When the bus drove past, Gao Ming saw a lot of files scattered around the bike. They appeared to be the proposal for the game Gao Ming had given Xuan Wen.
“The big dog and the rest can’t remember Xuan Wen. Is it because she has entered the tunnel and left Han Hai?”
With each rebirth, Gao Ming would sit behind Xuan Wen. They relied on that old bike to get to Han Hai. Gao Ming, back then, was pitiable and cowardly. Xuan Wen picked him up again and again. She practically strapped him to her back every time.
Memory and reality collided. Gao Ming was flustered for a moment. He didn’t slow down. When he recovered, the bus was already inside the tunnel!
Gao Ming returned to this place for the first time while alive and well. He was still on a Class 13 Bus. However, this time, he was holding the steering wheel. He would decide the destination. The darkness swallowed everything. The temperature started to drop. Frost appeared on the bus window. The students sat around the fire. The flame gave them hope. With cold breath on his lips, Gao Ming looked down the endless tunnel. Only he could understand his feelings at that moment.
“The familiar chill and bone-tingling fear. They have returned to curl around my heart.” During his last rebirth, after his match with Situ An at Si Sui Apartments, he only had three days left to live. When the investigation centre asked him what his greatest wish was, he said he wanted to come back to this tunnel.
Last time, he was accompanied by the investigators. This time, it was the students.
A person’s life is made up of endless coincidences. They were linked with each other. They were irrelevant but also linked, like stars in the night sky. Beads of water dripped down the window. The sound of the ticking water echoed in Gao Ming’s brain. This also reminded him of the footsteps of time.
“It’s almost there. I’m about to see my killer in the tunnel soon!”
The bus slowed down. Gao Ming’s eyes were filled with the past and the future as he watched the mist. The bus that ferried him many times entered the tunnel to welcome death. This time, he drove the bus against the grain of fate.
“The temperature is still falling. The flame is about to go out.” Teacher Lee and the students huddled around the fire. They used their bodies to block the wind from blowing out the fire. However, Gao Ming didn’t seem to care.
The bus moved slower and slower. Gao Ming seemed to be waiting for something. “I can hear it now.” He reached his hand out the window. At a certain moment, he slowly stepped on the brake. Gao Ming turned to study the car window. The students noticed the strange phenomenon as well.
“Look! The water droplets on the windows are flowing upwards!”
Gao Ming opened his palm with the back of his hand facing down. He could feel the water droplets hit the back of his hand. The water didn’t fall from the ceiling but rose from the ground. Gao Ming extended his hand towards the wall. He could sense the touch of flesh. He felt out the features of human faces.
The headlights couldn’t penetrate the darkness. Gao Ming picked up the basin and placed the burning soul fire before the windshield.
The fire chased the darkness away. Teacher Lee collapsed to the ground. The students were rendered speechless from fear. They saw the corpses implanted into the wall. They were all of Gao Mings!
The blood froze on the cold walls. Each dead Gao Ming was different. The students were frozen solid under the collective gazes of the dead Gao Mings. Gao Ming didn’t react. His hand even touched the hands of the dead bodies. With the touch, memories flashed in his mind.
“Doctor, the games I made seem to have come true.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? People face so much daily pressure. Your games can help them.”
“But I’m a horror game designer. I’ve constructed 126 murder cases and created more than ten psycho-killers…. Now, they are all real!”
“Then, do you think I look familiar?”
Eight arms tore open the doctor’s body. The blood dyed the patient’s list red. Doctor Lu, who once harmed Gao Ming, had become a chain in his torture room. The past had brought Gao Ming endless painful memories. He’d use despair to repay the despair.
“He should be here soon.” As the thought entered Gao Ming’s mind, footsteps came from the other end of the tunnel. The killer who murdered him repeatedly had arrived!
Gao Ming didn’t look around nervously like before because he knew that whenever he turned around, the footsteps would change direction. The footsteps would only appear behind him.
“My killer, this time, I should be able to see your face, right?”
Gao Ming took out the fragment of a wooden figurine from his pocket. He tossed it into the fire. Then, he tossed his jacket into it as well.
A strange red colour appeared in the flames. The ghosts and Gods carved on the altar started to cry blood.
The next moment, the bus that followed behind Class 13’s bus exploded with amazing resentment. The passengers slowly raised their heads. They looked at the flame inside the bus in front of theirs. This was the signal they had decided with Gao Ming beforehand.
Their bodies started to mutate. They removed their disguises. The resentment affected each other. The door opened. A big ghost carrying a divine plaque walked out. The car window beside him moved. Cai Meimei poked her head out. Gao Ming’s old classmate was covered in scapegoats from Han De Private School. She had already reached the level of a big ghost.
The ground creaked, and the heads rolled. The presence of the anomaly pierced into the tunnel!
To ensure success, Gao Ming used the worst future he had seen to enter the most dangerous anomalies in Han Hai beforehand. He used various methods like trade, persuasion or contract to bring the ghosts to the tunnel with him.
“After all, I am not the only one who wants to witness the truth.”