Light Barrier

East Continent Federation, Azure River District.

23:44.

At an empty light rail train station, Gu Shen looked down at his watch while running.

Can I still catch the last train? He was worried, but he immediately heard a low hum in the distance.

Rumble!

From the dark tunnel, thousands of dazzling arcs of light burst forth. The last light rail train slowed down and smoothly came to a stop in front of Gu Shen.

Seeing the train, Gu Shen heaved a sigh of relief. But then he furrowed his brows and held his breath.

The carriage door opened, and the smell of rust assaulted his nostrils.

He took two steps back and sized up the train. The carriage was old, mottled, and rusted, and there were three neat numbers written in white paint beside the window:

000.

If I remember correctly, hasn’t Oto City… phased out this type of train long ago?

Beep, beep, beep!

There was no time to think about it. At the last moment before the carriage door closed, Gu Shen crouched down, darted forward, and narrowly squeezed into the carriage.

Holding an armrest, he let out a sigh of relief.

He caught a glance from the corner of his eye.

Gu Shen was startled.

Usually, when this light rail train went to remote suburbs, there was no one else on the last train except him. But today…

There was a girl in the carriage.

This girl was sitting opposite him, merely tens of centimeters away. She had almond-shaped eyes, peachy cheeks, and loose long hair. She was wearing a thin, almost transparent, pure white lace dress, revealing her fair shoulders and large areas of snow-white skin.

The thin dress was very white.

But the girl was even whiter, so white that it was somewhat dazzling.

The girl’s tiptoes were stepping on the floor of the carriage. A heavy book lay half-opened on her knees. The breeze from the carriage door lifted the pages and turned them, making rustling sounds resembling falling leaves.

This girl had an indescribable and unique aura. She didn’t seem like someone who existed in the real world.

Looking at her, Gu Shen felt as though he saw a ray of light.

Quiet, gentle, pure, holy, ethereal.

As the pages turned, the girl looked up.

Their eyes met. Gu Shen quickly looked away, rubbed his hands, and exhaled, hurriedly concealing his gaffe.

He suspected that he was dreaming.

How could there be such a beautiful girl in the world?

Also… she was dressing so lightly. Didn’t she feel cold?

[The second person… please get on the carriage.]

The moment the girl looked up, a hint of surprise flashed in her eyes, but she soon restored her composure.

She closed the book and carefully sized up this young man.

This young man was now huddled up in the corner of the train, rubbing his hands, yawning, and smiling foolishly to himself, lost in his own world, seemingly unaware of what ‘get on the carriage’ meant.

Woosh!

The light rail slowly started as electric arcs splashed back and forth across the surface of the tunnel walls.

Although this train was old, it traveled exceptionally stably.

After the electric arcs bouncing outside the windows penetrated the glass, all that remained was a muted rustling, like the sound of rainwater splashing.

The two of them remained silent, and neither of them spoke. The carriage was very quiet. If no one spoke, the light rail would pass through the long tunnel and travel silently for about twenty minutes before arriving at the terminal.

But this silence did not last long.

The girl spoke first. “I have a very important question. Between three and four… is there real pi?”

Gu Shen thought that he was hearing things. Is she talking to me?

He turned his head in surprise and looked around. Seeing the empty carriage and the girl’s serious gaze on him, Gu Shen pointed at himself. The girl nodded.

He smiled awkwardly. She’s really talking to me.

Between three and four… is there real pi?

What kind of question is this?

The answer, of course, is yes.

But at this moment, Gu Shen hesitated and didn’t answer directly.

The reason was simple.

Because in the clear pupils of the girl looking straight at him, there was the reflection of an incomparably earnest light. This gaze made Gu Shen believe that… this seemingly simple question was not that simple.

The girl reached out a hand and pointed behind Gu Shen.

Gu Shen turned around.

Unexpectedly, inside this old carriage, someone had carved a mottled mural. He could vaguely see that it was an old scale ruler. The scale was very long and stretched beyond their sight. But at this moment, they could clearly see the two numbers 3 and 4 engraved in bold on it.

“If you touch this ruler…” The girl extended a hand and touched the ruler through the air. Her voice became softer, like a gust of wind sweeping through the carriage, tinged with faint sorrow. “Can you touch pi?”

Gu Shen was startled.

He instantly understood the true meaning of her question. It was a number that was infinite and non-repeating, a number that only existed in theory.

The precision of this number was infinite.

But the precision on the ruler was finite.

Even if this ruler were magnified billions of times, there would never be a point belonging to the infinitely precise π.

“Gu Shen… what is your answer?”

Gu Shen was confused. Why does she know my name?

The girl slowly spread her extended hand, and a silver cross-shaped pattern flowed on her palm, radiating a dazzling light.

The moment he saw the radiance of the cross, Gu Shen felt a familiar and warm feeling, as though he had returned to an old dream. He couldn’t help making the same gesture. The young man extended his hand, wanting to interlock his fingers with the girl’s.

“…”

Seeing this action, the girl smiled silently.

There was no envisioned touch.

The girl in the pure white gauze dress withdrew her hand and gradually retreated to the end of Gu Shen’s line of sight. Her smile disappeared bit by bit, and finally, there was only solemnity and seriousness. “Gu Shen…

“… survive.”

The wind in the carriage suddenly dissipated.

Boom! Boom!

The light rail emerged from the tunnel.

The light source enveloping Gu Shen from above instantly shattered.

He suddenly felt that… everything had changed. The moment the mottled train exited the tunnel, it seemed to be washed and cleansed by an invisible force.

The light rail began to shake, and the entire carriage fell into violent tremors, like a curved steel serpent jolting and undulating. The electric arcs splashing outside the windows were all extinguished at this moment.

The collision of the wheels against the rails and the ear-piercing sound of friction shattered this beautiful dream.

Gu Shen’s blood ran cold as he watched the scene before him.

The light in the entire carriage dimmed, but it was still empty.

All of this seemed like a dream.

However, the dream filter had changed, and the bright carriage had become dim. In the seat where the beautiful girl had sat, she had been replaced by a tall woman in a black formal dress.

She was wearing a regency-style bonnet that was wide enough to cover her entire face and holding a stack of old, yellowed newspapers with both hands, reading under the fragmented light. Even though she was sitting, she was almost the same height as Gu Shen.

If she stood up… she would probably be more than two meters tall.

23:59.

Gu Shen looked down at the time, his face slightly pale.

He might have encountered a supernatural event that conventional cognition couldn’t explain… Although the lights in this carriage were dim, he could vaguely see that the armrests of the seats were brand new. The mottled spots and rust he had seen everywhere earlier had all disappeared.

I actually stayed on that train for fifteen minutes? Gu Shen remembered every word the girl had said, especially the last word.

“Survive!”

Gu Shen felt his scalp tingle. He carefully sized up the tall lady immersed in reading the newspaper and felt a strong sense of danger.

Just as his eyes swept over…

As though there was a ‘mind connection’…

The woman in the black dress, who exuded a sense of oppression, slowly raised her head. Gu Shen saw two dark and deep red lights emitting from under the brim of the black hat.

“Sir.” The woman folded the newspaper, looked up, and asked politely in a low voice, “I have a very important question… I want to ask you.”

“Pl-please go ahead.” Gu Shen clenched his ten fingers, took a deep breath, and tried his best to remain calm.

But his reply didn’t seem to be important.

After this woman finished speaking, she took out a boning knife, placed it on the newspaper on her knees, and wiped it slowly. There was a trace of blood on the newspaper.

Then… she opened her dress, and there was a silver ruler hanging inside it. Two snow-white fingers painted with red nail polish rubbed back and forth between the 3 and 4 marks on the ruler.

“Just now…” The tall woman, sitting upright and holding the boning knife in her other hand, tilted her head and asked in confusion, “Did I… touch pi?”