Chapter 1: The Murderer on the Bus

In late March, Wanghai City should have been in the season of spring warmth and blooming flowers, but this year the weather was abnormal; after three consecutive days of heavy snow, the sky had only just cleared last night.

At the west gate of Wanghai University, Wu Chang shivered in the cold wind, pulled the hood of his down jacket tight, and walked with his head down toward the Nanshi bus stop at the school entrance.

It is colder when the snow melts than when it falls; if he hadn't scheduled an interview, he would never have left his warm bed.

In this day and age, company bosses are all masters of time management.

To solve the two major problems of fresh graduates lacking work experience and the high cost of hiring skilled workers, job postings now require candidates to be fresh graduates while also demanding two to three years of work experience.

The workplace is like this; the workhorses only need to work day and night, while the bosses have much more complex things to consider.

By the bus stop, several sanitation workers were clearing away the snow, and less than a meter away from them, a pool of pale red blood was slowly flowing on the ground.

Pedestrians passed by it many times, yet no one stopped to take a look; only when Wu Chang’s gaze swept over did it linger for a moment, as if only he could see it.

In fact, only he could see it.

When he stared at the bloodstain on the ground, the blood began to flow like a water screen, projecting a short video.

On a snow-covered street, a speeding car raced past, suddenly one of its tires skidded, the car body uncontrollably slammed into the roadside, and then the image went black amidst violent shaking.

He took out his phone and clicked on the local news.

"At 11:15 last night, a person surnamed Zhao was driving a motor vehicle through Nanshi Road when the vehicle lost control and caused an accident; a family of three suffered one death and two injuries. The police determined the cause of the accident to be drunk driving."

It matched.

Wu Chang put away his phone and saw that after the image in the bloodstain ended, a line of text full of sighs appeared.

"Driving without following regulations leads to two lines of tears for your loved ones."

This was the last will of the person surnamed Zhao.

A profound realization, but what were they doing earlier?

About a month ago, when Wu Chang woke up, he began to see such bloodstains from time to time.

He called these bloodstains "resentment."

The stronger the deceased was in life, the heavier the resentment, and the deeper the color of the remaining resentment.

Like the resentment left by the person surnamed Zhao on the snow, the color was pale red; at this level, it would dissipate before long.

If he encountered a bright red or even deep red resentment, it meant the deceased had extreme grievances and would not easily dissipate; he had to fulfill the dying obsession of the deceased for the resentment to vanish.

Eliminating grievances is not thankless work; just as in supernatural novels where transcending a wronged soul earns their gratitude, by eliminating deep red resentment, he could also gain benefits from it.

He had once transcended a bright red resentment; the owner of the resentment was a basketball specialty student. After clearing the browsing history on the owner's phone, he "inherited" the owner's physical fitness and basketball techniques.

In just one week, he went from a scrawny guy with no signs of training to having muscles as defined as a fitness influencer.

With just this physique and his looks, which were above an eight out of ten, as long as he could endure the hardship, he could at least avoid thirty years of taking the wrong path.

Just as he was about to think things through, the No. 17 bus he was waiting for pulled into the station.

The bus operated as usual, but just as the doors were about to close, a flash of piercing red caught his eye.

A man wearing a knit cap, an old leather jacket, and carrying a black backpack got on the bus.

The man had a gaunt face, greasy hair, and messy stubble—the appearance of an ordinary, decadent middle-aged man. The few memorable features were the sunglasses still on his face despite the cloudy weather, and his right hand, which was always tucked into his sleeve.

Others just thought the man was sloppy, but in Wu Chang’s eyes, the man had a dozen or so resentments on his back, the blood-red color staining the entire carriage.

Among them was a deep red resentment, so red it was almost purple.

Wu Chang wrinkled his nose; looking at the soaring blood-aura, he felt as if he could smell the stench of blood on the man in sunglasses.

Not everyone can condense resentment after death; with a dozen or so resentments, there were at least nearly a hundred lives behind them.

Especially with that deep red resentment, the grievance was so heavy that the victim's experience before death was at least on the level of a human centipede, and they were likely the one at the very end.

Interesting, let me see what’s going on.

He cast his gaze toward the man in sunglasses; the deep red blood swirled, like a crack opening in a chaotic abyss, and a hellish scene rushed toward him.

The torsos and limbs of dozens of human corpses were twisted and dismantled, nailed to a tree stripped of its bark, looking like branches of flesh and blood, with human heads embedded in the thicket of flesh, like heavy fruit hanging on a tree.

Under the tree, the gaunt man was clutching a short blade, using fresh blood as paint to carve complex patterns into the trunk.

Judging by the build, the person holding the blade was the man in sunglasses.

The man in sunglasses was carving with great focus, but the next moment, a bullet entered his skull from behind, exiting through his left eye socket.

Guts and gore splattered the ground, looking no better than the scene on the tree.

A young man holding a silver revolver and wearing tactical camouflage gear appeared. He fired several more shots into the corpse of the man in sunglasses; with every shot, the bullet turned into an exploding fireball.

Successive explosions blasted deep craters into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

The man in camouflage put away his gun and took out his phone to film the terrifying tree of flesh. Unfortunately, he was ultimately too young; he knew to finish off the target, but he didn't know the "no smoke, no injury" rule.

While he was taking pictures, the man in sunglasses lunged out from the smoke and plunged the short blade into the camouflage man's back. The camouflage man made a desperate final counterattack, severely wounding the man in sunglasses before fleeing; he died before he could send out the information he had seen, and the information he failed to convey in life appeared in the last will of his resentment.

"Blood Thorn is a veteran who possesses regenerative abilities and can ignore fatal wounds; only dismemberment, organ destruction, and large-scale damage can cause him harm. Every time he recovers from injuries, Blood Thorn loses a certain amount of sanity; excessive damage may cause Blood Thorn's will to collapse."

The Blood Thorn mentioned in the last will should be the man in sunglasses.

Besides the ordinary resentment last will like the one from the person surnamed Zhao, there was also a blood-red last will within the resentment.

[Eliminate Blood Thorn.]

Wu Chang frowned. Eliminate Blood Thorn, me?

Thinking about it carefully, it wasn't impossible.

In the camouflage man's resentment, the gunshot during his final counterattack had broken Blood Thorn's right hand; the injuries to the left eye and right hand corresponded exactly to Blood Thorn's sunglasses and the right hand tucked in his sleeve.

Losing one eye meant his vision was severely impaired.

Losing his dominant right hand meant his attack speed and power were greatly reduced.

Recovering from injuries consumes sanity, which would inevitably lead to Blood Thorn’s mind being chaotic and his judgment unclear.

Simply put, he was heavily crippled.

!

In a head-on fight, he had no chance of winning, but having insight into Blood Thorn's weaknesses in advance and attacking them fiercely, it wasn't impossible to have a chance.

But the problem was, the risk was too high.

Deep red resentment could always be found, but he only had one life; there was no need to take such a risk.

Just as he was about to pretend he didn't see Blood Thorn and wait for him to get off the bus to call the police, he saw Blood Thorn unzip his backpack and grip the handle of the blade inside.

Wu Chang’s brows twisted into a knot. No, buddy, doing that is not right.

I was already prepared to pretend I didn't see you, why are you pushing your luck?

Although I am not skilled in fighting, I am somewhat proficient in ball games; don't force me to have a physical confrontation with you.

Unfortunately, the man in sunglasses didn't hear the advice in his heart and slowly drew the short blade, preparing to stab the passenger next to him.

Wu Chang sighed and shouted, "Watch out in front!"

Blood Thorn paused and subconsciously looked forward.

Wu Chang quickly approached along Blood Thorn’s blind spot, using footwork that could fool a referee’s eyes, taking eight steps in two, and instantly arrived in front of Blood Thorn, thrusting his elbow out while shouting:

"Man!"

This elbow strike was unexpected, combining speed, accuracy, and ruthlessness. Just as Blood Thorn turned his head, he was struck in the face by the elbow.

Blood immediately sprayed out, covering the man in sunglasses' only remaining eye. A weakness from the inside out followed, making him feel as if he had been poisoned by a snake; his whole body went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

Strike while the iron is hot; Wu Chang knocked the man in sunglasses down with an elbow, and while shouting "He has a knife!", he picked up a fire extinguisher and swung it hard at Blood Thorn’s head.

Before the people on the bus could react, Blood Thorn had already entered a baby-like sleep.

Daring to launch an attack in public, Blood Thorn’s sanity had already been exhausted by his regenerative abilities; now, after taking several heavy blows, his sanity completely collapsed, and he became a living dead man.

The blood-red last will on Blood Thorn dissipated along with the grievance, and Wu Chang felt his down jacket pocket sink; something seemed to have appeared inside.

The reward for the transcendence had arrived.

Taking advantage of the other passengers not paying attention, he reached into his pocket to grope around. The moment he felt the shape of the reward, he shivered and pulled his hand out of his pocket as if electrocuted.

A gun!

A good thing, but too hot to handle.

If this thing were discovered, his internship would have to be changed to working on a sewing machine.

Being discovered was not an option, and throwing it away was even less of one!

A bright red resentment had already given him a near-rebirth-like change; this gun was something dropped by a deep red resentment, definitely not an ordinary object. Besides, this was a treasure he had risked his life to get; if he didn't keep it, wouldn't his life have been risked in vain?

He had to find a place to hide it quickly.

The bus pulled into the station, and the passengers dragged the unconscious man in sunglasses, discussing how to send him to the nearby police station.

With serious contraband in his pocket, how could Wu Chang go with them? He claimed he had something to do, gave a simple excuse, and left.

He couldn't care about the interview anymore; he took a taxi back to Wanghai University, planning to hide the gun in his bag first before making further plans.

If all else failed, he would hide the gun first and then go to the local police station to turn himself in.

But the moment he stepped through the school gate, he felt his vision blur, and when he came to his senses, he was already in a strange room.

An emotionless electronic voice rang in his ear.

"Welcome, new player, to the Abyss Game."

Newbie here, please follow and bookmark; good brothers, this is really important for a newcomer.

(End of chapter)