Chapter 887: Important Picture Book

The train swayed gently.

A low hum rose from beneath the floor, and the doors slowly closed amid the sigh of the air brakes.

Light poured down from above, bathing the carriage in a warm, sluggish halo that coexisted peacefully with the green, faint cold glow on the platform outside; inside and out, two worlds.

Heimu chose a window-side double seat, sat down, and placed the Witch Hat on their lap.

They crossed their legs, spread the picture book taken from the platform across their thighs, propped their chin with the left hand, and turned the pages leisurely with the right.

The pencil kitten on the cover looked especially innocent in the warm light, but the contents were anything but; the page they turned to depicted a rooftop standoff between a silver‑haired warrior and a taciturn youth, with striking composition, densely packed dialogue, each line seeming copied straight from an old‑school shoujo manga script.

Heimu flipped on, unchanged, to the next page—this one even more extreme, leaping from the standoff straight to a wall‑press.

They stared at the spread illustration for a moment, their mouth twitched slightly, then shifted gaze from the image to the system annotation visible only to them above the cover.

【Important Picture Book】

The words floated silently above the cover in the System Panel's default translucent light‑blue font, with no notes, no rank label, no description, not even an exclamation mark.

Those five words were so simple they were infuriating.

Heimu turned the page and tapped twice with a fingertip on the spot where "Important" was written.

Important—how important?

They had seen plenty of "important items".

The system marking an item "Important" usually means it's either a Task item, a trigger for a key Plot point, or a bound object linked to a core mechanism.

But these picture books, aside from the hair‑raising content, are made of ordinary stiff cardboard and cotton thread, with no detectable fluctuation.

Even if they're a data storage medium, recording the Ying Jie's information like Crystal Flower does, the storage method is overly… abstract.

One can't just claim that holding this picture book lets you travel into its world, right?

Heimu's finger lingered on the flyleaf that appeared after opening the cover.

The flyleaf, originally blank, was now slowly revealing a line of text.

The handwriting was pencil script, round and neat, each final stroke ending with a tiny upward flick—Ge Lei Xiu's hand.

Below the script appeared a simple line‑drawn icon:

A half‑open door, with warm yellow light spilling through the crack.

Followed by a second line: 【Current number of entrants allowed: 4 people】

Heimu lifted the flyleaf to their eyes.

They stared at the tiny drawn door for several seconds, then raised their eyebrows incrementally.

Indeed, it really is a passage into the picture's world.

They replayed the off‑hand remark in their mind, feeling their intuition was oddly spot‑on this time.

"Come over here for a moment."

They raised the picture book and waved toward Kesi Mo sitting opposite and Sakura, who was examining the carriage structure in the aisle.

Kesi Mo sat on the double seat opposite, spine perfectly straight, hands on the knees, posture so dignified it seemed welded to the chair.

The Kamen Rider armor's shoulder pad brushed the seat back, producing a faint metallic scrape.

Since boarding, they had kept that pose, for a quick glance upward let them see the pages Heimu flipped, and they could not predict whether their own face would appear on the next page.

This unresolved dread was far more tormenting than actually seeing it.

Hearing Heimu speak, their shoulders twitched slightly, then they sprang up with tactical‑maneuver efficiency, stepping twice to stand beside Heimu.

Sakura silently crossed from the other end of the carriage, with Ge Lei Xiu trailing behind holding a drawing board; their ice‑blue hair reflected a soft pale gold in the warm yellow light.

Heimu spread the picture book on the table between the four.

The line on the flyleaf fully materialized—【《Hua's Adventure Record》】.

Beneath the title was the tiny drawn door, with small text beside it noting "Current number of entrants allowed: 4 people".

Below the door lay the comic's cover illustration.

The image showed a gray‑blue‑haired girl in a light‑blue and plain‑white school uniform, standing atop a tall building, wind blowing her hem into a flutter.

Behind her stretched an endless sea of Nihong lights and a cluster of ancient‑style buildings with soaring eaves, a huge round moon hanging overhead.

The girl assumed a standard martial‑artist stance, eyes resolute and clear, a slight smile at the corners, exuding the aura of a hot‑blooded manga protagonist.

Heimu stared at the girl on the cover, then glanced down at the flyleaf text, and nudged the picture book forward so the other three could see clearly.

"Earlier on the platform, I detected unusual data fluctuations in these picture books. I didn't have time to explain fully then; this book is a packaged sub‑space entry. In other words,"

they tapped the tiny drawn door on the flyleaf with a fingertip, "you can go inside this."

Sakura's eyebrows twitched slightly.

They leaned forward, gray‑purple eyes scanning back and forth between the cover and the flyleaf.

"Hua's Adventure Record. Is Hua?"

"Most likely it's related to her," Heimu leaned back, fingers lightly tapping the book's edge.

"I skimmed the book's contents earlier—just a typical hot‑blood manga: a girl training, city adventures, fighting villains, protecting family. Nothing special, and none of those, ahem, weird pairing scenes."

As they spoke, Kesi Mo's propulsion wing panel emitted a soft "click," like a valve being quietly turned half a turn.

"But this picture book differs from the others. It's the only one the system marked 'Important,' and the only one whose flyleaf offers an entry option. The others lack this feature."

Heimu turned toward Ge Lei Xiu, flipping the cover to face them.

"Ge Lei Xiu, do you remember drawing this?"

Ge Lei Xiu tilted their head, ice‑blue eyes landing on the gray‑blue‑haired girl's silhouette on the cover.

They stared intently, a golden hair accessory resting quietly in their hair.

Then they shook their head, a hint of frustrated confusion in trying to recall.

"I can't recall. I drew a ton back then; sister Ailixiya kept giving me new themes. This one—seems like I drew it, but also like I didn't."

"So perhaps Ailixiya used your style to make another copy," Heimu nodded, spreading the picture book again.

It could also be that after you drew it, she took it and processed it. In any case, this picture album is linked to a subspace associated with Hua. I just checked; the entrance to that subspace is open, no additional unlocking required. Something inside is waiting for someone to enter and trigger it.

She paused, her gaze sweeping over the three people's faces in turn.

My suggestion is to go in and take a look. But we can't go all the way in—this train is still here; if something happens outside, we need someone outside to respond.