Part 1
Zerovirus
hey so i picked up a new game today, Rail of Mobius. it's basically a zero escape / steins gate style pseudosciencey murdermystery set on an underwater train with time travel elements involved.
it also happens to only exist in chinese, rn.
i've done things before where i liveblog chinese mystery visual novels and translate what's going on for the audience using series of screencaps.
would people be interested in watching me do that with this game here?
here's the title btw
it's got everything. the underwaterness of ever17. the plague doctor masked culprit(????)-ness of the nonary games. the time-travel-ness of steins;gate. (also i played the demo and the writing's surprisingly good so far.)
stanrusepa
that sounds cool! what format do you liveblog in
2Zerovirus
literally just screencaps+translations
and plus my own snarky commentary if i have anything to snark about
happens directly in discord too
Subrosian Smithy
yo, that would be fun
jjjqance
should we take bets on whether the time travel will have plotholes
snark aside, it sounds fun
Zerovirus
i've read some spoilerless reviews and they're divided on whether there are plotholes in this game
some people are praising the plot for being consistent and free of plotholes
other people are complaining that there are plotholes in time travel
so i literally don't know what'll turn out to be true
what i mean is: absolutely fuck yeah, start the betting tables
Subrosian Smithy
Zerovirus
ALRIGHT! @stanrusepa @Subrosian Smithy @jjjqance and anybody else who wants to hop aboard the underwater express!
This is Deep Blue Prison- The Nonexistent 13th Boxcar- RAIL OF MOBIUS or just Rail of Mobius for short.
yeah, the chinese part of the name is, completely different from the english part, idk why.
Zerovirus
also, the game's in traditional chinese and i'm used to reading simplified so, uh, i might make a few mistakes here or there, i'll try my best not to but if i do hopefully it won't impact the experience. ANYWAYS let's get started properly. The game opens with a bunch of Deep Quotes.
Only death and time treat everyone equally.
Someone important said that, once.
But actually that's wrong.
(the rest of this prologue is basically whitetextonblackbackground like this so i'm going to stop clipping and just translate it)
Time is not equal.
It is not equal, because time is defined by humans.
If you change the definition, the length of time will also change.
Let us take the 'second' as an example.
Zerovirus
In the time between 1000 AD to 1960 AD, the definition of a second was 1/86400ths of an average solar day.
Between 1960 and 1967, the definition of a second had become 1/86400ths of the amount of time it took Earth to complete a single revolution in the year 1960.
Zerovirus
Now, in the modern day, the definition of a second is 9192631770 half-lives of a Cesium atom.
This is to say, time isn't an absolute and unchangeable thing.
Even while we occupy the same Earth, the time that we experience remains inconstant.
Because of time zones and time delays, some of us are 'today' and some of us are 'tomorrow' and some of us are 'yesterday'.
So, what is the true 'present'?
What is the 'past' and what is the 'future'?
The 'true' time- where can such a thing be found?
an ominous prologue!
Subrosian Smithy
our narrator gonna freak when he hears about relativity
1Zerovirus
full of nonsense technobabble.
a perfect opening to a bullshit pseudoscience game!
jjjqance
Lots of VN philosophy energy
Zerovirus
now we're getting TIMESTAMPS. in the year 20XX, at an unknown hour on december 3rd and at an unknown location,
alarming music is playing in the background and the screen is flashing red.
An ear-ringing alarm rings incessantly.
The screen's shaking, too. Shit's going bad!
The protagonist's wondering if the train they're on- yep, we're apparently starting in medias-res on an underwater train- is emergency braking.
Like with a sudden brake, the decelerating train car shakes uncontrollably again!
The alarms sound like they're going to pierce my eardrums.
the viewpoint character shakes and flips around- the screen literally does a 720-degree spin here- and they bump the back of their neck on something.
Searing hot blood drips down, and my consciousness begins to waver.
jjjqance
Ow
Zerovirus
And then the glass cracks.
??: Wait.....
They struggle to escape death, but to no avail. Their limbs won't respond.
??: I don't want to die!
tough luck, though, buddy.
hope you're good at holding your breath.
The endless transparency rushes me and completely engulfs me.
they begin to drown.
jjjqance
Bad end already, sad
Zerovirus
I opened my mouth to scream, but the water that flooded into my mouth meant that I couldn't force a single word out.
My body grew cold, and my strength dissolved into the water.
I died.
Cause and effect are sealed.
Subrosian Smithy
😔
Zerovirus
The tragedy is destined.
It took a long time for me to realize, though, that this was really only the beginning...
well, yeah, no shit, we're just in the prologue
timestamp changes- to... december FIRST, at noon, at 'Origin Station'.
we're... two days in the past, now!
Wu Shi: Heya!
jjjqance
Origin station seems a little on the nose
Zerovirus
Yep, that's us! Generic VN everyman protag.
His name is Wu Shi- and I have to make a bit of a digression here, his name is So Symbolic it's kind of silly.
His name literally translates to 'My Time'; the 'Wu' part, 吾, means 'me, my, mine', but it's, like, an Ye Olde Englishe sort of pronoun, very old-fashioned, and definitely a VERY rare surname
the Shi part 时 translates to 'time / hour'.
so, in a game about time travel,
which just spent an entire prologue bullshitting about time,
it turns out our protag's name is literally My Time.
time-kun.
Subrosian Smithy
incredible
Zerovirus
Our buddy time boy has a lot of excited portraits!
He's excited, because,
Wu Shi: I'm so excited to be standing in the Origin Station of the Tour of Time that I can't help but cheer out loud!
so we now apparently know what this giant sci-fi looking train behind him is called. It's the Tour of Time!
i wonder how many more themed names we'll run into
(a lot probably.)
our classmates give us a bit of a weird side-eye for being so EXCITED about a train, but, hey, whatever. enter New Character!
Zerovirus
her name is Ji Hengsheng, and as far as i can tell, her name is, like, completely ordinary.
Like, just, a completely average and normal girl character name.
i had to look up each of the characters in her name and as far as i can tell they don't have any hidden meaning that has to do with trains, underwater plague doctor culprits, or time travel. just a regular old lunargoddess/flutelikemusicalinstrument name.
Anyways, she makes us stop making a scene about the train.
Ji Hengsheng: Everyone's looking at us, so can you NOT scream so loud?
timeboy refuses to calm down, and conveniently takes the opportunity to infodump to us about how COOL the Tour of Time is.
nightpool
>Yes, you're certain that somebody said that once. You're 100% positive.
Zerovirus
It's a super high-tech twelve-car train that travels in a circle underwater! How is that not the COOLEST THING?
Underwater trains!!!!!!!!
nightpool
who doesn't love trains
2Zerovirus
In conclusion, he says, it's everyone that's NOT so excited about this train that's being objectively wrong, because this train is that cool.
Right, random nameless passing-by-student???
(It literally says, 'student passing by'. I... don't know why she has a portrait.)
(I'm not sure if she's a Hidden Major Character or if the developers were just like, 'we have the budget, let's draw portraits for EVERYONE, yet.)
nightpool
do we get an explanation for why the train is called the Tour of Time yet or is that just #foreshadowing
Zerovirus
#foreshadowing but don't worry
it's not that far off
anyways, while our friend's apologizing for making a scene, we instead drift off into a convenient backstory flashback about her!
time... to character-infodump!!!
The girl by my side is named Ji Hengsheng, and she's my childhood friend who I grew up with.
The infodump doesn't actually have that much going on.
It mostly expresses how used to each other and familiar with each other they are.
I suppose it's VN tradition to introduce the Childhood Friend first!
Zerovirus
I'm sure absolutely nothing bad will happen to her.
Wu Shi makes a few more jokes about needing to take care of her, she retaliates by saying that clearly SHE'S the one taking care of HIM right now, they have a play-fight, everyone else tells them to get a room.
This is a character dynamic that will continue between the two of them.
Constructed by the Cesium Megacorporation, the Tour of Time is a world-renowned tourism hotspot.
jjjqance
Do u think she has a crush on him
Zerovirus
GEE I WONDER.
anyways, the game's still infodumping about the setup here.
apparently the kids are here on a class trip, and ordinarily a regular highschool class could NEVER afford to book tickets on the Tour of Time, which is extravagantly expensive.
However,
the heiress to the Cesium Megacorporation was one of their classmates at One Day High School!
So she pulled some connections and here they all were, at the end-of-year class trip.
Zerovirus
Timeboy returns to attempting to convince Ji Hengsheng of the coolness of the Tour of Time. He chooses the strategy of regaling her with nerd facts about how powerful and fast the train is and what a feat of engineering it is.
She is thoroughly unimpressed.
Ji Hengsheng: Mmmmm...
It's nine hundred meters long and can go up to two hundred kilometers per hour!
Ji Hengsheng: Mmmmm...
There's a three-year-long waiting period for tickets!!
Ji Hengsheng: Mmmmmmmmm....
seeing as this isn't working at all, our protagonist tries a different tack.
He explains that, if you do the math, regular tickets for the whole class for this train would cost a total of two million dollars.
And that gets her attention.
That's the primary other salient character trait of this girl, folks!
She is EXTREMELY economically-minded.
Loves breaking everything down into financial terms.
nightpool
One Day High School
which is itend-of-year class trip
Zerovirus
look did the game not JUST go over how time is completely subjective
and therefore there's no such thing as objective time, so a day can totally be the same as a year or whatever
come on ya gotta pay attention smh
nightpool
you're right you're right, they caught me slipping
Zerovirus
anyways now she's excited about the train.
Ji Hengsheng: The Tour of Time is absolutely incredible!
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the kind of person who goes to a buffet and gorges herself on the olives because those are the most expensive food per unit weight.
Ji Hengsheng: The train's length is three thousand six hundred Armani-platinum-purselengths! Its hourly speed maximum reaches two-thirds of a Maserati GT!
dysphere
I know it’s underwater but that really doesn’t justify the expense to me
Like, there are underwater bridges and I don’t think they cost a ton to cross
Zerovirus
this thing doesn't even go anywhere lol
it's a circular track
and yet apparently it's popular as fuck. though, the class is- like, when this story says 'class', it doesn't mean, like, 'twenty people in one class'
it means 'the whole graduating class of the school'
and chinese schools are way bigger than US schools, we may be looking at, like, at least a thousand people on this train
probably multiple
dysphere
Probably justified as sightseeing but I still don’t get it
Zerovirus
also it's- i'm guessing this game is made in taiwan, given that it's using traditional characters only
so it's probably actually taiwanese... does taiwan use yuan or dollars or what
jjjqance
if its thousands of people, then $2mil expense seems less absurd
Zerovirus
there's probably a conversion ratio going on there
the original chinese just says 'two million' without specifying currency, assuming you know what the currency is
so maybe there's a conversion factor going on there as well
jjjqance
if Hengsheng is so economically minded why did she not already know all this anyway
nightpool
taiwan's got their own currency
Zerovirus
but, anyways, yeah, this scene basically exists to establish: the Cesium Megacorporation is richasfuck our protag's childhood friend is very greedy
dysphere
Thought it was frivolous and didn’t care to look it up?
Zerovirus
see, it says it in red so it has to be true
Zerovirus
I sighed and rubbed my head.
Wu Shi: Still the same as ever, a lucre-minded woman, huh.
Ji Hengsheng: Wh, what do you mean lucre-minded?
nightpool
although if we're assuming it's NTD then NT$2M would be ~$72k usd
Zerovirus
Ji Hengsheng: What I am is skilled at budgeting, that's what I am. It's a necessary skill for housewifing, I'll have you know!
nightpool
which tbf is actually a pretty reasonably price for a pricy end-of-year high school celebration
Deleted User
what does she think housewife does?
nightpool
like, probably renting out a hotel for prom + catering costs the school around that much every year
Zerovirus
manage finances, apparently
nightpool
well, i mean, that's actually a pretty common gender role thing?
Zerovirus
anyways the game gives us our first choice. the choices are all basically 'how do we retort in this entirely ridiculous argument?'
So, in the eyes of a skilled housewife, a train can transmute itself into pursebags and supercars?
Oh, a skilled housewife, huh?
TWO MILLION!!
i... don't know if this choice matters.
or really even what kind of retorts these responses are, exactly.
any preferences, folks, or shall i just pick one at random
jjjqance
i like the first one
it seems the most logical retort if i understand the context properly
Deleted User
3 is full of PASSION
Zerovirus
...three seems to be some kind of meme i don't get.
dysphere
2, it feels vaguely like an insult
Zerovirus
i don't even know how to translate it.
the guy's just... shouting things.
it must be a reference to something i don't recognize.
nightpool
i like #2 because it seems kind of flirty and i like childhood best friends.
Zerovirus
in option two...
we say,
"Oh, a skilled housewife, huh?"
and take a ten-yuan coin out of our pocket and 'accidentally' drop it.
She immediately like without flinching picks it off the ground so fast that he's not sure he even saw it hit the ground.
This girl has ninja-like magnetic powers for capturing money.
Deleted User
wow apparently there is dedication then whatever thing she has
nightpool
honestly, great character trait. it's important to have consistent and thorough characterization!
Zerovirus
Then she insults us by implying that if we tripped and dropped another coin like that she'd catch the coin rather than catch us.
Ouch.
Very childhood friend, yep!
Deleted User
BURN
Subrosian Smithy
#2 rights
Zerovirus
We're lost for words,
so we just
resort to violence. by which i mean, we pinch her cheeks!!!
Ji Hengsheng: OWOWOWOWOWOWNOPINCHINGTHECHEEKS!!!
Zerovirus
Wu Shi: That'll learn ya for playing with my feelings!
Ji Hengsheng: I'm sorry! I've learned my lesson! I apologize profusely and deeply! Next time rather than choosing to pick the coin up, I'll choose to pick neither of you up and run off instead!
And then a third voice shows up.
??: Good to see you two are still as lovey-dovey as usual!
Wu Shi and Ji Hengsheng: I'M NOT LOVEY-DOVEY WITH HIM/HER!
1yep, okay, so, we've got a case of denial going on here huh
Zerovirus
aaaand the game introduces us to the third character!
tl;dr: sporty, tall, athletic, short-haired, very open and friendly, also a childhood friend.
His name is Yu Guang.
Deleted User
competition?!?!
or villain
Zerovirus
宇(Yu) is a decently common surname; it translates to 'galaxy', 'space', or 'heavenly canopy', roughly.
光(Guang) is also a decently common surname; it translates to 'light'.
on the sliding scale of character names, where 5 is absolutely ridiculously chuuni and 1 is completely normal, i'd give this guy's name a 2.
(Our protag's name is ABSOLUTELY a 5. Ji Hengsheng's name is a 1.)
He's here to tell us to stop goofin' around and pay attention to the stage up ahead!
Zerovirus
I've got'em pegged as a Magician Arcana, to use a Persona metaphor.
Zerovirus
Yu Guang reminds that we're only able to take this trip thanks to the generosity of the 'Se family princess', Se Yue, i.e. the heir of the Cesium Megacorporation
name digression again!
Se Yue is a ridiculous name.
like, i regret giving our protag's name a 5/5 chuuni, because HER name is, like, a 6/5.
铯 is not a surname, like, at all, what the fuck, who the fuck is named that,
It literally means CESIUM,
the element
it was a character invented specifically to mean cesium, for that one specific use-case
it has no reason to be part of any sort of family name structure, it's never been grandfathered in like all the Lis and Zhangs and Lius and whatever
dysphere
Maybe her family discovered cesium? I thought lithium would make a nice name
Zerovirus
the other half of her name is just a plain old 月, or Moon.
her name translates to Cesium Moon.
Zerovirus
somehow i'm doubtful.The German chemist Robert Bunsen and physicist Gustav Kirchhoff discovered caesium in 1860 by the newly developed method of flame spectroscopy.
the ridiculousness of her name is like if you met someone, in real life, whose surname was Hydrogen.
and now that i've gotten that out of my system,
princess cesium is apparently going to give a speech before they depart on the Tour of Time!
Zerovirus
SUDDENLY, ANOTHER INTERRUPTION. Tl;dr: This one's about the Cesium Megacorporation and how rich and powerful they are. They're one of the top ten corporations in the world and they've got fingers all over basically everything- information, finance, aerospace, weapons, politics, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, whatever, basically anything that could reasonably be owned by a megacorp, they own one of it.
Nice of the game to let us know who's building the underwater deathtrap this early on!
The icon is, of course, extremely obviously a fucking stylized hourglass just some arbitrary pretty icon with no real meaning teehee.
Zerovirus
The game reminds us once again that miss Se Yue belongs to a totally different socioeconomic stratum than they do, and also mentions that they don't think they've ever heard of her going out with anybody or really talking with anybody that much in the two years that they've been in school together.
"Prissy ojou-samas are just like that," they conclude.
"I hear she's super talented in, like, everything. Chess, athletics, dancing, academics, she's only 18 but she's already published multiple cutting-edge essays in multiple fields."
jjjqance
i guess cesium is a reference to the cesium half-life thing
Zerovirus
so, basically she's a perfect ultimate ojou-sama who can do no wrong!
jjjqance
is she gonna be the kurisu
Deleted User
she has absolutely no personal problems at all
Zerovirus
oh absolutely none whatsoever
jjjqance
i bet she's gonna infodump some pseudoscience later
Zerovirus
she super loves her life and isn't pining away because she has no friends and she feels her privileged life is meaningless, at all
BUT, there's also a RUMOR about her.
they say that the only reason she's attending a school with the commoners, rather than an expensive and prestigious private school,
is because she's obsessed with some kind of dangerous experiment.
"what kind," asks our protag.
"the kind," replies our best friend, "that needs S U B J E C T S."
We're curious, but we don't get to ask more about this, because the speech is starting!
nightpool
oasjdfoajsodfjaosdjf
holy shit
that's just
a rumor
that's going around
god
Zerovirus
i mean, have you seen her
i'd start a rumor that she's secretly a science vampire too, look at that anime bleached hair
Deleted User
>commoners
jjjqance
she looks aloof
Deleted User
like unironically commoners
Zerovirus
i mean actually ironically commoners
dysphere
She looks ethereal and also her boobs are big
Zerovirus
that was my own choice of wording, not the game's
Deleted User
oh ok
Zerovirus
yeah, our protag takes a look at her and immediately says, quote, 'so beautiful.....'
you'd think this is weird
after all, we've been in the same school year for two years
but actually she hardly ever comes to school for some reason!
another mystery about the beautiful ojou-sama.
seriously there's like, ten screens all going on about how beautiful the hime is.
our protagonist compares her beauty to one that will 'steal away your soul and breath'.
like, yeah, this game, is really, setting it up, for us to expect, that this lady is the witch of rokkenjima, or some shit like that.
luckily she finally starts talking.
"Thank you all for attending this end-of-year tour together."
jjjqance
also why she standing slanted
Zerovirus
dutch angled camera
lets the artist fit more of her in frame and have a better composition without needing to draw more background
saves effort in composition
jjjqance
wait really
is that why they do that
Zerovirus
yes really
like if you have her standing vertically then you have all this empty space to her left and right
jjjqance
i guess that does make sense
Zerovirus
and also by doing it diagonally like this you give the impression that you're looking up at her from below
which makes since since she's on stage and thus the center of attention
"This place, the floor of the sea, is a place distant from worldly affairs and distractions."
"No human's will can touch this place, for this is another world entirely."
yes she is literally saying this verbatim
like, seriously, lady, real golden-and-endless-witch energies you've got goin' on here
jjjqance
catbox
Zerovirus
"So, the things that will happen here, shall be a tour that belongs exclusively to all of you here- a memory owned by you and you alone."
jjjqance
hope they don't got their camera phones on them
Zerovirus
"Let us board the Tour of Time, and complete that which is to be the final stroke of our youths."
"And let those who carry regrets with them discard them to the past."
Deleted User
final stoke huh
dysphere
The time setting is vague so maybe camera phones aren’t a thing
Zerovirus
"And let those who hold desires grasp the present."
"And let those who bear dreams look to the future."
"I, here, announce-"
dysphere
Sounds rather dramatic for an underwater train but it does sound like the kinds of speeches people make at graduation
Zerovirus
"The Tour of Time begins."
JaxThePyro
Far more badass than most graduation speeches
Zerovirus
thank goodness it's not as long as the usual graduation speech
oh, apparently, the class in this case is only 100 students.
so, yeah, no, i don't know, how the money really shakes out here
or what the size of the school is
the fact is, though, that a hundred or so students have boarded the Tour of Time, and embarked on their journey, into the black depths of the undersea tunnel.
new background!!
snazzy ride.
Ji Hengsheng's very excited.
very excited.
nightpool
maybe ji will enlighten us later
JaxThePyro
very impressive amount of leg room
Zerovirus
you get what you pay for!
dysphere
Calculator says 20k each but given conversion rates it could be cheaper than what we think it is
Zerovirus
Apparently the underwater trip's beautiful; there's fish and corals of all colors, green seagrass, white stones, and beautifully transparent blue water.
nightpool
(i already did the conversion rate above)
Zerovirus
Our girlfriend entirely platonic opposite-gender childhood friend suddenly gets very excited, because she's seen a sea turtle swimming past!
1nightpool
about $700 per ticket or something
Zerovirus
Wu Shi: They say that those who touch a sea turtle can attain incomparable luck, so do you want to try?
Ji Hengsheng: I do, but...
Ji Hengsheng: The glass is closed. We're in the sea. How am I supposed to touch the turtle?
1Zerovirus
OPEN THE WINDOW
IMITATE A SWIMMING SEA TURTLE'S MOTIONS
PULL OUT A SEA-TURTLE SHAPED KEYCHAIN
alright folks what'll it be
nightpool
okay before we choose
why do we think we just happen to have a sea-turtle shaped keychain here
jjjqance
is the implication of the 2nd that he wants her to touch him
1Deleted User
obv open the window to get the true ending
Zerovirus
because we're a thoughtful boyfriend platonic childhood best-friend of opposite gender
1jjjqance
i think we should go the horny route
okay actually i want to know the story with the keychain
nightpool
i think the swimming thing is too forward
i want slow-burn
let's see the keychain
JaxThePyro
they all die tomorrow no such thing as too forward
but also i want to see the keychain
Zerovirus
wrong, they die the day after tomorrow
this is the 1st, they die on the 3rd!
JaxThePyro
how long is the trainride?
Zerovirus
three days, i guess? i mean, i don't know yet.
anyways let's see that keychain
Zerovirus
I long since predicted you'd say that, so I prepared a baby sea turtle toy for you! Now you can fondle it while watching the real sea turtles outside, too!
Ji Hengsheng: Oh, wow, that's actually surprisingly thoughtful of you, Wu Shi!-
Wu Shi: Except the head's snapped off.
JaxThePyro
lol
Zerovirus
Deleted User
top kek
Zerovirus
Ji Hengsheng: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
SHE THROWS THE DECAPITATED SEA TURTLE TO THE FLOOOOOR.
"How could you do that? To bring you good luck I especially prepared that toy for you!"
"SCREW OFF! Good luck from touching a headless turtle? More like ten thousand years' BAD LUCK!"
jjjqance
well she's not wrong
nightpool
zodjsfoajsdofajsdof
incredible
Zerovirus
"You underestimate the generous spirit of the turtle race. I'm sure they wouldn't mind at all whether they've got heads or not."
Deleted User
man wu shi is becoming my fav character
Zerovirus
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK SEA TURTLES EVEN ARE?! OF COURSE THEY'D CARE!"
"Oh. Well, in that case, we could lop off the other four limbs as well? Then it'd just look indistinguishable from a turtle that went back in its shell, so the turtle gods probably wouldn't mind as much."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
1Ji Hengsheng grabs the sea turtle toy and hides it in her lap.
"I'll protect you from the bad men who want to lop your limbs off," she whispers to it.
JaxThePyro
the devil sparkles
nightpool
i mean, he's the protag, so you'd hope he has something going for him
Zerovirus
Wu Shi: I've managed to trick her into touching the turtle after all. Mission complete.
i honestly adore the relationship between these two.
nightpool
yeah this is fucking great
Zerovirus
usually VN writing between childhood friends doesn't get, much of a reaction out of me- i've seen too much of it
but this is some great writing
Wu Shi redirects their attention to the window, to explain the structure of the ride.
jjjqance
yeah i was gonna say she seems cooler than most childhood friend characters
Zerovirus
basically, though the ride looks like it's directly exposed to the outside water, there's actually two layers of glass- there's a glass tube around the whole train apparently and between the tube and the train is an air-filled region that lowers friction and makes it easier for the train to travel.
Wu Shi then talks about how scary it would be if the glass cracked and how, if that happened, the inside train glass would also surely crack because it's not meant to directly stand up to the pressure of the ocean water, and how if that happened everyone would die horribly.
jjjqance
dang glass not able to stand up to the water pressure
that sounds familiar
Zerovirus
we have successfully scared our girlfriend platonic childhood best-friend of opposite gender whom we are definitely not dating
jjjqance
luckily the trip probably isn't someone's weird science experiment
nightpool
oh no! we've infodumped too hard about train facts and ended up scaring her! abort!
Zerovirus
Ji Hengsheng: Why didn't you TELL me this earlier?!
Ji Hengsheng: If I'd known about this earlier, I'd... I'd......!
Wu Shi: Ha ha ha! It's too late to turn back now, foolish girl!
Ji Hengsheng: ....I'd have BOUGHT MORE HEALTH INSURAAAAANCE!!!
Now it was my turn to be concerned.
Ji Hengsheng: -Oh, wait, no, Wu Shi, you've misunderstood me.
Ji Hengsheng: I didn't mean I would buy insurance for myself, I meant that if I'd known, I'd have bought insurance for you.
Wu Shi: Wh- then who would be the beneficiary?!
Ji Hengsheng: Me, duh.
Wu Shi: Oh that makes sense- wait, fuck no, that's even WORSE than what I was worried about!
the only proper response to a warlike provocation such as this is MORE PINCHING.
nightpool
he looks so stoic about it
just another day at the pinching factory
Zerovirus
Third Wheel Whose Existence We All Forgot AboutYu Guang: Get a room, you two. Watching you two flirt is getting my hackles up.
jjjqance
he just wants in on the action
Zerovirus
WU SHI and JI HENGSHENG: >DENY
Nonono, we're absolutely not flirting.
Absolutely can't imagine dating someone like them.
jjjqance
wow they both tsundere
nightpool
has yu guang had any characterization so far beyond "get a room you two"
Zerovirus
not really beyond being 'athletic' and stuff but, he will
Zerovirus
aaaaaaand, the witch of the seafloor bullettrain comes on the intercom with an announcement.
interrupting the flirting.
and- on that note- i think i am regretfully going to have to leave off the liveblogging for tonight, as it's getting slightly late over here.
1i'll probably be back tomorrow morning!
i was hoping to get to where the time travel shit starts happening but
Straw
Thanks, it was quite entertaining!
Zerovirus
translating takes more time than just reading lol
nightpool
yeah, totally! i'm going to have to turn notifications on for this channel now lol
stanrusepa
that was great
Deleted User
thanks for liveblogging
it was pretty fun
stanrusepa
i read it late, i was busy with other things, but i learned about the dutch angle, embarrassing names and also that i would 100% be friends with the dubious megarich girl named after a literal element
she seems excessively normal
lupoCani
Turns out the "dutch angle" is in fact yet another case of "Deutsch angle" - that is, german angle - corrupted by english speakers.
Same as with Pennsylvania germans.