UNDERPASS 666 - Cyberpunk 万灯会

Shoot the wisps. The lanterns are not targets - they are vessels.

The abandoned underpass of Route 666 runs 104 metres, then begins again. You cannot stop, turn back, or slow down. Cut into the concrete above the entrance is a line from Dante: Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate. Beside it a sign reads: LENGTH 104 m, EXITS 1.

Mando-e (万灯会) is a Buddhist rite in which lamps are offered by the ten thousand. That is what you do here, with a flashlight in each hand.

Pale wisps drift in the dark. Shoot one and the soul is drawn into the nearest unlit lantern, which takes light in its colour. Seven colours, seven instruments - wooden fish, singing bowl, hand gong, drum, staff, bell, and for the rarest a temple bell. Light one and the same colour answers from further down the tunnel, so a single shot returns as a chord. Every hit plays the next note of Debussy’s Clair de lune.

The ghosts are holograms, tenants more than enemies. Shoot one and its soul rises as a wisp.

Once every lap, something here is wrong. Spot it and the tunnel gives up lamps.

After three minutes the tunnel slows and ten ghosts stand and wait. One of them has different eyes. Find it.

Behind them the flashlight becomes a pilgrim’s staff, and a stair of light climbs out of the tunnel over dark water. Nine lotuses wait on the steps; shoot one and it opens with a bell, and a ring of light grows at the top of the stairs.

Behind it all, Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata - worn, and worsening the longer you stay.