over."
The man leaned close to Lin Ye's ear and whispered urgently.
While speaking, the man frequently glanced toward the staff restroom, terrified the madman might emerge from within.
"Don't worry. Who are you? Why are you here?"
Lin Ye also leaned close to the man's ear and whispered back.
"I'm a military soldier. Our squad entered the subway station to investigate the anomalous event. Everyone else died; only I survived. And you?"
Only then did the man notice Lin Ye's clothing looked somewhat strange.
"I'm a D-Class personnel here to scout. One last question: did you arrive here immediately after coming down, or did you get here by subway?"
Under the man's terrified gaze, Lin Ye suddenly raised his elbow, using bone to forcefully block a slash coming from behind and to the side.
The attacker appeared too suddenly; there was little he could do.
The sharp axe blade severed half of Lin Ye's right elbow. His forearm began shaking uncontrollably, blood spraying onto the orange plastic bench with each tremor.
Before the fire axe could descend again, Lin Ye grabbed his shaking right forearm and rolled forward.
The fire axe shattered the plastic bench backrest. Lin Ye barely managed to stand up, only then seeing what had attacked him from behind.
It was a burly man wearing firefighter gear and a fire helmet. His nearly two-meter height gave him an intimidating presence.
Lin Ye stared at the large man. The other seemed to possess some ability to move behind people—by the time Lin Ye sensed the tall figure behind him, it was already too late.
The large man didn't rush to continue attacking Lin Ye. He emitted a low, deep laugh, then single-handedly grabbed the head of the man hiding beneath the plastic bench and dragged him out.
"Ahh... ahhh... ahh!"
The man emitted panicked shouts, trying to pry open the large hand gripping his head, but no matter how he struggled, that hand remained firmly fixed to his skull.