This Is No School Bus, It's a Hearse Bound for Hell

On the western outskirts of Linhai City stood the abandoned Red Star Steelworks.

It had once been Linhai City's largest heavy industrial base, but after a dark matter contamination leak, the entire plant had been abandoned in an emergency. Rust-covered blast furnaces, abandoned rail tracks, and wildly overgrown mutant weeds were everywhere.

A heavy bulletproof truck pulled to a stop in an open area of the steelworks.

The black market merchant Iron Hand jumped down from the passenger seat, lit a cheap cigar, and took a deep drag to ease his nerves.

The dozen or so men he had brought with him stood trembling beside the truck. Its cargo bed was covered with a thick black tarp, but even that could not conceal the heavy stench of blood and the nauseating reek of contamination coming from within.

"Boss, this place is way too creepy. Why are we delivering to a heavily contaminated zone like this?" One of his men rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and looked around.

Iron Hand glared at him. "Cut the crap! He paid one and a half million for a top-grade spirit vein core. How could we not offer delivery to his door? Stay sharp, all of you. He's a major customer!"

Despite what he said, Iron Hand was muttering to himself inwardly.

The batch of goods that high schooler named Su Bai had bought was downright hellish: a wrecked death bus, heavily contaminated black oil, a steering wheel stained with blood steeped in resentment, and the intact corpses of fifteen second-tier mutant beasts.

Put all that together, and it was practically a miniature breeding ground for Anomalies!

As Iron Hand waited anxiously, the sound of unhurried footsteps came from the shadows of an abandoned factory building.

Dressed in a black tracksuit and a baseball cap, Su Bai strolled over with his hands in his pockets.

"Is everything ready?" Su Bai walked up to the truck and glanced at the enormous black tarp.

"Young Master Su, I personally supervised the goods you wanted. Not a single thing is missing; it's all on the truck!" Iron Hand immediately put on a fawning smile and stepped forward.

He waved a hand, and several of his men hurried over and pulled the black tarp off the truck.

Whoosh-

As the tarp fell away, a pungent stench and an icy aura of resentment swept across the entire open area.

A few of Iron Hand's men couldn't hold it in. They leaned against a blast furnace and started dry heaving.

There in the truck's cargo bed sat a battered, medium-sized yellow school bus.

The front of the bus had been completely caved in, its windshield was shattered into a spiderweb, and its body was covered in dried dark red bloodstains. Bits of blackened flesh could even be seen in the gaps around the windows.

Ten sealed black iron drums were piled around the bus, filled with high-concentration contaminated black oil.

Fifteen enormous mutant beast corpses were chained to the roof. Among them were mutant two-headed wolves, venomous demon spiders, and several mutant carrion crows as big as calves.

"Young Master Su, take a look at this bus." Fighting back his nausea, Iron Hand pointed at the wrecked school bus and began his explanation.

"This was a dedicated school bus for Yucai Primary School. It was in a major accident five years ago. Fourteen people, including the driver and students, plunged straight into the contaminated moat. Not one of them survived. After the bus was salvaged, its resentment was so strong that anyone who touched it suffered bad luck, so it was left in the scrapyard. The steering wheel covered in the driver's resentment-soaked blood is still in the driver's seat, untouched."

Su Bai stepped forward and gently ran his hand over the cold, rusted body of the bus.

The instant his fingertips touched it, he seemed to hear countless cries of despair and the teeth-grating sound of metal tearing apart.

"Good. The resentment is pure enough, and the bloodstains are deep enough too." Su Bai nodded in satisfaction.

This was no pile of scrap metal. It was the perfect foundation for creating the Midnight School Bus!

"As long as you're satisfied, Young Master Su." Iron Hand wiped away his sweat. "Then, about the handover..."

"There's no problem. You can go now." Su Bai waved his hand.

As if granted a pardon, Iron Hand hurriedly called his men back into the truck. He floored the accelerator and fled the eerie steelworks as though running for his life.

Once the truck's taillights had completely disappeared from sight, Su Bai turned around and looked at the priceless pile of "junk" before him, a fanatical smile curling his lips.

"System! Open the divine kingdom passage to its maximum!"

Boom-!!!

With Su Bai's roar, a massive black rift seven or eight meters wide tore open in the void behind him.

Wasteland contamination black fog of 99.5% purity roared out of the rift like a dragon that had been suppressed for far too long!

The temperature throughout the abandoned steelworks instantly dropped to freezing. The surrounding mutant weeds withered and turned to ash the moment they came into contact with the black fog.

"Get in here!"

Su Bai reached out and grasped at empty air with both hands.

A terrifying devouring force erupted from the divine kingdom rift. Drawn by its suction, the wrecked school bus weighing several tons, the ten drums of contaminated black oil, and the fifteen mutant beast corpses all slowly rose into the air before being pulled into the divine kingdom in one go.

Without hesitation, Su Bai flashed forward and followed them into the divine kingdom.

Over the twenty square kilometers of wasteland, a faint layer of blood-red now shrouded the previously deathly silent sky.

The abandoned school building and the Thirteen Steps stood in the distance. Before Su Bai, the wrecked school bus slammed heavily into the dirt with a thunderous thud.

"The hardware is in place. Now, it's time to witness a miracle."

Su Bai took a deep breath and silently said, System, initiate the Midnight School Bus creation procedure. Extract the mutant beast corpses to reshape the vehicle!

[Ding! Command confirmed.]

[Urban Legend Creation System activated.]

[Fusing materials...]

As the system's mechanical voice fell silent, the fifteen second-tier mutant beast corpses burst apart, filling the sky with flesh and ghastly white bones.

Drawn by the system's rules, the flesh and bones did not become monsters. Instead, they surged madly toward the wrecked school bus!

Creak-creak-

The teeth-grating sound of twisting metal echoed across the wasteland.

The mutant beasts' bones replaced the original twisted frame, making the entire vehicle massive and savage-looking. Dark purple flesh and organs became the seats and interior fittings. The beasts' tough hides covered the outside of the bus, forming an eerie black leather shell.

Immediately afterward, the ten drums of high-concentration contaminated black oil burst open on their own. As if alive, the pitch-black oil flowed through the gaps in the body and into the fuel tank. A ball of eerie green ghost fire even flared to life where the engine was.

When the dazzling red light faded, a brand-new Anomaly bus radiating an overwhelming aura of death sat quietly on the wasteland.

The entire bus was pitch-black, and its windows were coated in bloodstains that could never be wiped away. Its headlights flickered with a ghostly green glow, like two eyes from hell.

Inside the bus, fourteen seats made from pale human bones stood empty in rows.

[First and second stages of fusion complete.]

[Midnight School Bus framework generated.]

[Warning: The vehicle currently lacks its core driving force-"the souls of fourteen dead filled with resentment." The Ka cidan cannot be fully activated!]

Su Bai looked at the imposing Anomaly bus, brimming with dark aesthetics, and patted the hood in satisfaction.

"The bus is built. All it needs now is passengers."

Su Bai withdrew his consciousness from the divine kingdom and checked the time on his phone.

Eight in the evening.

There was still an hour before the Gu Family assassins' rendezvous at "Warehouse No. 3 of the abandoned chemical plant in the eastern suburbs."

"Boss Gu, thanks for the cash machine you sent me. Tonight, you'll be the first passengers aboard the Midnight School Bus."

Su Bai pulled down the brim of his baseball cap, stuffed a rusty machete he had picked up at the black market into his backpack, and walked out of the abandoned steelworks, disappearing into the night.