LRAB Chapter 18 Abnormalities and Out of Control
Chapter 18 Abnormalities and Out of Control
At 18:45, only 13 minutes remained until the Meiling Tunnel bombing.
Take stock of known information —
First, Line 3 derailed one to two minutes after leaving Qingjiang Road Station;
Second, the cause of the accident was the collapse of the ground where the track was located;
Third, this accident was most likely caused by human intervention and was related to a mysterious person wearing a blue shirt and hat;
Fourth, the other party is in a crowded environment and is very likely inside the carriage.
Qi Te scanned the carriage and noticed that the two men were wearing blue coats.
One of them was an older woman sitting in a seat, watching a short drama about mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, with the volume quite loud. Two office workers sitting next to her, who were dozing off, were woken up and frowned repeatedly, clearly annoyed.
The other was a burly man standing between the two carriages; it was none other than Zheng Xinjian, who was wearing a dark blue cotton jacket.
This guy deliberately chose this spot, five meters away from Qi Te, with many passengers in between, naturally not wanting to be discovered by him.
Qi Te glanced at him but didn't linger on him, but Zheng Xinjian still cautiously shrank back into the crowd.
The subway train has six carriages, and he was in carriage number 4 at the moment.
Qi Te pretended not to have noticed the other party and moved to the right instead.
The train carriage was overcrowded, which greatly hindered Zite's movements. Many people clicked their tongues in dissatisfaction as he squeezed through, and some even started cursing.
"Damn it, why are you pushing? Will you die if you stand?"
"Yeah, it's already so crowded, why bother walking around..."
Amidst the shouts and curses, someone exclaimed, "That prophetic goddess has made a new prophecy! She says something bad has happened at our Haicheng subway station!"
"I saw it too, in that science live broadcast room, it said Qingjiang Road Station."
"Wow, let's get off quickly, we can't take this subway anymore!"
"What do you mean 'get off'? Are you going to take a taxi instead of the subway?"
"Damn, is life more important than money?"
"Just avoid Qingjiang Road Station. Besides, those predictions aren't always accurate."
"Exactly, aren't there plenty of people online posing as experts or lawyers?"
"That's right, I've even encountered people impersonating the Supernatural Abilities Management Bureau; they're all scammers..."
The passengers started discussing it, saying all sorts of things.
The vast majority of people were there just to have some fun, while only a small number quietly got up, preparing to get off at the next stop.
Qi Te finally managed to squeeze into carriage number 3, and looking around, he saw a sea of people.
Fortunately, his height of 182 cm provided him with a fairly good view. By standing on tiptoe slightly, he could see everything clearly.
Four people were wearing blue shirts, so they were all ruled out. Like Zheng Xinjian, none of these people were wearing hats.
Just as I was about to move to carriage number 2, the subway arrived at the station.
Watching the passengers getting on and off, Qi Te suddenly realized an important problem: if the mysterious person boarded at Qingjiang Road Station, then no matter how much he investigated, he would not be able to find the person.
Furthermore, how did they manage to do that?
The subway tracks are inspected daily by designated personnel during the shutdown period. In addition to physical damage such as track cracks and wear, the inspection also covers supporting equipment such as signaling systems, power supply facilities, and tunnel lighting.
What else could cause the ground to suddenly collapse besides a powerful explosion?
The other party must have planted explosives in advance; otherwise, it would be impossible for the maintenance personnel not to notice them.
and many more!
Suddenly, an image flashed through Qi Te's mind of the "Fire Man" running through the Meiling Tunnel and then exploding.
No, there is another possibility.
An earth elementalist, and of a high level.
The track foundation is so solid that it could cause the ground to collapse in a very short time, at least to a Class C level.
While I was thinking, my phone suddenly vibrated.
Qi Te answered the phone, and Cao Yingchong's voice came through the earpiece.
"Where are you?"
On the subway
"I suddenly have a bad feeling..."
Qi Te's eyes narrowed. Sure enough, people who had close contact with him in the original timeline would indeed be affected.
"Your plan is feasible if you come to Qingjiang Road subway station."
"Okay, I'll be right there."
After Qi Te hung up the phone, he heard a middle-aged woman with curly hair next to him complain in a high-pitched voice, "Oh my, are you trying to kill someone?! What are you doing squeezing in here with such a big bag?"
"Exactly, it's already so crowded, and this is just adding insult to injury..."
Some people joined in the commotion, but then stopped talking halfway through their sentences.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry"
The young man with a buzz cut, dressed in military camouflage, apologized repeatedly and then picked up his large suitcase and got out of the car.
Qi Te's eyes lit up. The other person was the soldier he had met once in the original timeline.
He immediately grabbed the other strap: "It's okay, we can squeeze in."
While the young man was still in a daze, the car door closed.
"Thanks!"
"You're welcome."
......................
The Line 3 subway, packed with passengers, started moving again, leaving the platform and heading into the dark and deep tunnel.
Qi Te paused his actions, his mind racing as he considered countermeasures.
Claiming there was a bomb in the car should be feasible from an emergency avoidance perspective.
Even if he was later arrested for making a false report, saving nearly two thousand lives in one vehicle would have been worthwhile.
However, the problem is that this only addresses the symptoms, not the root cause.
Assuming the derailment was indeed caused by a C-level or higher earth-elemental ability user, and since they failed this time, they will surely try again.
The mysterious person is most likely also on this train. One minute after the subway starts moving, it is expected to reach a speed of 140 kilometers per hour. At this speed, if the train derails, unless one has superhuman self-healing abilities, they simply cannot survive.
All indications suggest that this was most likely a suicide attack.
The problem returns to its origin: only by finding that mysterious person can the tragedy be stopped.
Qi Te's gaze swept across the crowd, and he soon spotted Zheng Xinjian, who was squeezed in the crowd with his back to him.
"Are you that persistent?"
Qi Te couldn't help but complain in his heart, and then his pupils suddenly contracted.
His gaze lingered on the back of Zheng Xinjian's head for two seconds, and his dynamic imaging ability for material analysis was passively triggered. He clearly saw an unusual red spot in the guy's brain.
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, focused his attention, and when he opened his eyes again, he no longer saw individual passengers.
He could clearly see the blood flowing steadily in the veins, the nerves covering the body, the beating hearts, and the lungs opening and closing with perfect rhythm...
Among them, a violently beating heart caught Zit's attention.
That's right, it's Zheng Xinjian.
His blood vessels were noticeably different from those of ordinary people; they were thicker, stronger, and the blood flow was faster. Adrenaline surged, causing rapid breathing and muscle tension.
The amygdala in the brain is extremely active, while the prefrontal cortex shows almost no activity.
As Madam Lin said, Zite's visual perception not only has infrared thermal imaging capabilities, but also has effects similar to X-rays and CT scans.
As a member of Professor Liu Baichuan's research group, he had seen countless human body scans, including brain CT scans and full-body images of drug clinical trial participants.
The saying, "Every step you take counts," is best exemplified at this moment.
Without countless late nights spent burying himself in organizing data and images, and countless times being scolded by Lao Liu for errors in data judgment, he wouldn't have been able to immediately determine what those mixed colors and patterns of red, orange, yellow, and green represented.
Even with exceptional vision, without a matching knowledge base, it's useless.
Qi Te immediately concluded that Zheng Xinjian was in a state of high excitement, his rationality was declining, and he was about to lose control of his emotions.
These phenomena are not hard to understand, but what exactly is that red spot located in the fourth ventricle?
By comparing brain lesion atlases, the possibility of lesions such as brain tumors can be ruled out.
Could Zheng Xinjian's unusual behavior be related to that red spot?
In the original timeline, the other party followed him all the way to Exit A-2 of Qingjiang Road and attacked him at the corner.
He was acting like a madman, a complete insane person.
The thought flashed through Qi Te's mind, and he immediately recalled the punch Zheng Xinjian threw that broke the steel pipe of the signboard, which was definitely beyond the level of D.
So, could this sudden surge in strength be due to this strange red spot?!
My phone vibrated again. It was a message from Ji Chenyu, a master surfer, along with a push notification with a link.
"I heard there's going to be an accident at the Meiling Tunnel, and someone's actually trying to get attention for it! Look, look!"