Chapter 14: Meditation

Chapter 14: Meditation

Player Su Bai tasked his teammates with engaging the Driver in enthusiastic conversation to gather fragments of information, hoping to piece together the complete background story of the game.

Player Su Bai chose to observe from the sidelines.

The requirement for clearing the novice game was to survive for 12 hours. Based on Su Bai’s experience, if they could resolve the game’s key supernatural threat ahead of time, there was a high probability they could choose to clear the game and leave early.

So, while the game environment was still relatively safe, impulsiveness and haste would only lead to trouble. He opted to let the trio communicate with the Driver to gather more information, while he leaned against the seat and closed his eyes.

Though it was impossible to sleep in such an environment, Su Bai could use this opportunity to carefully explore the power within his body, searching for the "Evil Ghost Puzzle" hidden deep inside, and find a way to awaken that crucial "puzzle piece" for this game.

Among the remaining trio, Qin Ge was blocked by the white qipao and couldn’t move freely, especially after the white qipao had fully transformed into a paper figure. Even Qin Ge had to frequently lower his voice when speaking.

As Qin Ge himself had said, his situation was quite dire.

Thus, the task of chatting with the Driver fell to Zhang Yibu and Wan Shasha—or more accurately, only Wan Shasha eagerly accepted the task. Seeing Zhang Yibu shrink into his seat like a turtle again, Wan Shasha, being around the same age, was exasperated by his timidity and dragged him to the front row of the bus—the seat where Su Bai had been sitting earlier.

That row was far from the "special passengers" on the bus, making it a relatively safer spot.

While Su Bai appeared to be resting his eyes, he was actually fully focused on guiding the power within his body. In his previous life, after veteran players had spent a long time in the Nightmare World, some of the bored ones naturally began researching how to better utilize the power within them.

This power came from the red moon. All buildings, objects, ghosts, and even people in the Nightmare World, after long-term exposure to the red moon’s light, would involuntarily absorb its power. Once this power grew stronger, they or it would undergo some form of mutation.

The bored veterans Su Bai knew weren’t satisfied with merely using the red moon’s power to enhance the "traits" and "abilities" granted by the Nightmare World. Perhaps influenced by too many novels and comics from the real world, they actually attempted to train and harness this power within them.

Unfortunately, by the time Su Bai was reborn, their research hadn’t made much substantial progress. All Su Bai had learned from them was that when he entered a meditative state, he could faintly perceive the flow of energy within his body.

Normally, the red moon’s power would scatter randomly within a person’s body. But using the method those veterans had developed, Su Bai could visualize an invisible hand entering his body, gathering the scattered power into a single stream, and then guiding it to flow in a regular, even accelerated, pattern.

This method was called "cultivation" by those veterans—a term borrowed from real-world novels. However, all it could do was slightly speed up the absorption of the red moon’s power. More often, it was simply a pastime for veteran players in the Nightmare World, even making the boring time pass faster.

But in this life, at this moment, Su Bai could use this method to explore and familiarize himself with the power within his body.

After all, when using the "Evil Ghost Puzzle," if he wanted to borrow the power of an evil ghost, a portion of Su Bai’s own power would be consumed. This portion of power was negligible for Su Bai in his previous life, but for the current Su Bai, he had to gather every bit of power from the corners of his body.

During meditation, Su Bai could still observe the surroundings and occasionally hear Wan Shasha’s conversation with the Driver.

Although, with Su Bai’s help, the Driver was willing to answer some of Wan Shasha’s questions, he only responded to a small fraction of her many odd queries. Most of the time, Wan Shasha was just talking to herself.

Zhang Yibu, beside her, acted more as a straight man, occasionally chiming in with words like "Yes," "Right," and "You’re correct."

Perhaps Wan Shasha’s "harassment" had irritated the Driver, or perhaps meditation made time pass faster. During Su Bai’s rest with closed eyes, the Route 444 Last Bus had already passed "Happy Home Station," and the passenger in the suit sitting at the back staggered off the bus.

Route 444 Last Bus, current passengers: 7.

"Next stop, Lovers' Lake Station."

After the Driver restarted the bus and announced the next stop, Su Bai felt Wan Shasha and Zhang Yibu return to their seats at the back.

He slowly opened his eyes. The light in the bus was dim, but Su Bai took a moment to adjust. However, his body had indeed recovered significantly during meditation, no longer feeling the fatigue from being caught in the rain earlier. Even his reflection in the bus window looked less pale.

"Did you get any information?" After adjusting to the light in the bus, Su Bai saw Wan Shasha looking excitedly in his and Qin Ge’s direction, like a student who had solved the problem first and was eager to raise her hand.

"The Driver said the man in the suit who just got off was jobless. But he might be afraid his family would find out, so he rides the bus every day, sleeping the entire day, and gets off at the usual time to go home." Wan Shasha could still see the suited figure disappearing into the fog through the window.

"That’s strange. Aren’t the passengers on the bus, besides us players, supposed to be... ghosts?" Wan Shasha lowered her voice almost to a whisper when she mentioned the word "ghost," her lips moving exaggeratedly.

"The Nightmare World is full of strange things. Maybe even if he is a ghost, he’s one who forgot his identity. Don’t novels and movies often have supernatural characters like that?" Su Bai had seen too many such wandering spirits in the Nightmare World. Perhaps one day, he would discover that the home he returned to daily had no family waiting, or that he himself wasn’t human and didn’t need to pretend. By then, these wandering spirits would become as ferocious as evil ghosts.

In his previous life, Su Bai hadn’t encountered that suited wandering spirit—perhaps by then, it had already turned into a proper ghost.

"And the old lady who got off earlier might be similar. The Driver said her grandson seemed to be missing, so she gets on and off at different stops, always searching for him along the route." Wan Shasha looked sympathetic. "Actually, not all the special passengers are terrifying."

"And that one..." Wan Shasha gestured toward the Nurse sitting near the door. "The Driver said it’s her first time on the bus, but he’s seen others from the community hospital before—or ghosts, all of them terrifying. So the Driver thinks she must have been bullied."

"And also..."

"So, after all that questioning, you didn’t get a single piece of information about the Driver himself?" Qin Ge massaged his temples in frustration.

"Oh!" Wan Shasha seemed to remember something. "The Driver said he once raised cattle!"

"..."

"We really tried hard, but whenever the questions were about the Driver himself, he just refused to answer." Wan Shasha knew she hadn’t gathered much useful information but continued anyway. "And the one next to Brother Qin Ge... the Driver said she didn’t exactly board the bus; it was more like she drifted in through the open window earlier."

"That’s about it."

"The Driver also mentioned the final stop. After Lovers' Lake Station, it’s the final stop!" Zhang Yibu, seeing Wan Shasha had forgotten the key point, couldn’t help but add, "The final stop seems to be a village called 'Ghost Village.'"

"Right, right! And the final stop!" Wan Shasha quickly thanked Zhang Yibu for the reminder. "The Driver said sometimes there are many passengers waiting to board at the final stop."

"We absolutely shouldn't get off at the final stop?" Qin Ge repeated what Su Bai had said earlier.

"At least, that’s what my dead brother said in my dream." Su Bai still smiled perfectly. "His prophecies are always accurate. There was only one time in his life he didn’t believe the prophecy, and then he died—a very tragic death."

"...You and your brother must not have gotten along well, right?"

"How could that be?" Su Bai continued smiling, eyes crinkling. "I'd give anything to see him again."