"What the fu—... How could it be this thing."
"I haven’t run into a single S-Level ghost in a month."
Seeing the Multi-headed Ghost appear, even the usually calm Shen Nian had a rare lapse in composure, cursing under his breath. One hand gripped the gun under his trench coat tightly as he fought the instinctual urge to either fight or get off the bus.
This showed just how terrifying this ghost was. If it went berserk, it was unknown whether the Supernatural Bus could even suppress it.
Now was the worst ti to get off. On the bus, the Multi-headed Ghost might still have so reservations about the rules. But getting off the bus ant entering a supernatural domain where all the bus’s rules were void. That would be certain death.
At the sa ti, as his eyes t one among the countless heads, a nearly insane thought surfaced in Gao Tian’s mind:
’Should I use the power of the Face-Shattering Ghost on it and seize its killing pattern?’
Although Gao Tian didn’t know the Multi-headed Ghost’s killing pattern, Xu Yuan’s death at its hands and the composed Shen Nian’s reaction were proof enough: this thing was off-the-charts powerful.
If he could take its killing pattern, this mission would be an absolute jackpot.
But the risks of making a move on this ghost were enormous. As an S-Level ghost, the Multi-headed Ghost’s own power was terrifying. It wouldn’t be easy to hunt.
If it were really that easy to target, it wouldn’t have been rated at this level.
After a mont of thought, Gao Tian gave up. Finding the Terror Blade on this trip was already a huge win; there was no need to gamble with his life again.
But unexpectedly, though Gao Tian sat perfectly still, the Multi-headed Ghost with its countless faces seed to sense sothing. Beneath its coat, the myriad faces—n and won, old and young, each with its own distinct expression of joy, anger, or sorrow—all simultaneously twisted into placid smiles. Dozens of pairs of eyes and their gazes swept toward Gao Tian.
’It noticed ?’
Gao Tian hadn’t wanted to hunt it, but he never imagined he would beco the Multi-headed Ghost’s prey.
As the countless faces under the Multi-headed Ghost’s coat stared at him, Gao Tian felt a sudden warmth on his face, and two streams of hot blood began to slowly trickle from his eye sockets. The world started to spin before him.
So much for the power of the Face-Shattering Ghost. At this mont, Gao Tian felt completely empty, unable to even lift a finger, let alone activate a ghost’s power.
He was suppressed. The Multi-headed Ghost had rely glanced at him and had completely sealed his abilities.
"Vote!
"Everyone, vote for this ghost! Vote for it now, or none of us are getting off this bus today!"
Seeing Gao Tian’s eyes bleeding while the perpetrator, the Multi-headed Ghost, suffered no punishnt at all, Shen Nian realized the gravity of the situation and shouted as quickly as he could.
This ghost was different from the others. It had to be forced off the bus, without a second’s delay.
anwhile, because the number of passengers had reached eight, the other two ghosts on the bus also began to awaken.
The tall male corpse in front of Gao Tian stirred as if waking from a dream. Its hands fumbled around, seemingly searching for its lost rusted longblade.
Fortunately, its eye sockets were just two gray dots, and it couldn’t see its surroundings clearly at all.
The old woman sat motionless in her seat, as if dead. The blood-red inverted cross stuck in her head began to grow active, blood-colored eye-like silhouettes opening on its surface and scanning the people in the bus.
Su Jiu panicked:
"How do we vote? Where’s the vote button?"
At the sa ti, on the topmost head of the newly boarded Multi-headed Ghost, which was already near the ceiling, three faint, blood-red X’s appeared.
The voting had already begun.
These three votes, from Gao Tian, Su Jiu, and Shen Nian respectively, were an attempt to kick it off the Supernatural Bus.
All the faces on the Multi-headed Ghost’s body still held faint smiles. It extended a long, black, withered-wood-like arm and pointed at Gao Tian. A blood-red X imdiately appeared above Gao Tian’s head.
The Multi-headed Ghost had cast its vote for Gao Tian.
The old woman with the inverted cross turned toward the tall male corpse, and a blood-red X appeared over its head.
The tall male corpse was still fumbling around its seat for the lost longblade. It never once looked up to vote.
Currently, the vote was three to one against the Multi-headed Ghost. It looked like it would be the one getting off.
Shen Nian turned his head and shouted at Zhou Yan and Ling Feifei, who were sitting at the back of the bus:
"Hey, you two, hurry up and vote! Didn’t you co with them?"
Ling Feifei’s face showed an anxious expression:
"But... if all of us vote for that ghost, won’t that provoke it?"
Hearing this, Shen Nian at first thought he had misheard. Then, an irrepressible confusion flooded his mind:
"What are you talking about?
"Shouldn’t humans vote for ghosts?
"If you don’t vote for the ghost, who are you going to vote for? If this Multi-headed Ghost doesn’t get off, we’re all going to die here!"
Ling Feifei pointed a finger at her own head, her face a picture of innocence:
"But, have you ever considered sothing?
"There are many ways to complete a green-text mission. You might be more experienced than us newcors, but that doesn’t an you’re right.
"You have your way, and we have our rhythm.
"Ever since I started wearing this bone flute, I’ve been able to feel the emotions of ghosts that ordinary people like you can’t, and I see a different world.
"You wouldn’t understand the world I perceive."
The strange thing was, the bone flute that Gao Tian had already removed and thrown into the bushes at the bus stop had sohow returned to Ling Feifei’s neck!
The bone flute had found its own way back.
Shen Nian felt like his brain was about to explode. He’d been through a lot over the years and had seen all sorts of people and ghosts, but this was the first ti he’d ever encountered such a real piece of work.
’What is she saying? What is this woman talking about? I don’t understand any of it.’
Shen Nian’s brain had crashed. He turned blankly toward Gao Tian:
"Hey, aren’t those two with you?
"Has she been possessed by her own Supernatural Artifact?"
At this critical juncture, the words Ling Feifei spoke were things no sane human would say. Shen Nian would rather believe she was possessed by a malevolent ghost than accept that she was speaking her own mind.
Gao Tian had originally only had one red X over his head, but then a new one appeared. This ant soone else on the bus had voted for him.
It was Zhou Yan, from the back seat.
His expression was the very picture of innocence:
"Sorry, Gao.
"Heaven is vast and Earth is wide, but my wife is the boss. That’s how we’ve always completed our missions. I believe my wife.
"Sacrifice one to ensure the others survive. You have to think about the big picture."
Then, a third red X appeared over Gao Tian’s head.
Ling Feifei had also made her choice. She, too, had voted for Gao Tian.
The situation took a sharp turn. From the original three-to-one, it was now a tie, with three red X’s over both the Multi-headed Ghost’s and Gao Tian’s heads.
Looking at the red X’s above Gao Tian’s head, Zhou Yan let out a cold smirk.
Everyone else only knew about his girlfriend’s Supernatural Artifact, the "bone flute." But his own Supernatural Artifact, the "Black Tie," was sothing that not even the apartnt manager, Xia Ta, knew about.
The "Black Tie," obtained during his first mission, had a special effect: as long as people started dying around him, Zhou Yan would be blessed with a powerful luck called "Ghost Luck." For a limited ti, he could turn any dire situation to his advantage and survive the most perilous encounters, using the lives of others to fuel his own fortune.
This was why they were the sole survivors every ti their team was wiped out in a mission. And it was why Zhou Yan was so determined to vote Gao Tian to his death.
Unfortunately, it was still three-to-three. But once Gao Tian died, it would be like the first domino falling, and Zhou Yan’s good luck would be unstoppable.
Then, Su Jiu would be next to die, followed by Shen Nian.
Gao Tian reached up and wiped the blood from below his eyes. The formless terror that had enveloped him was gradually dissipating. The bus was starting to exert its power, suppressing the Multi-headed Ghost and protecting him. He let out a slight sigh of relief.
The bus could still maintain its suppressive force on the Multi-headed Ghost. That was good news.
The vote was temporarily tied between him and the Multi-headed Ghost. He could hold on for a little while longer.
Just then, the still-standing Multi-headed Ghost’s twenty-odd faces moved in unison, their mouths splitting wide open to let out a synchronized laugh: HEHEHE-HAHAHA-HOHOHO. It sounded just like the canned laughter from a third-rate soap opera.
Imdiately after, it casually ripped a head off its body—that of a middle-aged man in his forties with a short beard. The mont the head hit the floor, it rolled a few tis. From the severed part of the neck, a pink pillar of flesh slowly began to split forth, and noodle-like appendages resembling hands and feet sprouted from it.
The flimsy, stick-figure-like "body" slowly got up, propping up the man’s head. Its body wasn’t even as tall as the head itself. The deford proportions, like a newborn baby with an adult’s head, were both comical and terrifying at first glance.
Having removed one head, the Multi-headed Ghost’s height also decreased by the height of one head.
But Gao Tian, watching this scene, couldn’t laugh at all.
Because after the Multi-headed Ghost had removed a head and it grew into a new being on the floor, the red text for the passenger count at the front of the bus jumped again, from 8 to 9.
’That’s possible too?’
This ant that the Multi-headed Ghost was a composite entity made of countless ghosts. As long as it detached a part of its body, it could beco a new ghost. The bus recognized it as a passenger and would even give it voting rights.
S-Level ghosts really had a lot of tricks up their sleeves. It could still vote Gao Tian to death while perfectly abiding by the rules of Bus 444. How was he supposed to play against that?
Amid the shocked and fearful gazes of the others, what Gao Tian feared most happened. The first thing the newborn ghost—with its enormous adult head and wobbly gait—did after being created was to extend a "hand" and point it in Gao Tian’s direction.
The number of red X’s over Gao Tian’s head beca four.
Four to three. Now there was no way to hold on until the next round. Gao Tian was about to be stripped of his passenger status.
"Change your votes!"
In despair, Shen Nian roared at the back of the bus.
He couldn’t understand it. He really couldn’t fathom how such stubborn fools could exist in the world.
What benefit could they possibly get from voting their companion, Gao Tian, to death?
Zhou Yan and Ling Feifei looked at the red X’s over Gao Tian’s head, unmoved, pretending they hadn’t heard Shen Nian’s roar.
"Please... just pick soone else..."
Su Jiu couldn’t hold back any longer, tears bursting from her eyes.
But no matter how bitterly she pleaded, Zhou Yan and Ling Feifei’s choice remained Gao Tian.
For Gao Tian, once his passenger status was revoked, all the ghosts on the bus would be free to kill him.
Now he had only one way out—
"Get off the bus! Get off right now!"
Shen Nian gave up on Zhou Yan and warned Gao Tian,
"You can survive for a while if you get off. If you stay on the bus, you’ll definitely die."
This was the only option left, a desperate asure.
As the four red X’s appeared over Gao Tian’s head, the gazes of the other ghosts also shifted to him.
Gao Tian looked out the back door at the bus stop.
’This must be Dexin Hospital from the titable.’ Outside, a gray fog filled the air. At the station, countless figures in white lab coats and blue-and-white patient gowns flickered in and out of view.
This stop’s Inner World looked extrely dangerous. If he got off, he might not even survive as long as he would on the bus.
Even if he could use a black card to teleport away imdiately after getting off, the third green-text mission would be a complete failure. If he did that, Gao Tian’s losses would be too great. All the small advantages he had painstakingly accumulated would be wiped out in one fell swoop.
Gao Tian slowly raised his head, the Terror Blade in his hand emitting a deafening hum:
"The one who should be getting off this bus isn’t .
"I’m not going to die in so insignificant, godforsaken place."
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