Hallucinations? No, an Illusion!

Liu Chuan and Ji Qingcang walked toward the rear of the convoy together. Everyone they passed greeted them without exception.

Clearly, everyone knew Liu Chuan and Ji Qingcang.

Some brought up the cars swallowed by the Yellow-Mud Aberration, and Liu Chuan told them not to worry.

Inside, however, he was growing increasingly unnerved.

What the hell was going on?

Everyone in the convoy knew him and Ji Qingcang, and even their faces felt familiar to him.

But...

There were definitely twenty-nine extra people in the convoy.

Not one or two, but twenty-nine!

Ji Qingcang glanced at Liu Chuan's grim expression and knew that he had detected no trace of an Aberration. In other words, the people here were not Aberrations.

If they weren't Aberrations, finding them would be genuinely difficult.

"Of the people who stayed behind earlier, I only know a few. They're all from my neighborhood, but..."

Ji Qingcang lowered his voice. "I spoke to them privately just now. They said these were the people who'd been here from the start. Aside from those swallowed by the Yellow-Mud Aberration, everyone else is here."

Everyone was here?

What a joke.

There were clearly twenty-nine extra people here.

A chill ran down Liu Chuan's back. His senses hadn't been wrong, and there was nothing wrong with the count either. How had twenty-nine extra people suddenly appeared?

And somehow, no one else had noticed!

It was as though those twenty-nine extra people had been part of their group from the very beginning.

How did that make any sense?

"Ji, do you think the problem lies with us, or with everyone else in the convoy?"

Liu Chuan was even beginning to doubt himself. "Or is there something wrong with both sides? If this isn't an Aberration, how are we supposed to explain it?"

If this had nothing to do with an Aberration, it really was hard to explain.

Everyone thought nothing was wrong. Could the problem actually lie with the two of them?

Back at the service area, the Survival Rules Convoy had numbered exactly two hundred. Had they counted wrong from the start?

"Captain Liu! Ji!"

Just then, Lin Yi suddenly shouted from the pickup.

Then they saw him jump out of the pickup, one hand gripping the door and the other holding the Soul-Devouring Saw, his expression dark.

Was he... looking for a fight?

Wait, they hadn't even figured out what was going on. Why was he suddenly ready to attack?

"Get moving! The Yellow-Mud Aberration is catching up!"

Lin Yi's words sent a jolt through Liu Chuan.

He immediately closed his eyes and sensed his surroundings, but there was no trace of an Aberration within five kilometers.

Could Lin Yi be the one with something wrong?

At that moment, even Ji Qingcang began watching Lin Yi warily.

"Stop standing there! Grab my Soul-Devouring Saw, and you'll understand what's going on!"

As he spoke, Lin Yi raised the Soul-Devouring Saw.

Liu Chuan and Ji Qingcang didn't hesitate. They immediately reached out and grabbed the Soul-Devouring Saw. The next instant, the open highway before their eyes became a stretch of abandoned road shrouded in white fog.

Wrecked, blasted cars lay discarded on both sides, as though the highway's lanes had narrowed.

Outside the fog, the presence of the Yellow-Mud Aberration suddenly surged.

It was only a kilometer from their convoy!

What... was going on?

"Stop standing there! Get in your cars!"

Lin Yi snatched up the Soul-Devouring Saw and ran toward his pickup. The view before Liu Chuan and Ji Qingcang changed again.

The white fog from a moment ago had vanished completely, leaving only the pitch-black highway beneath the night sky.

"Everyone, get in your cars immediately!"

Liu Chuan's voice rang out through the Amplifying Megaphone. "Move out! Right now! Stay close to the vehicle ahead!"

The sudden order to leave caught everyone else in the convoy off guard.

Seeing that the three vehicles at the front had already set off, the others hesitated, baffled.

"What the hell? I just made my instant noodles. Can't we eat before we leave?"

"We've been driving all this time, and my ass is killing me. Can't we even rest here for a bit?"

"Leave if you want. The Aberration hasn't caught up anyway. We'll go once we've eaten. I've still got plenty of gas, so catching up won't be a problem."

"Then I'll leave later too. I'll get some rest first. Captain Liu was acting weird just now. Did the scare mess with his head?"

"..."

The vehicles at the rear showed no intention of leaving. Seeing this, Lin Yi cursed under his breath.

He simply stopped bothering with them, floored the accelerator, and sped away.

The white fog caused hallucinations.

Even Liu Chuan's ability wouldn't work here.

It was as though someone had deliberately created a deceptive safe zone, then waited for these people to die on the road.

Fine. Very good.

If someone really had done this, they were asking to die.

Judging by the number of abandoned cars on either side, whoever was responsible had clearly wiped out quite a few convoys this way.

Outside the white fog.

Seven or eight vehicles were parked together.

Rain shelters had been set up in front of the vehicles, with all sorts of tables, chairs, and stools beneath them. Food ingredients were piled together haphazardly, and other supplies were stacked under the shelters too.

Under the first shelter, a woman in leather clothes and sunglasses lay on a folding chair. Beneath her sunglasses, her skin was pale and her lips a fiery red. The leather hugged her voluptuous figure, outlining perfect curves.

Two other women sat beside her. One had her eyes closed as she sensed their surroundings, while the other fiddled with stones on the ground.

"Sister Tong, that convoy that just arrived looks pretty well-off. Can we hit the road after we rob them?"

The woman playing with the stones raised her head, revealing a greasy, piglike face. Her mouthful of yellow teeth gave off a foul stench.

As she spoke, even the woman beside her, who belonged to the [Watcher] Sequence, couldn't help frowning.

"Just make sure your formation is working properly and keep those damned Aberrations away!"

The woman in sunglasses spoke coolly. "We've nearly gathered enough supplies. We'll leave after this job. The convoys coming after them probably won't have much worth taking."

"Sister Tong, has your concealing fog thinned out again?"

The fat woman of the Formation Master Sequence frowned slightly. "Why can I hear engines coming closer? Did that group just now figure it out?"

"Impossible!"

The woman in sunglasses sat up and snorted. "My concealing fog can block a [Watcher]'s perception. They'll only think they're somewhere safe..."

As her words fell, the roar of engines came from within the white fog.

Then a sedan burst out, followed closely by a pickup and a Buick minivan. All three vehicles pulled over by the roadside almost simultaneously...