Chapter 4

Charm Points Attract Filth

“Who else would be out here catching a bus in the middle of the night if they weren’t a ghost?”

Tang Yu recognized her.
She was an elderly cleaning lady who worked the night shift — and years ago, when a pervert had followed Tang Yu home, this same old woman had charged at the man waving her broom, scaring him off.

“Our task is to find a living driver, right? Once she gets on, we can push her into the driver’s seat and let the system check. If she’s alive, the mission’s half done!”

“Ehh, isn’t that kind of messed up? Feels like whoever drives this bus won’t end up well.”

“Ha! Since when did you start playing lawful good?”

The bus screeched to a stop. The door opened with a hiss.

A frail, stooped figure slowly made her way toward the vehicle, her movements sluggish and uneven.

The old woman’s legs weren’t in great shape.

Tang Yu could still remember that night clearly — her ridiculous yet brave posture, charging at a full-grown man while yelling—

“Run!”

That cry from memory overlapped perfectly with Tang Yu’s own scream bursting out of him now.
Through the glass, the old woman looked up in confusion, eyes meeting his.

The gazes of dozens of players turned toward Tang Yu as well, their discussions buzzing all around him. But he couldn’t care less.

His mind went blank; his body felt weak. Trembling, he slammed his fist against the window and shouted with all his strength—

“Run! Run, dammit!”

It was so dark outside. With his mask and cap pulled low, Tang Yu didn’t know if she recognized him. He’d never screamed like that before — his voice cracked from the force.

Startled, the little old lady spun around, panic flaring in her eyes, and hobbled away as fast as her bad leg could carry her.

His blue eyes followed her retreating figure disappearing into the darkness. Only when she was completely gone did the delayed pain hit — his knuckles throbbed with a deep ache. Then the chatter of the players broke into his ringing ears:

“Holy shit, look! A second starter quest just popped up!”

Quest 2: Escort Tang Yu – Break the bus window
Difficulty: B
Reward: +1 Tang Yu Affection

“These two quests conflict. We can only choose one.”

“Hah! Who’d pick Quest 2? Higher difficulty, worse reward — what’s even the point of raising an NPC’s affection? Unless you’re trying to date someone in a horror game.”

Tang Yu barely had time to process the appearance of Quest 2 before that last sentence crushed the fragile hope he’d just felt.

“If we’re all doing Quest 1 anyway, we can just shove this Tang Yu guy into the driver’s seat and see if it counts.”

“So… his blood’ll get drained and he’ll turn into a mummy? Or die another way?”

“Sure it’s gruesome, but it’s just a game.”

“He’s got 10 Charm, though — maybe he’s a hidden beauty NPC.”

One by one, their casual voices piled up, disturbingly cheerful — as if discussing a cutscene.

If they really were players, then for them, that was all this was.

But for him… what did it mean?

Would he die?

Tang Yu’s knuckles turned white. That cold, prickling sense of being watched — the eerie awareness of something breathing down his neck — was growing stronger and stronger.

Shen Junxing.

The name crashed into his mind, unbidden.

Shen Junxing.

Shen Junxing.

Shen Junxing… are you watching me?

I’m scared, Shen Junxing. I’m so scared.

A bright ding-dong! cut through the bus, silencing every voice.

Tang Yu fumbled for his phone. On the glowing screen — a new message.

Shen Junxing:

“Xiaoyu, don’t be afraid.”

The pale light reflected in his blue eyes, making them seem to ignite from within.

Tang Yu’s pupils shrank.

Shen Junxing:

Image.jpg

The photo opened.

Eight passengers — standing, sitting, crouching, crawling — scattered in loose formation around one person wearing a baseball cap.

Tang Yu slowly raised his head, tear-streaked eyes bloodshot, sweeping across every face in the bus… until they landed on the red recording light of the surveillance camera above.

Shen… Junxing…

His heartbeat went wild. The air in his chest grew thin, suffocating.

Shen Junxing:

“I know you’re still angry at me, Xiaoyu.
But so many people are watching you right now.
I’m just… worried.”

“Hey! Look, this NPC’s got a phone!” someone shouted.

The rising panic and the players’ sudden attention shattered what little resistance Tang Yu had left.

He typed with trembling fingers:

“…I need you.”

The overhead lights flickered twice.

Cold wind surged through the bus, whipping against every player. The hanging rings rattled violently, then stilled.

Tang Yu clutched his phone tightly, eyes fixed on the chat screen.

Shen Junxing:

“Xiaoyu’s changed so fast. You told me not to come near you…”

Tang Yu’s lips trembled.

Shen Junxing:

“So cruel. You said if I deleted all the surveillance footage, we could pretend nothing happened.”
“Then you called me crazy.”
“You even slapped me.”

That lunatic…

Tang Yu’s hands shook harder.

And then —

A suffocating darkness poured outward from where he sat, swallowing the light. The rings stopped swaying; every sound dulled. The bus was swallowed whole.

In the pitch black, Tang Yu heard the frantic voices of the players—

“Holy shit, Quest 1’s difficulty just jumped to B-rank! This isn’t a beginner mission anymore!”

“Wait — Quest 2 dropped to E-rank!”

And then—

A final message appeared on Tang Yu’s phone.

Shen Junxing:

“But I like it.”

“Huff… huff… huff…”

Grandma Li hobbled down the empty street, her small shadow stretching and swaying under the flickering white streetlight.

Panting heavily, she finally stopped to catch her breath — but froze halfway through.

Her breathing halted.

She stared wide-eyed at the ground.

Her shadow was still moving.
Swaying.
And then — running.
Running off sideways, like a warped, shapeless creature, scuttling into the pitch-black area beyond the light.

…She’d lost her shadow.

Grandma Li almost fainted. She stood in the tiny white circle of light, trembling as she watched the darkness around its edge twist and writhe.

Then the shadows began to pull away — like a tide receding — retreating all at once toward the road behind her.

Startled, Grandma Li tried to move. One bad leg lifted awkwardly; the other scrambled to follow. In her panic, she almost danced a clumsy tango trying to dodge the creeping darkness.

But she stumbled and fell with a thud.

When she looked up—

Her jaw dropped.

Every shadow along the street was streaming toward a bus parked under a distant streetlamp. The flood of darkness swallowed the glow, shaping itself into a gigantic hand that reached for the tiny bus.

Grandma Li gaped upward, following that monstrous hand — and saw an even larger, more oppressive black mass rising behind it, so vast it seemed to merge with the night sky.

“…Merciful heavens, what is that thing?!”

She couldn’t make out its full shape. Even though she’d run hundreds of meters, she was still too close.

She often saw ants while sweeping the streets. They never seemed afraid of her shoes or her broom. Her educated grandson once told her ants couldn’t comprehend a human’s existence — that it was “a matter of scale,” though she hadn’t really understood what that meant.

Now she did.

If the shadows on the ground were a flat sheet of black paper… then the thing in front of her was that paper folded upward into a towering wall.
And she — she was the tiny ant crawling on it.

Her old body shook uncontrollably. Her cloudy eyes watched as the enormous hand slowly closed around the bus, lifting it off the ground like a toy.

The metal frame groaned.

Then, with a crushing grip, the hand clenched.

The bus crumpled like paper.

From inside came wave after wave of screaming.

“Run!”

That young man’s voice — the one who’d shouted earlier — rang in her ears again.

Grandma Li jolted, terror flooding through her. Then she scrambled up and ran, half crawling, half stumbling, away into the dark.

---

Inside the bus — chaos.

When the vehicle suddenly lurched upward, several players lost their balance and fell.

The screech of twisting metal filled the air. The overhead rings snapped one after another, slamming to the floor. The thick glass windows shattered with deafening crashes. A player standing by the door was flung across the cabin as the frame buckled inward.

“AAAH! Holy crap, this physics is insane!”

“Bro, this realism’s next level— it feels like a roller coaster!”

“So that’s why Quest 2’s difficulty dropped to E! Grab your weapons, break this damn bus!”

“…”