A bizarre and terrifying experience; I messed up the dungeon world.

"Monthly pass," she said. "A C-level completion reward, free rides on the entire line."

The driver squinted and stared at the card for three seconds.

Han Yingying's heart was in her throat.

Then the driver nodded: "Go on up."

She calmly put away the card and walked into the carriage. Inside, she was screaming—she actually passed?!

There were a dozen or so seats in the carriage, most of which were occupied. But the "people" were clearly strange—some had their heads turned 180 degrees to face backward, some had semi-transparent bodies, and some had no faces at all.

Strange passengers.

There were only three empty seats left. Su Wan, Liu Tiezhu, and Fang Yuan each occupied one. Old Zhao and Lin Xiaolu stood in the aisle, holding onto the handrails.

Han Yingying glanced around and found one empty seat—in the last row by the window. She went over and sat down.

Zhou Lang was the last to board the train. He paid the fare, entered the carriage, glanced around, and then went straight to the last row, sitting down next to Han Yingying.

There wasn't a single seat between us. We sat right next to each other.

Han Yingying: "..."

She moved closer to the window.

The doors closed, and the bus started moving.

An argument could be heard from ahead.

"This is my seat," Su Wan said coldly.

"Just because you sat there doesn't mean it's yours?" Liu Tiezhu stood in the aisle, pointing at a strange passenger next to Su Wan. "The seat next to that thing is empty, why didn't you sit there? Why did you have to take this one?"

"Because that spot isn't safe," Su Wan insisted. "Whoever wants to sit in the seat next to the weird spot can sit there."

"Where should I sit?"

Don't ask me your questions.

Liu Tiezhu's face flushed red. He stood in the aisle, his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

The atmosphere suddenly became tense.

Han Yingying noticed that Su Wan's gaze had changed—she wasn't looking at Liu Tiezhu, but at the empty seat next to the strange passenger.

Then Su Wan smiled.

The smile was subtle, carrying a certain inexplicable allure. She turned to the eerie passenger—a "person" in a gray coat, faceless, with only smooth skin.

"Excuse me," Su Wan said.

The strange passenger didn't move.

Su Wan smiled again, this time a deeper smile. A faint pink light shone in her eyes.

"I said, please move aside."

The eerie passenger shuddered. Then it stood up and, like a puppet on strings, swayed towards the door.

It stopped halfway through.

The temperature inside the carriage plummeted.

The strange passenger's body began to twist, his limbs bent at abnormal angles, and a crack appeared on his smooth face—not a mouth, but a fissure that stretched from his forehead to his chin.

"It's going berserk!" Fang Yuan shouted.

But before anyone could react, a hand suddenly reached down from the roof of the car.

The hand was enormous and pale, its five fingers spread wide enough to cover the entire head of the bizarre passenger. It grabbed the twisted creature and crumpled it into a ball of black mist, like crushing a piece of paper.

The fog dissipated. The strange passenger vanished.

The hand on the roof of the car was pulled back.

The entire process takes no more than five seconds.

The carriage was deathly quiet.

Su Wan's expression changed slightly, but she quickly regained her composure. She sat down in the empty seat and tidied her hair.

Liu Tiezhu's mouth was open, and he couldn't close it for a long time.

"...There's something in this car." Old Zhao's voice was strained.

"Buses are weird in themselves." Fang Yuan pushed up his glasses, his voice trembling. "That hand must be part of the bus. The passenger was bewitched and tried to leave his seat, triggering some kind of rule..."

"So I can't leave my seat?" Lin Xiaolu asked softly.

No one answered. Because she and Lao Zhao were still standing.

Han Yingying glanced back at Zhou Lang. He was leaning back in his chair, his eyes closed, as if he were dozing off.

"Aren't you nervous?" she couldn't help but ask.

Zhou Lang opened one eye: "What's there to be nervous about?"

"That hand just now—"

"They're not coming for me." He closed his eyes again. "Just don't move."

Han Yingying: "..."

This person has a really big heart.

The bus traveled for about forty minutes on the gray highway.

Something happened during that time.

Old Zhao, who was sitting in the middle seat, suddenly froze. His face turned pale, beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and his eyes stared straight ahead.

"Old Zhao?" Fang Yuan noticed. "What's wrong?"

Old Zhao didn't answer. His lips were moving, but no sound came out.

Han Yingying followed his gaze—there was another "passenger" in the seat opposite him. The passenger was wearing the exact same tracksuit as Lao Zhao, and even their faces were identical.

It's a copy of Lao Zhao.

The replica was smiling at Old Zhao. The smile was wide, abnormally wide, with the corners of its mouth almost reaching its ears.

"Something is imitating him!" Lin Xiaolu exclaimed.

Han Yingying's first reaction was to help. Just as she was about to stand up, a hand pressed down on her shoulder.

The force wasn't heavy, but it was very steady.

"Don't move." Zhou Lang's voice rang in my ears, low and gentle. "Just watch."

"But--"

"If you stand up, the hand on the roof will come down."

Han Yingying froze. Remembering the fate of the strange passenger earlier, she forcefully pressed herself back into her seat.

But what about Lao Zhao?

She stared intently at the scene ahead. The replica was still laughing, and Old Zhao was still trembling. Fang Yuan tried to reach out to pull Old Zhao away, but Liu Tiezhu grabbed him.

"Don't touch it!" Liu Tiezhu whispered. "I don't know what the rules are for that thing."

One minute. Two minutes. Three minutes.

The replica's smile slowly faded. It tilted its head, as if waiting for something. Old Zhao remained motionless and silent, gripping the handrail tightly, his fingernails almost digging into the metal.

Five minutes later, the replica disappeared. As if it had never been there at all.

Old Zhao slumped to the ground, panting heavily.

"It...it asked me if I wanted to switch," Old Zhao's voice was hoarse. "It said that if I agreed, it would let me get off the bus."

"You didn't agree?" Fang Yuan asked.

"I...I almost agreed," Old Zhao wiped the sweat from his face, "but something just doesn't feel right. Where would I go after that? Would it take my place?"

Han Yingying breathed a sigh of relief. She looked back at Zhou Lang, who had already closed his eyes again.

"How do you know we don't need to worry about it?" she asked in a low voice.

"I don't know," Zhou Lang said. "I'm just guessing."

"...A guess?"

"This kind of probing weirdness only gets more active the more you pay attention to it. If you ignore it, it'll leave on its own." He paused. "Besides, as someone who cleared the game at a C-rank, shouldn't you understand this better than I do?"

Han Yingying choked.

Yes, she "cleared a C-rank dungeon".

"My C-level situation is different," she said, forcing herself to speak.

Zhou Lang hummed in response but didn't press further. However, Han Yingying felt that there was something hidden in his hum.

But I don't have time to think about that right now.

The bus slowed down. The withered trees outside the window gradually thinned out, replaced by a gray, open field. At the edge of the field, a three-story building stood alone, its exterior painted with mostly peeling white paint, and a sign hanging crookedly on its roof—

[Terrifying B&B]

There's a line of smaller text below the sign, but it's hard to see from a distance.