Underworld Player-Novel

The scenery outside the coach had been gradually growing stranger, the further they travelled. By now, it had changed so much that even the dullest person would have noticed it and sat up in shock.

The first to speak up was one of the two delinquents. "Hey, driver! What the hell kind of road is this?" As the eerie scenery passed by their window, the delinquent sitting in the aisle seat, his arm covered in tattoos, stood up and strode toward the front of the bus, cussing and grumbling.

Neither Lin He nor Bai Zhi made a move to stop him, prudently choosing to sit back and watch the scene unfold.

Soon, the youth made it to the row where the old woman was sitting, but being fully focused on getting to the driver, they didn't even glance to the side.

"Oi! I'm talking to you, driver! Where the fuck..." The delinquent's voice trailed away as their gaze travelled upward. On their face, an expression of terror began to surface.

The balding driver had turned his face toward the delinquent… and kept turning until his neck was twisted at an impossible angle, enabling him to face the delinquent directly. "Dear passenger, please return to your seat."

The driver's neck extended like a snake, and his head rose higher and higher, until it almost touched the roof of the bus. The driver bared his teeth in a rictus grin.

"I, Wang DaHai, have been driving for twenty years and never had a single mishap. You mustn't doubt the professionalism of a veteran driver."

The delinquent was stammering. "A gh... a g-g-ghost..."

Reacting swiftly, his partner got up and grabbed him by the arm. "Ayo? Zheng YaoWen, ya done goofed again! Go on, don't be standin' there like a fool, apologize to the driver!" he yelled as he made apologetic faces at the driver.

"I'm sorry, sir, my bad, my bad. I'm Xu Feng an' I do apologize for my colleague's rudeness. Of course we have complete faith in yer driverly ability..."

The driver cast a languid gaze over the delinquents as his head swayed in mid-air. "Please resume your seats." With that, the strange driver turned his face away and slowly retracted his head.

"We'll reach the destination in a few minutes."

"Cool, coolcoolcoolcoolcool. Carry on, my man..."

Flashing the driver a sheepish, placating grin, Xu Feng led his companion Zheng YaoWen back to their seats. As his gaze swept across the seats where the old woman was sitting, Xu Feng's pupils shrank in alarm, but he recovered quickly, maintaining his composure.

After taking stock of his options, he gritted his teeth and all but dragged the nearly-catatonic Zheng YaoWen away, making his way to the last row of seats.

When they got close enough, there was a blur of motion as Lin He struck Zheng YaoWen on the back of his neck. The delinquent, whose eyes were wild with terror and looked fit to scream, promptly fainted.

"Fastest way to keep him calm," said Lin He, smiling at Xu Feng. "I'm Lin He, by the way. If you don't mind, could you tell me what you saw at the second row behind the driver?"

"...I saw some shit that'd give you nightmares for real."

After carefully parking his friend in a seat in the second-last row, Xu Feng joined the Players in the last row. Gripping his left hand to stop the tremors, he drew a deep breath to calm his nerves before beginning to speak in a low voice.

"Y'all saw what happened to the driver. Well, the 'sleeping old woman' in the second row isn't even..."

"'You don't fool me, wretched demon'?"* Bai Zhi interrupted with a raised eyebrow.

Xu Feng blinked in surprise, then shook his head. "Nah fam, it's worse. That old woman's body was melting… like a candle!"

"That's when you're supposed to go 'Glory of the Dragon!'**... Anyway, so what? Spontaneous combustion is a thing, so why not spontaneous melting?"

Bai Zhi smirked. "The important thing, is the sack—what did she look like from the front? Was she hot? How tall? How much would you estimate she weighs? How old does she look?"

"The... sack...?"

Bai Zhi's barrage of left-field questions had caught Xu Feng off guard and derailed his original train of thought.

Giving Bai Zhi a withering look, Lin He tried to change the subject. "How are the mother and daughter? Neither of them seemed to react to all this weirdness going on, there's gotta be something fishy about that."

"They—"

"They're looking at us, guys... Hello!" Bai Zhi interrupted before Xu Feng could answer. He raised an arm and waved enthusiastically.

After a moment of stunned silence, Lin He and Xu Feng looked up, only to find that the young mother-daughter pair seemed to be slumped in their seats with their heads resting on top of the seat backs, staring blankly in their direction.

Just then, they seemed to hit a bump in the road, which sent a violent tremor through the bus. Because of this sudden vibration, the heads of both the mother and daughter slid right off their shoulders—as if they had only been precariously balanced on their necks to begin with—and landed on the floor. The mother's head rolled off to some unseen corner, but the little girl's head tumbled directly toward Bai Zhi, stopping just at his feet.

Despite being disconnected from the rest of her, the head seemed to be trying to say something. "Mister... Get… ou..."

The loud sound of gunshots reverberated around the bus, cutting the girl short. In Lin He's hands was a gleaming, silver-barreled pistol, still smoking.

One shot had blasted the little girl's head to oblivion while the rest had been aimed at the front of the bus, where, amidst the chaos, the burlap sack had gotten out of its seat.

From the bottom of the bulging burlap sack extended two shapely human legs in white stockings. The sight was jarring, and the only way to describe it was as if someone had stuffed a young lady into a burlap sack, but only up to her thighs.

The bulging burlap sack wriggled at unexpected intervals, and things fell out of it from some mysterious space between the sack and the legs—bloody, gory lumps that looked like kidneys, intestines, and other organs. Next to the walking burlap sack lay the dismembered, headless bodies of the young mother and her daughter.

The bullets Lin He had fired at the sack had hit it squarely, but instead of doing any damage, seemed only to attract its attention. Somehow, the burlap sack shoved the bodies roughly into itself as it took large strides toward him.

"The bus's stopped! It's now or never, man!" Lin He yelled at Bai Zhi as he realized that he had barely scratched the horror, despite unloading the whole clip at it.

The burlap sack quickly made it halfway across the length of the bus.

"Got it!"

Under the other Player's expectant gaze, Bai Zhi nodded gravely and brought out his only weapon—Bane, the blade that looked like a paring knife—and brandished it bravely.

"Come any closer and I'll carve your pumpkin, man!"

Lin He frowned as he got the distinct feeling... that Bai Zhi was doing an impression of him.

* Bai Zhi is quoting a scene from the 1993 movie 青蛇 (lit. Green Snake), based on the Legend of the White Snake.

** Also a quote from Green Snake, one that became a meme at one point. Example