The doctor appeared remarkably calm in the face of the Smiling Man's interrogation, as though he had already anticipated the question.
He shuffled behind
"And how did your friend find out about this?" The Smiling Man's secret had been exposed. His smile bloomed like a flower, and both his tone and demeanor shifted completely from before—this was perhaps a creature who only ever felt genuine happiness when killing.
"My friend witnessed the whole thing from outside the bus. You only killed the passengers inside."
"Is that so? Where is this friend of yours now?"
"He's dead. After entering the Specter Building, he never came out."
When the doctor revealed that the informant was dead, the Smiling Man's expression shifted with a subtle change—it almost looked like regret.
"I can't believe I left a witness alive last time. No matter. This time, I'll be much more thorough." The Smiling Man made no further effort to conceal the killing intent radiating from him. He stepped into the aisle, and black lines surfaced beneath his skin, looking exactly like dark veins.
"Is this guy human or a ghost?" The middle-aged man knew the Smiling Man was not to be trifled with. He decisively abandoned his wife and child sitting behind the Smiling Man and fled alone to the front door of the bus, ready to bolt at any moment.
"Calm down, everyone. Even if he kills us, he won't make it out of here. Just like the doctor said, whoever is behind all of this has you as their real target—we've all been dragged into this because of you." Chen Ge stepped in front of the doctor protectively. "Right now, we're all in the same boat. Turning on each other only benefits the one pulling the strings. We'd be better off working together to face whatever unexpected situations come next."
His fingers tightened around his backpack, and sweat beaded in Chen Ge's palms.
When the doctor spoke, the Smiling Man hadn't bothered to hide his murderous intent at all. But when Chen Ge took over, he hesitated, even if only slightly.
"You make a fair point, but why should I do what you say?" The black lines beneath the Smiling Man's skin connected to one another, forming a mesh-like web, as though it were about to scoop his flesh and blood right out of his body.
For any normal person, this kind of pain would be completely unbearable. But the Smiling Man not only showed no sign of suffering—he smiled even more cheerfully.
He seemed to have long grown accustomed to pain. His hands reached toward the corners of his mouth, and the excruciating sensation of skin being peeled and tendons being pulled slowly stripped away his disguise.
His bones elongated, and his already unnatural neck grew even longer.
"You might think killing us would be easy, but don't forget—there's a pair of high heels on this bus, and their owner is currently following one of the passengers. I know you have the power to kill every last one of us, but what good would that do you?" At the mention of the red high heels, the Smiling Man reined himself in slightly, and his hands reaching for the corners of his mouth came to a stop.
"We're not enemies. You killed an entire busload of people before and made an enemy of whoever is orchestrating all this—but what does that have to do with us? That mastermind dragged us into this specifically to deal with you. In a sense, we should be allies, because we share a common enemy!" Chen Ge pointed toward the bloody mist outside. "The road we came in on is gone. We know nothing about this world, and no one has any idea what will happen next. In a situation like this, are you really confident you can escape on your own?"
Threads of blood in the fog clung to the bus windows, staining the battered exterior a deep crimson.
"There's no time to weigh your options. Cooperation benefits us both. If you refuse, then we'll have no choice but to fight you to the death—and even if we can't beat you, we can still bite off a few chunks of your flesh before we go." Through his backpack, Chen Ge felt the handle of the Skull Crushing Hammer. He had no idea whether the Smiling Man would agree to cooperate, and he needed to be prepared for both outcomes.
The bus fell silent. In an instant, no one spoke. The Smiling Man appeared to be weighing the pros and cons.