Chapter 181: Small Temple in the Mountains
Lin Ye opened his eyes. He was sitting in the seat opposite the Coin Slot Space, while the junior was driving from the Driver's Seat.
"Driving is actually quite interesting."
"You won. You can give me the gift now."
Although he lost the game, Lin Ye didn't think there was anything wrong with his choice. Even without amnesia making him choose again, he would still give the same answer.
"Winning like this is worse than admitting defeat. Let's consider this a draw. I won't give you the gift, but I'll help you open the door to leave the Gray World."
The junior parked the bus by the roadside and swapped positions with Lin Ye.
"Is this really okay? It's just like I won."
Lin Ye started the bus. A gate occupying the entire road appeared ahead, and beyond it was a world no longer monotonous in color.
"No. If you had won, as the loser, I would have paid the fare. Now I've decided to skip the fare... I'm very expensive, you know."
The junior disappeared from the vehicle and appeared on the side of the road, waving goodbye to the bus leaving the Gray World. "Goodbye. Come play games with me again next time, Senior Lin Ye."
The bus passed through the gate and left the Gray World. An extremely intense suction sensation emerged from within the bus, and in just an instant, Lin Ye and the passengers aboard were completely drained dry.
Before losing consciousness, Lin Ye saw a familiar road.
………………………
Bzzz bzzz...
Lin Ye opened his eyes. He had returned to the prison transport vehicle once again.
[Remaining Simulation Attempts: 6]
'Damn, if I could have held on for just ten more seconds, I could have returned to the Shelter to eat.'
Before losing consciousness, Lin Ye had seen that initial road.
'Do I only return when taking the road leading to the Gray World?'
'No, since it's a bus, every road should be able to return to the starting point.'
'The Gray World road is not an option anymore. The city ruins aren't great either—without becoming one with the vehicle, it's impossible to get through. This time, I can only try the middle road. If that doesn't work either, then I'll use the special skill.'
Lin Ye wasn't too keen on using that ambiguous special skill. The system notes had never been wrong before, and he had a feeling that skill would be extremely troublesome.
'Whatever, I've already summoned an evil god. Troublesome or not, it is what it is.'
Following the previous simulation process, Lin Ye once again arrived at the intersection.
There were still only two passengers aboard: Yang Lin and the boy. Lin Ye glanced at the lead-gray sky to the left, didn't turn, and drove onto the incomplete dirt road in the middle.
The middle road led to a stretch of mountainous terrain. The bus traveled along the rugged mountain path. After becoming one with the bus, Lin Ye's driving skills had improved several levels. Now, even without using the spiritual energy collision driving technique, he could navigate such roads smoothly.
This branch road was unusually quiet. No monsters suddenly appeared on the mountain path, no passengers or bus stops lined the roadside, and the creatures previously seen in the distance had all vanished.
But Lin Ye didn't let his guard down. This was between the Gray World and the city ruins—how could abnormal things not appear here?
Just as Lin Ye was speculating how the abnormality would manifest, a structure appeared on the right side of the mountain road.
At first, Lin Ye thought it was a bus stop, but he quickly realized it was a small mountain temple.
The small temple was only one-quarter the size of the bus. Through the entrance, he could see a human stone statue enshrined inside.
Lin Ye hesitated for a second but ultimately didn't stop. Mainly because there were no passengers by the roadside—he couldn't just pick up the stone statue inside and carry it aboard, could he?
The bus passed by the small temple. Lin Ye carefully sensed his surroundings, but nothing happened, and he detected nothing.
Just as Lin Ye was pondering what the small temple represented, the boy's mother sitting at the very back suddenly exploded, splattering flesh and blood all over the boy.
"What are you doing? If you don't want your body, you can put it in the Coin Slot Space."
Though he said this, Lin Ye felt it might be related to that small temple.
"My body suddenly exploded out of my control! It wasn't me!"
The boy's agitated voice carried a trace of fear. Although it could change bodies, if its main body exploded, it would be completely over. It didn't even have a chance to switch bodies—it had nearly died just now.
"Quiet down. You're disturbing me."
Lin Ye continued driving forward. Before long, another small temple appeared by the roadside.
This time, Lin Ye parked the bus by the roadside, got off, entered the small temple, and carried the stone statue inside onto the bus.
Just as he expected, the Coin Slot Space opened.
Lin Ye stuffed two previously stored corpses inside, and only then did the suction sensation from the Driver's Seat completely disappear.
Placing the stone statue on an empty seat, Lin Ye drove on. This time, no abnormal phenomena occurred inside the vehicle.
However, not long after driving, Lin Ye sensed the stone statue behind him move.
It shifted position, its eyes now facing Lin Ye's back. Lin Ye could feel its gaze.
Lin Ye carefully observed the stone statue and suddenly realized this was a man wearing athletic clothing.
Due to differences in material and artistic style, it took Lin Ye several glances to notice this.
'What kind of bizarre thing is this? This is too abstract.'
Lin Ye would rather believe this was a stone statue of the mysterious athletic man than believe someone carved and enshrined such a thing.
'If this stone statue was transformed from a human, then destroying it would be very dangerous.'
As Lin Ye pondered, the stone statue left its seat and gradually moved behind Lin Ye.
Lin Ye slowed down and stopped, then got up and moved the stone statue to the very back row, placing it in the arms of the boy's father.
"You keep an eye on it for me. Tell me immediately if there are any changes."
"Ah? I've already lost one body. It's someone else's turn this time. Let him hold it!"
Because Lin Ye had previously had a friendly exchange with it when submitting tickets, it didn't dare refuse Lin Ye and could only push the stone statue toward Yang Lin.
"More capable people do more work. You still have three bodies. We must figure out the rules here. You don't want your main body to be the next to explode, do you? Or would you prefer to get off here?"
Lin Ye threatened.
"...Fine. But you can't use only me for experiments. You all have to participate too, and I need to keep one body in reserve."
The boy compromised.
"I agree."
Lin Ye looked at Yang Lin.
"...Okay."
Yang Lin didn't want to die here, but he couldn't refuse Lin Ye either because Lin Ye's proposal was fair.
Of course, the main reason was that he couldn't defeat Lin Ye.
Lin Ye returned to the Driver's Seat and continued driving forward. After a while, another small temple appeared by the roadside, containing a stone statue of a student wearing a school uniform.
This time, Lin Ye didn't move the stone statue onto the bus. Instead, he cut off a lower leg from a monster's corpse and placed the leg outside the small temple's entrance.
"Is this enough? If not, we can negotiate further."
Mentioning temples made him think of worship. Lin Ye wanted to reach an agreement with the small temple. The corpse reserves on the vehicle were limited—two corpses per small temple was a bit excessive.