[All players are in place, observer 172 is in place, live streaming begins!]

The black screen suddenly lit up, and a bus circled up the mountain road.

The camera gradually advanced, passing over the terrified passengers’ faces; it finally stopped at a breathtakingly beautiful face.

From the audience’s perspective, each passenger had their name over their head, and the young man in the picture was named Xie Qing.

His eyes were closed; the screams of fear around him didn’t wake him up, instead his thick eyelashes trembled slightly.

A golden portrait box pendant lay on his fair and delicate neck, and his skin was so white that it seemed to be shrouded in a hazy halo. With so many players in the car, it seemed that the system had personally activated some kind of soul-capturing filter for him.

Like the sun behind the clouds, dazzling and gloomy.

It was almost too beautiful to be real.

The comments in the live broadcast room No. 0723 soon became lively.

“Wow! What a great beauty!”

“He’s a beautiful anchor, but I’m here to see Qin Chen. Observer, please put Qin Chen on the main screen. Thank you.”

“If you want to watch Qin Chen, just go directly to Qin Chen’s private live broadcast room. Of course the public live broadcast room depends on the observer’s personal choice.”

“Private live broadcast rooms are easily invaded by nightmares; how can they be safer than public live broadcast rooms? You are the ones who are asking for too much.”

The audience argued until the person in the camera suddenly opened their eyes.

Although he had the appearance of an Oriental and also had the unique peach blossom-shaped eyes of Chinese people, his pupils were blue-gray, like the deep dark sea, which made people feel palpitations when looking at him.

The audience couldn’t help but immerse themselves in his eyes, unable to look away.

The screen was blank for a moment and then it was overwhelmed by the audience’s crazy enthusiasm.

“What the hell! What the hell!”

“Some beauties can be described, but some beauties cannot be described. Mom, thank you for giving birth to me!”

“I want to give him all my hearts!”

“Save it, maybe he’s just an idiot with only a face.”

“Only private live broadcast rooms can receive hearts, but the condition for opening a private live broadcast room is that the points exceed 500. Otherwise, he has to discover the existence of the live broadcast room himself.”

“It’s a blessing to be able to get 20 points in a game of Nightmare Invasion. I don’t think I can give him that amount!”

Xie Qing rubbed his temples, feeling like he had been hit back and forth by a roller.

He was awakened by a nightmare, the content had become blurry, with only residual palpitations caused by fear, reminding him that the dream must have been very bad.

He was stunned when the tourist sitting in front of him came into view. He couldn’t help but exclaim slowly: “Damn…”

No matter how he looked at it, the place he was in wasn’t the ward of the Fifth Research Institute but a bus in motion.

There was a hot human smell in the closed compartment, which was composed of human hair oil, sweat, food, and toiletries.

Xie Qing subconsciously furrowed his brows.

Deep green mountains and dense coniferous forests could be seen outside the car window, with mist flowing lightly and enveloping the surrounding fields.

Xie Qing opened a window, and the wind flowed in through the gap. He immediately breathed in the fresh, damp air with the unique woody fragrance of the mountains and forests.

Something was obviously not right; he had a strong feeling that he was being watched; it was as if countless invisible cameras were on him from all directions.

Subconsciously, Xie Qing touched the golden portrait box pendant on his neck then he immediately closed the car window.

After the sound of whistling wind stopped interfering with his hearing, sighs echoed one after another, and it was clear that people were crying in front and behind the bus seats.

Although there was a warm breeze blowing in the bus and the temperature wasn’t low, the woman sitting in front of him was shivering while holding her arms.

It seemed like they were riding in a hearse and were currently conducting a funeral.

A man in a white down jacket was lying in the middle of the carriage, cut into three pieces. A man in a suit was tied up on the seat next to him; he was making groaning sounds, but no one knew what he was saying.

The woman next to them trembled and explained proactively, “Those two people didn’t believe we entered a dungeon. They insisted they’d been kidnapped and we were all involved, and they moved to grab the driver’s steering wheel. The one in the suit was held down by an old player, while the other wasn’t. He punched the driver and then fell there.”

Xie Qing raised an eyebrow, and his gaze drifted. He saw a body hanging upside down outside the front window, with its right hand twisted into a strange shape and long hair resembling water grass floating in the air.

The dripping head lightly hit the car window.

Da. Da. Da.

Leaving dark red bloodstains on the car window.

Xie Qing was still wearing the fifth research institute patient gown he changed into before going to bed last night, with the silk-embroidered slippers given to him by the nurse on his feet.

In his pocket, a cold phone pressed against his leg.

He couldn’t help but smile.

They were really thoughtful to get him into the bus, and they didn’t forget to take his phone. He wanted to thank them.

The current time displayed on the phone was April 27, 2037, Sunday, 11:12 am, with no signal, which was expected.

There was an immovable icon in the lower right corner of the line of sight, with four black and red gradient words on top: Nightmare Invasion.

As Xie Qing silently recalled these four words, a rudimentary operating interface suddenly appeared in front of him, with a few lines of text displayed on a gray-blue background.

[You have fallen into the nightmare of ‘Health Spa Hotel’.]

[You are a traveler who booked a seven-day and six-night healing trip at a health spa hotel over the phone two days ago. The health spa hotel not only has famous healing hot springs but is also a unique hotel with local folk beliefs as its theme. Although this hotel has various terrible legends, you are an atheist who believes that you will definitely have a wonderful vacation to heal your body and mind.]

[Nightmare rating: E]

[Nightmare resolution: 0%]

[You will wake up from the nightmare after completing your health and healing journey.]

The three buttons below, namely Mall, Customer Service, and Archive, were all grayed out and couldn’t be opened temporarily.

There was a Q-version pixel style male avatar in the upper left corner of the operation interface. He lightly clicked on the avatar, and several text messages popped up.

Xue Qing: Health Spa Hotel guest (if you have not checked in, please check in before dark).

Points: 0

Expected lifespan: 17 days, 9 hours, and 55 minutes (end-stage state of Sjogren’s disease).

“Tsk, is that accurate?”

Ordinary people may be crushed by this cruel number, but Xie Qing knew he had little time left and just raised an eyebrow.

After unexpectedly appearing on a bus, he not only didn’t panic but even became very excited.

Lying in the hospital waiting for death was so boring; this game called Nightmare Invasion may bring him a lot of fun.

At some point, a blue and black line of text appeared on the inside of the wrist:

Nightmare Invasion: 0%, non-infectious state. (Above a certain value indicates that you are no longer human; please pay close attention to this value.)

San Value: 9.7. (A value below a certain threshold indicates that you have lost your sanity. Please pay close attention to this value.)

Xie Qing reached out and rubbed it but naturally couldn’t remove it. There wasn’t much to operate on the interface, so Xie Qing repeatedly pressed the three gray buttons several times before receiving a text prompt saying ‘This function will be activated after certain conditions are met.’.

“What the hell, a mental health of 9.7?”

“Isn’t he a bedridden patient who has only seventeen days left because of a terminal illness?”

“If it’s less than 50, then he is a madman, right? His San value is 9.7. The guys who were invaded by nightmares and turned into monsters in the dungeon didn’t have such a low value, right? Is he still a human being?”

“Crazy beauty, even more fragrant, drool~”

“I wondered why the new player is so calm. It turns out he’s crazy; a mental health of 9.7 makes it instantly reasonable.”

Suddenly, gravel fell from the mountain wall, hitting the roof with a clattering sound, and a chaotic scream echoed in the bus.

The comments became excited.

“Here it comes, the first kill in the hotel!”

“Please live longer, beauty!”

“Isn’t Qin Chen in the car? Qin Chen, please save Xie Qing! His face is much rarer than that of high-end players.”

“He is sitting in the death seat and the monster is right next to him; he’s a patient with a terminal disease who is so sick that he is breathing his last breath. I am already chanting the crossing over mantra for him.”

The bus accelerated on the mountain road in order to pass through the rocky terrain, and the people on board were thrown back and forth, clutching onto the backs of the front seats one by one; they were afraid of dying in the bus before reaching the hotel.

The light suddenly dimmed, and the corpse knocking on the window beside Xie Qing moved.

“Ah ah ah ah ah ah—”

The female student sitting in front of Xie Qing screamed, “She, she moved!”

“Why are you yelling, bitch? You’ll scare me to death first!”

A prematurely bald man roared, scaring the female student into silence.

Suddenly, all the car windows opened wide, and the cold wind scraped towards the people in the car like knives. The long hair of the upside down female corpse, resembling water grass, floated into the carriage and rolled straight towards the neck of the man who shouted.

The man was so scared that his face turned pale. Without even thinking, he pushed the female student who moved from the force of car forward.

Xie Qing’s eyes narrowed, and he forcefully closed the car window. With a “click” sound, the neck of the female corpse was caught by the window and folded into an obtuse angle.

She let out a strange scream in pain, twisted her right hand, and grabbed Xie Qing’s side. Her swollen hair let go of the female student who was used as a human shield by the man and rolled towards Xie Qing.

Xie Qing jumped up lightly, as if his body had no weight at all. He jumped over the handrail and landed on the corridor. The female corpse chased after him and rolled in through the window.

“He moves so fast! Where does he look like a terminally ill patient?”

“It’s not important; where can he go on the bus? He’s dead!”

“Wuwuwu, don’t die, beauty!”

Xie Qing took three steps and two steps at a time, not looking behind him at all. In an instant, the female corpse was close, but Xie Qing’s back seemed to have eyes. Just as the female corpse rushed towards him and was about to touch him, Xie Qing turned urgently, supporting the vertical pole at the entrance of the passenger with both hands, swinging his body up, and fiercely kicking the female corpse who couldn’t turn in time.

The female corpse hit the bus driver and her dense hair wrapped tightly around the bus driver.

Xie Qing stood still on the pole and slowly pulled his scattered hair behind his ear.

The female corpse flew backward with a loud bang, breaking into three pieces and landing next to the older brother who attacked the driver. She couldn’t move any longer.

The small horn on the bus made a sizzling sound.

[Warning! Players who attack system NPCs without reason will be wiped out by the system!]

After it finished speaking, the small horn fell silent for a moment, and the passengers who were screaming just now also quieted down.

Xie Qing lazily spoke up, “NPCs that attack system NPCs without reason will be wiped out by the system. I’ll help you say it; you’re welcome.”

【……】

Wasn’t that a tongue twister?

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TN:

another one (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)