Step Back! Master is Here! - Chapter 46
Chapter 46: Corpse Transporter!
K swore inwardly. ‘F*ck!’
K reached out. He instantly wanted to launch Cutting Gale, but there was no pale blue light on the hand that he lifted.
‘F*ck!’ He swore again.
K recalled that he had launched his skill when charging out of the haunted house earlier.
K had obtained Cutting Gale during his previous mission. Even though he had been practicing it all this time, the skill remained at Level 1.
It was still in the midst of the cooldown period right now.
‘That damned monk!’
Hadn’t it been for that damned monk that had to show up there, how would he have used up his one and only combat skill for no reason?
“Benefactor, you look like you hate me very much?” Tang Luo asked directly, showing no mercy at all even against the hateful look in K’s eyes.
‘Bro, what’s up with you? Why are you glaring at me for no reason?’
“I told you not to let them on-board the bus!” The conductor snapped as she turned to the driver.
“Ah, isn’t it just because… I’m a little scared too?” The driver replied rather insincerely, “With more people around, it’ll be livelier.”
“Pfft, getting all scared while wanting to make money at the same time.” The conductor scoffed contemptuously. Then, she looked at Tang Luo and the others. “I’ll be honest with you, these three people are corpses. They are our extra source of income from transporting dead bodies, get it? If you don’t want to be chased off the bus, then shut up and behave. Otherwise, all of you can walk by yourselves in the wilderness here.”
She looked very fierce and tough.
However, K and the others were relieved right away.
K took a close look at those three people. He realized that all of them had feet and were fixed to the seats with thin cords.
The seats of the bus weren’t purely plastic. The exterior was covered in black fabric and felt a little furry. The thin cords were also black in color.
The skies were already dark, and it was raining outside. The lights on the bus weren’t switched on either. This led to their vision being hindered. Thus, it was very understandable that they didn’t notice the cords.
However, there were still a lot of loopholes in her explanation.
For example, how were the corpses making snoring noises?
The conductor got up and retrieved a tiny audio recorder from the bottom of a seat near the three corpses.
The snoring obviously came from that.
“It sure is hard earning this bit of money from you!” The conductor remarked while looking at the old lady and the young man.
The young man didn’t say anything and kept his head down.
The old lady looked up and gave her an ingratiating smile. Her palms pressed together, and she did a praying action.
Then, she turned to Tang Luo’s group and gestured.
Was she probably mute?
They were the ones who had brought the three corpses here?
“You can get off the bus now if you want.”
The conductor rested her hands on her hips and stood with her feet apart like a drafting compass.
None of them spoke.
One couldn’t tell whether they were lost in thought or that they didn’t plan on getting off the bus.
However, the driver didn’t give them the time to do an all-rounded analysis or to weigh the pros and cons. He had already ignited the engine and resumed going on their way.
Inside the shaking and jerking bus, the corpses shook and swayed left and right. Thanks to the cords, they didn’t fall off.
After much difficulty, they finally got past the section of road that had fallen into disrepair over the years. The bus became stable again.
Although it still swerved sharply due to the winding mountain roads, at least, it didn’t buck up and down anymore.
Lin Zi-ang was pale and looked as if he hadn’t recovered from the earlier jerking yet.
In truth, it was because the more he thought about it, the more he found things suspicious.
Even though the conductor had provided an explanation, there were still several questionable points in this.
Why were they using a bus to transport the corpses?
Couldn’t they get a hearse instead?
Even if they had to use a bus, surely they could place the corpses in coffins, mask them slightly, and fix them on top of the bus, right?
Did they absolutely have to bring them on the bus and disguise them as passengers?
The reason why they allowed Tang Luo and the others on-board the bus made sense by a stretch, though.
Like what the driver had said, it was because he was creeped out as well and wanted a few more people on-board to make the place livelier?
In the heat of the moment back then, he wanted to make money and took up the job. Later on, the more he thought about it, the more scared he became. Thus, he allowed Tang Luo and the others to board the bus.
At least, this could be considered a normal situation. But apart from that, everything else felt weird.
Lin Zi-ang started to shout, “I want to get off! I want to get off the bus!”
‘The mission be damned, it’s not as if I’m going to die just by failing a single mission. I’m going to get off the bus right now!’
“It’s raining heavily, and it’s so dark outside. Why would you want to get off the bus?” The driver’s voice reached them from the front. “You can get off after I send you to the terminal.”
Not only did he not stop the bus, on the contrary, but they could also sense the speed of the bus, which was neither too slow nor too fast, suddenly picking up.
Lin Zi-ang shoved open the window next to him. Chilly wind and rainwater surged into the bus.
He couldn’t care about that much anymore. With a jump, he dived through the narrow window that could barely allow someone through.
Unfortunately, Lin Zi-ang evidently couldn’t launch a beautiful arching leap through the window, like someone jumping through hoops, and tuck and roll successfully onto the ground.
He tripped over something somewhere.
Lin Zi-ang fell over head-first. Two-thirds of his body hung outside the bus while the remaining one-third stayed inside the bus.
His face banged violently against the bus while his legs flailed around madly.
Then, they heard the rip of fabric tearing.
Lin Zi-ang’s body slid off and successfully separated from the bus.
However, his pose when he got off the bus wasn’t right.
After his hands came into contact with the ground, his head was next. The downward force and the inertia of the bus, caused Lin Zi-ang’s neck to snap directly.
His face was completely pressed against his shoulder.
“Is he crazy!?” The driver swore aloud and slammed the brakes.
He pushed the window open, looked toward the back, and immediately saw the human form that didn’t lay too far away at the rear of the bus.
After it spasmed a few times, it stopped moving altogether.
“He’s crazy!” The driver swore again.
Then, he promptly opened the door of the bus and jumped down.
Before long, he hoisted Lin Zi-ang’s corpse on the bus and flung it onto the passage.
Everyone was silent.
Both Auntie Shufen and Mico turned away. They refrained from looking at the corpse to prevent themselves from throwing up.
The driver stared at them, the hypocritical smile on his face completely gone.
The conductor stood next to him as well and stared at Tang Luo and the others too.
Unlike the driver, she was smiling instead now.
“You’re too greedy,” said the conductor amidst the silence and heavy atmosphere.
“…He came over on his own accord. I might as well take it,” replied the driver. “If I don’t take what the heavens bestow upon me, I’ll be punished.”
“What the heavens bestow upon you?” The conductor laughed. “If God really exists, what he’ll give us is probably a bolt of lightning to strike us all dead.”
The driver gave her a fake smile. Then, he raised his arm and shook his wrist.
The crystal clear tinkle of bells rang out. On his wrist was an odd accessory with two bells hanging on it.
From the start, no matter how the driver moved, it hadn’t made any sound at all.
This lasted all the way till now.
The bells started to ring.
The three people in white robes, who were originally seated, suddenly got up. Then, they snapped off the cords around them.
Their faces, which were now raised, were a dull bluish-gray. They opened their eyes to reveal full whiteness within.
Corpses! These were undoubtedly corpses!
Also, the driver was someone who could manipulate corpses!
A corpse transporter[1]?
A corpse manipulator?
Hmm, the second title didn’t sound very good[2].
Let’s just call him a corpse transporter.
The three corpses stood in a row. They didn’t approach but only blocked off the way.
“If you don’t want to die, then you’d better behave and sit there properly,” said the driver. Then, he turned around and went back to driving.
The conductor yawned and settled back down onto the seat lazily.
Once in a while, she would glance at Tang Luo and the rest, giving off a feeling of both mockery and sympathy.
It fully expressed the sentiment of, “Oh well, I’ve already tried to convince you otherwise, but you just had to come forward and send yourselves to death’s door.”
If one sought death, then they would die.
Other sentiments included, “What would come, would come”, “If one sought death, then there was simply no way around it”, and so on.
The bus traveled at high speed. A bus driving at such high speed along mountain roads on a rainy day where it was close to nighttime was basically no different from seeking death.
At the same time, it also cut off all possibilities of Tang Luo and the others jumping out of the window to escape.
After all, the one who had made this exact mistake was currently lying on the passage.
In the case of the passage, it was being blocked by three white-eyed corpses with bluish-gray complexions.
No matter how the bus swerved, the three corpses remained unmoving.
The old lady and the young man acted as if they didn’t notice what was going on in the bus at all. They didn’t seem like partners-in-crime. Nor did they seem like corpses.
It was difficult to determine their identities.
As for the conductor, she sat to the side and glanced at Tang Luo once in a while.
Only the thunderous noise of the engine and the splashing of the rain resounded.
The oppressive atmosphere was almost suffocating.
“Apart from blessing, do you know any offensive skills?” asked K, who was sitting next to Tang Luo.
He spoke in a low voice, making sure it was covered by the other noises and didn’t reach the conductor and driver’s ears at the front of the bus. It was still audible to Tang Luo and the others.
“There’s Gautama’s Palm Hit,” replied Tang Luo.
“…Alright.”
K had an extremely hard time uttering the word alright. “Let’s wait for another ten minutes. When I shout, we’ll strike together.”
In another ten minutes, the cooldown period of Cutting Gale would be over. He would be able to use it again then.
“Why do you want to attack them?” asked Tang Luo. “They’re sending us to the terminal for free and helping us to complete the mission. This is fate and something good.”
“…”
Damn it, his words sounded so reasonable that K practically couldn’t refute him.
‘F*ck you and your fate!’ K roared deep down in his heart.
He had already verified it. This was an abnormal fellow.
Upon thinking about it carefully, this was true!
Would Employees of Gods and Demons dress like that?
It wasn’t as if he was an invincible pro who could even destroy the heavens and crush the earth.
Those suave and grand monk robes were a classic example of a poor imitation of the real deal and posturing that was so extreme to the point of becoming a huge poser!
‘I was wrong. I really was. Right from the start, I shouldn’t have treated this monk as combat power. If I hadn’t treated the monk as combat power, I wouldn’t have boarded the bus so carelessly…’
“I will strike later no matter what you say,” said K as he suppressed his murderous thoughts toward this incompetent teammate of his.
“Sure.” Tang Luo nodded. “Shall this monk bless you in advance?”
If he blessed K, he’d be able to save him from danger once and receive some power of virtuous merits when they got into a fight later.
As for the virtuous merit capital that blessing someone required, Tang Luo would keep it under control, of course.
However, this didn’t mean that he would mind this bit of usage and stop his great blessing business.
Just like doing business, how would there be rewards (profits) if one didn’t make any effort (capital)?
“I…” K really wanted to give him a huge piece of his mind.
“Master, how about you bless me?” A stammering Mico requested after she turned around.
Desperate times called for desperate measures.
“Sure.” Tang Luo nodded.
K didn’t wish to say anymore. He turned away.
‘That damned baldie. This was pretty much the only thing he could do now, deceiving ignorant newbies like them and giving them the last bit of peace of mind he could.’
“Blessing? Little monk, why don’t you try blessing me too?”
Right after he did a simple blessing for Mico, the conductor suddenly got up and walked over before they could delve into a deeper discussion about more advanced methods of blessing.
K’s expression changed. Had she actually heard their whisperings?
Tang Luo looked at the conductor and shook his head. He said, “I’m afraid someone like Benefactor won’t be able to endure this monk’s blessing.”
[1] A supernatural occupation in Chinese occult where someone shepherds corpses to another place at night. A soul-guiding bell is used to command the corpses
[2] The character used for manipulate in the second title is also slang for having sex
