The Eighth Passenger

The Inverted Cross Old Woman slowly walked down the aisle, a powerful stench of decay mixed with the reek of blood washing over them. As she passed Su Jiu, the newcomer's last shred of composure crumbled, and she blurted out:

"Gao Tian, please, you have to do something!"

Gao Tian remained motionless, one hand gripping the Terror Blade as he watched.

The Inverted Cross Old Woman didn't even glance at her. She walked straight past and headed for Gao Tian's seat.

The stench of corpses seemed almost tangible. Compared to Su Jiu, the Old Woman seemed more interested in him.

Gao Tian's hand pressed down on the Terror Blade's hilt, his thumb twitching uncontrollably. The blade had been dormant for too long. In the hands of its new owner, it was eager to be drawn and kill a ghost.

He didn't draw it recklessly. The Old Woman was a passenger now, and according to the bus rules, passengers weren't allowed to kill one another.

Besides, using the Terror Blade came at a price: one of the three Living People on the bus—Su Jiu, Zhou Yan, or Ling Feifei—would have to die as its sacrifice.

Things hadn't yet gotten that bad.

The Inverted Cross Old Woman reached the row behind Gao Tian and sat down. Blood still trickled from the hole in the back of her head, pierced by the Inverted Cross. As she walked, she had left behind a dark, uneven trail of blood.

She merely sat down, closed her cloudy eyes, and shut down. She showed no interest in Gao Tian, who was only an arm's length away.

Gao Tian secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

The bus still suppressed the ghosts. Even at such close range, the Old Woman had merely sat down like an ordinary passenger. She showed no intention of killing anyone. It seemed she still followed the passenger rules.

At the same time, a new figure appeared at the bus's front door.

He was a tall man wearing a Trench Coat. The inside of his coat was stained with blood, his face looked exhausted, and his hair and beard were unkempt. He looked as if he hadn't groomed himself in quite some time.

After he got on, he didn't give off the stench of corpses. Instead, he smelled of sweat, as though he'd been rushing around for days without a bath. At that moment, though, the smell was reassuring. It was the scent of a Living Person.

Once aboard, the man first looked at the Tall Male Corpse, then turned his gaze to the Inverted Cross Old Woman. His eyes flickered between Gao Tian, Su Jiu, Zhou Yan, and the other Living People, as if checking whether they were his kind.

For a moment, both sides froze. Neither dared speak first, afraid they might mistake a ghost for a human, approach it, and trigger its Killing Rule.

The man found a seat and sat down. Whether or not he was a Living Person, there were now seven passengers on the bus. If no one got off at the next stop and another passenger boarded, they would have to hold a vote to drive someone out.

Gao Tian glanced at the bus schedule. The starting point and destination were both marked "Reality," while the names of the stops along the way were bizarre: "Blood Gate Village," "Old Town," "Bloody Foundling Ward," "Dexin Hospital"...

Pagoda Elementary School was listed as the eleventh stop. They still had nine stops to go before reaching it, and who knew how many passengers would come and go along the way?

In the silent bus, it was the fearless, clueless Ling Feifei who broke the deadlock first.

"Hey, you in front. Are you human or a ghost? Why are you on this bus?

"Don't tell me you're here on a mission like us..."

The man seemed a little surprised that Ling Feifei had spoken to him first. His sharp gaze swept over her again.

"I'm here to find someone.

"I've been going back and forth through this awful place for over a month, and I haven't run into a single Living Person. I didn't expect to meet four at once today."

"The others on this bus are your companions, too, right?"

Gao Tian was astonished.

Even sitting inside the bus, protected by it, they still felt like danger lurked at every turn after entering the Inner World. Yet this man in the Trench Coat had been in the Inner World for a month. Judging by the way he'd boarded, he could move freely between different Supernatural Places. He was clearly very capable.

Still, Gao Tian didn't approach him. The man looked human, but who knew whether he really was one? Since Ling Feifei loved talking so much, he'd let her do the asking.

Sure enough, Ling Feifei couldn't hold back and rattled on:

"We came from the Living Person Apartment. That awful place sends us on missions every so often.

"This time, our destination is Pagoda Elementary School. You know it, right, Uncle? Oh, you said you were looking for someone. Do you have family in the Inner World? Which stop are you getting off at?"

The man pondered for a moment before introducing himself.

"I didn't quite understand what you meant by the Living Person Apartment. But I assume it's some kind of curse-like mechanism that forces you into the Inner World.

"I'm not quite like you. I'm a Ghost Hunter. I've dealt with all kinds of Supernatural Events, though I retired some time ago.

"But last year, a Vengeful Ghost dragged my only child with my late wife into the Inner World. I still don't know where my child is.

"I've been using this bus to travel through the Inner World for over a month, searching for my child. I've nearly died several times along the way, but so far, I still haven't found them."

He glanced at his watch, as if checking how much time had passed in the real world.

"We're all human. You're trying to survive, and I'm looking for someone. We can stay out of each other's way. When it's time to vote, those of us who are human will have to work together and help one another."

As he'd said, anyone with common sense knew that the humans on the bus had to stick together. Otherwise, they wouldn't stand a chance among the Vengeful Ghosts.

"By the way, my name is Shen Nian. People in the business call me Shen Sanqiang. You can call me A Nian, too."

The man spoke. Beneath his Trench Coat, several bulges suggested he had a number of guns hidden away.

On the bus, the Ghost Hunter who called himself Shen Nian chatted off and on with Ling Feifei and Zhou Yan. The atmosphere was so oppressive that it made them drowsy. Just then, Bus 444 braked slightly, rousing the Living People on board. It had reached its third stop: Dexin Hospital.

As the front door opened, Shen Nian's hand pressed against the guns beneath his coat. His whole body went on alert.

An experienced Ghost Hunter was always on guard around ghosts. Shen Nian had spent a long time in the Inner World and knew that Bus 444 was itself a Supernatural Event. It was entirely possible they'd encounter something far more terrifying than the bus—something that would ignore its rules and kill them on board.

The Inner World was a place beyond comprehension. Being on the bus didn't mean they were absolutely safe.

For some reason, the Gray Fog outside was especially dense at this stop. The bus doors had been open for less than a minute, but the incomprehensible mist had already begun drifting in, greatly reducing visibility inside.

Through the windows, a Gothic White Hospital Building could be seen far away, barely visible through the Gray Sea.

A long shadow fell across the front of the bus.

Clack, clack.

This passenger seemed exceptionally tall, almost reaching the ceiling.

When the Eighth Passenger boarded, the red number on the screen changed from 7 to 8. As soon as Gao Tian saw its face, his pupils shrank to pinpoints with fear and shock. Veins bulged across the back of the hand gripping his knife. It took an immense effort of will to stop himself from drawing it immediately.

He'd never imagined he would encounter this one in the Inner World.

The newcomer was also a tall "man" dressed entirely in black. But unlike the others, he was extraordinarily tall. The topmost head on his body had to stay bent down once he entered the bus, or it would hit the ceiling.

The Second Head, stacked beneath the first, belonged to a middle-aged woman. She had lipstick freshly applied to her lips.

Below the woman's head was an old man with a haggard face. He was so old that his face was furrowed with wrinkles, making it impossible to tell whether he was a grandfather or a grandmother.

Below the old man's head was a chubby Little Boy, constantly chewing something and making crunching noises.

Beneath the Little Boy's head was a soldier wearing tactical goggles and armed to the teeth...

The body of this new passenger was made up of countless heads stacked on top of one another.

Below each head was another head. Where other people had torsos and legs, it had more heads.

It walked in a crooked, wavering way, like a twisted Centipede of Heads. Its black coat clung tightly to its Body of Heads. From behind, its silhouette could just about pass for a tall "man" with an odd gait.

When its coat fell open, countless faces and eyes beneath it would all turn toward you at once. The sight was enough to make anyone's sanity plummet.

Gao Tian knew this Ghost. Or rather, he'd never seen it in person, but he'd heard its name in stories.

At Sapphire Mall, the one who killed Xu Yuan and took his head was a Four-headed Vengeful Ghost.

This Vengeful Ghost had a habit of collecting its victims' heads after killing them.

When Xu Yuan first encountered it, it had only four heads. It had been some time since then, and now the heads beneath its coat were packed together so densely that they seemed to stretch into an endless abyss, beyond counting.

At the same time, with the Eighth Passenger boarding, the bus's First Round of Voting officially began.

All the Vengeful Ghosts on the bus temporarily revived.