"Highway Terror": He Felt Rather Out of Place Among His Teammates

[That excuse isn't any better than the one that creepy old lady just gave.]

[She's rushing to a wedding banquet? If she'd said a funeral banquet, I could at least pretend to believe her.]

As the comments poured in, the Red-Skirted Woman noticed the hesitation among the people in the car and played another strong card. With a sincere expression, she said, "I know the way through the woods. I'm willing to guide you. Even though the fog has rolled in, as long as you follow my directions, you won't get lost."

"Um... let us talk it over." Tan Xingyun put on an apologetic expression as he spoke to the Red-Skirted Woman.

The Red-Skirted Woman said nothing, nor was she as pushy as the creepy old lady before her. She nodded and stepped back to the roadside, though she still looked anxious.

Xu Xiuman stopped watching her, turned her head and quietly shared her thoughts with the others. "Whether she's telling the truth or not, the fog in the woods really is thick, and visibility is terrible. If we rush in like this, we'll very likely get lost... Besides, we don't know if there are other dangers in the woods."

"Right." Tan Xingyun first agreed with Xu Xiuman, then shared his own analysis. "But after that old lady blocked our way, there's no reason we'd run into a similar roadblock again. So I'm more inclined to think this woman can guide us, and the danger comes from somewhere else."

Li Kang, unusually, put his brain to work and joined the discussion. "Maybe the instance did it on purpose. After we suffered at that old hag's hands, it put a woman using a similar trick in front of us. We definitely wouldn't fall for it again, and we'd end up missing the clue it gave us!"

[Well, look at that. This guy's little brain is getting smarter.]

[You know, that makes a lot of sense. It sounds like the kind of trap an instance would set.]

[In the end, it's a gamble. There aren't many puzzles in this instance; it seems to place more importance on the players' choices.]

Tan Xingyun and the others gradually realized this as well.

Ever since they came across the funeral shop, they had mostly been making choices.

If they made the wrong choice, death awaited them.

Xu Xiuman lowered her head, seeming to consider it for a moment. She soon looked up again and said seriously, "My suggestion is that we can let her into the car, but..."

"But we still need to test her first." Tan Xingyun understood and finished her sentence.

Li Kang looked from one to the other, genuinely unable to figure out where their understanding of each other had come from. They had all only just met, after all.

Was this the kind of understanding smart people had with each other?

Xu Xi hadn't understood either. He was hesitating over whether to ask, since everyone else was actively discussing it and saying nothing would make him look like he was slacking off.

But he really didn't know whether they should let the Red-Skirted Woman into the car.

Li Kang had a point, but what if the instance had anticipated that they would think that way?

Before Xu Xi could speak, Tan Xingyun asked for his opinion.

"Brother Xu, what do you think?"

Xu Xiuman and Li Kang both turned their eyes on him at the same time.

Xu Xi froze for a moment. He had a feeling his teammates were a little too eager to hear what he thought.

He thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I have no objections."

Leaving aside whatever dangers might be hidden in the unknown woods, the white fog was so thick they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces. They couldn't just rush in.

It was quite a coincidence that a Red-Skirted Woman who could guide them had appeared at a time like this.

What was more, the beer-bellied uncle and the woman in the denim skirt clearly had a definite plan.

They might as well follow it.

The worst outcome would be dying and trying again.

Xu Xi thought to himself.

For him, rolling back upon death was a shortcut to clearing the instance. However, he still hadn't figured out the rules governing the ability or how many times he could use it, and he didn't know its limits. As a result, he didn't dare rely on it completely.

Although he kept telling himself to avoid dying whenever possible, if he truly reached a point where the choice was difficult, he wouldn't refuse to die once to test the rules.

Tan Xingyun and the other two, however, had made this choice knowing full well that they had only one life.

But Xu Xi noticed that after he said those words, his teammates' expressions visibly relaxed.

[Even Xu Xi agreed to let the woman in red into the car. Looks like there's no danger.]

[I'm a big fan of Xu Xi too, but there are countless dangers in the instance. We can't let our guard down.]

Tan Xingyun rolled down the window, took out the joss paper he had prepared beforehand and held it out to the Red-Skirted Woman. His tone was apologetic. "Sorry, miss. My companions and I are in a hurry, so we really can't give you a ride. Take this money and wait for the next car."

He had been a little uneasy before, but after Brother Xu raised no objection to him and the woman in the denim skirt testing her, he was less nervous and felt more confident.

Judging by how perceptively Xu Xi had handled danger before, their test probably wouldn't be too dangerous. Otherwise, he would never have been so calm.

The Red-Skirted Woman looked quite dejected after hearing him out. Unlike the creepy old lady before, she didn't look at the joss paper greedily. Instead, she paid no attention to the paper in Tan Xingyun's hand and waved it away. "I'm the one asking you for a favor. How could I accept your money too?"

"Go on. I'll wait and see if another car comes along."

Just as the Red-Skirted Woman was about to turn away, looking downcast, Xu Xiuman called out to her. "Please wait a moment."

"This place is so remote. There's no telling when the next car will come." She turned to Tan Xingyun as she said this. "Besides, she can give us directions. Why don't we give her a ride after all?"

"Um..." Tan Xingyun let a hint of hesitation show at just the right moment.

Seeing this, Li Kang finally understood what they had meant earlier and quickly joined in. "Yeah, Uncle Tan. Besides, out here in the middle of nowhere, a girl on her own could easily run into bad people. We're in a hurry, but at worst, we can drive a little faster later to make up the time."

The Red-Skirted Woman hadn't expected things to take a turn either. Her eyes full of hope, she looked at the middle-aged man in the driver's seat.

Tan Xingyun hadn't expected the young man to catch on so quickly. He immediately put on an expression of reluctant agreement and sighed. "All right, get in."

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" the Red-Skirted Woman said joyfully.

"..." Xu Xi, who had watched the whole thing, didn't even blink.

Good grief, that acting.

He felt rather out of place among his teammates.

The Red-Skirted Woman ended up sitting to Li Kang's left, while Li Kang quietly edged closer to Xu Xi.

Anyone would panic with a creepy being sitting next to them!