Chapter 36: Bus 404 (5)

Jiang Shengsheng pursed her lips tightly, her fingers brushing against the pliers hidden in her sleeve. She glanced at the young man standing before her, and her anxious heart finally steadied.

"The second game: a virus that spreads only through wounds. Find the infected person and throw them off the bus before the next stop. Otherwise, once they mutate, no one on this bus will escape!"

With a thud, those who had been injured earlier looked at each other, terror and resentment flashing in their rapidly dilating pupils.

They had only sustained minor injuries—why treat them like this?!

If they couldn't survive, then no one else would!

Among the ten players, only the short man had been scratched on the face by the woman who resisted earlier.

At this moment, he clutched the bloody scratch on his face in panic, repeating incessantly, "Impossible! It can't be this way! I'm a player, I'm definitely not the infected one!"

The short man spiraled into madness.

Bloodshot veins crawled across his eyeballs, and his distorted, vein-popping face made the passengers around him scramble backward in fear.

Meng Zimu despised this type of person the most; death in the game was, at most, uncomfortable for a day or two in reality—it wasn't as if they would lose a limb.

He muttered a silent curse and turned around to meticulously check Jiang Shengsheng.

A bewildered Jiang Shengsheng let him turn her this way and that, obediently. Meng Zimu brushed her hat off, causing her fluffy hair to puff up.

With the soft, velvety texture of her hood still lingering on his fingertips, Meng Zimu stared intensely at his docile wife. He took a deep breath, struggling to control his nearly fraying nerves.

His dark, sticky gaze fixated on her fragile, fair neck. Meng Zimu felt the faint, sweet, and intoxicating scent of her everywhere.

He couldn't let his wife see his obsessive expression.

The mere thought of seeing disgust or fear on Jiang Shengsheng's face made his heart contract violently. A sense of self-loathing burned from his stomach to his throat, turning into a nauseating urge to vomit.

"I'm not hurt. You're very capable," Jiang Shengsheng whispered, thinking he suspected she had been scratched, as the wolf-tailed boy had lingered his gaze on her for too long.

Meng Zimu was stunned, then smiled faintly. "I know."

From the moment this fragile NPC had handed him a coin, the beast within him had willingly allowed itself to be tied with a collar bearing her name.

He was her little puppy, and she could not abandon him.

Bus 404 was in complete chaos.

Clutching their bleeding wounds in disbelief, the men who had been shouting just moments ago were utterly stunned; they never imagined they would be the ones eliminated in the second round.

The roles of predator and prey had reversed in an instant.

"No! I don't want to die! Don't throw me off!"

"It said there's only one infected person, I'm definitely not it!"

The tattooed man clawed at his hair in a frenzy, his eyes bloodshot as he took a few steps toward the crowd who feared him.

Seeing the horror and disgust on their faces, he knelt down, roaring in agony. He pounded his fists against the floor, repeating the mechanical motion even as his palms became a bloody mess, feeling no pain.

"Ah! What are you doing!" The woman huddled in the corner was startled by the man suddenly lunging at her. She screamed, flailing her arms violently, trying to struggle free.

The man, having lost his sanity, gave a gruesome grin. "Bitch! I'm not going to make it, so none of you will! You're all going to hell with me!"

The sharp blade he gripped tightly sank deep into his flesh, but he seemed not to notice as he slashed downward, panting heavily.

They had all gone mad!

Jiang Shengsheng covered her eyes.

Without sight, her hearing became unnaturally sharp; she could even hear the sound of the blade slicing through skin.

The smell of blood filling her nostrils grew thicker, and resentment, like a bottomless black hole, devoured their rationality completely.

Humanity no longer constrained them; they had degenerated into rabid, frenzied beasts.

The players were not stupid; having heard what Meng Ze said in the first game, they naturally understood his intent.

They certainly couldn't just stand by and watch these madmen harm more people.

"Oh my, oh my, how lively it is," the eerie voice echoed again. His tone was laced with blatant mockery, highly satisfied with everything happening.

"Hurry up and eliminate the infected one; the next stop is coming soon. If you can't make a decision, you'll all die here. Tee-hee."

Before the next stop arrived, the players swiftly subdued all the out-of-control individuals, snapping their wrists to prevent further chaos.

Neither the players nor the NPC passengers could or dared to gamble; they had to throw everyone who had been injured off the bus.

The female student couldn't accept this outcome. She hugged her battered boyfriend, sobbing uncontrollably, "No, I don't want you to die."

The male student, sitting weakly by the bus door, coughed a few times. "It's okay. You'll be safe if you stay behind those people. Don't worry about me."

The sound of sobbing drifted through the narrow carriage. Jiang Shengsheng didn't understand how she could encounter such terrifying events when she was only trying to visit her grandmother.

"How touching~"

"Tee-hee, the next stop—[Sangju City] has arrived! Please do not crowd when exiting."

The familiar giggling tugged at everyone's heartstrings.

The rear door creaked open automatically.

In the darkness outside, there seemed to be many indescribable things, staring with salivating eyes, directly picking out their next meal.

"Well then, passengers, have you found the real infected one?"

The hooligan sitting in the priority seat gritted his teeth. He was the first to break the frozen atmosphere, grabbing one of the now-harmless men and ruthlessly tossing him off the bus.

Once one followed, the others followed suit.

In a few moments, only messy bloodstains remained on the floorboards by the rear door.

The female student, who had witnessed her boyfriend dragged off the bus like a dead dog, sat paralyzed on the floor with hollow eyes, staring fixedly at the closing door.

"I didn't expect you all to throw away everyone who was injured. What a cold-blooded bunch."

"I really didn't want you to clear the level, but you did manage to kick the infected one off. Sigh, the next game is about to begin."

The shaken people looked up at the display screen, which had transformed into a comical smiling face. Their hearts, which had been in their throats, finally settled when they heard the next sentence.

"But before we begin, there are still passengers waiting for me at the station who haven't boarded yet. Being the soft-hearted soul I am, I naturally have to go pick them up."

The shivering passengers felt immense sympathy for the passengers waiting at the next stop, hoping they wouldn't be scared to death.

In the crowd, someone rolled their eyes and exchanged a look with the person next to them.

Passing through a dim tunnel, a faint light shone ahead. The man standing under the light heard the movement and slowly lifted his head.

"Bus 404 at your service!"

[He's quite handsome. I hope he behaves himself and has some self-awareness, rather than trying to seduce my wife Shengsheng.]

[To be honest, I don't want to see my wife thrown off the bus and torn to pieces by the monsters waiting outside (crying and biting a handkerchief.jpg)]

[Bug, you better protect my wife well. Wait for me to pick her up!]

[How many peanuts did the person above eat to get this drunk? She is clearly my baby!]

Hang Qimo ignored the two players behind him who were still struggling, took a coin from his pocket, and dropped it into the slot.

He cast a light glance at the people on the bus with their complex expressions, catching the lingering scent of blood in the carriage.

Someone had died?