Book 1 – Chapter 1: Real-life Horror Film
Ye Jiang, even with his creative mind, could not possibly have imagined that his life would change within a few days.
In a flash of a moment, Ye Jiang suddenly discovered himself standing inside a dark wooden cabin, with only a head standing solitary.
To his greater surprise, he found himself staring at his headless body right in front of him. Then with an unexpected appearance of an electric saw, he watched his body being dismembered while the saw made raspy sounds.
Whaa…?!!! WHAT THE f.u.c.k IS GOING ON? A nightmare? But it is so vivid, so lifelike.
His hopes of this being an illusion were dashed soon enough, as he watched a horrible horror show happening right in front of his eyes, making him scared out of his wits.
His body was constantly ripped apart. Hot fresh blood on his face was convincingly real enough to almost drive Ye Jiang mad, as his arm fell apart from his body.
This is not a dream! s.h.i.t, this is no illusion!
Terror continued torturing his mind, as he saw the electric saw split his body in half from the headless neck to his toes. His head was constantly soaked from t.i.ts and bits of flesh, guts, and organs falling atop his head. Yet, he couldn’t make a sound.
He watched devastated, as his body was finally completely dismembered.
During this horror show, large amount of information, that previously didn’t exist, kept flooding in like tidal waves. Now, however, these information were all transmitted to his brain.
The information was astonishing, unbelievable, yet his heart cried out otherwise.
I will do it, so just please, PLEASE stop this! I believe, I BELIEVE!
The electric saw appears yet again, but this time aiming for the top of his head.
Suddenly, all went dark.
…
…
…
In another flash of a moment, Ye Jiang discovers himself sitting in a pa.s.senger bus with a fully intact body.
He gawked out the window in a stupefied expression, to see a deserted mountainous landscape. The scenes were spiraling backward as if the bus was running very fast, but he felt like time had actually stopped. He could vaguely see other pa.s.sengers sit in the bus but he couldn’t make out their face. He couldn’t even open his mouth or move!
He could neither speak nor move his body about, not even a single finger. (ED: Hehe..picturing Hawkins here….)
His memories slowly start coming back to him.
Ye Jiang was just a standard normal employee working as an accountant for a company. His monotonous life consisted of simply going to work at 9 in the mornings then returning home at 5 in the evening.
That fine day, he had worked overtime till 8 pm. Most of the employees had already left for home. As he got off from work, he walked down the stairs, considering the elevator was undergoing maintenance. Gradually the surroundings became dark as he reached the third floor.
On one foot of stair on this floor, he discovered a piece of paper. Making no big deal of it, he picked up the piece of paper, which unexpectedly turned out to be a film flyer. The flyer had a pa.s.senger bus drawn on it, with countless demon images that were rather hazy and difficult to comprehend. What was clearly written were the two blood-red letters “Terror Bus”, with a list of actors right below.
Ye Jiang thought of this as a mere propaganda leaflet for an upcoming horror movie, but he saw a new line appearing in the cast list. His name, ‘Ye Jiang’.
Suddenly, a huge force acted up, and in a blink, his surroundings changed to that of within the cabin, where he saw his headless body get chopped into pieces by the electrical saw. Then, he found himself sitting on this bus.
After sorting out some of his thoughts, he began to see through the information that came to his mind.
The place he was at currently was actually the world of the horror film, ‘Terror Bus’! Whenever a person found the flyer of these movies, they would be forced to be a part of the cast for the movie for ‘h.e.l.l Cinema’. Inside any of these movies, you could meet anything such as a cursed demon soul, and as an actor, you are supposed to live through till the end of the movie over all obstacles and difficulties thrown in your way.
For the chosen ‘actors’, they will not have any choice but to co-operate with others to complete the movie or die.
Their placement in the bus is how the first scene of the movie would begin.
His character within this movie, Xia Yun, with 6 other students including the ‘male’ and ‘female’ protagonists, Luo Hao Sheng and Kang Xue Yan, are going on a picnic trip on a bus.
The movie is just beginning, but based on the plotline of the movie, countless bizarre incident will keep happening. It would begin with the bus suddenly stopping to work, causing the ‘cast’ to be trapped in this desolate place. At midnight, in such a place lacking of a cell-phone signal, people would decide to sleep on the bus for one night, waiting for the next morning to send some people down the mountain to get help.
It would still be night, where all was silent. Right at this moment, Hao Sheng would wake up from nightmares. He would have dreamt of the driver’s body soaking in blood, while he kept trying to wake him up. Now awake, he would turn around to see that the driver actually lying dead on the steering wheel. This is how the first scene would end but Ye Jiang had no idea what came next, as the scenario for the following section had yet to appear.
With the plotline quickly explained in his head, Ye Jiang turns looks at the actor that was to act as the dead driver in the seat with some sympathy. According to his realization of information that flooded into his head, the driver was supposed to be a very important role, that must be played by an experienced actor. If you are a newcomer, who just sits on the steering wheel, or doesn’t dare to drive, or is shocked ad worried, naturally you won’t get other chances to play in the sequels. (ED: Does this mean torture to death?)
Ye Jiang takes a breather, he couldn’t imagine things happening this way. But the information inside his head could not possibly be fake. After all, it was no illusion that he had seen his body sawed into sections, it was shown by the cinema itself!
That is what would happen if he didn’t obey the rules announced by the cinema. The terror of him being beheaded would appear once more, and seeing that scene again would be making sure he can’t skip his death.
What have I got myself into? This cannot be the works of ordinary people…no normal person could possibly make a headless man immortal, going as far as to reshaping his shred body. In fact… are they even people? Is this how it must be?
He had really become an actor of the horror movie. The preliminary script of the first shoot had already been sent to his head. The most difficult fact was that every speech, every act must be remembered exactly, even the punctuation should not differ.(ED: Grammar police alert)
He discovered he was finally able to move.
He doesn’t dare complain to the others. The terror of being beheaded still scared him. What person would remain unperturbed while watching his body ripped to pieces? Theoretically, he should be nauseous and dizzy, yet he just had a tight feeling in the chest right now, perhaps due to the scenario.
The others around him, they must be his co-actors starring in the film.
Directly sitting in front of him were the main character couple, Luo Hao Sheng and Kang Xue Yan. This info was already within the data provided by the Cinema. He could also vaguely recall their actual names, Yang He and Tang Hai Lan from the leaflets.
The act begins as the protagonist Luo Hao Sheng, speaks.
“Xue Yan, this might be the last time before graduation that all of us will be traveling together.”
The information from the cinema had clearly recorded every word of every character dialogue in the film, including the co-stars. The first speech had officially been debuted by Hao Sheng, as the protagonist.
The intense fear of death makes Ye Jiang stabilize his mind quickly to integrate into the role. He must act properly, if he wants to live.
“Yes”, Kang Xue Yan speaks. “Let’s just consider this a graduation trip, then.”
The scenario began, as the two actors in front of him talked with each other in a relatively calm fashion. They do not seem fake in any sort of way, their speech far from similar to reading a dialogue. Ye Jiang thought this might not be their first time in a horror movie.
Right beside Ye Jiang is a short-haired young man, whose character name is Zhang Nian Zhou, another supporting character. He is friends with Xia Yun. Ye Jiang also noticed two students beside Zhang Nian Zhou, a young male with a thin-grown beard, Du Yan and another female with cute curly hair, Jiang You Lin.
Zhang Nian Zhou and Du Yan had pale countenance, so at first glance Ye Jiang thought, they are new to this like himself. Jiang You Lin, on the other hand remained calm enough, that he thought perhaps she had some acting experience before.
“These two days were so boring. Nothing to do, nor could we have fun.” Zhang Nian Zhou speaks his dialogue, his voice laced with worry and his speech a tad bit emotionless and dry, that made Ye Jiang sure of his previous hypothesis of Zhang Nian Zhou being a newcomer.
Perhaps he went through similar spectacle like I did? Ye Jiang thought.
Based on the script, the bus will soon stop working. The gradual progress of the scenario made every other character feel fear and antic.i.p.ation, after all, they would be encountering a demon soul sometime soon.
These people were shivering with fear about the upcoming demon and its dramatic dialogue, yet they dared not interrupt or say anything.
At this time, Xia Yun also said his first sentence, “Yeah, we took such a long time to have the bus run till the Foothill guesthouse, yet we go home tomorrow! I have not yet had enough fun!”
Ye Jiang did some quick thinking and came to a conclusion he has to save his own life. There supposedly exist a curse in the movie, based on what appeared within his head. He naturally spoke, without emotions, thankfully the movie is about a curse, so acting skills are not too demanding.In other words acting skill don’t determine the survival ability of the actors.
Nian Zhou began to read his speech, “Xia Yun , are you still not tired from all the things we did, all the fun we had?”
Ye Jiang discovered his powerful psyche at this moment, as Nian Zhou put out the casual question with a horrified expression as if he received notice of failing his course in his college.
Ye Jiang also understood that neither of these new casts knew why they became a part of the horror film. They only knew that they would be encountering demons. Not collapsing was already good enough for this group of people. Only the pressure of being killed was what kept them to continue reading the script, so they, of course, couldn’t act all natural.
“Ah, but this place was not as fun as what we were introduced by the tourist handbook!” Ye Jiang’s voice became a bit more stable. He cleared his thoughts and realized fear is not going to solve the problem now. He just needed to follow the rules to stay alive. Fortunately, they are not blinded by the future. Being able to foresee a scenario is big enough of an advantage!
No matter what, we must live till the horror movie ends, other things can be put to the side.
This time, Jiang You Lin sitting on the opposite side began to talk. Ye Jiang already knew that she would say something as the whole play had already appeared within his brain. But he never expected her voice to be this warm and comfortable.
“Xue Yan, when will you and Hao Sheng send us the wedding invitations?”
After this dialogue from Jiang You Lin, Xue Yan sitting in front turned around, smiled slightly and said, “Hiii don’t expect that now. Hao Sheng wants us graduated from college first and put other things into account later. “
Ye Jiang could finally see Xue Yan face clearly. She was a beautiful girl. Perhaps she is chosen because of her pretty face.
Male protagonist Hao Sheng also said with a smile, “My parents already talked with us. So, I think the wedding ceremony will be held soon after the graduation ends.”
Xue Yan’s smile become a bit more radiant. Such incredible natural acting makes Ye Jiang sure that she was no amateur to acting like him. No one could possibly smile so cheerfully after seeing their corpse.
He only played out as a supporting actor, most of the dialogue are continued by Hao Sheng and Xue Yan. Since he didn’t have anything else to do, he quickly tried to think of a strategy in addition to looking at the scenery outside. He only knew how the first scenario played out, some demonic horror phenomenon would occur, then someone would die. But that didn’t provide enough reference. Also, in the script, the notes in the red had emphasized ‘When the bus stops running, all people must be seated in their respective place. Seats cannot be changed.’
He, of course, knew how the next few lines would be, so he did not focus on the dialogues. He rather spent the time focusing on a.n.a.lyzing the situation. Some time later, the bus would stop running. Then, the people would temporarily sleep within the bus, because the time would be around midnight. At the end of the scene, the driver would lose his life!
Sure, Ye Jiang did not think his character could secure survival in the script. Through basic observations, he realized Du Yan, Nian Zhou and he himself have no strong impression, hence it wouldn’t matter if they die. Though they were friends with the protagonist, they were still minor characters. Luo Hao Sheng and Xue Yan would have more chances to live longer, but he was not like them at all!
So, if the script imposed death on him, would it be a certain death? Could it not be changed?
…
No! Though he was in the world of a horror film, there will be opportunities to live on. On this point, the rules were crystal clear from the very start….