Chapter 437: Chapter 356: The Devil is Hidden in the Details

The two returned to the subway.

Compared to the relaxed and happy journey earlier, this time the car was filled with an indescribable sense of oppression.

"Mr. Mingyuan, listen carefully."

Jiuyue nodded toward two high school students not far from them, one of whom was holding onto a handrail, his eyebrows animated as he recounted the latest issue of a battle manga. His soul aflame with juvenile passion, he seemed to imagine himself as the protagonist of the manga, shouting out the names of cool moves with fervor.

Next to the high schoolers, an office worker was on a call that appeared to be with his superior. His tone was extremely respectful, repeatedly saying "I understand, I will handle it immediately."

After hanging up the phone, the man’s face suddenly changed, and he gnashed his teeth while glaring at his phone screen, as if he had cursed his boss hundreds of times in his mind for calling after work hours.

"That’s the detail I mentioned."

In real memory, "deep memory" is always noisy, storing a vast amount of information deemed unimportant by the "surface consciousness," but at that moment, every bit of it reached Duan Mingyuan’s ears completely.

Compared to ordinary people, Duan Mingyuan’s senses were much sharper; he could even hear clearly what people at the other end of the subway car were saying.

Duan Mingyuan nodded, accepting Dr. Jiuyue’s diagnosis, "This is a real memory."

He had been here that night, so he heard all the "noise" in this subway car.

This was in a completely opposite direction from going home, which meant that even if he had not visited the abandoned construction site, he had not gone home after school either.

Soon, the subway once again entered the station where the abandoned construction site was located.

"Mr. Mingyuan, there’s something I’ve been curious about, does the ’deep memory’ world have boundaries?"

"Boundaries?"

"For example, for those parts that don’t exist in your memory, if we forcibly enter there, will your brain fill in those areas, or will we be stopped by invisible walls?"

According to Jiuyue’s observations, their movements in the memory space seemed completely free.

They could follow the imprint of high school Duan Mingyuan all the way here, and it seemed they could also head in a completely opposite direction, "Or more precisely, what would happen if we don’t get off at this stop?"

Since the subway travels out of the boundary of the memory, would they be transported back here, or would they fall out of the map into a bug space like in a video game?

Jiuyue stared at the high school Duan Mingyuan; even if it started over, his intention to get off was very strong.

The moment the subway doors opened, he stepped off and once again walked toward the exit.

However, revisiting this old place, Duan Mingyuan and Jiuyue both spotted a clue.

The pedestrians outside the station started disappearing from this moment.

"He wants us to get off at this station,"

Jiuyue said.

And once off here, they would repeat the memory they had just experienced.

The empty streets, just a black sedan passing them, following which the contents of "The Revival of the Dead" ensued.

"This is the diverging point."

It was both the dividing line between reality and fiction and the guide in the fabricated memory for Duan Mingyuan, leading them to get off at this station, which also meant that the past Duan Mingyuan, while fabricating this section of memory, did not wish for them to continue on this subway.

Duan Mingyuan did not respond, but made the same decision as Jiuyue.

They remained in the last car.

The high school Duan Mingyuan quickly disappeared at the station’s turn, he stepped onto the escalator, heading towards the haunted abandoned construction site.

The subway started again.

The rumbling was particularly piercing this time, and the carriage began to shake unnaturally.

With a sound similar to glass shattering, the subway plunged into prolonged darkness where one couldn’t see their own hands. No passengers spoke again, only the sound of the subway moving on the tracks made the two of them realize that the train was still heading toward the next station.

The journey, which lasted three minutes, had a fixed time for each departure and arrival at stations.

At the next platform, light finally seeped in.

A blood-red light shone in from outside.

The passengers on the train had not disappeared, and when Jiuyue saw them again, their faces were distorted, eyes gone, mouths agape like corpses as they all looked towards them.

The silent and eerie atmosphere made her hairs stand on end, and the visually striking scene frightened her so much that even her tail stiffened.

According to the theory proposed by Duan Mingyuan, they and these passengers were people from two different worlds.

No matter what they did, it would not affect the passengers’ behavior. Similarly, the passengers would absolutely not notice the presence of these "intruders."

However, at this moment, that invisible wall had been broken.

"Could it be... you were originally planning to get off, but then suddenly realized that a malevolent spirit had appeared on the subway?"

Jiuyue blurted out, since these passengers looked no different from corpses.

"This is a warning,"

Duan Mingyuan shook his head, "It must be warning us not to go any further."

But on the other hand, this scene confirmed that he had indeed taken the subway to this platform that night, and when he subconsciously forged this memory, he was warning his future self not to proceed any further.

A warning not to go any further.

"This isn’t an attack by a malevolent spirit."

Duan Mingyuan looked at his own reflection seated opposite the two of them.

The version of himself who had originally gotten off at the last station reappeared, becoming the only person who still seemed normal in this bizarre space.

At that moment, what he held in his hands was not a notebook and clipped news reports, but a medical record card.

He stared down at the contents of the medical record card, furrowing his brow.

The passengers became increasingly eerie and distorted, and their elongated heads twitched. No longer discussing popular animations, they started muttering some unintelligible whispers.

"This is history that has already occurred. We can determine the actual environment from my reaction at the time."

At least, he didn’t seem like he was suddenly caught in a malevolent spirit attack at the time.

"Oh, hahaha, indeed, I... no, Dr. Olive Fox September’s theory is correct."

Jiuyue gathered her spirit and agreed.

The scene here made her uncomfortable, presumably what people often refer to as "losing sanity." More than the visual pollution, what worried her more was Duan Mingyuan’s mental state.

Because this didn’t seem like the way a mentally stable person would issue a warning.

"That’s right, Jiuyue, maybe you really are a genius."

The subway made the sound of starting up once more.

Duan Mingyuan appeared unfazed, not shaken in the least by violating the warning.

Under Dr. Jiuyue’s diagnosis, their investigation finally made progress.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by Aunomay Read