Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 961 The Final Stop

Before He Lingling could even finish speaking and before An Jie could react, Yu Shijiu, without any hesitation, plunged his beast claws into the ground and used the momentum to rush towards the strange couple.

Anjie: "..."

She gritted her teeth and quickly caught up with Yu Shijiu.

Chen Yi, who remained where he was, was speechless.

He silently wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and sighed inwardly.

Forget it... he should just focus on protecting Xiao Juan and A Hao.

The bride and groom had given up looking at the middle-aged man who had gotten out of the car and were now turning back towards Ahao and Xiaojuan.

Just as they stretched out their ghostly claws to reach Xiao Juan and the others, they sensed the threat coming from behind them. At the same time, they turned around, and their ghostly claws, painted with bright red nail polish and filled with resentment, slammed down on Yu Shijiu who was rushing over.

Yu Shijiu neither dodged nor evaded, his left arm with the beast claw blocking the attack, while his right hand wielded the axe in a sharp arc, slashing towards the bride's red veil!

"Your enemy is him! Not those innocent shadows!"

Anjie, who was also rushing over, felt her heart skip a beat and quickly shouted.

"Think carefully! What exactly should you hate?! Is it really this innocent couple?"

Yu Shijiu, who was holding the axe, frowned.

As the one who had just attacked the other party, he could feel that his axe blade had struck the red veil, but it hadn't cut through it; instead, it seemed to have triggered something.

Yu Shijiu was a little worried that the other party might be provoked.

Especially considering what Sister An just said.

Thinking of this, Yu Shijiu gripped his axe tightly, ready to charge forward again at any moment.

Upon hearing Anjie's shout, the woman in the wedding dress froze, and the tears of blood beneath her veil seemed to flow even more rapidly.

She let out an even more painful cry, and through the reflection of the axe blade in her dark eyes, she seemed to see Xiao Juan and A Hao embracing each other in terror on the chair behind her.

I also saw... many years ago, I was wearing a floral dress, full of dreams for marriage, holding hands with my young boyfriend, smiling as we boarded this night bus.

Back then, they clung to each other like this, whispering about their plans for the future, thinking about saving money for the wedding, and how they could prepare everything as soon as they got home...

The groom froze.

It glanced at the middle-aged man outside the car, his face beaming with excitement as he paced back and forth with a machete. Its neck stiffened as it looked at the distraught bride beside it, then at Xiao Juan and A Hao behind the screen. Finally, it slowly turned its head to look at the back of the car—

He looked at the hooded passenger who was holding hands with Lin Hai and whose face was completely different.

At this moment, the four shadows experienced an unprecedented and chaotic conflict of empathy and cognition.

"We...we..."

The woman in the wedding dress had a hoarse, broken voice because her throat had been cut before she died.

"No...it shouldn't be like this..."

The roar that came from the groom's throat turned into a low sob.

Lin Hai and the groom in the back seat looked up suddenly and their eyes met for several seconds.

Then, he turned his head and looked at the middle-aged man standing alone in the rain outside the car, head down, muttering to himself, and then at his "girlfriend" beside him, twisted in pain, existing between existence and illusion...

Finally, Lin Hai looked at the pair of people trembling with fear behind the wooden barrier, representing the possibility of "if none of this had happened"... that he could always be by his girlfriend's side, protecting and staying with her...

For the first time, cracks appeared in the madness on his face.

“Ah Xiu…”

He whispered his girlfriend's name, not to the hoodie passenger, but to the air, to the memory, to the boundless pain and regret.

"I...I just want you to come home...I want us to come home together, safely and healthily..."

"But there is no home here."

Anjie's voice rang out. She ignored the thick black fog that permeated the surroundings and let it seep into her body. She walked to a spot not far from Lin Hai, where she was stopped by Mulanzhi and the other two.

"Stand there."

Mulanzhi had recovered from the horrific scene of Meng Lang's "death" and coldly stared at Anjie as she approached. "Anjie, don't get too close."

"Okay, I won't come near."

Anjie did not insist on moving forward. Instead, she stood still, her short blade hanging at her side, the blade gleaming faintly with blue light.

"This place is just a recurring nightmare, Lin Hai. You've trapped yourself, and you've trapped her too."

After receiving He Lingling's reminder, Anjie spoke to Lin Hai, who was standing behind Mulanzhi and the other two.

"..." Lin Hai's eyes involuntarily froze.

What is Ange saying?

What exactly makes him not only trapped himself, but also trapped—

"We've arrived at the final stop."

The driver's voice rang out again, still devoid of emotion, as he repeated:

"All passengers who are supposed to get off, please get off the bus now."

This time, the driver's voice seemed to carry the power of the established rules within the bus.

The passengers who surged toward the train door vanished like smoke into the misty drizzle the moment they stepped off.

The strange couple's figures also began to become extremely unstable.

They looked at each other, then slowly turned their heads to look at Xiao Juan and A Hao, who were tightly embracing each other.

Finally, they all looked at Lin Hai, who remained silent.

Yu Shijiu paid attention to their movements, and the body blocking Chen Yi and the others showed no intention of moving.

"Shi Jiu..."

Xu Han cautiously ran to his side, looking at his grotesque beast claws and... his right hand holding an axe with some difficulty.

How can he get treatment?

I can't touch it with either of my hands!

Yu Shijiu glanced at him sideways and said with a smile, "Brother Han."

Xu Han: "...Don't call me 'Brother Han' now. It makes me feel a chill down my spine, and I feel inferior because I shouldn't be called 'Brother' by you."

"?"

Yu Shijiu blinked, then looked away in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Xu Han's lips moved, and he vigorously wiped his face.

"...Never mind, you seem pretty normal."

If it's normal, it means there's nothing wrong.

Yu Shijiu ignored him and continued to stare at the strange couple standing motionless in front of her.

After being stopped, the strange couple seemed to be frozen in place, turning their heads back and forth to look around. Finally... the woman in the wedding dress, under the two's wary gaze and towards Xiao Juan and A Hao, shook her head very slightly.

"..."

Xu Han licked his lips in shock, and an unbelievable guess gradually surfaced in his mind.

Could it be that……

Based on Xu Han's guess, the strange couple, hand in hand, changed direction and floated towards the location of the car door.

In the hazy, rainy night, they drifted off the car like two faded, dark red silhouettes.

But instead of heading towards the madman, they walked to the other side of the crossroads, their two red figures gradually fading into the gray rain.

The middle-aged man standing in the middle of the road seemed to sense something and abruptly turned his head.

He stared intently in the direction where the strange couple had disappeared, then looked back at the bus, his face once again displaying that empty, cruel smile.

Then, the middle-aged man raised the knife to his own neck—

puff.

The middle-aged man's figure completely disintegrated as he raised his knife to commit suicide, turning into a pool of dark red blood that was quickly washed away by the rain.

"..."

Inside the carriage, only the five "alive" people, the four "echoes" (Lin Hai, Mu Lanzhi, Li Ye, and Ma Ming), Xiao Juan and A Hao, and the driver who had never left the driver's seat from beginning to end remained.

And next to Lin Hai, there was the hooded passenger whose figure and expression were becoming increasingly unstable.

Its body suddenly began to flicker after the strange couple and the middle-aged man disappeared.

Sometimes it's the pained face of a woman covered in scars, sometimes it becomes like a crying forest, and sometimes it's a blurry, indistinguishable human form.

It still gripped Lin Hai's hand tightly, letting out a hoarse, painful groan.

"Ah Hai...it hurts so much...it hurts so much...we can't go home...we can't go home...it hurts so much..."

After thinking for a long time, Lin Hai suddenly woke up and turned around to hug the dog tightly, which kept crying out in pain, his eyes red.

Mulanzhi and the others subconsciously turned their heads, their faces showing reluctance.

Mulanzhi: "Brother Lin..."

Her gaze fell on Lin Hai's head, and she felt that his gray hair looked particularly glaring in the dim light.

Lin Hai... is only twenty-nine years old, but his hair has already turned so white...

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry... It's my fault... I couldn't save you..."

Lin Hai didn't hear Mulan Zhi's voice. His voice choked with emotion as he hugged the strange, inhuman creature beside him, repeatedly apologizing in a low voice:

“…I was wrong…It’s my memory…it’s my pain and hatred…again…again…I’m sorry, I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have…I shouldn’t have dragged you into this nightmare again…But Ah Xiu…I really…I really…I just miss you so much…”

"..."

Mulanzhi's eyes reddened as she listened, wanting to step forward but not daring to.

Li Ye and Ma Ming also had complicated expressions. Meng Lang's death made them angry and sad, but Lin Hai's suffering made them feel a deeper sorrow.

None of the three moved, but their muscles remained tense, wary of whether the five "Echoes" would suddenly launch an attack.

"You should get off the bus now."

This was the third time the driver had urged them to hurry.

But unlike the previous times, this time, he himself slowly turned around from the driver's seat.

It was the face of an extremely ordinary, weathered middle-aged man, with empty, numb eyes; only the red hat on his head remained bright and glaring.

He looked at the silent crowd standing in the carriage and said in a deep voice:

"We have arrived at the final stop. Please get off the bus as soon as possible. This train service has ended."

As he spoke, the bus engine noise began to subside, and the lights inside the bus began to flicker.

Having finally regained some mobility, He Lingling struggled to stand up from her seat, and Xu Han quickly ran over to support her.

How are you?

Xu Han asked in a low voice, "Do you feel like you can't see anymore?"

"..."

He Lingling's vision was indeed a little blurry, but it wasn't to the point of blindness—she suspected it was due to the "gel" given to her by Thumbelina.

In the past, she would have gone blind long ago.

She shook her head, cleared her throat, and said:

"'Things that shouldn't exist on the bus'... are not a particular passenger, or a strange monster, but the tragedy on this bus itself, and also..."

He Lingling's voice suddenly paused, and she sighed:

"It is also Lin Hai's unresolved obsession and pain, as well as... this car and driver who witnessed the crime but still drove on indifferently."

Anjie also looked at the driver, her tone very serious:

"You are one of the key figures in the operation of this bus, aren't you?"

"Back then, you knew a stabbing had happened in your car, but you didn't stop or call the police. You just coldly let the tragedy happen, let that innocent girl be brutally murdered..."

"In this game instance made up of memories and obsessions, you have become an important part of keeping this car running."

The driver remained expressionless, seemingly ignoring Anjie's words entirely.

"I'm just driving, stopping at the station, letting people get on and off, that's all I need to do."

"But your 'just do these things' killed one person and ruined another."

Chen Yi took over the conversation in a deep voice, somewhat unable to understand.

Why are you standing by and watching?

In Chen Yi's view, no matter what, the driver, as the person primarily responsible for the bus, would be held accountable for "improper performance of duties" if he completely neglected his duties when investigated.

The driver was silent for a moment, then slowly said:

"Get off the bus, your 'journey' is over."

He still chose not to answer their questions directly.

"..."

Chen Yi stared at him for several moments before finally looking away.

Yu Shijiu, on the other hand, remained very quiet, her gaze seemingly lingering on the driver's face.

The driver was too calm... to the point of being incomprehensible, even absurd.

Are real-life drivers like this too?

Or is it that... the driver in front of him, who is so calm that it's almost unbelievable, is just the driver that Lin Hai remembers as the driver he thinks he is?

Yu Shijiu felt a headache coming on from her own tangled thoughts, and couldn't help but raise her hand and hit her head hard.

This action startled An Jie, who had just turned around, and she rushed to Yu Shijiu's side and grabbed his right hand.

"Shi Jiu!"

Anjie's eyes were filled with lingering fear as she squinted at the axe still dripping blood in Yu Shijiu's right hand, and took a deep breath:

"Watch your weapons."

"...Oh, okay."

Yu Shijiu obediently let go, her gaze still fixed on the driver.

He always felt that the driver seemed strange... How could a normal person not care about anything?

Those passengers at least "kindly" pulled Lin Hai away from danger... unless the driver was also an accomplice?

But that's impossible... Judging from the current progress of the storyline, if the driver really was an accomplice, he shouldn't have been so "safe" all this time.

After all, both the murderer and the passengers suffered "harm" to varying degrees.

During the conversation, as the driver repeatedly reminded them to get off the bus, Xiaojuan and Ahao stood up shakily.

Holding hands, they turned to look at the familiar intersection outside the car window, then at the strange scene inside the carriage, feeling somewhat at a loss.

"What...what do we do?"

Ah Hao asked in a trembling voice.

Throughout the conversation, he never let go of his girlfriend's hand.