Chapter 44: The Specialties of the Four Destinations!

Watching this, the audience in Dragon Country was struck with awe, but also felt a sense of mourning for the passengers on the bus.

"Master Zhang is truly Master Zhang. This way of clearing the stage is unexpectedly unexpected."

"That same familiar feeling, that same familiar smell!"

"I seriously suspect Master Zhang was a shady tour guide before becoming a Celestial Master. These tactics are way too familiar!"

"Look at how scared that Hooded kid is; he shrinks away whenever Master Zhang passes by."

"The most ridiculous part is that Master Zhang hasn't actually violated a single rule yet. After all, the rules don't say a guide can't hit the passengers. As for whether the other Chosen can fight back or not, that's their problem."

"Hahaha, he probably wants to violate them, but it seems unnecessary."

"I don't know why, but seeing the Hooded passenger get beaten up feels very cathartic."

"It's clear that while the other Chosen are terrified, Master Zhang is having a great time."

In truth, many people did not understand that Zhang Yangqing was not intentionally trying to violate the rules.

For the vast majority of the Chosen, the rules were absolute mandates that had to be followed to ensure their safety.

But for Zhang Yangqing, aside from the rules that meant certain death, all other rules could be viewed as "suggestions."

The Weird World gave him suggestions on how to clear the stage; whether he accepted them or not was entirely up to him.

Inside the bus, the driver remained in a daze. Zhang Yangqing instructed his beautiful little assistant to keep a close eye on him, telling her to politely wake him up whenever he started to nod off.

Soon, the buses of the various Chosen began to pull out of the gas station one after another.

Outside the window, the mist remained thick and hazy, obscuring the road ahead and creating a heavy, oppressive feeling.

Because everyone was heading into the unknown, and humans naturally harbor a certain fear of the unknown.

Not long after the bus started moving, the onboard radio suddenly turned itself on.

Many of the more timid Chosen were startled, but they immediately pricked up their ears, listening with absolute concentration.

Because Rule 8 stated: *If the onboard radio activates automatically, please listen carefully; there is news within that can assist you.*

It felt like the listening comprehension section of a foreign language exam, where one feared missing even a single piece of crucial information.

After a burst of static, the radio broadcast a segment

【Recently, a large-scale famine has broken out in this city. Slaughterhouses are in short supply. If citizens are truly hungry, they may go into the wild to hunt for food. Citizens intending to hunt in the wild, please note: beasts possess great combat strength after dark. Please try to hunt during the daylight hours.】

After this announcement, the radio went silent.

The majority of the 189 surviving Chosen were in a state of utter confusion.

Is that it? Just this bit of news? What does it even mean?

"You didn't tell me what to do if the old lady at Joyful Graveyard tells me to get off the bus!"

Some of the smarter individuals seemed to grasp the meaning behind these words.

This was especially true for Zhang Yangqing and Saburo Mitarai; certain mysteries in their minds had begun to unravel.

As for how to pass the Joyful Graveyard stage, the answer had already been provided.

At this point, the thought processes of Zhang Yangqing and Saburo Mitarai aligned with startling precision.

A moment after Zhang Yangqing, Saburo Mitarai also began to deduce the potential dangers ahead and the so-called methods to deal with them.

The intelligence gained from the radio stated that a large-scale famine had broken out and citizens could hunt in the wild. Therefore, this bus could be understood as a vehicle for going out to hunt.

Only passengers with tickets could go hunting; that was the rule of the Weird World.

The Chosen needed to choose one of four locations to "hunt": [Joyful Graveyard], [Smiling Hospital], [Sunny Volcano], or [Misty Forest].

Why not the [Haizailai Slaughterhouse]? Shouldn't there be food there? This was easy to judge.

The intelligence stated that the slaughterhouses were in short supply. If one went to a slaughterhouse, there was a very high probability of being turned into "food" themselves.

This was the information the radio provided to the Chosen; if they listened carefully, they could distinguish it.

Besides, that place didn't sound like a safe location to begin with. Most Chosen would not choose it even if they picked blindly.

The key issue here was that one could not view the passengers as normal people from the outside world.

Once that was taken into account, one could continue to speculate.

Since this trip was for hunting, it meant the passengers would be very hungry.

Otherwise, the Hooded passenger wouldn't look so "restless."

As a guide, Rule 14 clearly stated: *You cannot lose all your passengers.*

Thus, piecing this information together, it could be understood as follows: You cannot simply wait it out with the passengers. Even if they don't attack you, if they starve to death, you die too.

By further interpreting the radio message, another conclusion could be drawn.

If the area near the station was considered the "city," then [Joyful Graveyard], [Smiling Hospital], [Sunny Volcano], and [Misty Forest] were the "wilds."

In this context, one had to not only stop treating the passengers as human, but also stop treating oneself as human.

What kind of "ingredients" could be found at each of these four stops during the journey?

First, the Joyful Graveyard. In a graveyard, the ingredients are naturally "corpses."

Whether they are just bones or still have meat was an "uncertain" factor.

To put it bluntly, it was like opening a blind box. If you pull meat, your passengers can eat their fill. If you don't, the passengers will eat you.

There was also the possibility that once you got off the bus, the passengers would eat you directly, because the bus was the only relatively safe place.

Second was the Smiling Hospital. By not treating oneself as human, one could conclude that there were many living things and many ingredients inside.

As for how to obtain those ingredients, that would depend on what information came next.

Next was the Sunny Volcano. This place sounded like a tourist attraction, but the name suggested it was almost impossible for there to be any ingredients, though the specifics remained unknown.

A Chosen who had not deeply understood their own identity would most likely choose this place.

Finally, the Misty Forest. This was a place for "gambling on luck."

The ingredients in a forest are animals. In this place, one would need to discard their human identity once more.

Animals run fast, and the forest is vast; you might not catch anything.

In the hospital, however, the ingredients are all kept locked up.

Having considered this, the "tourist destination" chosen by both Zhang Yangqing and Saburo Mitarai was the Smiling Hospital.

However, their lines of reasoning began to diverge.

Saburo Mitarai was considering how to ensure he got off the bus under the condition that it was "night" for him, but "day" for the passengers.

Because Rule 4 said not to get off before dark, and the radio said to try to hunt during the day.

These two seemed to conflict, but mastering the method to reconcile them was the key to survival.

Zhang Yangqing didn't consider all that; in fact, he didn't need to.

While he didn't know how strong these "ingredients" were, they certainly weren't stronger than him, so he didn't need to overcomplicate things.

*You can choose to seek death or wait for death; it's your choice.*

*If I want to get off the bus, I get off. It's as simple and brutal as that.*

After all, this wasn't his first time violating a rule.