Chapter 510 - 451: Mai Mingle’s Punishment, Analysis, and a New Complication

Chapter 510: Chapter 451: Mai Mingle’s Punishment, Analysis, and a New Complication

The human hand icon on the card reader flashed red, as if urging Mai Mingle to place her hand on it.

’I have no choice but to do it at this point.’

Mai Mingle’s mouth was dry and bitter. She couldn’t begin to guess what the punishment would be. Following the broadcast’s instructions, she placed her right hand on the card reader.

With a BEEP, two lines of text lit up on the small electronic screen.

"Passenger Mai Mingle: 1st violation. 1 point deducted. 1 point forfeited."

"Points remaining: 0"

Mai Mingle must have read those two lines ten times before she dazedly pulled her hand back.

’The punishment is just a point deduction?’

Still in disbelief, she wiggled her fingers and toes. They were all still there, nothing more, nothing less. As she turned her head, she was so startled by Ashley’s face over her shoulder that she almost screamed.

"A point deduction?"

Ashley had walked up at some point, apparently having seen everything. "Where did you even get points for them to deduct?"

Mai Mingle had the same question.

She quickly backed away from Ashley, her expression hardening. "Do you not care at all that you got someone hurt?"

Ashley glanced at her without a word and simply pressed her own right hand onto the card reader.

With a BEEP, text lit up on the electronic screen.

"Passenger Ashley Page. Points remaining: 2"

"I have them too? Two points?" Ashley turned her hand over, examining her palm and then the back of it as if seeing it in a new light. "Where’d they come from?"

’Could it be that the voice in her head—or rather, the owner of the finger in her ear—didn’t tell her all the rules?’

"I don’t know,"

Mai Mingle said, suppressing her irritation, "If you hadn’t condemned that poor girl, maybe she could’ve come over and checked her fare. Maybe she could’ve gotten off this bus and gone on to live a normal life..."

The young woman in the raincoat sat dazedly in the "Stalked’s Special Seat," seemingly deaf and blind to the world around her. A man’s body dangled over her, its various dismembered parts clinging to her.

Ashley said nothing, her gaze fixed on the floor.

For some reason, her eyes seemed to strain against their lids, growing wider and more protuberant.

"You should just accept reality."

Ashley’s voice was low. Without looking at Mai Mingle, she spoke as if to herself. "There are over eight billion people in this world. People aren’t precious or special. A little attrition is no big deal."

’If there was a worldview more diametrically opposed to her own lifelong convictions, Mai Mingle couldn’t imagine what it would be.’

"You—and you’re a police officer? How can you say something like that?"

"That’s right."

Ashley suddenly smiled, though it looked more like her facial muscles had been jolted by an electric shock.

"It’s precisely because I’m a cop that I understand this so well. You think we treat everyone the same? The way human society functions is one big hint that just because you’re human doesn’t mean you have some god-given rights or inherent value."

Mai Mingle pressed her lips together, not wanting to say a word.

"We protect ’assets,’ not lives. Your treatment depends on your value. Luckily, people always have some value... for instance, the poor are a type of property, and women are a social stabilizing agent. You don’t treat each other like people, either. Go ahead, try disagreeing with someone’s opinion and see what happens."

Ashley’s eyes slowly rolled to the corners of their sockets. From the side, her pupils looked like half-open cracks in a door.

"...If I was afraid of knocking over a bottle, how could I have fought my way here? If I didn’t fight, if I didn’t kill, what protection do you think a dark-skinned woman from the slums would have? What could I own? What could I do?

"No matter how pretty the words are, humanity defined itself long ago. Humans know better than anyone that there’s nothing inherently valuable about them.

"I’m just not willing to be expendable anymore. I’m going to climb above people, climb above those things in the Nest, and gain the greatest power in the world so I’ll never have to suffer threats again. As for who gets expended along the way, that’s unavoidable. I never planned on avoiding it."

Seemingly satisfied with her speech, she gave Mai Mingle a slight, toothy grin.

It was then that Mai Mingle noticed something odd about one of Ashley’s pupils. Its edge seemed... a little irregular.

’That’s strange. Were her eyes like this when I saw her at the station?’

"You’re so quiet," Ashley said. "I was expecting a performance of deep-seated grief from you."

"I haven’t lived this long for nothing."

Mai Mingle didn’t look at her, saying softly, "No one can be talked out of their worldview by a few sentences."

’I just have to stop her.’

Ashley threw her head back and laughed. Behind her, the young woman in the raincoat sat in a daze, as if lost in a fog.

"Then what will you rely on? Your actions?"

Ashley looked at her hand. "I don’t know where the fare comes from, but you’re pretty lucky. Just one point deducted and that’s the end of your punishment? Hey, broadcast! You’re not going easy on her just because she’s a player, are you?"

The bus’s broadcast remained silent, offering no response.

Ashley shrugged, unsurprised.

’Of course the bus trap wouldn’t go easy on me,’ Mai Mingle thought.

She had a vague theory, but she wouldn’t tell Ashley a single word of it. Then again, Ashley wasn’t stupid. After another stop, another scan of the card reader, she would figure it out on her own.

The man in pajamas who had just boarded violated the rules and was immediately sat on by the pregnant man, absorbed into his belly, and turned into a fetus.

And yet, when Mai Mingle violated the rules, she only had one point of fare deducted—fare she didn’t even know she had.

The pregnant man had been on the bus the whole time. For the same type of offense—violating a rule—why were the punishments so different?

In other words, besides irrelevant differences like age and gender, what set Mai Mingle and the man in pajamas apart?

More importantly, which of those differences were relevant to the bus itself?

That question alone was difficult to analyze. But by adding two other pieces of information, the nature of the situation began to clarify.

Ashley had two fare points.

Mai Mingle should have earned another fare point, but it was forfeited because of her violation.

The man in pajamas wasn’t docked any fare; instead, he was "reverse-impregnated" by the pregnant man. Did that mean he didn’t have a single fare point to his name?

Disregarding the consequences of the violation, what gave her and Ashley fare points, while the newly-boarded man in pajamas had none?

After thinking it through, Mai Mingle could only come up with one reason.

She and Ashley had ridden for two stops.

The man in pajamas had violated a rule the moment he boarded, without completing a single stop.

’In other words, you gain one fare point for every full stop you complete. But if you violate a rule, not only is one point deducted, but you also forfeit the point for the stop during which the violation occurred?’

If her theory was correct, wouldn’t she suffer the same fate as the man in pajamas the next time she broke a rule?

Mai Mingle shot a quick glance at Ashley. ’This information is critical. I have to delay her, make sure she figures it out as late as possible.’

Thankfully, she knew exactly how to distract her.

"Seven," Mai Mingle said, raising her voice.

"What?" Ashley turned her head towards her.

"Seven special seats," Mai Mingle said from across the aisle. "There are thirty-five seats total. Seven of them are special seats, which leaves twenty-eight regular ones. Subtract the two regular seats taken by the pregnant men, and there are still twenty-six."

Ashley looked at her expressionlessly.

"Twenty-six seats are more than enough for the two of us. Why did you have to force that girl into a special seat? You knew nothing happens when someone sits in a regular seat, but the consequences of sitting in a special one are unpredictable... What was the point of saving one regular seat?"

"Two."

Ashley stated flatly, "She was one, and her stalker was another. They would have taken up two regular seats. Now they’ve become one, in a single special seat. A pleasant surprise, really."

’Mai Mingle fantasized about grabbing the stalker’s leg and swinging it at Ashley.’

Of course, she didn’t actually do it.

The stalker’s leg had rolled under a seat up ahead—a regular seat, as it happened.

Mai Mingle walked over and took that seat. With every jolt of the bus, a heel bumped against her.

"You’re not stupid. You’ve noticed it too."

Ashley gestured around the bus. "At every stop, more special seats are added at random, and the number of regular seats dwindles. There are plenty now, but that might not be true in a few more stops. That makes every single one precious. You should be thanking me for doing the dirty work."

’Just as I thought. We both noticed it.’

At the "Pregnant Man Cursed with Antonyms" stop, six special seats had appeared. At the "Reflection in the Puddle" stop, one more had been added.

The number of special seats seemed random. In theory, it wasn’t impossible for twenty more to suddenly appear at the next stop.

"You should be thinking about how to get through this safely," Mai Mingle said, raising her voice, "not busy screwing over others for your own gain before the situation even gets bad!"

Ashley suddenly fell silent, that look of listening to someone else speak returning to her face.

’Is it the voice in her head?’

"I’m not like you," Ashley said evenly. "I know how to get off this bus. I just have to ensure there are enough regular seats to last until I’ve achieved my objective and can disembark."

’What?’

Before Mai Mingle could respond, the bus broadcast cut in, its voice echoing throughout the vehicle.

"All passengers, please be seated. For the next ten minutes, please remain friendly and cheerful, and display social enthusiasm.

"There is traffic congestion ahead. During the ten minutes this vehicle is stopped, unidentified individuals may board. Please assess the situation and proceed with caution. This bus company is not liable for any loss of property, life, or cell count."

The moment the announcement ended, the bus was plunged into darkness once more.