I, who advocate giving up, feel like a disqualified person

Chapter 0's reasoning is just like this

Is curiosity a good thing or a bad thing?... This cannot be generalized. If I were to judge, I can only define it as:

“An excuse to waste energy”

And it’s also an excuse to get others to expend energy together.

For me...it does more harm than good.

Moreover, every exploratory event can no longer be restored, and the so-called reasoning, in my opinion, is just a method of elimination that determines the difficulty based on the number of clues.

"Eliminate the impossible, and whatever remains, no matter how incredible, must be the truth."

...Well...that's a bit too much to say.

Because there is more than one truth to the matter, the correct answer should not be obtained by the process of elimination.

Well... there should be only one explanation why those guys were able to come up with the correct answer.

I'm just too lucky...

Well, putting luck aside...

It's just that the explanation sounds reasonable.

If that's the case, I should be able to do it too.

But I still don't want to do it...

Groundless speculation

What has been produced over a long period of time is not only history, but also legends that have no basis but are more interesting than history.

However, legends with an ancient flavor are nothing new. Furthermore, those stories were told a long time ago... hundreds of years at least, right? So, people always feel they're unreal, and at best, little more than idle gossip.

And somewhere in between...something that has both legendary nature and some basis in fact, is the "legend" that takes place in the city, or it would not be an exaggeration to say "ghost stories".

Kwaidan...as the name suggests, is full of "strangeness":

Close to the truth, but contrary to common sense.

The time it takes for it to happen may only be a dozen or several dozen years, not more than a hundred years, so it gives people a feeling that "it may happen again."

But rather than being afraid, more people still want to know the truth.

In addition, many "urban legends" will be mixed with some elements of gods and ghosts.

If I were to say...

It's just so stupid.

Chapter 1: Groundless Speculation

I don't know why, but everyone seemed to be noisy during class today...

"..."

As usual, I was lying on the table to rest, and I looked up with some dissatisfaction at a group of guys not far from me, who seemed to be discussing something with great interest.

"Ah! Sheji, you're awake."

Ling Can's voice suddenly appeared in the crowd.

"Because you guys are so noisy..."

I complained in dissatisfaction.

"Because Liu Yan was telling urban legends, it was very scary."

Lin Yi suddenly turned around and spoke to me, and his expression seemed to be really frightened.

...Even the squad leader is joining in the fun?

"...Let me listen for a while." I said and moved the stool to the side, closer to them.

"....." I accidentally glanced at Lin Quanchuan, and she looked at me with contempt.

...I know it's boring...but I'm still curious...

"Great... Sheji, welcome. I'm telling you about the twelve urban legends, and now I'm on the eleventh one." When Liu Yan said this... he seemed to feel a sense of accomplishment.

"ha..."

Judging from the name...I think he must have watched some useless show and is repeating it to us today...

"Well, let's begin, the eleventh legend."

Liu Yan paused mysteriously and looked at everyone's expressions.

“Hu…” “Hmm…” “Ah…”

They all look very serious...are they really that scary?

"Sheji, you are too uncooperative, aren't you?"

Nonsense, I haven't even started listening yet!

"Hurry up and start..." I glared at him.

"Ah...ok...cough cough" he eased the embarrassment, "then..."

"A man was strolling down the street when he saw an old man sitting on the street. He was watching people passing by and muttering to himself... "This one is a pig..." "This one is a chicken."

Hey, hey...isn't he really cursing because he has Alzheimer's?

“This is a person…” “This is a carrot…”

The young man was very surprised and asked what he saw. The old man looked at him and taught him a formula.

Mantra...Are you sure this is really an urban legend?

"Then the young man discovered that after he learned the formula, the old man disappeared. He looked at the crowd and found that he could actually tell what they had eaten the most that day."

...Okay... I get it, this is indeed a ghost story, not a legend at all...

"Huh? Wait, is there anything scary about this story?"

A boy raised his question.

"If that's the case, then why did the old man say, 'This is a human being'?"

I gave the answer before Liu Yan could.

"Oh...Is that so..." Then he showed a frightened expression...his reaction time was a bit long.

...But this isn't an urban legend, is it?!

"It's really a bit scary..." Lin Yi thought for a moment, "To think there would be someone..."

"This is just a ghost story... It's fake, okay?" I interrupted Lin Yi's random thoughts. "That kind of ability is too magical, it doesn't seem like it could have happened..."

...Everyone's eyes seemed to turn sharper when they looked at me...

Okay, I seem to have spoiled everyone's fun.

"Ahem, let's just listen to the last one." I used my eyes to remind Liu Yan to continue quickly.

"Well... then please listen carefully, everyone. This is the last urban legend, the grand finale."

"..."

I don’t know how to complain.

“It is said that it happened in the early days of the founding of the country.

A young man who was going home from work caught the last bus. It was midnight. Besides the driver and the conductor, there were a few other people on the bus. The young man just chose a seat and sat down.

Not long after the bus started moving, three men in military coats got on and walked straight to the back of the bus. Just as the driver was about to drive off, the old man sitting next to the young man suddenly hit him angrily, saying that his wallet was lost, and insisted that the young man took it and insisted on taking him to the police station. The passengers were in a hurry to go home, so they asked them to get off the bus and solve the problem themselves.

So the young man became very angry and started scolding the old man after getting off the bus.

The old man smiled and said to the young man mysteriously: "I actually saved your life."

The young man was puzzled and asked him the reason.

"Didn't you notice that the three people who got on the bus had no feet?"

The young man was skeptical. Not long after, he looked in the newspaper and found a news story about a bus being found in the suburbs, with everyone on board killed. However, the young man noticed...there was no mention of the three men in military coats.

"So this incident became an unsolved case, and over time, it became this legend."

...Oh, a real "ghost story" has appeared. It's very interesting.

"Oh, really? This is super scary."

Well, in some ways, it's really scary...

"Hmm? Sheji, what are you thinking about?" Lingcan seemed to see my thoughtful expression.

"Ah... well... I just think this story is... worth pondering." I thought for a moment, "But since I only heard the description, I can only make rough inferences..."

"Oh, really?" "Do you know how this works?"

For a moment, all their attention seemed to be drawn to me.

"Ah... forget it, this is just my one-sided guess."

It's a bit embarrassing to say it out loud...

"Don't be like this, share it with us." Lin Yi pulled my sleeve.

"....Well..."

This action is kind of cute...there's nothing I can do about it...

"It's just a guess...don't laugh." I stated this premise first.

"No." "Absolutely not." "Go ahead and tell me."

In that case...there's nothing we can do.

"From this story, I feel there are several doubts... Of course, this is based on the premise that I take it as true.

First, why was it that only the old man noticed that the three people had no feet? Most people wouldn't pay attention to other people's feet, and it was already so dark.

For example, if I say to Liu Yan, "The girl who just passed by is very beautiful," he will definitely turn around to look. In fact, he may not even know whether there is anyone passing by him, but he will believe it.

So, it is very likely that the old man is lying.”

"Huh? Why?" "Yes, why should...?"

"This is the second point of doubt. Are those three people human or ghosts? If they are human, why are they called ghosts?

Continuing with the previous conclusion, if the old man was lying, then it would be easy to explain, and the three should be humans.

Those three people must be the ones who killed everyone on the bus. As for the reason, it must be for money. After all, it's the last bus...they would have collected a lot of money in a day."

"Oh...but why do you have to say it's a ghost?"

"Yeah...it always feels weird."

"At first glance, it seems strange. Why did the old man save the young man? Actually... it's just a coincidence. Even if the young man didn't exist, this story would still exist.

If you want to know the reason...how should I put it...what if the old man and the three guys are actually in the same group?"

Now you should understand, right?

"So? Why do you say they're in the same group?"

Lingcan raised this question.

"Yeah, that's weird..." "Please explain it quickly..."

"..."no way...

"As mentioned at the beginning of the story, this legend took place in the early days of the People's Republic of China... Although we don't know if there were buses at that time, it is certain that people at that time must have been afraid of ghosts and gods.

If you want to break the law without being punished, you have to be inhuman... Well, although you can't stop being human, you can make others think that the person who can do this is not human. As for the method, it is actually very simple.

All you need to do is spread the rumor.

When people experience something incredible, they can't help but tell others about it, right? Especially when they've experienced life and death.

If the old man had colluded with the three men in military coats from the beginning, they only needed to "rescue" one person at random, making that person have the concept of "escaping a disaster" and "being haunted by gods and ghosts", and then the rescued person would tell the people around him, and the people around him would tell the people around him... the story would spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred, and the story would gradually be exaggerated, and they only had to wait for this incident to become a daunting legend.