"At this hour of night, if I'm going out alone, I'm definitely going to bring something along for self-defense. What if I run into danger?" Chen Ge offered his reasoning.
"That makes sense." The burn-unit doctor hesitated for a moment before asking, "You mentioned that the members of that Ghost Story Association — are they all like you?"
"I'm probably the more level-headed one compared to them."
"You're considered one of the level-headed ones?" The doctor coughed several times. His body was already very weak.
"Mm. When you have time, give me a call. We can have a proper chat then." Chen Ge felt he and this burn-unit doctor got along quite well, and from the look of it, the doctor seemed equally interested in him.
The Route 104 bus cut through the downpour and soon arrived at the next stop. Chen Ge stood up and peered outside, but he didn't see the Red Raincoat.
"Where did she go? Did she run into trouble? There was a child crying at the last stop — I've heard that voice before at the eastern suburb water plant. Could it be that shadow again?"
The last time the shadow had appeared, both Men Nan and Xu Yin had shown up to stop Chen Ge, which showed that ordinary Red-coated ghosts were no match for that thing.
"I hope that lady hasn't gotten herself into trouble." After worrying about the Red Raincoat, Chen Ge turned his thoughts to himself. "The Route 104 ghost bus connects the eastern and western suburbs, gathering all those desperate people in the city together. The Red Raincoat caused a stir just by breaking the rules. If I were to drive the ghost bus away outright, would the mastermind behind the eastern suburb directly reveal itself?"
After thinking it over, Chen Ge felt the likelihood was low. "The mastermind's true body might be occupied with something critically important, which is why it uses the shadow to set things in motion. But there's another possibility — the shadow itself is the mastermind. It has no true body, or its body is severely damaged. Everything it's doing now is to restore that body."
Chen Ge wasn't about to gamble recklessly. He decided to drive the ghost bus away first and see how the other side reacted.
"Even if it's something above Red-coat level, it probably wouldn't dare casually come to the western suburb to find me. If it comes to that, I'll just hole up in the horror house and wait for Zhang Ya's hand to heal before figuring out another way."
Chen Ge had always been an optimistic person, and only such a temperament could keep him grounded in such a convoluted environment.
The bus passed several more stops before finally arriving at the last stop on the route map — Liwan Town.
The bus stop sat at a road junction on the western edge of the small town, extremely bare-bones.
After the vehicle came to a halt, Chen Ge was surprised to find that the Red Raincoat had appeared once more, though she looked rather disheveled, as though she had just been through a fierce battle.
The Route 104 ghost bus lingered at this final stop for three minutes, but not a single passenger on board got off.
Three minutes later, the last run of the night drove into Liwan Town under the Red Raincoat's gaze.
The scene before him was identical to what Chen Ge had seen in the game. Xiao Bu had also boarded the last run after breaking free of the Red Raincoat's grasp, and then entered Liwan Town.
The hazy buildings gradually came into focus as the bus traveled down an utterly deserted road. The entire town seemed completely uninhabited — not a single light in sight, not a sound to be heard.
"The stop's already passed. Where exactly are you planning to drive?" Chen Ge walked over to the driver with his backpack in hand.
The mere sound of Chen Ge's voice was enough to make the driver's blood run cold. "The terminus is inside the town. We haven't reached it yet."
All he wanted was to get the bus to the stop as quickly as possible and send Chen Ge on his way.