The sun sank in the west.
Chen Mo drove the Dump Truck down the middle of the road.
Rows of sinister shops lined the roadside, countless prying eyes watching from within.
Red Hare sat in the passenger seat, one thick donkey leg propped against the window.
He held a huge sprouted potato in his hoof,
munching away with loud crunches.
"Turn left, then right up ahead."
"Damn, this potato's all shriveled. Don't you know how to get yourself something decent to eat?"
Chen Mo ignored the donkey beside him and drove on, expressionless.
The three fingers remaining on his right hand gripped the steering wheel as he slowly turned.
Waves of pain still pulsed from the wounds where his fingers had been severed.
But an unprecedented sense of power surged endlessly from deep within every part of his body.
Becoming a Transcendent felt strange and wonderful.
His awakening at the Clinic had taken far too much time.
Since the time he had agreed on with Lin Lu,
six hours had already passed.
The convoy had probably gone far ahead.
Soon, it would be completely dark.
"Isn't that the little beauty's car?"
The donkey beside him let out a strange cry.
Chen Mo looked in the direction of his voice.
Not far ahead, by the roadside,
the black E300 sat quietly.
Its windows were open, and no one was inside.
Two other private cars were parked beside it.
"Tsk, tsk. That little beauty's probably been chewed clean by whatever's in there. What a waste of those long legs."
Chen Mo was speechless. How did this donkey even have the same taste as a human?
"Let's go. Leave it."
Chen Mo glanced over, then drove straight past.
Ten minutes later.
Chen Mo stared gravely at the Mannequin beside him.
"Proceed to Hualian Supermarket and purchase a Travel Pass. One pass per person is required to leave."
"Proceed to Hualian Supermarket and purchase a Travel Pass. One pass per person is required to leave."
It seemed he had no choice but to go.
Chen Mo turned toward the donkey beside him.
"What level?"
The donkey yawned and stretched.
"Probably level one. Much weaker than Wen Li."
Chen Mo opened the door and slowly climbed out.
He had been wanting to test his strength anyway.
This would make a perfect test subject.
On the first floor of Hualian Supermarket.
The floor was a mess, with several corpses sprawled in all directions.
Congealed dark-red blood covered the pristine white floor.
A frail figure huddled in a corner of the supermarket.
Hu Yaya clutched her head with both hands, her body trembling nonstop.
Standing before her was Li Xia, the Salesperson Mannequin in a red vest.
Li Xia's head turned with a clicking sound, her deathly pale smiling face, smeared with cheap blush, facing the shivering Hu Yaya.
"Hello, customer. Our store will be closing soon."
"What would you like to purchase?"
Chen Mo spotted the two of them from far away,
after awakening his sequence,
his eyesight had improved considerably too.
Li Xia's plastic head abruptly rotated a hundred and eighty degrees.
She locked onto Chen Mo, who stood at the entrance.
"Hello, customer. What would you like to purchase?"
Ignoring Hu Yaya on the floor, Chen Mo spoke.
"I want to buy Travel Passes."
Li Xia's smile grew even more eerie.
"Travel Passes. Unit price: one human head."
Chen Mo glanced at the headless corpses on the floor.
So that was it.
He turned to look at Hu Yaya, who was clutching her head and rocking back and forth in the corner.
Then he withdrew his gaze.
He pointed at the Dump Truck outside.
"Does that donkey need a Travel Pass too?"
Li Xia visibly froze for a moment.
Then she nodded.
"Of course. One pass per person."
"Pets are no exception."
Chen Mo nodded to show he understood.
Looks like I'll have to fight after all.
He stepped forward, his right hand tucked into his jacket pocket.
Slowly, he approached the human and the monster.
Hu Yaya raised her head at that moment,
watching Chen Mo approach one step at a time.
She slowly closed her eyes.
Fine. This life of mine...
Let it repay the favor from Wugui Village.
Three meters.
Two meters.
One meter.
Chen Mo moved!
A streak of silver flashed out.
It was blindingly fast.
It targeted Li Xia's neck.
Li Xia reacted instantly.
She raised her right arm to block. The cut was as smooth as a mirror.
His first strike landed, and Chen Mo followed through with another attack.
Li Xia shot backward.
She pressed against a shelf, her gaze locked firmly on Chen Mo.
"Warning, warning. Do not damage store property!"
Chen Mo stared at the empty space where Li Xia's right arm had been,
gaining a new understanding of anomalous items.
Soon, Chen Mo noticed something was wrong.
The smooth cut on Li Xia's plastic body flickered.
The phantom outline of a new arm shimmered.
Slowly, it became solid.
It was as good as new.
She could actually regenerate?
No, this wasn't regeneration.
It was more like... reloading.
Chen Mo stopped, tightened his grip on the Surgical Knife, and stared at her face with its exaggerated blush.
The human and the monster faced off across the distance.
Just then.
Boom!
A deafening crash rang out as the supermarket's glass was smashed to pieces.
Glass shards scattered across the floor.
A blue Dump Truck charged through the entrance, knocked over several shelves, and stopped inside the supermarket.
The donkey jumped down from the driver's seat, wearing oversized sunglasses and baggy pink shorts.
"Who the fuck called me a pet!"
Red Hare hollered through the supermarket in his harsh, raspy voice.
He had clearly heard Chen Mo's conversation with the salesperson.
"I'm Red Hare! A legendary steed, you hear me!"
As he spoke, he turned toward Chen Mo.
"This thing barely has any attack power. It's just an anomalous machine. You need to find its Control Core."
"Otherwise, you can't kill it. Go check behind the checkout counter. I'll hold it off."
Chen Mo understood immediately and nodded at Red Hare.
This donkey was only reliable at times like these.
Red Hare took off his sunglasses and tossed them onto the truck.
He looked Li Xia up and down, baring his big front teeth as he gave a strange chuckle.
"A defective piece of junk that isn't even level one, and you dare call your Grandpa Hare a pet?"
Li Xia watched Chen Mo jump behind the checkout counter.
Clearly panicking, she charged toward him.
"Robbery is prohibited in this store!"
"No pets allowed!"
Red Hare suddenly appeared in front of Li Xia and lashed out with a backward kick.
Bang!
The plastic mannequin instantly flew backward and slammed deep into the wall behind her.
She waved her limbs uselessly in the air, unable to move.
By then, Chen Mo had already jumped behind the checkout counter.
Sure enough, he found a black box flashing red beneath the counter.
Found it!
He raised the Surgical Knife and chopped straight down.
Crack!
The black box split in two, crackling with electricity before going dark.
Chen Mo noticed a white light flickering in the center of the black box.
A tiny sphere the size of a fingernail rolled out of it.
Chen Mo reached out to touch the sphere.
[Mechanical material: defective level-one Mechanical Core]
What the hell is this? Whatever, I'll take it back first.
He picked it up and put it in his pocket.
Chen Mo looked at Red Hare beside him.
"What are you standing around for? Start loading!"
Red Hare cried out excitedly.
"We're already here! Can't leave empty-handed! Ever heard of shopping for free?"
He ran behind the Dump Truck and kicked open the welded sheet metal.
Then, like a bandit, he picked up an entire shelf and roughly dumped its contents into the truck bed.
"Over there, over there! I love river snail noodles!"
"And over there, Huazi, Huazi!"
"What's this stuff, toilet paper? Take it, take it."
"Hey, long-legged girl over there, come help! What are you standing around for?"
Red Hare glanced back at Hu Yaya, who was still standing there in a daze, and called her over.
Hu Yaya stared blankly at the scene before her.
This man had been struggling alongside her in Wugui Village just yesterday afternoon.
Now he could fight the supernatural horrors.
And there was a... black-and-white donkey.
...Talking?
The sheer shock hit her every bit as hard as her best friend's betrayal.
"Drive your car in too! We're out of room. Take everything!"
That shout jolted Hu Yaya out of her daze.
"If you want to live, make yourself useful."
Chen Mo spoke up too.
Honestly, Chen Mo had no interest in playing the saint.
But he didn't mind helping someone if it took no extra effort.
She looked at the mess strewn across the floor, then at the donkey frantically loading things into the car.
Almost without thinking, she got up, ran out of the supermarket, and reversed her black E300 inside.
For a while, the supermarket echoed with the donkey's cursing orders and the crash of collapsing shelves.
A man, a donkey, and a girl looted like mad, like invading troops sweeping through a village.
"Warning! Warning! Robbery prohibited! Robbery prohibited!"
"Calling the store manager! Calling the store manager!"
"A human accompanied by a pet is looting the supermarket!"
"They've taken the Lay's potato chips from shelf one!"
"They've taken the Chunghwa cigarettes from the alcohol and tobacco section!"
"They've also taken the river snail rice noodles from shelf five! And... Seventh Space!"
Before you continue