I, the screenwriter, have experienced a resurgence of inspiration.

A rat is being carried in a funeral procession, with paper figures carrying the coffin.

The strange funeral procession seemed to have spotted the bus. The music paused briefly, then the procession, accompanied by the playing of suona horns and carrying a paper coffin, headed towards the group.

A rat-headed creature with malice in its eyes, a paper figure with a smile on its face and strangely painted blush, and the sound of banging and knocking.

It's like a scene from a horror movie.

"Holy crap... Holy crap..."

Zhou Chang's voice trembled violently, his teeth chattering: "What...what is that...a rat spirit? An entire village transformed from rats..."

Kang Xiaojia covered her mouth tightly, trying to calm her breathing.

Wang Lei was so frightened that he huddled in his seat, covering his head and shrinking into himself, half of the paper effigy trembling.

Jiang Chen's mind was filled with excitement.

"Don't make a sound."

Suppressing his emotions, he leaned over Wang Lei and whispered, "Drive slowly forward, don't stop, and don't hit them. See what these things are trying to do."

There's only one road out of the village, and these things might be designed to force them back.

That means there's something even more dangerous waiting for them in the village.

Wang Lei drove the car with trembling hands, and the paper-crafted cart continued to move slowly forward, like a clumsy cardboard beetle.

The distance is getting closer and closer.

Five meters, three meters, one meter...

The rat-man carrying the banner at the front of the procession stopped.

It raised its head, its tiny, bean-sized eyes staring straight into the car.

Immediately afterwards, the entire team stopped.

The suona playing stopped, the mourning stopped, and even the floating paper figures all raised their heads.

A dozen or so rat faces and seven or eight paper doll faces were all staring intently at the direction of the paper cart.

Then came the utter silence and quiet.

The group held their breath, waiting.

[...]

The fat rat-man at the front opened its mouth, its eyes gleaming with greed.

Suddenly, it moved.

It grabbed a handful of white paper money, scattered it all over the sky, and then turned and circled the bus.

The rat-like figures behind them also started moving, some carrying coffins, some playing suonas, some scattering paper money, and they all rushed over and circled the paper cart.

White paper money floated down from the sky and landed on the car window.

It's a thin sheet with a copper coin print on it.

Kang Xiaojia suddenly sprang up from the window and grabbed Zhou Chang's arm tightly. The latter had clearly never seen such a scene before and kept chanting Buddhist prayers while pursing his lips.

From the Jade Emperor to the Buddha, from Guanyin Bodhisattva to the Victorious Fighting Buddha, from the Virgin Mary to Jesus, the main theme is piety.

The paper figures floated over and stuck to the car window, their pale faces pressed against the glass, thick foundation smeared on them, leaving white streaks.

The boy and girl maintained their smiling expressions. When Kang Xiaojia got closer, she could even see clearly that their eyes were drawn with a brush, and the ink-outlined eyes were large and long.

"Knock knock knock".

A rat-like figure reached out and knocked on the car window.

[Hehehehe.]

A paper figure raised its hand and tapped its palm on the glass, making a dull sound, one tap after another.

It was as if he was urging the group to turn the car around.

It was as if they were being pulled along to join the funeral procession.

"They...they want us to follow them?"

With a sob in her voice, Kang Xiaojia said, "What should we do...? Will we be dragged down with them to be buried alive...?"

If you stay in the car and it doesn't start, an unknown ghost will grab you, hang you, and make you into preserved meat.

Getting off the vehicle, you'll bump into this strange funeral rat-like group again.

"Drive over it."

Jiang Chen gritted his teeth, his gaze sweeping over the rat-men surrounding him: "Since they have physical forms, that means they can die; they're just rats and paper figures—"

It will be completely dark soon.

As soon as it gets dark, the thing that killed my teammate will be here.

The rat-man knocked harder and harder on the car window, the "thump-thump" sound becoming a continuous chorus.

The paper figures' faces were pressed against the glass, and the distorted paint began to slowly seep in.

Wang Lei finally broke down.

"Go! Go quickly!"

He roared and frantically spun the steering wheel, and the bus started moving again—

suddenly!

"Meow—!!!"

A sharp, mournful meow suddenly rang out from the village, growing louder as it approached!

The cat's meow was sharp and bright, carrying the ferocity of a predator, with extremely strong penetrating power, directly drowning out all the suonas and wailing sounds, piercing straight into people's ears.

The rat-men surrounding the car panicked as if they had encountered their natural enemy.

Immediately following was a second meow.

The sound was getting closer.

"Meow—!!"

As the paper money fluttered in the air, more than a dozen dark figures darted out of the village, moving with lightning speed.

It's a cat.

The group could even feel the vehicle shake violently, as if some large living creature had jumped onto it.

One by one, the wild cats let out mournful howls, their eyes glowing with a ghostly yellow light in the dim light, and they growled softly.

The funeral procession, which had been orderly and eerily sinister just moments before, instantly descended into chaos.

"squeak--!!"

"Squeak!"

"Squeak squeak squeak!"

The sharp squeaking of rats rose and fell, and the rat-men dressed in mourning clothes screamed and ran away.

It was completely dark when a yellow oval moon rose on the horizon.

The cats scattered, preying on the rat-headed man. With each opening and closing of their gaping maws, rat heads rolled across the ground with a "rolling" sound.

The people huddled on the bus, too afraid to move, listening only to the pitiful squeals of rats and the piercing meows of cats outside the window.

Occasionally, it felt like something was crashing down on the roof of the bus, causing it to shake violently, and the passengers didn't even dare to breathe.

"Look!!"

Kang Xiaojia suddenly pointed to a spot, her eyes filled with astonishment: "People, people, people have turned into rats!"

The group looked in the direction she pointed and saw that the rat-headed man's clothes lay empty and shrunken in the snow, looking like human skin.

From those "human skins" emerged human-faced rats with human heads.

It has the body of a tiny mouse, the head of a human with all the facial features, and a look of terror on its face.

They screamed and scattered, darting towards the roadside hillsides, woods, and crevices in the rocks, trampling each other in their panic.

Upon seeing this, the cats seemed even more excited and pounced straight down.

"Squeak—! Help!!"

"Help!"

"I was wrong!"

The slow-running human-headed rat was pinned under the black cat's paws, letting out a pitiful scream.

The sound was a human voice, but it was high-pitched and thin, mixed with the squeaking of mice, making it so eerie that it sent chills down your spine.

The wildcat lowered its head and bit off its neck.

The human-headed rat twitched twice and then stopped moving.

The stray cat carried its body in its mouth, shook its head, jumped onto a roadside stone, and began to gnaw on it—the crisp "crunch crunch" sound was like chewing on cartilage.

Other wildcats also began hunting, chasing after the fleeing human-headed rats.

Screams of "Help!" and "Don't eat me!" echoed everywhere in the snow.

It was clearly a human's cry for help, but it came from a rat's mouth, making one's hair stand on end.

The bizarre funeral procession crumbled in the blink of an eye.

All that remained were fragments of mourning clothes, paper offerings, and scattered bloodstains.

……

……

The four people in the car were stunned.

The rat-men who had just cornered them were now as vulnerable as prey in front of the cat.

Did these cats... save them?

Zhou Chang was the first to react.

He shoved the still-dazed Wang Lei awake: "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and drive out!"

The paper cart suddenly lurched forward, rushing through the chaotic snowfield.

The wheels rolled over the scattered mourning clothes, the scraps of paper, and even a few human-headed rats that hadn't managed to escape.

"Pfft."

"Pop!"

"Kiss!"

The faint sound of a head popping was like crushing grapes.

The car body was stained with dark red blood and fine mouse fur.

The paper-crafted cart sped forward, driving for a kilometer or two. Only when the meows of cats and the squeaks of mice behind him faded into the distance did Wang Lei slowly slow down.

The carriage was deathly silent.

Familiar ink-wash characters appeared in the upper right corner of the field of vision.

[Announcement: Congratulations to player Wang Lei for defeating "Human-Headed Rat Huang Fasheng", "Human-Headed Rat Huang Youyun", and "Human-Headed Rat Huang Cuicui".]

[Player Wang Lei achieves first kill of the dungeon "Grandpa Huang's Birthday"!]

[First Kill Reward: 5-slot backpack (bound), 1 rat pelt, 1 rat tail]

The eyes of everyone in the car immediately fell on Wang Lei.

Envy, greed, frustration, urgency... a mix of emotions created a strange atmosphere in the car.

……

……

Second mirror copy.

"...Wang Lei, that coward, achieved the first kill?"

Lin Hao stood in front of the ancestral hall and sneered, "He probably relied on his teammates; he wouldn't have the guts."

Zhou Hui and Ouyang Qiu stood beside him.