Chapter 505 - 446: Mai Mingle: Heaven Is a Bus

Chapter 505: Chapter 446: Mai Mingle: Heaven Is a Bus

If tonight was the last night of her life, then Mai Mingle had less than nineteen hours left.

Her eighty-six years of life had seemed to pass faster and faster, finally culminating in a flash flood that crashed into this very night. It tore through the present moment and continued to surge onward, carrying away what little time she had left.

So, as the three of them left the parking lot one by one, Mai Mingle had thought it over carefully.

Nineteen hours. For a young person, it was just another day that passed with work, scrolling on their phone, and eating... but for her, it was the biggest gamble of her life.

Was she really going to wager her final moments, betting that she could get the ??? Illusion from the host?

She thought she had already guessed what the ??? was, but she had no idea if she was actually right.

If she guessed right, how would she get it? And how did Damian get his hands on it?

Just knowing its form was useless—an Illusion hadn’t miraculously materialized on her.

If she left now, followed her original plan to find Hai Luwei and Emily, and peacefully spent her last nineteen hours...

Would she regret it?

Regret not giving it one last try?

The sound of a car engine fading into the distance made Mai Mingle lift her head subconsciously.

Damian and Kai Luonan were gone.

They had gotten into a car together—a car that had been parked there the whole time. It didn’t look like one of the Kai Family’s cars, and she had no idea how the host had managed to open the doors and start the engine.

They didn’t take Chaisi with them. Before getting in the car, Kai Luonan had whispered a few words to Chaisi and patted his shoulder. She couldn’t tell if it was to comfort or encourage him.

When Chaisi was the only one left in the parking lot, he pulled out his phone and quickly tapped on the screen for a moment.

Mai Mingle’s phone buzzed in her pants pocket.

"I’m going to find a car and follow them. You have a car, right? If you want to follow, I’ll tell you the route."

He didn’t ask to ride with Mai Mingle. If Mai Mingle was a card up his sleeve, then the person he wanted to hide her from clearly wasn’t Damian.

The pulsing dots in the chat window showed he was still typing—something Hai Luwei had taught her.

"I can’t hand over control to you for the same reason you can’t hand it over to me. However, until the final moment when we must contend with each other, we might as well travel the same road for a bit."

Mai Mingle stared at the message, almost breaking into a smile.

After sending the message, Chaisi left too. She had no idea where he was going to find a car.

Mai Mingle looked out over the empty parking lot, where a few still-active rules were faintly shimmering.

She closed her eyes and sighed softly.

Even agonizing over the decision was a luxury she couldn’t afford; because as it turned out, everything in this world required time.

Mai Mingle shouldered her machine gun again, climbed back down from the second floor the way she came, jumped onto the car roof, and got back into the driver’s seat.

"Alright, tell me where to go," she typed on her phone. "I’ll follow right behind."

...She was going to seize the ??? Illusion.

When she was bedridden and ill, she had recalled her life countless times. She never regretted the attempts she had made, the risks she had taken, the detours she’d taken... even if the results weren’t what she had hoped for.

What she regretted most, however, were the things that had once moved her heart, things she’d wanted to try, but had ultimately talked herself out of for one reason or another.

By the time regret set in, there was no time left. It was already too late.

Mai Mingle started the car and drove back the way she came.

Chaisi hadn’t replied yet, but she had a suspicion. ’At a critical juncture like this, Damian suddenly invited Kai Luonan into his car and left. It can’t be that he just wanted to go home for a visit, can it?’

If Mai Mingle’s guess was correct, they were probably heading back the way Damian came to get the ??? Illusion.

’Whatever the case, I’ll head in that direction for now.’

Mai Mingle paid attention to her route the whole way. When she saw the shimmering surface of the Haisen River in the distance, she slowed down—if she accidentally ended up right on Kai Luonan’s tail, it wouldn’t be good to spook them.

’Chaisi still hasn’t messaged. Did he not find a car?’

’Even with his extraordinary abilities, he probably doesn’t know how to steal a car... It would be a joke if everything got held up at this critical juncture because he couldn’t manage to nick one.’

’Hmph. If I’d known, I should have just—’

Mai Mingle’s chaotic thoughts were cut short when a pair of bright headlights suddenly flared in her rearview mirror.

A car had just turned from a side road and was now behind her. It seemed to flash its high beams to get her attention; the glare made Mai Mingle squint when she looked back, unable to see anything clearly. She could only wave at the car behind her.

The driver still didn’t turn off the high beams and instead accelerated to catch up, getting closer and closer. In the dim light, it looked like he was leaning his head out of the driver’s window.

’Does he have something to say?’

’No, something’s wrong.’

In that instant, Mai Mingle’s guts tightened.

’If Chaisi had something to say, wouldn’t he just call?’

She suddenly yanked the steering wheel and dove for the passenger seat. Almost as soon as she ducked, bullets shattered the night and the car window, kicking up a shower of silvery fragments inside the car. Carried by the rushing wind, they swirled and danced, almost cheerfully, scratching countless fine cuts on her hands and face.

’Who is it?’

Mai Mingle grabbed the machine gun with one hand, but while trying to keep the car from plunging into the Haisen River, she could hardly find a moment to set up the gun and fire back. She could only stay down, slam on the gas, and try to escape the other car’s range.

The black and blue car—the color scheme felt familiar, but it was just a distant shape in the corner of her eye, and she couldn’t make it out clearly—also sped up, pulling alongside her. The driver aimed at her seat from inside the car and fired several more shots. BANG! BANG!

Luckily, Mai Mingle stayed hunched low. The bullets whistled over her head, flew out the opposite window, and erupted in another shower of bright, flying silver.

’Isn’t this a classic car-chase shootout from an action movie?’

’Getting to experience this, too? My last nineteen hours really aren’t going to waste, are they?’

Mai Mingle was both confused and furious, not knowing who she had offended, but she had to fight back now. She finally managed to prop the machine gun on the windowsill and, while driving hunched over, miraculously fired back a few shots—naturally, none of them hit.

The car chasing her immediately slowed down, falling back behind her again.

’They must not have expected a light machine gun in the car. Didn’t realize I wasn’t a pushover?’

Mai Mingle didn’t dare straighten up, but she also didn’t dare take her eyes off the road. When she peeked up to scan the road ahead, the hair on her body stood on end.

’What’s happening?’

Even though she didn’t understand a thing, Mai Mingle still slammed the brakes to the floor. The road was slippery from the rain, and the car slid forward uncontrollably for a good while before finally screeching to a halt.

...If it had slid just a little further, it would have entered the fork in the road on the left.

A fork in the road that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

She had been driving on a wide road, with buildings on one side and the Haisen River on the other.

But now, Mai Mingle was faced with two forks, one left and one right. Three identical black roads stretched out toward three identical cityscapes in the distance.

Even in the sky, three inverted Nests were now crowded together. It was as if a picture had been printed three times and then pieced together.

This had to be the work of a Nest, but—

’Wait, that car behind me—’

Mai Mingle quickly turned her head, only to see the car behind her not slowing down at all, charging straight for her as if aiming for mutual destruction. It was too late to turn the wheel and evade. She watched as the intense white light rushed toward her like a flood, completely engulfing her vision.

...Her heart felt like it was about to explode, and adrenaline made her head buzz. Her mouth was dry and bitter, and she was covered in a sticky cold sweat.

However, being able to feel all these physiological changes could only mean one thing.

Mai Mingle was not dead.

In fact, not only was she not dead, she was even sitting perfectly fine, without a single scratch or bruise on her.

She stared blankly at the seatback in front of her, her mind seemingly still stuck back in the car crash, unable to catch up.

’Where am I...?’

Mai Mingle looked to her left, then to her right.

On both sides were identical passenger seats. The fabric was dirty and faded, exuding a sense of depression, as if its spirit had been crushed after being sat on by countless butts.

Ahead were more rows of the same passenger seats, straight poles for standing passengers, and doors for getting on and off... A screen mounted behind the driver’s seat was silently playing an advertisement.

It was pitch black outside the window, and you could vaguely see the shapes of buildings flashing past—but they seemed less like real places and more like a perfunctory illusion.

Even a fool could see this was a public bus.

’Have I gone crazy from the stress? One moment I was driving on the streets of Blackmoor City, having a car chase and a gunfight for over ten seconds, and the next, I’m sitting on a public bus?’

It was only then that Mai Mingle noticed the machine gun that had been resting on her lap—well, was it still there, or wasn’t it?

It was still lying on her lap, but it was no longer a machine gun. It was just a specially shaped baguette, the same length as the gun had been.

With a dazed sense of wonder, Mai Mingle picked up the baguette and waved it twice.

’...Maybe I’m dead, and heaven is a public bus.’

She put down the baguette and turned around, intending to see what the back of heaven looked like. When she looked, she froze in her seat.

This was, of course, not heaven. The bus was just a man-made trap, and she was the prey it had caught.

And she finally understood why the color scheme of the car from before had seemed so familiar.

It was the most common color for police cars in Blackmoor City.

The chief of police whom she had met once before, Ashley Page, was sitting in the last row of the bus, elbows on his knees, watching Mai Mingle without moving a muscle.