Urban Legend Factory

Wang Xia and Tang Nianke were hiding in a pitch-black warehouse filled with cardboard boxes. Through the dim light of their mobile phones, they could vaguely see advertisements printed on the boxes they were using as cover.

A cute, cartoon-style sausage was blowing a kiss, and below it were the words "Joyous Brand Beef Sausage" along with "Jinyang Joyous Processing Factory" and other text. When these boxes were placed on the production line, they would turn into brand-new crates filled with delicious Joyous Sausages to be shipped out.

Jinyang Joyous Sausage was a very famous local brand. Wang Xia had loved their beef sausages since he was a child, but at this moment, he didn't have the slightest appetite. The surroundings were very quiet, with only the occasional piercing cry of a cat. That sound seemed like the mournful wail of a dying cat.

When he saw Diep Vu reply to his message, Wang Xia choked up. But hearing the mournful cat cries from outside, he recalled the image of that half-rotted cat covered in maggots, its organs spilling out on the ground as it lunged at him. He immediately covered his mouth in agony. *No, I'm going to throw up!*

Tang Nianke lowered her voice. "Hold it in! Absolutely do not vomit! Let me talk."

Actually, she wasn't very brave either, but she still tried to recall what had just happened while her hands trembled as she quickly typed.

The cause was a roommate of Wang Xia's named Zhao Yang. He was short on money and found a part-time job a few days ago. He seemed to be doing very well—so well that he had skipped classes for three days straight. This guy was a slacker who often skipped class and rarely stayed in the dorm. Wang Xia's relationship with him was mediocre, so he hadn't paid much attention.

But just last night, this person sent Wang Xia a message, saying he was working at the Jinyang Joyous Processing Factory. The factory was having an event and was inviting the public to visit and provide feedback. So Zhao Yang asked Wang Xia if he wanted to come and take a look.

Wang Xia was a fanatic for beef sausages, having eaten them his whole life. Hearing there was such a good opportunity, he immediately asked if there were free samples. Hearing Zhao Yang say he could eat as much as he wanted for free, he immediately made an appointment to go early the next morning.

Wang Xia also asked his other two roommates. He learned they had also received messages from Zhao Yang, but one was going home for the break and the other wasn't interested in Joyous Sausages, so they both declined. However, after Tang Nianke received Wang Xia's message, she expressed interest in going along.

Wang Xia immediately asked Zhao Yang, who was extremely enthusiastic about welcoming Tang Nianke, even saying that if Wang Xia had other friends or relatives who wanted to come, he would welcome them too.

And so, early the next morning, Wang Xia led Tang Nianke straight to the Jinyang Joyous Processing Factory in the suburbs. Trieu Yem Xuan didn't go because she had a part-time job on her day off.

Actually, Tang Nianke wasn't interested in Joyous Sausages either. She just heard Wang Xia say that his roommate Zhao Yang's part-time job at the factory had very good pay and benefits. Thinking of Trieu Yem Xuan's family situation, she planned to see the specific working conditions at the factory. If it was truly as Zhao Yang described, Tang Nianke intended to suggest Trieu Yem Xuan try it out.

Tang Nianke's typing hands suddenly stopped. She didn't write her true reason for visiting the factory but continued her recollection.

Tang Nianke: "The security guard at the gatehouse actively opened the gate for us. We didn't notice anything unusual at the time and just walked into this factory. But the next second, a loudspeaker rang out. A man's voice, accompanied by noisy static, said..."

"Welcome, new workers, to the Joyous Processing Factory. You are now members of this warm family. Life never ends, work never ends! As long as you aren't dead, work until you die! We hope you two new workers will cherish this hard-earned job. You must work hard, develop a spirit of endurance, be diligent, love your profession, and resolutely prevent cheating, dereliction of duty, sloppiness, and other irresponsible behaviors!"

Recalling what happened after that broadcast, Tang Nianke couldn't help but tremble, her fingers flying across the phone screen. After the broadcast, they had lost consciousness.

When they woke up, they were already wearing gray uniforms with "Jinyang Joyous Processing Factory" printed on them, standing in the production workshop.

On the production line, a crowd of workers wearing caps, masks, and gray uniforms were covered from head to toe. Like ants, they didn't lift their heads, busy with their work.

A pot-bellied middle-aged man, claiming to be their supervisor, stood in front of them and sternly handed them two small booklets titled "Standard Worker Conduct Procedures." Then he harshly drove them to work.

Tang Nianke and Wang Xia held the booklets and stood dazed in this busy workshop. They didn't really understand the current situation. They had clearly come for free beef sausages... no, wait, they were there as public visitors to provide feedback. How did they go from students to factory workers in the blink of an eye? If jobs were this easy to find, their seniors wouldn't be going bald from unemployment!

This situation was so absurd that Wang Xia even forgot about losing consciousness earlier and blurted out instinctively, "What's the pay and benefits?"

"If the benefits aren't bad, for just 3,000 yuan, he could bring a whole busload of unemployed students for you."

As a result, the pot-bellied manager was even more shocked than they were, saying, "Pay? The great Joyous Processing Factory has given you a job, and instead of being grateful, you have the nerve to ask for pay? How can there be such thick-skinned, shameless people in this world! Get to work right now, and I'll pretend I didn't hear that!"

On the forum.

Ho Khai Luong: ...

Diep Vu: ... As expected, urban legends are truly terrifying.

Trieu Yem Xuan: ... So you guys just went to work? And only now have time to contact us?

Wang Xia: "Of course not, we aren't that stupid. We only agreed verbally, then used the excuse of going to the bathroom to try and run. But just as we sneaked out of the workshop, a loudspeaker rang out again. It said: 'Attention! During working hours, workers are not allowed to leave their posts at will. Work hard! No dereliction of duty, no unauthorized absence!'"

"Attention! During working hours, workers are not allowed to leave their posts at will. Work hard! No dereliction of duty, no unauthorized absence!"

"Attention! During working hours, workers are not allowed to leave their posts at will. Work hard! No dereliction of duty, no unauthorized absence!"

Wang Xia: "That broadcast kept repeating. Each time it repeated, the chaotic static increased. First, my ears started ringing severely, then my head began to throb. Tang Nianke and I supported each other, trying to run. But before we got very far, the pain made us roll on the ground. Our minds became groggy, and we felt a strong urge to go back, a strong urge to work."

Wang Xia: "Finally, we began to lose control of our bodies. In that groggy state, we went back to that workshop. The most horrible thing happened—we spent the whole morning moving boxes in that dump of a factory! And there wasn't a single cent of pay!"

Wang Xia: "I thought my roommate Zhao Yang was just a timid guy who was easy to fool. I didn't expect him to be like a scammer from Myanmar. He tricked me and my cousin into this black factory to do unpaid labor! QAQ"

"Twenty or thirty-kilogram crates of Joyous Sausages, dammit! I've never suffered like this at home. This bastard urban legend controlled us to work for free all morning; my back feels like it's going to break! I'm so miserable, I want to write a giant 'MISERABLE' on the forum! QAQ"

Trieu Yem Xuan: "... Wang Xia, shut up. Tang Tang, you continue."

Wang Xia: QAQ

Tang Nianke: "Wang Xia and I were forced to work all morning. At noon, the broadcast announced a lunch break, and all the workers headed for the canteen. We regained our freedom and immediately took the chance to run. We originally planned to climb the wall to escape, but we hit an air wall. We simply couldn't get out."

"Instead, we saw a dead cat on the wall. When it saw us, it immediately lunged at us ferociously. We ran back in fear and ended up in this warehouse full of cardboard boxes. Luckily we have our phones. This forum can bypass signals to contact you all, otherwise we really wouldn't know what to do. Right, that cat is still wailing outside."

Immediately after, Tang Nianke sent another message.

Tang Nianke: "The cat cries are increasing."

Tang Nianke: "We looked out through the crack in the door. There are more cats, all dead!"

Tang Nianke: "One of them found us; it's breaking down the door! This cat seems to have been disemboweled, there are no organs inside, it looks disgusting."

Tang Nianke: "Ugh, Wang Xia is even more disgusting, he's vomiting again."

Tang Nianke: "Oh no, they're starting to break the door! The iron door is being dented; these cats have so much strength!"

Tang Nianke and Wang Xia pushed stacks of cardboard boxes over, using all their strength to hold the door, but the things outside were clearly not normal cats. Their strength was too great.

In the quiet warehouse, the "bang bang bang" sounds hammered at their hearts. New dents from the impacts were clearly visible on the iron door!

Anyone could see that it was only a matter of time before this large iron door was breached. How could two ordinary students, empty-handed, defeat these brutal and powerful Corpse Cats?

The thread went quiet. No more messages came from Tang Nianke or Wang Xia. Ho Khai Luong and Trieu Yem Xuan felt their hearts tighten, knowing the situation was dire. Not to mention Trieu Yem Xuan was an ordinary person, even Ho Khai Luong himself was only a level three transcendent with some defense and strength. He couldn't possibly teleport there to save Tang Nianke and the others in their moment of peril.

Tang Nianke and Wang Xia were also clearly aware that this was a certain-death situation. Tang Nianke leaned her back against the iron door, her face turning paler with each impact. Wang Xia wasn't vomiting anymore; he was crying uncontrollably, repeatedly apologizing to Tang Nianke, regretting that his greed for food had harmed his cousin.

"This isn't your fault, it's this urban legend that's too bastardly..."

Tang Nianke tried to force a smile to comfort her cousin, but tears escaped from the corners of her eyes first. Her cousin was scared, and so was she. Just yesterday, she had made plans with Trieu Yem Xuan to go shopping this weekend. Her mother's birthday was coming up, and she wanted to prepare a gift. She still had so much love for this world; she really didn't want to die!

But saying anything was useless now. While desperately holding the door, she tearfully picked up her phone, preparing to leave one or two last words for the people she cared about on the forum while it could still contact the outside. To her surprise, her gaze caught something.

Mr. System: "Truly two pitiable and unlucky children. Why is it that after just a few days of not seeing you, you're about to die again?"

Trieu Yem Xuan replied instantly: "Mr. System, I beg you to save Tang Tang and Wang Xia!"

Diep Vu, appearing in the guise of Mr. System, had already intended to save them. Seeing Trieu Yem Xuan cooperate so well, she had a thought.

Mr. System: "I am naturally very willing to save two lovely humans. Unfortunately, I have other important tasks to attend to right now and don't have time to go to Jinyang."

Ho Khai Luong's gaze fixed on the last few words. So Mr. System's true body wasn't currently in Jinyang City?

On the other side, Trieu Yem Xuan's heart sank when she saw this, but then a new message appeared.

Mr. System: "I can call the idle Mirror Girl to save you. But lovely humans, the gods never like me actively helping humans, disliking that it diminishes our urban legend style. So we must still perform an equivalent exchange like last time. Understand? :)"

Tang Nianke blinked, her tears rolling down her cheeks, but she didn't have time to wipe them, staring wide-eyed at the latest reply on the thread. She quickly replied.

Tang Nianke: "I agree, I am willing to perform an equivalent exchange! As long as we can survive, I am willing to disembowel myself and offer this urban legend's core to you!"

Diep Vu was naturally greedy for the urban legend core, but after thinking about it, she declined the offer.

Mr. System: "The lives of you two little pitiable ones aren't worth an urban legend core. I only require an equivalent exchange; forget about the core."

Mr. System: "I will send Mirror Girl to save you. After you are rescued, each of you will owe me one thousand points. If you don't pay it back within a year, I will take your lives. :)"

Mr. System didn't ask if they agreed to this deal. After all, a high-level urban legend willing to deal with two ordinary humans was already a blessing from heaven. Tang Nianke and Wang Xia had no right to refuse.

Tang Nianke and Wang Xia had no intention of refusing either. Seeing this message, the two were so happy they laughed through their tears, typing at lightning speed.

Tang Nianke: "Thank you, Mr. System! As long as we can survive, we guarantee we will complete the task!"

Wang Xia: "Thank you, Mr. System, for saving my dog life! Thank you, Mr. System, for saving my dog life! Bowing in gratitude to the boss."

They already knew that a dead level one urban legend was worth five points, and an existing level one urban legend was worth ten points. In other words, within the next year, each of them needed to find two hundred pieces of information about dead level one urban legends, or one hundred pieces about existing ones. This was not a small amount. Of course, they could also look for higher-level urban legends that were worth more points, but information about higher-level ones was more mysterious and not something ordinary people could easily know.

So gathering one thousand points wouldn't be simple for the two of them, but no matter how difficult, it was still better than dying right now.
*
As the wind chimes on the coffee shop door rang, An Thanh He and Co Minh Nhat returned. During the few minutes they were away, they seemed to have had a physical altercation—or rather, An Thanh He had unilaterally disciplined the foul-mouthed young master. Co Minh Nhat's hair was messy, his clothes disheveled, and he had a pained expression. In his hands, he held two ice cream cones. He handed a lemon-flavored one to Diep Vu.

"I just happened to pass by the milk tea shop and bought three. Taste it and see if you like it."

Diep Vu naturally liked it, but now was not the time to eat ice cream. She looked embarrassed and said she had eaten too much ice cream this morning, and now her stomach hurt and she needed to rush to the restroom.

Seeing this, Co Minh Nhat naturally didn't force her. "Ah? Then I'll treat you next time. The restroom is out the door and to the left."

An Thanh He had intended to show some concern and judge if it was acute gastritis, but Diep Vu had already hurried away.

Watching the junior student look like she was about to run, Co Minh Nhat blinked and suddenly began to hum: "The water falls straight down three thousand feet, as if the Milky Way has fallen..."

Before he could finish, An Thanh He wordlessly slapped the back of his head. *Thwack!* "Shut up!"

Co Minh Nhat grunted defiantly, "Fine, I'll shut up! You cold and heartless woman, from now on I'm going to be a mute, so you'll live in sorrow and regret for the rest of your life!"

An Thanh He was about to glare at him but couldn't help laughing at his words. She cursed him as an idiot, then snatched the lemon ice cream from his hand and took a bite.

Co Minh Nhat glared. "You already have one, why did you take mine?"

"This isn't yours. This belongs to the junior student." An Thanh He sat down, holding a sea salt ice cream in her left hand and the lemon one in her right, eating heartily. Just as Diep Vu observed, she didn't like sweets, but seeing Co Minh Nhat suffer made her happy.

While the two were joking and waiting for the junior student, they had no idea that their junior was already ten thousand miles away.

In the women's restroom of the shopping mall, the last stall was locked from the inside, but in reality, there was no one there. Meanwhile, an old, empty bus was driving on the road. The reason Bus Route 712 was called a ghost bus that appeared and disappeared was because of its ability to travel through wall-space. More accurately, it used wall-space to perform short-distance spatial transitions between stops.

Because it operated in wall-space, even though there were many people on the road, they couldn't see the bus, and Diep Vu on the bus couldn't see them.

As the saying goes, "saving people is like fighting a fire." Under Diep Vu's operation, the speed of the ghost bus was pushed to the limit, bringing her to the destination in an instant. A bus stop just a few steps from the Jinyang Joyous Processing Factory. Many suburban areas were undeveloped, so the public transport company naturally set up stops near large factories to facilitate workers. This was why Diep Vu was confident she could save them in time.

The old bus left the wall-space and abruptly appeared by the stop. The rear door opened, and what stepped out wasn't a person, but a pitch-black figure clutching a mirror.

It flowed like a puddle of liquid carrying a mirror through the factory's sliding gate. When it once again turned into a standing human figure, the mirror in its arms revealed a pale human face. The eyes of the person in the mirror scanned the surroundings, and then the figure immediately headed toward a specific location with purpose.
*
*Bang bang bang!*

The iron door behind Tang Nianke and Wang Xia was on the verge of collapse. Through the damaged gaps, cat claws could be seen constantly digging in, and the stench of rot grew thicker. It was the smell of death.

Although only five minutes had passed, the two felt as if a century had gone by. Their hearts turned pale again as the iron door swayed.

They couldn't help but wonder—those terrifying Corpse Cats were about to burst in, would Mr. System really make it in time? Could the promise of an urban legend really be trusted? What if Mr. System was just lying to them? What if he just wanted to watch them die in despair and then mock them for being fools who trusted an urban legend?

*Crash!*

No matter how hard Tang Nianke and Wang Xia tried, they were no match for the strength of a pack of Corpse Cats. The iron door was smashed open, and the stacks of cardboard boxes leaning against it, along with Tang Nianke and Wang Xia, were thrown to the ground.

The two ignored the pain and turned their heads in terror. The sunlight today was still so bright, but rushing in with the sunlight were over a dozen Corpse Cats with hideous, deathly appearances.

Their eyes glowed with a ghastly green light. Under the lead of the alpha cat, they stepped toward the two, each step leaving a foul, bloody footprint. Stinking saliva dripped from their festering jaws. They seemed to have long ago tasted the delicious scent of human flesh!

Neither they nor the Corpse Cats noticed that the moment the door was smashed open, a figure like a puddle of water carrying a mirror had quickly flowed in through the open door.

The next second, the alpha Corpse Cat let out a sharp cry and suddenly lunged to bite Tang Nianke. Wang Xia was so tense his stomach cramped, but he actually found a moment of courage, turning over to throw himself on his cousin, intending to block those sharp fangs for her.

At the same time, a pair of pale, slender hands abruptly appeared, grabbing one person in each hand and pulling them swiftly. The two living people quickly disappeared from the spot.

The Corpse Cats, who were prepared to tear into the delicious human flesh on the ground, looked at the floor covered in cardboard boxes in confusion. They didn't seem to understand how those two fragrant living people had suddenly vanished.

The other Corpse Cats were also clearly bewildered. They wandered around aimlessly, sniffing. One "genius" cat even used its claws to lift the cardboard boxes on the ground to look underneath, apparently suspecting the two large humans were hiding under them.

A moment later, the pack of Corpse Cats, having found nothing, let out several sharp howls. Although it wasn't clear what they were saying, they were likely cursing quite vulgarly. As they left grumpily, the warehouse fell silent again.

And among the scattered boxes, a large mirror lay half-hidden on the ground. The vanished Wang Xia and Tang Nianke were inside it. And behind them, a pale figure was slowly approaching them from the darkness!
*
The space inside the mirror was a patch of chaotic blackness, with light only available near the mirror's surface from the sunlight outside. Wang Xia, having just escaped death, slowly crawled up, his eyes dazed, clearly not yet having processed what had happened.

Just then, a pair of small white shoes appeared in front of Wang Xia. He slowly looked up and saw a pair of pale calves, the hem of a white floral dress, and further up, hair—lots and lots of long black hair. Suddenly, she abruptly bent over. Her waist was so flexible that after bending, her face emerged from the thick long hair, her nose almost touching Wang Xia's forehead!

Amidst the thick, soft black hair was a narrow, pale, bloodless face. Even though she had the eyes, nose, and ears of a human, even though she looked exactly like a human, anyone who saw her would not think she was human. Human instinct would scream inside them: *Run! This human-like monster is definitely not human!*

"A ghost!"

Wang Xia wanted to scream, wanted to run, but in reality, he just pointed one hand at the female ghost in front of him while dry heaving from a cramped stomach. He couldn't lift his legs at all.

"!!!... Ugh!"

The Mirror Girl, filled with a gloomy deathly aura, spoke. "Dare to vomit, and I'll throw you out to feed the cats."

Wang Xia's eyes widened, and he quickly covered his mouth, sensibly shaking his head. Luckily, he had already vomited everything in his stomach in the warehouse earlier, so now he was just dry heaving.

[Fear value +300]
[Fear value +100]
[Fear value +100]

The girl in the mirror, currently played by Diep Vu, was not a true urban legend. She could have made her actions less terrifying, but she did it on purpose. Yes, she was intentional.

The Urban Legend Mimicry tool was Diep Vu's ability. Using her phone was just a habit; in reality, even without the phone, she could roughly sense the increase and decrease of fear values.

Diep Vu mused: *Ah, this intoxicating scent of fear.*

Thanks to Ho Khai Luong and the others diligently providing fear values every day, she had been able to upgrade the Mirror Girl to level three yesterday, adding the ability to pull people into the mirror space. However, Diep Vu was naturally not satisfied with just this. The usable space in the mirror was still too small, and the Mirror Girl's own attack power was still too weak. She needed more fear values to strengthen the Mirror Girl's abilities. More... more fear...

Vu Xi: *... Tone it down.*

Why did this woman sound more twisted than him, a real urban legend?

Tang Nianke was also terrified by this female ghost emerging from the darkness, but she soon realized something, crawled up, and tried to speak.

"Thank you... sister, for saving us."

Mirror Girl's voice had no ups and downs, but because of her appearance, her speech naturally carried a draft of yin energy. "Not saving people, just completing the Master's task."

Tang Nianke: "By Master, do you mean Mr. System?"

Mirror Girl didn't answer, only nodded slightly. Tang Nianke and Wang Xia breathed a sigh of relief. They realized this person must be the Mirror Girl Mr. System had mentioned.

Tang Nianke said softly, "Then sister, what should we do now?"

Diep Vu continued to play the cold and taciturn Mirror Girl: "Call a car and leave."

"Call a car?!" Do urban legends know how to call cars too?

Wang Xia's eyes widened, then he noticed Mirror Girl's overly stark black-and-white eyes looking over, and he was so scared he shrank behind Tang Nianke.

Mirror Girl ignored him. Under their astonished gazes, she slowly pulled out an old mobile phone and tapped it a few times. Although her thick black hair obscured exactly what she was doing, if one ignored her gloomy appearance, she looked no different from the people walking on the street with their heads down!

As of today, these two ordinary students had experienced two terrifying urban legend crises. Their already shaky worldview was now directly pushed to collapse.

They stared blankly at Mirror Girl, their minds filled with thoughts: *This world is truly too crazy. Urban legends know how to call cars. Does the urban legend world have a dedicated ride-hailing app? What's it called? Ghost-Go or Creepy-Cab?*

Just as the two were stunned, an empty vehicle appeared. The front of the bus was only a few centimeters from Wang Xia. Wang Xia felt that in the blink of an eye, a massive monster had appeared out of nowhere. He screamed and jumped back several steps. Needless to say, he had contributed another wave of fear values.

However, Diep Vu hadn't done it on purpose this time. The dark depths of the mirror space were truly too dangerous; even she didn't dare wander in for fear of getting lost. The safe zone was too small, so the bus had to stop as close as possible.

It was also at this moment that Tang Nianke's body stiffened, recognizing the origin of this vehicle.

"712?!"

The old style of this bus was truly too familiar. Wasn't this the ghost bus she had recently ridden, Bus Route 712? Didn't Uncle Ho say that once an urban legend core is dug out, the legend is as dead as can be? Why was 712 alive again? Why did it appear here? Why was it... being used by Mirror Girl?!

A look of shock and uncertainty appeared in Tang Nianke's eyes. She felt she had discovered a very terrifying secret.

The space inside the mirror also belonged to wall-space, and since Mirror Girl had actively "opened the door," 712 could appear here very easily. As the bus door opened, Mirror Girl looked at Tang Nianke and Wang Xia.

"Get on."

Although Mirror Girl was an urban legend, she was currently the only life-saving straw for Tang Nianke and Wang Xia. Even though they felt the situation was incredibly bizarre, Tang Nianke didn't have time to think much and pulled Wang Xia onto the bus through the front door.

Mirror Girl was the last to board. As she stepped onto the bus and left the mirror space, her figure flashed and disappeared. At the same time, the mirror space began to collapse. Bus Route 712 closed its doors and quickly left the collapsing space, appearing in the warehouse where a large mirror lay quietly on the floor. The girl in the mirror could not move freely outside of a mirror, and the "Parental Shadows" were Diep Vu's signature ability as an investigator; she couldn't let them appear before Tang Nianke and Wang Xia.

She could have ordered Tang Nianke and Wang Xia to help carry the mirror onto the bus, but that would easily lead to a suspicion: if the mirror couldn't move on its own, how did it get there in the first place? So to avoid these troubles, Diep Vu simply abandoned the mirror.

712 once again performed a spatial transition, beginning to leave the domain of the Urban Legend Factory.

Inside the bus, the layout was exactly the same as last time: the driver covered in corpse spots, the pregnant woman sitting quietly in the priority seat. Tang Nianke and Wang Xia didn't dare look too much at these two derivative legends. They hadn't seen Mirror Girl board and were frantically looking around the aisle. "Sister? Sister Mirror Girl?"

Mirror Girl: "Here."

The two looked up at the sound and saw a large mirror had appeared on the misty wall at the back of the bus. It was half-body height. Mirror Girl's pale face appeared in the mirror, as if a funeral portrait hanging above, looking down at them.

Faced with such a bizarre scene, the two actually felt at peace: *Good, Mirror Girl is still here.* However, these two unlucky souls didn't have long to relax before the loudspeaker of Bus Route 712 suddenly rang out.

"Static... Attention! During working hours, workers are not allowed to leave the factory or their posts. Work hard! No unauthorized absence!"

"Static... Attention! During working hours, workers are not allowed to leave the factory or their posts. Work hard! No unauthorized absence!"

"Static... Attention! During working hours, workers are not allowed to leave the factory or their posts. Work hard! No unauthorized absence!"

The piercing static caused Tang Nianke and Wang Xia's ears to ring instantly, but what terrified them was the bizarre content of the bus broadcast!

Workers? What workers? Isn't this a bus broadcast?! Why was there a broadcast similar to the factory's?!

Diep Vu immediately became alert when the anomaly appeared. As the broadcast kept repeating, Tang Nianke and Wang Xia clutched their heads in agony and crouched on the floor. They felt as if their heads were about to split open, and an urge to fly back to their workstations immediately to work themselves to death for the factory welled up in their hearts.

This urge terrified the pampered Wang Xia so much that he quickly slapped himself several times to stay awake. *Too cruel, this kind of mental pollution is truly too cruel!*

Although Diep Vu didn't know what kind of mental torture they were undergoing, seeing them with veins bulging and bleeding from their facial orifices, she knew they were not having a good time.

She frowned and could only order 712 to stop. Currently in the wall-space, the front of 712 had already left the factory's range, heading straight for the bus stop outside. Clearly, they were just that close, but Diep Vu had to stop. She suspected that if she went a few steps further, Tang Nianke and Wang Xia would drop dead right there.

Vu Xi, who had been waiting to watch the show, finally broke his silence and mocked her with a smug laugh.

*I knew as soon as I heard it—this urban legend is at least level five. They entered the legend's domain as living people and have already been marked by it. You, a small fry, think you can snatch food from the mouth of a level five legend? Truly a pipe dream, utterly ridiculous!*

Vu Xi had intentionally kept quiet earlier, clearly wanting to watch Diep Vu fail. In the darkness beneath Mirror Girl's feet, a black cat shadow rippled, its golden eyes narrowed, trying to find a trace of embarrassment, shame, or anger on Mirror Girl's pale face. After all, as long as Diep Vu was unhappy, he was happy.

However, in reality, a look of contemplation appeared in Diep Vu's eyes. *A level five urban legend?* No wonder it could immediately seize control of the 712 loudspeaker from her. *No. Can't risk it.*

Donning the Mirror Girl persona, she looked coldly at the two who were almost rolling in pain.

"Come to me."

Tang Nianke and Wang Xia's brains were almost boiled by that "work passion," but luckily they still retained a shred of reason. Hearing this, they immediately crawled and rolled to the back of the bus.

Thus, Bus Route 712 started up again. Luckily this place was deserted, and the bus stop was right in front of the factory gates for the workers' convenience. The front of 712 moved forward a few steps, barely reaching the requirement for 712 to stop at a bus stop. From a distance, a bus was passing through a wall, its front half outside the factory and its rear half inside.

*Swoosh*, both front and rear doors of the bus opened. Mirror Girl said: "Get off, go back to the warehouse, get the mirror."

This command was a bit unclear, and Wang Xia wanted to ask something, but Tang Nianke, whose head was splitting, had already pulled him out through the rear door. Fearing the Corpse Cats would return, they ran very fast under the fear of death. The only good news was that after they got off the bus, the symptoms of their splitting headache immediately vanished.

After returning to the warehouse, before they could search, they heard Mirror Girl's voice.

"Here."

A level three Mirror Girl could only mark three mirrors. Luckily she hadn't immediately erased the mark on this mirror, otherwise she couldn't have returned instantly.

Tang Nianke focused her gaze. In the distance on the floor, there was indeed a mirror half-covered by a piece of cardboard, with Mirror Girl's pale face appearing in it. Thinking back to how they were "whooshed" into the space from this mirror earlier. This mirror was slightly smaller than the large one on the bus, but still half-body height. After all, a level three Mirror Girl was still too weak; a mirror that was too small couldn't serve as a passage to pull people in.

The two quickly ran over, and Wang Xia, with his greater strength, picked up the mirror. At this moment, Wang Xia didn't have time to be afraid of the female ghost; he hugged the mirror tightly and sobbed, "Sister, kind sister, what happened just now? Can we not call a car to escape? This urban legend looks so fierce!"

"It doesn't dare provoke me, but you have marks on you... troublesome." Mirror Girl's face was dark. "A mere level five... if not for me... Hmph!"

Tang Nianke was shocked. "Level five? Sister, are you saying this is a level five urban legend?"

Wang Xia was terrified. "Level five, so isn't it even one level higher than Bus Route 712?!"

After the shock, Tang Nianke keenly noticed the latter half of Mirror Girl's sentence: "if not for me..." What happened to this "me"?

Although Tang Nianke wasn't very brave, she was a girl with a meticulous mind. The knowledge about urban legends she had learned these past few days kept flashing in her mind.

It was already known that the lowest level of urban legend with intelligence was level six, and even then, that intelligence was due to some kind of mutation. Data showed that urban legends with intelligence capable of communication were high-level legends of level 7, 8, or 9 with a 99% probability.

And this Mirror Girl... without a doubt, she was definitely an intelligent high-level urban legend. She called this rescue a task given to her by Mr. System, which allowed for a preliminary guess that she was a subordinate of Mr. System. From this point of view, being able to use intelligent high-level urban legends, Mr. System's strength was far beyond what they had previously speculated in their small group.

At the same time, Mirror Girl's own strength shouldn't be low either. But when facing the Corpse Cats, Mirror Girl didn't display the powerful strength of a high-level legend that Uncle Ho had mentioned. Previously, she had mistakenly thought Mirror Girl was just there to save people and disdained to act against those dead cats. But looking at Mirror Girl now mentioning this level five legend, that emotion of disgust and disdain, plus unwillingness... led Tang Nianke to a guess.

It wasn't that Mirror Girl didn't want to exert her high-level legend strength, but that she *couldn't*. Perhaps it was due to some rule restriction, or perhaps her strength had decreased due to an injury?

Tang Nianke was still very new to the world of urban legends and couldn't be sure if her judgment was correct, but looking at the current situation alone, the tide seemed very unfavorable for them.

Wang Xia was too scared to think of these things, but even Tang Nianke could think of them, so Vu Xi naturally did too.

Seeing Tang Nianke's expression change several times between contemplation and realization, the large black cat was so angry his whiskers stood on end.

*Diep Vu, you're copying my words again to deceive people! Can you have a shred of shame?!*

What level five, what marks—those were all his words!

Diep Vu said calmly: *Just borrowing them, why be so stingy?*

*He* was stingy?!

Vu Xi was so angry at Diep Vu that his golden cat eyes turned perfectly round. He truly couldn't believe there was someone in this world so thick-skinned and shameless!