"Highway Horror": Xu Xi, Say Something, Quick!

It was not just the viewers; Tan Xingyun and the other two were thinking much the same thing as the comments.

Xu Xiuman looked in the rearview mirror at the young man sitting behind her.

At first, she too had overlooked him without thinking.

As far as she was concerned, it was enough as long as he and the young man named Li Kang did not hold them back.

But now, it seemed he was far more capable than any of them, and much better at keeping it to himself.

She could also tell, however, that the young man did not want to talk much.

It was not so much that he was quiet because he disliked talking, but that he did not want to talk much with them.

So even when she needed conversation to lighten the mood, she usually turned to the other two.

The potbellied middle-aged man beside her had evidently come to the same understanding.

As for Li Kang, needless to say, he was basking in the pride of having been right to trust his instincts. He radiated the easy confidence of someone who knew the game was in the bag because his team had a big shot.

After the car barreled over the grave mound, the road had barely smoothed out before it turned bumpy again.

Tan Xingyun could not help remarking, "This road really twists and turns. I don't dare drive too fast with all these bends. I'm afraid I'll land us in a ditch."

Li Kang nodded, grateful. "Good thing you volunteered to drive, mister. I couldn't have done it. I haven't even passed the second part of the driving test."

"I did get my license, but I don't drive often, so I'm not very skilled," Xu Xiuman said.

Xu Xi, the only one suffering from carsickness: "..."

He tried to join the conversation, but unfortunately, his head was spinning.

[This is killing me. Those three are having a lovely chat, while Xu Xi sits alone with his eyes closed, resting. What a clear divide.]

[Xu Xi: I single-handedly isolated all my teammates.]

Just as Xu Xi was getting used to his butt being jolted every so often, the fairly cheerful conversation around him abruptly died away.

"It's raining..."

As Xu Xiuman's words fell, the patter of raindrops against the windows followed.

The rain started as drops no bigger than grains of rice, but within moments they had grown as large as beans.

Soon, the pounding rain blurred the view outside.

"This is bad. The rain's so heavy, and the road isn't easy to drive on." Tan Xingyun's expression grew grave. Though he had a fair amount of confidence in his driving, they were in a dungeon, after all. Something unpredictable could happen at any moment, and he did not dare let his guard down in the slightest.

"Of all the times it could've rained, why did it have to be now?" Li Kang muttered.

The speaker had meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart.

Xu Xi's heart skipped a beat.

Based on his years of experience watching movies and television in his previous life, a sudden change in the environment usually meant something out of the ordinary was about to happen.

The next second—

"Look, what's that up ahead...?"

At Xu Xiuman's warning, Xu Xi sighed inwardly.

Sure enough, his premonition had come true.

Through the window and the dense curtain of rain, Xu Xi could just make out an old woman standing beside the road a short distance ahead. She looked about the same age as the old man at the funeral shop. Bent over, she was shielding a cloth bundle in her arms, drenched and bedraggled by the downpour.

Apparently noticing the light from their headlights, the old woman hurriedly waved at them.

"An old woman suddenly appearing out of nowhere to stop us? You can tell at a glance something's wrong!" Li Kang complained.

The other three all agreed inwardly.

"Then I won't stop. I'll just drive around her," Tan Xingyun said.

No one objected.

This was not the real world. Nobody would casually risk their life just to be kind.

Besides, even in the real world, they would have to worry whether the old woman was deliberately trying to scam them by staging an accident.

None of the four intended to pay the old woman who had appeared out of nowhere any attention. But just as Tan Xingyun tried to drive past her, she suddenly threw herself into the middle of the road, seemingly unconcerned that she might be sent flying.

"Fuck!" Tan Xingyun slammed on the brakes, and the car finally stopped in front of the old woman.

They had almost hit her!

Even Tan Xingyun, who considered himself a consistently well-mannered man, could not help cursing aloud.

Fortunately, everyone had their seat belts on, and nothing unexpected happened, though none of them looked very pleased.

[Is this old hag out of her mind? She actually used her body to stop a car. Isn't she afraid of being hit and killed?]

[She's obviously a supernatural entity. You don't even have to think about it. Why would she be afraid of getting hit? If they'd actually hit her, who knows whether she'd be finished, but those four would definitely be done for.]

[It's obvious this old hag deliberately forced the car to stop. The players couldn't have avoided it. Even if she hadn't blocked them with her body, she would've found another way to make them stop.]

Some of the commenters saw the situation more clearly.

However you looked at it, an old woman abruptly appearing to block the road out in the wilderness—and in a dungeon game, no less—would be a real shock if she turned out to be a normal person.

The four players in the dungeon were clearly aware of that too, but the supernatural entity did not intend to let them off easily.

"Please, give me a ride!" As if she had anticipated that the people in the car would not want to pay her any attention, the old woman hurriedly clung to the front of the car and shouted, "I was just on my way home when it suddenly started pouring, and I didn't bring an umbrella. Please, just give me a ride. My home isn't far!"

The rain poured over the old woman, her wet hair plastered to her pale cheeks and water dripping steadily from her soaked clothes. With her pleading so desperately, anyone who saw her would have felt pity.

But...

[That excuse is full of holes. Let me ask you, does it look like anyone lives within ten miles of here?]

[Exactly. And that old man at the funeral shop said this road only leads to a Funeral Parlor. Her home can't be a Funeral Parlor, can it?]

[You never know. Maybe she lives in the Funeral Parlor's cremation furnace. (doge)]

Even the comments did not believe her, much less the four people in the car.

"She's hanging on to the front too tightly. I can't drive," Tan Xingyun said, frowning, a trace of irritation on his face.

He did not dare force his way forward either, for fear of angering the old woman, who was obviously a supernatural entity.

"She's only blocking our car. She hasn't forced us to get out, and she hasn't attacked us. Either the car is protecting us and she can't get in, or we haven't triggered the death rule, so she can't attack us." Xu Xiuman frowned as well, staring intently at the old woman in front of them as she shared her thoughts.

Whichever it was, none of them dared act rashly.

But the old woman clearly did not have the patience to wait for them to discuss a solution.

"Please, just give me a ride. I'll pay you!" The old woman was still pleading, but the four of them noticed that her expression was gradually darkening.

Tan Xingyun gritted his teeth, rolled down the window, and said to her, "I'm terribly sorry, ma'am, but we're in a hurry. Why don't you wait for the next car?"

"So you're not willing to give me a ride..." Unfortunately, even though Tan Xingyun had explained politely, the old woman still refused to give up. "In that case..."

[It's over, it's over. This damned old hag is about to transform.]

[Xu Xi, say something, quick!]

Everyone was just as anxious as the commenters. Li Kang even turned instinctively to the young man beside him. "Brother Xu, what do we do?!"

Just as the old woman's expression was about to turn completely dark, Xu Xi suddenly rolled down his window.