Chapter 107: A Psychic Prank
"Um... didn't the news mention large-scale supernatural events? Could it be..." The black twin-ponytail attendant beside her said to the train conductor in a crisp voice.
The conductor was startled by the remark. "What nonsense are you spouting..." he muttered, yet his body instinctively recoiled, slowly backing away towards the other carriages, a perfect picture of verbal denial and physical honesty.
Seeing the conductor's contradictory actions, the other passengers also looked around in alarm, two of the more timid ones even beginning to tremble.
Bai Mo, now fully awake, heard his unwitting "god teammate" shift the blame onto a supernatural incident. Deciding to make the "supernatural event" even more thrilling and realistic, he seized the opportunity.
He first retracted the psychic force he had been exerting on the others. The passengers, having maintained the same rigid postures for several hours, were already stiff and aching all over, and the moment the external force vanished, they all tumbled to the floor.
The clatter and thud of bodies hitting the floor became the last straw, completely snapping the taut nerves of everyone present. Those who had merely been retreating slowly now spun around and bolted, fleeing in earnest.
"Ah! Don't grab me!" The two young women bringing up the rear felt their ankles seized by an immense force. Their bodies, previously hurtling forward, instantly lost balance due to inertia.
Just as they braced themselves for a face-first impact, certain to end up bruised, swollen, or even disfigured, they unexpectedly found themselves landing as if on a colossal, unseen sponge.
Bai Mo, who merely intended to entertain himself with a prank, had everything within his calculations: from the psychic force exerted on each individual to the very movement of the bullet train.
Yet, in a certain sense, falling onto an unseen, colossal sponge was far more terrifying than simply hitting the carriage floor. For it definitively proved that ghosts truly existed...
Witnessing the pair's predicament, the others became even more convinced of their suspicion that malevolent spirits were indeed causing mischief in the carriage.
Having grown up immersed in TV shows and movies about ghosts, the vast majority of them immediately jumped to the conclusion of supernatural involvement, rather than considering the possibility of an Ability User causing trouble.
The infectious atmosphere, coupled with the occasional, chilling breezes Bai Mo stirred up that brushed past the backs of their heads, further fermented their panic.
Everyone scrambled to escape through the carriage doors; even those whose muscles had stiffened from maintaining the same posture for so long struggled desperately to flee the place.
But just as the fastest among them, the conductor, reached the carriage door, he eerily collided with what seemed like an invisible wall of air, tumbling heavily to the floor.
Upon realizing one escape route was sealed, the few who managed to keep their composure immediately headed for the carriage door at the other end. The rest, completely panicked, flailed around aimlessly like headless flies in the dim carriage.
After just a few steps, they realized their weight seemed to be growing lighter and lighter. Or, to put it another way, it was as if an invisible person was lifting them. Soon, they discovered they were floating a small distance off the ground, unable to advance an inch no matter how hard they kicked at the air.
For the remainder of the time, everyone got a thorough taste of a low-budget space capsule experience. They floated one by one within the carriage, their arms and legs flailing uselessly in place. Only by finding something to push against could they effectively move.
Bai Mo seized the chance to lift himself into mid-air as well, lest anyone discover he was the mastermind behind it all and thus spoil the suspenseful atmosphere.
He floated to the center of the carriage and closed his eyes, resting his spirit.
No matter what state the people around him were in, he was thoroughly enjoying himself.
Lying on his invisible air cushion, Bai Mo began to research how to produce sound by manipulating air vibrations. To him, psychic force was a remarkably interesting ability; to use it purely for combat would be an absolute squandering of a heavenly gift.
He softly uttered the sound "wo" with his throat, simultaneously observing his own larynx with his divine sense to understand exactly how it produced the corresponding vibrations.
After several attempts, he finally managed to produce the sound "wo." It was faint, barely registering amidst the frantic clamor of the panicked crowd.
"Wo..."
"Wo..."
After a few more tonal adjustments, he finally produced the sound "wo" with perfect accuracy.
And so, in that very instant, the sound "wo..." echoed in everyone's ears, startling the entire carriage into silence.
"Did you hear that sound?"
"You heard it too?"
"Mm!"
The atmosphere instantly grew heavy, and everyone exchanged uneasy glances.
It was a little past six, at the cusp of winter and spring, and the sky was still a hazy grey. The attendants had been lifted into mid-air before they even thought to turn on the lights, leaving the entire carriage illuminated only by the faint glow filtering in from outside the windows. From even a slight distance, faces were indistinguishable.
"Wo..." That voice, which unmistakably did not originate from a human throat, appeared once more. This time, with everyone utterly silent, it was heard with chilling clarity, making it all the more terrifying.
"Si..." The strange voice painstakingly uttered its second syllable.
"Is?" A slightly bolder person ventured a guess.
"Death..."
"De..."
"So miserable?" a straightforward attendant blurted out, completing the phrase.
Then, silence.
"Attention, dear passengers, the train will soon arrive at its destination. We are approaching Tianqing City. Please prepare to disembark." The sudden announcement shattered the terrifying atmosphere that had so painstakingly coalesced. Bai Mo, seeing the train was about to reach its station, immediately released everyone from their restraints, ready to end his game.
Stripped of their invisible support, everyone plummeted to the floor. As the chime for disembarking echoed, they struggled to rise, much like the survivors at the end of a horror film, turning towards the nascent sun as if newly returned from the jaws of a great calamity.
The conductor walked over and tried pushing the "air door" in the carriage, only to find it had completely dissipated. Everything felt like a dream, yet the pain from having just fallen from mid-air served as a stark, undeniable reminder that what had just transpired was terrifyingly real.
After confirming everything was clear, he led the attendants in apologizing to the passengers for the incident. However, the passengers themselves were in no mood to press the issue. Aching all over and still shaken to their core, they only wanted to escape this "nightmare carriage" as quickly as possible and go home for a proper, undisturbed sleep.
The mischievous child, tormented all night, no longer even had the strength to speak and was simply carried off the train by a bodyguard. Bai Mo, meanwhile, ambled off last, a sack full of jade and gemstones slung over his shoulder, still secretly practicing how to utter a complete sentence using his psychic powers.
For a period afterward, this particular carriage was widely rumored to be the "nightmare carriage." But the nightmare never recurred, and as time wore on, the rumor gradually faded, remembered only by those who had experienced it firsthand..
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