Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 942 Surge

It was a strange sound, a mixture of the gurgling of flowing water and a woman's shriek, so loud it made the eardrums of anyone who heard it ache.

Amidst the horrified gazes of the passengers, the woman in the floral dress's solid figure trembled violently, like a television screen with a poor signal, and the arm that had been grabbing Anjie abruptly withdrew.

Anjie retreated instantly, holding her blade horizontally in front of her, watching warily the woman in the floral dress who was unsteady on her feet but whose eyes were filled with even more resentment. Out of the corner of her eye, she quickly glanced at the back of the carriage.

Lin Hai remained seated, the playful smile on his lips deepening, the shimmering light in his small pupils swirling almost like a vortex.

The passenger in the hoodie next to him had completely raised his head.

Contrary to all expectations, the face beneath the hoodie passenger's hood was blank, except for a bizarre grin that stretched to its ears. Its mouth was wide open, and from the dark, gaping mouth, one could vaguely see a slippery, purplish-black thing slowly emerging.

Anjie's breath hitched for a moment.

What the hell is this thing?!

In the middle of the carriage, the tragedy had already occurred.

The middle-aged woman who was tackled by the old woman had her throat tightly gripped, her eyes bulging out, and her face quickly turning from blue to purple.

She kept reaching out, trying to grab anything around her in an attempt to save herself.

The marks on the old woman's neck writhed, as if countless tiny black tentacles were extending from them and suddenly piercing into the middle-aged woman's skin.

Soon, the middle-aged woman's struggles weakened rapidly, her body withering like a deflated sack, while the black mist around the old woman suddenly surged, making her age-spotted face seem "younger," and her turbid eyes gleamed with a mixture of greed and resentment.

"A ghost! A ghost! It's a ghost!! She's a ghost!"

The man in the suit closest to the two had completely lost his mind. He stopped trying to find the driver and instead crawled to the front of the carriage, frantically banging on the closed front door.

"Open the door! Let me out! Help! Help! Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!!"

In an instant, the middle-aged man's scream and breakdown acted as the strongest catalyst, causing the other passengers in the carriage, who had been only slightly twitching with their heads down, to suddenly increase their movements!

"Giggle..."

The sound of bones dislocating came from different seats.

He Lingling's eyelids twitched, and she forced herself to turn to another seat in the carriage, enduring the pain.

A student in a school uniform, carrying a backpack, slowly raised his head. Below the collar of his uniform, there was a large dark red dent on his neck, as if it had been flattened by a heavy object.

Beside him, an old man carrying a tattered cloth bag looked up, and half of his head slumped down unnaturally, with thick, dark liquid seeping from his ear canals and eye sockets, dripping down.

At that moment, fear spread like a plague among the surviving passengers (including the young couple).

The emotions spread by these explosions, in turn, nourish the eerie passengers who are "awakening," making the black mist around them thicker, their movements faster, and their malice more intense!

"The black mist... is flowing back..."

He Lingling forced her bloodshot eyes open, her huge black pupils fixed on the energy flow inside the carriage.

She saw that the thick black mist emanating from the "awakened" monsters did not completely dissipate. Instead, a considerable portion of it, as if drawn by an invisible vortex, surged wildly toward the back row where Lin Hai was.

No, to be more precise, it was the hooded passenger with the wide grin who was surging toward Lin Hai, and... Lin Hai himself.

Lin Hai's body trembled slightly, and the swirling fragments of light in his small pupils almost merged into one.

His face appeared unusually pale in the dim light, but a smile that seemed almost gleeful played at the corners of his mouth.

He is absorbing, or rather, guiding, this energy filled with negative emotions...

"He's exploiting these 'awakened' monsters and the passengers' fear... to feed that thing... or... to feed himself!"

He Lingling's voice was hoarse, filled with disbelief and shock.

"He's gone mad, he's really gone mad... Isn't he afraid of the backlash?!"

The price of being attacked backfired is far more terrifying than death—

"Try to avoid, try to prevent the strange passengers from encountering that couple..."

He Lingling took a deep breath, grabbed Xu Han's clothes, and tugged hard.

Yu Shijiu's gaze immediately fell on the couple who were huddled tightly in the corner of their seats.

Xiao Juan's eyes were completely covered by A Hao, and judging from his lip movements, A Hao was still whispering to soothe Xiao Juan's emotions.

"Brother Chen!"

Xu Han's face was pale, but his grip on Yu Shijiu's hand became even firmer. He quickly looked at Chen Yi.

"...He, He Lingling asked us to protect that couple."

"understood."

Chen Yi had already stood up, and his obese body now appeared unusually agile.

Instead of rushing towards Xiao Juan and A Hao, who were already terrified, amidst the increasingly "awakening" eerie passengers in the carriage, he kicked the empty seat next to him!

"Bang!"

The loud noise was particularly abrupt in the chaotic carriage, instantly attracting the attention of several strange passengers who had just looked up and whose eyes were still slightly blank.

Look over here!

Chen Yi let out a low growl and quickly pulled a handful of colorful lollipops from his system inventory with his right hand.

"Adorable lollipop: I love sweets, and lollipops are the sweetest! /ps: This has a slightly provocative and attention-grabbing effect."

Sure enough, the school uniform student with the sunken neck, the old man with half his head sunken, and the other two strange passengers with blurry figures who had just stood up all turned their empty or resentful gazes toward Chen Yi.

The pressure of being watched by four strange passengers suddenly increases!

Chen Yi's forehead instantly broke out in a sweat, but he gritted his teeth, firmly drawing the suffocating, chilling malice upon himself, and roared at the couple:

"You two lie down right now! Don't move! Try not to make any noise!"

As if waking from a dream, Ahao suddenly pushed Xiaojuan, who was limp and almost fainting, down into the gap between the seats. He curled up above her, covering her mouth tightly, trying to shrink himself and his girlfriend into a ball to minimize their presence.

Yu Shijiu also retreated to Chen Yi's vicinity at this time.

The frantic throbbing in his left arm had subsided somewhat thanks to Xu Han's treatment, but the cloth strip had been torn by the woman in the floral dress, revealing dark yellow, slightly wriggling hair underneath, which looked extremely eerie.

He glanced at the many strange creatures that Chen Yi had attracted, then at An Jie confronting the woman in the floral dress whose figure was elusive and sometimes solidified, and finally his gaze fell on the back of the carriage.

Lin Hai...

Yu Shijiu silently read out Lin Hai's name.

We must stop Lin Hai from absorbing the black mist, otherwise this vehicle might not make it to the final stop and will become a complete "ghost realm".

But how can we stop it?

Anjie is entangled, Chen Yi is drawing attention away from her, He Lingling is in very poor condition, and Xu Han needs to take care of He Lingling and prepare for her treatment...

Now, if he gets close to the forest, there's a high chance he'll be entangled by the black mist. In the past, he would have chosen to go straight in, but now...

Yu Shijiu's gaze swept across the carriage.

The man in the suit was still frantically banging and crying at the front door. The middle-aged woman, who had been drained dry by the old woman, was now a skin and bones, lying slumped on the seat, with only a pair of bulging, huge eyeballs hanging on her face, which was extremely creepy.

The old woman slowly turned around, her cloudy eyes searching for her next target.

Most of the other strange passengers who had awakened in their seats were drawn to Chen Yi, but two or three of them were slowly turning their gazes toward the other trembling living passengers.

The entire carriage was like a pot of oil being boiled over a wood fire, just one last piece of firewood away from boiling over completely.

Lin Hai was the one who kept adding fuel to the fire.

"..."

Yu Shijiu felt a bit of a headache and took a deep breath.

In an instant, the icy air, mixed with the smell of blood, mold, and decay, rushed into my lungs.

He slowly clenched his right hand, and the claws of the beast on his left arm pierced his palm again beneath the strip of cloth. The sharp pain kept his mind clear.

He needed an opportunity, a chance to get close to Lin Hai and interrupt his "absorbing the black mist," or rather, "integrating into the black mist."

Just then—

"Squeak—!"

The bus lurched violently again, and then its speed slowed down noticeably!

The driver's hoarse curses came through: "Damn it! This lousy road!"

Immediately afterwards, that familiar, emotionless announcement rang out again in the driver's suddenly changed tone:

"Next stop... Burial Mound".

"Passengers who are getting off the bus should prepare their luggage and belongings in advance."

Burial Slope.

The name made the chill in the carriage drop even further.

The moment the station announcement sounded, Yu Shijiu noticed that all the strange passengers who had "awakened," including the woman in the floral dress, the old woman, the student in the school uniform, and the bald old man, had their movements freeze for an extremely brief moment.

The black mist churning around them, and the streams of black mist flowing towards the forest, seemed to be disturbed by an invisible force, becoming disordered for a few seconds.

Even Lin Hai's small pupils contracted slightly, the smile on his lips faded a little, and he looked out the car window.

opportunity!

Yu Shijiu didn't hesitate at all. He didn't even greet An Jie and the others—after all, the opportunity wouldn't wait for him to say hello.

He suddenly lowered his body, like an arrow released from a bow, but instead of rushing towards Lin Hai, he rushed towards the middle of the carriage—towards the old woman who had just been drained of her middle-aged body and was now slightly dazed by the station announcement.

The boy's sudden movement was astonishingly fast; before anyone could react, he had already rushed to the side and behind the old woman.

The old woman, who was staring blankly out the window, seemed to sense the danger approaching from behind. She suddenly turned her head, the ligature marks on her neck throbbing violently, and she opened her mouth as if to hiss—

But Yu Shijiu's goal was not to attack her at all.

Just as the old woman turned her head and locked her venomous gaze on him, Yu Shijiu slammed his right foot into the metal leg of the chair next to him, using the force to spring to the side.

His left arm, wrapped in tattered strips of cloth and revealing hair, made a tentative grabbing motion towards the thick, impenetrable black mist surrounding the old woman.

It wasn't purely physical contact, but rather an instinctive pull and... provocation stemming from pollution.

"Hiss—Squeak—!"

Inside the left arm, the cold, sinister power seemed to sense the stimulation of the rich aura of its "kind" in the outside world, and emitted a rat-like hiss that only Yu Shijiu could "hear"—a hiss filled with greed and rage.

Beneath the strip of cloth, the yellow and black hairs stood on end, and the claws even popped out uncontrollably, piercing through the remaining fabric.

In an instant, a small wisp of the boiling black mist on the old woman's body was pulled away by the strange suction force emanating from Yu Shijiu's left arm, deviating from its original direction of flowing towards the forest and converging towards Yu Shijiu.

"--Well?!"

The old woman let out a strange sound of surprise and anger, clearly not expecting anyone to dare to approach her, or even forcibly pull at the "thing" on her body.

This sudden change also instantly disrupted the relatively stable rhythm of black mist absorption in the forest.

Beside Lin Hai, the hooded passenger with a wide grin suddenly stopped, as if interrupted from eating, and remained motionless.

Lin Hai, standing beside him, felt his blood surge instantly, the light in his small pupils flickered, and for the first time, a clear look of astonishment and... a hint of anger at being interrupted appeared on his face.

He suddenly turned his head, his gaze like a cold, poisonous needle, piercing Yu Shijiu, who was stirring up some of the black mist and whose face was slightly pale from the impact of pollution.

"you……"

Lin Hai's voice lost its previous gentleness and playfulness, becoming deep and irritable.

It's now!

Anjie had been distracted by the entire scene, and the moment Yu Shijiu made a move, she understood his intention.

Seeing that Lin Hai's attention was drawn to Yu Shijiu and his aura was clearly off, she did not hesitate to abandon her fight with the woman in the floral dress.

The woman in the floral dress seemed oblivious to her movements, and, somewhat dazed by the station announcements and the ripples of the black fog, turned her head to look out the train window.

Anjie ran very fast, her figure flashed, and her short blade, glowing with a bright blue light, stabbed straight at the hooded passenger next to Lin Hai.

Kill Lin Hai first?

No, it's more important to disrupt the key "nodes" first, not to mention...

Anjie looked at Lin Hai with icy eyes.

Lin Hai was sitting too far back; she couldn't possibly hurt him directly.

They had no choice but to attack the strange hooded passenger next to him.

Mulanzhi and the other three male players from "Echo" changed their expressions and stood up to try to stop them.

But Chen Yi, who was under pressure from multiple strange creatures, suddenly pulled out a few more lollipops upon seeing this.

At the same time, Chen Yi took out several lollipops and groaned, a trace of blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. He firmly locked the hatred of those strange passengers onto himself and deliberately guided their direction, blocking part of the path for Mulanzhi and the others to provide support.

"Go away!"

A male player with the "Echo" skill roared, his hand glowing with a blazing red light, as he tried to force his way through.

Outside the bus window, the dim, swaying streetlights drew closer, and the shadow of the dilapidated "Buried Bones Slope" bus stop was already visible as the bus pulled into the station.

Inside the carriage, chaos reached its peak.

Yu Shijiu endured the dual pain of his left arm feeling as if it were being torn apart and being filled and expanded by the foreign black mist, and tightly clung to that small wisp of black mist, "pulling" it toward himself.