Just as Fan Shang fled...
The survivors following behind him were no fools, either.
Once they heard those sounds, they abandoned the shops and the supplies.
They simply dropped anything they had not finished searching.
Grabbing their bags of supplies, they charged straight toward their vehicles.
With screams and giggles ringing out all around them, their tension and fear hit the roof. Every last one ran like mad, putting every ounce of strength into it.
Once inside, they floored the accelerator and sped off, terrified that they would be the next to die.
But some unlucky souls released the clutch too quickly and stalled.
Then the horrors set their sights on them.
"Hee... heehee..."
"Aaaah!!!"
Blood splattered across a car window.
As Fan Shang's Wuling shot out, Lin Xue and Liu Tie also noticed something wrong on their respective sides.
Then came...
Bang-!!
A resounding crash.
A red brick wall collapsed in an instant.
Then a familiar figure came into view.
It was Liu Tie!
Fan Shang looked at the wall, then at Liu Tie.
For a moment, he was dumbfounded.
Although Fan Shang could also smash through a wall, still...
Captain Liu, are you really in the [Farmer] Sequence?
But this was clearly no time to ponder that. Fan Shang lowered his head and sped onward.
Liu Tie also froze for a moment when he saw Fan Shang.
Then, without hesitation, he sprinted straight toward his SUV.
Soon afterward, he caught up.
All kinds of vehicles followed behind him.
With everyone fleeing at once, the survivors in the convoy each showed what they could do.
Even as they fled, vehicles occasionally fell behind, collided, or overturned.
But not a single person stopped.
Before long, Fan Shang and the others charged out of the town.
"Oh, you're back? Aren't there still five minutes left?"
Zhou Ping, who had been waiting outside in utter boredom, froze when he saw the vehicles emerge.
Then he checked his watch, feeling puzzled.
But just as he was about to wave them over...
He suddenly sensed something was wrong, and his right eyelid would not stop twitching.
Squinting at the vehicles, he noticed something else.
"Wait... aren't they going a little too fast? And what are they babbling about over there?"
Zhou Ping was puzzled and confused, but the moment those words left his mouth, something seemed to click.
"Fuck!"
Why else would they still be fleeing like mad after leaving town?
There had to be danger!
As a seasoned survivor who had lived in this Weird World for a long time, his instincts for danger were remarkably sharp. He did not hesitate for even a fraction of a second.
The instant he realized it, Zhou Ping grabbed his precious big pot and rushed toward his vehicle.
He started the engine, pulled out, and hit the accelerator in one smooth sequence.
Then his vehicle shot forward.
As he drove, Zhou Ping could not help cursing.
"Shit, Brother Tie, you're a real bastard! You actually lured the horrors out here."
The people around him stared blankly at the departing vehicle.
Then they looked at Liu Tie and the others, who were saying something.
They could not hear clearly at first, but as the vehicles approached, the words gradually became audible.
"There's... dan... danger..."
"There are... horrors..."
Not hearing them would have been better. The moment they understood, everyone panicked.
They swarmed into their vehicles, trying to flee.
But they were already too late.
Liu Tie and the others easily overtook them.
They sped away down the road.
They drove at full speed for several hours, until the city behind them was no longer visible.
Only then did the convoy finally stop.
"Huff, huff!"
"Holy shit, that... that was intense..."
Seeing that they were safe for the moment, Zhou Ping hauled his trembling body out of his vehicle.
The survivors around him were much the same.
After that terrifying escape, the adrenaline wore off, replaced by lingering dread and fear.
But above all, they felt relief at having escaped death.
Because... they had survived.
At that thought, many slumped onto the ground against their vehicles, gasping for breath.
Fan Shang got out, too.
Although he also felt tense, relieved to have survived, and shaken by the danger...
Still...
There was more joy on his face now, because his contract with Little Black would soon be complete.
[Symbiotic creature: Heterochromatic Black Cat] [Time remaining until assimilation is complete: 00:0:05]
Only five minutes remained.
Looking away, Fan Shang saw Zhou Ping complaining.
"Shit, Brother Tie, what the hell happened this time? Do you know I almost didn't make it back? It was only because I reacted fast."
"Otherwise, you guys would've gotten me killed for sure."
As he spoke, Zhou Ping could not help feeling a surge of relief.
Thank goodness he had reacted quickly instead of standing there like an idiot, waving. Otherwise, he probably would have been done for.
Hadn't all those people who failed to react fallen behind?
At that thought, Zhou Ping glanced back.
The convoy, originally over seventy strong, had lost another twenty-odd people this time.
Some had never made it out of town, some were unlucky enough to stall, and others had failed to react in time.
Zhou Ping held no hope of them surviving the horrors.
Not everyone was that lucky.
Liu Tie dismissed Zhou Ping's complaints.
"Hey, you little punk, Zhou Ping! Haven't had a go at you in a few days, and now you're getting cocky again, huh?!"
"Now you're blaming your Brother Tie? Things were so urgent back there-did you really expect me to drive and yell at you to run at the same time? Besides, aren't you still alive?"
Liu Tie even picked his ear as he spoke.
He looked utterly unconcerned.
Although Zhou Ping knew Liu Tie was right-that nobody in this Weird World would coddle him, and he could only rely on himself to survive-Liu Tie's tone still annoyed him for some reason.
So the two began bickering again.
They even traded blows, but Liu Tie held back. To Fan Shang, he looked as though he were playing with a child.
"Wait, are they... always like this?"
Fan Shang asked uncertainly.
Before awakening, he had witnessed far too many disgusting things, which left him unaccustomed to the way Zhou Ping and Liu Tie interacted.
Hearing his question, Lin Xue turned to explain, her face as expressionless as ever.
"More or less. Zhou Ping came here half a year ago. Brother Tie saved him back then, and he's followed him ever since. If there's anyone Brother Tie trusts most in the convoy, it's probably Zhou Ping."
Even after saying all that, Lin Xue's expression remained unchanged.
But it left Fan Shang a little puzzled.
Could Lin Xue actually be quite warmhearted?
Of course, Fan Shang did not say that aloud, for no other reason than... they were not familiar enough yet.
Still, Lin Xue's explanation had helped him understand the way Zhou Ping and Liu Tie got along.
Just as Little Black's contract was about to be completed...
Zhou Ping finally stopped complaining.
"Phew, well, thank goodness. We got lucky this time and finally shook off that horror. At least we made it out alive!"
Then curiosity struck him.
"So, Brother Tie, what kind of horror did you run into this time that made you flee so fast? You never used to get this nervous even when you encountered one."
At that, Liu Tie's expression grew grave.
"Easy for you to say, you little punk. This time, we ran into one of those incorporeal things. If I hadn't run fast enough, I'd have been done for, too."
"What... incorporeal?"
Hearing that, Zhou Ping nearly spat out a mouthful of water.
His shock was understandable.
Even with a corporeal horror, you could not kill it at all unless you could disperse the layer of black mist surrounding it.
An incorporeal horror was even worse. You could not even touch it, making it vastly harder to deal with.
"Then... Brother Tie, what did that horror look like? We should've shaken it off by now, right?"
Suddenly, Zhou Ping felt that their surroundings were not so safe after all.
Liu Tie shook his head at the question.
"I didn't really get a good look, either. As for now, we should be..."
But before he could finish, a scream suddenly rang out from within the convoy.
"Aaaaaah!! Help... help me..."
At the same time, the symbiosis countdown ended.
[Symbiotic creature: Heterochromatic Black Cat] [Time remaining until assimilation is complete: 00:00:00] [Symbiosis complete: Heterochromatic Black Cat]
The convoy, which had only just caught its breath, instantly erupted into chaos.
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