Chapter 11: Back to Route 444 Last Bus

Chapter 11: Back on the Route 444 Last Bus

As Su Bai prepared to leave the Mist Shop, he took a few small items with him. A string of blood-red beads, resembling the color of the red moon, now adorned his left wrist.

Originally, the child who called himself Xiao Wu had hoped Su Bai would choose dolls or ornaments as vessels for the malevolent spirits. However, Su Bai had no interest in carrying dolls around, as it would make him feel like he was cosplaying Santa Claus.

So, Xiao Wu offered a compromise, producing a string of beads from an unknown source. Said to be made of special materials, there were 12 beads in total, each capable of serving as a temporary vessel for a malevolent spirit.

Such an item was far more suitable for Su Bai to carry. If he acquired anything in the nightmare game, he could later craft attractive and marketable special items upon returning to the Mist Shop.

"Malevolent spirits and evil ghosts?" Su Bai paused at the doorway of the Mist Shop.

The moment he opened the door, the time that had been suspended by the Mist Shop would resume its flow. He would be thrust back onto the Route 444 Last Bus to complete his 12-hour survival mission, once again facing the familiar yet unsettling ghost bride in the bus's last row.

Su Bai’s innate trait was "enhanced puzzle ability." Under the influence of the red moon's power, this trait had evolved into his special ability, "Malevolent Spirit Puzzle." This allowed him to integrate subdued malevolent spirits into himself like puzzle pieces, freely borrowing their power by expending some of his own.

However, Su Bai also had to bear the lingering wishes and obsessions of these malevolent spirits.

In his previous life, Su Bai's survival in the "Route 444 Last Bus" game—from which no one else emerged alive—was not due to immense power or remarkable intelligence.

There was only one reason Su Bai survived his previous life:

He wanted to die.

He was the sole player among the newcomers who harbored a death wish.

This wasn't to say Su Bai actively sought death. Rather, in his previous life, his brother Su Xuan had first gambled away all their family assets. Then, their mother was involved in a car accident while searching for his brother. Following that, his demonic brother even squandered the last of their mother's medical funds. Su Bai abandoned his studies to secure the best treatment for his mother but ultimately lost her due to his inability to cover the costs. After a year of fruitlessly searching for Su Xuan in the real world, he was dragged into the nightmare world.

Although he knew that completing the game offered a chance to return to the real world, Su Bai had no remaining ties to it at that time.

Thus, Su Bai at that time did not resist death. There wasn't even a trace of fear or despair in his emotions; he simply closed his eyes and calmly embraced his fate.

When the ghost bride's claw pierced Su Bai's chest, attempting to extract his heart, a fateful resonance allowed both the ghost bride and Su Bai to glimpse each other's memories. The woman, who had also been betrayed by her family and stripped of her destiny to become a ghost bride, found a profound connection with Su Bai. Instead of killing him, she willingly became Su Bai’s first puzzle piece.

At that moment, Ghost Bride A Xi whispered her obsession into Su Bai’s ear: "Live on!"

Su Bai could borrow the ghost bride's power, but he also had to shoulder her lingering wishes and obsessions.

Over the next decade, Su Bai acquired more and more Malevolent Spirit Puzzles. A significant portion of them shared a single wish and obsession for Su Bai: to "live on," no matter the cost!

Players who knew Su Bai were aware that this extraordinary individual cherished his life, willing to do anything to survive. Some even claimed he was the most fearful of death in the nightmare world, and this very fear had almost made him the strongest player.

Yet, no one knew that when Su Bai first entered the nightmare world in his previous life, he cared nothing for his own life. He was merely burdened by the obsessions of too many Malevolent Spirit Puzzles. So, even if it meant forming a marriage contract with the supernatural to survive, he would not hesitate in the slightest!

In this life, Su Bai still had his mother to care for in the real world, and the obsessions of the Malevolent Spirit Puzzles within him continued to influence him. Therefore, replicating his previous life’s method of completing the game was absolutely impossible.

However, for Su Bai in this life, completing the game was no longer a difficult task!

Su Bai took a deep breath, cast aside the memories of his previous life, and pushed open the door of the Mist Shop, stepping outside.

×

On the Route 444 Last Bus, after Su Bai disembarked, the trio attempted to question the driver about the "final station." Strangely, the previously talkative and polite Mr. Driver now responded to their inquiries with nothing but occasional cold sneers, offering no answers.

They didn't even know if the next stop would be the final destination.

Just as the trio was completely at a loss, they saw a familiar figure approaching the bus through the mist, boarding without hesitation through the front door.

Still in his not-yet-dry school uniform, still with that somewhat pale but handsome face, he instantly offered the trio a glimmer of hope in the nightmare.

"You're back!" Wan Shasha couldn't help but exclaim.

At the same time, the driver in the driver's seat glanced at Su Bai, then quickly averted his gaze, muttering under his breath in a voice almost too quiet to hear, "He seems... even scarier now."

"I remember now, I really have seen him before." Zhang Yibu, who had earlier found Su Bai familiar, looked up again at that striking face and suddenly had an epiphany. "He's the son of my mom's friend."

"That 'other people's child'?" Wan Shasha recalled that Zhang Yibu had recognized the school uniform because he had seen the "other people's child" a few times.

"Why is he here? I heard that family had a major misfortune, and the aunt was even hospitalized. My mom has been visiting her at the hospital lately."

As soon as Su Bai stepped onto the Route 444 Last Bus, he overheard Zhang Yibu's words. In fact, not only did Zhang Yibu find Su Bai familiar, but Su Bai also felt he had seen Zhang Yibu somewhere before.

Su Bai hadn't given it much thought, but after hearing Zhang Yibu’s words, he recalled something from his distant memories.

In his previous life, before Su Bai’s mother passed away, most relatives and friends—apart from demanding debt repayment—had ceased all contact with Su Bai and his family. However, one kind-hearted aunt, who had also lent money to Su Xuan, frequently visited Su Bai’s mother in the hospital. Before Su Bai’s mother’s accident, that aunt’s shop was next to his mother’s, and the two were very close.

Sometimes, when Su Bai was delayed by his job, that aunt would even help care for his mother.

Su Bai remembered that the aunt’s life wasn't easy either. She had a son two years younger than him, but that son had gone missing the year Su Bai’s mother was hospitalized. Even by the time Su Bai entered the nightmare world, the aunt was still putting up missing person notices to find her son, but she never found any useful clues.

So... was Zhang Yibu that aunt’s missing son?

The so-called "missing" meant he had died in a failed nightmare game.

Su Bai sighed to himself. He had never intended to save the trio unscathed from this game. After all, he was no saint, had no particular inclination to help others, and couldn’t save the countless unlucky players in the nightmare world.

But if... if he could do something for that aunt, his mother would likely be very happy, wouldn't she?