Time for a New Ride

The moment those words came over the convoy's loudspeaker, tension swept through the entire convoy.

The convoy slowed down as well.

Zhou Xiaoxiao pulled a baseball bat from beneath the back seat and stared ahead nervously.

But the bus completely blocked her view, making it impossible to see what was happening up front.

"Sis!"

"It's okay. We have Captain Chu, Nana, and... Chen Ye in the convoy. They're Sequence Transcendents. We'll be fine!"

Zhou Lan was a little nervous too.

Zhou Lan had long suspected that their convoy couldn't possibly be the only one left in the apocalypse. There had to be other survivors.

She just hadn't expected to run into them so soon.

But... encountering other survivors wasn't necessarily something to celebrate.

The moment Chen Ye heard Captain Chu's voice over the loudspeaker, he slowed his motorized tricycle and took the Hand Crossbow off his belt.

Keeping his left hand on the handlebars, he began cocking it one-handed with his right.

Snap!

The bowstring, already strained beyond its limits, broke.

With no time to mourn the loss, he tossed the Hand Crossbow aside and drew the Woodcutter's Knife from his belt.

Like the Zhou Sisters, Chen Ye's first reaction upon hearing about another convoy was to go on guard.

In the apocalypse, people could sometimes be more terrifying than supernatural horrors.

The entire convoy remained extremely cautious.

His enhanced right eye soon spotted something wrong.

The other convoy should have heard the loudspeaker earlier.

Yet there had been no reaction at all.

Could it be a supernatural horror?

No!

If it were, why would Chu Che still be leading the convoy forward?

The scene ahead grew clearer and clearer.

At last, he could make it out.

There was indeed a convoy up ahead.

It consisted of several dozen vehicles. The one at the front appeared to be an off-road vehicle, overturned in the desert beside the highway, with half its body buried in sand.

The remaining vehicles were bunched together, apparently involved in rear-end collisions of varying severity.

It was practically a massive pileup.

Several vehicles also looked as though they had been burned, their bodies blackened all over.

Dozens of vehicles clogged the desert highway.

The desert heat blurred the distant crash site.

The temperature outside was at least forty degrees Celsius.

The Fairness Convoy's approach drew no response from the crash site.

There wasn't even a single person in sight.

Chen Ye frowned.

Something was very wrong here.

Then Chu Che's vehicle stopped.

The other vehicles came to a halt one after another.

The barefoot young man got out, glanced toward Chen Ye, then looked into the distance.

He scooped up a handful of sand from the ground, tossed it into his mouth, and began chewing.

He was probably activating some ability of the Guide.

Chen Ye stopped his tricycle and walked toward Chu Che in his baggy shorts and sun-protective jacket.

Nana and Iron Lion got out of their respective vehicles too.

"Captain, what's going on?"

The Long-Legged Girl, wearing a sun hat and sunglasses, sounded a little irritated.

Anyone would be irritated after leaving the air-conditioning in their vehicle.

Even so, her hand never left the sword hilt at her waist.

Chen Ye glanced at her sunglasses and sun hat with a little envy.

Under sunlight this intense, having sunglasses and a sun hat was sheer bliss.

Chu Che narrowed his eyes slightly. "You've all seen it. There's been a pileup in the convoy ahead. We can't get through!"

"Any horrors?"

The girl's gaze sharpened warily!

She had seen the state of the convoy ahead. Their own convoy had made plenty of noise, yet there hadn't been the slightest response.

No one would believe there wasn't something wrong.

Chu Che shook his head. "No horrors!"

"Easy enough. Xiao Fu! Go take a look!"

Iron Lion spoke in his deep, rumbling voice.

The first part was addressed to the group; for the second, he turned and shouted toward the bus.

The bespectacled college student got off the bus, mounted a motorcycle, and sped ahead.

Chen Ye recognized the motorcycle. It was the one from that morning.

He just didn't know how it had ended up in the college student's hands.

Xiao Fu soon returned with a very strange expression.

"Xiao Fu, what's the situation up ahead?"

"Brother Iron, Captain, Sister Nana, Brother Ye, there's nobody in those vehicles!"

The college student, with his innocent, clueless air, addressed everyone present before describing what he had seen.

"Nobody up ahead? Not even bodies?"

"No. There isn't a single person in any of the vehicles..."

Xiao Fu recounted what he had seen.

Everyone exchanged puzzled looks.

"How about we go take a look?"

Chen Ye spoke with a cigarette between his lips.

"That's our only option!"

Everyone returned to their vehicles.

The convoy soon set off, creeping forward with a measure of caution, a measure of probing curiosity, and a measure of greed.

Chen Ye, however, felt a little excitement stirring inside him.

If there really was nobody in the convoy ahead...

Wouldn't that mean he could get a new vehicle?

His tricycle had been modified fairly well, but it still fell far short of a four-wheeled off-road vehicle.

If he could get an off-road vehicle to upgrade and modify...

Just thinking about it excited him.

The convoy stopped fifty meters from the crash site.

Iron Lion got out first.

His massive frame strode toward the crash site, giving everyone an almost unimaginable sense of security.

At some point, the Long-Legged Girl had appeared on the roof of the off-road vehicle, her hand gripping the sword worn horizontally at her waist, ready for anything unexpected.

Although Xiao Fu had already scouted the site, nobody knew what might happen when the rest of them approached.

Without this kind of caution, the convoy probably would have ceased to exist long ago.

Chen Ye took a deep drag, smoking nearly half his Hua Cigarette in one pull.

Thick smoke streamed from his nostrils, soon forming a faint haze around him.

A kitten's meow came from within the haze.

Chen Ye's right eye fixed intently on the enormous figure in the distance.

When he saw the big man signal to them that it was safe...

Chen Ye finally relaxed.

Excitement quickly surged up in its place.

With so many vehicles, he might be able to find a suitable one.

Then he wouldn't have to drive this beat-up tricycle anymore.

He would finally have a proper vehicle of his own.

Just thinking about it thrilled him.