Tang Yu was different from everyone else—he could see a game panel above every person. The people around him all had an NPC panel, with six attribute categories. Each attribute maxed out at 10 points.
It sounded absurd, but over the years, Tang Yu had realized the panels were remarkably accurate. For example, Shen Junxing had three attributes rated at 9, and sure enough, he’d been the golden child his whole life.
Tang Yu, on the other hand, had all attributes at 5—except for his charm, which was maxed at 10. Even intelligence was just 5. In other words, a classic pretty face with no substance.
He couldn’t tell anyone about this. For the longest time, he’d suspected he was ill. That must be it—he was sick and imagining this world as a data-driven game where he was merely a flower vase NPC.
So now, was he getting worse?
Otherwise, how could he explain seeing a group of young people crowding around the bus door, all with player panels above their heads, pushing and shoving like they were commuting during rush hour?
“Hurry up! Hurry up! Get on already!”
Tang Yu blinked, looked around, and confirmed that he was the only passenger on the bus. Seats were everywhere—no need to crowd.
The first player scrambled aboard, stumbling in, and the first thing she did was pick up a cigarette butt from the ground and shove it into her pocket without the slightest disgust. Then she grabbed an empty can with a clink, and charged toward a snack wrapper with a determined stride…
Tang Yu: “?”
This player picked up every collectible item like a diligent scavenger, tirelessly exploring the garbage on the bus.
Another player got on, immediately stripped off his coat, pants, shoes, and socks, and was left in just boxers. He muttered, “I knew I wouldn’t be able to take this off…”
Tang Yu: “??”
BANG! A heavy thud exploded beside Tang Yu. He turned in alarm to see a fist smashing against the thick bus window. Above the bloody knuckles, the player panel stood out sharply.
Tang Yu’s eyes widened. Bang, bang!—the same player, ID’d as “Yan Lang Never Misses Updates,” slammed his fist into the glass repeatedly. He seemed to feel no pain. That bloodied, mangled fist looked like it might break through the glass and hit Tang Yu any second.
Tang Yu: “???”
Panicked, Tang Yu slid away, trying to stand up—but the moment he moved, he heard more players boarding.
The pounding on the window stopped. That terrifying player dashed toward the door.
Tang Yu pulled his hat low and shrank into the corner of his seat, trying to make himself as small and invisible as possible.
“This game is too real! The sensory immersion is insane!”
“Whoa, you can actually take the fire extinguisher—and use it!”
“Hey! There’s an NPC here!”
Tang Yu froze. He could feel countless eyes suddenly turning toward him.
“Don’t forget immersive roleplay,” a young woman’s voice reminded. “The system filters out certain words, but if you do something too outrageous—like not wearing clothes properly—the NPCs will definitely resist.”
“Lol, you just called him an NPC though.”
“This NPC’s stats are trash… Huh? His charm is actually maxed?”
“Why’s he covering up so tightly? Not letting anyone see?”
“D*mn, I spent hours customizing my face and only got a 7 charm rating. I need to see what this game’s definition of 10 looks like.”
“Hello! Marry me!”
“No exclamation mark over his head. Maybe we need to talk to trigger the quest? Hey, hey, do you need help?”
“Hello! This is a robbery!”
Tang Yu lowered his head nervously, hearing their voices circling around him.
“Why won’t this NPC talk? Do you think he’s a clue-type NPC?”
“What’s that?”
“You know, the kind that dies early to provide clues for the quest.”
“Sounds like cannon fodder. Isn’t it a waste to make a max-charm NPC a throwaway character?”
“Lol, maybe it’s just the system’s idea of full charm—like how some dress-up games define their own ‘perfect’ outfit.”
…
Tang Yu was nearly overwhelmed by the flood of chatter. Suddenly, a blood-soaked hand appeared before his eyes, sticky droplets dripping from the fingers.
Tang Yu’s pupils shrank.
He recognized this hand!
It was the one that had just been smashing the window. Now, it reached toward him—some of the fingers limp and bent at unnatural angles, encased in torn skin.
In contrast, the voice that accompanied it was young and energetic. “Tsk. Let me see the beauty.”
…Tang Yu realized the player had mistaken his gender. The NPC panels never marked gender, after all.
A drop of thick blood landed on the back of Tang Yu’s pale hand.
He recoiled like he’d been burned, but there was no space left to retreat in his seat.
The scent of blood cut through his mask, and that hand brushed against the mask’s ear loop—
“The driver is dead.”
A cold voice cut through the chaotic noise.
Most of the players turned toward the source of the voice, and the bloody hand paused mid-motion.
“Dead? Hurry, hurry! Move it, I want to see too!”
“D*mn, the devs are wild—there’s no censorship?”
“Ew, looks like a mummified corpse.”
“How could a corpse be driving? This game really is horror.”
“Can we hit it?”
“No health bar, no data panel. Must be an unattackable NPC.”
“…”
As the players chattered, the cold voice continued calmly: “If this game’s realism is truly 100%, then the driver died from blood loss. But oddly, there’s no blood on him or around him.”
…What?
The driver was dead?
Tang Yu sat frozen in his seat, forgetting all about the bloody hand right next to him.
How could the driver be dead? How could a dead person drive? What were these people even talking about? Were they really players? Or had Tang Yu gone completely mad after being scared by Shen Junxing?
His mind was in chaos, but he didn’t dare look up.
“Our beginner quest just spawned!” a player shouted. “Find a living driver! Reach the university by bus! Difficulty: E. Reward: +1 Constitution. You get infinite revives during the quest! But death count affects your score. Ahh, I kind of want to die once just to see!”
“Anyone got an A3 license?”
“Once someone sits in the seat, the system will probably launch a tutorial.”
Right on cue, a player grabbed the steering wheel—then gasped. “Huh? It won’t turn!”
“WTF! It’s self-driving!”
“Then why does it even need a driver?”
“The dead driver is like glued to the seat—won’t budge at all.”
Shaking, Tang Yu glanced up. A group of players were crowding around the driver’s seat—some trying to attack the fare machine, others yanking at the driver’s arms, neck, and clothes. The corpse sat unmoving, stiff as stone.
…These people are terrifying! Even if they’re not “players,” they’re legit insane!
Suddenly, someone shouted: “Look! The fuel indicator light is on!”
Right after that, someone finally pulled the stiff body from the seat. It collapsed with a thud, and the head fell clean off. From the severed neck, no blood came out—just pale gray.
The head rolled twice, then stopped facing Tang Yu. The dim lighting cast an eerie glow over the dead man’s face.
A chill shot straight up Tang Yu’s spine.
But worse was what happened next.
He saw a woman’s hands gently lift the driver’s head!
It was the same female player who had been gleefully picking up trash earlier. Now, she cradled the head in her arms. Her pocket overflowed with mummified fingers. She sighed, “Ugh, the backpack space is too small.”
Tang Yu sat in a daze, numb, while the players chattered excitedly:
“Fuel’s running low. The bus won’t go far.”
“Relax, I bet there’s a gas station just ahead—probably with some monsters too.”
“I have a theory!” said a voice Tang Yu recognized—the same young man whose bloody hand had nearly touched him.
“This bus doesn’t run on regular gas. It runs on blood.” His voice was like a livestreamer passionately explaining to his audience. “Look at the window next to that NPC.”
Tang Yu instinctively looked down—his head was already as low as possible. He wished he could bury his face in his chest.
“Earlier, my blood was dripping down that window. Now? Not a single drop.”
Tang Yu didn’t dare look around, but judging from the gasps, the others saw it too. Though no one focused solely on him, being in their field of vision made Tang Yu feel like he was sitting on pins and needles.
“Ever heard the urban legend about Bus 375?” the man continued. “A young man gets on the last bus late at night. Halfway through, three strange people board—long robes, messy hair. Then an old lady accuses the man of stealing and drags him off to the police.”
Tang Yu suddenly held his breath.
He stared at his pale hand.
“Once they get off, the old lady says: ‘I saved your life. Those three things weren’t human. When the wind blew, I saw—no legs beneath their robes!’”
His hand… was clean. Nothing strange at all.
But he clearly remembered it being stained with Yan Lang’s blood just moments ago!
“The next day, police say the driver and the ticket seller of that bus are missing. On the third day, they find the bus over 100 kilometers away, with three severely decomposed corpses inside.”
Yan Lang paused dramatically before adding, “And the fuel tank? Filled with blood instead of gasoline.”
Tang Yu twitched. He stroked the back of his hand in disbelief.
“Bro, please stop. That story is so old.”
Suddenly, loud shouts erupted from the players:
“Wait, look! Someone’s waving at us!”
“But it’s just one person, not three. Looks like a cleaner?”
“That reflective vest is blinding. I want that skin!”
Hearing the word “cleaner,” Tang Yu stiffly raised his head.
“Is it a monster? Why no red name?”
“Maybe it has a transformation phase.”
“In the middle of the night, if it’s not a ghost, what kind of person waits alone by the roadside for a bus?”
Tang Yu recognized her. She was an elderly cleaning lady who worked night shifts. Once, when a pervert had followed Tang Yu, this little old woman had bravely chased the man off with her broom.
“Isn’t our mission supposed to require a living driver? Once she gets on, we can shove her into the driver’s seat and let the system verify her. If she’s alive, we might be halfway done with our task!”
“Tsk, isn’t that kind of messed up? It feels like being the driver of this bus isn’t a good thing.”
“What, are you playing the game as a lawful good person or something?”
The bus stopped, and the doors slowly opened.
A small, frail figure limped slowly out of the shadows toward the bus.
The old woman had bad legs.
Tang Yu still remembered that night clearly—how the old woman had come running over with a broom in a ridiculous posture, shouting at him: “Run!”
That voice from memory overlapped perfectly with the words that burst from Tang Yu’s mouth now. Through the glass, the old woman looked at him, confused.
Several piercing gazes from the players now refocused on Tang Yu. A buzz of chatter about him rose up, but he couldn’t pay attention to any of it.
His mind went blank, his body turned limp, and with a trembling fist, he suddenly slammed the window hard and shouted with all his strength:
“Run!!”
The night was too dark. Tang Yu wore a mask and a baseball cap. He didn’t know whether the old woman had recognized him. After all, he had never screamed at her like that before. His voice was loud enough to nearly crack.
Maybe she just thought he was a lunatic suddenly banging on the window. The startled old woman turned and ran away in a clumsy, panicked hobble.
Tang Yu’s blue eyes, shining with tears, watched her retreating figure disappear into the darkness. Only then did the searing pain from his hand sink in. The players’ excited chatter filled his ears:
“Holy cr*p, look! A second newbie quest just popped up!”
“Protect Tang Yu, break the bus window. Quest Difficulty: B. Reward: Tang Yu Favorability +1.”
“The two quests contradict each other. Looks like we can only pick one.”
“LOL, who would pick Quest 2? It’s harder and the reward is worse. Just a favorability point from some decorative NPC. Unless someone wants to romance in a horror game.”
Tang Yu didn’t even have time to feel happy about Quest 2’s sudden appearance. After hearing those players, his small glimmer of hope was extinguished again.
“If we’re all doing Quest 1, let’s just shove Tang Yu into the driver’s seat and see if the task completes.”
“So will his blood get drained and leave a dried corpse? Or will it be some other death?”
“It’s just a game, but doesn’t that feel a bit cruel?”
“Come on, it’s just a game. Charm value 10, could be a Loulan beauty.”
One voice after another chimed in, lighthearted as if discussing a cutscene in a game.
…No, if they really were players, then yes, this was just a cutscene to them.
But what about him?
Would he… die?
Tang Yu’s knuckles turned white. Countless unseen eyes bore down on him with a chilling intensity. This eerie sensation—
Shen Junxing.
That name he didn’t want to think about suddenly burst into his mind and refused to leave.
Shen Junxing.
Shen Junxing.
Shen Junxing…
Are you watching me?
I’m so scared, Shen Junxing. I’m so scared.
“Ding-dong!” A crisp message notification rang out, silencing the buzzing discussions.
Tang Yu frantically pulled out his phone. A new unread message popped up on the screen.
Shen Junxing: “Little Yu, don’t be afraid.”
The glow from the screen lit up Tang Yu’s reddened, teary blue eyes, as if lighting up his entire world.
His pupils contracted.
Shen Junxing: “image.jpg”
In the photo, eight passengers were gathered around someone wearing a baseball cap—standing, sitting, crouching, crawling—surrounding him.
Tang Yu slowly looked up. His tear-filled, bloodshot eyes scanned the area and finally met the flickering red light of the bus’s surveillance camera.
Shen… Junxing…
His heartbeat raced with fear, and it felt like the air in his lungs was thinning.
Shen Junxing: “I know Little Yu is still angry at me, but so many people are watching you. I’m just worried about you.”
“Hey! Look at what that NPC’s got on their phone!” a player shouted.
The players’ renewed interest shattered Tang Yu’s resistance.
“…I need you.” He typed the message with trembling fingers.
The light above flickered twice.
In the shifting light, a chilling aura swept through the entire bus. The players trying to grab Tang Yu’s phone all shrank back. The overhead handles started swaying on their own.
Tang Yu clutched his phone tightly, anxiously staring at the chat interface.
Shen Junxing: “Little Yu changed so quickly. You told me not to come near before.”
Tang Yu bit his lip.
“So cruel. Little Yu clearly said that if I deleted all the surveillance footage, it would be like nothing ever happened.”
“Then you called me crazy.”
“And slapped me.”
…Shen Junxing, that lunatic.
Tang Yu’s hands trembled as he gripped the phone.
The next second, darkness like thick ink spread outward from Tang Yu, swallowing everything. The bus handles stopped moving. The whole carriage was plunged into eerie darkness.
Sitting there in the dark, Tang Yu heard the players around him cry out:
“Holy cr*p, why did Quest 1 suddenly become B-level difficulty?! This is supposed to be a newbie mission!”
“Wait, Quest 2’s difficulty dropped! It’s E-level now!”
…
And with the darkness came the last message from Shen Junxing:
“But I really like you.”
