Wang Zhifan was still pondering over whether the young man in a white coat sitting at the back of the bus was soone from the Thirteenth Hospital when he saw a young man in a school uniform nearby get up and walk over to try to strike up a conversation with the person, clearly having guessed his identity as well.
"The vehicle is starting, please hold on tight and sit well. The next stop is: Beheading Pass."
Imdiately, a pleasant female voice announced over the bus. The entirely black Route 444 bus automatically closed the middle door and began moving forward.
Just as Wang Zhifan observed yesterday, the driver’s seat of this bus was always empty, with no sight of any driver, and its steering wheel and such remained completely still. Yet the bus seed like a high-tech creation, capable of driving itself on the road, picking up and dropping off passengers, all while providing a completely free service.
Sitting by a window seat, Wang Zhifan was both keeping an eye on the school uniform young man and slowly scanning the street outside. He watched as Building 444 quickly slipped away onto the street behind the bus as it picked up speed and headed towards the increasingly bright neighborhood lit by the morning sun.
For a mont, all the scenery in sight was not much different from what he saw outside his apartnt window. Concrete and steel structures lay in ruin and desolation everywhere, with no one in sight and no other vehicles driving by, or to put it bluntly, no moving objects at all. Only the occasional street-side green trees testified that this world was not completely dead.
But as Wang Zhifan observed so carefully, suddenly, he noticed a strange figure at the window of a two-story dilapidated building on the street outside the bus.
It seed to be a lanky and strange woman, incredibly tall and slender like a bamboo pole topped with a head of loose hair, standing by the window staring straight at him. Her eyes, dark and pupil-less, locked onto his, exuding a palpable malice one couldn’t ignore.
"It’s the ghost woman that possessed the skinny guy in the leather jacket yesterday."
Normally, seeing such a grotesque and terrifying entity would startle anyone, but Wang Zhifan felt that, perhaps due to his high basic attributes, he was only slightly jolted for a mont and didn’t experience more fear. He could even continue to stare at her, comparing and evaluating her with the one from his mories.
"According to the superintendent, the bus and the apartnt are generally safe, evil entities outside find it difficult to get in, and even if they do, they are restricted by the bus, so this thing can only scare people, not genuinely attack."
Currently, Wang Zhifan could indeed engage in a remote confrontation with the female ghost, but rembering the repeated warnings from the apartnt superintendent not to clash head-on with these sinister existences, he chose not to attempt a probing attack, maintaining a low profile instead. After all, the missions ahead would surely beco dangerous and he preferred to save his strength for critical monts.
"Oh shit! There’s a corpse hanging from that tree over there! It seems to be moving too!"
"I think I just saw a head in the road smiling at ..."
"Ghost! There’s a ghost standing on top of that building, completely blood-red! He’s been watching us!"
"Everyone better stop looking outside! Be careful not to get targeted by those things!"
...
Before long, after Wang Zhifan spotted the ghostly woman outside, other residents from the apartnt on the bus began to scream one after another. After all, hardly anyone can remain calm when suddenly confronted with such visually and atmospherically terrifying entities, especially as according to the superintendent, these residents were all newbies to the bloody mission concept.
During this ti, Wang Zhifan did indeed glimpse several sinister entities flitting by different spots outside the bus windows, but he remained nonchalant, still focusing his main attention on the street outside, seemingly trying to morize sothing silently.
After observing the outside for a while, and with the apartnt residents beginning to gather and discuss in panic, the young man in a school uniform from the Mage profession walked over again, returning to the seats area where the players were sitting.
"I asked the person at the back, and he nodded to admit he’s from Thirteen dical, but he’s reluctant to share more information."
At this mont, the school uniform young man sat down in his seat while speaking to the three teammates nearby.
"Thirteen dical? What’s that?"
The middle-aged Gunner player, spinning a handgun with one finger in his seat, imdiately turned to ask the school uniform young man in the back, appearing unfamiliar with this sort of information.
"It’s the Thirteenth Hospital, the old man says it’s one of the existences similar to Building 444 in this world, the doctors there possess certain special thods to combat evil entities, but the mission survival rate isn’t much higher than that of the apartnt."
Just as the school uniform young man finished his sentence, suddenly, the bus began slowing down and soon halted at an unimpressive-looking crossroads, then the middle door swayed open, accompanied by the pleasant female voice announcing:
"Beheading Pass has arrived, passengers needing to get on or off, please do so orderly, the next stop is: Hell Academy."
As the door slowly swung open, Wang Zhifan and the petite Assassin girl imdiately rose from their seats and took a few steps toward the door, their gaze scanning both inside and outside the bus.
They weren’t planning to get off, it was rather an agreed precaution discussed before boarding. Whenever the door opened, the two of them were to act as sentries, guarding against any unexpected occurrences.
At that mont, Wang Zhifan expanded his senses completely, paying attention to both inside and outside the bus. He first confird that the young man in the white coat seated at the back showed no sign of getting off, and then quickly noticed a resident from the apartnt behaving sowhat unusually.
The resident happened to be the pot-bellied middle-aged man who knelt and begged during the mission selection that day. As the door opened, his eyes were fixed intently on the empty bus door outside, as if sothing incredibly alluring was catching his attention, and subconsciously he stood up from his seat, appearing intent on stepping outside.
Seeing this, Wang Zhifan promptly stepped forward, extending a hand to grasp the man’s shoulder and forcibly press him back into the seat using extraordinary strength, then scolded him sternly:
"What are you doing? Wake up!"
The pot-bellied middle-aged man’s glazed eyes nearly instantaneously regained so clarity after being disrupted, then he looked up at the tall young man standing in front of him, awkwardly mumbling in reply:
"I seed to see my wife and child just now... They wanted to get off and go back with them..."
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