Currently, the only ones who still have the opportunity to risk their lives for an experiment are Xin Meng, You Yi, and Qi Xiao Kui. With a total of six people in the team, the overall probability is only half. So even if the three of them agree, they still need to wait for the right opportunity. On the next bus, Xiong Jia Bao called out the name Li You Gen, who naturally refused to get on, so they had to let the opportunity pass and wait again.
“Dong Xiu, it’s your turn,” Xiong Jia Bao pointed at the fake Dong Xiu on the bus, “Quick, see who it is!”
Dong Xiu squinted his eyes and soon revealed a playful smile: “It’s… Qi, Xiao, Kui!”
The girl whose name was called raised her head, glanced at the watching Dong Xiu and Li You Gen, then looked at the worried Xin Meng, nodded at him without hesitation, swept her bangs back, revealing her smooth forehead, and waved her hand, saying, “I’m going up!”
Even as the only female, she was more carefree and brave than most of the big men in the team. Xin Meng sincerely hoped she would be safe.
Qi Xiao Kui got on the bus, and the door quickly closed.
The people waiting outside began to count the time. According to Dong Xiu, the interval between each bus is a hundred counts, and regardless of how much time the players spend on the bus, after death, the time appearing at the platform will not exceed this hundred counts. This means that the time inside the bus is indeed frozen and not synchronized with the outside.
If after counting to a hundred, Qi Xiao Kui has not returned to the platform, it means they have successfully passed the level.
“…97, 98, 99,” Xiong Jia Bao’s eyes grew brighter, and he clapped his hands hard: “100! It worked!”
Just then, a bus arrived at the station, and Qi Xiao Kui was nowhere to be seen. This method was correct!
Finally finding the right way to pass the level, the remaining five people became excited, and Dong Xiu couldn’t help but smile. However, he quietly glanced at Xin Meng, who was high-fiving You Yi, and his glasses glinted.
“Quick! Dong Xiu! Look who’s on this bus!” Li You Gen finally stopped huddling in the corner, rushing over in a panic, almost grabbing Dong Xiu by the collar to drag him to the bus. Dong Xiu nimbly dodged, casually lifting his eyelids towards the bus, and only when the door was about to close did he slowly say, “It’s yours.”
Li You Gen suddenly shouted and charged towards the closing bus door with a speed that was completely inconsistent with his physique, managing to squeeze in just before the doors fully closed, taking the only path to life.
With two people having passed the level, Xiong Jia Bao couldn’t help but cheer, almost wanting to rush over and pat Dong Xiu on the shoulder. But Dong Xiu’s arm was gone. Although the game’s settings didn’t show symptoms like infection or excessive bleeding, it still looked frightening, so Xiong Jia Bao silently withdrew his hand.
Dong Xiu glanced at him and sneered a few times.
The next bus should be one of the four of them, and the person appearing on this bus was Xin Meng, sitting in the middle of the last row, with many passengers blocking his view, making it hard to observe.
Dong Xiu walked towards the bus, occasionally tilting his head and standing on tiptoe, until he was almost at the bus door. He squinted to see clearly, glanced back at the three people behind him, scanned his gaze from Xin Meng to You Yi, and then nodded at Xiong Jia Bao, “It’s you, hurry up.”
Xiong Jia Bao was delighted, turning to Xin Meng and saying, “Little brother, I’ll go first. The next game is waiting for you!”
Xin Meng nodded, and Xiong Jia Bao happily walked towards the bus door. Dong Xiu watched for a bit too long, and at this moment, the bus door was already starting to close. Xiong Jia Bao hurried a couple of steps, lifted his right foot, and was about to step onto the first step…
“Bang!” Suddenly, Dong Xiu, who had been standing by the door, violently slammed into Xiong Jia Bao. Caught off guard, Xiong Jia Bao was knocked to the ground, his palm scraping against the ground, blood oozing from the abrasion. He let out a startled “ah,” and when he looked up, he saw Dong Xiu’s agile back, having managed to board the bus before him!
The bus door immediately closed, as if timed perfectly. Even if You Yi rushed over, he might not be able to pry the door open and pull him back.
Through the glass, Dong Xiu sneered at Xin Meng. If he had hands, he might have flaunted them in front of them.
“Thinking I’d stay until the end to help you pass the level? Dream on! Go die!” Dong Xiu cursed viciously, his voice penetrating through the gaps in the door and clearly echoing in the ears of the remaining three.
“Damn you!” Xiong Jia Bao got up from the ground and chased after the bus, cursing as he ran, “Dong Xiu, you son of a bitch, you bastard, you’re a son without eyes!”
However, the vehicle sped away, leaving only a trail of exhaust that made Xiong Jia Bao’s eyes water. He knelt on the ground, clenched his fists, and pounded the earth.
“What do we do, what do we do!” Xiong Jia Bao looked at Xin Meng with tear-filled eyes, “If I had known this bastard was unreliable, I should have tied his legs up!”
Just a moment ago, he was calling him a son of a bitch, and in less than a minute, he had already lowered his tone.
Xin Meng hadn’t expected such a situation either. It seemed Dong Xiu had planned this all along, which was why he had approached the bus door under the pretense of observing, and called out Xiong Jia Bao’s name. With You Yi’s strength, it was uncertain who would be knocked down if he charged in, and Xin Meng was also very alert. If he accidentally dodged and got on the bus first, even if he boarded the wrong bus and died, he would return to the platform and expose Dong Xiu’s intentions, making it difficult for him to take advantage of the situation.
He had still let him slip through the cracks.
“Don’t panic, there’s always a way out! There must be other methods!” Xin Meng said, “This game has been played by more than just us; there must be many players who have played it too. If there’s not a single person in the team who understands lip reading, are we supposed to be wiped out directly? I don’t believe it.”
The more he spoke, the clearer his thoughts became, and his emotions calmed down, “Understanding lip reading is just a shortcut, but even if we’re unlucky and lose this shortcut, we can definitely pass the level in a normal way.”
Xiong Jia Bao stared blankly at Xin Meng. Clearly younger than him and with a much thinner frame, at this moment, he appeared exceptionally tall in Xiong Jia Bao’s eyes.
You Yi crossed his arms, leaning against the bus stop sign, his brown eyes quietly resting on Xin Meng’s back as he analyzed the situation, his thumb lightly touching his lips, forming a faint smile.
The bus roared in, stopping beside the three of them.
Xin Meng looked up at the interior of the bus, making eye contact with his counterpart inside. It wasn’t his bus, but it could possibly be You Yi’s.
He watched the lips of the other Xin Meng slightly move, but he couldn’t make out whose name was being said. However, he wasn’t anxious; the thoughts he had just organized were still clear, and the previously overlooked details had found their place.
The “Qi Xiao Kui” that Xiong Jia Bao had encountered earlier had spoken to him, saying, “I didn’t call your name.”
Then…
“Can you tell me whose name you called?” Xin Meng looked into the identical eyes and slowly asked this question.
“You’re asking him like that? How could he possibly tell you…” Xiong Jia Bao was almost fainting. He even thought that his earlier belief in Xin Meng’s reliability was an illusion. However, before he could finish his sentence, he saw the “Xin Meng” on the bus actually squinting his eyes, revealing a smile that no man could refuse, unique to him, and then opened his mouth, speaking in a mechanical voice that all three could hear: “Xiong—Jia—Bao—”
Xiong Jia Bao’s jaw nearly dropped to the ground.
“Sure enough!” Xin Meng said, “This special NPC can speak. Since it can speak, it’s very likely it can communicate. If we can’t hear what it’s saying, we can just ask it to speak louder.”
“This… is it really that simple?” Xiong Jia Bao thought he hadn’t woken up yet, how could it suddenly turn from a life-and-death dilemma into a game of Q&A?
“Simple?” Xin Meng raised an eyebrow, “If I hadn’t brought it up, you probably would never have thought of it in your life.”
Indeed, even if it seemed simple now, it didn’t mean it was easy to find. In fact, the simpler the method, the harder it is to think of. They had become hypersensitive due to this game, only guessing in increasingly difficult directions, completely failing to consider that there could be such a way to pass the level!
But if they thought about it more carefully, they would realize that this was also a universal escape route for all players. Even someone with Xiong Jia Bao’s temperament, if pushed to the limit, might yell at the NPC. If what he shouted contained phrases like “What are you saying?” or “Speak louder,” even if it was in anger or cursing, it could trigger the NPC to answer their questions.
This way of passing the level was both obscure and easy to trigger. Even Xin Meng couldn’t help but admire the game’s intricate design and high intelligence.
“Get on quickly, or the bus will leave!” Xin Meng urged.
Xiong Jia Bao didn’t have time to speak, quickly rushing onto the bus. While the door hadn’t closed yet, he looked gratefully at Xin Meng: “Little brother Xin, I owe you a favor. As long as it doesn’t involve me dying, I will definitely repay you when I have the chance!”
Xin Meng smiled and waved at him.
The vehicle drove off with Xiong Jia Bao, who leaned against the glass door, still waving at them.
“Too bad it’s not your bus,” Xin Meng finally expressed his disappointment when no one was left, “Let Xiong Jia Bao go first.”
“It’s okay, it will come soon,” You Yi patted his head.
After a hundred counts, one of the last two buses arrived, filled with Xin Meng’s hopes. The moment he saw the person inside, he felt dissatisfaction for the first time. “It’s you…”
No need to ask, this was the correct bus belonging to Xin Meng, because the person sitting there was You Yi, so it couldn’t be You Yi’s bus.
“Should I wait for the next round?” Xin Meng hesitated for a moment and didn’t immediately board the bus, “This bus is on a loop. After these six leave, it will come back again. I want to see you get on.”
You Yi shook his head with a smile, pushing Xin Meng’s back, urging him onto the bus, “Hurry up, we’ll see each other again soon. I… am looking forward to the next game.”
As the bus door closed, Xin Meng immediately turned back and shouted through the gap, “What do you mean!”
He felt You Yi’s words had deeper meaning. What’s going to happen in the next game?
However, all he saw was You Yi waving at him, quickly disappearing from view as the bus accelerated.
He turned back and found that all the passengers in the bus had vanished, including the fake You Yi.
Xin Meng walked to the seat where the fake You Yi had been sitting, grasped the handrail tightly, and slowly sat down.
You Yi, left at the platform, watched the bus drive away, waited a while at the platform, and finally, the last bus finally arrived.
The person on the bus showed him a familiar gentle smile, reaching out to him. You Yi smiled back and stepped onto the bus.
The bus door closed, heading towards the destination.
…
“Overcorrection, the difficulty of the test chapter is too low, unable to achieve the elimination purpose.”
“Adjust it to a higher level.”
“Hmm.”
