“You already know who the demon is, don’t you? Hurry up and say it!” Dong Xiu was more anxious than Xin Meng, sweating profusely. Time was slipping away minute by minute. Even if they were lucky enough to save five lives, once the time was up, they would still be considered failures, and there were only five minutes left!
Five minutes!
“Don’t rush me, I still need to confirm one thing,” Xin Meng took two steps forward, coming to Li Yougen’s side, and whispered something in his ear. The others saw Li Yougen’s face change, turning bright red and extremely embarrassed, but he didn’t say a word. However, Xin Meng’s gaze was fixed on him, “If you don’t tell the truth, we’re all going to die soon.”
Li Yougen moved his lips, and in the end, reluctantly nodded, then muttered angrily, “What does this have to do with solving the puzzle! I was just casually looking, and you want to pry into this? Instead of thinking about how to find the demon, you’re just thinking about invading someone’s privacy. Aren’t you disgusting!”
“What’s going on? Why can’t we ask out loud and have to sneak around?” Dong Xiu questioned unhappily, “Don’t make me remind you again, time is running out!”
“It’s fine, I’ve basically confirmed the answer, five minutes is enough for me to explain,” Xin Meng said, “There’s a passenger here who is different from the others, but we’ve overlooked it, which led to the deaths of Li Yougen and me.”
“Xin, don’t play detective at this time, just tell us the correct answer directly!” Xiong Jiabao was anxious, wishing he could say the name immediately.
“I want to, too,” Xin Meng said helplessly, “But if I don’t clarify the reason, you won’t be able to fully believe it, and it’ll be just like when Xiong Jiabao was pointing randomly earlier, it won’t have any effect.”
“Then hurry up and say, what’s wrong?” Dong Xiu pressed.
“It’s the clothes,” Xin Meng said, “Her clothes are different from the others.”
Clothes?
Everyone looked at the passengers; each person’s clothing was different. The women mainly wore skirts, while the men wore long pants and long sleeves. What was the problem?
“You can’t see it this way because we are all limited by our habitual thinking. We always think this is just a game, that NPCs only matter in conversation, and it doesn’t matter what they wear, so we overlook many obvious details. In fact, the game gives us plenty of hints. The most important one is time, or rather, the season. First, from the dialogue, the couple’s conversation tells us that the girl wants the boy to buy her chocolate, saying ‘I’m not on a diet today.’ So, which day does the girl want to eat the chocolate her boyfriend gives her, and on ‘this day,’ she doesn’t need to worry about dieting? Then there’s that middle-aged man, who keeps mumbling about buying flowers. So, which day is it that not buying flowers for his wife will definitely get him scolded?” Xin Meng analyzed point by point.
“Valentine’s Day!” The first to answer was actually Li Yougen!
Among the people present, except for the already married Li Yougen, the other single folks were clearly not very sensitive to this holiday.
“Exactly, it’s Valentine’s Day!” Xin Meng pointed at the pink sticker on the bus window, “That sticker is particularly new, indicating it was just put up today. With the double hearts and red roses, it’s telling us that today is Valentine’s Day! Valentine’s Day is on February 14th, right around the cold season before and after the New Year, and I even saw snow from the window just now!”
Yes, they had overlooked the scene outside the bus. If they had noticed the snow falling in the dark distance earlier, they might have guessed it sooner.
“Even the most cold-resistant person wouldn’t go out wearing just a skirt!” Xin Meng’s bright eyes were fixed on that enchanting woman. At this moment, she was no longer blowing kisses at them but had her head down, half of her face shrouded in shadow, making it hard to see her expression.
“Everyone else is in long sleeves and long pants, some even wearing cotton jackets. How could a normal person go out in summer clothes?” Xin Meng’s expression was firm, speaking each word clearly, “When Li Yougen walked past her earlier, he couldn’t help but sneak a look at her thigh, and he lingered too long near her, which led to his death. As for me, it was because I leaned too close to the window when I was next to her!”
“So, the demon is,” Xin Meng pointed directly at that woman, “her!”
The others looked at the now silent woman and all took a step back in unison. The overhead lights in the bus flickered as if there was a bad connection, the light inside the bus dimming and brightening again. When it lit up once more, everyone realized that all the others, except for the woman who still sat with her head down, had suddenly vanished without a trace, as if they had never existed!
“W-what’s going on?” Xiong Jiabao was terrified. He grabbed Xin Meng’s sleeve beside him, trembling and trying to hide behind him, but was pulled out by You Yi and thrown aside. He screamed even louder, “Didn’t we find out who it was? Why haven’t we cleared the level yet?”
“Crap!” Dong Xiu shouted, suddenly realizing the trap hidden in the hints, “The card only said to find out, but it didn’t say what would happen after we found out!”
“Damn! This is a scam! Do we have to kill this demon after finding out to pass?” Xiong Jiabao was on the verge of tears, continuously retreating. Li Yougen had already screamed and retreated to the driver’s seat. When Dong Xiu saw this, he also dove into the passenger seat.
Xin Meng, You Yi, and Qi Xiaokui stood at the front of the bus, facing the darkened demon. The woman slowly raised her head, revealing her face.
Xin Meng had already mentally prepared himself, expecting to see a bloodied evil spirit, perhaps with terrifying eyes, a gaping mouth, and a long tongue. But… there was nothing.
Indeed, there was truly nothing.
Her thick eyelashes, colored contact lenses, sexy lips, and even her eyebrows and nose had all disappeared.
On her small face, it was as if the features had not yet been placed on the puzzle board, leaving only a bare slant.
A faceless ghost!
It looked even more terrifying than a slit-mouthed woman!
In just a moment of distraction, that female ghost suddenly vanished from Xin Meng’s sight. Before he could check his surroundings, he felt a tremendous force pulling his arm towards the window. Xin Meng’s hair was blown up by the rushing wind, and he didn’t know when the window had been opened!
He looked up at the outside; the originally pitch-black space lit up, revealing countless tightly meshed metal gears of various sizes. Those golden gears were tightly interlocked, moving at different speeds, making a grinding sound, like giant meat grinders. If thrown outside, they would definitely be ground into meat paste!
Xin Meng was horrified, desperately trying to resist backward, but it was like an ant trying to shake a tree, unable to resist even a little. His physical strength was his weak point, and the opponent was immensely strong. He was about to be pulled out of the window when he shouted without thinking, “You Yi!”
Actually, even before his shout, a pair of arms had already wrapped around his waist, pulling him back. As soon as Xin Meng shouted, he knew it was You Yi coming to save him, and he used that force to retreat. But the strength of the female ghost and You Yi was too great. His captured arm felt like it was about to tear apart in this tug-of-war. He couldn’t help but want to scream in pain but was afraid of affecting You Yi, so he gritted his teeth and endured, even biting his gums until they bled.
But You Yi quickly noticed his situation because the skin on his arm had already been torn, and blood was flowing down crazily. If he didn’t let go, his arm would be broken!
You Yi hesitated for less than a second and decisively let go of him.
Xin Meng screamed, his body about to be pulled out of the window by the force in front, but he felt a shadow flash in his peripheral vision. It was You Yi who had crossed over him to the window first, holding a blood-stained military knife, fiercely slashing towards the female ghost in front!
The female ghost’s figure flickered and vanished into the air. The force pulling Xin Meng also immediately disappeared. He fell to the ground, hugging his arm in pain, curling up like a shrimp. You Yi ran over in a few steps, seeing he couldn’t get up, and to avoid affecting their actions, he couldn’t carry him, so he simply stood beside him, gripping the sharp military knife with both hands, vigilantly looking around.
Qi Xiaokui, who had originally stood with them, now had the sense to come to Xin Meng’s side, taking out a handkerchief to stop his bleeding. You Yi glanced at her but didn’t drive her away. Qi Xiaokui successfully earned You Yi’s extra protection.
The other three, however, were not so fortunate. Li Yougen was directly pulled out through the open driver’s window, crashing into the gear assembly, instantly splattering blood, and severed limbs fell. Moments later, he revived in the driver’s seat, while Dong Xiu had almost completely replicated his experience, appearing just a bit later. The two were still in shock, their pupils dilated, gasping for breath. Seeing this, Xiong Jiabao hurried to run but was still a bit late, and he too was flung out of the window!
At this rate, let alone five lives, even fifty or five hundred lives wouldn’t be enough for this elusive and immensely strong female ghost to toy with!
So far, they could only see the shadow of her passing, and the feeling of crashing into the meat grinder made several of them lose their minds. Even when they returned to their seats, they couldn’t help but continue to scream in agony!
This hellish scene continued. In just a few dozen seconds, the three had already died and revived twice! The number above Li Yougen’s head had even changed to “2”!
With Qi Xiaokui’s help, Xin Meng got up from the ground and looked at the display, pleasantly surprised to find that the hand was about to reach the “12” position!
“Just hold on a little longer! We’re almost at the stop!” Xin Meng shouted to the three. Dong Xiu was being pulled by the female ghost, and upon hearing this, he actually turned around and grabbed the window frame, struggling against that inhuman strength. His face quickly turned red and swollen, veins bulging on his forehead, and his eyes were about to pop out! For the sake of an extra life, for the sake of survival, he absolutely couldn’t let go!
Unlike Xin Meng and You Yi, the four of them had already died twice, meaning that if they died once more, they would be “erased” by the game. He couldn’t just give up like this; he wanted to return to reality, back to his conference room, back to his five-star hotel!
“Ahhh!” Dong Xiu screamed madly, drowning out the faint sounds of “crack” and “snap.” In the terrifying tug-of-war, Dong Xiu’s arms were brutally torn apart, blood splattering like ink outside the window, and he fell back into the bus. However, he paid such a heavy price, and the female ghost was relentless, quickly turning back, grabbing Dong Xiu’s leg, and continuing to pull him outside.
Dong Xiu’s eyes widened in horror, his eyeballs bulging, fearfully watching himself walk towards the edge of death once again…
At that moment, a cold electronic female voice suddenly echoed in the bus, resonating throughout the entire compartment: “The next stop has arrived. Passengers preparing to get off, please get ready. The next stop has arrived. Passengers preparing to get off, please get ready.”
With no emotion or inflection, it sounded like heavenly music to everyone’s ears. The bus’s speed noticeably slowed down, just as Dong Xiu’s upper body was about to be pulled out of the window. The bus finally came to a complete stop, and the surrounding scenery changed again, with the gears disappearing entirely, revealing a platform identical to the previous one.
The female ghost also dissipated like a wisp of smoke in the air. Dong Xiu lost his balance, and with no arms to grab onto anything to stabilize himself, he fell out of the window, crashing onto the platform, blood staining the ground. He fainted from the pain, but at least he managed to save one life.
