"What? Tracks?"
Chen Xuan turned for a closer look. Those "meridians" did run in parallel pairs, with smaller tendrils laid out crosswise between them. Calling them miniature tracks didn't seem wrong—
"But it's imitating a subway train. The tracks shouldn't be part of the train, should they?"
"Who knows? We understand very little about Nano-Lifeforms. As a new form of life, they've only been around for thirty or forty years." Lin Qing rubbed her forehead. "I've named this phenomenon Divergence. Its mimicry has clearly crossed the boundaries of its original form and begun extending into something else. That's an extremely dangerous warning sign."
"Some people call it Cancerization," Xiao Ji added. "No clear boundaries, unchecked growth. Sounds a lot like cancer cells, doesn't it? The poor residents of Amusement Park Station were swallowed by the subway without a chance to prepare."
It was terrifying.
If the Ghost Subway could really climb to the upper levels, every shelter built around a subway station would become desperately unsafe.
"The Mutual Aid Society can't just ignore news this important, can it?" Chen Xuan asked.
"It's not that they refused to listen entirely." Contempt crept into Lin Qing's voice. "As soon as we discovered it, we sent someone to notify Central Station. Their first reaction was disbelief. They planned to send an investigation team to Foothill Mountain District. Their second was that, even if we were right, making an enemy of a Large Nano-Lifeform would be unwise. They'd rather seal off the platform level with reinforced concrete, then dig a vertical shaft from the first or second level down to the bottom."
"Hmm... That sounds workable."
It was simple, cheap, and involved little sacrifice. Chen Xuan saw no problem with it.
Provided the tracks couldn't break through the concrete walls.
"And lose the transport