Chapter 283: The disappearing pa.s.sengers and the mysterious particles of light
Translator: G.o.dBrandy Editor: Kurisu
Song Shuhang took his private pilot license back from the hands of the air hostess and said, "I’ll try my best."
"Let us pa.s.s, please." At this time, the worried Gao Moumou and Tubo forced their way through the crowd and arrived next to Song Shuhang.
Gao Moumou lowered his voice and asked, "Shuhang, what’s going on?"
"Someone has to give it a try, don’t you think?" Song Shuhang said—never would he have expected that the plane he was sitting in would have an accident. He was merely a cultivator of the First Stage and had no means to fly. If the plane were to crash, he would end up exactly like all the others pa.s.sengers, dead without a burial site.
At this reply, Gao Moumou and Tubo could only bitterly smile.
After putting away his private pilot license, Song Shuhang headed toward the control cabin. At the same time, he asked the air hostess, "Is the door of the control cabin open?"
Usually, you couldn’t enter the control cabin of civil aircrafts unless authorized. Old-style aircrafts had a key hidden somewhere to open the door, but modern ones mostly had electronic locks. And the most advanced ones could only be opened by the commander through a facial recognition system.
However, advanced airliners also had their good points—and a lot of modern airliners had a special feature; if the people inside the cabin didn’t reply to the air hostess within thirty seconds, the pilot would be considered incapacitated, and the flight attendants outside the cabin would be able to open the door by inputting the pa.s.sword.
"The control cabin is open… it should have been opened when the commander or the copilot disappeared. At the time, they probably tried to run away from that place with all their might. However, it seems that it was all in vain," the chubby air hostess explained.
"I see. Leave the rest to me." Song Shuhang was a fearless man. The more the situation was hopeless, the more he was calm and collected.
After he entered the control cabin, Tubo and Gao Moumou followed suit.
As per the air hostess’ instructions, the other pa.s.sengers stopped outside the cabin and didn’t enter as to avoid disturbing Song Shuhang. After all, this young man had flown only private aircrafts in the past.
Private aircrafts and airliners were completely different, and if everyone were to enter the cabin and disturb Song Shuhang, their chances of survival would become even lower.
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After entering the control cabin, Song Shuhang looked at the dazzling instrument panel and b.u.t.tons.
Just as he expected, it was completely different from a helicopter!
Tubo looked at Song Shuhang and said cautiously, "Shuhang, driving a car and flying an airplane aren’t the same things. Be careful…"
Song Shuhang nodded and sat down, trying to operate the accelerator of the plane. In this case, airliners were a bit of a ha.s.sle, because every company would make different planes with different ways to operate them.
Luckily, since he knew he was doomed to go on flight lessons with Senior White, Song Shuhang went to the library and read a lot of books that explained how to operate aircraft.
All kinds of information were present in these books, and now, it was finally coming in handy.
Then, Song Shuhang started to slowly pilot the plane...
Gao Moumou and Tubo looked at Song Shuhang piloting the plane; he seemed very earnest in what he was doing.
"Shuhang, when did you learn to fly an airplane?" Tubo curiously asked.
Gao Moumou said in a low voice, "You didn’t learn from a flight simulator, right?"
Tubo suddenly felt his heartbeat speed up.
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Some time later, Song Shuhang disabled the automatic pilot, which had activated on its own due to the loss of signal, and restored the manual mode. The only problem was that it was completely black outside and he couldn’t see anything. Even while manually operating the plane, he could at most keep flying it steadily.
Hopefully, they would be able to get out of this jet-black world sooner or later.
"I roughly know how to fly this plane, but there is a big problem…" Song Shuhang said.
After hearing his words, Gao Moumou asked, "What problem?"
"I don’t know how to land…" Song Shuhang replied.
He previously piloted a helicopter, but a helicopter and an airliner landed in completely different ways. Although he knew the theory behind plane landing, actually being able to do it was a completely different matter!
If Song Shuhang could really land the plane just based on the theory he knew, there would be something seriously wrong!
"..." Gao Moumou.
"..." Tubo.
"Moreover, landing is hardly the biggest problem." Song Shuhang pointed ahead and bitterly smiled. "Our biggest problem is that we have no idea where we are and we don’t know what’s around us!"
Even if the lights of the plane were on, it was black all around and they couldn’t see anything.
The communication equipment and the navigation system had both lost signal. At this time, they were like blind men trying to find their way in the middle of darkness.
Gao Moumou calmly asked, "In other words… we’re doomed to die, aren’t we?"
Tubo thought a bit and took out his phone. "It seems I’ll have to write a will after all."
Just as the three of them were talking, screams suddenly echoed from the rear of the airplane. Men were shouting, women calling out in alarm, and children crying… there was a huge commotion.
"I’ll go take a look!" Gao Moumou was worried about his girlfriend Yayi and immediately headed toward the pa.s.senger compartment.
When he arrived there, he was dumbfounded.
A lot of people in the pa.s.senger compartment were standing absent-mindedly in their original positions, their bodies glittering. This strange light on their bodies made them look like fireflies in the middle of the night.
All the presents were stunned by this sudden turn of events.
"Yayi!" Then, Gao Moumou quickly ran toward his girlfriend.
Luckily, Yayi was fine; Lu Fei, her elder sister, and Song Shuhang’s foreign disciple Joseph were also safe and sound.
Yayi immediately pounced toward Gao Moumou and hugged him.
"Yayi, what happened?" Gao Moumou asked, somewhat worried.
"Earlier, many of the pa.s.sengers were suddenly shrouded in a blazing light. Just like the ones you see now." Yayi pointed at the dozens of pa.s.sengers whose bodies were covered in light.
"Afterward, all those pa.s.sengers were slowly reduced to ashes and disappeared. It was as though they were completely burned by that light." Yayi had a terrified expression on her face.
Just as she was speaking, one of the pa.s.sengers shrouded in the blazing light started to scream, and their body changed into particles of light.
These particles of light fell to the ground like sand, and the person quickly disappeared without leaving any traces behind.
Then, just as if this scream had given birth to a chain reaction, the other pa.s.sengers also started to change into particles of light one by one.
Some of the pa.s.sengers, who were changing into particles of light, were terrified and tried to cling to their friends and relatives to get help. However, they were like ‘ghosts’ and simply pa.s.sed through them...
Soon after, they quickly disappeared amidst chaotic screams.
Gao Moumou frowned and thought to himself, ‘They completely disappeared… does that mean that the commander, the copilot, the flight crew, and the pa.s.sengers from before all disappeared the same way?’
"They are not dead, right?" Yayi worriedly asked. The things that were happening couldn’t be explained through ‘logic’, and that was driving all the present on the scene crazy.
"I have no idea." Gao Moumou heaved a sigh. Then, he thoughtlessly said, "Come, let’s go to the cabin and inform Shuhang."
He too had no idea why he had such a thought… however, he believed that they might clear up the situation if they were to inform Shuhang of what had just happened.
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At this time, in the control cabin.
Tubo suddenly pointed ahead and shouted, "Shuhang, be careful! There is something ahead!"
"There is something ahead?" Song Shuhang opened his eyes wide. However, he couldn’t see anything aside from the darkness.
How is this possible? Tubo can see things I can’t?
I’m a cultivator that has opened the Eye Aperture; I can see even ghosts!
"I don’t see anything… Tubo, are you sure you’re not having hallucinations?" Song Shuhang quickly asked.
"No, I’m not mistaken. There is something very bright amidst that ma.s.s of darkness!" Tubo shouted and pointed ahead of the plane.
Song Shuhang blinked a few times but he could see nothing but darkness. Is there something wrong with my eyes?
Just as Song Shuhang was in deep thoughts, Gao Moumou entered the cabin.
The air hostess and the pa.s.sengers outside were in an uproar, afraid that the ‘light’ might suddenly appear on their bodies and turn them into particles of light. Therefore, no one really cared if Gao Moumou and the others entered the control cabin.
"Shuhang, something happened outside. A layer of blazing light covered some of the pa.s.sengers. Afterward, they changed into particles of light and disappeared," Gao Moumou said immediately after entering the cabin. "I fear that the pa.s.sengers from the first batch also disappeared this way. However, they vanished so quickly that we weren’t even able to notice this strange phenomenon."
Song Shuhang rubbed his temples… it seemed that more and more troubles were coming his way!
The scariest thing was that they didn’t even know what was happening!
If he had known earlier, Song Shuhang would have brought Venerable White along. With him around, something as insignificant as this phenomenon wouldn"t have been scary in the least!
"Eh? Shuhang! There is something bright ahead!" Gao Moumou said while pointing ahead of the plane.
He was pointing at the same place as Tubo.
"..." Song Shuhang.
What the h.e.l.l is happening? How come Tubo and Gao Moumou can see this bright thing while I can’t?
Was it something that only mortals could see but not cultivators?
"Every one of you can see it? Yayi, can you see it too?" Song Shuhang turned his head and asked Gao Moumou’s girlfriend, Yayi, with a bitter smile.
Yayi looked at Shuhang and finally nodded.
"Can you describe this bright thing you’re seeing? What is its shape?" Song Shuhang heaved a sigh.
Gao Moumou raised his brows and asked, "Shuhang, you really can’t see that light?"
"I don’t see anything besides darkness," Song Shuhang said with a bitter smile.
Gao Moumou looked at the faraway dot of light and narrowed his eyes. "Shuhang, we should wait till we get a little closer; it’s too far away right now. Anyway, from what I can see, it seems like a green dot giving off a golden radiance…"