Carnivore (1) Passenger Bus

March 12th, 8:00 PM. The countdown before his eyes showed one hour remaining.

Qi Si had dressed early and sat on the sofa, his pockets stuffed with various small tools like Swiss Army knives, a newly purchased chainsaw cradled in his arms, and a gun gripped in his right hand.

This gun had been left behind by Liu Ajiu; although it was a standard-issue model, it was not the type easily obtained on the open market.

Considering that he had "illegally" brought his custom bracelet into his first instance, Qi Si believed there were two possibilities: either the bracelet itself was problematic, or he was the one who was problematic.

He had already asked a "friend" to investigate the former possibility; as for the latter... he was eager to test if he could bring other items into the instance as well.

As the saying goes, "all fear stems from a lack of firepower." While physical attacks might not necessarily work on Eerie entities, if he couldn't kill the Eerie, couldn't he at least kill his teammates?

Time ticked away second by second. With nothing pressing to do, Qi Si simply pulled a book from the shelf and began to flip through it.

When the countdown hit zero, he was reading a passage describing human consumption during a famine:

"Once the canteen disbanded, every household was out of food, scrambling to peel elm bark. My mother was weak and couldn't get any. The elm bark was chopped into bits, stir-fried dry, then ground into flour to make soup. That soup was delicious; it was thick and sticky. When it cooled, you'd slurp it down—a whole bowl in one gulp. Strange as it sounds, my grandmother had already fallen into a coma and was delirious, but the moment my eldest sister-in-law put a piece of elm bark steamed bun into her mouth, she stopped raving and started gnawing on it..."

[Countdown has ended. Preparing to enter the next instance.]

His immersive reading was interrupted by a harsh, grating prompt.

The scene spun wildly. The colors before his eyes scattered like quicksand, returning to the pitch-black void of the universe's birth, until, at a certain moment, a faint glimmer appeared.

Qi Si found himself standing before a full-length mirror. The reflection flashed once and vanished, replaced by two lines of silvery-white text.

[You have not yet become an official player; you do not have the authority to select an instance.]

[The instance is randomly generated and does not consume real-world time.]

The text lingered for fifteen seconds before dissipating, leaving only a black vortex swirling slowly in the center of the mirror.

Qi Si stepped into the vortex.

The moment he walked into the mirror, all light vanished, and he was plunged into darkness.

[Randomly generating instance...]

[Instance loading... Loading complete.]

Shaking—a dizzying, nauseating shaking.

Bumping, accompanied by a "creak-creak" sound, as if it were about to shatter one's very skeleton.

The air was thick with the scent of aged leather, mixed with a heavy, cloying blend of cigarette smoke and gasoline.

Qi Si's consciousness blurred for a moment, and a familiar sense of weakness—the kind that follows severe blood loss—surged up, as if he had just been ripped from a muddled dream.

He opened his eyes and found himself sitting on a medium-sized passenger bus. He had no gun, no chainsaw, and none of the small tools he had meticulously prepared. He only had the custom bracelet on his right wrist, the [Rose Heart] hanging around his neck, and the [Pocket Watch of Fate] in his left pocket.

In the upper right corner of his vision hung a card woven in red and black. A portrait of a face, half of which was spewing tentacles and eyeballs, stared at Qi Si with a mocking smile.

The moment his gaze touched it, lines of text refreshed beneath the card:

[Identity Card: Humanoid Evil Spirit]

[Effect: You will find it easier to establish connections with Evil Gods, Evil Objects, Evil Spirits, and similar existences (Hidden effect yet to be explored)]

Could the Identity Card unlocked in the Rose Manor actually be brought into other instances? Why hadn't anyone on the forums mentioned this?

Also, how were Evil Gods, Evil Objects, and Evil Spirits defined? Did this mean he was more likely to attract ghosts?

An inexplicable premonition rose in Qi Si's heart that a massive trouble was surging beneath the surface.

He shifted his gaze to observe his surroundings.

Including the driver's seat, there were twelve seats on the bus. He sat by the window, where he could just make out the withered wheat fields and the dusty sky through the stained glass.

The typical rural landscape receded as the bus sped along, becoming monotonous after a while.

Every seat on the bus, save for the driver's, was filled. Men and women with drowsy, drooping heads were now waking up one by one. Some looked relatively calm, while others were trembling like frightened birds.

A scream rang out in the cramped cabin, coming from the girl sitting in the seat in front of Qi Si.

The girl looked to be under twenty, with a bob haircut and a student-like appearance. Her baby face was covered in freckles, and she wore a long, light-gray down jacket that made her look quite petite.

She trembled, timidly eyeing the people around her, and asked in a voice as faint as a mosquito's: "Where is this? Who... who are you people?"

"Big sister, if you're sitting here, you must have picked up a black card too, right?" The person who spoke was sitting next to Qi Si—a chubby man in his early twenties wearing a wool coat. Because he was built wide, he looked quite sturdy.

The chubby man spoke with a Northeastern accent, sounding rather enthusiastic: "The card I picked up said this is an Eerie Game. If you clear it, you can have your wishes granted."

The girl wiped her tears, her voice thick with sobs: "I don't want my wishes granted... I thought I was dreaming, so I said 'yes'... I just want to go home now. Won't you let me go?"

"If you just want to leave, try to survive a few more days and see if you can clear the final instance." The speaker was a middle-aged man in a green military overcoat. He had messy, greasy hair, and his sharp-featured face was covered in stubble, weathered by wind and frost.

"What... what is the final instance?"

"Don't know. I've only heard rumors. It's been thirty-six years, and I've never seen anyone clear it." After saying this, the middle-aged man turned his head away to gaze at the wheat fields outside.

The woman with the square face sitting next to him, dressed in black sportswear, answered patiently: "Little sister, the final instance is the ultimate test of the Eerie Game. Official players who have cleared more than three instances can trigger it at any time. As long as one player clears it, the Eerie Game can be shut down, releasing all players."

"How... how do you clear the final instance?"

"We all want to know, but unfortunately, no one has the answer. But don't worry too much, little sister. After you clear it, you can wish to leave the game. I heard you just need to save up ten million points. Once you become an official player, you can earn points through investments, business, and other means, and even choose to enter simple instances. I hear that by then, it's no different from normal life..."

As the woman was speaking, a blond youth who had been curled up in his seat sleeping seemed to be woken by the noise and shouted impatiently: "Can you keep it down? Are you going to let a guy sleep or not?"

The group exchanged glances with one another.

To be able to sleep so soundly after entering a dungeon—either they were incredibly thick-skinned, or they were a top-tier expert.

Then, they saw the blond youth groggily open his eyes and look around, his eyes suddenly widening: "F*ck! What kind of hellhole is this? Where's my gear?"

He shoved his hands into his pockets, and a second later, let out an even more miserable howl: "God! Where's my phone?!"

Well, it seemed this one was also a newcomer, and the type who still couldn't grasp the situation.

What Qi Si found more intriguing was that while the youth had a Western face, the words he spoke were in standard Mandarin that everyone present could understand.

He didn't know if the youth was simply fluent in Chinese or if the Eerie Game provided translation.

"This... friend from abroad, don't panic. Aside from your body and clothes, nothing else can be brought into a dungeon," a thin, scholarly-looking man said with a smile. "Try to recall the basic common knowledge about this game; the invitation letter should have already told you."

The white youth quieted down, likely recalling some information.

Once he understood the situation, he looked as if he had witnessed a miracle, muttering incessantly under his breath: "Wow! Supernatural event! Cool!"

The girl, also a newcomer, hadn't stopped crying; she wiped her tears away weakly, looking as though a gust of wind could knock her over.

If they had seen this demeanor outside, most of the men present would have felt a strong urge to protect her; but in the game, their first thought was: With a teammate this weak, won't she drag the team down?

Fortunately, although the girl was terrified, she still had some sense and didn't do something as suicidal as demanding the bus to stop.

Of course, she couldn't have demanded it anyway, because the driver's seat of this bus was empty—it was either autonomous driving or a genuine supernatural event.

There were eleven people on the bus in total, and most of them, including Qi Si, maintained a cold silence.

Amidst the stagnant atmosphere, the dungeon information arrived belatedly.

[Dungeon Name: Carnivore]
[Dungeon Type: Team Survival (11 people)]
[Main Quest: Survive in Su Village for five days]
[Prerequisite Hint: The blood-soaked truth is buried within the villagers' fragmented words. Restore the truth from their speech and recount it at the appropriate time; the villagers will be unable to cause you harm.]

Four lines of text refreshed on the system panel. Qi Si looked at the words "Su Village," his expression listless.

He hated the countryside, especially this kind of dusty, Chinese-style rural village.

After his parents died, he had been taken to the countryside to live for nearly a year, and he had developed a pathological urge to vomit at the mere thought of it.

Now, he didn't want to stay here for even a single day longer.

I wonder what the minimum death toll is? Is one death a day enough? If one isn't enough, then how about two?

Qi Si calculated with malice, only to quickly realize with disappointment that, given the physiques of the players present, he could at most bully the elderly, weak, women, or children, and even that would require them to be alone.

Next, he would either have to make use of the dungeon's mechanics, like how he transformed into a "Humanoid Evil Spirit" in Rose Manor, or honestly collect clues and strive to crack the world-building as soon as possible...

Qi Si touched the Pocket Watch of Fate in his pocket, shifted his gaze nonchalantly, and let his eyes fall upon the empty driver's seat.

The mission location was in Su Village, yet they were still arranged to take a bus there; it really was quite redundant, wasn't it...

[Note] Quoted from Yang Xianhui's Chronicles of the Dingxi Orphanage.