[I probably wrote 60 names. I can't take it anymore. I have the urge to poke myself blind with my pen. So, when I saw that it was time to start writing, I rushed over excitedly. Seriously, this is the first time in my life that I have taken the initiative to write … Currently, I have more than a thousand words. You guys don't have to wait. After all, tomorrow is Monday.]
After walking out of the lobby of Pier A-17, there was a long walkway. The surface of the walkway was made up of countless small pebbles. They were painted with a beige paint. The walkway was not only uneven, but it also made people worry that the pebbles would slip and fall from a height of a few hundred meters. After all, there were no protective measures on either side of the walkway. When Lin Sanjiu looked down, she saw that the pedestrians beneath her feet were like a swarm of ants, moving slowly and densely on the ground.
From this height, Lin Sanjiu could see the waist of the buildings in the Cyber Zone. The grayish-black buildings continued to stretch into the night sky, accompanied by the light that seeped through the windows. It was as if there was no end to them. When Lin Sanjiu looked at them, she couldn't help wondering what the people living on the top floor were going to do.
There were two rows of indicator lights embedded on the ground on both sides of the walkway. The small white dots extended all the way until they disappeared after a few hundred meters. It was as if they had been swallowed by the gigantic black shadow at the end of the walkway. The gigantic beast floating in the air was the spaceship that she was going to board. Lin Sanjiu stopped and took half a step back. She cocked her head and studied the "spaceship".
For a person from Earth, this "spaceship" was similar to most of the man-made buildings in Red Nautilus. It was beyond her imagination. If she didn't know what this thing was, she would never have thought of it as a means of transportation.
From afar, the steel platform in the distance was at least a few thousand square meters. It was as if someone had dug up the entire square and placed it in the air … Just as she thought of this, she suddenly heard light footsteps coming from behind her. Without waiting for the person behind her to urge her, she quickened her pace and walked towards the spaceship.
The walkway was too narrow for two passengers to walk side by side.
As if she was walking on a balance beam in the air, Lin Sanjiu quickly arrived at the bottom of the steel platform without looking around.
She had no idea where the main body of the spaceship was, or what it looked like. But other than the vast plate on the spaceship's head, there was only the gigantic "box" hanging under the spaceship's belly. The "box" was sealed with layers of steel plates. When looking at it from a close distance, she could not even see the end of the "box". Two of the steel plates were staggered, and a pale light shone from inside. As soon as she walked to the door, a young man in overalls shouted at her footsteps without looking up, "Zone R on the right. It's the empty space where the door is open. Find a place to sit."
Lin Sanjiu purposely made herself look like an experienced passenger as she entered the spaceship without making a sound. Of course, her skeletal wings caused her some trouble. When she crouched, she didn't control the sharp blades at the end of her wings properly and almost sliced the young man's face in half. Fortunately, she managed to get in without spilling any blood.
The young man looked at her back for a while with a pale face. Then, he suddenly remembered something and shouted, "Be careful! If you damage our goods, you will have to pay for it!"
At that moment, Lin Sanjiu had already reached the entrance of Zone R. She sighed silently when she heard his words.
"You can only afford the cheapest ticket," Mrs. Manas grumbled after a while.
After cursing her skeletal wings again, Lin Sanjiu squeezed them tightly behind her back and carefully squeezed into the narrow entrance of Zone R. On both sides of Zone R, metal crates the size of warehouses filled every inch of the space. They were stacked up to the ceiling. The fluorescent lights above the walkway were the only source of light.
Sometimes, when the spaceship was fully loaded, if there was still some empty space left, the spaceship would sell some tickets at half the price of a normal passenger spaceship. However, the spaceship did not provide food, water, or seats. Sometimes, the passengers couldn't even stretch their legs, so they had to squeeze together with the cargo crates. Lin Sanjiu felt a little sullen when she recalled how she was pleasantly surprised when she saw the ticket.
Zone R was at most 20 to 30 square meters in size. Compared to the size of the spaceship, it was pitifully small. Lin Sanjiu didn't know if she should be thankful for her luck since he didn't even waste such a small amount of time. When she entered the spaceship, there were already four to five people sitting in the corner. Of course, when they saw her skeletal wings, almost all of them showed an unwelcoming expression.
Still, she shamelessly found a place to stand with her arms crossed. Perhaps it was because Lin Sanjiu looked very fierce when she was expressionless, no one said anything even though she occupied a large space.
The footsteps that followed her just now arrived at the entrance of Zone R with the same intensity and frequency. A young woman poked her head through the narrow entrance. Lin Sanjiu looked up instinctively and was shocked. However, before she could let out a soft cry, it froze in her throat and she swallowed it. Lin Sanjiu was shocked when she saw the woman walk in. The woman looked around and sat opposite her.
When Lin Sanjiu first saw the woman, she almost thought that the woman was Sajee.
However, when she looked closer, she realized that the woman was completely different from Sajee. Be it hair color, facial features, or height, they were obviously two different people. The reason why Lin Sanjiu almost mistook the woman for Sajee was that the woman also had a pair of black eyes and a thick scarf around her neck.
The woman seemed to have noticed Lin Sanjiu's gaze. The corners of her mouth curled up slightly.
Even though Lin Sanjiu's heart was racing, she didn't show it on her face. She turned her head away expressionlessly.
The spaceship was only about 20 to 30 square meters, so it didn't sell many tickets. After the tenth person walked into Zone R, the young man who looked exhausted followed them to the entrance.
"Everyone, listen carefully. We will be flying for five days this time. Disembark at Hubble Harbor and change to another spaceship." He held the door with one hand and said absent-mindedly, "Follow the walkway and you will find the washroom. Before we take off, the entrance you came in from will be locked. Even though you can move around in the walkway, it is better for you to stay in Zone R … Sigh, it doesn't matter. You can't open these containers anyway. Don't touch our things and don't fight. Otherwise, someone will be responsible for throwing you out. "
He didn't bother to see their reaction. After he said the last word, he turned around and walked away. Not long after, they heard the clicks of a steel pulley and a lock coming from the direction they came from.
In the tight space, the ten strangers tried their best to maintain the distance between each other and fell into silence.
The silence was soon drowned by the soft roar of the spaceship's engine. When the sturdy metallic thing turned around and took off, it felt very unstable. The steel hull of the spaceship vibrated for a while. When the spaceship's trajectory finally stabilized, the passengers found a more comfortable spot. Some sat, while others lay. A middle-aged woman with brown hair walked past Lin Sanjiu. She exited Zone R and walked into the walkway.
It was only then that Lin Sanjiu had the time to voice her doubts to Mrs. Manas.
"Was I dreaming or hallucinating?" Even now, Lin Sanjiu was still in a daze when she recalled the real world. "It was too realistic. No, I should say that if there weren't any suspicious points, it would be a completely different reality … In comparison, this strange spaceship and Red Nautilus are more like a dream."
"I'm not sure …" Mrs. Manas said, "This is the first time I've seen something like this. However, the Zhu Mei eyeball and the blue banknotes that you saw were actually my doing. I couldn't wake you up and I couldn't touch you, so I had to create some images and inject them into your mind … If I didn't do that, I guess you would still be living your ordinary life in your hometown. "
Lin Sanjiu was shocked. She couldn't help shuddering. "No wonder! The others were completely trapped in that layer of hallucination. I couldn't wake them up even if I tried … "
If it weren't for Mrs. Manas, Lin Sanjiu would probably be lying in a pile of people in a few months' time, just like Mrs. Manas.
"Then, how did you know something was wrong?" Lin Sanjiu asked in her mind. On the surface, she was as calm as still water. It was as if she was resting with her eyes closed. She didn't show any signs that she was talking to anyone.
"I should say that you're lucky." Mrs. Manas sounded a little more relaxed. "The white smoke made you dream of your hometown, so it couldn't be more normal for you. At first, I thought that I was you and I was living in your body … However, I soon realized that you and I are two different consciousnesses. You don't seem to know my existence at all. It was because I woke up first and recognized my own existence that I realized that your condition was abnormal."
Even though it was a little confusing, Lin Sanjiu had experienced that horrifying and lifelike reality for herself. She soon understood. At the same time, she couldn't help feeling a little scared.
"Indeed, if I didn't dream of my hometown, but a part of the apocalyptic world … Fighting, surviving, looking for a visa … I'm afraid that neither of us would realize that something was wrong. If that was the case, I really wouldn't be able to sleep —"
Lin Sanjiu choked on her words as a thought struck her like an electric shock.
Her face gradually turned pale.
"Don't tell me you mean..." Mrs. Manas stuttered.
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