Fog Where You Can't See Your Hand in Front of Your Face
After giving a few more instructions, Shu went alone to an empty carriage and stood before the door.
He chose to exit from a separate carriage to prevent Kiana and the others from coming into contact with the white fog. The instruments on the Hyperion couldn't detect the composition of this fog.
Normal fog definitely wouldn't reduce visibility to less than two meters, so there was something strange about the fog itself.
As usual, Shu applied impact resistance, flight, and breathing filtration to himself, took a deep breath, and yanked the door open.
A fierce wind instantly poured into the carriage from outside. Shu instinctively raised his arm to shield his eyes.
After a wave of damp cold, Shu slowly opened his eyes.
A thin layer of iridescent light enveloped his body, keeping the white fog at bay.
Shu looked around. The surroundings had turned into an unsettling expanse of white, devoid of any color, just a deathly silent whiteness.
Shu's heart inexplicably started beating faster. He took another deep breath and tentatively reached out his hand.
His hand disappeared into the white fog before it was even fully extended, like reaching into a murky pool. It vanished after just a short distance.
Visibility was even lower than expected... a few dozen centimeters at most, less than a meter.
Just then, Shu felt a tug on his left hand, like someone pulling him twice.
It was Kiana and the others pulling the rope. Shu raised his hand, pulling the end of the rope out of the white fog and into his line of sight, then pulled back twice in response.
Then, Shu took a deep breath, steadied his nerves, and took a step forward.
His foot met empty air. Shu quickly stabilized himself, narrowly avoiding tumbling directly onto the ground.
Close call. Almost forgot I was standing right outside the train door...
Shu sighed in relief, cautiously feeling his surroundings as he moved down from the train.
This hindered vision was truly uncomfortable. He could barely see anything until it was practically right in front of his face.
After finally getting off the train, Shu pulled the rope twice again, then committed to a direction and continued forward.
Shu couldn't even see his own feet anymore. After taking two steps, he crouched down. Only when he was very low could he see a small patch of ground.
The gray concrete road surface was somewhat uneven, with traces of white soil clinging to it, and it felt damp.
Shu frowned, reached out a finger covered in the iridescent light film, touched some of the soil, and rubbed it between his fingers.
The texture was almost identical to wet mud; at least Shu couldn't feel any difference.
Clearly, there was nothing to be learned here. To get more information, he had to go to where the Spider Mech was...
Responding to Kiana and the others again, Shu stood up and started moving forward through the fog.
Another important point... Shu kept feeling like something was making noise within the fog, but whenever he tried to listen carefully, the sound receded.
Anyway, everything here screamed weirdness, managing to unnerve even Shu, who wasn't particularly afraid of ghosts.
This purely white environment was hell for a sane mind! Especially after staying here for a long time, Shu was genuinely worried his own mind would become as blank as the surroundings!
After trying to listen twice and hearing nothing, Shu gave up searching for the sound and just pushed forward stubbornly.
Hope I'm still walking in a straight line...
Finally, after walking for a full dozen minutes, and after Shu's fifth response to Kiana's group, he finally saw a different brightness!
Like sunlight killing water vapor, the white ahead became very bright, and visibility increased.
Shu could see his own palm when he stretched out his hand!
Shu, nearly snow-blind from the surrounding white, quickly sped up, pushing through the white fog towards the bright area.
A sudden burst of blinding white light rushed towards him. Shu instinctively stopped, narrowed his eyes, and stood alertly.
The white light came quickly and went quickly. In just an instant, Shu's vision returned to normal.
It was still that eye-straining white, but this time, there were shadows of objects and some other colors, finally making it less unbearable.
The invisible heavy stone in his heart finally dropped. Shu had just breathed a sigh of relief, lowered his guarded hand, and was about to pull the rope to signal his safety when his peripheral vision suddenly caught a figure.
Yes, a human figure...
There are really people here?!
Shu looked up in surprise, his gaze instantly focusing on the old woman before him, dragging a bundle of white branches taller than herself.
The pale branches still carried soil, also grayish-white. Grayish-white straw ropes bound the middle section, dragged behind her by the old woman dressed in coarse white linen.
Even drier than the twisted branches was the old woman's hair—pale, slightly twisted, strands standing sparsely on her wrinkled head.
The grayish-white clothes and pants were matching colors, even the patterns seemed to align...
"Uh..." Shu watched the stooped old grandma continuously looking up at him. He awkwardly raised his hand slightly, while pulling the rope twice behind his back with his left hand.
Both were sizing each other up. Shu felt increasingly awkward being stared at and could only force a smile at the old grandma.
However, this smile acted like some magical switch, instantly activating the statue-like old grandma before him.
"Aiya! Luo-zai! My Luo-zai!!"
The faint smile on the old grandma's face instantly changed. Her wrinkled face overflowed with uncontrollable surprise, followed by endless grievance, emotion, relief...
Her somewhat bent and stooped figure straightened up immediately. The bundle of branches was dropped to the ground. The old grandma excitedly moved her feet, rapidly stumbling closer to Shu.
Shu was startled by the old grandma's series of changes and instinctively started to retreat.
But before he could take that step back, the old grandma had already arrived in front of him, reaching out with trembling hands, her brightened eyes looking Shu up and down.
Like a bewildered elder unsure where to embrace her grandson returning home after many years.
"Luo-zai... Luo-zai, how zhen shi li ah... Luo-zai..." The old grandma was simultaneously mumbling somewhat awkward phrases.
Shu suddenly felt like he was mishearing; there was a dialectal accent...
Thinking this, Shu paused for a moment, then suddenly reacted.
'My child, my child, is it really you, my child...?!'