Chapter 152: Train Crossing Boundaries

Everyone was terrified. They didn't know why they had appeared here, nor did they know what those things were. They just ran backward for their lives. Even so, those runic creatures kept leaping forward, and scorching fireballs ignited people one after another.

"...How did we enter the Gray Realm?! We were just walking along the tracks normally..."

"Where are the tracks? Why are they gone? How are we supposed to go back?"

"So hot... so hot!"

"We finally escaped the Third District... Are we going to die here before even reaching Aurora City??"

“……”

The desire to survive occupied everyone’s mind, but their speed was no match for those small runic creatures. Those creatures could leap from the ice beneath their feet at any moment, and there was basically nowhere to hide.

One figure after another turned into fireballs and fell, not dying immediately, but struggling and screaming in the flames until they turned to ash. Extreme fear spread wildly through the crowd.

Boss Xu, holding his crying child, stumbled backward. The firelight constantly illuminated his face, and despair was undisguised in his pupils.

"Daddy, are we going to die?"

"No... Daddy won't let you die!"

Boss Xu gritted his teeth, squeezing out his last bit of strength. A black runic creature suddenly leaped from the reflection on the ice, flying past him by a hair’s breadth. Boss Xu cried out and hugged the child, and a scorching fireball exploded right behind him, sending him flying.

Boss Xu’s clothes were burned to ash, and the skin on his back was scorched black. He screamed, but gritted his teeth, struggled to stand up from the ground, and continued to run forward.

Before him lay an endless, gray sky. On the barren ice field, there was no cover or route to escape. Ripples spread from the reflections on the ice, as if sealing off their retreat completely.

Deep despair surfaced in Boss Xu’s eyes.

Just then, a blinding headlight suddenly shone from the ice beneath their feet, like a sun approaching. A speeding train smashed through the intersection of reality and the Gray Realm, appearing out of thin air on this ice field!

BOOM—!!

The hum of steam broke the silence of the ice field. The massive train body whistled as it tore through the air, its hard wheels crushing three runic creatures about to break through. Roaring flames ignited from the bottom of the carriages, leaving a long trail of fire on the ice field.

This suddenly appearing train blocked the path between the fleeing civilians and the runic creatures, like a black line of demarcation between life and death. The screech of brakes rang out across the ice field, and blinding sparks erupted from the surface.

All the residents were stunned. They stared blankly at the moving train. On the front of the train, a figure in a trench coat stood before the billowing steam, pulling the trigger at the runic creatures that kept leaping up.

Chen Ling?!

Seeing that familiar face, everyone stood there in a daze. It felt like a dream; they had just seen Chen Ling drive a train engine whistling into the distance not long ago, so how did he return in the blink of an eye with a full train?

BANG—!

This shot directly disintegrated several runic creatures gathered together into nothingness. As the train slowly decelerated, the figure spoke calmly:

"What are you waiting for? Get on."

At the carriage door, a five or six-year-old girl poked her head out and waved at the crowd. Only then did they react, scrambling to climb into the carriage.

Chen Ling stood at the front of the train, his gaze fixed on the creatures jumping on the reflections of the ice field, his eyes narrowing slightly...

The next moment, his figure leaped lightly from the front of the train, charging straight toward the nearest creature.

Sensing Chen Ling’s approach, the surrounding runic creatures surrounded him simultaneously. They leaped constantly between the ice field and the reflections, like a school of fish churning on the sea.

This time, Chen Ling didn't use the [Judgment Court]. Instead, relying on his own speed, he grabbed a runic creature flying toward him like lightning. Only after clutching the thing in his hand did Chen Ling see its appearance clearly.

It looked like a miniature eel, about the size of a palm and as thick as a finger, covered in mysterious black runes, basically identical to the seaweed he had seen by the Frozen Sea earlier...

"Runes again?" Chen Ling frowned involuntarily. "Are these eels and that disaster in the Frozen Sea... of the same origin?"

Chen Ling clutched the eel in one hand while lightning-fast drawing his gun with the other, firing at several other eels flying toward him. Under the blessing of the [Secret Pupil], Chen Ling’s marksmanship was terrifyingly precise. A few shots shattered all these eels, and blinding fireballs exploded in mid-air simultaneously, then vanished into nothingness like fireworks.

"They self-destruct as soon as they are attacked... Are they not even First Stage?"

Chen Ling quickly figured out the characteristics of this type of eel. He held the only remaining "specimen" in his hand and was about to turn back to the train when his peripheral vision caught the ice field beneath his feet, and he stopped.

He stood on this ice field and slowly squatted down. Ripples spread from the surface of the ice, like a shimmering sea... And deep within the reflections beneath the ice, a large number of dense black shadows were surging in one direction, like a school of fish migrating in the deep sea.

These black shadows were composed of countless such runic eels. Chen Ling followed the direction they were heading, his frown deepening.

"Aurora City... Their actions, they all have a target?"

Chen Ling had always thought that disasters were like "beasts" from another world growing in the Gray Realm, with different characteristics and no regular behavior. But this scene made him change his mind... Were these schools of fish heading straight for Aurora City out of a instinct for schooling, or was something guiding them?

Chen Ling didn't have time to think, because a large group of eels seemed to have sensed the anomaly here and began to turn from the main force to attack. Chen Ling turned back to the carriage and spoke to Zhao Yi in the control room:

"Go, fast."

"In which direction?"

"See the reflection of the tracks under that ice field? That’s the intersection point. Drive toward that."

The train never stopped, but moved slowly across the ice field to make it easier for the residents to board. Following Chen Ling’s order, the steam hummed again, and the speed increased rapidly, rushing toward the reflection Chen Ling pointed to.

As the shadow of the train engine appeared on the surface of the ice field, the intersection of the two worlds merged again. The train drove straight from the Gray Realm back into the real world. Everyone felt the world spin, the leaden sky was replaced by dim daylight, and the familiar tracks appeared on the barren land once more.

"Except for Aurora City, the Gray Realm intersections in other places are becoming increasingly severe... At this rate, it won't be long before there is no boundary between the two worlds."

Chen Ling looked at the unremarkable ice layer behind the train and muttered to himself.