Chapter 170: Mushroom Man
"Mushroom Man"
"You still have four bodies. Give me two more as bus tickets, and after that I won't bother you anymore. Of course, you can also refuse."
That way Lin Ye would obtain four bus tickets.
He wasn't sure how many tickets Spike Woman needed to pay, but it was better to be prepared.
After friendly communication with the passenger, Lin Ye successfully obtained two bus tickets.
He slowly fed the two tickets into the Coin Slot Space. Only after completely inserting both tickets did the absorption from the Driver's Seat completely disappear.
'Quite the glutton.'
After handling the ticket issue, Lin Ye continued driving. He had previously considered staying in place for a while to absorb spiritual energy and adapt to his body, but whenever he stopped and remained stationary, he would experience an unpleasant feeling.
The bus sped along the road as Lin Ye continued crashing into monsters appearing in the middle of the street. Now whenever he ran over monsters, Lin Ye would stop to collect their corpses.
No one knew how many passengers like Spike Woman might appear later, so he needed to stockpile some backup tickets. Fortunately, corpses boarding the bus didn't require ticket payment, otherwise Lin Ye would have to pile the bodies on the roof.
After driving for some time, a new passenger appeared by the roadside.
Considering the example of Spike Woman, Lin Ye pulled the bus over to the side.
This passenger was a man covered in gray mushrooms growing from his head. The man had a vacant expression and swayed constantly while walking, as if he might collapse at any moment.
Although this Mushroom Man didn't seem capable of catching up to the bus, Lin Ye knew better than to judge by appearances. He wouldn't be surprised even if the other suddenly transformed into a Mushroom Superman.
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding...
The moment Mushroom Man boarded the bus, Spike Woman sitting behind Lin Ye suddenly transformed into her spiked state. Amid the shaking of spikes, she moved sideways along the window, bypassed Mushroom Man, leaped off the bus, and quickly disappeared down the road.
The entire process took less than a second.
"......"
Lin Ye looked at Mushroom Man's vacant expression and felt the urge to jump from the bus. Even Spike Woman had fled—this thing must be extremely dangerous.
Yet Lin Ye couldn't escape at all. An intense sucking sensation gripped his body, and only after consuming four monster corpses did the sucking sensation from below gradually fade.
Now only two monster corpses remained on the bus.
Lin Ye could only continue driving. Mushroom Man took the empty seat next to Yang Lin, whose face had turned pale. Yang Lin didn't know exactly how dangerous Spike Woman was, but just seeing her speed told him she was someone he couldn't afford to provoke.
And even the powerful Spike Woman could only flee at the sight of Mushroom Man.
Lin Ye used his mental energy to sense the situation inside the bus. Mushroom Man simply sat quietly beside Yang Lin without any other movement.
But it couldn't be completely harmless—otherwise Spike Woman wouldn't have fled.
Just as Lin Ye was considering what preparations to make, an apparently high-end bus stop appeared by the roadside.
A familiar figure stood on the platform, smiling as she looked at Lin Ye.
Lin Ye pulled the bus alongside the platform and watched as Little Ye boarded.
The Coin Slot Space opened, and Little Ye placed a filthy package inside.
"Why are you here?"
Lin Ye found it strange. Although Little Ye could appear anywhere, showing up without reason at a simulation mission's bus stop seemed too coincidental.
"You really should make more friends. At least when you hallucinate, you wouldn't only see me."
Little Ye leaned backward, and a recliner appeared out of nowhere to catch her.
"Hallucination? That Mushroom Man?"
Lin Ye immediately realized what was happening.
"Yes, Brother Lin."
Li Ji suddenly appeared behind Lin Ye.
"Want some cookies?"
Alice stood beside Lin Ye and placed a cat-shaped fortune cookie into his mouth.
"We promised to have fish head hotpot."
Ayla looked at Lin Ye through the rearview mirror.
"Are you Alice? I'm Jiang Yu, the one who exchanged snacks with you."
Jiang Yu forcefully grasped Alice's hand while Alice looked somewhat reluctantly at Lin Ye.
"Where is this? I don't go out much."
Mia opened the bus door and entered.
"Why are they all women?"
Lin Ye looked at Little Ye and asked.
"Do you prefer men? Should I bring out Zhou Wen? They're quite cute-looking."
Little Ye showed a mischievous smile.
"No need. How do I wake up?"
Without these illusions, Lin Ye wouldn't have realized he had already been affected.
"I should actually try every means to keep you here, make you believe this is the real world. That's the mission given to me by what created me. But my source has extremely strong self-awareness, which is why I can directly tell you I'm your hallucination. However, getting out can only depend on yourself."
Little Ye took some grilled innards offered by Jiang Yu and stopped speaking.
Lin Ye scratched his head. Actually, becoming clear-headed wasn't difficult—he just needed to close and open his eyes, and the surrounding illusions would disappear.
But he couldn't be sure whether after opening his eyes he would enter a new illusion.
When a person cannot distinguish between illusion and reality, then for them, illusion and reality have no difference.
Because even if he escapes the illusion, he cannot confirm this fact.
Lin Ye needed to find something that absolutely could not appear in an illusion.
But this was impossible because he didn't know what existed within the illusion—he had never seen the roadside platform or the clothes Little Ye was wearing.
After just a few seconds, Lin Ye gave up.
"Whatever. Spending a lifetime in illusion doesn't seem so bad."
Lin Ye closed his eyes. When he opened them, the surrounding illusions had disappeared. He was still on the bus with three passengers.
"This won't do. Too perfunctory. How could there be absolutely no changes?"
Lin Ye kept closing and opening his eyes. The surroundings continuously changed, and whenever something didn't satisfy him, Lin Ye would close his eyes again.
Finally, after one particular eye-opening, Lin Ye saw a bus completely covered in fungi, with various mushrooms growing throughout his own body.
Monsters covered in mushrooms wandered around the bus.
The Mushroom Man had disappeared. Yang Lin and the Boy were also filled with mushrooms, muttering to empty space.
"Now this is somewhat interesting."
Lin Ye closed his eyes again, still convinced this was an illusion. But no matter how many times he closed his eyes, the surroundings showed no changes.
"...Is this really reality?"
Lin Ye couldn't be sure either, because he simply couldn't distinguish.
"This really is reality. You're already out."
Little Ye suddenly appeared before Lin Ye.
"...Did you appear initially just to set up this deception?"
Lin Ye looked suspiciously at the illusion before him.
"If that were the case, I wouldn't have appeared at all."
Little Ye explained.