"Yeah, what a shame. Such a pretty girl, too."
That voice... wasn't Chen Mo's...
Chen Mo's body went rigid in an instant. Cold sweat seeped from every pore.
It came from the passenger seat...
A voice Chen Mo had never heard before, a raspy squawk with a mocking edge.
There couldn't possibly be another living thing in this dump truck besides him!
Was it the Hairy Savage's hand?
Chen Mo slowly turned his stiff neck, inch by inch, toward his right.
The next second, his pupils contracted sharply.
On the passenger seat.
Sat a donkey.
Yes, a donkey.
The donkey lay sprawled in the passenger seat, its legs spread apart.
Its hooves rested lazily against the dashboard, jiggling back and forth...
It wore a pair of faded pink plaid boxer shorts over its lower half, covering the important bits.
The donkey lay there in perfect comfort.
Clamped in one hoof was a little wooden ladder the size of a palm.
It leisurely scraped the black grime off its belly.
The black grime slid down its belly,
curling into rolls that dropped onto the floor.
Noticing Chen Mo's gaze, the donkey stopped.
It split its mouth into a grin, revealing two enormous, even rows of teeth, and chuckled at Chen Mo.
Several gleaming gold chains hung around its black-and-white neck, reflecting a tacky shine.
That grin was filled with a distinctly human... sleaziness and mockery.
"Young man, want a wife?"
"That little chick looks pretty good to me. Still untouched, too. Big hips, good for bearing children."
"Just say the word, and I'll bring her right over."
The donkey jerked its head toward Hu Yaya, its eyes brimming with mockery.
Chen Mo had no time to think about any of that.
He stared fixedly at the donkey in the passenger seat.
Every muscle in his body was taut. Cold sweat seeped from his pores and soaked his jacket.
What was this thing?!
Was it a hallucination brought on by the Hairy Savage's hand?
Or... another eerie creature?
Chen Mo's hand slowly reached for the Mountain-Cleaving Blade beside him.
But the instant his fingers touched the blade, the donkey spoke.
"Look at you. Pathetic."
"Don't start hollering just yet, and don't even think about attacking."
The donkey spoke casually, lifting the little wooden ladder to its mouth and blowing on it.
Its next words pinned Chen Mo in place, leaving him afraid to move another inch.
"That blindfolded leader of yours is called Lin Lu, right?"
The donkey lowered it, lazily picked its ear, and continued.
"His Sequence ability doesn't work on me. So if I wanted to kill you, I wouldn't waste all this breath talking to you."
Chen Mo slowly let go of the Mountain-Cleaving Blade.
Even setting aside the fact that the Mountain-Cleaving Blade was useless against eerie creatures, anything that could evade Lin Lu's ability could wipe him out with a flick of its hoof.
The reason the convoy still existed.
The reason it could survive in this world filled with eerie creatures.
Was the abilities of Lin Lu and the other Transcendents.
Yet now, an eerie creature was sitting brazenly right beside him.
And Lin Lu... hadn't reacted at all.
"What are you?"
Chen Mo finally spoke, his voice hoarse, asking his first question.
The donkey stopped picking its ear and fixed its eyes on Chen Mo. Its toothy grin widened.
"A thing? You're a thing. Your whole family's a bunch of things."
"Call me Daddy, and I'll tell you how to awaken the Awakening Sequence. How's that?"
Those words left Chen Mo frozen in place.
A storm surged through his heart.
A trace of greed entered his eyes.
The donkey seemed to relish that expression.
It continued speaking through its wide grin.
"What, scared stupid? We just met in the village, and you've already forgotten me?"
"The Hairy Savage was a little fatty, but it tasted all right. Thanks for the meal."
So it really was this donkey!
That black-and-white blur that had snatched the Hairy Savage's corpse!
This donkey was so bizarre that it overturned everything Chen Mo thought he knew.
And judging by its words, it must have eaten the Hairy Savage's corpse.
With speech so human, if it hadn't looked like a donkey.
Chen Mo wouldn't even have been able to tell whether it was an eerie creature.
"Made up your mind yet? Opportunity won't wait around."
Its hoof pointed out the window again.
"Look at that little chick. Pretty as a picture, isn't she? She even went through hell with you in the village."
"Too bad her best friend is trying to talk her into paying Brother Dao protection money."
"That friend of hers is so afraid of dying she won't even set foot in the village."
"She lives entirely off that little chick, and now look at her."
"Making someone else hand over supplies they risked their life for."
"Just listen to her. Is that anything a decent person would say?"
Chen Mo's heart sank.
Although he couldn't make out what Li Shiqi was saying, what the donkey described.
Matched the pleading, urgent expression he had seen on Li Shiqi's face perfectly.
"If you became a Transcendent."
The donkey's voice dripped with temptation.
"Saving a little beauty like her would only take a word, wouldn't it?"
"Then you could keep your lovely little mistress tucked away... heh heh heh."
"That'd taste a whole lot better than gnawing on potatoes every day."
"And wouldn't the Hairy Savage's hand be all yours, too?"
Chen Mo said nothing, but his breathing grew heavier.
He was no saint. He hadn't cared whether Hu Yaya lived or died.
But the word "Transcendent" ignited the most primal desire deep within him.
If he could possess power beyond that of ordinary people.
He wouldn't have to go on like this.
Struggling every day to survive for another mouthful of food.
Nor would he be treated as the convoy's tail, sacrificed as part of a Severed Tail strategy to help the rest escape.
He didn't want to hide inside his shell anymore.
He didn't want to entrust his life to the "big-picture thinking" of powerful people like Lin Lu anymore.
He would become strong himself!
He would control his own fate!
Chen Mo forced himself to calm down.
He suppressed the greed in his heart and kept his gaze locked on the donkey.
Waiting for it to continue.
"You're really no fun. Not a shred of humor in you."
The donkey seemed to lose patience and shifted in its seat.
It crossed both hind legs like an old man meditating.
"All right, enough wasting words on you."
As it spoke, the donkey slipped a hoof inside its boxer shorts.
And rummaged around.
Every muscle in Chen Mo's body tensed again.
Instinctively, he wanted to recoil.
But the hoof quickly emerged and stopped in midair.
The donkey gave its hoof a light flick.
Then a fist-sized potato, still coated in fresh soil, appeared out of thin air on its hoof.
"So you..."
"...what are you?"
Chen Mo finally found his voice again, dry and raspy.
"A thing?"
The donkey stopped chewing, held the half-eaten potato in its hoof, and snorted in displeasure.
"You're a thing. Your whole family's a bunch of things!"
"Your daddy here is the great Second-Tier Variant, Red Hare!"
"Remember that. Don't get it wrong again."
A Second-Tier Variant... Red Hare?
Chen Mo's heart sank again.
He had heard bits and pieces from Old Yang about how eerie creatures were ranked.
He also knew what the word "Variant" meant.
Most eerie creatures were monsters that knew only slaughter.
They had no true intelligence or thoughts, acting purely on instinct.
-An intelligent eerie creature was far more terrifying than others of the same level.
But...
How could a Second-Tier Variant possibly block Lin Lu's perception?
Before you continue