Rena screamed, and her voice echoed in the corridor. She was standing directly in front of Reno's grinning face; they almost touched each other's face. Rena quickly backed away from him and nearly tripped. Lin Sanjiu's past 24 hours in Kisaragi Station World were filled with these constant scares. Now that she was in a Higher Consciousness form, she ignored her fear and immediately rammed herself into Reno's face. The momentum threw him backward by more than a meter, and he tumbled to the ground.
"What... what happened?" Rena regained her composure and rushed over, holding up a fist. She was unsure if she should hit him.
"Ugh! Stop hitting me! It hurts," Reno uttered. His head was now in a normal position—as it turned out, he probably used the wall as a support before turning his head at that weird angle. He held his nose and lifted his tear-covered face. "It was just a prank. Why are you guys overreacting?"
The grayish brain paused mid-air before it showed the words: BEAT HIM. Rena howled and pounced on him, pounding his face with her fists as Reno begged her to stop.
"This isn't the right time to create trouble!" Rena said angrily, ceasing her punches, only to kick her brother hard with her pink Mary Jane shoes. "You're lucky we didn't whack you to death, mistaking you for a ghost!"
"Let's forget this happened," Reno was covered in dust. Seeing that the grayish brain was poising itself for another attack, he quickly changed the subject, "Actually, Lin Sanjiu was right. When I walked around the corner, I felt a presence."
Rena and Lin Sanjiu instantly quieted down. Rena frowned. "A duoluozhong?"
"I'm not sure." Reno looked at the corridor cautiously. "I can't see that thing. I only felt it rushing toward me... Do you understand? The feeling when you can't see or touch something, but you just know it's there..."
"When it was about to land on me, my special item helped me block that attack," Reno patted his chest. There seemed to be something under his shirt. "Without this, I don't know what would have happened to me... At that moment, I felt a chill in my bones."
Lin Sanjiu was alarmed by his description. 'Was Reno nearly consumed by dark matter? Could the name of this place explain why the siblings are suddenly unable to see the duoluozhongs here?'
Lin Sanjiu was lost in her thoughts when she turned and realized that Rena's expression looked a little off. Rena furrowed her brows and appeared doubtful. She looked at the corridor and her brother. Somehow, Lin Sanjiu felt that the girl was puzzled by something else.
"Isn't this station called the Invisible Place? It isn't weird that we can't see them, right?" Rena
said, pulling Lin Sanjiu out of her thoughts. "But more importantly, what should we do now?"
'Since you two have lost your biggest advantage over those duoluozhongs, isn't it obvious?'
However, Reno's reply instantly made Lin Sanjiu feel old.
"Didn't we come here to train ourselves? I find it rather meaningless to fight against those duoluozhongs we can see. It isn't challenging at all. We might as well go home to kill chickens." Reno laughed high-spiritedly. He even had a carefree expression. "Now that there is a bit of a challenge, we should take advantage of this! I've decided. Let's stay here tonight. Once we get rid of the duoluozhongs here, I want to go to the 26th floor!"
Rena agreed as if she was already used to such situations. On the other hand, Lin Sanjiu was so shocked that she nearly lost control over her floating. Even though she spelled "I oppose" and kept the words in mid-air for a long time, the siblings seemed to ignore the opinions of the brain following them and had already started searching for a unit to stay in.
"Alright." Lin Sanjiu could only sigh bitterly in her mind. In her current form, those spirits wouldn't even treat her as a threat, so she probably won't get hurt. If those two kids weren't afraid to die, she naturally could go along with their decision.
"Gosh! There are kids in this family. The floor is just covered with toys. How annoying..." After Rena smashed open another door, she said with disdain from inside the apartment unit. She kicked the door as she walked out while complaining fussily to Lin Sanjiu, "There isn't even a clean apartment unit here!"
Lin Sanjiu couldn't help feeling a little annoyed when the siblings exuded that sort of rich-pampered-kids aura. Lin Sanjiu paid her no heed and continued floating forward. Suddenly, Reno yelled out from the end of the corridor, "Quick! Come here! This unit looks good. It's newly renovated..."
The grayish brain drifted over slowly. Lin Sanjiu wasn't all that concerned about the beautiful renovations, but the apartment was surprisingly good. After the lights were switched on, they could see a whole set of new wood furniture, white walls, and decorative plastic plants. It looked clean and elegant. The siblings checked the rooms with a well-practiced efficiency—what they called 'pest control'—and quickly found a supernatural entity under the bed in the children's room. They destroyed the bogeyman under the bed without any hassle.
The siblings had a couple of Special Items like Lin Sanjiu's Teru Teru Bozu, which could warn them about surrounding dangers. However, they were just pieces of black metal and were not in any sort of doll-like form because anything that resembled humans attracted spirits to possess them. The siblings arranged them around the room's corners, and finally, their preparation was completed.
For their safety, the siblings moved a bed to the living room and took turns keeping watch during the night. In her current form, Lin Sanjiu didn't need to sleep. She floated to the middle of the living room.
Reno beat Rena at rock-paper-scissors so he could go to bed first. Seeing that, Lin Sanjiu decided to meditate and explore the depths of her Higher Consciousness, planning to train herself the way Mrs. Manas taught her.
Click. Rena switched off the light and sat in darkness under the brain.
Time passed quickly in the dark. Lin Sanjiu's training was rather tedious. Firstly, she had to quickly rotate the Higher Consciousness around her nucleus. After ensuring the movements were smooth and fluid, she had to pick and compress two wisps together. This step was very difficult. It was as though she had to push two magnets of the same poles together. The repulsion made her wonder if it was even a legitimate method. Once she successfully pressed the two wisps of Higher Consciousness together, a few threads of white smoke would immediately fill the emptied spaces. This meant that she had generated new Higher Consciousness.
Of course, at this point, this new Higher Consciousness was just Lin Sanjiu regaining the Higher Consciousness she had used up when she activated her [Defense Forcefield]. The additions would only be considered new when she had recovered all her expended Higher Consciousness.
The compressed Higher Consciousness was stronger and longer lasting. For example, the uncompressed wisps would only power her [Defense Forcefield] for one minute, whereas the compressed version, which was many times more efficient, could easily power her for 35 minutes.
While Lin Sanjiu delighted in regaining her Higher Consciousness bit by bit, trying her best to squeeze two wisps of Higher Consciousness together, she was suddenly startled by an external noise. The wisps of Higher Consciousness immediately floated away like fishes from a broken net.
That noise wasn't loud. It sounded like a light bump, but somehow, she heard it. She looked around her, feeling slightly annoyed and a little worried. She didn't know how much time had passed, but the furniture sat silently in the darkness with their dark shadows of all shapes. Rena had her chin on the table; her eyelids table sank slowly. Reno was breathing rhythmically while lying on his bed. He was fast asleep. The piece of metal that acted as an alarm was quiet. Everything seemed normal.
'This is odd. Where was that sound from?' Lin Sanjiu circled the room once. Then, she heard a creak.
This time, Rena quickly stirred. Her eyes were wide open, but she was still in a slight daze. She turned to look at Lin Sanjiu. Rena also didn't know where that sound came from.
Then, a series of random noises seemed to come from the corridor. Lin Sanjiu couldn't stand it any longer. She rapidly spelled, "I'll take a look," and pulled her 'body' into a thin sheet—she already had full control of her shape-shifting. After that, she left through the gap under the door.
The translucent sheet entered the corridor and flew around it a few times. However, everything was normal. The lights were still yellow, and the apartment units were shut. Nothing was out of place.
"There's nothing." Lin Sanjiu grumbled after discovering nothing and then headed back. She remembered that the apartment they were staying in was the last unit at the end of the corridor. She turned into a thin sheet and slipped back into the living room from under the door again.
The room looked the same. The beds with metal frames, pulled out by the siblings from their rooms, were in the middle of the living room. The sofa and coffee table were pushed aside haphazardly to make room for the bed. The black metal alarms were in the corners of the room. The light was switched off, so only a bit of light was coming through the windows. The dim light showed the outlines of the furniture.
The brain froze in mid-air. It hung there for some time without moving. Finally, Mrs. Manas broke the silence, "What's wrong... Oh? Where are the siblings?"
Lin Sanjiu sighed. No one was lying on the bed or sitting on the chair. The siblings were missing.