Chapter 513 - 454: Mai Mingle: Keeps Its Word, Cheats No One, the Special Seat for the Living

Chapter 513: Chapter 454: Mai Mingle: Keeps Its Word, Cheats No One, the Special Seat for the Living

The office worker sat down two rows ahead of Ashley, only a meter or two away. The position was perfect.

As Mai Mingle walked toward him step by step, she felt as if Ashley’s gaze was pressing so hard against her skin it might leave eyeball-shaped indentations.

"Hello," she said, deliberately avoiding Ashley’s gaze and speaking only to the office worker. "That label that says ’Mobile Reserved Seat’—you wrote that yourself, didn’t you?"

The office worker glanced at her, his expression blank. "Yes. What about it?"

"Can you tear it off?"

Mai Mingle said urgently, "Since you wrote it yourself, you can obviously tear it off yourself too. Why insist on sticking it on the bus, making it move with me? I can’t sit in any normal seats now. And I don’t dare trust that ’Living Person’s Seat.’ Whatever your demand is, I’m willing to do my best to meet it. Can’t we just talk this over and find a solution?"

Ashley had been monitoring her the whole time and had certainly heard everything about the "Mobile Reserved Seat" incident clearly. Repeating it wouldn’t cause any new harm.

In fact, Mai Mingle had come to plead with the office worker precisely so Ashley would hear it again. ’If a few words of pleading were enough to make the office worker let me off the hook, he wouldn’t be a creature of the Nest.’

"If I write it just to tear it off, then why did I write it in the first place?"

The office worker said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "I’m doing this for your own good. Once you’re free from the shackles of being human, you’ll realize what a huge favor I’ve done for you."

"Then I’ll cross it out," Mai Mingle said immediately. "It’s just a handwritten label. If writing it down gives it power, then crossing out the words, or rewriting them, should have an effect too, right?"

The office worker smiled, a cluster of wrinkled skin pulling taut to reveal a thin, pitch-black slit.

"I wrote the label. How could you just alter it as you please? Where’s the logic in that?" He looked at Mai Mingle. "We have to be fair. If you wrote a label, and I went over and changed it, and the label’s effect changed with it, do you think that would make sense? Would that be fair to you?"

’Just as I thought.’ Mai Mingle’s heart began to pound. She licked her lips and said, "But... I have nowhere to sit now."

"Hasn’t the ’Living Person’s Seat’ been inviting you over?" With that, the office worker closed his eyes, apparently unwilling to say more.

The smile on Ashley’s lips was like a wisp of a ghost, vanishing the moment you tried to look at it directly.

Mai Mingle scrubbed her face hard and turned to walk back.

"What will happen to me if I sit on you?" she asked the Living Person’s Seat.

If an uninformed person saw her, they would almost certainly think she had gone mad—talking to a seemingly empty chair.

"Nothing will happen at all," the Living Person’s Seat said with a laugh. "I’m for living people to sit on. A living person who sits on me will remain a living person. Of course, unless you plan to commit suicide on me. Then there will be consequences."

Even if one had no plans to commit suicide, no one would fail to ask the follow-up question at this point.

Mai Mingle was no exception, of course. "What consequences?"

"Your corpse will fall off me," the Living Person’s Seat stated the obvious.

Sometimes, Mai Mingle truly felt that getting emotional about the things in the Nest was the most meaningless thing in the world.

She took a deep breath.

"I understand," Mai Mingle said. "I’ll sit."

In her peripheral vision, Ashley suddenly sat bolt upright.

Even the Living Person’s Seat seemed surprised. "Now?"

Mai Mingle clenched her jaw, feeling as if her throat, lips, and facial muscles were all straining together to keep that one word from leaving her mouth. "...Yes."

Once the word was out, she couldn’t help but feel a little dazed.

’Am I really going to sit down?’

The bus was scheduled to depart again in about four minutes, so it wasn’t yet time for her to be forced to sit—but that wasn’t what gave her the most pause.

’...I don’t have to take this risk. I already have a way to save my own life.’

That solution was right next to the Living Person’s Seat, inside the briefcase on the floor.

The light-as-a-feather briefcase was not empty.

All she had to do was take out the remaining half-sheet of A4 paper from the briefcase, write "Mai Mingle’s Reserved Seat" on it, and stick it on any normal seat. Then, she would have no more worries for the entire bus ride, let alone until the next stop.

However, that would mean she’d have to take out the paper, write on it, and stick it on a seat, all under Ashley’s watchful eye. Once Ashley saw everything clearly, Mai Mingle would lose her only chance to strike back.

Not to strike back for her own satisfaction, but to prevent Ashley from winning the Nest Dominance Game.

"Are you going to sit or not?" the Living Person’s Seat urged when it saw her standing still. "I’m waiting with open arms."

Mai Mingle swallowed hard.

Compared to Ashley, her disadvantages were practically countless: Ashley was in contact with Nest residents and was constantly receiving guidance; Ashley had two fare points while she had none; Ashley clearly knew some of the bus rules, while she could only guess blindly based on the situation.

Even in terms of Body Techniques and strength, Ashley had the upper hand.

’To get something, you have to give something... right?’

’Even if I die, I’ll only have lost the last nineteen hours of my life...’

’Nineteen hours that, to me, weigh more than nineteen or twenty-nine years.’

Mai Mingle stood before the Living Person’s Seat. All she had to do was bend her knees to sit down, but her knees felt as if they were filled with cement.

Every pair of eyes on the bus seemed to be fixed on her, eagerly awaiting her death.

She found it impossible to sit down through sheer willpower alone. Closing her eyes, she imagined Ashley standing in front of her and giving her a hard shove—and Mai Mingle fell back into the chair.

The Living Person’s Seat immediately burst into laughter.

"So happy so happy you believed me you really believed me wow you’re so naive so innocent you believe whatever I say yay"

Mai Mingle felt as if she’d been plunged into an ice cave. Her limbs seemed to turn inch by inch into a hollow Black Abyss, leaving her unable to move.

But just then, the Living Person’s Seat changed its tune. "...But your trust wasn’t misplaced, you know."

’What?’

"I didn’t lie to you," the Living Person’s Seat said in a dead-serious tone. "Although you really are innocent and naive, you trusted the right one. I’m not dangerous to you at all. If you don’t believe me, try standing up yourself."

It took Mai Mingle several seconds to recover before she pushed herself up, using the armrests for support.

Her thigh muscles trembled faintly, as if she had just climbed out of a pool, her body heavy and disobedient—but she did manage to stand up successfully.

No extra living person had grown on her body. Her breathing and heartbeat were steady. Aside from the goosebumps and cold sweat that had broken out all over her, she was exactly the same as before.

From a distance, Ashley frowned and leaned back against her seat, clearly displeased with this development.

"Not every special seat is dangerous," the Living Person’s Seat said, comforting Mai Mingle. "See? I’m a good person who keeps my word."

’There are harmless residents in the Nest, right?’

’Has my luck finally turned? Did I actually meet a harmless one?’

Mai Mingle nodded dazedly. It took her several seconds before she jolted, the realization hitting her.

"Wait, you said you don’t lie," she asked in a low whisper. "So when you said earlier that there are benefits to sitting in a special seat, was that also true?"

"Of course," the Living Person’s Seat said, sounding a little offended. "That’s quite rude of you to ask."

"What... what are the benefits?"

"Sit down first. You’ll know once you sit."

"Wait," Mai Mingle hesitated. "Let me bring my things over first. I’m afraid someone might try to pull a fast one on me, so I should have some things ready."

"What things could you possibly have?" the Living Person’s Seat asked, looking down on her.

Quite a few, actually. Besides the baguette, there were also two human legs, which Mai Mingle moved one by one and arranged beside her seat to form a protective moat.

The point wasn’t to actually block anyone with them, but to buy herself a precious sliver of reaction time—the difference between life and death.

Ashley seemed to snort.

Even with one successful experience under her belt, she was still facing a creature of the Nest. When Mai Mingle sat down for the second time, her mood was just as tense. But the Living Person’s Seat was truly just a seat for the living. She sat down a second time, endured a few seconds that felt like waiting for a verdict, and her mind, body, and life... were all still her own.

Mai Mingle let out a long sigh of relief.

"Do you believe in my character now?" the Living Person’s Seat huffed. "Look up at the screen on the bus."

"You want me to watch the ads?"

As she asked, Mai Mingle was already raising her head—and a second later, she forcefully stopped herself from sucking in a sharp breath.

On the bus screen, the commercials had just ended. A cartoon figure in a transportation company uniform was smiling as it reminded passengers of safety precautions.

"When you’re out and about, accidents are bound to happen." The cartoon figure’s eyebrows drooped into a sad shape. "If a companion dies, and you wish for them to remain in a state of death, what should you do? We deeply sympathize with your feelings, so we have specially designated a corpse-holding area on this bus."

Mai Mingle had to bite the inside of her cheek tightly to remain calm.

It wasn’t that the bus had no rules—it was that you had to be sitting in a special seat to see the rules of the bus’s traps!

"Just place your companion’s corpse in the correct location, and they will remain a corpse. Your journey can then be worry-free, with no need to fear your companion opening their eyes beside you again!"

The cartoon figure smiled again. "If you wish for other passengers to believe you are dead, you can also use the corpse-holding area. Just lie down. But be careful! If no one comes to move you, you will remain in a state of feigned death, without consciousness, all the way to the final destination..."

"See?" the Living Person’s Seat whispered sweetly in her ear. "The benefits of sitting in a special seat are pretty great, aren’t they? I didn’t lie, did I?"

’...How many things in the Nest are this true to their word?’

Mai Mingle felt like turning around and giving it a kiss—of course, she didn’t.

"Wait, the instructions for getting off the bus should be next," the Living Person’s Seat said considerately. "I told you to sit down earlier but you wouldn’t, so you missed that part of the explanation. But it’s alright, this set of instructions plays on a loop. Just wait."

Mai Mingle gave a soft "mhm."

The briefcase was under the seat in front of her. She had conveniently pushed it there with one of the human feet while arranging the legs. Ashley had probably noticed, but she might not have known its importance.

’Now that I finally have a safe seat, I can move on to the next step—’

Just as the thought crossed her mind, the bus’s broadcast system suddenly crackled to life. The four minutes were already up.

"This vehicle is about to depart. The ride will be unsteady upon starting. All passengers, please be seated as soon as possible and do not stand up or walk around after the vehicle is in motion."

She couldn’t get up now. But thankfully, she was already in a safe seat.

"Will anyone not proceeding to the next station please disembark before the vehicle departs."

Mai Mingle heard the announcement, but she didn’t register its meaning.

Not until the cheerful voice of the Living Person’s Seat sounded beside her ear.

"It was nice meeting you. It feels so good to be trusted! But, well, I’m getting off now," the Living Person’s Seat said happily. "Don’t worry, you don’t have to get up. I can leave just fine. It’s just that once I’m gone, this will turn back into a normal seat, ’kay?"