Chapter 35: Fear Spirit

The Mad Amusement Park was the very next stop.

In the Cameraman's memory, he usually crossed the highway to wait at the opposite platform. That was the return stop for the Route 15 Bus heading to Sleepland.

As Yan Jing and Mantou waited, the bloody rain on the platform fell harder. The damp, foul stench of blood permeated the air.

Suddenly, a shadow flickered past them. Yan Jing's camera lens caught it instantly, and he pulled Mantou back a step on pure reflex.

That quick movement saved them from being struck.

When the blur settled, a shriveled human hand hung right in front of them, its skin dark and its nails rough.

It dangled from the platform's awning, swaying in the wind and the bloody rain.

Looking up, they could vaguely see a grotesque corpse hidden atop the translucent blue awning.

Yan Jing's expression remained calm.

He had fully prepared himself mentally before coming, so these supernatural phenomena were still within his acceptable range.

He raised a hand, feeling an invisible power spreading through the surrounding air and slowly converging into his body.

The power eventually took shape, forming a dark seed wreathed in sharp thorns inside him.

This was...

Yan Jing's heart stirred.

Though he had discovered yesterday that his Day Selection Ritual abilities would follow him into the Inner World, he never expected Fear Power to be this abundant within the Domain of Fear.

Because of his Day Selection Ritual ability, the Cameraman's body was currently absorbing the dense Fear Power hovering above the station, slowly bridging the gap from zero to one.

Soon, all three seeds and fruits were fully replenished.

"Yan... Jing... don't be afraid... it's all... fake..."

Beside him, Mantou pressed against Yan Jing's arm, comforting him in a small voice.

She seemed extremely worried that Yan Jing would be scared. As she comforted him, she gently patted his arm with a trembling hand.

Yan Jing smiled and nodded.

"Thank you. It's a good thing you're here, Mantou."

[Favorability +1]

The Favorability floating above Mantou's head had already reached 75. Yan Jing hadn't intentionally tried to max it out quickly. According to his experience with dating sims, being too deliberate could backfire; taking it step by step like this was fine.

The two waited for about ten more minutes.

Finally, a bus wobbled out from the shadows on the left and drove toward the platform.

The bus looked quite old. The soda advertisement stickers on its sides had yellowed and peeled, flapping in the wind. With every few meters it traveled, a rattling clatter echoed from the undercarriage, followed by a violent shudder through the entire grayish-white chassis. It looked like it could fall apart at any moment.

Clang! Crash!

The doors opened. The worn-out pneumatics no longer provided any cushioning, resulting in two loud bangs that sounded like someone violently slamming a door.

Behind the doors lay a dim, lightless interior. The curtains by the windows were drawn tight, dropping visibility to a bare minimum.

A freezing wind swept out from the doorway, hitting them right in the face.

A female conductor sat in the corner, her face hidden by long hair. She spoke to the two standing in the bloody rain:

"Getting on?"

"Yes."

Yan Jing didn't hesitate. He led Mantou onto the bus and placed two prepared 20-denomination Eerie Coins into the slot of the fare box.

Instantly, a long, blood-red tongue whipped out from the box. It curled around Yan Jing's hand, licking it once before swallowing the Eerie Coins in a single gulp.

"Find a seat."

The female conductor's voice was very soft. She pulled a comb from her pocket and began brushing the long hair draped over her face.

Yan Jing glanced at the floor. Dense tangles of hair carpeted the entire bus—all belonging to the female conductor.

Now, as she combed, the hair on the floor began to writhe and surge like a swarming mass of insects.

These were all details recorded in the Cameraman's memory. Carefully steering clear of the hair, he led Mantou over to find a seat.

There were quite a few human players inside the bus, all sitting with their eyes closed.

Most of them wore black baseball caps, appearing to be a single group.

Yan Jing and Mantou took the outer two seats in a row of three. The innermost window seat was occupied by a female player with a ponytail, who also wore a black baseball cap.

Her eyes were shut tight, and her pale lips trembled slightly.

From the looks of it, she had been on the bus for quite a while.

Rumble, rumble—

The dilapidated bus shuddered as it began to move forward.

Yan Jing watched Mantou close her eyes first before preparing to shut his own.

But right in that split second before his eyes closed...

By the dim light, he saw a blurry silhouette suddenly stand up from the very front row of seats.

In the gloom, the figure held a striking, bloodstained small knife. Droplets of blood trickled down from its tip.

It turned its head. A smile stretched across its pitch-black, blurry face, exposing stark white teeth. Looking just like a scrap of paper that had been scribbled black, it walked toward him.

It seemed poised to attack them.

The murky light cast upon it made it look incredibly bizarre and dangerous within the quiet bus.

Yan Jing, however, still chose to close his eyes, plunging his vision into darkness.

But inside his palm, the phantom projection of a seed quietly materialized.

Then, he flipped through the memories in his mind and examined that figure once more.

With a high-definition mental image for comparison, Yan Jing quickly confirmed the entity's identity.

No visible hair, a blurry pitch-black face, devoid of a nose or ears—only pure white eyes and a crescent-moon mouth could be seen.

This was the classic appearance of a Fear Spirit, exactly as described in the documents provided by Shen Youran.

A Fear Spirit couldn't actively attack someone whose mind remained stable. But this was the Inner World; he couldn't rule out the possibility that some Inner World Residents were just naturally born looking like this.

Therefore, Yan Jing didn't lower his guard. Instead, he listened carefully.

Tap— Tap—

Faint footsteps were approaching.

Mantou's hand trembled lightly in his grasp. It seemed she had also sensed the figure's approach. Slowly, her small hands wrapped around Yan Jing's, gripping it tightly.

Tap— Tap—

The footsteps grew louder. They seemed to be getting closer.

This was the terror of the Terror Bus. With vision restricted, the mind would constantly conjure up horrifying images:

Inside a pitch-black carriage, a killer walking toward you, smiling, slowly raising a knife.

The timing of the figure's rise aligned perfectly with the exact moment Yan Jing closed his eyes. It was deliberately designed to leave this gap of vulnerability in Yan Jing's mind.

Fear was a human instinct.

If Yan Jing opened his eyes out of fear right now, perhaps that Fear Spirit really would manifest right in front of him.

Smiling at him, face-to-face at point-blank range.

Yan Jing waited quietly until the footsteps were less than a meter away.

He was certain now that the silhouette was a Fear Spirit.

With footsteps that loud, if it were an Inner World Resident, it would have been thrown off the bus ages ago.

So he simply stopped paying attention to the so-called footsteps. Gripping Mantou's hand tightly, he began browsing through the photo album in the Cameraman's memory.

During this time, he felt heavy breathing brush against his face.

Tentacle-like objects crawled onto his hands.

And warm liquid drenched the right side of his body.

But he ignored all of it.

After some time passed like this, the footsteps vanished without him noticing.

Only when he felt the bus gradually slow down and come to a halt, accompanied by the hiss of releasing air pressure, did Yan Jing finally open his eyes.

He immediately looked to his left at Mantou, finding her staring back at him with wide eyes.

Seeing that the other was fine, both broke into a smile.

Yan Jing stood up. Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced to the right at the female player with the long ponytail.

At some unknown point, only half of that player's body was left in the seat.

Her upper half had slumped into the narrow gap between the seats. A clean cut encircled her waist, organs spilling across the floor, her eyes locked in an expression of despair and absolute terror.

Yan Jing reached over to touch his right arm, which had been soaked by the "warm liquid." A dark red smeared across his palm, catching his eye.

His face composed, he walked with Mantou toward the open doors.

Behind them, all the players in black baseball caps stood up in unison to disembark. It seemed this stop was also their destination for their current mission.

The conductor was still slowly brushing her hair.

"We welcome you to ride the Terror Bus again."

She spoke softly. But the very moment Yan Jing looked up, he saw the Fear Spirit again.

It stood silently in the shadows at the back of the bus, holding the blood-dripping knife and wearing that same smile, staring straight at him.

The dim light illuminated its stiff, crescent-like smile. It was as if it had been standing in the back row like this the entire ride, just watching the two of them.

Yan Jing stepped off the bus.

This was the Fear Spirit's final tactic. If he panicked now, the creature would instantly launch an attack.

Standing on the rundown platform, Mantou finally spoke up.

"Yan... Jing... are you... okay?"

She looked at Yan Jing with concern, only breaking into a bright smile after he smiled back and assured her he was fine.

The bus slowly drove away. Yan Jing watched the curtain-covered windows. He was just about to turn around when he suddenly noticed a corner of the curtain on the very last window had been pulled back.

The Fear Spirit's face appeared in the glass once more.

Smiling, it gave Yan Jing the middle finger.

Then the curtain fell shut, and the bus gradually disappeared into the shadows.

Mantou hadn't seen this happen. The corners of Yan Jing's mouth lifted, and he let out a soft chuckle.

This Fear Spirit was quite interesting.

Ordinary Fear Spirits wouldn't show malice toward a specific target, but this one clearly held a deep-seated hostility toward the Cameraman.

This was something completely unprecedented in the Cameraman's memory.

This kind of malice was very similar to a certain malice Yan Jing had encountered before.

Just like that Disguiser.

There might still be a lot of secrets to unearth on this bus.

BOOM!!!

A massive explosion of noise erupted right next to Yan Jing's ear, yanking his attention away.

He turned his head and looked at the Amusement Park behind him.

Roller coasters, giant pendulums, drop towers...

Assorted massive amusement rides peeked through the distant sky. Just as Old Liu had described, thunderous cheers echoed out from within, drowning out the entire sky.

It sounded as though numerous towering giants were playing and cheering inside. Every shout they let out was enough to make a person's scalp tingle with dread.

"Yan... Jing... here..."

Mantou offered him two white lumps of dough. They were pinched from actual mantou buns, meant to be used as earplugs.

Having lived here for a long time, she had made preparations in advance.

But Yan Jing shook his head. Pulling a pair of earmuffs from his pocket, he placed them over Mantou's ears.

After learning about the Mad Amusement Park yesterday, he had asked Old Liu to help prepare two pairs of earmuffs.

Supposedly, Chen Nian had even helped modify them, adding extensive noise-canceling enhancements.

Once the earmuffs were on, the noise ringing in their ears dropped noticeably.

If their eardrums had felt a sharp stabbing pain earlier, now it was just a mild grogginess in the head. Staying inside for half the day shouldn't be a problem.

Yan Jing looked down at Mantou, who was beaming with joy after receiving the earmuffs.

It was hard to imagine that this sickly girl had lived in a place like this for several years, relying on nothing but two lumps of steamed bun jammed into her ears.

"Mantou, are those black shadows in the Amusement Park giants?"

He shouted, his voice nearly drowned out by the roaring din.

"Yes... yes... very big... very big..."

Mantou nodded vigorously. Then she offered Yan Jing a silly smile and shouted at the top of her lungs:

"But... they won't... won't do anything... Yan... Jing... don't be afraid... I... I'll protect you...!"

Hearing Mantou's words, Yan Jing lowered his gaze. A deep profoundness hid within his calm eyes.

Was she truly not afraid?

'From their descriptions, I can deduce that the key to this Dungeon is the player's inner fear. The more terrified a player is, the more gigantic the Fear Spirits and amusement rides will appear.'

How could a girl living all alone by scavenging for trash in an Amusement Park towering with giants not be afraid?

He remembered the wriggling sensation of tentacles he had felt against his arm when his eyes were closed earlier. That was the precursor to Mantou losing emotional control.

This girl, who kept constantly trying to comfort him—setting aside that power inside her body which even she couldn't explain, setting aside all those days and nights she had survived all alone—was, in the end, still just a little girl who could feel fear and sadness.

Thinking of this, he reached out, tightly grasped Mantou's small hand, and smiled.

"Alright. Then you'll have to protect me well later, Mantou!"