Bab 1: Chapter 1: The Real Horror Movie
Before today, Allen could never have imagined that, in the span of a single moment, his life would be irrevocably shattered.
At this moment, Allen found himself in a grim, eerie wooden cabin. To his horror, he discovered that he had been reduced to nothing but a severed head!
Before him, he saw his own headless body, cruelly bound and suspended, and then, from the darkness, a chainsaw suddenly emerged, roaring to life and relentlessly sawing through his corpse!
Why... was this a nightmare? But if it were a nightmare, why was it so vivid, so real?
The unimaginable terror drove Allen to the brink of madness. At this moment, he longed desperately for everything to be a mere hallucination, yet the horrific scene continued unabated.
His body was being sawed open, his arms were the first to fall away, and blood poured out in torrents, spraying across his face. The warmth of the blood gave him a raw, visceral sense of reality.
This was no dream, no illusion!
The immense terror overwhelmed his mind, and then the chainsaw, still menacing, continued its work, slowly cutting his body in half. As his body was split apart, organs—his heart, lungs, kidneys, intestines—began to spill out, raining down upon his head. The blood rapidly soaked into his skull…
Yet… he could not scream!
Eventually, his body was utterly dismembered. Allen, surrounded by the grisly pieces of his own corpse, felt himself on the verge of total collapse.
Amidst this unrelenting horror, a flood of information surged into his mind, like a tidal wave. These were memories that did not belong to him, data that had been forcefully inserted into his consciousness, as if fed directly into his brain.
The content of these memories was initially impossible for him to believe, but now he had no choice but to accept their truth. In his mind, he screamed: I believe, I believe! I'll do anything, just stop! Please, just stop…
From the darkness, the chainsaw reappeared, this time aimed directly at the top of his head.
In that moment, his vision went black!
When his sight returned, he found himself sitting on a bus!
What... what was happening? His body had returned to its original, unscathed form!
Through the window, the view outside revealed a desolate, rugged mountainous landscape. In the darkness, the scenery seemed to recede rapidly, as though the bus were speeding through time itself, yet somehow frozen in place. Inside the bus, there was no light, but he could clearly see that the vehicle was filled with people.
However, he could neither speak nor move a muscle!
His mind drifted back ten minutes.
Allen was an ordinary office worker, employed as an accountant in a small company, leading a monotonous 9-to-5 life.
Today, he had stayed late, working past 8 p.m., long after most of his colleagues had gone home. Due to maintenance on the elevator, he had taken the stairs. As he descended, the surroundings grew steadily darker.
By the time he reached the third floor, he noticed a piece of paper lying at an odd angle on the floor. Normally, such a thing would hardly have been worth a second glance, but Allen, perhaps out of boredom, bent down to pick it up.
To his surprise, it was a movie poster! The poster depicted a bus, set against a dark and foreboding backdrop, with numerous ghostly figures barely visible in the shadows. The words "Horror Bus" were emblazoned in blood-red letters, and beneath them was a detailed cast list. At first, Allen thought it was simply a promotional flyer for a new horror film. But then, something unexpected happened. He saw that one of the roles was left blank, and in the next moment, his own name—"Allen"—appeared in the vacant spot!
Before he could process this, he felt a powerful force pulling him, the world around him warping as he was drawn into the terrifying wooden cabin, where he saw his own severed head and dismembered body. And then, as if by magic, he was back on the bus.
He began to piece together the scattered information in his mind.
He was now trapped in the world of the horror movie Horror Bus, as depicted on the poster. Picking up that poster meant he was destined to become an actor in the Ghost Cinema, where he would star in a series of horrifyingly real films. In these films, he would face actual ghosts and curses, and as an actor, he would have no choice but to follow the script and survive until the end of the movie.
For those chosen as actors, there was no option but to comply with the script—fail to do so, and the consequence was death!
Now, the first scene of the movie had begun.
Allen could move again. He was to play a character named Dean. The movie's plot revolved around six university classmates—Dan, Carlin (the male and female leads), and others—who went on a trip and boarded the ill-fated bus. The film had just begun, and according to the script, countless horrors awaited them. First, the bus would break down, trapping them in the wilderness, far from civilization. With no signal and night falling, the passengers would be forced to spend the night on the bus, hoping to seek help in the morning.
The movie centered on the events that unfolded during the night aboard this bus, stranded in the remote mountains.
As night fell, many of the passengers fell asleep, but Dan, the male lead, was jolted awake by a nightmare in which a blood-soaked driver violently shook his body. When Dan awoke, he found that the driver had indeed died at the wheel! It was exactly midnight, marking the end of the first scene. Beyond that, Allen had no knowledge of the script.
He glanced at the driver's seat and felt a deep sympathy for the actor playing the role. Based on the importance of the role, it was clear that the actor must have been experienced. A newcomer would have been too easily overwhelmed by such a position—if they didn't know how to drive or panicked, the whole scene would have been ruined.
Allen gasped in disbelief. He could scarcely imagine that such a thing could happen. But the information flooding his mind was no mere fantasy. The gruesome scene of his own body being dismembered had not been an illusion; the cinema had made him realize that it was not a human hand that caused his death. They could separate his head from his body and yet keep him alive, even reassemble him afterward!
So, no matter how impossible it seemed, he had no choice but to follow the rules of this hellish cinema. If he refused to play his part, the horrific scene of his body being torn apart would return. And then, he would truly die.
He had become an actor in a real horror movie, with the script of the first scene firmly etched in his mind. Every line, every action, was memorized, down to the smallest detail.
Now, he could move.
Of course, he dared not scream, not after the terror he had just witnessed. No matter how strong his mental fortitude, seeing his own body torn apart, yet staying alive and fully conscious, would break anyone's spirit. He should have felt nauseous, but all he felt was a suffocating sense of dread.
The people around him were likely fellow actors trapped in the same nightmare.
Seated directly in front of him were the male and female leads, Dan and Carlin. The cinema had already implanted this basic information in his mind. He remembered that the names at the top of the cast list on the poster were "Charles" and "Delia." Could those be their real names?
At that moment, the male lead, Dan, spoke his first line.
"Carlin, this may be our last trip before graduation."
Allen could recall every line of the script with perfect clarity, including the dialogue of the other characters! Dan's line was the very first spoken in the entire film.
Allen took a deep breath, steeling himself. The intense fear of death compelled him to focus, to snap into character. He had no doubts about the terror of this cinema—if he didn't act his part, he would die!
"Indeed," Carlin, the female lead, replied. "This could be considered our graduation trip."
The story had begun. The two actors spoke their lines with utter calm, giving no impression of reciting a script. Allen deduced that they were likely seasoned actors, perhaps not their first time in a real horror film.
Beside Allen, sat a young man with a buzzcut. His character's name was Clark, another supporting role in the film. In the movie, Clark and Dean (the role Allen would portray) were close friends. Two other university students sat nearby: a young man with a small mustache, named Dustin, and a beautiful woman with curly hair, named Cathy.
At this moment, it was glaringly obvious that both Clark and Dustin were pale with fear, their faces drained of color. They clearly seemed like newcomers to the acting world, just as Allen had once been. Cathy, however, appeared remarkably composed. Could she be a seasoned actress?
"The past couple of days have been rather dull," Clark remarked, his voice noticeably frantic. His delivery lacked any emotional depth, as though he were merely reciting words from a book. From this, Allen could be certain that, like him, Clark was a novice actor. Had he, too, endured the same horrors?
According to the script, the bus would break down soon. Every passenger was undoubtedly on edge, knowing they were about to encounter real ghosts.
Just the thought of it struck fear into their hearts. Had the lines not been so clearly etched into their minds, they likely wouldn't have been able to utter a single word.
At this point, Dean—Allen's character—uttered his first line from the script: "Yeah, I wonder how much longer the bus will take to reach the inn at the foot of the mountain! Sigh… tomorrow we'll have to head back. It feels like the trip's been too short, not quite enough fun…"
For now, survival was his only concern. The curse was real, and Allen had little time to dwell on his shock. He could only recite the lines appearing in his mind, devoid of emotion, but at least the movie's curse did not seem to demand high acting skills. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that acting wasn't a requirement for survival—compliance was.
Clark then spoke his lines: "Dean, aren't you done having fun yet?"
Though it was a casual question, Clark's face was a mask of despair as he said it, his tone as flat as if he were reading the results of a failed exam. Given the situation, Allen considered himself psychologically more resilient than most.
He could understand the panic. After all, they, like him, had been thrust into this real horror film, fully aware that they would face actual ghosts. No one would remain unaffected by such knowledge. Surviving without breaking down was already a feat. Now, they could only recite their lines under the weight of impending death, but expecting them to perform naturally was out of the question.
"Hmm... how should I put it? It's not quite like what the travel brochure described," Allen replied, his tone gradually growing steadier. He had come to realize that fear would not solve anything. To survive, he had to follow the rules. At least their path to survival was not entirely closed off, and knowing the upcoming plot was a significant advantage. His primary goal now was to stay alive in this so-called real horror movie, and then consider his options.
It was at this point that Cathy spoke, and once again, Allen, with the script firmly implanted in his mind, knew exactly what she would say.
However, her voice was unexpectedly pleasant to the ear.
"Carlin, I suppose you and Dan are approaching the next stage of your lives, aren't you?"
After Cathy delivered her line, Carlin, the female lead, turned around with a sweet smile and replied, "Heh, well... we're not in any rush. Dan wants to finish his studies first."
Carlin fully turned her head to face Allen, and he could see her face clearly now. She was undeniably a beautiful woman. Was her appearance the reason she had landed the lead role? And Dan, the male lead, spoke up at that moment, smiling: "Our parents have already met, so after graduation, we'll probably have the wedding soon."
Carlin's smile widened, her acting effortless, and Allen was now certain—she was not a novice like him. No one could smile after seeing their own dismembered body.
Dean, being a supporting character, would not feature much in the conversations that followed. The focus shifted to Dan and Carlin, the two main leads. For now, Allen's role was to observe and ponder strategies. Frankly, with only the first scene's script in hand, all he knew was what horrifying, bizarre events were about to unfold, and who would die first. But even this knowledge held limited value.
The script clearly stated, in red letters, that when the bus broke down, no one was allowed to leave their seats—everyone must remain in place.
Allen knew the conversation between Dan and Carlin would unfold as scripted, so he paid no attention to it, choosing instead to analyze the current situation. In ten minutes, the bus would break down. Afterward, they would be stranded on the bus for the night, mainly due to the remote location and late hour. However, at the end of the first scene, the driver would be the first to die.
Allen didn't believe he would survive the film. From his observations, he could clearly tell that he, Clark, and Dustin were all forgettable background characters, with no distinctive traits. Even though they were classmates traveling with the leads, they were destined to meet untimely ends. Dan and Carlin would likely survive longer, but for him, his fate was already sealed.
So, was death inevitable for those destined to die in the script?
Not necessarily. Even in this terrifying, real horror film, there was still a chance for survival. This, too, had been made clear to him from the start, emerging as a rule directly implanted in his mind.
Status Power Mingguan
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Power 
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