Chapter 53: Arriving at Pagoda Primary School

Gao Tian didn't know the filthy thing's name, so he mentally dubbed her the Ghost Mother.

The Ghost Mother waited at the stop. If she were allowed to board, the bus's passenger count would instantly spiral out of control. She had brought too many ghost infants with her—at least thirty.

If he got off the bus on his own initiative to avoid the Ghost Mother...

He would have to step into the pools of blood outside. This stop, the Blood-Red Nursery, oozed sheer wickedness from every corner.

Furthermore, it was impossible for so many ghost infants to stay on the bus together; the rules would definitely force a dozen or so off.

That would leave Gao Tian entirely alone, trapped in a blood-soaked ghost station with a dozen ghost infants.

That was still a death sentence.

If only Shen Nian were here. He had spent so much time in the Inner World; he might know something about the Ghost Mother.

Gao Tian nervously weighed his options.

There was also a more radical approach: once the Ghost Mother boarded and forced him to lose his passenger status, he could fight her directly.

Abandoning all morality.

Su Jiu was a deadweight with zero combat power.

The most cold-blooded method would be to directly sacrifice Su Jiu with the Terror Blade. The moment he swung the blade at the Ghost Mother, the Black Tie would activate, boosting his Fortune.

But even setting morality aside, it wasn't a wise choice.

The Terror Blade could only strike once; it was impossible to wipe out all thirty-odd ghost infants in a single hit.

The strike would only thoroughly enrage her and trigger an even bloodier retaliation.

Given the absolute gap in their strength, the slight Fortune boost from the Black Tie was a cup of water on a burning cart of wood. It could not reverse the situation.

No matter how he looked at it, this stop meant death.

There was only one path left.

He could get off the bus directly, then use the Black Card to teleport from the Inner World back to the Living Apartment.

But doing so meant his third Green Text Mission would be a total failure. He wouldn't get the reward, he'd have to undertake another mission later, and his priceless Black Card would be wasted on a trivial moment.

He couldn't afford that loss.

When the bus stopped, Su Jiu closed her eyes, trembling all over as she resigned herself to waiting for death.

Gao Tian chose to stand by the rear door, watching for an opportunity.

The moment the bus pulled up to the stop, Gao Tian got a clear look at the Ghost Mother. She was a horse-faced woman. Her face was so incredibly long it seemed to stretch from her forehead to the ground, perfectly bisected by a similarly slender nose. Her lips were as thin as paper, her eyes narrow slits.

All in all, it was a deeply bizarre visage. It wasn't quite deformed, but seeing it on the road in the middle of the night would terrify any pedestrian.

Gao Tian changed his mind on the spot. He couldn't wait any longer; he had to bet everything on one final gamble.

He just hoped his luck would be a little better today.

A person couldn't be unlucky forever.

The carriage swayed. Before the doors even opened, he decisively activated the Terror Blade's power, sacrificing a living person as he swung the blade.

His chosen sacrifice this time was himself.

The Terror Blade roared. He aimed his swing at an empty seat in the back row.

He struck nothing but air.

Simultaneously, the instant the blade left his hand, Gao Tian's entire body exploded into a shower of blood on the floor. His remains scattered into the air, taking the long blade and the tie around his neck with them.

Amid Su Jiu's screams, Gao Tian died, and Gao Tian lived again.

...

...

You have died.

According to the Ghost Card's effect, you will now resurrect.

The playing card you drew this time is—

Ace of Hearts.

No point conflicts detected; resurrection successful.

...

The resurrected Gao Tian quickly stood up. The shredded remains of his clothes and his shattered flesh rushed back onto his body like a video playing in reverse.

Swinging the Terror Blade hadn't been his goal. His true purpose was sacrificing himself to trigger the Black Tie's effect.

Gao Tian had chosen suicide, using his own death to force the Black Tie to trigger. If he successfully exploited this bug, he would still gain the boost in Fortune after coming back to life.

He had figured something out—luck only displayed its maximum effect when applied at the exact right moment.

Given the gap in strength between him and the Ghost Mother, even if one or two people died in the carriage to raise his Fortune, it would never reach the absurd level required to defeat her. They simply weren't on the same level.

But what if the bus encountered a slight accident while pulling up to the stop, couldn't open its doors, and skipped it entirely?

By landing at that critical moment, his luck could unleash massive power.

It could even directly rewrite the fate of the two living people on the bus.

At this moment, if Gao Tian were a little more rational and immediately sacrificed Su Jiu with a second strike, the Black Tie's Ghost Luck would be further enhanced.

But he wasn't that cold-blooded.

This was enough.

He would leave the rest to heaven's will.

Creak, creak.

The bus's front door stopped directly across from the Ghost Mother waiting in the shelter, letting out a pained groan.

But for some unknown reason, it seemed a screw was jammed. After opening just a sliver, the door continued to sway and shudder back and forth, completely unable to open.

Every squeak hammered against Gao Tian and Su Jiu's chests inside the carriage like a death god's summoning talisman.

If the door opened even a fraction more, the two of them would be no different from dead meat.

However, that unknown rusted screw stubbornly continued to jam the axle.

For an old-fashioned vehicle like Bus 444 that had been operating for decades, an occasional part failure and a stuck door was perfectly logical and understandable, right?

Outside the stop, the Ghost Mother stared coldly at the dilapidated bus, which was too old to even open its doors properly.

Her face betrayed no emotion. She showed no impatience, merely remaining seated in the waiting area, quietly waiting for the door to open on its own. However, the countless ghost infants tethered to her hands grew increasingly frantic and restless, letting out shrill, eerie squeals like a chaotic dance of demons.

Bus 444 paused at the stop for a full minute, seemingly locked in a fierce struggle against its own decrepit parts.

A moment later, the mechanical female broadcast voice rang out once again, sounding like the sweetest music from heaven:

"The vehicle is departing. Passengers, please hold the handrails tightly and be careful not to slip."

The moment he heard that voice, Gao Tian felt like he had ascended from hell to heaven.

The tense muscles across his entire body finally relaxed, though his heart continued to pound wildly. He knew he had won the gamble. The tiny bit of luck gained by triggering the Black Tie through suicide had actually jammed the bus doors, preventing the Ghost Mother from boarding at this stop. To make it to the next stop on time, Bus 444 decided not to linger and resumed its journey.

He had successfully exploited the bug.

Su Jiu similarly collapsed limply into her seat. It wasn't until the bus inexplicably started moving—completely skipping the passengers at this stop and leaving the Blood-Red Nursery and the Ghost Mother far behind—that she snapped out of her daze. Her face was a mix of bewilderment and the sheer relief of narrowly escaping death:

"Brother Gao, did you do something? Did you activate a Supernatural Item's ability..."

Su Jiu could probably guess the truth.

Gao Tian didn't speak, remaining silent as he waited for the bus to reach the next stop.

There were two stops left. He hoped his luck would hold up.

If another passenger on the level of the Ghost Mother or the Multi-Headed Ghost boarded... there was a limit to miracles. Gao Tian found it hard to believe he could survive a third disaster today.

...

"Arriving at Corpse-Sewing Alley. Passengers needing to disembark, please prepare in advance."

...

"Arriving at Moonlight Asylum. Passengers needing to disembark, please prepare in advance."

...

Every time the carriage slowed down, that mechanical female voice would chime in right on time.

After leaving the terrifying Blood-Red Nursery, the next few stops passed without any major incidents. The doors inexplicably stopped jamming, too.

Several passengers boarded. Though they were physically deformed, they didn't display an overwhelming urge to kill.

One was a "person" wearing a casual sweater. It was impossible to tell if they were male or female because they simply didn't have a head. Fresh blood spurted continuously from the cleanly severed stump of their neck.

After boarding, this passenger chose to sit directly across from Su Jiu.

Another was a tall, imposing "gentleman." This single ghost took up two seats after boarding. He wore a black bowler hat and an overcoat tightly wrapped around his bloated body. He slowly turned his head, revealing four different faces positioned on the front, back, left, and right sides of his skull. Two of those faces were roaring with laughter.

The passenger who boarded at the next stop was a young, athletic woman looking down and listening intently to music. She had a smoking-hot figure and appeared relatively normal. It was impossible to spot anything inhuman about her.

Glistening with sweat, she jogged onto the bus and completely ignored the carriage full of corpses and deformed freaks. She walked down the aisle to the very last row and found an empty corner to focus on her music.

Outwardly, she seemed like a normal person. But daring to act like a normal person in the Inner World was in itself the greatest abnormality.

"Hey. You human in the back holding the big blade. I'm the Ghost Merchant."

The four-faced gentleman opened the yellowed eyes of the face on the back of his head. His gaze landed on Gao Tian, actually attempting to initiate a conversation.

Gao Tian didn't reply. He feared that talking to the ghost might be its Killing Rule.

Seeing Gao Tian ignore him, the Ghost Merchant didn't fly into a rage. The fourth face on the back of his head continued muttering:

"To be honest, it's really not easy to see you living humans come into the Inner World. Running into one every couple of weeks... it really stifles me.

"Do you want to buy some Inner World specialties from me to take back? It's all premium stock. Fair prices, honest business. Not a single living person who's traded with me has ever been dissatisfied.

"The payment methods are extremely convenient, too. Aside from your own organs and lifespan, you can also sacrifice your most important relatives. All of these count as currency.

"How about this? Talk is cheap. I'll show you the good stuff I've got on hand. You'll definitely be satisfied."

As he spoke, the Ghost Merchant's massive body slowly turned around, the seats groaning in pain under his weight. Without waiting for Gao Tian's consent, his thick, stubby hand pulled aside one half of his overcoat, exposing the abyss beneath his coat.

Gao Tian instantly shut his eyes, refusing to look at whatever "goods" were hidden under the coat.

Was this a joke? In the Inner World, could you just casually look at something a ghost showed you? There was a high probability it was just another Killing Rule—the kind where you died on the spot just from taking a peek.

Seeing that Gao Tian wasn't interested, the Ghost Merchant seemed somewhat disappointed. He muttered a couple of words before turning to strike up a conversation with Su Jiu in the front row.

Su Jiu similarly didn't dare to breathe. Though she was a newcomer, she wasn't an idiot. Copying Gao Tian, she squeezed her eyes shut and pretended she couldn't see or hear a thing.

Seeing that neither of the two living people on the bus would pay him any attention, the Ghost Merchant found it rather dull. He didn't press the issue, and three of his four faces closed their eyes.

He didn't speak again for the rest of the journey.

...

"Arriving at Pagoda Primary School.

"Passengers needing to disembark, please gather your personal belongings. Please exit through the rear door."