It simply fucked the day up; he was the deputy director of the Events Bureau, responsible for managing random incidents in Fengtian City, yet such an incident had occurred in Fengtian City, and he hadn't received any news about it.
It was only through a message from Hungry Monkey that he discovered the incident.
It was absolutely outrageous.
However, Zhou Shen didn't feel like he had lost face, but instead spoke with a heavy and hoarse voice, "There are many random events that occur in Fengtian City every year, like the boss siege event you guys experienced last time, and the Events Bureau is in charge of managing such events."
"But usually such events come with a prior warning, like that boss siege event, where there would be a notice about the occurrence of a random event, unlike this event which had no warning at all. There's only one kind of event like that."
"It's a fixed event!"
"The concept of a fixed event is quite simple; it's an event that constantly repeats and fixed events generally don't stay in one city, they randomly occur in one or several cities."
"Fixed events have their own identification numbers, with the numbers ascending from small to large indicating the difficulty from high to low, the smaller the number the higher the difficulty and the greater the mortality rate."
"I've experienced a fixed event myself, the identification number was 389, and the event was named Wilderness Train."
"Based on my guess, Miao has most likely been caught up in a fixed event."
Hungry Monkey spoke anxiously, "What was your experience like during that fixed event?"
"Experience?"
Zhou Shen's expression turned complex as he undid his clothes, revealing his chest. What could be seen was an extremely ghastly wound with the skin torn open, revealing white fat and coagulated blood, looking extremely horrifying.
And his shirt underneath had already been soaked red with blood.
"I nearly died during that event, and although I was lucky enough to survive, I was left with a curse. The curse is this wound that will never kill me but will also never heal, tormenting me every moment. The intense pain makes my life worse than death."
"If it wasn't for the mission I have yet to complete in my life, I would have chosen to end my own a long time ago."
"With such a curse, one can hardly be considered human anymore."
Hungry Monkey looked in slight shock at the terrifying wound on Zhou Shen's chest. It was his first time finding out about such a wound on Zhou Shen, yet Zhou Shen still took Yuan Buping and others to raid secret realms?
With such a big wound, swinging a fist once would hurt for a day, right?
"The fabric of the clothes is custom-made to ensure that the blood doesn't seep out to the greatest extent."
Zhou Shen while rebuttoning his shirt, let out a faint sigh, and said with some worry, "If Miao really got tangled up in a fixed event, we can only hope that the identification number of this fixed event isn't too low, otherwise, it might be very difficult for him to survive."
It wasn't a pleasant thing to say, but he said it anyway.
Although Miao's strength was considerable, strength alone isn't enough in a fixed event, there are too many factors determining whether one can survive or not, among which luck is a very important factor; by comparison, strength is not that crucial.
In that fixed event, Wilderness Train with the number 389 that he experienced, he was the weakest in terms of strength. There were many who were stronger than him, but quite a few stronger individuals died, whereas he survived.
Although he was left with a curse that he could not remove for life, but... at least he survived.
If you say secret realms possess a certain danger, with a not insignificant mortality rate, then for fixed events like these, there's basically a certain survival rate.
...
"Identification number 128, named Hell Bus as a fixed event?"
Afterward, the bus doors closed, and the vehicle started up again. The route map had changed once more.
The previous stop, "Gaobei City" - current stop, "Jingjiu City" - next stop, "Broken Pot City" - next stop, "Fei Yu City" -...
The display screen could only show four stops at a time.
As it stood, there was at least one stop after Fei Yu City.
Which meant there had to be at least six stops.
So far, two people had boarded, making four people inside the bus. No, wait... Chen Miao suddenly realized something and looked up toward the very front of the bus, at the driver who had been silent since the beginning.
Including the driver, there should be five people.
At that moment, the driver still sat there as if he hadn't moved at all since the start, quietly focusing on his duties. But neither the chatty middle-aged man nor the young man from Jingjiu City had engaged in even a brief conversation with the driver.
They must have known more than he was aware of.
Since they didn't approach, there must be some taboo involved. At this point, with his information nearly a complete blank, it was best to stay quiet and avoid any unnecessary actions in his ignorance.
When the young man boarded, he had paid special attention to his eyes. After the young man settled down, aside from a glance at the two of them and the route map, his gaze hadn't drifted elsewhere.
Like the middle-aged man, he hadn't looked in Hungry Monkey's direction.
No, that wasn't right...
A sudden chill went through Chen Miao's heart. Normally, people getting on a bus would look all around; it was odd to only look to the right and not to the left. His initial thought was that these two couldn't see Hungry Monkey.
But it now seemed more like they were deliberately avoiding looking in Hungry Monkey's direction.
Avoiding catching sight of Hungry Monkey.
He subconsciously turned his head to look back again. Hungry Monkey, who had been sitting in the rear seat, was now standing behind him. Bending over, he brought his head close to Chen Miao's forehead, his lips twisted in a sinister smile as he hissed.
"Miao, I want to sit with you."
Caught off guard, Chen Miao's heart nearly stopped at the sight of Hungry Monkey, who was beyond 'eerie'. He didn't immediately respond, instead looking at the other two men.
At that moment, both men appeared to be half-asleep, sitting in their seats, motionless against the side window.
But through their extremely steady breathing, he could clearly tell they weren't asleep; they were feigning it.
"..."
After taking a deep breath, Chen Miao slowly stood up, looking down at Hungry Monkey in front of him. Although he badly wanted to stuff Thomson into Hungry Monkey's mouth and let off a round, he chose to hold back, given the unclear circumstances.
He was about to say something to manage the situation, for the current Hungry Monkey was quite unsettling.
But before he could speak, Hungry Monkey mumbled to himself and returned to his seat at the back, once again starting to doze off.
"Hey."
No sooner had Hungry Monkey settled down than the middle-aged man in a straw raincoat sitting opposite Chen Miao suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward the young man at the front of the bus, "The lad that got on in Jingjiu City, tell us your job and level."
"This trip is obviously going to be tough; share some info, so we can all survive together."