Apocalypse Star House Hoarding

Chapter 248

The rain continued to pour down, the heavy downpour drumming against the mountain road. Traffic here was sparse even on clear days; with the storm raging like this, not a single car passed by for a long while. There were no cameras around either—just slick pavement, thick mist, and the ever-present sound of rain.

Yu Xi sat in her car and put on a pair of windproof goggles to protect her eyes from the rain. Over her t-shirt, she donned a lightweight waterproof jacket, then swapped her sandals for running shoes. After securing her hair into a tight ponytail, she stepped out of the car, retrieved the vehicle into her storage space, and walked back to the cliffside.

She pulled climbing gear from her inventory: a sturdy rope, a harness, and metal hooks. Attaching herself to the rope, she rappelled down the steepest part of the cliff face. Once past the sheer drop, she packed up her gear and continued the descent by maneuvering down the rain-slicked slope.

Fifteen minutes later, she reached the base of the ravine.

The overturned tour bus loomed ahead, half-crushed against a cluster of thick tree trunks. The front end had been caught and wedged between two massive trunks, while the back was suspended off the ground at a sharp thirty-degree angle. A trail of splintered branches and crushed shrubs lay beneath it, marking the bus’s chaotic descent.

The air was thick with the metallic tang of blood and the harsh stench of gasoline, sharp enough to cut through the rain’s freshness.

Yu Xi approached carefully. Something was off.

The silence.

It was too quiet.

She should’ve heard coughing, crying, or maybe even the faint rasp of breath from the injured passengers. But there was nothing—just the rain hammering against leaves and metal. Her pulse quickened as she stepped closer and peered through a shattered window.

The bus was empty.

The seats were slick with rain and blood. Torn fabric dangled from shards of broken glass. Clumps of hair, bits of flesh—there were clear signs that people had been here, that they’d been hurt.

But the passengers themselves were gone.

How?

Yu Xi’s mind raced. She had seen the bus crash with her own eyes, had heard the passengers’ screams just minutes earlier. At least twenty people had been inside when the bus went over the edge.

She scanned the forest floor for footprints, drag marks—any sign of movement. The ground, however, was saturated with rainwater. The mud was smooth, freshly scoured by the heavy downpour.

Her lips pressed into a thin line.

From the moment the bus crashed to now, barely thirty minutes had passed. In that time, every single person on board had disappeared. Even if the passengers had miraculously survived and left the vehicle of their own volition, they wouldn’t have made it far. Most would’ve been too injured to move quickly, and with no cell service and unfamiliar surroundings, they’d likely remain close to the crash site.

Yet there were no footprints. No trail.

No bodies.

It didn’t make sense.

Yu Xi drew her phone and snapped several photos of the bus’s interior and the ground nearby. The last image she captured was of the tree trunk pressed against the front of the bus. A dark, irregular handprint marred the bark.

Rainwater should have washed it away by now.

Fingers tightening around her phone, Yu Xi retreated from the crash site. She found an alternate slope, one with a gentler incline, and scaled it carefully. When she reached the top, she paused to check for observers. The road remained deserted.

She retrieved her car from her inventory, climbed inside, and started the engine.

Instead of heading to the Black Bora village as originally planned, she turned left at the next fork and drove toward the west coast. Once the hills receded and her phone’s signal returned, she called Ya Tong and Lin Wu. They agreed to meet at a café along Moonlight Bay’s seaside boulevard.

An hour later, Ya Tong arrived at the café. By then, Yu Xi had dried off, changed into fresh clothes, and ordered two cappuccinos.

Ya Tong slid into the seat across from her, looking grim. “I followed a traveler earlier—one of the new guys who got off the train with us. He’s investigating the disappearances too.”

Yu Xi straightened. “A traveler? Not a local?”

“Yeah. I remember him from the last station. He sat in Carriage Four when we were solving the exit puzzle.” Ya Tong stirred her coffee absently. “Young guy, wearing a school uniform. Didn’t panic like the others. I figured maybe he’d read some infinite-stream survival novels before ending up here.”

Yu Xi nodded. “His partner disappeared?”

“Yeah. They must’ve formed a team right after leaving the station.” Ya Tong opened her phone and tapped the screen. “I convinced him to share this with me.”

The video played on the screen.

It showed a grainy night-vision feed from a security camera mounted outside a beachside bungalow. The frame captured a wooden deck, an empty lounge chair, and the inky expanse of the ocean beyond.

A moment passed.

A man stepped into view—young, wearing a t-shirt and shorts. He sat on the chair and reclined with an air of nervous exhaustion.

Nothing happened for several seconds.

Then his body jerked upright. He half-turned toward the camera, alert and scanning his surroundings.

From the darkness behind him, something shifted.

A pale shape, nearly indistinguishable from the faint moonlight, slithered toward the deck’s edge.

The man squinted toward the noise, then shook his head and relaxed back into the chair.

Just as his shoulders settled, something struck the camera. The feed went sideways, landing with a dull crack.

The view now showed only wet wooden planks.

The camera’s microphone, however, kept recording.

The sound of labored breathing filled the café.

Then came the scrape of claws against wood.

A faint whisper—a voice that didn’t belong to the man.

The man gasped.

“You…what are you—”

The video cut out.

Yu Xi exhaled slowly.

Ya Tong locked her phone. “The guy found his teammate’s phone under the deck later. It was covered in mud and blood.”

Yu Xi’s gaze shifted toward the sea. In the distance, the ocean shimmered under the thickening clouds.

“That thing,” she said softly, “came from the water.”

The sound cut off abruptly, followed by a series of muffled, strained noises, like someone struggling with a hand over their mouth. After that came a splash—something falling into water. Then silence.

The video ended.

Yu Xi took Ya Tong’s phone and rewound the footage to the moment the camera was struck. She paused the video and zoomed in on the blurred, jerking image.

There it was: a thin, sinewy arm, stretched mid-motion. The fingers were splayed apart, connected by thin, membranous webbing like an animal’s. The entire surface of the arm and hand glistened with slick, dark blood.

“You noticed it too?” Ya Tong swiped to another image in her gallery—the bloodied handprint from the neighboring villa. When placed side-by-side, the shape of the webbed fingers matched the prints exactly.

“That’s not just a stain,” Yu Xi murmured. “It’s a blood handprint.”

Her mind jumped back to the train station. The blood-streaked windows. The crimson handprints smeared across the glass.

The same thing.

But if this was the true danger of Paradise Island, then what was the connection between these missing people and the bus crash she’d witnessed? Could those same creatures have abducted an entire bus of passengers?

The questions circled in her mind as she and Ya Tong reviewed the details again. Mid-conversation, Lin Wu called.

“Did you check the news?” he asked without preamble. “Turn on the TV or check your phone. It’s everywhere now.”

Ya Tong opened a news app. A viral video topped every trending list. Its origin was unclear—too many users had reposted it to trace the original source.

The footage had been recorded from the cliffs on the island’s eastern coast, just before dawn.

The shaky video showed a long-limbed, crimson figure crouched low to the ground. It moved on all fours, spine bowed unnaturally, thin limbs glistening with blood. The figure hesitated as the sharp crack of gunfire sounded in the distance. It flinched, swaying backward with a shrill, guttural cry. Blood oozed from a fresh bullet wound in its torso, though the thick crimson coating made the exact location hard to discern.

The creature didn’t retreat immediately. It crouched, braced itself like a predator preparing to pounce, then paused when another shot rang out.

The bullets forced it to retreat step by step toward the cliff’s edge. Just before it leapt into the dark waters below, it twisted its head toward the camera and rasped:

“I’ll come back…for you…”

The voice was low, inhumanly hoarse—but undeniably in human language.

The creature vanished into the sea. The video cut out.

The comment section beneath the video was in chaos.

“That’s not a sea creature—those are human words!”

“Someone said this happened near Coral Cliffs this morning.”

“It looked hurt… does that mean it can be killed?”

“Whatever that thing is, I’m canceling my trip to Paradise Island. No thanks.”

“Is that blood on its skin? Or… is it skin made of blood?”

Yu Xi set the phone down and exhaled slowly.

“Human or not, that thing spoke,” Ya Tong said, voice tight. “It understands language.”

“Or it used to be human,” Yu Xi replied. Her mind returned to the black crawlers from the previous station. Those creatures, too, had once been human—transformed after failing to leave the train platform in time.

“Watch the surroundings,” Yu Xi continued. “That cliff is near the eastern coastline, close to where that bus crashed.”

Ya Tong nodded grimly.

“See it?” Yu Xi pointed to the faint outline of the treeline in the background. “All three incidents we know of—the villa disappearances, the bus crash, and this video—happened near water.”

Ya Tong’s jaw clenched. “So these creatures are using the ocean to move around.”

“And they come out when it’s dark.” Yu Xi opened her inventory and retrieved her notebook. She sketched a rough map of the island and marked the known incident locations. All were near the coast.

As they analyzed the pattern, their phones vibrated simultaneously.

New Task:Track the ‘Blood People’ and uncover the cause of their transformation. Hidden reward available.

Yu Xi frowned. The task confirmed that these creatures weren’t simply marine animals. But how had ordinary humans turned into blood-drenched predators that hunted their own?

She shared the new task with Lin Wu and Ya Tong. Maybe one of them would spot a connection she couldn’t.

Ya Tong tapped her knuckles against the table. “What do you think? Are we looking at a virus? A mutation?”

“Could be either,” Yu Xi said. “But…”

“But?”

Yu Xi chewed her lip. “These creatures know when to attack. They didn’t go after us when we were walking along the shoreline during the day. They waited for the villa family to relax before grabbing them from the terrace. They let the bus crash into a ravine before taking the passengers.”

“They’re calculating,” Ya Tong said softly.

“Yeah.” Yu Xi’s eyes darkened. “Which means we can’t just rely on daylight as protection. We need a plan.”

Lin Wu’s voice crackled through the speakerphone. “I agree. I’m heading back toward the villa. Should I bring anything?”

Yu Xi hesitated.

Then: “You’re passing Palm Street, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Stop by that dessert shop at the corner. Grab extra mango coconut tarts.”

A moment of silence.

Lin Wu sighed. “Really?”

“Hey, if we’re going to face murderous blood monsters, we deserve good snacks.”

Ya Tong snorted, tension easing slightly.

But the unease remained.

Outside, the storm clouds over the ocean thickened. The tide surged higher, swallowing more and more of the beach.

The sea was restless.

Yu Xi ended the call and stood up, calling for a server. When the staff saw her preparing to leave, two of them quickly came over to carry the two large boxes to the trunk of her car.

She cheerfully shut the trunk and turned to explain to Ya Tong, who was watching her with raised eyebrows. “I ordered thirty cups of coffee, thirty cakes, and thirty hot dogs before you got here. And look, they just finished it right as we were leaving. Perfect timing, right?”

Ya Tong stared at her in silence.

“…Hoarding really is a sickness,” she muttered.

That evening, the three of them sat around the coffee table in the villa’s living room, dipping vegetables and meats into the bubbling hot pot. The television in the background switched to the evening news.

The broadcast showed the aftermath of the bus crash Yu Xi had witnessed. The footage revealed the bus, now engulfed in flames, lying in the mountain ravine surrounded by scorched trees.

The news anchor explained that the steep, uneven terrain made it difficult for firefighters to access the wreck. The rescue team had to draw water from a nearby waterfall, but by the time they managed to reach the bus, the fire had already consumed it entirely.

The screen cut back to the anchor, who solemnly confirmed that no one aboard had survived the crash; both the driver and passengers had perished in the fire. Investigators believed heavy rainfall had caused the brakes to fail, leading to the fatal accident.

Yu Xi tightened her grip on her chopsticks.

“That’s impossible,” she said, voice low. “When the bus crashed, it was pouring rain. The fire was already out. I saw it.”

Lin Wu leaned forward, frowning. “Why would the authorities lie about that?”

“Even if the fire did somehow start afterward, I checked that bus myself,” Yu Xi continued. “The passengers were already gone when I got there. How did they conclude everyone died in the fire?”

Ya Tong set her cup down with a sharp clink. “They’re not just lying. They’re covering something up.” She paused, then asked slowly, “What if… the passengers are still alive?”

Lin Wu’s brows knitted. “That’s possible,” he admitted.

“But if they’re alive, and the authorities are so certain that they died, that means they’re gone for good.” Yu Xi’s thoughts raced as she pieced together the scenario aloud. “Tour companies are usually meticulous about brake maintenance. A brake failure like that doesn’t just happen, especially on a tourist island.”

Her eyes darkened. “What if someone tampered with the brakes? What if… this entire crash was orchestrated? Someone deliberately sent the bus off that cliff, abducted the passengers, and then used the fire to cover it up. But why? What would they want with those people?”

The question barely left her mouth when all three of their phones buzzed simultaneously.

Congratulations. You’ve uncovered the cause of the bus crash.

Reward: Breathing Bubble (Single-use item. Allows underwater breathing for 4 hours.)

New Clue: Island. Full Moon.

Yu Xi immediately shared the reward notification with her teammates.

“Interesting,” Ya Tong said, eyeing her phone. “So the system must’ve recognized one of your guesses as correct. But was it the official cover-up? Or the mysterious organization?”

The three of them fell into contemplative silence.

By the next day, chaos had begun to grip Paradise Island.

The video of the blood-drenched creature on the cliffs had spread like wildfire overnight. Tourists crowded police stations, demanding answers. Others flooded travel agencies with phone calls, desperate to leave the island. Social media was inundated with shaky footage of figures with blood-slicked limbs slipping into the sea.

Paradise Island wasn’t just a tourist destination—it was the main hub of a small island nation. The panic here had rippled outward, unsettling nearby regions as well.

By sunset, the authorities could no longer remain silent.

An emergency press conference was broadcast live on every news channel.

The chief of police stood at a podium, flanked by two grim-faced officials. Behind them was the national emblem: a stylized wave cresting over a full moon.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” the police chief began, gripping the podium tightly, “in light of recent events, we want to address the public’s concerns.”

He cleared his throat and continued. “Authorities have identified the creature recorded on the eastern cliffs. It is a rare marine animal, displaced by recent underwater seismic activity.”

Yu Xi exchanged a look with Ya Tong.

“A marine animal that talks?” Ya Tong whispered.

The police chief continued: “We understand the distress these sightings have caused, but we assure you: the situation is under control. For public safety, all beaches will be closed after sunset. We advise everyone to avoid coastal areas and to remain indoors at night.”

The broadcast ended with emergency contact information displayed on the screen.

Yu Xi’s stomach churned. “They’re still lying.”

“Yeah,” Lin Wu muttered. “And they’re terrified. You could hear it in his voice.”

Ya Tong traced the outline of the full moon emblem on the screen. “Notice the symbol? A wave and a moon.”

Yu Xi inhaled sharply. “The clue we got: ‘Island. Full moon.’”

Lin Wu straightened. “The next full moon is in a few days. We need to figure this out before then.”

“Or we might not live to see it,” Yu Xi added.