CH 6

Ch6 - Three People Become Ghosts

Liu Rongrui was pushed down onto a seat with everyone lending a hand. The group of people tore his clothes into cloth stripes, placed his hands together and tied them firmly. In an instant, the silver bracelet around his wrist received seven or eight votes. The grumpy university student Wu Yukai remembered Liu Rongrui’s attempt to kill him with a vote. New and old hatreds rushed into his heart and he voted vengefully.

Liu Rongrui wanted to struggle at first but he later became half-numb. He leaned back against his seat, his chest rising and falling and his eyes dull. This lasted until the bumping of the vehicle caused his eyes to once again fall on the human head that had completely become a mushroom.

Liu Rongrui suddenly realized the punishment that was about to fall on him. He stood up abruptly and tried to rush forward. However, he lost his balance and tripped. He lay on the ground, his face ashen as he tried to lift himself up and screamed, “I don’t want to die!”

The thing he confided next frightened everyone who heard it.

“I’m not a ghost, I’m a human!”

“I’m a player just like you. I’m also a player!”

“This isn’t my name either!”

“My name is Liu Xiao and I’m from D City! I was thrown into this damn game on July 10th!”

“I finished the first task and wanted to rise a bit more in the rankings, so I spent points to choose PVP mode and was transferred to this bus…”

“I’m just playing the role of a ghost. I’m not a real ghost!”

“Please brothers, uncles and sisters. I still have parents at home and I’m a virgin. I’ve never had a girlfriend. I don’t want to die!”

It was hard not to be moved by the undignified cries of a sobbing man. Some people couldn’t bear it and turned their heads away in an unbearable manner. However, some people didn’t buy it. The fat man’s voice was cold. “Then tell us who your partners are.”

Player Liu Xiao seemed to realize he still had a bargaining chip in his hand and a sickly red color appeared on his gray and defeated face. “Then save me! Save me and I’ll tell you!”

“How do we save you?”

Due to his emotional ups and downs, Liu Xiao’s eyes were bloodshot and he looked hysterical. “Then don’t think about knowing who the ghosts are!”

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.

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“Ca atja alwf, jr atf klccfgr, kf mjc mtbbrf ktfatfg ab tega sbe bg cba…”

“Each one of you is worth 100 points…”

“I swear, I will give up the right to kill you at the end. I don’t even need the points I spent to enter this level—I really won’t hurt you! It’s true! Really!”

“Let me go! Let me go!”

Some people’s moods changed after learning that the ‘ghosts’ might also be people. Xie Yangyang, who had been remaining silent, spoke timidly. “…Or let’s reconcile.”

She boldly raised his voice. “Who among you are ghosts? Come out.”

“If we don’t hurt you then you don’t hurt us either. We can live peacefully until the end of the game, right?”

However, Xie Yangyang’s well-intentioned words were met with an embarrassing silence. Some people even sneered disdainfully. Xie Yangyang’s face instantly turned red. Nan Zhou felt this girl was a bit pitiful so he took the initiative to break the awkward silence for her. He sincerely told her, “That isn’t possible.”

Xie Yangyang, “……”

It was fine when no one paid attention to her. Now that Nan Zhou spoke, she was so embarrassed that she rubbed her toes against the ground. She had already realized how stupid her words were. If everyone got along harmoniously until the end, the ghosts would automatically win.

At that time, why would the ghosts let go of the humans? Even if Liu Xiao’s words were true and he was willing to give up the points, what about his two ghost teammates? These two people hadn’t been exposed yet. How could they identify themselves at the risk of being mobbed by everyone? In any case, it was Liu Xiao who was dying right now, not them.

In the desperate silence, Liu Xiao completely understood his fate. He laughed miserably as he finally gave up on hope. He staggered up from the ground and roared, “I’ll remember all of you!”

“My name is Liu Xiao and I was killed by you!”

“All of you are murderers!”

“In particular—”

He stared at Jiang Fang and gritted his teeth so hard they almost broke. “It was you who killed me—”

The dying man’s angry words of hatred were chilling to hear. Jiang Fang didn’t react. He just looked at this with a blank expression. There was no victorious smile or extra pity.

“You killed him—”

“If it wasn’t for you, how could he have died—”

The auditory hallucinations swept over him like a wave, lingering in Jiang Fang’s ears. However, Jiang Fang just raised his hand to cover the side of his choker and moved his neck in a habitual manner.

Nan Zhou thought he had just comforted Xie Yangyang. Then he turned his head and saw Liu Xiao cursing Jiang Fang endlessly. Nan Zhou was a bit confused. As this person took a breath to continue cursing, Nan Zhou interrupted and asked seriously, “Mr Liu, you are the one who didn’t play the game well. Why should you blame others?”

“……” Liu Xiao was taking a breath only to get choked up.

Nan Zhou seemed to gain some understanding when he spoke. He nodded. “Of course, if thinking this way makes you happy then you can scold us.”

Then he turned around and told everyone, “Just listen and don’t take it to heart.”

The auditory hallucinations in Jiang Fang’s ears abruptly stopped. He turned to stare at Nan Zhou.

Nan Zhou also happened to be looking at him. The moment their eyes met, the bus entered darkness. There was a slight bursting sound and the trembling sobs came to an abrupt end. The time to go through the tunnel was much longer than last time. Last time was longer than the time before.

In the darkness that lasted for tens of seconds, Nan Zhou couldn’t see anything. He blinked and wondered if Jiang Fang was still looking at him. He felt that there were two warm sparks hidden in the dark night, quietly watching him. Nan Zhou intuitively sensed no malice in this gaze. It was just purely looking at him, as if seeing a colorful world in the darkness.

Once the sky was bright, Nan Zhou carefully looked over but found that Jiang Fang wasn’t watching him. Nan Zhou tilted his head curiously and followed this person’s gaze to look at Liu Xiao. A white mushroom had fallen to the ground in the back row, the surviving human-shaped fingers still spasming. However, even the tears he dripped onto the ground were being greedily sucked up by the hungry mycelium.

Nan Zhou no longer looked at this terrible sight. He stood near the end of the bus and glanced at the other corner of the bus. Then Nan Zhou soon retracted his gaze. He didn’t choose to return to his original position. He found a seat nearby and sat down casually.

They still had three more voting opportunities. However, they had successfully taken care of one ghost so everyone’s anxiety obviously eased. They all cast hopeful glances at Jiang Fang who had sat down again.

Jiang Fang lowered his head as if he didn’t intend to respond to everyone’s expectations. He just touched his fingers together. His fingers were soft, straight and strong. The soft white sweater slipped down from the wrist, revealing a perfect bone line and wrist decorated with blue veins.

…Nan Zhou wanted to arm wrestle with such a hand.

Li Yinhang tried to comfort Jiang Fang. “Don’t take it to heart. That Liu Xiao… his words were too bad but he was desperate.”

Jiang Fang smiled. “I’m used to people like that. If I took everything to heart, I would’ve become depressed long ago.”

Li Yinhang, “……” What occupation did he have that he was used to meeting such people?

“You don’t need to look at me.” Jiang Fang raised his head and smiled calmly. “I didn’t know who the ghost was at first. Using the dashcam was just a petty trick. No one will be fooled a second time.”

Everyone thought about his words and found they weren’t wrong. They no longer put their hopes on Jiang Fang and started discussing it with each other. Liu Xiao might’ve cursed them before death but he at least gave them a useful message. The ghosts were also players so they felt less fear.

Therefore, everyone started to walk around the bus and asked questions. The moment they caught a small loophole in a person’s words, they would desperately start to question it while observing the person’s expression at close range to see if they were lying.

Nan Zhou didn’t participate. He leaned on the back of the seat in front of him, covering half his face with his arm as he watched Jiang Fang who was sitting diagonally across from him. He didn’t think that using the dashcam was just a petty trick. After all, the dashcam was a detail that even Nan Zhou hadn’t noticed.

This person might still be thinking about new ideas. After all, the information that Liu Xiao left them before his death was far more than just ‘a ghost is a human player.’

Nevertheless, Nan Zhou believed that Jiang Fang didn’t need to bother. Combining this information with the hook he deliberately planted was enough for Nan Zhou to judge who the remaining two ghost players were.

In contrast, Nan Zhou wanted to know who Jiang Fang was.