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Ch2 - Three People Become Ghosts
…Nan Zhou had a headache. He didn’t wake up naturally just now. He was sleeping against the window and when he was frightened by a girl’s scream, he bumped his head against it.
It hurt.
After waking up, there was a strange colored mushroom in front of him. It took Nan Zhou some time to figure out he wasn’t dreaming.
“Second—” The mushroom was satisfied with the dead silence in the bus and the ups and downs of the mushroom cap seemed light and pleasant. “Among you, three of you are ghosts.”
The words were shocking. Regardless of the deadly grey complexions of the group, the mushroom pointed to the man who had just fallen back on his seat, the white slime slowly flowing down his shoulder. “It just so happened that he isn’t one.”
“Friendly tip, if a ghost’s head explodes then it is a white mushroom.”
The deceased was used as an example by the mushroom but in just a few seconds, the body could no longer be seen. Gray mycelium stretched out from the rapidly decaying arms and legs and penetrated into the seams and cushions of the seats. They extended to the place where blood splashed like dedicated scavengers.
The mushroom was very satisfied with everyone’s expression. At least, until it caught sight of Nan Zhou.
There was a striking red mark left at the end of the eye on the side where Nan Zhou slept leaning against the window. There were also a few strands of semi-curly mid-length sticking up. He was still watching the mushroom. His curiosity was much greater than his fear.
…The mushroom inexplicably had the feeling of being offended.
Nan Zhou found that the mushroom was looking at him and kindly reminded, “You finished saying the second thing.”
The mushroom, “……”
It shook its cap unhappily, angrily used a short hand to tidy up the brim of the cap and completely turned away from Nan Zhou. “Third, ghosts are like you. They have basic common sense, normal thinking and the same physiological structure and physiological responses. Thus, players can skip the step of hurting each other and start your judgment in a civilized manner.”
At this point, the mushroom tried to put its two short hands together but the stubby fingers barely touched each other.
“However, players don’t have to be frustrated so early!”
“You aren’t hopeless in front of the ghosts.”
“Simply put, every one of you has the right to vote!”
“Three people can form a team.”
“As long as there are three people—of course, it doesn’t matter if there are more—you can rely on the judgment of the team to determine a suspected ghost.’
“Once the team has reached a consensus on a suspicious person, just use this thing on the suspicious target—”
The mushroom took out a silver bracelet shaped like a handcuff and then another one that was exactly the same. It aligned the two visible grooves on the bracelet and lightly touched them together. The bracelet made a short mechanical sound like a card being swiped.
The mushroom clapped happily again. The bracelets used for the demonstration turned into silver powder.
“As long as three players touch the same bracelet, the owner of the bracelet will automatically be judged as a ghost.”
“Of course, the system will determine if you are stamping it actively or passively.”
“There is no limit to the number of passive stamps per player.”
“Before the game is over, ghosts can’t kill players by any means other than voting.”
“You will pass through six tunnels before this vehicle reaches the end.”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Tbe mjc ecvfgrajcv la jr atfgf jgf rlz gbecvr bo nbalcu, j oeii rlz bqqbgaeclalfr.”
“Coafg fcafglcu atf aeccfi, bcf gbecv bo nbalcu lr jeabwjalmjiis mibrfv. Ycmf bea bo atf aeccfi, atf cfza gbecv bo nbalcu lr jeabwjalmjiis bqfcfv.”
“Rfza lr atf alwf ktfc sbe nfglos lo atf pevuwfca lc atlr gbecv lr mbggfma~”
“After coming out of the tunnel, where there be white mushrooms or colorful mushrooms in the vehicle?”
“It depends on each player’s choice.”
“If the end is reached and all ghosts are caught, it is deemed that the players have won~”
“On the other hand, if the ghosts survive then the ban on them will be lifted~”
“It is a pity. If the player just now hadn’t left the instance without authorization, you might’ve eliminated all the ghosts in the first round.
The mushroom was talking excitedly when that annoying player actually made a sound. Nan Zhou twisted the cuffs of his sleeves and whispered, “Don’t make trouble.”
“That isn’t an edible mushroom.”
The mushroom, “……”
Nan Zhou raised his head and made a polite ‘Sorry, please continue’ gesture to the mushroom.
…It was subtly very annoyed. The evidence was that the speed of the mushroom’s speech accelerated and the weird tone at the end was no longer added.
“Once the ghost group is destroyed, this bracelet will become an ordinary item. I will leave it to you as a souvenir.”
“This game does not prohibit excessive violence.”
“Still, I have to remind you that voting is the quickest and most effective way.”
“Once the game is over, the system will give points based on your contributions and this determines your next game experience.”
“Use your brains. This is an absolutely fair game.”
“The trial level duration is one hour.”
“So…”
“Have a nice game.”
There was a high sound as the mushroom quickly shrank into a flat light, disappearing without a trace. The moment the mushroom disappeared, silver bracelets fell on the ground, rolling and bouncing like the balloons celebrating its debut.
The bus was silent for a while.
Under the snow-white sky outside the window, there were eight people and three ghosts sitting in the enclosed bus. It was clearly daytime but everyone felt cold.
The first to break the silence was the man who initially took action first. He went to the front row and picked up a bracelet. Everyone took their own bracelets but they didn’t dare to wear them. They just watched each other.
This lasted until the silver-haired man with the scorpion braid placed it tentatively around his wrist. When picking up the bracelet, someone with a brave mentality went to look at the driver’s seat.
As expected, the driver who was the only one who could confirm the original passengers in the bus had long since disappeared. They were on a bus without a driver, speeding toward the unknown at 80 kilometers per hour. This discovery undoubtedly increased the frozen atmosphere in the bus.
“Don’t waste time.”
Since he was the first to speak and the first to attempt to walk toward the driver, the man had been stared at several times. He felt he was shouldering a certain responsibility so he coughed and suggested, “Why don’t we… introduce ourselves first?”
He took the lead. “My name is Zhao Guanglu and I am 37 years old this year. I am from phase 1 of Zhanghua Community and I work for a construction company…uh… I’ve been divorced for three years.”
As the first person to introduce himself, he didn’t know what else to say so he added, “I was the second to get on the bus. The driver said I was number two.”
Li Yinhang raised her hand. “I am number three! I’m also from Zhanghua!”
She still remembered the warm touch when the driver patted her shoulder and said ‘number three.’ Unexpectedly, Zhao Guanglu scratched his head. “Why didn’t I see you?”
Li Yinhang’s heart sank and she started sweating. The passenger seats in the bus were too high and it was easy to block people’s vision. Moreover, when she got in the bus, he was sleeping with his clothes covering his face.
She hurriedly said, “My name is Li Yinhang and I am 24 years old. I graduated from the finance department of X University. I work at the Songzhou Street branch of Guangming Bank in customer service.”
Everyone, “……”
Her name was Li Yinhang and she worked in a bank. It obviously looked like a made-up name. (Li Yinhang—Yin = silver/related to money, Hang=boat, ship, sail etc)
Li Yinhang, “……”
She never liked her name very much since she was a child and couldn’t help laughing every time she introduced herself to the class but she never thought it would be used to disprove her innocence at this time. She struggled to find other evidence. “Guangming Bank has a staff dormitory in the second phase of Zhanghua Community, do you know it?”
“…Is that so? I really don’t know about this?” Zhao Guanglu shook his head apologetically and emphasized, “I got in the bus and fell asleep.”
He didn’t realize what his words meant in the ears of some new players. As the first person to take the initiative, his words and evaluations had more weight. Many people’s gazes toward Li Yinhang changed.
Li Yinhang was anxious in her heart but she was trained in her customer service work to organize language and not lose control in the face of danger. Otherwise, she would get bad reviews. She said, “After I came up, I spoke to some people. Do you still remember?”
She didn’t have much hope. She did talk to other people in the bus but she kept her voice quiet in consideration of the sleeping person. Besides, those people had already got off the bus. All the people left now were fresh faces who had no impression of her.
Sure enough, no one testified for her.
In the silence that made people feel numb, Li Yinhang recited the evidence that she had been in the bus for a long time. “The bus passed by the Long family’s pickled fish restaurant, 31 Food Street and finally passed the river bridge…”
The more she talked, the less of a response she received. She became more afraid and fell deeper into self-doubt. She might be the only one who noticed that there were too many people in the bus the moment it passed through a tunnel. Would other people think the ghosts were already on the bus? Would they believe what she was saying now?
“…Okay.” Someone interrupted Li Yinhang whose voice had started to tremble. The silver-haired man with a scorpion braid who was regarded as a ‘beauty’ stood up and glanced at her, pale gray eyes full of gentle encouragement.
“She has been sitting behind me since I got on the bus,” he said.
Li Yinhang heard this and the sweat on her body fell.
Everyone couldn’t help sighing with relief. They might be eager to catch the ghosts but their mentality of avoiding harm meant they didn’t want to determine a ghost so soon.
Someone complained, “Why didn’t you say it earlier?”
“Based on the rules, we need to form a team. I didn’t want to decide on a team so quickly,” the man said. “After all, if I speak for her then in the eyes of others, she and I will be on the same team. I wanted to wait and see.”
His attitude was very modest as he spoke. It was a tone and demeanor that made people think of a spring breeze.
“My name is Jiang Fang.” He introduced himself. “I am 25 years old and my father is Ukrainian. I should be regarded as a testimony of the great friendship between China and Ukraine.”
Li Yinhang finally saw his face.
He was a mixed-race person. His facial features, especially his nose and eyes, contained a Russian beauty while the lower half of his face had charming oriental features, especially his red and thin lips. If it wasn’t for the special situation, there was no one who wouldn’t let their imagination run wild from his beauty.
He continued, “I returned to China not long ago because my mother passed away. I wanted to see the city where she grew up. I rented an apartment in Donghua.”
The girl in the front row who awakened Nan Zhou with a scream asked in a low voice, “I’m from Dongua Apartments. Why didn’t I see you when I got on the bus?”
“I came up from the back door and I live in the area filled with foreigners.” Jiang Fang pointed to the other door at the back of the bus and asked Li Yinhang, “Did you see me?”
Li Yinhang didn’t have any impression of when Jiang Fang sat in front of her but she knew that if she didn’t follow his words, she would still be a target. To get out of this predicament, she nodded vaguely.
Zhao Guanglu was quite alert. “What is your number?”
Jiang Fang was very calm. “Should we have a number?”
…What did he mean?
Zhao Guangly glanced at the girl who also got on the bus in the Donghua District. The girl shook her head and said no. Zhao Guanglu thought for a moment and understood the reason.
In his napping state, he had felt people were frequently walking as they got in and out of the bus. The Donghua Apartments were very close to the bridge crossing the river. If there were too many people getting in and out of the bus, the driver might’ve given up telling everyone their boarding order to avoid the trouble of self-recording the statistics.
In other words, it was meaningless to report their number.
There was nothing else to ask Jiang Fang. Then Zhao Guanglu thought of another suspicious person in the bus. He looked around and found that the man had disappeared again.
Zhao Guanglu, “……”
During the time when everyone’s attention was focused on the back row, Nan Zhou lay down on his seat and fumbled around, reaching through the crack in the chair for the only bracelet that had rolled under the seat.
He lowered his head to put on the bracelet and the hard and cold metal brushed against the black butterfly tattoo on the inside of his right wrist. He turned the bracelet around and thought about things.
Suddenly, Nan Zhou had the feeling of being peeped at. He placed his head on the headrest of the seat to the side and looked back. Then he buried half his face in his raised arms and let out a small sigh.
…No wonder why he felt like this. It was because almost everyone in the bus was staring at him. He sat in the front row, appeared the most abruptly and reacted the most abnormally to the mushroom. Even Nan Zhou felt that he was the most suspicious.
“My name is Lou Yan.” Nan Zhou introduced himself in a natural manner with a cold air. “I’m 26 years old and a teacher from Longtan 2nd High School. I usually live in the Longtan District. During the summer vacation, I went back to my mother’s home to visit relatives.”
After several rounds of speeches, everyone had gradually become courageous.
“When did you get in the bus?”
“Why aren’t you afraid?’
“How can you prove your words are true?”
These three questions did indeed require a reasonable explanation. So how could he explain that he was suddenly teleported here but he wasn’t a ghost?
Not proofread. In addition, yes, the MC and ML’s are in the bus. MC is Nan Zhou (shou) and ML is Jiang Fang.