"Holy crap!"
Jiang Qiao took a deep breath.
He never would have imagined that the longest he had ever survived would be because he was in a taxi.
This taxi was freaking amazing.
It had been running nonstop for half a year. What the hell, was it nuclear-powered?
And then there was the final stop.
Damn, could it be that it hadn't stopped before because he hadn't given it a specific destination?
Jiang Qiao recalled that he seemed to have only said he wanted to leave the city.
But, wait—
Hadn't he tried giving it a specific address at some point?
By all rights, after a hundred and sixty days, that shouldn't be possible, right?
As Jiang Qiao pondered this, his gaze inadvertently fell on the words "Idiot" among his talents.
He immediately cursed inwardly. He had solved it.
This talent lowered his intelligence. After discovering that he couldn't get out of the car, he had definitely kept trying to use brute force.
And normally, an ordinary person would give up after trying a few times.
Judging from the information in the Simulator, he had tried countless times.
In the end, his mentality had completely collapsed.
"This talent is too insane. It's too damn ridiculous."
Jiang Qiao muttered to himself.
However, after these two simulations, Jiang Qiao finally had some guesses about North City District.
These things might not be Vicious Ghosts, but some kind of Rule-based Anomalies.
Before crossing over, Jiang Qiao had seen things like this in some games, movies, and novels.
They were especially troublesome. They acted according to certain rules, and most of them could neither communicate nor be killed.
Even if you ground their entire family to dust, a few days later, the whole family would pop out again in perfect formation to take a family photo.
It was simply absurd.
But conversely, if you touched upon their rules—
Then, sorry, they would chase after you and bite you like Mad Dogs, even more disgusting than keyboard warriors in a cesspit.
"How should I deal with them...?"
Jiang Qiao fell into deep thought, while scenes from the novels he had read and the games he had played in his previous life flashed through his mind.
Under normal circumstances, there were two ways to deal with these things.
The first was the low-level approach.
First, find out its patterns of activity, then discover loopholes within those patterns. By escaping the rules, you naturally wouldn't be targeted by the anomaly.
This placed fairly high demands on the person involved.
They needed a calm mindset, an extensive store of knowledge, meticulous logical thinking, keen powers of observation, and just a tiny bit of luck.
The other was the high-level approach.
Find another Rule-based Supernatural Entity and make them clash, letting them fight each other. Not only could the person involved escape the anomaly, they might even profit from it.
This also placed demands on the person involved: they needed to be the protagonist.
As for most ordinary people, they used the useless approach.
They either screamed and ran around in all directions or lay down and waited to die, giving up treatment.
Occasionally, a few people would try to fight for survival, only to encounter a useless teammate—or discover that they themselves were the useless teammate.
While Jiang Qiao was pondering the anomalies—
Capital City, a certain courtyard.
An old man stared solemnly at the report in his hands.
It had been submitted through an emergency channel ten minutes ago.
It listed the Supernatural Events that had occurred in various places.
"This is already the eighth report."
The old man spoke in a low murmur.
In fact, ever since the first report appeared, he had dispatched a scientific research team to conduct a secret investigation.
But they had gained nothing.
Although they had captured several Vicious Ghosts through special means, their research had reached a bottleneck.
No modern high-tech method could analyze their existence.
These things couldn't communicate either.
The old man looked at the report and fell into deep thought.
The courtyard was silent enough to hear a pin drop.
Online.
The commotion caused by Jiang Qiao's livestream the previous night showed no sign of dying down. Instead, it was intensifying.
Especially after someone came forward to say that their deceased friends and relatives had appeared in the video, the entire incident was immediately pushed to a climax.
"Can you stop leeching off the hype? The streamer's values are warped, and the platform only cares about profit. You hype-chasers aren't any better."
"Shouldn't a streamer like this be banned across the entire internet? And you're turning his livestream into videos and reposting them everywhere. What are you thinking?"
"The platform is even more despicable than the streamer. I suggest checking the boss's utility bill and giving him a wake-up call."
"Exactly, exactly. My youth mode is like a cracked version—it's completely useless."
"..."
"You say it's fake just because you say it is? That woman in red at the intersection yesterday was obviously my ex-girlfriend."
"I personally sent her to the funeral home."
"???"
"I think I just saw something incredible."
"Holy crap, you personally sent her to the funeral home? That's terrifying when you think about it."
"..."
"To be fair, there really was something wrong with those Vicious Ghosts. I think I saw a few familiar faces too."
"Poster above, did you see the parents you personally sent to the crematorium?"
After that, both sides began straying from the topic and exchanging greetings about each other's immediate family members.
The internet had never lacked bored trolls.
But at the same time, it had never lacked people with ulterior motives.
Some netizens with a strong sense of impending crisis recalled the scene of the sun suddenly disappearing the previous day, and began deliberately searching for information related to the supernatural.
At that moment, Jiang Qiao was also looking at the news on his phone.
Although he hadn't shown his face, it still felt strange to become the protagonist of the news.
After all, the people cursing him made up the majority.
He had even left several comments himself, furiously accusing the streamer of chasing clout.
He was bored anyway. A few curses wouldn't cost him anything.
"Jiang Qiao, where are we going now?" Shen Yingning was still serving as the driver.
"Do you know Jieqiao Town?" Jiang Qiao thought for a moment before asking.
"Jieqiao Town? Of course. It's not far outside the city, past the Eastern Suburbs. But it's a demolition area, and all the residents have moved away. I heard they were very satisfied with the compensation."
"I see," Jiang Qiao said.
He remembered the Little Monk he had encountered during the simulation.
The Little Monk had probably fled to Jieqiao Town after the Supernatural Revival. As for where he had come from before that, Jiang Qiao had no idea.
The Simulator hadn't displayed the other party's personal information, probably because it deemed it unimportant.
"Drive around North City District. If you see someone jumping from a building, tell me immediately." Jiang Qiao planned to look at a few more places. Perhaps he could discover some other information.
Shen Yingning said nothing. She stepped on the brake, turned on the signal, spun the steering wheel, and made a U-turn at the intersection, driving off in another direction.
Perhaps Jiang Qiao's calm performance in the face of strange situations had influenced Shen Yingning.
At that moment, she was no longer as depressed as she had been over the past few days.
The tension throughout her body had also eased considerably.
On the way, Jiang Qiao took the opportunity to permanently solidify a talent.
It was a little after two in the afternoon. With a cooldown of 320 minutes, the next opportunity would come at eight that evening.
"I wonder if I can get a high-level talent next time."
Jiang Qiao was somewhat worried.
He had run so many simulations today, yet had only gotten one SSR, "Share with Those Who See."
Even counting yesterday's "Stalker" (S), he only had two slots.
If he failed to obtain a high-level talent next time, he could only consider solidifying an ordinary talent.
That would be a little regrettable.
I hope the system father comes through!
[Would you like to permanently solidify the talent "Stalker" (S)?] "Yes!" [Solidifying—] [Solidification successful!]
[Would you like to permanently solidify the talent "Share with Those Who See" (SSR)?] "Ah, yes, yes, yes!" [Solidifying—] [Solidification successful!]
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