Chapter 19: The Slowing Cage

  The violent shaking continued for nearly a minute, as if this consciousness construct might disintegrate at any moment. Alarm sounds were piercing and shrill, the system's intermittent error notifications mixed with energy overload explosions, composing a symphony of despair.

  When everything finally gradually subsided, the car interior was in chaos. Lights flickered uncertainly, the once-smooth data galaxy outside the windows had become stagnant, fragmented, like shattered glass, moving slowly. The train had clearly slowed, but hadn't stopped, instead sliding forward at an unsettling low speed.

  [Emergency deceleration procedure execution complete. System stability severely compromised. Attempting repairs... Repair failed. Backup navigation initiating... Warning: Deviated from scheduled route. Current position: Unknown.]

  The system's cold voice carried unprecedented noise and weakness.

  They'd succeeded, but only halfway. The train had deviated from the self-destruct trajectory rushing toward the "buffer zone," but was now lost in an unknown system edge zone, like a severely wounded beast barely surviving in a data desert.

  The price was Anya Sharma's life.

  Grief and anger pressed on the remaining six like boulders. Samuel Jones knelt where Anya had disappeared, fists clenched, knuckles white, shoulders trembling slightly from suppressed emotion. Another person had died before his eyes, and he was powerless.

  Irina Petrova's face was iron-gray, coldness in her eyes almost able to freeze air. Carmen Ortiz silently picked up Anya's fallen datapad, carefully storing it—it might still contain her final wisdom.

  Leon Schmidt collapsed before his equipment, screens full of red error codes and warning prompts. Overload operation had destroyed most of his precision instruments. He gasped heavily, face mixed with fatigue, frustration, and a trace of dazed relief at surviving.

  Sophia Rossi leaned against the wall, looking at her once-again destroyed equipment. Rarely, she didn't make sarcastic remarks, just looked at the others with complex eyes, especially Charles.

  Charles Du climbed up from the floor, body feeling like falling apart in pain. The terrifying experience in the data abyss still left him shaken. But he'd survived, because of Anya's sacrifice.

  "Did we... escape?" Charles's voice was hoarse.

  "Temporarily... won't die." Leon's voice was equally hoarse. He operated screens that still functioned with difficulty. "Speed came down, and we're not heading toward that damned coordinate anymore. But we're stuck in some undefined system edge region, navigation completely failed. And... the system is severely damaged, the stability maintaining our consciousness projections is declining."

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  This meant that even without killers, they might still dissipate due to system collapse.

  "What about the killers?" Irina asked coldly, gaze sweeping over everyone. "The attack just now—where did it come from?" Anya's death must have someone responsible.

  Leon pulled up the final energy records, a red dot flashing briefly on screen. "Attack came from... the observation car's center-right area. But energy characteristics were very vague, dissipating instantly after firing, impossible to precisely pinpoint to an individual." He wearily rubbed his temple. "Source A, style clean and efficient, strike and retreat."

  Observation car center-right... at that time people standing in that area included...

  Samuel, Irina, Carmen, and... Sophia (though she later moved to Leon's side to operate equipment).

  Suspicious gazes interwove again. The range had narrowed, but still couldn't be determined.

  "The immediate priority isn't infighting." Samuel Jones slowly stood, his eyes becoming unprecedentedly sharp and... cold. Anya and Kenneth's deaths seemed to have completely changed this police officer. "We need to use this time to find a way to completely leave. Leon, how much of your equipment still functions?"

  "Less than 30%, many functions paralyzed." Leon answered after checking.

  "Scan the train structure, especially the area behind that equipment room door. The time Anya bought with her life can't be wasted." Samuel's command was concise and cold. "We must know what's behind there besides the confined consciousness. An exit? Or other interfaces?"

  "System instability, forced scanning might trigger more serious collapse..." Leon warned.

  "Execute the order!" Samuel's voice was somewhat agitated.

  Leon looked at him, finally nodding and beginning to operate the remaining equipment.

  Sophia raised an eyebrow, seemingly somewhat surprised by Samuel's transformation, but said nothing.

  Irina and Carmen continued maintaining vigilance, but more attention focused on Samuel and Leon.

  Charles felt a trace of unease. Samuel's change was too drastic, that kind of hysterical determination, as if he'd become a different person.

  Scanning began. Weak detection beams carefully probed toward the car's rear.

  Images on screen were intermittent, full of snow and interference. But in fragmented frames, vaguely visible, deep in that data abyss confining Marcus Wong's consciousness, there seemed to be... something else.

  A larger, more complex structure outline not belonging to the train itself. Like a hidden space station, or a massive server cluster, connected to the train through countless data pipelines. And that equipment room door was merely one insignificant access point.

  "What is that..." Charles murmured.

  Just then, Leon's screen suddenly burst with sparks! A main display completely went black!

  "Can't continue! Scanning triggered deeper defenses! System backlash!" Leon quickly cut power, face pale.

  Almost simultaneously!

  "BOOM!!"

  A heavy muffled sound came from the front of the car! Immediately followed by the terrifying sound of twisting metal!

  The train lurched violently, then completely stopped!

  [Warning! Unknown collision encountered! Power system offline! Life support system switching to emergency mode! Duration unknown.]

  Absolute deathly silence enveloped the completely stopped train.

  Outside the windows, shattered, solidified data fragments drifted like cosmic dust.

  They'd succeeded in stopping the train.

  But had also trapped themselves in an unknown, dangerous system edge.

  And in this absolute silence, everyone's breathing was clearly audible.

  The killer was still among them.

  And because the train had stopped, the space for movement was compressed to the extreme.

  The hunting ground had shrunk.

  Samuel Jones slowly turned, gaze like an eagle's sweeping over the five people present: Irina, Carmen, Leon, Sophia, Charles.

  "Now," his voice was especially clear in the deathly silence, carrying a trace of cold killing intent, "we have plenty of time."

  Dear Readers, thank you for reading. The plot has reached its most tense moment. Now let's take a short break for a few days. The next chapter update will uncover the brutal truth behind this Stardroop Transit. Please stay tuned.