Chapter 114: [Harboring a Ghostly Secret] Boarding the Night Bus
It was time for the game.
It was the middle of the night.
[Welcome to the B1-level instance “Harboring a Ghostly Secret”.]
[Number of participants in this instance: 9.]
[Instance clearance mode: Explore the complete storyline.]
[Ghost Realm APP wishes you a happy life~]
Bai Cha stood at a bus stop. Beside her was Xu Shengsheng, who still looked somewhat bewildered. They each had a backpack slung over their shoulders.
Xu Shengsheng still thought she was dreaming.
“Today’s dream is different? Sister, what a coincidence, you’re in my dream too?”
Bai Cha: “…”
She glanced around and saw no one else in the immediate vicinity.
“Long story short, this is a horror game. I don’t know if you’ve received the prompt, but you should have already started initializing your skills. The dreams you had before were warnings from the horror game. Our instance is called ‘Harboring a Ghostly Secret.’ I can’t explain the whole situation right now, so just stick close to me.”
Xu Shengsheng was stunned by Bai Cha’s rapid-fire explanation.
Then, of course, she also heard her character skill prompt and saw a comment float across her vision.
“Oh!” Her eyes widened in amazement. “I get it, this is an infinite flow survival game, right? Awesome! So this isn’t a dream?”
Bai Cha: “…”
She had been worried that Xu Shengsheng would be scared after coming in, but now it seemed their family just naturally inherited guts of steel.
“Right. First, open your interface. Let’s add each other as friends so I can bind a card to you.”
Xu Shengsheng fumbled to open her interface and added Bai Cha as a friend.
[Do you wish to use a Location Card with your friend Xu Shengsheng?]
[Yes] [No]
[You have used a Location Card. In this instance, you and Xu Shengsheng will share location information.]
Xu Shengsheng found this quite amazing.
But soon, she saw another bullet-screen comment.
[A newbie, huh? Looks like dead meat. Hope you get reincarnated soon, tsk tsk.]
Xu Shengsheng: “…”
She felt wronged. “Sister, the comments are cursing at me.”
Bai Cha: “…”
“Ignore the idiots, just turn off the bullet comments. This is how they always treat newbies.”
Xu Shengsheng obediently turned off the comments.
“Sister, what’s your skill? Mine is so weird, it’s called ‘Careless and Sloppy.’ When used, it makes people become careless.”
Bai Cha: “…”
Bai Cha gave Xu Shengsheng a very complicated look.
“It’s fine. It’s a good skill. Used well, it can have miraculous effects.”
“Really?” Xu Shengsheng wanted to ask more, but in the dark night sky, a bus slowly drove toward them.
“Don’t talk too much once we get on. Take this item card,” Bai Cha instructed in a low voice.
She handed the Golden Bell Shield to Xu Shengsheng and told her to put it in her backpack.
Xu Shengsheng immediately nodded and mimed zipping her lips.
The bus was red.
It was incredibly dilapidated. This type of bus had been phased out a long time ago; it looked like a model from at least a decade prior.
It wasn’t large, looking like it could only seat a dozen or so people.
The vehicle moved at a crawl.
Its headlights were exceptionally dim.
The bus slowly pulled to a stop in front of them, and the doors opened.
It looked pitch black inside.
Pasted on the window was a paper ‘囍’ (Double Happiness) character. Compared to the battered state of the bus, the character looked fresh, as if it had just been painted.
Xu Shengsheng realized a bit late that this was actually quite terrifying.
[Ding—Players, please board the vehicle. If you miss this bus, you will have to make your own way to the destination.]
The storyline mode provided occasional prompts, such as hinting at the current progress of the plot.
Bai Cha and Xu Shengsheng got on the bus.
Two people were already sitting in the very back row.
Bai Cha quietly cast her gaze toward the driver first.
The driver wore a baseball cap and a black leather jacket. It was zipped all the way to the top, bundling him up tightly, and he even wore white gloves.
His cap was pulled down so low that his face was completely obscured.
Driven by curiosity, Xu Shengsheng also sized him up. She squinted closely at the driver’s face, but really couldn’t see a thing. Curious, she blurted out, “You can’t see the road clearly with your hat pulled down so low, right? The traffic police will deduct points if they catch you!”
Her crisp voice rang out exceptionally loud in the dead of night.
The two players in the back had been observing them, but upon hearing this, their attention shifted entirely onto Xu Shengsheng.
The driver remained completely motionless, as if he hadn’t heard a single word.
Seeing him as unresponsive as a corpse, Xu Shengsheng was about to speak again when a sudden realization hit her.
Wait a minute, a corpse?
Her eyes widened in horror.
Bai Cha now understood exactly where her cousin’s skill originated. She pulled Xu Shengsheng to a two-seater in the back row and sat down. The other two players were seated across the aisle on the left.
They were two men—one looked to be in his twenties, while the other seemed over thirty.
The two men gave them a slight nod. Nobody spoke.
The vehicle drove on sluggishly.
The air inside the bus was foul, a heavy stench of rot mixed closely with the smell of gasoline.
Moreover, the temperature was quite low.
Both she and Xu Shengsheng were wearing short-sleeved T-shirts, as were the two players across from them; it seemed to be standard clothing provided by the game.
Xu Shengsheng suddenly leaned in close.
“Sister, is your health okay?”
Xu Shengsheng still clearly remembered Bai Cha’s frailness.
When she was little, she had stubbornly insisted Bai Cha go outside and play with her. It was winter and a bit cold, but actually quite pleasant overall—it had just finished snowing, and the sun was bright.
Yet, Bai Cha caught a high fever right after they returned and had to be rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night.
Upon returning, Xu Shengsheng received a severe spanking from her mother. The young Xu Shengsheng, crying her lungs out while simultaneously worried sick over her cousin’s illness and getting her bottom smacked, remembered the ordeal vividly to this day.
Of course, Bai Cha’s current condition was vastly better than in reality.
But there were many things she couldn’t explicitly say, so she merely shook her head.
Xu Shengsheng grasped her hand and discovered it was freezing cold.
This wasn’t because Bai Cha felt cold; saying she was a plant wouldn’t be entirely inaccurate. After her body was altered by the power of the Dodder Flower, her surface body temperature had dropped significantly, becoming closer to that of a plant.
You could say she was extremely cold to the touch.
She was still susceptible to the cold, but this current temperature was fine—it was a normal summer night’s breeze.
At most, the yin energy in the air was just a bit heavy.
Clasping Bai Cha’s hand, Xu Shengsheng’s gaze suddenly hardened with determination.
“I will protect you!”
Bai Cha hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Xu Shengsheng sighed, looked at Bai Cha a moment later, and sighed again.
With her cousin’s frail constitution, how did she end up in a game like this? What were they going to do?
Bai Cha: “…”
She opened the game store and searched for a set of Five-Three high school prep workbooks. One subject cost 10 points. She redeemed a math workbook and handed it to Xu Shengsheng.
Xu Shengsheng’s pupils quaked.
“No matter what, you cannot neglect your studies. If we end up staying in this game for a few days, you still have your senior year coming up. The college entrance exam is crucial. You can’t forget to study just because you’re playing a game.”
Xu Shengsheng: “…”
With trembling hands, she accepted this heavy burden of love, looking so utterly dazed she couldn’t utter a single word.
The corners of the two nearby players’ mouths twitched.
The younger-looking player broke the silence.
“Ahem, you two are sisters? That’s pretty rare. It’s not often that family members enter the game together.”
Bai Cha smiled politely.
“Yes, we are.”
“Ah…” The player felt a bit awkward, but quickly introduced himself. “My name is Wang Jiangtao. What about you two?”
The older player simply said, “Zhang Feng.”
“Bai Tao, and this is my younger sister Bai Sheng.”
Xu Shengsheng blinked. Although she didn’t know why her cousin changed their names, she played along.
Wang Jiangtao chuckled and said, “Your names are quite auspicious together! Tao Sheng (Escape and Survive)! Nice!”
Xu Shengsheng echoed with a ‘hehe’ smile.
Bai Cha remained silent.
As they spoke, the bus rolled to a stop once again.
This time, five people boarded all at once.
Everyone was here.
