Final stop: Ghost Village

The Route 444 Last Bus currently had nine passengers.

If no passengers got off at the final stop, just one more person boarding would force Su Bai and the trio to either get off at Ghost Village or accept that they had failed their newcomer trial.

On top of that, the Ghost Bride, who had been sitting quietly at the back of the bus all this time, had suddenly gone berserk. Even though she had settled down again, the trio's anxiety and helplessness were already nearing their limit.

"Hee-hee-"

The White Qipao Paper Figure sitting beside Qin Ge had clearly sensed the growing panic inside the bus. To an evil ghost, the fear and confusion radiating from human players were like the aroma of delicious food. If the despair coming from the trio grew any stronger, the paper figure might lose control and feast on them even inside the bus.

For a while, nobody spoke. Even their breathing sounded labored.

Su Bai took the opportunity to enter a light meditative state.

When the Route 444 Last Bus first left the Lovers’ Lake stop, it had been moving very fast.

At that speed, it should not have taken long to reach the final stop, Ghost Village. Strangely, however, the Route 444 Last Bus, which had been accelerating madly before, slowed down shortly after leaving the Lovers’ Lake stop. Soon, it returned to its original pace, swaying and rocking along.

"Mr. Driver, why have we slowed down?"

At this point, Su Bai was probably the only person who would speak inside the bus. Even the two noisy water ghosts in the front row had behaved as though they did not exist since the driver's furious reprimand.

"I'm just driving an ox cart. How fast we go depends on the passengers' mood and the ox's." Given Su Bai's status as that particular individual, the driver had no choice but to answer, though a little resentment crept into his words.

The "passengers" the driver mentioned naturally did not mean passing visitors like Su Bai and the White Qipao Paper Figure. He meant the true central figure of this game-the Ghost Bride, A Xi.

The Ghost Bride probably had little reason or memory left, but some instinctive emotion seemed to make her reluctant to go to Ghost Village.

She did not want to go, but she had to, because that was the nightmare the Ghost Bride could never escape.

"We're almost there." Perhaps to give Su Bai time to prepare, the driver offered a deliberate reminder after driving a little farther. "Take a good look outside."

Qin Ge and the others failed to notice anything special about the driver's attitude. They simply assumed it was part of the extra assistance provided during the newcomer mission.

Hearing this, Su Bai stopped meditating and turned to look out the window.

Perhaps because they were nearing their destination, some of the fog outside had actually dispersed. The streetlights along the road were still dim, but there were more of them than before. With the light of the Red Moon as well, the passengers could finally make out some of their surroundings.

The bus had left the main road and entered a somewhat potholed road in the countryside. As the fog dispersed, farmland and roadside ditches appeared. At first glance, it looked much like any ordinary village outside a city.

But a closer look revealed several scarecrows planted in those fields, all of different heights, sizes, and outfits. At first, the scarecrows merely seemed a little creepy. Blink again, however, and they had climbed down from their frames and were walking toward the bus like living corpses.

Yet when those "scarecrows" reached the streetlights, they stopped, apparently unwilling to approach the light.

The bus continued onward, passing a lake even darker than Lovers’ Lake and crossing a fragile bridge. Deathly pale hands occasionally reached out of the pitch-black water, like a horrifying garden of human hands.

Even through the windows, everyone could still hear the endless wailing and howling outside.

"This damned place." The driver did not seem to like this stretch of road either.

The bus kept following the road. Though the "scenery" outside was terrifying-Zhang Yibu, the most timid of the trio, did not even dare open his eyes-the ghostly things outside never approached the bus. They did not even come near the road.

It was unclear whether this was part of the game's design or whether something on the bus frightened them.

After the bus traveled a little farther, burning torches replaced the streetlights, and the already potholed road gave way entirely to dirt. Looking out again, Su Bai saw many "people" standing a short distance from the roadside.

Perhaps the torchlight was too weak, but it was almost impossible to make out their faces or even their clothes. Those "people" stood packed together among the village houses on both sides of the road, nearly blending into the buildings around them.

Yet the moment someone recognized the shapes around the houses as humanoid figures, an unprecedented sense of dread and chill would engulf them.

"We've reached the final stop, Ghost Village. Passengers getting off, please leave through the rear door in order. Passengers making the return journey, please remain aboard." The driver brought the bus to a stop with a creak. Before the doors opened, he immediately ordered the two dripping, talkative water ghosts, "You two, get off through the front. Stop getting my bus dirty!"

"Yes, yes. Once we've finished the feast, we'll come back and wait for your bus." The male water ghost nodded repeatedly, then affectionately helped the female water ghost beside him off the bus.

"Wring yourselves dry before you get on next time!" the driver shouted after them. The two water ghosts, already outside, bowed and nodded again before skipping away, supporting each other.

The Route 444 Last Bus currently had seven passengers.

The instant the doors opened, Su Bai and the trio became intensely alert. If more than two people boarded through the front door, they would have to get off as quickly as possible.

Even Qin Ge, trapped by the White Qipao Paper Figure, would have to choose to get off. After all, the worst possible outcome was "failure." In the Nightmare World, "failure" meant death in every sense of the word.

Cold wind howled outside the doors, stronger than at any previous stop, but nobody boarded.

Wan Shasha, who was a little braver, leaned forward slightly to look out through the front door. The next second, she recoiled, badly shaken.

Su Bai glanced that way too. Though nobody had boarded, at least several dozen dark figures stood packed together outside the front door. Even outside the rear door, he could faintly make out several figures.

All of them stood motionless like scarecrows. No "people" boarded, and no more passengers got off.

In the end, it was the driver who broke the silence.

"How are the wedding feast preparations going?" Even the driver of the Route 444 Last Bus sounded a little cautious as he spoke.

For a while, only cold wind blew through the silence outside the door. Several full minutes passed before an unusually hoarse voice spoke-

"Nearly ready. Just waiting for the bride and for the feast to begin. If you'd lend us a hand, driver, we'd have everything we need."

"..." The driver actually hesitated before firmly refusing. "I really can't this time."

"Then we'll take the bride first."

The moment that unusually hoarse voice fell silent, a fierce gust swept into the bus.

"Ding-"

"Jingle-jingle-"

The wind swept straight toward the back row, setting the silver bells on the Ghost Bride's bridal veil ringing. Though she had only recently quieted down, the sudden gust seemed to provoke her. She began struggling again, her movements twisted and unnatural, while the invisible chains and shackles on her wrists and ankles clashed loudly.

The Ghost Bride's wails followed. Furious roars mingled with her mournful sobbing. Rather than anything a human could produce, it sounded more like the howling of a dying beast.

The Ghost Bride struggled to rise from her seat, but as soon as she pushed herself up, the clanking shackles dragged her back down. More blood than before poured from the gaping wound in her chest, streaming across the floor of the bus.

While the others were too frightened to know what to do, a nearly transparent shadow, identical to the Ghost Bride, was pulled out of her body. Like a mindless wandering spirit, the translucent shadow of the Ghost Bride followed the direction from which the wind had come, slowly walking toward the front door.

The closer the translucent shadow came to the door, the more solid she became. By the time she stepped off the bus and joined the dark figures, she looked exactly like the Ghost Bride, without a trace of transparency.

Yet when Su Bai and the others looked back at the rear seats, the Ghost Bride was still sitting there, her hands neatly placed.

Even the great quantity of blood that had spilled onto the floor had vanished.

"The bride's here-"

The dark figures outside the bus-or rather, the villagers of Ghost Village-did not realize that only a shadow had stepped off. Instead, they passed the happy news from one to another, gradually dispersing from around the bus.

Finally, that unusually hoarse voice came from outside the door again-

"Guests on the bus, it's so late. Why not come down and spend the night in our village? You can enjoy a good meal with us too. Now that the bride's here, all that's left is to start the feast."

Su Bai glanced at the sky outside the window. There had never been any daytime in this Nightmare World.

As for the trio besides Su Bai, they remained motionless in their seats as they listened to that "friendly" voice outside.

After all the bizarre things that had just happened, they would never have dared get off, even if Su Bai had not told them anything beforehand! Compared with the ghost village and its dark, ghostly figures, not only did the "kindly" driver seem appealing, but even the White Qipao Paper Figure, who had yet to attack, looked a little more agreeable.

The above sentiments did not represent Mr. Qin Ge's views.

"What a shame."

When nobody answered, the unusually hoarse voice seemed to grow more distant. The "person" speaking had probably walked away.

Almost instantly, the driver of the Route 444 Last Bus shut the doors, switched on the headlights, released the brake, started the engine, and shifted gears. The entire sequence flowed seamlessly, faster than ever before.

Though they were returning from the final stop, the bus made no attempt to reverse or turn around. It shot straight down the road ahead.

Not long after the bus pulled away, everyone heard that hoarse voice shouting behind them-

"Stop! The bride's a fake! The bride's a fake!"

The bus showed no sign of slowing. It charged straight into the fog ahead, where not even torchlight shone.

The trio remained dazed for a long time, staring at the fog outside the windows before finally coming to their senses.

"Is... is it over?" Wan Shasha patted her own face in disbelief.

Over?

As the bus entered the fog, the smile on Su Bai's face disappeared instead.

Only he, who had been reborn, knew that the first round had merely raised the curtain on this game. The real collapse always began in the second round.