Ghost Truck (There Was Just an Error; It Has Been Fixed. Refresh Again.)

The night fog grew thicker, like layer upon layer of white ink staining the darkness.

Just moments ago, they could still more or less see into the distance, though their view had been somewhat obstructed.

But in only a few minutes, the fog had risen more and more heavily. Even the sports car's headlights seemed squeezed by the mist, able to illuminate only four or five meters ahead.

Within this dense fog, the sounds and things around them had all been obscured, as though they had fallen into a lonely, enclosed world.

Only the engine continued to roar, echoing through that narrow space. Yet even its sound was strange, as if it were a mixture of mechanical power, heartbeats, panting, groans, and wails.

Han Su did not know why, but an excitement he could barely suppress began surging through his heart, growing fiercer until he could hardly contain himself.

"Not good!"

He suddenly heard a subtle change in the engine noise beyond the thick fog and instantly became alert. The instincts honed through countless escapes from the Ancient Castle acted almost before his mind could.

As he shouted the warning, one hand yanked open the door while the other seized Xu Ji and rushed out of the car.

Boom! Boom!

Almost at the exact moment Han Su abruptly dragged Xu Ji out of the sports car, two rippling waves of fog were smashed apart in the dense mist ahead of the vehicle.

Then, a massive truck came charging toward them.

It was a giant truck with a cab four or five meters tall, built from solid metal and cold, hard lines. Yet its body was smeared with blood, with vein-like tissue intertwined and layered over Mechanical Parts, creating a devastating visual impact.

It came barreling forward with the force of a vehicle traveling at nearly 260 kilometers per hour.

From afar, its speed and momentum might not have seemed so terrible. But facing it at close range was like witnessing a mountain collapse and the earth split apart—unstoppable and crushing everything in its path.

Xu Ji's gaudy red sports car was crushed into fragments by the giant truck in a single encounter.

The wrecked body burst apart in countless sparks, flying into the distance like a torn sack. Parts clattered across the ground, making it look like a soccer ball that had been blasted away.

Even though Han Su had reacted quickly enough to pull Xu Ji out in time, the force at such close range nearly swept both of them beneath the truck in the churning gale.

"Damn it, damn it, this thing actually exists?"

Xu Ji fell to the ground, his mind reeling from the impact. But he stared fixedly in the direction where the bizarre truck had vanished, as though he had recognized something. He looked as if his soul had left his body.

All he could do was shout, "That makes no sense, that makes no sense! There can't possibly be something like this in the world..."

"If there were, my dad would've told me about it long ago..."

"What is it?"

After rolling twice across the ground, Han Su immediately pulled Xu Ji to his feet.

As he dragged him toward the corner, his eyes remained fixed on the thick fog where the truck's taillights had disappeared. Unexpected delight stirred in his gaze as he calmly asked Xu Ji.

"The Murder Truck from Highway 59..."

Xu Ji looked as though his entire worldview had been shattered, dazed as if drunk. "Someone who liked bragging talked about this thing at the club. He was a drunkard who spouted nonsense nobody understood every day. I have no idea how he got into the club."

"He said there was a big freight truck hauling cargo late at night that got into an accident on Highway 59, and both the driver and truck were smashed to pieces."

"But the truck driver refused to die. He fused with the truck's wreckage and became some bizarre thing in the wilderness. It appeared every night and rammed to death every living creature it encountered..."

"But, but that guy said some legendary investigator had stepped in and sealed it on the abandoned Highway 59..."

"We're clearly on Highway 48!!"

"Huh?"

Han Su listened with a look of amazement. "So something like this really exists in the world?"

Xu Ji was about to cry. "How can you accept this so easily? This thing shouldn't be real!"

Han Su ignored him and suddenly sounded somewhat dissatisfied. "You know I've always been interested in this kind of thing. Why didn't you tell me?"

"?"

Xu Ji looked both strange and aggrieved. "I ask you to go have fun at the club every day. I tell you the people there know everything. You're the one who insists on running to the library..."

Before he could finish, Han Su suddenly turned to look at him and, without the slightest courtesy, kicked him.

He put all his strength into that kick, sending Xu Ji flying five or six meters away.

But at that very instant, blinding lights suddenly flared up within the thick fog ahead of them.

The towering cab, exuding immense pressure, burst from the fog at a frenzied speed and rammed straight toward where they stood. Its bright headlights, tinged with blood-red, nearly robbed them of their senses.

It crazily crushed over the spot where Xu Ji had just been, then roared straight into the fog on the opposite side before swiftly being swallowed by it once more.

The surroundings became incomparably quiet, with only the fog slowly creeping closer.

From the depths of the mist came the faint roar of an engine, like a mechanical beast hiding behind the fog, steadily gathering strength as it watched them.

Everything had taken on an irrational madness and absurdity. None of it should have existed.

Xu Ji no longer knew what to do. In this thick fog, he did not even know where to run.

Theoretically, faced with a truck like that, he needed to leave the road. But the fog surrounded them, and he could no longer see either side of the highway beneath his feet.

Trembling, he felt along the ground, trying to crawl toward the roadside. Yet everywhere he went was asphalt. He could not find the edge at all.

Han Su was also facing something this strange for the first time.

But he had been abducted back in time countless times. Now that he was encountering such an absurdity in the real world for the first time, he stared at the fog and felt that oppressive, maddeningly mysterious aura that seemed capable of freezing every drop of blood in his body. Instead, his mind became extraordinarily active:

"It really exists. It isn't an illusion, nor is it one of those indistinguishable hallucinations I saw when I was abducted. Everyone can see it. It is something truly real..."

"Did that Spell summon this bizarre thing? Or has this world finally begun to go mad?"

Either possibility filled him with excitement.

Even his right eye—the eye that had remained dormant for ten years on this Life Path—began to ache faintly at that moment, and the pain was growing stronger.

Rumble!

From deep within the fog, the heavy truck's engine roar rose another notch.

Then the fog churned wildly, and blinding light filled their vision. The truck that had just driven into the fog on the right suddenly charged out from the fog to Xu Ji's right.

If they had not lost their bearings, that should have been a slope beyond the highway—a place with nothing there.

Yet the truck came straight from that direction, crashing directly toward Xu Ji before he could even turn around.

At the same time, the prepared Han Su suddenly stepped forward. He grabbed Xu Ji by the collar and yanked him aside. After ensuring his own position was safe, he abruptly extended one hand.

Facing the enormous cab four or five meters high and its blinding headlights, he looked tiny. Compared to that strange killing machine, the human body was as weak and vulnerable as tofu. Yet he held his palm out in the air, his expression wild, and rapidly recited:

"Divine Decree!"

The syllables rose and fell with an ancient, mysterious cadence.

Within his mind, the dormant Mental Power instantly surged like waves alongside that ancient Fishing Horn.

It was as though he had become practiced. The first time, that Mental Power had raged through his body before finally finding his right eye. But this time, it rushed directly toward his right eye, with force countless times greater than before.

Blood began to seep from Han Su's dull gray-white right eye almost instantly.

It was as though immense force had torn it apart from within. The searing signal of flesh splitting, so close to his brain, battered Han Su's sanity layer by layer.

"Screech..."

The bizarre, frenzied truck came to an abrupt stop.

Its wheels continued spinning wildly against the ground, and they could almost smell the scorched stench of burning tires.

The giant truck's headlights were incomparably bright. The beams shifted slightly, like two huge, shining eyes turning toward Han Su.

All around them, the dense fog seemed to steam up from beneath the earth, vast and white. Many shadows, half-real and half-illusory, even appeared within it.

Among them, they could see Zhang He, covered in blood, as well as that innocent long-legged, fair-skinned woman in the short skirt. Their faces bore unwillingness and pain, their mouths opening and closing as they kept saying something.

They had actually been devoured by this Murder Truck too, becoming its ghostly servants.

Pale faces appeared one after another, like the truck's own face, revealing the Ghost Truck's expression.

Across from the Ghost Truck, Han Su stood motionless. Blood flowed from his right eye, and agony assailed his brain, yet he found it exhilarating. The scar on his face twisted hideously as he smiled like an evil ghost.

Just now, when the Mental Power had struck his right eye, it had still been repelled. It seemed the restrictions on Mental Power entering reality were even greater than he had imagined.

He did not know where those restrictions came from, but Han Su could vaguely sense that they were rules etched into the deepest layers of human instinct.

Mental Power was not allowed to enter reality!