Chapter 172: Splicing Buildings
Seeing that Spike Woman wasn't planning to board the bus, Lin Ye had no choice but to leave her behind and continue on his way.
If Spike Woman had boarded, he could have determined the danger level of passengers based on her reactions.
Along the way, Lin Ye ran over and killed some more monsters, collecting all their corpses onto the bus.
When the bus passed the location where Mushroom Man had boarded during the previous simulation, there were no passengers waiting there this time.
Lin Ye continued driving forward. Occasionally, some passengers appeared by the roadside, but none of them boarded the bus.
Just as Lin Ye thought he could drive uneventfully all the way to the final stop, a crossroads appeared ahead on the road.
Lin Ye needed to choose one of three branching paths.
The left branch was a gray gravel road leading to a desolate gray plain, where some gray plants could be seen in the distance.
The right branch was a black concrete road leading to building ruins, with an abandoned city visible in the distance.
The straight-ahead branch was a broken dirt road leading deep into the mountains, where some creatures could be seen moving about in the hills. Lin Ye directly turned onto the right branch. This road had better conditions and appeared safer than the other two options.
The bus navigated through the ruins. Some shadowy figures hid within the debris, observing the bus traveling along the road.
Lin Ye ignored these figures. His only concern now was to drive to the final stop as quickly as possible, complete this simulation mission, and return to the shelter to check on his physical condition.
But the things in the ruins had no intention of letting him leave.
Some shadowy figures leaped from the ruins onto the bus roof, and heavy pounding sounds echoed from above.
These figures pressed parts of their bodies against the bus windows. Eyes of various sizes opened from different body parts, observing the interior of the bus.
A two-meter-long arm pressed against the windshield, covered densely with numerous eyeballs that pressed tightly against the glass, watching Lin Ye's movements.
On the side windows, a thigh and a section of abdomen respectively pressed against the glass, both covered with numerous eyeballs.
In Lin Ye's perception, these three body parts all belonged to the same Mutation Creature, a being pieced together from various organs.
The ruins were full of such stitched-together monsters. They jumped onto the roof, using various organs to pound against the windows. Eyeballs growing on the organs were smashed upon impact, leaving sticky dark red liquid smeared across the windows.
Yang Lin and the boy moved away from the windows, but as the pounding frequency increased, cracks began appearing on the glass.
The windshield also developed cracks. Lin Ye drove the bus at full speed. He could deal with the monsters above, but he chose not to.
Because the ruins were filled with such creatures. At his current strength level, he couldn't possibly kill them all.
He had to escape these ruins before being overwhelmed by the stitched-together monsters.
What frustrated Lin Ye was that ahead, at the roadside, stood a completely intact bus stop.
Several passengers were hiding inside the station. When they saw the bus, they excitedly waved at it.
Lin Ye hadn't yet tried skipping a stop, and he didn't particularly like doing so.
"Stop! Help us!"
Seeing that the bus wasn't slowing down, the passengers rushed out of the station, shouting loudly.
By braking sharply to shake off the monsters on the roof, the bus stopped precisely at the platform edge. Lin Ye opened the door to let them board.
All four passengers this time were ordinary third-tier spiritual energy users - three men and one woman.
After the passengers boarded, Lin Ye slammed the accelerator to the floor, and the bus ran over the fallen stitched-together monsters.
"Please present your tickets."
Lin Ye said to the newly boarded passengers.
"I know the rules."
The oldest man among the four took off his backpack and threw it into the Coin Slot Space. The other three followed his example, placing their prepared tickets into the Coin Slot Space.
"Good."
Lin Ye preferred normal people - that way they wouldn't need to become tickets themselves.
Crack!
The rear window of the bus shattered. A stitched-together monster squeezed through the broken window into the bus interior.
Crack!
Windows shattered one after another as several more stitched-together monsters forced their way into the bus.
The passengers nervously gathered near the Driver's Seat. More and more monsters jumped onto the roof, and the windows became crowded with various organs covered in blood-red eyeballs.
"What do we do! We're doomed if this continues! Should we jump from the bus?"
A young passenger screamed in terror.
"No! Without the bus, we can't escape these ruins. Who knows when the next bus will arrive? We must stay on this vehicle!"
The older man said through gritted teeth.
Though he said this, he actually had no idea how they could survive the onslaught of stitched-together monsters.
Crack!
The windshield finally shattered. A massive stitched-together monster squeezed into the bus interior along with broken glass.
But the monster didn't realize that the windshield it had broken had actually been protecting it.
If the windshield hadn't been in the way, Lin Ye would have dealt with it long ago.
An invisible spiritual energy blade stabbed into the stitched-together monster's body. The blade exploded, shredding the monster's mutation organ.
"Kill the monsters near the Driver's Seat. I'll handle any that you can't deal with quickly enough."
Lin Ye told the passengers.
He hadn't fully adapted to Robert's body yet and couldn't use mental energy continuously. Otherwise, he wouldn't need help dealing with these few monsters.
"Understood!"
The older man quickly responded.
Several passengers crowded behind the Driver's Seat, killing any stitched-together monsters that approached. No matter how many monsters were outside, they only needed to face the two or three that managed to squeeze through at a time. As long as they were careful, handling them wasn't difficult.
While driving, Lin Ye dealt with monsters approaching the front windows. These creatures reminded him of splice runes, one of the earliest runes he had obtained but rarely used.
Compared to cutting, splicing was difficult to employ in combat.
These stitched-together monsters gave Lin Ye a new perspective. He sensed their body structures, silently learning splicing techniques.
As the bus approached the center of the ruins, Lin Ye saw some stitched-together monsters standing there that were dozens of meters tall, some even reaching hundreds of meters.
These stitched-together monsters stood motionless in the center of the ruins like living buildings.
Massive blood-red eyeballs covered the surfaces of these living structures. As the bus passed by, these eyes watched the vehicle, tracking its movement with their gaze.
Under the gaze of these eyes, Lin Ye's heartbeat accelerated, and he felt a sense of impending danger.
Lin Ye scanned his surroundings but couldn't locate the source of the threat. He suspected the danger was related to those giant eyeballs, but he didn't know how the threat would manifest.
Before Lin Ye could devise a response strategy, he suddenly realized his right hand couldn't leave the steering wheel.
Not just his right hand - his entire body was being fused with the Driver's Seat. He had become part of the bus.