'Hehehe… Wonderful! Splendid!'
Yuan Tianzhu's body trembled as a cold voice rumbled in his mind.
'It's splendid! Women, children and old people running amok like maggots!'
Yuan Tianzhu frowned: 'Can you shut up?'
'Hehe… Hahahahahahaha!'
His frown deepened: 'Are you deaf?'
'It's going to be a massacre!'
Yuan Tianzhu's face darkened, as he clenched the hand that was tightly holding around the bus handle.
'What can't handle a little noise? Weak.'
"I said shut the hell up!" Yuan Tianzhu screamed his lungs out on the bus.
His shout echoing, cutting through the air. Faint creaking sounds could be heard as the bus moved.
Like a cavern of shadows, its interior was bathed in a lifeless gray and black that seemed to drain the air of warmth. It had several leather seats, some slightly cracked and worn and handrails to prevent people from falling.
The wind howled sharply.
Its windows seemed smeared with grime, filtering what little light pierced through the bus, falling faintly on Yuan Tianzhu's skin, making it appear extremely pale like a wailing ghost.
The air inside the bus was thick with the stench of mildew and decay. As he inhaled the it, a shiver crawled through his body, as a foreboding sensation emerged.
He fidgeting eyed the bus exit ominously, his heart skipping a beat for a minute as he nervously chewed his nails.
The bus eerie and bleak ambiance seemed to announce a looming disaster that couldn't be avoided, like a god's trial.
Swoosh!
Immediately, numerous eyes shifted towards him.
One could see a young man with weary and puffy brown eyes, little red veins, dark circles underneath. He had short black hair, clad in black pants, a matching black shirt and white shoes. He was standing near the bus window holding onto the bus handles.
His posture awkward, bending like a pole.
The handles cracked under his grip. Around him, people were either sitting or standing. His presence was inexistent; if one didn't look closely, one wouldn't notice him in a sea of people.
Yuan Tianzhu's eyelids trembled as these eyes landed on him.
"Is he crazy?"
"Poor him, it must be hard."
"Tsk, Tsk. Here we are in 2024, and they still let them roam free like this?"
Hearing what these people said about him, Yuan Tianzhu choked on his own breath. The embarrassment so intense that he almost spat a mouthful of blood in succession. He could almost swear, feeling his organs rupturing, blood surging inside him like a water fountain ready to burst.
'You crazy fucker. You did this on purpose!'
Yuan Tianzhu pressed his teeth together as a fierce expression took over his flushed face.
However, that didn't help him, as it made him look crazier in the eyes of the passengers.
"Mommy, is that uncle, okay?"
"Don't point. Didi."
"His expressions were changing faster than a woman's mood."
"Probably a condition?"
"I hope he doesn't turn hostile…"
Yuan Tianzhu's flushed face darkened quickly, his complexion turning ashen. However, the fierce light in his eyes dimmed, fading to a cold, lifeless stare.
'Fuck! Fuck! You just wait.'
He couldn't stand the mocking words of the passengers, so he quickly put on his earphones and moved to the back of the bus.
Isolated, where no one would be bothered by him or 'him'.
Seeing Yuan Tianzhu flee with his tail between his legs, the passengers no longer paid him any attention. Life was like that—fast and monotonous. When it gives you lemons, you make lemonade. Yuan Tianzhu entertained them for a few minutes, just enough to brighten the long and tiring bus journey. So, they didn't bother with him anymore.
Once seated, Yuan Tianzhu's expression returned to normal.
'Fuck you, Mo Xie Zhe. Of all the places you could bother me, you chose here on the bus?!'
'…'
However, no one responded to him.
Yuan Tianzhu's lips twitched uncontrollably.
'You crazy bastard. I know you're there. Stop ignoring me.'
'…'
Just as Yuan Tianzhu was going to lose his mind, a voice that dripped with scorn and arrogance echoed in his mind.
'Huh? Since when am I, the great me, obliged to explain myself? Know your place, mongrel.'
Yuan Tianzhu was startled, almost embarrassingly falling from his seat under the gazes of the passengers.
However, he didn't care.
His body trembling, as if molten lava was about to explode from his lungs. His face shifted from blue to red, veins pulsing with the force of his barely suppressed fury.
"Calm down, Yuan Tianzhu. You can't act impulsively. Stay calm, stay calm. You know he's just a retard with a big sense of superiority."
As he spoke to himself, he hadn't noticed that the passengers were looking at him strangely as if they had seen a ghost.
"Should we call the police or the hospital?"
"You're asking me? Then who should I ask?"
"What the fuck? Why are you filming?"
"For internet."
"Sigh… gen z…"
After a few minutes, Yuan Tianzhu managed to calm down.
"Crazy bastard," he muttered. That guy really gets on his nerves every time he opens his damned mouth.
However, his expression was still serious.
He was an orphan, without a father or mother. For as long as he can remember, he has always scraped by to survive. Anything.
Ever since Mo Xie Zhe appeared in his already bleak life, nothing had gone well.
His life became subjected to a dark and gloomy mood. He was like a curse—no, like a parasite!
A parasite that gnawed at his sanity, one snide comment at a time.
Sometimes he woke in an unknown location with his hands full of blood and a nauseous metallic taste in his mouth that horrified him every single time; but after many occasions he grew numb.
Torn between two halves—he didn't know anymore who he was…
He could ask for help, but just by the way people react to his outbursts like what happened on the bus, it destroyed all hope.
Sure, that was Mo Xie Zhe's fault, but it reflected the reality of this decaying, wretched world.
Just like those people on the bus; they seemed concerned about him, but did anyone come and extend a hand to him? Did anyone asked if he was okay? No. Instead, they laughed and pointed at him. After all, he was 'crazy.' That's how the world worked: one for themselves and everyone for themselves.
People like him are treated like scum; the worst part is that people expect you to behave as if you don't have these issues.
So, tell me, how could anyone ask for help under these circumstances? He just wanted to be a 'normal' person, but even that he couldn't.
"All because of that damned night—"
Ding! Ding! The stop requested: Descartes!
"This is my stop," Yuan Tianzhu muttered as he immediately stood up and made his way to the bus exit. In the process, he bumped into several people, but he didn't have time to apologize.
If he missed it… he would be late to work. Last time he already got a warning from his his boss. So this time, if he arrived late he would have to look for a new job. He couldn't miss it. Not now.
Already at the door, he pressed the button to open it with trembling fingers. He didn't know why, but something had been gnawing at his heart since he boarded the bus. His body couldn't help but flinch uncontrollably.
He couldn't pinpoint it, but a gut feeling told him that it wasn't good.
Something bad was coming.
Ssssssshhh….
The door slid open, painfully slow. Beads of sweat formed on Yuan Tianzhu's face. Thump… His heartbeat pounded in his ears, the only sound that filled the eerie silence.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart racing as the uneasy feeling deepened, an unbearable itch spreading through his chest. His breathing grew labored, vision narrowing as he drew in ragged breaths.
He could feel his hand wetting themselves as the uneasy feeling grew roots in his heart.
His body trembling slightly at the rhythm as the door was opening.
What could be a few moment transformed itself into an eternity.
Finally, after 5 seconds of waiting, the door finally opened, and he stepped out in a rush.
His foot hovering mid-air. One more step—just one… and he'd be free.
"Wait there's a—" the bus driver suddenly hurled at him.
A cold and hard object smashed against his skin, a chilling course of an excruciating pain running through his body. A metallic taste spreading through his bud taste, as the jarring shock of the impact made blood gush from his mouth.
At that moment, time seemed to freeze. His body being swept away, and, in a flash, he found himself upside down.
'Heh? I'm going to die?…'
Yuan Tianzhu thought as he tried to look around for the thing that had hit him. He wanted to know what had killed him before going in peace.
To his right, he saw the bus he had just got off – its faded yellow paint was streaked with gloom, with very few black stripes running along its side dull and cracked, giving it the look of a weathered, old-fashioned school.
The edges of the windows were slightly rimmed with dust and the headlights were flickering weakly, casting an eerie glow. It looked old but still functional.
He could see several glass buildings reflecting his mutilated body.
His legs were twisted awkwardly; the right one pointing toward the sky, the left one toward the ground. His arms were dislocated, with the bone of his right arm protruding from his elbow.
Yet, strangely, this time he felt no pain.
On the contrary, everything was peaceful and calm like water.
Too calm, eerily calm.
He should have been screaming, but all he felt was a void, like a vacuum had swallowed his voice, his pain.
Then, to his left, he saw what had hit him.
It was a massive beast, weighing several tons. Its gray horns seeming as though they were about to spew clouds of smoke. Its ears were oddly shaped, glowing with a cold glint. It was a red colored beast, like a demon sent to drag you straight to hell.
Its humongous eerie eyes stared directly into his, with a neutral expression, as if nothing had happened.
Yuan Tianzhu felt like he had fallen into the 99th level of Hell, its gaze piercing through him like an ice spike.
'A truck?'
Those were his last thoughts before his vision darkened, like the onset of the night during a solar eclipse. Dimmed like an oil lamp giving its last and tenuous lustre, as an overwhelming darkness creeped in.
It was deadly silence, as if sound itself never existed. He could feel nothing, hear nothing. No warm, no breath; just a hollow void.
And then, in the void, a faintly cold and eerie voice rang:
[Subject selected. Trial participant #900. Universe #90. Trial participant in this universe #9. Begin the trial…]