Chapter 5
Chapter 5: The Art of Burning Money, Mark B-Nan
With Yang Wei and the others' departure, the carriage felt considerably emptier, yet the metallic stench of blood hanging in the air only grew more suffocating.
Master Wang and Li Xin's bodies lay on the floor, fresh blood still snaking across the ground.
Jiang Nan furrowed his brow.
He knew these hidden dangers had to be dealt with.
He raised his head, his gaze sweeping coldly across the remaining 3 people.
Chen Tong, Wang Meng, and Liu Yuqing.
The 3 had barely let out a breath of relief before Jiang Nan's icy stare sent chills crawling up their spines.
"Jiang… Jiang Nan?"
Chen Tong called out tentatively.
Jiang Nan skipped the pleasantries. He pulled out the Notepad, his pen flying across the page, and wrote a single line.
He tore it off and slapped it against the broken window.
【Throw the bodies out.】
The moment they read those words, both girls' faces drained of color in an instant.
Liu Yuqing stared at Li Xin's wide-eyed, unresigned corpse, her stomach lurching violently, and she instinctively stepped back.
"I… I can't…"
Even Chen Tong felt a wave of resistance. After all, they had only just crossed over from modern society—none of them had ever done anything like disposing of a body before.
"Can't we… just leave them there?"
Chen Tong forced the words out with difficulty. "Or at least cover them up?"
Jiang Nan didn't even lift his eyelids at that.
He simply raised his right hand slowly, forming the exact same Finger-Gun Shape he had used when killing someone earlier.
He pointed at the bodies, then pointed at the 3 of them.
Not a single word was spoken, yet the meaning couldn't have been clearer.
Either you throw the bodies out.
Or you become the bodies, and I throw you out.
In this apocalypse, there was no room for disobedient dead weight.
Gulp.
Wang Meng swallowed hard. He was the first to come to his senses.
"Teacher Chen, Yuqing, Jiang Nan is right, we have to do this…"
Wang Meng steeled himself and stepped forward. His legs were trembling too, but his mind worked fast.
"The Blood Smell is too strong. It'll definitely draw monsters."
"If we throw them far enough, they can even serve as bait… it's a tactic."
Though Chen Tong and Liu Yuqing were still gripped by fear, they understood the stakes now.
The 3 of them worked together, straining with every ounce of effort, and finally managed to shove Master Wang and Li Xin's bodies through the shattered window.
Jiang Nan stood at the window and pointed toward the distance.
Wang Meng bit down hard, leapt off the bus, and hauled the 2 bodies to the jungle's edge—a good 50 meters away—before jogging back, panting heavily.
When it was all done, the 3 of them collapsed into their seats, hollowed out completely.
But after this ordeal, whatever equality had existed between them was shattered beyond repair.
Jiang Nan had used action alone to establish absolute dominance.
‘Get to work.’
Jiang Nan pointed again at the broken window.
"O-okay, I'll start on it right now!"
Wang Meng didn't dare rest. Using the toolbox on the bus, he stripped the iron backing panels from several seat frames.
After a clanging, banging flurry of work, he somehow managed to seal that shattered window completely shut.
It looked ugly as a patch job, but at least it offered some physical defense.
By the time it was all done, night had deepened.
The carriage fell quiet, filled only with the sound of breathing.
To ease the suffocating atmosphere left behind by moving the bodies, Chen Tong glanced at the other 2 and tried to break the silence.
"So… Wang Meng, Yuqing—I've been wanting to ask. Why were you both so certain you wanted to stay behind?"
Wang Meng, who had been wiping the sweat from his brow, scratched at his disheveled hair and grinned, lowering his voice:
"Teacher Chen, I'll be straight with you."
"I was right nearby at the time. I saw it with my own eyes—Jiang Nan aimed at that massive thing and made a 'bang' gesture!"
Liu Yuqing nodded eagerly, eyes lighting up. "Me too! I saw it too!"
"His lips moved, and then the monster's head just exploded!"
"Oh! Really?!"
Wang Meng looked like he'd finally found a kindred spirit. "I knew I wasn't seeing things! That was definitely a superpower! Just like in the novels!"
The 2 of them buzzed with excitement over their shared discovery.
Hearing their confirmation, Chen Tong—who had been holding her nerves taut the entire time—finally let out a long, slow breath.
She pressed a hand to her chest, her impressive figure rising and falling with the motion, and the relief of having survived washed visibly across her face.
"So… I wasn't going crazy."
Chen Tong looked toward Jiang Nan's silhouette, her expression a complicated tangle of emotions and gratitude.
"Actually… I saw it too."
"Right when he raised his hand, I saw it clear as day…"
"But I was so terrified at the time, I thought I'd hallucinated from the shock. I couldn't bring myself to believe it."
Chen Tong gave a wry smile. "Hearing you two say the same thing now—I can finally relax."
Now that it was confirmed Jiang Nan truly possessed this kind of supernatural ability!
Staying on the bus—even against monsters—they finally had real grounds for confidence!
Yet just as the 3 of them felt a small measure of safety from uncovering this secret—
Jiang Nan, who had been resting with his eyes shut, suddenly snapped them open.
He had caught something carried on the wind.
Rustle, rustle, rustle…
‘Dense. Fast!’
Jiang Nan didn't hesitate for even a second. He tore a page from the Notepad—one he had already written on in advance—bearing a single large character.
【Shh!】
He held it up for the 3 to see, then gestured sharply for everyone to get down immediately.
Seeing Jiang Nan's severe, icy expression, the 3 instantly snapped their mouths shut and reflexively curled into balls beneath their seats.
The next second—
Caw! Caw! Caw!
An overwhelming tide of shrieks swallowed the bus whole!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Countless Mutated Crows hurled themselves against the bus in a frenzy!
The iron sheet window Wang Meng had just sealed groaned and warped, as though it would be torn apart at any moment.
Through the gaps, by moonlight, they saw nothing but red eyes blanketing the outside.
This was a revenge flock.
"We're done… there are so many…"
Wang Meng stared at the sheer, overwhelming number and swallowed in despair.
How were they supposed to fight this?
Jiang Nan's brow creased.
He glanced at his attribute panel.
【Current Word Spirit Reserve: 6,665 characters】
This was the accumulation of 18 years of his life.
No way to recover it. No resupply.
Every one spent was one gone forever.
Clearing out the hundreds upon hundreds of crows outside would cost several hundred characters at minimum.
That was a full year's worth of saving!
Jiang Nan felt a stab of pain so sharp it was like his heart was bleeding.
But if he didn't fight, he would die.
‘Screw it, forget saving up!’
Jiang Nan steeled his heart—to survive, this money had to burn!
He drew a deep breath and shot to his feet.
Both arms spread wide, thumbs raised, index fingers extended—he struck the Double Finger-Gun Shape.
Since the money had to burn, he'd burn it with everything he had!
‘Come on then, you little bastards.’
Jiang Nan began spinning on the spot, and those lips—sealed shut for 18 long years—burst into a full-throttle output!
"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Blazing fast! One seamless stream!
Under the three onlookers' petrified, stone-still gazes, Jiang Nan transformed into Mark B-Nan!
Everywhere his arms pointed, Mutated Crows outside exploded and plummeted like falling rain!
Word Spirit·Bullet—ignoring all defense, an absolute straight line!
One after another, they dropped like dumplings into a pot.
Every "bang" represented one day of Jiang Nan's life.
He was burning his own lifespan!
The shrieks outside shifted from furious to panicked—they had realized they had hit something hard, and were trying to gain altitude and flee.
‘Think you're running?’
Jiang Nan jabbed a finger toward the sky, the corner of his eye twitching violently.
‘I've spent my entire savings, and you still want to run?!’
‘Every last one of you, DIE!’
"Bang bang bang bang bang bang!!"
Another burst of rapid, relentless fire!
It lasted a full minute—over 300 rounds fired in total!
Only when the last Mutated Crow detonated into a spray of blood at a hundred meters in the air did the world finally go quiet.
Outside the bus, bodies blanketed the ground.
"Haa……"
Jiang Nan slowly lowered his aching arms and stared at the number that had instantly shrunk on his panel.
【Current Word Spirit Reserve: 6,340 characters】
325 characters.
Nearly 1 year of silence, reduced to ash in the span of 1 minute.
Jiang Nan's heart ached so badly the corner of his mouth kept twitching. On top of that, speaking at such a rapid pace had scraped his lips raw, and his throat burned like fire.
He turned around and looked at the 3 people still gaping slack-jawed on the floor.
Then he picked up a bottle of mineral water nearby and began cooling down….
And at the same time.
The squad led by Yang Wei was not having nearly as much 'luck'…