In fact, compared to them, these monsters cared more about the lives of these villagers.
Of course—
He believed that if it were indeed possible to rescue all these villagers who had not yet died from the hands of this group of monsters, he would definitely pass the level smoothly, but the difficulty of the task would increase significantly.
But if he chose to kill the villagers.
The difficulty of the task... seemed to become even higher.
After all, these monsters were using their bodies fearlessly to protect the safety of the villagers, and with the death of one monster, dozens more would split off in an instant.
It was only a matter of seconds.
The number of monsters had already overflowed from the village, beyond sight, and they found themselves in a veritable sea of monsters, where countless tentacles could be seen wildly flailing about.
If he hadn't been there, a normal supernatural being in this situation would almost certainly die without killing the villagers immediately—no one could stand against this sea of monsters before them.
So, regardless of the choice, whether to save the villagers or to kill them.
It was almost a certain death situation.
Unless one possessed extremely high stealth abilities and could knock out the villagers immediately, or had exaggerated firepower coverage capable of holding back the charge of millions of monsters alone, and could kill those villagers amidst the protection of countless monsters.
These monsters also had a natural resistance to control effects, immune to any form of it, and even strong crowd control skills were useless.
Apart from these two cases, all other scenarios led to death.
And Chen Miao just happened to possess the second capability.
...
At that moment, the "Insect Tribe Priest" from Jingjiu City, looking at the surrounding millions of monsters, stood petrified with a pale complexion—the Insect Tribe Priest excelled at bullying the few with many.
But the sight of millions of monsters still frightened him; if the Insect Tribe played this way, it would be financial ruin. After a fight like this, he could basically declare bankruptcy; even if he survived, the rest of his life would be extremely destitute.
If those villagers were still not dead, there was no way they could survive after that.
The monsters showed no desire to charge at them, instead forcefully surging towards the largest house in the village. In the blink of an eye, a massive ball of flesh made up of monsters surrounded the biggest house in the village.
Clearly, these monsters were also clever; they didn't need to rush to kill Chen Miao and his companions. As long as they protected the villagers from death, and let Chen Miao fire at will, the number of monsters would only grow larger and larger. Eventually, Chen Miao would be the one in a hurry.
From the moment Chen Miao chose to fire his gun, the situation escalated. Initially, there were only a few hundred monsters in the village, but now the number exploded into millions, and it continued to grow at an absurd rate.
To multiply from one to two, and two to four, was already a staggering progression.
Moreover...
One turns into thirty, thirty into nine hundred, nine hundred into...
In a matter of seconds, an army of a million could be summoned.
"Huff..."
Doctor Gou took a deep breath, his hands devoutly pressed together as he murmured, "My dear Buddha, although it's presumptuous of me, I'd like to ask if I choose to believe in you now, can you still bless me?"
"At least give me a backdoor, so when I get to Western Heaven, I can be with my parents."
Just then—
He sniffed the air, detecting a strange smell, somewhat like gunpowder, but not quite the same.
Chen Miao turned back to look at Old Gao and the others, casually tossing the unfinished cigarette onto the ruins, and walked towards the bus on the distant street, "Now that you're awake, let's go. We'll meet again if it's meant to be."
The mission panel at the station now showed that the task had been completed.
They could return successfully.
"Is it over..."
Doctor Gou looked at Chen Miao's departing figure and the ruins around him, finding the words "can return successfully" on the mission panel painfully glaring. He had never thought he would come out alive from the Hell Bus, an event with a one hundred percent death rate.
But now... from this day onwards, the Hell Bus loaded to the brim would no longer have a one hundred percent death rate. They had made history.
He had never imagined he could survive.
All of a sudden, he felt life was so damn absurd. If it had not been for Chen Miao needing to rent his clinic for a day, he might never have met Chen Miao—perhaps he wouldn't have survived this disaster.
...
The bus was still running.
All eleven stops were successfully cleared, and now the bus was heading towards the final station. Once they arrived, they could return successfully, and all the various items acquired along the way would also be distributed.
When the bus finally came to a stop again, the Hell Bus event would be completely over.
The bus, now full of passengers, slowly traveled along the deserted country road. Although it seemed no different from the beginning, even the scenery outside the window was the same, perhaps their state of mind was now different.
Old Gao was even in the mood to look around at the fellow passengers and said with a smile, "We've all shared a fate. After I get off, I'll burn some paper money for you all, so you can have a bit more to spend down there."
"Really, dying so young is such a pity."
Before long—
The speed of the bus slowed down as it prepared to reach its stop, and it was time for everyone to part ways.
"I'm off."
Doctor Gou looked at Chen Miao with a complex expression, "I don't know when we'll see each other again. Take care. I've got this feeling I won't be seeing you in that old pot any longer. With firepower like yours, there won't be much chance to run if you cause trouble."
The Insect Tribe Priest from Jingjiu City and others like Old Gao also came to bid farewell to Chen Miao one after another. Chen Miao had indeed helped them a lot on this journey. They added each other as friends, recognizing one another, and if they met again, they would be friends.
"Here."
On the bus, the dog, glowing with colored lights, handed Chen Miao an item, saying with a laugh, "It's a great thing, the best from the first station. Too bad it's part of the Gunner Series; I can't use it, so I'm giving it to you."
"We'll see each other soon. I hope next time we meet, you can look out for me more. You're strong."
"Oh?"
Chen Miao looked at the item glowing with colored lights in his hand with a hint of surprise, then lowered his head towards the small wolf dog standing upright but not reaching up to his crotch and said with a smile, "Alright, I'll remember that. Call on me if you need anything when you're outside."
...
The bus soon came to a steady stop. The moment the bus came to a halt, all the players on board vanished in a flash of white light, and the passengers walked out one by one through the bus door.
This was their final station.
No matter the past, it was the last stop of their lives.
...
And Chen Miao appeared out of nowhere on the streets of Fengtian City just before dawn. He had no time to carefully check his reward panel because he picked up the Python R6 Revolver and ran non-stop towards Sankui Wasteland.
There was still a mess waiting for him to handle there; according to Hungry Monkey's message, it seemed like the situation was about to spiral out of control.