When Shen Jie looked up at someone, his eyelashes also lifted, like two lush black crow feathers, sweeping over people’s hearts.
Chen Shushu hesitated for a moment, then grinned, without hesitation, he turned around and plopped down into the air—still feeling the absence of a chair, but indeed staying seated.
Chen Shushu hesitated for a moment, then grinned, without hesitation, he turned around and sat down in the air—still not feeling the presence of a chair, but he did sit firmly.
How to describe this feeling… It was a bit like floating in a zero-gravity space capsule.
He scratched his head, realizing something, leaned over, and whispered, “Brother, you’re really amazing. You quickly saw through the deception of the rules and found a way to deal with it. No wonder you can enter the research institute.”
He remembered that Shen Jie had just said he liked quiet people, so he made a gesture of zipping his mouth shut and winked at Shen Jie.
From the outside, Chen Shushu indeed had a sunny and handsome face, like the protagonist of a heroic novel. His smile seemed a bit silly at first glance, but it was very charismatic.
Apparently, he was also quite knowledgeable and perceptive, and his emotional intelligence wasn’t low either. So, was this the reason why Zong Lin would take Chen Shushu as his apprentice in the novel? Shen Jie thought, tilting his head slightly, and said, “Huh? What do you mean by seeing through the rules? Always sitting when you can, never standing when you can sit, and never sitting when you can lie down. That’s my way of life.”
Chen Shushu: “… Huh?”
So, when everyone was desperately running forward when the mist came just now, Shen Jie didn’t move not because he was stunned or sensed something, but purely because… he wanted to sit? It seems logically fine… No, for ordinary people, this reaction was still very strange, right? The system empathized with Chen Shushu’s thoughts. [Host, I feel like you’re teasing us.]
The system carefully recalled that every time it wanted to say something serious, it would always be interrupted by Shen Jie, and then the topic would immediately drift far away, accompanied by him slapping himself in the face to end it.
Is this reasonable? This is unreasonable! Shen Jie must be doing it on purpose!
Shen Jie: “How could that be? I don’t like playing tricks on people.”
His expression was calm, with no hint of guilt on his face. Coupled with his outstanding appearance, when he spoke seriously, it made people unable to help but believe him almost completely.
[Hmm… Well, I hope it was just my imagination before.] The system overflowed with a humph sound.
At this point, the others in the carriage finally noticed their unorthodox sitting posture.
“This seating posture clearly violates the laws of physics…”
The glasses man muttered to himself, then suddenly he seemed to think of something, his eyes lit up, and he said:
“Everyone, is it possible that when the rules mention ‘workstations,’ they’re not referring to what is in front of us?”
The burly man in the bear costume asked in confusion, “What do you mean?”
The glasses man explained, “What I mean is, everything we see and perceive now is just an illusion created by the mist. Our bodies are actually still inside the subway carriage.”
The woman in business attire objected, “That’s impossible. The subway carriage is made of metal. The texture wouldn’t feel like this.”
As she spoke, she swung her bag, appearing very experienced.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“If it’s an illusion, altering people’s perceptions and senses isn’t impossible,” the glasses man quickly analyzed. “Suppose this is still the interior of the carriage. In that case, the ‘workstations’ mentioned in the rules would likely correspond to the original seats on the subway, rather than anything else.”
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At this point, there were less than two minutes left until the broadcast notification.
The invisible wall still blocked the path to the outside workstations, while the seats inside —
Suddenly, the crowd remembered that there weren’t many seats on the subway. During rush hour, the subway was usually crowded. In the mist, everyone found their spatial and temporal perceptions muddled.
Amidst the chaos, some swiftly grabbed onto the air, while others misjudged and ended up on the floor. More people remained crowded in the aisles, exchanging looks of confusion.
“There are too many people, not enough seats…”
“What should we do?”
Someone suggested, “We could go back to the rear cars! There are fewer people there!”
“Easier said than done. How do we go back?”
The invisible wall sealed off both sides, leaving only the passage that no one dared to approach even during the most intense wall-smashing moments.
Because there were two huge steel cutting machines placed there.
The steel conveyor belts were running inward, and the innermost gleaming blade rapidly rotated, resembling the open jaws of a wild beast, menacingly facing the crowd.
“If everything in front of us is indeed an illusion,” the bespectacled man swallowed hard, “these two cutting machines should be the passages connecting the carriages.”
His speculation was not without reason.
But the question remained, who would dare to go there?
A slender young man looked around cautiously, his eyes flickering.
His friend nudged him, “Yuan Wei, you’re the sprinting ace in our department, why not seize the opportunity to give it a try?”
Although the blades of the cutting machine were spinning fast, there was still a vague gap between them, roughly wide enough for one person to squeeze through. If he timed it right, he might actually make it across.
“And even if you miss the mark, with it being an illusion, there’s a good chance you won’t get hurt, right?”
His friend said, turning to the bespectacled man, seeking affirmation.
[It depends on the mood of the mist’s host,] the system spoke up.
[To create a truly complete domain space is still too difficult for low-level variant species, so your bodies remain in the carriage. However, creating a real cutting machine to block passage between carriages isn’t much of a challenge.]
[By the way, host, can you fight?]
The bespectacled man hesitated, not answering immediately.
His friend grew anxious and nudged Yuan Wei again.
With a chuckle, Yuan Wei suddenly rushed to a seemingly frail and petite girl, pulling her forcefully from her seat.
“What are you doing?!” The girl screamed in fear.
“Sorry about this. Everyone wants to survive, including me,” Yuan Wei replied.
He roughly shoved the girl aside and occupied her seat, ignoring her angry gaze, crossing his arms as if declaring, “I’m staying put here today.”
Yuan Wei’s actions acted as a catalyst, igniting dark thoughts in people’s minds.
—Faced with danger, when there’s a solution within reach, why risk crossing the cutting machine filled with blades?
Some began to scan for seemingly easy targets to bully.
Some had already started to move.
In the transparent air, there was nothing to hold, so those with less strength could easily be pulled up.
For a moment, the carriage was filled with screams and curses.
Shen Jie had never been in a fight in his life. His preferred way of solving problems was through “covering” and “devouring.” Of course, he could fight if necessary, preferably with a knife at hand.
Unfortunately, no one came forward to harass him.
A tall, long-legged adult male was clearly not within the range of “weaker individuals.”
[As expected, things eventually developed like this.] The system sighed with an air of wisdom, [The mist tests human nature, and human nature is the hardest thing to test. In fact, the chaos occurred much later than I estimated. There are fewer people taking action than I imagined.]
[People living in “Eden” sometimes seem like lambs living in an ivory tower. Lambs are cute but also fragile.]
Shen Jie remained silent on the term “lambs.”
[By the way,] the system said, [Can I trouble you to touch Chen Shushu? The plot has changed, and I want to confirm if he has awakened his abilities now.]
By now, the seats were filled with people, with hardly any gaps. Occasionally, someone would be dragged out, only to be immediately replaced by someone else.
Shen Jie and Chen Shushu inevitably found themselves squeezed together. Chen Shushu’s suit jacket had even been squeezed halfway off by the large woman next to him, who appeared to weigh around 180 pounds, revealing the anime-themed T-shirt he was wearing underneath.
Shen Jie: “Haven’t we touched already?”
His tone carried a hint of disdain.
System: [That doesn’t count. It needs genuine physical contact to count.]
Shen Jie: “Don’t even think about it.”
Shen Jie’s refusal was merciless.
System recalled the broken cup incident at the research institute earlier that day, hesitantly probed: [Do you perhaps have mysophobia?]
Shen Jie: “I’m allergic to human.”
The system tried to persuade him a few more times to no avail, then couldn’t resist being a little cheeky: [So, does that mean you’re allergic to your partner as well? Do you have to wear gloves when you’re together? Does he find you repulsive?]
“Hehe,” Shen Jie smiled and replied calmly, “He’s different. Besides, we not only don’t wear gloves when we’re together, but also…”
System: [Stop, stop, stop! I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you these personal questions. It was my mistake.] The system skillfully slapped itself in the face, speaking with a world-weary tone. [Host, just touch it, just once. As a reward, I can provide you with an unlimited supply of disinfectant gel in the future.]
The system was just saying it casually, without expecting much. After all, it had never encountered someone as difficult as Shen Jie.
However, an unlimited supply of disinfectant gel.
For Shen Jie, this was indeed somewhat tempting.
After all, carrying around a large bottle of disinfectant gel was inconvenient, but if he carried a small bottle, given his usual usage, he would quickly run out. Once it was used up, he would have to go to the cleaning area to get more, but lately, the cleaning lady at the research institute seemed a bit unhappy with his usage habits.
“Then just once,” Shen Jie reluctantly agreed.
System: [Huh? Host, did you agree?]
Chen Shushu was reaching out to help the girl who had fallen to the ground.
As a senior among second-dimensional residents, he had watched many hot-blooded anime where the protagonist saved the world, and he had filled his mind with many wonderful fantasies of heroically saving a beauty.
Unfortunately, at this moment, because the seats were too crowded, even bending down to help a girl up was very difficult for him.
At this moment, a hand rested on his back.
Chen Shushu’s first impression was: Wow, such slender and beautiful hands.
His second impression: Could such a beautiful person have such great strength???
Yes, yes they can, though beauty is fragile it can be tough when it needs to be… a prime example here is our dear Xiao Jie, or another example is the adorable A Fei who could trample on the ml in minutes if he wishes so when he unties his seals, and many many more beauties… who are the barbaric prime example of “beauty is deadly” xD
Where’s this A Fei from? He sounds badass.
oh A Fei is just a nickname for Ren Yifei from “The Day’s I Clear Escape Games Pretending To Be An NPC” I think you should’ve already heard of this novel before, note he’s not completely OP at the start but as he slowly unleashes his seals he does become more powerful + all the ghosts and props he gets from clearing the games, but yes he overall is OP with experience xD (he’s from the infinite flow genre btw)
So true.
You have a great taste.
👍 chrysanthemumgarden has the best taste in novels xD
That unlimited disinfectant offer would be truly alluring in covid time..
Fufufu~ system don’t make questions you don’t want to hear the answers!
If Chen Shushu is still the ML’s student at this time, I wonder if he’ll gave his student a trashing for (trying) to flirt to his wife 🤣