Pei Guang looked over at Pom-Pom: "Hm? What's wrong?"
Pom-Pom: "The direction we're heading in is slightly off. Let check… As the conductor, my navigation is always precise. Any deviation, no matter how small, is extrely unusual."
Hearing this, Pei Guang recalled so unpleasant mories: "Pom-Pom~ Is there a chance… you forgot to input the decimal point?"
Pom-Pom imdiately shook their head: "No way! Pom-Pom would never make such a mistake. We have to stay alert. Maybe there's so strange magnetic field nearby interfering with the train's course. Pei Guang, co with Pom-Pom to the control room, okay?"
Pei Guang: "No prob—"
Just as he was about to agree, Pei Guang suddenly sensed sothing wrong. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the starry sky outside. At first glance, it looked normal, but it gave him an oddly familiar feeling.
It felt like… facing a swarm.
That chill-inducing sensation hit him all at once. Pei Guang dashed to the window. Seeing his sudden movent, Pom-Pom asked in confusion: "Pei Guang, did you notice sothing strange?"
Pei Guang pressed his face against the window, looking ahead in the train's direction. What looked like a starry sky out front… wasn't real.
"This is bad! Pom-Pom! Reverse the train!!"
Pom-Pom: "Pom?"
Pom-Pom didn't understand what was going on, but as the conductor, they imdiately used their authority to slow the train and attempt a U-turn… only for the Astral Express to get rear-ended!
A huge crash shook the entire train. The impact and violent jolt caused the lights to briefly flicker out, and everyone in the main hall lost their balance.
March 7th stumbled forward and nearly fell to her knees. Dan Heng and Welt reacted quickly, one using his spear and the other his cane to steady themselves. Hiko, already sitting on the couch, rocked slightly with the tremor but still held her coffee steady.
And Pom-Pom? Well, Pom-Pom faceplanted straight onto the floor.
And Pei Guang? He had it the worst. Since he'd been leaning on the window to look ahead, the jolt flung him straight off.
But that didn't matter. What mattered was that Pei Guang saw it: saw the Astral Express hurtling toward a massive creature with his own eyes.
"We're dood!!!"
Everyone heard Pei Guang shout. With his cry, everyone on the train looked out the windows and saw the enormous black silhouette, just as the entire train was plunged into darkness.
But soon, the darkness vanished. The train's lights flickered back on, and when they looked out the window again, the starry sky was gone, replaced with a strange red landscape.
"Ah Guang!"
March 7th didn't have ti to worry about what was outside. She jumped up and looked toward where Pei Guang had flown: only to burst into laughter when she saw him.
"Pfft~ What's that pose?" Pei Guang was stuck to the train window, his whole body flattened against the glass, head craning left and right.
Pei Guang: "Bad news. Want to hear it?"
March 7th: "What? Don't tell we're gonna get extorted and blackmailed after being rear-ended? Hmph, if anyone's looking for trouble, this girl's ready to handle it."
March 7th truly lived up to her title as the galaxy's number one girl who always sides with her friends over the facts.
Even though it was Pom-Pom who suddenly slowed down and turned, causing the rear-end collision, she completely ignored those two points and imdiately assud the other party was just looking for trouble.
Pei Guang sighed, "If it were just a collision, then whatever. But because of one slip-up, we're in danger now—serious danger!"
March 7th: "Danger? How dangerous? As bad as facing a Lord Ravager?"
Pei Guang muttered, "If I'm understanding this right, this must be part of the main story? Like, an unexpected event on our way to Washtopia, and this 'accident' probably needs our entire main cast to resolve it?"
March 7th: "Oh co on! What kind of event are you talking about? You're making super anxious!"
Pei Guang jumped down from the window. "How should I put this… March, calm down and listen carefully."
Pei Guang walked up to March 7th and took her hand. She didn't quite get what he was doing, but with him holding her hand, she found it even harder to calm down. Still, she did her best to listen.
"Mm~ your breathing, my breathing… and the sound of our heartbeats~"
As Pei Guang spoke, March 7th's face flushed a little. This kind of thing should be saved for when they're in a room… With so many people around, it was kind of embarrassing.
Pei Guang: "Listen even closer—what else do you hear?"
March 7th: "Mm~ sounds like… crawling? Wait… crawling bugs???"
Her face changed dramatically. Pei Guang nodded: "Yeah. The sa kind of bugs we ran into in the Simulated Universe. Besides the Simulated Universe, I saw them once more: in the mory world prepared by the Garden of Recollection. True Stings. Bugs bigger than entire planets. Offspring of the Aeon of Propagation… We might've been…"
Pei Guang made a motion of a giant mouth chomping down, and March 7th shivered.
March 7th swallowed hard. "You an we've… we've been eaten???"
Pei Guang: "That's right. I'm not 100% sure we were eaten, but I'm sure we've been targeted by bugs. And these guys… they're a nightmare to deal with…"
Just a mont ago, Pei Guang realized the surroundings weren't natural at all. They were a disguise created by True Stings. These gigantic insects had been extrely tough opponents back in the early stages of the mory world.
Pei Guang never thought he'd encounter one for real here.
Turns out every ga experience has its purpose: after fighting the Swarm in the Garden of Recollection's mory world, now they are facing the real deal in the present? But how were you even supposed to fight a bug this massive?
Pei Guang tried to recall how they'd defeated those galactic-scale True Stings. According to the info from the mory world, unless you had bugs or starships of the sa level, the best way to beat them… was from the inside. But he had no idea how to fight from inside.
March 7th swallowed again. "Based on the Simulated Universe's description… does that an the train itself has gone inside a bug?"
Pei Guang spread his hands: "Bingo. Here's your reward: one giant bug~"
March 7th: "Eek!!!!"
She felt her whole body break out in goosebumps. Back in the Simulated Universe, Pei Guang had cheated and installed a 'waifu mod,' so the bugs didn't look too bad.
But now, hearing Pei Guang say the train was inside a bug? And there were bugs on the train too? That was way too scary!
March 7th: "Ah Guang! Think of sothing! We have a way out, right?"
Pei Guang: "We do! But here's the problem: If we escape, do we have ti to warn Belobog and the surrounding star systems? Sure, running is the best way to skip the boss fight… but if we run, all the favorability we built with Belobog, and the other systems we haven't built favor with yet, will be gone. Worst case, we get a permanent -1 on the whole map…"
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