Chapter 179: A Warning From Black Cocoon, The World's Number One Vehicle |
On the tranquil Platform 7, Black Cocoon hung upside down from the eaves, flipping through a comic book while chatting casually with Su Zimai.
Suddenly, a deafening roar echoed from within the tunnel, instantly drowning out the entire world.
The two of them abruptly turned their heads, gazing toward the ancient train tunnel that had stood since the dawn of its construction.
The Train Demon's searchlight cleaved through the night curtain, illuminating their faces as its hundred-meter-long body charged fiercely out of the pitch-black tunnel.
At the same time, the two on the platform raised their hands in perfect unison, covering their ears.
The next moment, a deafening screech of emergency brakes rang out.
The front of the Train Demon halted abruptly. Its entire string of carriages bent upward from the middle section like the body of a snake, before slowly settling back into a flat shape and coming to a complete stop on the tracks of Platform 7.
The wheels ground against the iron rails, emitting a sharp, ear-piercing shriek, followed by a shower of sparks that popped and crackled.
After a long moment, the hundred-meter-long carriage body finally settled down entirely.
Fortunately, the interior of the carriages was brightly lit. A warm orange glow radiated outward, illuminating the surroundings like the soft fairy lights draped on a Christmas tree.
Su Zimai lowered her face, standing on the platform with an expression of sheer helplessness as she waited for the doors to open.
Suddenly, a series of chugging sounds erupted from the front of the train. Billowing waves of steam spewed from the gaps in the carriages, completely blanketing the entire platform in the blink of an eye—much like the smoke exhaled by a giant after taking a drag from an oversized cigar.
A moment later, the thick smoke permeating the platform dissipated, revealing the Train Demon's true form beneath the night sky.
Its entire body was as smooth as a mirror, refracting the ice-cold moonlight.
At this moment, a dark red face was embedded in the front of the train. The visage was aged, but it possessed two long, thick eyebrows. Its nostrils vigorously puffed out steam, and its mouth was pressed tightly shut, bearing the striking resemblance of an agitated Little Old Man.
The platform fell into utter silence.
"Sorry for the wait, you two." Accompanied by the voice, the door to Carriage 5 opened from the inside, and a woman wearing a long brown trench coat stepped out with a pipe in her mouth. A faint, almost imperceptible smile lingered at the corners of her lips.
"Leader, why does your Train Demon make such a massive ruckus every single time..." Su Zimai slowly lowered her hands and let out a heavy sigh.
Ke Qirui raised a hand to adjust the beret on her head, smiling as she replied, "It cannot be helped. I have reminded it many times, but it can never manage to quiet down."
"I feel like hanging around you is going to severely damage my hearing. I might need a hearing aid when I get older."
Su Zimai grumbled, brimming with resentment.
During their exchange, a faint, eerie voice sounded from above. "It has been a while, Miss Ke. Seeing you still looking so energetic puts me at ease."
"It has only been a week. Has it really been that long?"
Ke Qirui tucked away her pipe as she spoke, the corners of her lips curling upward as she raised her eyes to look at Black Cocoon, who was hanging upside down from the eaves.
"A week is already a long time. At least for me, this week has been exceptionally long," Black Cocoon stated. "If I may be so bold as to ask, are your two teammates inside the carriage?"
"Of course. The Ghost Train Gang is a single entity; we generally do not operate independently."
Black Cocoon continued reading his comic book as he spoke. "Alright. What I mean is... those two do not seem to have the best tempers. It would be wise not to put me in the same carriage as them, otherwise, I am quite worried they might start a brawl with me."
"Oh my... I never expected our omnipotent, omniscient Mr. Black Cocoon to worry about such a thing."
Ke Qirui paused, teasing him. "What a pity. You can rest assured. Since the little girl here who dislikes you the most has managed to exist in peace with you, the other two members of the group will naturally be able to get along with you just fine."
"Is that so?" Black Cocoon tilted his head, narrowing his eyes in suspicion. "You are not just tricking me into the train so you can beat me to a pulp, are you?"
"How could we?" Ke Qirui chuckled softly. "They actually want to thank you for saving Xiaomai that day. If you had not intervened, given the reserved personalities of those two guys, there is a high probability they would have regretted it for the rest of their lives."
"Leader!" Su Zimai glared at her in annoyance, protesting in a low voice. "Even if the Big Fluttering Moth had not come to save me, I would not have died that day, okay?"
She tilted her head slightly and let out a cold snort. "I simply saw that Xia Pingzhou was one of our own, so I just decided to Go Easy on him a little."
Black Cocoon threw his hands up. "Thank you. I will pass along your goodwill to Mr. Xia Pingzhou. Thank you for not only letting him off the hook but also for boosting the sales of Baby Bus brand Diapers."
He paused. "Oh... the reason I say you boosted the sales of Baby Bus brand Diapers is that I will write about this incident in my future autobiography. And my autobiography will sweep the entire globe, becoming a bestselling read for teenagers aged twelve to twenty. I am certain this will inevitably drive up the sales of this brand of Diapers."
Su Zimai's eye twitched slightly. Her face flushed red as she was about to explode in anger, but Ke Qirui suddenly reached out and patted her on the head, saying without looking back:
"Alright, a loss is a loss... Xu Sanyan and Lin Zhengquan are definitely much clearer on what happened then than you are."
Black Cocoon snapped shut "Goodbye, Eri," lifting his gaze to meet Ke Qirui's eyes.
"Hearing that, given my glorious contributions, surely I deserve a private VIP carriage?" he asked.
Ke Qirui smiled. "Of course, but you will have to sit with us for now. We still need to discuss the key points of tomorrow's operation, and while we are at it... ask you a few things about 'Xia Pingzhou'."
As she reached the end of her sentence, she slightly lowered her voice, bowing her head to take a drag from her pipe. The gaze in her eyes beneath the brim of her hat swirled with hidden depths.
Regarding this person named Xia Pingzhou, far too many questions still lingered in her mind.
"Since time is of the essence, we might as well chat on the train." Saying so, Black Cocoon retracted the Restraining Bands from the ceiling. He flipped once in mid-air and landed gracefully, his feet planting onto a dust-covered public wooden bench, the hem of his trench coat drooping down accordingly.
Su Zimai turned her head to cast a glance at him before taking the lead, climbing the boarding steps and stepping into the brightly lit carriage.
Black Cocoon hopped down from the public wooden bench, following closely behind her.
Ke Qirui was the last to enter, shutting the carriage door behind her. The Train Demon rumbled restlessly, its deafening engine roaring back to life. It bellowed as it plunged into the tunnel, speeding forward at an uncanny velocity.
Meanwhile, Black Cocoon lifted his head. Through the dark red eyeholes of his mask, he cast a look at Xu Sanyan and Lin Zhengquan, who were sitting quietly inside the carriage.
The former looked the same as always, donning a black High-collared Trench Coat, while the latter was still in a white tank top and trousers. Black Cocoon spoke up, "A pleasure to meet you for the first time, gentlemen. I am Black Cocoon. I assume you have both heard of my name?"
"Lin Zhengquan." "Xu Sanyan."
Their replies were exceedingly brief. One had his arms crossed, resting with his eyes closed, while the other gazed out the window, quietly smoking a cigarette.
"By the way, our Zhengquan has already broken through to Tier 3." Ke Qirui stated lightly after taking a drag of her smoke.
"A Tier 3 Exorcist?" Black Cocoon crossed his arms over his chest. "Truly remarkable. You can count them on one hand in the entire world."
Lin Zhengquan said in a deep voice, "Leader, please stop saying 'our.' You make it sound like I am your son."
"Getting shy now?" Ke Qirui's lips curled up as she shot him a teasing, sidelong glance.
Black Cocoon shrugged. "In that case, how is Mr. Zhengquan's strength now? Near-Calamity Tier?"
"He is certainly at the Near-Calamity Tier. As for how close he is to the Calamity-Tier, that remains unclear. After all, he has not tested it in actual combat yet."
"Which means, including you, Leader, you now possess two Near-Calamity Tier combatants here. Your esteemed train gang is definitely moving up in the world," Black Cocoon commented.
"Hard to say... We still have a rising star with us. She is our true hidden trump card," Ke Qirui said, throwing an arm around Su Zimai's shoulders and smiling as she pressed close to her cheek.
"What 'rising star'? Are you not embarrassed?"
Su Zimai hugged her arms, scrunching her nose and glaring at her out of the corner of her eye.
'Treating an iced Diapers demon as your hidden trump card... your team truly has a promising future ahead.'
Black Cocoon sighed inwardly. If he had not considered that it was best to leave his Little Sister a bit of dignity in a crowded place, he would have started mocking her long ago.
"That aside, I have heard that the Train Demon can carve out a space-time tunnel entirely independent of the outside world and traverse freely within it, achieving high-speed commutes between two cities, or even the opposite poles of the world."
As Black Cocoon spoke, he turned his head to look out the window.
In the tunnel filled with interweaving light and shadows, the Train Demon had not traveled far before abruptly vanishing into a space-time rift.
By the time one recovered their senses, the dark red carriage body was already hurtling down a Grotesque and Bizarre tunnel.
Glancing out the window at this moment, one could occasionally catch a glimpse of the Perlan in Rekeyawike, the Empire State Building piercing the clouds in the heart of New York, or the brightly lit streets of Paris, complete with the Eiffel Tower towering over the city center like a giant.
Black Cocoon withdrew his gaze, remarking with a sigh of admiration, "Seeing it today, I never expected the rumors to be true."
"Of course... As a vehicle, the Train Demon is flawless." Ke Qirui smiled slightly. "I am actually very confident in this regard. Not a single vehicle in the world can compare to the Train Demon."
"Unfortunately, I do not agree with that notion." Black Cocoon shook his head.
"Oh?" Ke Qirui raised an eyebrow. "Mr. Black Cocoon is indeed Experienced and Knowledgeable. What other mode of transport do you believe can travel faster than the massive behemoth beneath our feet?"
"The Somersault Cloud."
"The Somersault Cloud?"
Ke Qirui arched her eyebrows, then lifted her gaze from beneath the brim of her hat to look at Black Cocoon.
She asked, "Could Mr. Black Cocoon be talking about... a Mythical-tier Anomaly?"
Black Cocoon fell silent for a moment. He turned his head slightly, meeting her curious gaze.
"Miss Ke, my current situation does not allow me to disclose too much about this matter to you," he stated solemnly. "But I must still warn you. During this 'Operation Red Traffic Light,' it is highly likely... or rather, it is an absolute certainty that an opponent far more troublesome than the White Raven Brigade will emerge."
"Calamity-Tier?"
"Correct."
Su Zimai pondered for a second, then furrowed her brow and chimed in, "But... Red Traffic Light is merely a Tier 2 Exorcist. Even among wanted criminals, he is not considered top-tier. What makes him capable of attracting Calamity-Tier figures?"
"There are far too many elements entwined in this matter. It is best that you keep your distance from the truth," Black Cocoon replied. "In short, there is a mandatory prerequisite for me acting as a Collaborator with you this time... If I call for a halt, you must temporarily retreat. Is that acceptable?"
Hearing this, Xu Sanyan instantly lost his patience. "Who do you think you are? You refuse to speak clearly, yet you stand here barking orders at us?"
Lin Zhengquan, resting with his eyes closed and arms crossed, retorted coldly, "Xu Sanyan, when the Leader does not ask you to speak, keep your mouth shut... Everything goes according to the Leader's command. How many times must this be said before you understand?"
"Tch." Xu Sanyan clicked his tongue.
Su Zimai, on the other hand, remained completely silent.
She understood Black Cocoon's capabilities in her heart. This guy was like someone who could foresee the future. Every single time, the trajectory of events aligned perfectly with his words. Since Black Cocoon claimed there was a problem, some complications would definitely arise during this operation to capture Red Traffic Light.
Thinking of this, Su Zimai shook her head, feeling a bit bewildered as to why she trusted this guy so much. Perhaps it was simply because he had saved her life once.
Black Cocoon ignored the reactions of the other three, gazing Motionless at Ke Qirui's face.
In the Ghost Train Gang, the opinions of everyone else were ultimately inconsequential. He only needed to convince their Leader.
Ke Qirui deliberated for a moment before lifting her eyes from beneath her hat's brim, gazing calmly at Black Cocoon.
She declared, "Very well, Mr. Black Cocoon. I agree to your demand. The moment you call for a halt, our operation will be temporarily suspended."
"It truly is wonderful to have a reasonable Collaborator, Miss Ke," Black Cocoon said slowly, keeping his arms crossed. "Then, for our next order of business, let us discuss exactly how we are going to catch 'Red Traffic Light'."