Exchanging information

Shifting his gaze away from Zhang Yibu, Su Bai quickly scanned the interior of the Route 444 Last Bus again.

Aside from him and the three newcomers, the heavily made-up woman in the white qipao, whose hands had turned to paper, was still sitting beside Qin Ge. From Su Bai's angle, however, he could see that not only her hands but her legs had become thin sheets of paper too. Even wrapped in her white qipao, her entire lower body hung limply over the seat, fluttering in the wind blowing through the open bus doors.

At first glance, it looked as though only half a body sat there.

The ghost bride still sat upright in the last row, still bleeding. Her wedding dress was embroidered with intricate, elaborate patterns, and an equally ornate phoenix crown was faintly visible beneath her bridal veil. Unlike other bridal veils, however, hers had silver bells tied to all four corners. They made no sound only because she sat utterly motionless.

Su Bai knew that the ghost bride's name was A Xi. Her brother was a hopeless gambler who had drugged her and sold her off. Unfortunately, the buyer had not been a "person," but the terrifying Ghost Village, which practiced ghost marriages. A Xi had died as a result, but the vengeful ghost, stripped of her memories and reason, had continued wandering the road to Ghost Village after her death. Only when she was about to kill Su Bai had their similar fates resonated, gradually restoring the memories of her life. At the end of the game, she had even chosen to become his first "vengeful ghost puzzle piece."

But Su Bai also knew that in this life, at this very moment, the ghost bride sitting in the last row was not yet A Xi. Only the ghost bride who had recovered her memories and reason was A Xi. Without them, she was nothing more than an ordinary vengeful ghost who killed according to the rules!

Besides, the A Xi who had stayed beside Su Bai like an older sister for ten years was still hidden deep within him in the form of a "puzzle piece." Having sorted that out, he felt no particular emotion when he looked at the ghost bride in the last row again.

Aside from those two conspicuous ghosts, a middle-aged man in a rumpled suit sat in the row to the right of Qin Ge and the woman in the white qipao. His face was flushed as though he were drunk. There was also the nurse who had boarded at Community Hospital Stop earlier. Her sobbing seemed not only to irritate people, but also to stir up unpleasant memories.

The white-haired old woman who had originally sat behind Su Bai must have gotten off already.

There were currently eight passengers aboard the Route 444 Last Bus.

Back at the Mist Shop, Xiao Wu had called himself the Nightmare World's search engine, but Su Bai had never asked him how to clear the Route 444 Last Bus. Perhaps that was because Su Bai already had a plan and had already worked out a way to clear this game.

After all, it was only a beginner's game. There were not many twists and turns to it.

After another glance at Zhang Yibu, Su Bai walked straight to the row behind him and sat down, placing himself between Zhang Yibu and Qin Ge. Judging by Wan Shasha's and the others' expressions, they clearly had not expected him to return so soon, much less choose a seat in the middle of their trio.

"Who exactly are you?" Qin Ge, sitting behind him, was the first to ask. "And what did you mean when you said not to get off at the final stop? That kid said he knew you in the real world. Are you human or a ghost? I remember that voice making it very clear when we entered that this was a game for beginners. If you're a newcomer too, why do you seem to know so much?"

After settling comfortably into his seat, Su Bai stretched. Although his clothes were still half-damp, the Red Moon's influence left his whole body feeling pleasantly at ease.

Su Bai could feel that even without the Mist Shop's enhancement, he absorbed the Red Moon's power far more efficiently in the Nightmare World than he had in his previous life.

He was merely a newcomer who had just entered the Nightmare World, yet he was absorbing the Red Moon's power faster than he had at his peak in his previous life. Su Bai believed he would have even more trump cards than he had back then.

"Just an ordinary high school dropout, and still alive for the time being." Leaning beside the window, Su Bai watched Qin Ge's reflection in the glass and smiled innocently. "Information should go both ways. I'm curious about your identity too, Mr. Qin. After all, there can't be many people who can sit beside a 'special passenger' and carry on a calm conversation, can there?"

"You're right. My identity isn't that important, and it's nothing I can't talk about." Qin Ge nodded in agreement. "Even if you hadn't asked, I would have told those two kids shortly. After all, I'm in a terrible position right now. I'm very likely to be the first person targeted."

"So before my situation gets any worse, there are things I really need to tell you."

Even Zhang Yibu and Wan Shasha turned to look, somewhat surprised. After spending so long on the bus, they already knew that talking and turning around would not disturb the terrifying ghost bride in the last row. The woman in the white qipao beside Qin Ge did not react to their movements either. She was simply turning her entire body into paper, little by little.

"Wan Shasha mentioned the 'missing people' in the real world earlier. The relevant authorities have actually been following those cases all along, and some of those 'missing people' really have suddenly returned after a few days. Some came back badly injured, and some were so terrified that they developed mental illnesses. Every person who returned seemed to be controlled by something. They clearly knew something, but they would rather die than talk."

"Until two months ago, when a strange letter arrived at the Relevant Authorities. The sender was an author with many published works, and one of the 'missing people' the authorities had investigated. Previously, that author had also refused to say a word about his 'disappearance,' but at that point he sent in a thick letter."

"The envelope contained seven or eight sheets of paper, but instead of words, every page was covered in dense, chaotic gibberish that was utterly unreadable. The Relevant Authorities questioned the author again because of the letter, but he flatly denied ever sending it."

"The investigation into that letter went on for over a month. Just as the Relevant Authorities' investigation team was about to give up, something incredibly strange happened." Qin Ge paused. "Overnight, the gibberish in the letter turned into readable words and numbers."

"'If you can read this letter, it means I am already dead. I died somewhere no one will ever find me, becoming a missing person forever.'" Qin Ge's voice was grave. "'This is an outcome I could foresee, but I hope what follows can save more of the "missing people" who are still alive.'"

"That was the first paragraph of the letter. The rest still consisted of densely packed numbers and symbols, but we soon discovered that they were different from the original gibberish. They were a cipher we could decode. For instance, 1-23-12-10 meant the tenth character on the twelfth line of page twenty-three in the author's first published book. He had hidden the entire letter's contents in his published books."

"Once we cracked all the codes, we could read that author's final work." Qin Ge sighed. "In the letter, he mentioned the Nightmare World and the terrifying games the chosen had to go through. Those who clear a game can choose to stay in the Nightmare World or return to the real world. Almost everyone chooses the latter. But once the next carefully designed game begins, the chosen are brought back into the world called 'Nightmare.'"

"But perhaps out of mercy from the Red Moon, anyone who clears their first game is granted a 'trait.' These traits sound meaningless, but if their owners keep exploring them, they gradually develop into useful abilities."

Qin Ge could see the astonishment in Zhang Yibu's and Wan Shasha's eyes. He also noticed that Su Bai's expression in the window's reflection had not changed at all, as though he already knew all of this.

"The trait that author received was called 'Sometimes wins at kindergarten hide-and-seek.' It sounds strange, but among all those traits, it was already one of the easier ones to explore and study."

"He became very good at hiding things, whether specific objects or himself. After discovering what his trait could do, he began researching ways to spread the secrets of the Nightmare World. But he failed again and again, as though some special force kept preventing him from doing so."

"The author refused to give up and kept trying. In the end, he finally wrote the entire letter in code, then used his hide-and-seek ability to 'hide' it. Only after he died in a Nightmare World game did the 'hiding' ability affecting the letter disappear, finally revealing its true contents."

"The letter recorded everything the author knew about the Nightmare World, along with some of the games he had participated in and how to clear them." Qin Ge took a deep breath. "Aside from that, he also speculated about why they had been chosen to enter the Nightmare World. He thought it was probably because they had encountered strange incidents beyond ordinary understanding in the real world, perhaps without even knowing it."

"The investigation team formed by the Relevant Authorities used that as their starting point. They gathered a group of volunteers and sent them to locations where strange incidents were rumored to have occurred, hoping to get more of their own investigators into the Nightmare World and obtain more information about it." As he spoke, Qin Ge pointed to himself. "I'm one of them."

So he's with the authorities.

Qin Ge's introduction did not surprise Su Bai. When he had first seen Qin Ge, he had sensed that his physique was not something a gym and protein powder could produce. The various scars faintly visible on his body also made it obvious that he had undergone all kinds of brutal professional training.

Su Bai had met plenty of people like him in his previous life. They either worked for the authorities or operated in the real world's gray areas.

Zhang Yibu's and Wan Shasha's eyes, however, lit up after hearing Qin Ge's account.

"Hee-hee-"

Just then, an eerie laugh rang out, accompanied by the sound of paper rustling in the wind. Everyone looked toward the sound and saw that the woman in the white qipao behind Zhang Yibu had turned entirely into a deathly pale paper figure, head and body included. Her once heavy but meticulous makeup had become facial features scrawled in crude paint. A red line formed a grin stretching to her ears, making anyone who glanced at her feel a chilling wind cut to the bone.

Apart from that, the White Qipao Paper Figure still did nothing. She simply sat upright beside Qin Ge as before, her hands, now thin sheets of paper, still neatly folded in front of her.

But perhaps it was an illusion: the White Qipao Paper Figure seemed to have shifted slightly closer to Qin Ge, as though she might press herself against him at any moment.

"The doors are about to close. Passengers, please take care." The driver's voice drifted over at a leisurely pace. "Next stop, Happy Neighborhood Stop. Passengers wishing to get off, please prepare."

The doors closed, cutting off the wind inside the bus. The White Qipao Paper Figure grew quieter and stopped moving closer to Qin Ge.

"Now, can you tell us who you are? Why can't we get off at the final stop?" Despite his training, Qin Ge's lips had gone a little pale. Doing his best to suppress the tension in his voice, he continued questioning Su Bai. "What you tell us might give us a clue to clearing this damned game!"