The smoke-shrouded figure that passed by them before still shouted from not far away, but the people on the road still ignored the sound and kept walking forward.
âExcuse me, where do you want to take your children?!â
After A-Liu shouted, âthey should be in a carâ like a madman, there seemed to be some thoughts in Old Yanâs mind, so he stopped a young mother pushing a stroller.
When the young mother was stopped, her face showed she was at a loss. Old Yan asked again, and she said with a puzzled expression, [Where we want to go?]
âYes. Where are you going with your children?â Old Yan asked again.
[I made an appointment with my friend to go for a walk in the newly opened park.] The young motherâs hands tightened instantly around the baby stroller. [It should be just two stops away⊠just two stops⊠just two stopsâŠ]
After speaking, the young mother walked around Old Yan and continued on.
âOld sir, where are you going?â Old Yan anxiously stopped an old man who was walking forward.
[My wife loves congee, and her favorite shop is just one stop away from here.] The old man was muttering to himself. While speaking, he avoided Old Yan who was blocking the road. It was as if no one could stop them from moving forward.
The smoke-shrouded figure didnât work, and neither would the trainers.
âOld man, which bus are you taking?â Ling-jie also asked.
[Route 44âŠ]
The old man seemed to reply subconsciously, without any intention of stopping.
[Are you tourists?! Are you tourists?!] The tour guide who took the initiative to find Old Yan earlier waved the flag in her hand, asking everyone who passed her.
âThere must have been an accident where people died.â Su Zimo, who packed up his various picnic snacks, stood not far away. His expression that was originally fairly relaxed had become heavier. âAlthough I donât know how many people are alive here, Iâm afraid most of them are dead. An accident that killed so many people on such an ordinary road must have caused a spectacle at that time.â
âRoute 44⊠tourâŠâ
âI remember!â
When the other trainers didnât react, Ling-jie suddenly clapped her palms together and said with an annoyed expression, âIf we knew about the route 44 bus earlier, I couldâve remembered the events of that year sooner!â
âLing-jie, whatâs going on?â An An immediately leaned over, and even A-Liu came over from the side.
âI was working in a newspaper firm, and later switched to a newer media job because of the newspaperâs decline.â Ling-jie spoke with a solemn expression. âI remember when I first joined the newspaper firm as an intern, it was over ten years ago. The day I first entered, the entire firm was so busy. The senior who was arranged to take care of me didnât even have time to introduce himself, so he pushed me in front of the manuscripts to help.â
âIt turns out that there was a very serious traffic accident in Jiangcheng that day.â Ling-jie paused and took a deep breath. âA fifty-seat tourist bus collided with the route 44 bus at the intersection. They crashed together through the isolation barrier and stone pier of the nearby park. The doors on the two vehicles couldnât even be opened because of the impact. The sparks generated by the friction ignited the tour busâs fuel tank, which caused a terrible explosion and a fire! I can still remember the pictures in the report.â
âPark?â Old Yan was taken aback. âThe mother just said that she was going to take her child to the park?â
âIf there was a collision at an intersection, there should be a car that violated traffic rules?â An An also asked.
âThe driver of the tourist bus may have been fatigued, but because they died in the accident, that couldnât be confirmed.â Ling-jie recalled after a while. âIt was the route 44 bus driver who ran the red light. In the end, the police determined that he was drunk driving. Although he escaped from the driverâs door, itâs impossible for him to get out of prison in his lifetime.â
âHeh. Whatâs the use? Count how many people are on this road. Even if theyâre in prison for a thousand years, itâs impossible for these people to leave this road.â A-Liu smiled sarcastically.
âWait a minute, that means⊠that driver is still alive? Heâs alive!â Old Yan suddenly raised his voice and grabbed Ling-jieâs hand. âDo you remember what he looks like?â
âIt was already pretty good to remember that much!â Ling-jie shook her head in distress.
âThen, besides the driver, did anyone else survive?â An An hurriedly asked.
âIt seems⊠It seems so, but I really donât remember.â Ling-jie shook her head. âYou think that the real purpose of this task is to find the survivors of the car accident among the people on this road?â
âThatâs the only possibility.â A-Liu and Old Yan nodded.
âAt least one person who is still alive is the human driver. We can try to find that driver.â Ling-jie slowly found her bearings. âThis road is full of dead people killed in a car accident. Only living people can leave this road!â
Just after the trainers sorted out their thoughts and came to a preliminary conclusion, Su Zimo discovered that something wrong had happened on the road. The pedestrians who were walking slowly sped up again for some reason. Before the trainers could go forward and ask, they had already walked ahead of them.
All the trainers could only speed up again. The four people split up and went to every pedestrian to take pictures and ask their identities. As for the pedestrians on the highway, as long as they didnât directly ask how they died, they didnât seem to attack the trainers.
But there were some things Su Zimo still didnât understandâŠ
Even if the barefoot lady was on the bus, were the two patients in hospital gowns also on the route 44 bus or the tourism bus?
âI found it!â
The trainers had been going forward for who knows how long, and they had asked who knows how many people before they heard the girl, An An, yelling from the front.
Su Zimo followed them with his backpack on his back, then saw the trainers tightly surrounding a man who was curled up and hugging his legs. The man was trembling, crying, and whispering while rockingâ
[I didnât mean it. I really didnât mean it. I didnât mean it. I really didnât mean itâŠ]
It felt like he was surrounded by terrible nightmares. For one, two, or even ten years, it was a nightmare that he couldnât get rid of or forgive himself for. It was entwined in the man, and he could only tell lies to himself, as if when he spoke, he could be convinced by his own lies.
âSir, sir, are you the drive of the route 44 bus?â Old Yan put his hand on the manâs shoulder and asked in a calm tone.
What Su Zimo and the others didnât expect was that as Old Yan put his hand on his shoulder, he would suddenly raise his head. His old and haggard face was full of horror, and he was almost roaring as he loudly shoutedâ
[I really didnât mean it! Your death was fated! You were destined to die!!! You would have died!]
The roar, hoarse and heart-piercing, was clearly the shout of a normal person, but it rang through the sky, a loud sound that everyone could hear.
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The phrase âyou would have diedâ was like a curse, surrounding everyoneâs ears, lingering.
In the blink of an eye, Su Zimo realized that the pedestrians who were on the road, both fast and slow, stopped moving forward. In an instant, they all turned toward the trainers⊠or to the driver.
It was then that flames suddenly ignited around the originally ordinary pedestrians!
Over sixty figures were aflame, and the light was enough to illuminate the road. It was also enough to bring all the trainers back to their senses after focusing on the aged driver.
And what they saw was the same as Su Zimo.
The clothes and exposed skin of those pedestrians began to burn in the flames. Most of their appearances were burnt, even their facial features were charred beyond recognition.
When everything was burnt to ashes, and the figures became scorched and blurred, the dazzling flames slowly extinguished.
âItâs the same as the pictures taken by the reporterâŠâ Ling-jieâs voice trembled as she saw the scorched figures.
In the next second, the scorched black figures, which were innumerable at a single glance, rushed toward the driver and the trainers surrounding him. They didnât scream or shout, but their mouths were opening and closing again and again as if begging for their lives, accusing the perpetrator of shirking responsibility.
However, those scorched figures saw the trainers around the driver as targets of their hatred. The charred hands with exposed bones on their fingers swarmed to Old Yan, Ling-jie, and the other trainers.
Su Zimo wasnât affected because he was standing some distance away from them. He was like a bystander observing the trainers surrounding by the scorched figures. At that moment in time, if someone wanted to break through the siege, they couldnât rely on logic or judgement. They could only rely on the abilities of the trainers themselves, or some other method of survival that Su Zimo hadnât yet discovered.
âGet out of the way!â
An old and strict voice came from the group of âpeople.â
Immediately after, Su Zimo saw a black flag floating among the crowd. A few lines of text boxes appeared faintly on it.
Before Su Zimo could see clearly, he saw that Old Yan was frantically waving the black flag in his hand. The scorched figures retreated, relying on the strength of their bodies to crazily force their way out!
The black flag should be a ghost tool, but it didnât seem very powerful. Most of the scorched figures driven away only retreated half a step, then rushed forward again.
âThis way, how is it possible for us to clear the task?!â An An held a bloodstained wooden set square in her hand. <sup>1</sup> It caused damage to the scorched figures when she swung it, but its power seemed extremely limited.
Among the four trainers, the one with the most powerful ghost tools should be A-Liu, but he desperately pressed down on the ghost eye beneath his glasses, looking weaker than Ling-jie who only had a standard dagger.
Taking advantage of the waving black flag and his small size, A-Liu squeezed out of the group of charred bodies and unexpectedly rushed to Su Zimo.
There were even some scorched figures rushing toward them, following A-Liuâs footsteps.
âYouâre a businessman, arenât you?â A-Liu exclaimed with a voice loud enough for Old Yan to hear behind him. âPlease help us defeat these guys. Whatâs the price?â
Su Zimo subconsciously wanted to refuse, since heâd also experienced many nightmare worlds and walked into the heart of many so-called malicious spirits. He didnât want to get into what was happening on the road.
He didnât even completely know if he could fix the situation.
But at that time, the voice of the ghost umbrella rang in Su Zimoâs ears again.
[Promise him a trade.]
[Open the umbrella and turn on the recorder on Zhang Xiaoqingâs phone.]
Su Zimo didnât know what medicine was in the ghost umbrellaâs gourd, but A-Liu, who was holding a dagger and fighting the scorches figures, looked like he was really struggling. <sup>2</sup> One of the figures held an umbrella burnt down to its metal pole and swiped it dangerously across A-Liuâs neck.
It was obvious that the trainer named A-Liu hadnât strengthened his physique very much, and had relied on the power of the ghost eye to deal with threats. As a result, when he was restraining his use of the ghost eye, A-Liuâs situation was really bad.
Su Zimo didnât immediately agree to make a deal with A-Liu, but held the long black umbrella in front of him again.
Then, the pretty white smart phone was delivered into Su Zimoâs right hand.
Zhang Xiaoqingâs cell phone didnât have a password. Although it was a three star ghost tool, it had maintained its basic cell phone functions, and could even insert a normal calling card to make calls. It was no different than an ordinary cell phone.
Su Zimo quickly found the voice recording software that came with the phone, and then saw two recorded files stored.
One of the recorded files was marked â <<Music of the Dead>>.
âŠâŠ
Su Zimo had to admit that the silly ghost umbrella was really a genius in certain fields like ghost tools and trading!
The three star ghost tool âSheet Music of the Dead,â whose use was restricted by the venue, was recorded onto âGhost Call,â which was also a three star ghost tool!
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Itâs not that Su Zimo didnât think about recording Peng Pengâs music, but as long as Peng Peng was the one playing, even ordinary songs like Ode to Joy couldnât be recorded using a cell phone.
Thinking about it now, the reason he failed was because of his lack of suitable equipment. And that may be why Ghost Umbrella hid Zhang Xiaoqing and Peng Peng in the black umbrella from the start.
âI can do it.â Su Zimo lightly held âGhost Call,â then smiled and looked at A-Liu, who had fallen to the ground and was picked up by Old Yan. âBut itâs still the old rules â trading things. How about it?â
âOne ghost tool per person, whichever you want.â Su Zimoâs conditions werenât high enough to break the backs of this group of trainers. <sup>3</sup>
But then, Ghost Umbrella said something in Su Zimoâs ears.
After hearing what Ghost Umbrella said, Su Zimoâs eyes drifted, and he added a condition to A-Liu. âAlso, I want your eye.â
Translatorâs Notes:
This is a fun arc. I canât wait for SZ to get exposed later though thatâll be hilarious.
Also this, in which GU is Rocket and SZ is Groot, later on.
Footnotes
<ol>A set square is a triangle shaped ruler. Theyâre often used to draw squares. What kind of medicine is in someoneâs gourd is a saying that means you donât know wtf someone is doing/planning. Breaking backs means to leave no way for someone. Itâs similar to burning bridges.</ol>