A terrifying betrothed

Through life and death, together or apart, I made this vow with you.

According to the vow, they had to remain together, whether in life or death, separation or reunion.

Su Bai had happened to obtain that Marriage Contract during a game he had barely survived. Yet in all the years he had possessed it, he had never considered using it, nor had he considered passing this mysterious, sinister item on to another player. It was his final trump card, one he would only use in the last moment of his life.

After all, apart from the Marriage Contract in his hands, Su Bai had never heard of anyone obtaining a similar item. Naturally, no one knew what would happen after signing their name on a contract to marry an eldritch entity.

Would he be treated as food delivered to its doorstep and slowly devoured? Or would he be turned straight into a living doll, unable to move?

That uncertainty, with its high likelihood of death, made the Marriage Contract rather impractical. The only reason Su Bai had kept it was that the power lingering on it allowed even a veteran player like him to sense the terror of the nameless entity at the other end of the contract!

An item this impractical could only become his all-or-nothing trump card when Su Bai faced certain death in the very next second. After all, in the Nightmare World, the more terrifying an eldritch entity was, the more it cared about its territory and possessions. As long as Su Bai signed the contract at the moment a Vengeful Ghost in the game cornered him into certain death, he would bear the mark of the nameless entity on the other end of the Marriage Contract.

If the nameless entity was more terrifying than the ghost before him, Su Bai could survive! If its power was not as great as he imagined, then... the worst outcome would simply be dying in the game as he had expected.

At that moment between life and death, even if the chance was only 0.1%, he had to take the gamble.

The good news was that he had won! Even the mark the Marriage Contract bestowed on him, belonging to that nameless entity, was enough to drive away the Vengeful Ghost about to kill Su Bai and allow him to keep surviving in the Nightmare World.

The bad news was that he had become bound by contract to that nameless entity. Or rather... betrothed to her?

"Through life and death, together or apart, I made this vow with you."

When the blood-red vow inscribed on the Marriage Contract rang in Su Bai's ears again, he knew he could no longer ignore that voice or the eerie shop in the fog. If the voice had merely called out to him casually, as it had before, he might have continued ignoring it and riding onward aboard the Route 444 Last Bus.

But now that he knew the shop's existence was connected to the Marriage Contract, Su Bai could no longer ignore it.

This was a Strange Creature capable of driving back a terrifying Vengeful Ghost, one more powerful than Su Bai had been at his peak. Since she had not killed him the moment she appeared, he had to give her a response. At that moment, Su Bai felt as though he had returned to his earliest days in the Nightmare World. He cast every stray thought aside, leaving only one goal: to live a little longer!

If that mysterious entity did not want him dead, responding to her would not kill him.

But if she wanted him dead, then even if Su Bai stayed on the bus and refused to respond, his current strength would still leave him facing certain death.

In that case, choosing a more polite response seemed best.

"We've arrived at Commercial Street." The driver's hoarse voice rang out again, carrying an eerie respect. "Passengers bound for the community hospital, please exit through the rear door. Have a pleasant journey."

Su Bai heard the driver announce the stop and felt the bus begin to slow as it swayed.

He suddenly began to understand why the driver had looked at him with that expression and gaze, and why his tone was so much more respectful and cautious than Su Bai remembered.

Since the shop in the fog outside and the voice in his ears were connected to his Marriage Contract with a Strange Creature, that meant the contract had not lost its effect when Su Bai was reborn into the past. He still bore the Marriage Contract's mark, belonging to that terrifying entity!

The driver's strange behavior and respect were not directed at Su Bai, but at the Strange Creature standing behind him!

The vow recited in a child's voice sounded in his ears again, and the child in the eerie shop outside the window was still waving to him. Su Bai no longer hesitated. He rose from his seat in the first row and walked toward the bus's rear door. He did not think he had made much of a disturbance, but he startled the whispering trio.

They had only just been discussing how to strike up a conversation with that "special passenger" who could talk, so why had he suddenly stood up?

Before Wan Shasha could react, she got a clear look at the "special passenger" who had risen and was walking toward the back. Just as Zhang Yibu had said, he was indeed wearing a somewhat worn high school uniform, washed pale with age. But his clothes were soaked through, as if he had been caught in a downpour, and the bottoms of his trouser legs bore traces of splashed muddy water.

She remembered that Honghuai City had been hit by a downpour shortly before she entered this eerie game.

A strange thought flashed through Wan Shasha's mind. Then she saw the "special passenger's" face clearly and could barely remember what she had been thinking. After all, this "special passenger" walking toward the back had a... well, a very handsome face.

Wan Shasha had not read many books and did not know many fancy words. She only felt that all those heavily made-up men and women she saw in bars every day were not as attractive as this clean, fair-skinned face before her. Just looking at him made her feel good inside and eager to go over and exchange a few words.

He really was so handsome!

"Him... I think I've seen him before..."

Wan Shasha vaguely heard Zhang Yibu speaking from the seat behind her, but all she could see was the "special passenger" walking toward the back, step by step.

As Su Bai rose and walked toward the back, he also took the opportunity to get a clear look at the trio aboard the bus. The girl with smoky eye makeup and a black dress was probably Wan Shasha. The way she stared at him was familiar enough. Before entering the Nightmare World, and when he had first entered it, he had often encountered looks like that. Later on, however, the people around Su Bai seemed to look at him more often with fear and avoidance.

The boy in pajamas was Zhang Yibu. His gaze toward Su Bai was rather strange, as though he were trying to recall something and felt a little confused.

Su Bai also took a few extra looks at Zhang Yibu. He felt as though he had seen this boy somewhere before, too.

There was also the burly man sitting beside the woman in the qipao. He was probably the man who called himself Qin Ge. His physique and bearing did not look like something protein powder and a gym could produce. He seemed more like the professionally trained players Su Bai had met before, who enjoyed an advantage from the very start. And in Qin Ge's gaze, besides slowly mounting wariness, there was a trace of murderous intent.

After all, in the trio's eyes, he was still a "special passenger."

And then there was the bus's last row... Su Bai froze briefly at the sight of the Ghost Bride sitting upright in the last row, bleeding without end. Then he looked away, sweeping his gaze over the restless trio again.

Su Bai believed that if he remained seated in the first row, the three of them would eventually approach him and try to find an opportunity to communicate after wrestling with their doubts. But now that he had stood up of his own accord, the trio instead stayed seated, each occupied with their own thoughts. None of them said a word.

He could choose to say nothing and simply leave through the rear door. But the future, influenced by this Marriage Contract, had become uncertain. Even Su Bai did not know what would happen after he left the bus, walked into the fog, and entered that shop. Perhaps he was only a passerby the trio would briefly encounter in their game. Perhaps, just as in his memories, they would become an insignificant few among the countless new players who failed to clear it.

So Su Bai felt he could do something before leaving the bus.

Quickly reviewing his memories of the Route 444 Last Bus, Su Bai stopped at the rear door. He turned toward the trio, whom he had only recently met and who remained strangers to him, and spoke earnestly, enunciating every word-

"Remember, whatever you do, don't get off at the final stop."