86: Chapter 86 The Clown's Ticket

Before the boy was transferred to the observation point, he received an electronic ticket.

The ticket wasn't sent to his phone.

His phone had long been confiscated by Lin Zhao, powered off, placed in a sealed bag, and even the battery had been removed. Yet, the electronic ticket appeared anyway, floating on the glass window of the observation room, as if someone had pasted a layer of transparent paper from the other side.

Passenger Name: The boy.

Departure Time: 00:13.

There was a line of crooked, scribbled text in the remarks section.

[Please board on time. Children who are late will be called out by the Joker.]

Upon reading it, the boy retreated, knocking over his chair.

When Lin Zhao, who was guarding the door, rushed in, he was huddled in the corner, his face deathly pale.

"I didn't touch the phone."

That was the first thing he said.

Lin Zhao synced the text on the window to the Grey Net, trying his best to keep his voice steady.

"I know."

The boy looked up, his eyes full of panic.

"Then how did it still find me?"

Lin Zhao opened his mouth but couldn't answer.

He wasn't Lu Chen, nor was he Shen Qinghe; he couldn't offer any eloquent explanations. He could only right the chair and block the space between the boy and the window.

"Then let it find me first."

The boy froze.

This sentence was clumsy and might not be useful, but at least it was something more tangible for a person to hold onto than "Don't be afraid."

The Grey Net quickly locked onto the word "Joker" in the remarks.

Spirit almost simultaneously dug up an anonymous account. The account name was Joker, and the profile picture was a low-quality smiley face sticker. It left comments under multiple posts about missing persons in Jiangbei, the content of which all sounded like jokes.

"The next stop is very close."

"Don't be late, or you'll be left behind."

"Smile, so the ticket recognizes you."

The account had long been deactivated, but every time the Night Bus appeared, it would become active again for a period.

Bai Ya read the records, his expression grim.

"This isn't a prank by an ordinary person."

Zhao Ye grabbed his jacket and left.

Shen Qinghe called out to him: "Where are you going?"

"Catch the person."

"You don't even know if he's human."

Zhao Ye turned back, his eyes looking a bit agitated.

"Then we should hurry even more."

Shen Qinghe didn't let him leave.

She knew Zhao Ye wasn't brainless; he just couldn't stand to see a child being called out. The problem was, the more critical the moment, the more you couldn't just rush in according to the opponent's rules.

"He is deliberately using a child as bait," Shen Qinghe said. "If you go over now, it's equivalent to boarding the bus as he said."

Zhao Ye clenched his fist.

Bai Ya added softly from the side: "Don't be in such a hurry to be a passenger."

Zhao Ye glared at him.

Bai Ya raised his hands: "I'll shut up."

The final operation location was locked in the underground passage of the Old City East Station in Jiangbei.

Before midnight, the Torch squad arrived at the perimeter.

The iron chains at the entrance of the underground passage had been broken, and damp, cold air seeped through the cracks in the door. The walls were plastered with bus advertisements that had expired many years ago; the paper was yellowed, and the smiles on the figures were covered by mildew spots, making them look like rotting faces.

Zhao Ye walked at the very front.

Shen Qinghe followed three steps behind him, her Pure Flame Vision ready to be activated at any moment. Lin Zhao stayed behind to protect the boy and Li Xi while they transferred patients, Xu Minglan maintained the Guardian Lamp in the ward, and Bai Ya remotely accessed the Grey Net. Spirit kept sending old surveillance points, with so many messages that Bai Ya wanted to mute her.

"The second camera on the left still works."

"The third one is broken, but I found the old backup line."

"Also, the drainage ditch under your feet has had people drown in it before."

Hearing the last sentence, Zhao Ye couldn't help but say: "Can she say less useless stuff?"

Bai Ya replied: "She thinks it's all very useful."

"Then you filter it."

"I'm already filtering, otherwise you'd be hearing three hundred lines right now."

At the end of the underground passage, behind the old ticket gate, sat a person.

He was wearing an ill-fitting suit, his face painted with cheap greasepaint, and the corners of his mouth were drawn very wide, as if he were constantly smiling. But that smile had no joy in it; it only held sticky malice.

He looked up, saw the Torch squad, and clapped his hands twice in an exaggerated manner.

"Welcome aboard."

Zhao Ye raised his evil-breaking short staff.

Shen Qinghe immediately said: "Don't respond."

The Joker tilted his head.

"Oh my, you learn the rules really fast."

His voice echoed in the passage, and the old tickets on the walls flipped one by one. Every ticket had a name written on the back; some had turned black, while others were still oozing fresh ink.

Zhao Ye didn't speak, pushing forward directly.

The Joker's smile widened.

"Before the game starts, someone always has to say 'start', right?"

A cold, white fire flickered in the depths of Shen Qinghe's eyes.

She saw that behind the ticket gate was not a human figure, but a pile of contaminated fragments stitched together by tickets, red thread, and black clock shadows. The Joker still had a human shell, but it had already been gnawed away by the rules until only half remained.

Just as Zhao Ye was about to cross the ticket line, the first bell toll came from deep within the underground passage.

Dong——

Shen Qinghe's expression changed slightly.

The bell toll didn't belong to the Night Bus.

This was a remnant of another rule.

The Joker finally revealed a truly happy expression.

When the account "Joker" first appeared, no one took it seriously.

It posted smiley faces under creepypasta posts, "Don't forget to swipe your card when boarding" under missing person notices, and "Those who are late will be left behind" under posts seeking help from family members. Administrators deleted it several times and banned it several times, but it would always return with a new shell.

Spirit had once tried to track it.

In the end, she only tracked it to a string of deactivated phone numbers and a non-existent delivery address. The address was next to the Old City East Station, with a house number of zero.

When she sent out this record, she added a sentence.

[I thought at the time it was just some mentally unstable troll. Looking at it now, I was too lenient in my criticism.]

Bai Ya looked at the words "House number zero" and his fingers paused.

This kind of address didn't look like a normal forgery; it looked more like a void dug out of the real-world database by some abnormal rule.

The Longevity Society had likely utilized it.

The Joker himself might have once been a living person. Tested by the delivery rule, taken up by the Night Bus, thrown back, and finally left with half a human shell and half a rule.

After Shen Qinghe synced this judgment to the scene, Zhao Ye only replied with one sentence.

"Got it."

"What do you mean 'got it'?" Shen Qinghe asked.

"If he can still be saved, pin him down. If he can't, seal him."

The words were rough, but they weren't wrong.

Shen Qinghe didn't argue.

In the underground passage, the Joker couldn't hear their conversation, but as if he had guessed it, he raised his hand and straightened his crooked bowtie.

"Don't be so fierce."

He said with a smile, "The most important thing in the boarding game is politeness."

Zhao Ye looked at him and suddenly asked: "What was your name before?"

The smile on the Joker's face paused for a moment.

In that instant, a flicker of human confusion seemed to flash in the depths of his eyes.

But soon, the skin beneath the greasepaint twitched.

"Passengers don't need names."

Shen Qinghe's heart sank.

This thing had been eaten deep by the rules.

"Passengers, please take note."

"It is time for ticket inspection."