Chapter 54: The True Meaning of Social Anxiety Is to Make Society Fear

Mingyang City, High-Speed Railway North Station.

The attendant stood at the entrance of the carriage.

Seeing the small group of people on the platform smoking, she sighed and reminded them:

“All passengers, please note: Train D2233 is only temporarily stopping at this platform for a short time. Those who have stepped off to smoke must return quickly to avoid missing the train.”

This happened often.

She was used to it by now.

Every time the train paused at the platform, a few passengers couldn’t resist stepping off to light a cigarette, as if leaving it for hours would kill them.

True to form, upon hearing the announcement, the group took two deep puffs, crushed out their cigarettes, and hurried back inside to avoid missing the train.

Seeing them return, the attendant stepped into the carriage.

But she didn’t notice an old man, fifty or sixty years old, completely ignoring her words.

He kept puffing smoke, his face twisted with bitterness and disdain.

“Hmph! You’re telling me what to do? I paid for my ticket—without me, are you going to leave anyway?”

The old man, who had spent most of his life clinging to petty advantages and self-interest, radiated bizarre confidence.

Beep-beep-beep—

No sooner had he finished speaking than the door-closing alert sounded.

As the carriage doors sealed shut, the old man panicked.

He frantically stamped out his cigarette on the ground and tried to pry the doors open with his hands.

He screamed shrilly: “I haven’t gotten on yet!”

Just inside the carriage, near the door, stood a thin, bookish boy wearing black-rimmed glasses.

He stepped closer and warned: “Old man, be careful—you’ll get your hand caught. It’s dangerous!”

“Why did the door close?! Open it for me right now!” the old man pounded on the door, roaring.

The boy seemed genuinely concerned for the old man’s plight.

After a brief pause, he said quickly: “Don’t worry, I’ll go find the attendant. What’s your seat number?”

“10F by the window! Hurry up!” the old man couldn’t wait.

Watching the boy sprint deeper into the carriage,

he felt slightly reassured.

He muttered to himself: “Good people are still out there…”

Unbeknownst to him, the boy inside had not gone to find the attendant.

He quickly located seat 10F.

Sure enough, it was by the window.

And it was empty—only scattered fruit peels and nut shells remained, likely from the old man’s snacking before stepping off.

The boy swept the debris into a trash bag.

Then, with perfect ease, he sat down.

As if the seat had always been his.

A faint smile curled his lips: “Good people really do exist—knew I was in a rush and couldn’t get a seat, so he got off just to leave it for me.”

Whoosh—

The high-speed train surged forward with a steady hum.

Wu Wang waved through the window at the old man on the platform, his face turning purple with rage: “Thanks a lot! Hope you rest in eternal peace.”

He had asked his second sister about the whereabouts from back then.

The odd part was, whether because of the replica or because Gentleman Penguin had cleaned up the aftermath,

his sister’s memory of that quest for her origins had become a solo mountain hike and picnic.

But bad luck struck—she got caught in a downpour.

So she just spent the night in a county town outside the mountains.

She treated it as a little vacation to relax.

Wu Wang immediately booked the next available high-speed train.

Heading to the county town where his sister had gone on her “vacation.”

If all went as expected, he’d find clues about Yin Yuan Village there.

“Do other Spirit Disaster players know that replicas can alter timelines? What’s the Spirit Affairs Bureau’s stance?” Wu Wang wondered.

He was certain the replica he experienced was from five years ago.

The reason was simple—

His second sister could truly see ghosts.

In the replica, Wu Xiaoyou had said she’d seen ghosts since childhood, and that a fortune-teller who could capture ghosts had tricked her into searching for her origins.

Ever since emerging from the replica, Wu Wang had wondered how to verify this in reality.

Asking directly was impossible.

He couldn’t explain how he’d come to know such a thing.

Fortunately, among the replica’s reward items,

there was one item that might be haunted.

He decided to test it.

【Skill Evolution Guidance Item】!

The black pen’s description emphasized that you must bid farewell to the spirit after use.

This matched Wu Wang’s understanding of the spirit-writing game.

Legend said that if you didn’t say goodbye, the spirit would haunt the summoner.

Eventually, the person would die a strange death.

So Wu Wang deliberately did not bid farewell.

He hoped the spirit would curse him.

“Younger brother, you must be careful these days, understand? Watch out when drinking water—don’t choke. Keep dangerous items safely stored and don’t touch them.”

Before leaving, his second sister had repeatedly warned him about safety, out of nowhere.

Wu Wang also noticed

that her gaze never rested on his face.

Instead, she kept staring at his shoulder.

As if something were there.

In that moment, he understood.

The spirit-writing ghost had indeed come to curse him.

And his sister had seen it.

“Spirit Affairs Bureau, the replica’s impact on reality, the truth of history…”

Wu Wang, finally seated, scrolled through his phone.

The search bar displayed a list of keywords he’d typed.

But to others, the boy was just scrolling through short videos to pass the time.

【Spirit Disaster Game App】!

Bai Li Dao had explained this to Wu Wang during his beginner tutorial—

After becoming a Spirit Disaster player, this app would automatically appear on any electronic device they held.

And the app had extreme privacy.

Its icon and content were visible only to the person who opened it.

Even if another Spirit Disaster player stood beside you, they couldn’t see what you were viewing unless you’d granted public access in the app’s backend settings—let alone ordinary people.

This app was essentially the Spirit Disaster players’ private forum.

From replica guides to local hookups.

Every type of guide and mission board was available.

He even found a few threads about Ai Si Aimu—no surprise, the Spirit Disaster player circle was indeed complicated.

He’d learned most things through the app.

But one thing remained unfindable.

Anything regarding the 【Spirit Disaster Game】’s very purpose.

No post, anywhere, mentioned it.

This included, naturally, any mention of replicas altering timelines.

But Wu Wang wasn’t stupid.

He believed such an obvious phenomenon couldn’t possibly go unnoticed by the Spirit Affairs Bureau—a semi-official organization within the country.

So he wondered how much they actually knew.

He might need to start with Bai Li Dao…

Pfft—

As he was deep in thought, Wu Wang suddenly felt a sharp pain in his buttocks.

He reached back and touched it—his fingers came away crimson.

He reached out again and pulled out a strange black pen from beneath the seat cushion.

The person beside him stared at him with an odd expression.

Especially at his reddened palm.

Wu Wang smiled politely and explained, “Sorry, my aunt’s husband showed up. In modern society, could you please accommodate a social anxiety sufferer like me and stop staring over here? You’re a creep.”

“Otherwise, I’ll post you on Xiaohongshu.”

“Family~ Who gets this~”

Hearing the guy start acting insane, the people around quickly looked away.

You call this social anxiety?

Being so terrifying to society counts as social anxiety, right!?

Now, until arrival: still seven hours.

Wu Wang remained completely unaware.

The target location of this journey had begun to show problems.

The Strange Affairs Bureau was sealing off access to and from the mountain range where Yin Yuan Village lay.

Because they had discovered.

The malevolent energy fluctuation was far too powerful.

So they were waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Reinforcements from Mingyang City…