1

Through countless cameras in the city, we can observe everything that happens in the urban environment. We connect to a camera on the platform of the Kowloon Tong MTR station, where every passenger's eyes are glued to their phone screens, watching the same YouTube video. A schoolgirl in a uniform jumps off the platform as a train approaches. The video captures the sound of screams as the train fails to stop and passes over where the girl landed. On the phone screens, it is clearly visible that the entire train disappears into darkness as it passes over the girl's position.

 

On the MTR platform camera, we see a blonde woman of indeterminate age wearing sunglasses and a long mustard-colored trench coat, live-streaming. Her blonde hair has an unreal, almost too-perfect look. We switch the camera feed to her live stream. Over a thousand people are watching her stream, and one comment shares a news link: "Schoolgirl falls onto Kowloon Tong platform and both she and the train vanish into thin air. Police and firefighters have searched for 24 hours without finding anyone." A flood of comments follows.

 

Comment 1: "Is this an AI-generated virtual reality? How could an entire train just vanish?"

 

Comment 2: "The girl is a descendant of some elite family. They fabricated the whole train disappearance to cover up her suicide."

 

Comment 3: "The train disappeared to hide some truth." This comment quickly receives a lot of likes.

 

Comment 4: "AI is terrifying. This virtual reality is too realistic."

 

Comment 5: "This is fake news. No one will care in a few days."

 

Comment 6: "A train carries over a thousand passengers. Why haven't any relatives of the passengers sought help?"

 

The comments continue to pour in, new ones surfacing while old ones sink. The live stream camera captures an eerily still scene compared to the intense discussion. The platform has resumed normal operations, and it has been exactly 23 hours since the incident at 1:11 PM the previous day.

 

"I will conduct an experiment in one hour: at 1:11 PM today, I will wear the same school uniform as the girl in yesterday's video and jump onto the same spot on the Kowloon Tong MTR platform. The countdown starts now." The woman announces this expressionlessly in front of the camera.

 

 

2

We infiltrate a camera inside a train car, moving silently like time travelers who, despite knowing what will happen, cannot intervene. The car is engulfed in darkness, almost devoid of light. As our eyes adjust, the camera, like a cat's eye at night, captures any available light. We see two rows of light dots, reminiscent of the dots in the game Pac-Man, aligned in parallel lines, ready to be eaten by ghosts.

 

We adjust the camera to focus on the light dots, which turn out to be the glow from phone screens. Above the light is a person, eyes closed in deep sleep, with a blank expression as if their soul has been taken away. Zooming in on the eyes, we can faintly see slight eyelid movements. We cannot disturb their sleep, although we don't know what is happening. The only certainty is to adhere to the principle of non-interference.

 

As the camera feed turns into a long black-and-white film shot, we see two rows of people, eyes closed, deeply asleep like puppets with their souls eaten by ghosts, all holding glowing phones. The screens are transmitting something, likely commands, controlling the passengers. Their bodies are slowly fading, turning into a yellowish glow. The car's dark and silent environment begins to change. A shadowy female figure appears on the car's ad screen, looking in our direction as if aware of our presence, which is impossible because we are well-hidden and very skilled. We only watch, never intervene. Yet, our camera seems to be disrupted, the screen filled with static before going completely black.

 

 

3

 There are 30 minutes left until 1:11 PM.

 

The woman calling herself Pac-Man sees her follower count increasing by the second. In 30 minutes, her follower count rises by ten thousand, and over 15,000 people are watching her live stream, making her akin to a modern religious figure. Through the Kowloon Tong MTR platform camera, we see Pac-Man standing alone with her livestreaming phone, with no assistant in sight.

 

In the distance, a man and a woman lean against the distinctive light blue walls of the Kowloon Tong MTR station. We deduce they are not a real couple because, while they appear to be intently listening to music through earphones, they frequently glance distractedly at Pac-Man. They are plainclothes police officers.

 

Pac-Man speaks, and we switch the camera feed to her livestream. Still expressionless and wearing sunglasses, she states three points:

 

The missing train and passengers have not disappeared; they are in front of us, but we cannot see them.

 

This situation arose because ghosts started acting, eating their souls.

 

I am prepared to eat the ghosts at 1:11 PM because I am Pac-Man, and it is my responsibility.

 

Nearly 24 hours have passed since the incident. The police have no leads or rescue clues, and no relatives of the missing have contacted the police, so technically, there are no missing persons. It's like when you search your entire house for something but can't find it, only for it to suddenly reappear one day. It didn't disappear; it existed in a dimension we couldn't see.

 

Pac-Man continues, still expressionless: "Ghosts transmit information through phone screens, taking the souls of all passengers simultaneously. Because of the scale, their bodies and souls remain in front of us, in an unseen dimension. But I can see that dimension. We still have time to save them."

 

1:11 PM arrives.

 

 

4

 

We re-enter the dark train car, where everyone remains in an unusually deep sleep, unresponsive even to loud shouts. Their bodies gradually become transparent and slowly disappear, turning into clusters of yellow glows, which are their souls. They will become food for the ghosts. The ghosts are already lurking in this dark train car, in places we cannot see. All the passengers, with their eyes closed, face their phone screens, controlled through them. 

 

The silence of the dark train car will soon be broken. We may watch the passengers' souls being eaten by ghosts or turned into ghostly toys, disappearing forever from our visible world. The shadowy female figure on the car's ad screen still looks in our direction, just as before. Like us, she is an intruder in this space, but unlike us, who conduct non-interference live streams, she will intervene in this space. The time has come. We will watch all the passengers' souls turn into clusters of yellow light and be eaten by ghosts.

 

In the dark train car, a giant monstrous mouth slowly appears. The puppet-like figures, like tiny yellow lights, are targeted by the giant mouth, which grows from the car's ad screen like a large pizza slice, ready to devour their souls. We prepare to witness the ghost feast. The dark train car gradually brightens, with red, blue, orange, and pink mist emerging in the air—ghostly forms. The giant mouth continues to grow, seemingly ready to swallow the entire car, including the souls and ghosts. 

 

Where is the shadowy female figure from the ad screen? Suddenly, the giant yellow mouth rushes toward us. 

 

The live stream ends. 1:11 PM.

 

"Please stay away from the doors." A schoolgirl, as usual, enters the train from Kowloon Tong to Mong Kok, leaving behind a mustard-colored trench coat, a golden wig, and an outdated pair of sunglasses on the platform.