"Hello, this is Sunshine Taxi. Sunshine Taxi, sincerely at your service. Ensuring you travel safely and return home with peace of mind. Sunshine Taxi, everyone's top choice..."
The voice belonged to a man in his thirties or forties.
The fellow seemed to be trying to imitate the tone of a news anchor, but he failed, and it sounded rather unnatural.
"Alright, alright," Gu Mian interrupted him impatiently. "I need a ride."
Just as he finished speaking, another man's voice came from the other end of the line.
"Is there another passenger?"
This sounded like the voice of someone else already in the car, younger than the driver, probably in his early twenties.
The driver's voice came through, apparently answering the other man's question, "Yes, not far from here. We can pick him up along the way..."
"Okay, okay, go get him, go get him," the young voice urged, a bit eagerly.
Gu Mian asked, "You have someone else in your cab?"
The driver quickly replied, "No problem. It's another passenger. Don't worry, it isn't crowded at all."
Was the issue really about it being crowded? Gu Mian glanced at the time on his phone.
Very few people would be hailing a taxi at this hour, so the voice he'd just heard likely belonged to another player.
It wasn't Fatty's voice, nor was it Chu Changge's. It was an unfamiliar male voice, probably one of the players other than their group of three.
There were six players in this instance.
This meant that besides their trio, there were three others. The young man from a moment ago was likely one of those players.
Gu Mian listened to the wind whistling outside. There's no rule against two players sharing a vehicle... so this is feasible.
It might even be possible for all six players to ride in the same car. But first, all six of them would need to gather and then figure out how to hail a taxi.
Looking at the current situation, the chances of all six players meeting up were extremely low. Yecheng City wasn't small; who knew where the others had been scattered?
As Gu Mian was pondering this, a light suddenly illuminated the street not far away.
He'd seen this kind of light before; it was from a car's headlights.
Gu Mian looked up. From where he stood, he could clearly see the driver in the driver's seat.
He had the square face of a middle-aged man, probably in his early forties, with slightly dark skin and a touch of highland ruddiness on his cheeks.
Wrinkles, neither too deep nor too shallow, were evenly distributed across his face, making him look old and haggard.
The car pulled to a smooth stop in front of Gu Mian. The driver rolled down the window, revealing the upper half of his face, and looked at Gu Mian, who was emerging from the phone booth. "Hello. You called for the cab, right?"
Gu Mian looked at the driver and nodded. "Yes." Chapters fırst released on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝕟𝕖𝕥
Just then, the rear window suddenly rolled down, and a young man's face appeared in Gu Mian's line of sight.
Gu Mian glanced at him and found he could open this person's player information panel.
The young man's nickname was "Zhuifeng Shaonian"; he was undoubtedly a player.
Zhuifeng was also examining Gu Mian's nickname. He must have seen the bright green "Doctor" lettering displayed.
After observing Gu Mian's nickname, he glanced at the driver in front, then back at Gu Mian standing by the roadside. Finally, he reached out, opened the back door, and said, "Quick, get in."
Gu Mian responded to Zhuifeng Shaonian's beckoning and plopped down into the seat.
After Gu Mian closed the door, the driver stepped on the gas and pulled away. "By the way, where are you heading?" he asked.
The question was clearly for Gu Mian.
Gu Mian looked down at the map in his hand. "Rong'an Residential Area."
"Alright, it's on the way."
The car began to accelerate down the road.
Zhuifeng Shaonian, sitting beside Gu Mian, was fidgeting slightly. He seemed to have a lot to say, but every time he was about to speak, he swallowed his words.
"What's the matter?" Gu Mian turned his head slightly to look at this player he was meeting for the first time.
Zhuifeng finally steadied himself and then spoke hesitantly, "You like green...?"
Gu Mian understood. This guy obviously wants to ask why my nickname is green, he thought. But with the driver up front—who knows if he's human or a ghost—he had to be indirect.
"I quite like the color green," Gu Mian said, patting the chainsaw bag beside him. "I especially like giving green things to other people."
Caught off guard, Zhuifeng choked and let out a few coughs to hide his embarrassment. He seemed genuinely afraid Gu Mian might actually pull out something green for him to wear.
He quickly stopped dwelling on why Gu Mian's nickname was green. Zhuifeng leaned a little closer to Gu Mian and whispered, "Your task is to go home too, right? Why are you only getting a cab now?"
Gu Mian turned to look at him. Zhuifeng Shaonian also held a map, its back identical to an advertisement flyer.
"I didn't just get in this cab. In fact, I just got out of another one a few minutes ago," Gu Mian said, pausing briefly. "And I didn't pay."
Zhuifeng Shaonian frowned. "Not paying... Well, never mind that. Let's be serious. You got out of the last cab because you realized something was wrong with it, right?"
As he spoke, he glanced up at the driver. Seeing that the driver still appeared normal, he breathed a sigh of relief.
Gu Mian remained silent. His attention, however, had already been captured by the map in Zhuifeng Shaonian's hand.
Zhuifeng seemed unaware of what Gu Mian was looking at and continued, "Actually, I've already taken one taxi. The driver was a big, rough-looking young guy. At first, I thought he was a ghost, but he seemed no different from a normal person, so I let my guard down. But then I realized he was just pretending!
"He was actually a dead man! Just disguised as someone alive. His disguise was very good, but I still noticed subtle differences. He thought he'd fooled me, and I didn't dare expose him. I just pretended I hadn't noticed anything and eventually made an excuse to get out..."
As he said this, Zhuifeng Shaonian took a deep breath, seemingly relaxing a bit.
"Then I called this cab. Not long after I got in, the driver got your call. To be honest, I was pretty scared riding alone, but now that you're here, I feel a bit safer."
It was still pitch-dark outside. Zhuifeng glanced out the window and shivered, finding the view creepy. He then turned his gaze back to Gu Mian. "What about you? Why did you get out of the last cab?"
Gu Mian kept staring at the map in Zhuifeng's hand. Hearing the question, he replied absently, "I didn't have any money, so the driver kicked me out."
"Huh?" Zhuifeng made a strange noise.