Sensing his teammates’ protectiveness over him, Shen Nianzu suddenly felt like there was no use talking to them at this point, so he simply closed his eyes and leaned back against Jin Jiuchi’s chest, treating the man like a makeshift cushion. Out of sight, out of mind.
Over the next ten minutes, a couple more players entered the bus, mostly in pairs, with a few solo players and one complete team of four, filling the bus to the brim. None of them were familiar faces though, much to Gu Luoxin’s disappointnt.
At first glance, it was difficult to discern the players’ rank, but upon closer inspection, it could be seen that those with lower ranks tended to go around the bus, offering their greetings to others regardless of the response they received. anwhile, higher-ranking players, such as the SJG Team, preferred to keep to themselves since they wouldn’t want to draw unwarranted attention to themselves.
It was simply the natural order of things. The weak sought strength in numbers, while the strong found it cumberso to form a group.
Shortly after, the door opened once more, and a booming laughter filled the air, "Ohohoho!"
"T–That iconic laughter..." Jin Jiuchi snapped his eyes up in shock. "Santa Claus?!"
As the towering figure ascended the steps, it seed like the whole bus almost tilted due to his weight. The bus officer struggled to squeeze himself through the door due to his round and big belly, and once he did, he imdiately took up the entire space at the front. He was tall enough that his head brushed against the ceiling, looking exactly like the figure depicted on television – dressed from head to toe in red, with a long beard obscuring the lower half of his face, and a sack slung over his shoulder...
It was none other than Santa Claus, in the flesh!
"rry Christmas, everyone!" He greeted in a loud and energetic voice. "Thank you so much for boarding the bus on ti! As for those who are late..." he cast a smiling glance at the player right behind him, whose face imdiately drained of color. The player attempted to squeeze past, but the bus officer’s imposing fra was akin to an immovable door, blocking his entry.
"P–Please..." the player begged. "I’m not late! There is... there is still half a minute left!"
"Bad children will be punished!" The bus officer’s eyes bulged out, and as though struck by an invisible force, the player’s body flew out of the door, which promptly slamd shut in an instant!
As the atmosphere quieted down, he shifted his attention forward, his eyes curving into crescents. "We will now begin our journey!"
"W–What happened to that player earlier...?" soone mustered their courage to inquire.
But the bus officer simply responded with the sa sentence, his smiling expression unchanged, "Bad children will be punished!"
"Does it an good children will be rewarded?" Jin Jiuchi’s loud voice echoed through the bus, startling Shen Nianzu who was leaning on him. "Do you have a reward for ? I’ve been good— ouch! Nian’er, it hurts!" he instinctively recoiled at the sudden pinch on his arm.
"Shut up!" Shen Nianzu glared at him, huffing and puffing.
"That’s an excellent question!" The bus officer bead. "You’re absolutely correct, good children will indeed be rewarded." With a heave-ho, he brought his sack before him and rummaged through it before tossing sothing toward Jin Jiuchi.
"Here you go!"
Jin Jiuchi raised a hand and easily caught the item. It was a beautifully wrapped gift box tied with red ribbon.
"Nian’er, see?" He eagerly showed it off to Shen Nianzu like a puppy presenting its toy to the owner, rendering the silver-haired man utterly speechless. Why was it so easy for Jin Jiuchi to receive sothing from the bus officer? Weren’t they supposed to be in a love-hate relationship?? Hold on, they still had no idea what was inside the gift box. What if it was a trap?
Swallowing nervously, Shen Nianzu suggested, "Open it?"
But the bus officer disagreed. "Uh-huh," he shook his fleshy index finger. "You must not open your gift until midnight. Rember, bad children will be punished!"
After being stunned for a while, Gu Luoxin quickly reacted and shot out a hand, "! I... I am a good child too!"
And as soon as he did, other players spoke up as well,
"Yes, yes, too!"
"Count in!"
With an exuberant ’hohoho’, the bus officer continued to toss the gift boxes to the players inside the bus, but then problem arose when two last people did not receive their gifts.
"Where’s mine?!" They demanded.
"Sorry," the bus officer apologized, shaking his now empty sack. "I’ve run out of gifts. But worry not, good children will surely be rewarded!"
Amidst the bustling chatter inside the bus, Shen Nianzu’s keen eyes noted the two people who didn’t receive their gifts. One of them appeared to be a man in his thirties with rectangular glasses perched on top of his nose, while the other was a woman in his mid-twenties with long brown hair. The two of them had co from different teams – the man was a solo player, while the woman was grouped with another male player.
Shen Nianzu made a ntal note out of habit in case the gift would co into play in the future.
Speaking of which, what could be inside those mysterious boxes?
He raised his head to look at Jin Jiuchi, who was shaking the gift box beside his ear. "What do you think?" he asked.
Jin Jiuchi shook his head, intrigued. "I can’t tell what’s inside. More like... it’s empty?" He passed the box to Shen Nianzu. It was remarkably light, and as Jin Jiuchi had attested, did not seem to contain anything at all.
"What should we do with these, Xiao Shen?" Gu Luoxin asked.
"Let’s just keep it in our prop storage for now," Shen Nianzu suggested. "We will open it when midnight cos.
In the next mont, the running bus plunged into darkness as it entered the tunnel, and the scene around them changed in a blink of an eye. Stretching out before them was a vast expanse of green fields, extending as far as the eye could see, with several helicopters stationed nearby. It was clearly morning when they departed, but now the sky shimred with hues of golden, pink, and blue of dusk.
"Woah!" The players couldn’t help but exclaim in awe.
"Damn!" Gu Luoxin sucked in a nervous breath. "We’re really going to parachute down to the forest?!"
"We have reached the transit point!" The bus officer announced cheerfully as the door hissed open. "Please be careful with your steps and stand by outside the bus!"
After saying that, he turned and got down first, followed by the players who slowly filed out of the vehicle. Gu Luoxin’s gaze lingered on the helicopters, as it would be his first ti riding on it, and thus it took him a while to realize that there were other buses parked nearby, each a few ters apart.
As the players disembarked, the field was filled with hundreds of people, and the atmosphere turned lively as acquaintances recognized each other. Gu Luoxin couldn’t resist scanning the crowd, hoping to catch a glimpse of a certain erald-eyed man, but his attention was diverted by hushed murmurs that reached his ears.
"Oh my, is that her...?"
"Who?"
"The number one..."
"Number one player on the leaderboard? Are you talking about the Harbinger of Doom?!"
Number one player?! Shocked, Gu Luoxin whipped his head around toward the source of the commotion, which had co from the bus next to theirs. His gaze landed upon the center of attention – a little girl wearing a navy blue hanfu with bandages wrapped around her eyes. Standing amidst the crowd, she seed to exude a distinct and unique aura that set her apart from the rest of the players.
Gu Luoxin’s jaws dropped in surprise. That little girl was... the strongest player in the entire Nightmare Cycle?!
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