Chapter 25
Yellow mud streamed down from the hilltop. On closer inspection, something was writhing constantly inside it.
The members of the Survival Rules Convoy glanced in their rearview mirrors and instinctively slammed down on the accelerator.
Whatever happened, they could not stop now, or they really would die here.
There was no question that the things inside that yellow mud were Aberrations.
When the earlier flood had swept down, the Aberrations in the mud had probably been trying to avoid it.
Their attention had been drawn to the terrifying black shadow then, and they had overlooked the movement in the yellow mud right in front of them.
In the lead vehicle, Liu Chuan stuck his head out of the window. He let the rain lash his face, refusing to pull back inside as he stared at the spreading yellow mud.
The yellow mud seemed to be coming straight for their convoy. Once it reached the highway, it spread toward them at tremendous speed.
Fortunately, the convoy was moving fast enough to keep some distance from it.
But...
How long could they keep fleeing like this?
Liu Chuan glanced at the dashboard. His fuel tank was almost empty, and he figured everyone else was probably in much the same situation.
At this point, they absolutely could not stop.
If they stopped, the consequences would be unimaginable.
The thought had barely crossed his mind when he noticed a Wuling Hongguang behind them come to a halt. Its occupants scrambled out in terror, shouting after the convoy.
Unfortunately, they were driving too fast for Liu Chuan to hear them.
Amid their resentment toward the convoy, the people from that vehicle sank into despair.
Their vehicle had run out of fuel. There was no way they could outrun the Yellow-Mud Aberration behind them. The four exchanged glances, their hearts utterly consumed by despair.
Soon, the yellow mud reached them, sweeping up all four people along with the Wuling Hongguang.
Everyone in the convoy knew what their fate would be, but they could not stop now.
Flooring the accelerator and charging ahead was their only chance of survival.
After rounding several bends in succession, Liu Chuan sensed their surroundings again. Only after confirming that the Yellow-Mud Aberration had not caught up did he let out a long breath of relief.
Holding the megaphone, he wiped the rain off his face and shouted, "Everyone, get ready to pull over up ahead and rest! Refuel immediately! We can't keep driving through the night. We'll spend tonight by the roadside."
Hearing that they could finally rest, everyone in the convoy looked relieved to have survived.
Lin Yi jumped out with a can of gasoline and filled the pickup's tank, glancing at the other members of the convoy as he did.
The sky was gradually darkening. They had spent practically the entire day running for their lives. It would have been a lie to say they were not tired.
Several people got out to stretch before returning to their vehicles to grab a quick bite.
Lin Yi stood silently beside his vehicle, staring motionlessly at the people farther back in the convoy. A trace of fear surfaced in his eyes.
"Lin, what are you standing around for? Come have something to eat."
Liu Chuan slowly chewed on a packet of crunchy instant noodles. "We should be fine tonight. Don't worry. There's no trace of any Aberrations around here."
Although the convoy had lost one vehicle, everyone else had survived.
For Liu Chuan, their leader, that was good news.
Lin Yi took a deep breath and lowered his voice. "Captain Liu, how many people do we have in the convoy altogether?"
"One hundred and seventy-two members. Including the three of us Sequence Transcendents, that's a hundred and seventy-five."
Still eating, Liu Chuan continued, "But while we were escaping earlier, one vehicle ran out of gasoline and ended up being swallowed by the Yellow-Mud Aberration."
"How many people were in that vehicle?"
Lin Yi pressed him.
Liu Chuan thought back. "Four. Four people got out of it."
"Four... Then count how many people are in the convoy now!"
As he spoke, Lin Yi walked over to the truck bed and glanced at the Soul-Devouring Saw, which had finished being enhanced.
[Item: Soul-Devouring Saw +1] [Quality: Weird Object Weapon] [Number: 3995] [Traits: 1. Soul devouring: Consuming souls increases its sharpness. 2. Illusion breaking: The saw emits a flame effect that helps its user break through illusions.] [Description: Originally an ordinary short handsaw, it was raised to the anomalous object level through repeated applications of the Sequence Transcendent ability "Enhancement," allowing it to damage Aberrations.]
One enhancement gave it an extra trait?
Its ranking had also risen into the top four thousand. It seemed a single enhancement provided a considerable boost.
But...
Now was the perfect time to see just how powerful the enhanced Soul-Devouring Saw was.
He had noticed something wrong while refueling the pickup.
There was something wrong with the convoy's head count!
So he had counted the people in the convoy while filling the pickup's tank. He might have been fine if he had not counted, but the result was enough to give anyone a fright.
By rights, there should have been a hundred and seventy-one people left in the convoy.
Yet just now, Lin Yi had counted a full two hundred!
Who were those twenty-nine extra people?
Liu Chuan had also finished counting by then. More precisely, his body had begun trembling involuntarily as soon as he reached the hundred and seventy-second person.
By the time he counted the two-hundredth, cold sweat was running down his forehead.
Even under his umbrella, the cold sweat poured from his head like rain.
"Lin... Wh-what's going on?"
"I don't know!"
Lin Yi lowered his voice and said gravely, "Something is definitely wrong with the convoy. Go ask Ji about it. I'll keep an eye on everyone else!"
"All right!"
Liu Chuan hurried over to Ji Qingcang's vehicle.
Ji Qingcang was eating compressed biscuits with his wife and daughter. When he saw Liu Chuan approach with such an awful expression, his heart lurched.
Had something happened to the convoy again?
"Ji, some people have slipped into the convoy..."
Liu Chuan had checked several times and confirmed there was no trace of any Aberrations, so the infiltrators could only be people.
"How many?"
Ji Qingcang immediately got out, staring grimly at the vehicles behind them.
A single glance was enough for him to notice something wrong as well.
"Twenty-nine!"
Liu Chuan lowered his voice. "There are exactly two hundred people in the convoy now. I can't tell who the extra ones are. I don't even know when they slipped in."
They had not spotted any other survivors while driving, which meant these new arrivals could only have caught up from behind.
Was... that possible?
They had been speeding along for their lives the entire way. Even if other vehicles had managed to keep up, there was no way they would have gone completely unnoticed.
"What did Lin Yi say? Was he the first to notice?"
Ji Qingcang glanced at Lin Yi's pickup and saw him sitting inside, apparently with no intention of getting out.
"Yes. He noticed something wrong first, counted everyone, and then told me what he'd found."
Liu Chuan said thoughtfully, "He's probably trying to come up with a solution too. We can't even tell who those extra people are right now..."
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