Safe for now, the lucky ones

But perhaps it was because their convoy had too few people.

Or perhaps it was for some other reason.

Whatever the case, Fan Shang realized that the terrifying figure in the tornado did not seem to have noticed them.

He instantly breathed a sigh of relief.

But a sense of urgency surged through him right afterward.

They had to-they had to get out from under these dark clouds as quickly as possible!

With that thought, Fan Shang was about to urge Liu Tie on.

But before Fan Shang could speak, Liu Tie's voice rang out.

"Quick! Now! Everyone, keep up!"

As he spoke, Liu Tie's SUV suddenly accelerated.

There was no trace of its earlier leisurely pace.

The instant Liu Tie saw that figure in the tornado, a chill had run through him too.

All he wanted was to get out of here quickly.

Yes, all he wanted was to get out of here quickly!

"Move, move, move! Everyone, keep up!"

Zhou Ping shouted.

The survivors who had been driving slowly behind Liu Tie's SUV snapped to attention.

They had thought they could finally rest for a little while.

Yet barely any time had passed before the convoy had to move again.

They wanted to complain, but one glance at the terrifying scene in the distance made them swallow every word.

Without another thought, they followed Liu Tie and raced straight ahead.

They were terrified that the dreadful tornado would notice them.

And so, after traveling for nearly an hour,

the convoy finally stopped.

Of course, it was not because they had driven beyond the dark clouds of the calamity.

It was because the calamity had already disappeared.

After devouring most of the humans, the eerie Person in the Rain had lost interest in the area.

"C-Captain Liu, are we... are we safe?"

A survivor asked, drenched in sweat.

The prolonged strain of staying intensely focused had left him utterly exhausted, and even his voice trembled.

But Liu Tie did not answer the question directly.

Instead, he looked toward the dark clouds in the distance and let out a long breath as he watched them gradually thin.

Only then did he speak.

"For now... we're safe."

"For now?"

The survivor's voice rose, his emotions getting the better of him.

But Liu Tie did not respond.

He did not know how to answer either.

Although he had survived on this highway for over a year, he still knew very little about this world.

Whether it was the mysterious highway or the terrifying supernatural horrors,

humanity knew far too little about them.

Even with the calamity before him, Liu Tie did not know whether its apparent fading really meant it was going to disappear.

Or whether it might take shape again the next moment.

Liu Tie knew none of that.

There was only one thing he could do.

Whether this rain, this calamity, gathered strength again or not, he only needed to do one thing: lead the convoy as far away as possible.

"Keep moving!"

Liu Tie said.

Then, after another half hour of driving,

the convoy finally left the calamity's range.

At the same time, the calamity behind them had vanished completely.

Night had fallen.

Once the dark clouds dispersed, what met Fan Shang's eyes was the Weird Moon with its human face.

Its eyes were hollow, seeping blood drop by drop.

Yet, for some reason, the sight of this eerie thing stirred an inexplicable sense of familiarity in Fan Shang.

"Heh, fucking hell. Never thought there'd come a day when I'd actually want to see this damned moon."

Liu Tie spat.

Then he got out of the vehicle too.

Looking up at the Weird Moon, he lit a cigarette and exhaled a long plume of smoke.

Only then did Fan Shang notice that Liu Tie's fingers holding the cigarette were trembling uncontrollably.

The reason for that trembling needed no explanation.

And Liu Tie was actually holding up fairly well.

Looking around at the survivors, some had collapsed on the ground while others leaned against their vehicles, but all of them were visibly shaken.

Zhou Peng was in even worse shape.

His legs were weak, and if he had not been holding on to the car door, Fan Shang thought he would have fallen straight to the ground.

"Sh-Shang, give me a hand."

Zhou Peng reached out shakily.

Fan Shang did not respond. He simply moved a little farther away in silence.

Then Lin Xue got out as well.

The four of them gathered together.

Fan Shang noticed that Liu Tie's previously grim expression had eased considerably.

Liu Tie glanced at the sky, then spoke.

"Shang, Zhou Ping, Lin Xue, how about we rest here tonight?"

"Good, great! I'm all for it."

As soon as he finished speaking, delight spread across Zhou Ping's face.

Although they were all Sequence Users, and Fan Shang and the others still looked fine after a day of fleeing, there were differences even among Sequence Users.

After fleeing for so long, Zhou Ping was already exhausted in both body and mind. That was why he was so excited to hear Liu Tie say they could stop and rest.

But Zhou Ping alone did not get to decide.

Liu Tie looked toward Lin Xue and Fan Shang.

"No problem with me."

Lin Xue said.

Although her face was a little pale, she was still a Sequence User of the same rank as Liu Tie.

Naturally, Lin Xue's physical condition was considerably better than Zhou Ping's.

As for Fan Shang,

Liu Tie turned to look at him.

Fan Shang still wore the same deadpan expression, making it impossible to tell whether he was tired.

Seeing this, Liu Tie simply attributed it to the strength of a B-rank Sequence.

As he thought this,

Fan Shang's answer came.

"Fine."

All four agreed.

Without hesitation, Liu Tie grabbed a megaphone and announced the decision.

This time, none of the survivors cheered.

They were already too exhausted to cheer.

And so Fan Shang and the others settled down to rest beside the highway.

While Fan Shang and the others rested peacefully,

Jiang City was gripped by panic.

"Aaah! Where is this? Where the hell am I? Baby, baby, are you there?"

"Xiaomei, Xiaomei, where are you? Why did the room suddenly get so dark?! What's going on?"

"B-Big brother, where are you? I can't find you."

Screams, clamor, sobbing.

Every kind of sound filled the air.

And the culprit behind it all

was the Black Tide that had descended upon Jiang City not long before.

As the pitch-black liquid surged up from underground and swallowed Jiang City,

the entire city ground to a halt in mere moments.

Monsters began emerging from one dark corner after another. They hunted and slaughtered humans, their appearances filling people with terror.

In just half an hour, the entire city had plunged into panic.

But that was not the most terrifying part. The most terrifying part was the calamity sweeping across the city.

A frenzied curtain of rain poured endlessly from the sky. Any human caught in the rain who jumped more than half a meter had a hemp rope looped around their neck and was hanged alive in midair.

And this single disaster

wiped out more than half the humans in Jiang City, while most of those who remained drowned in the rainwater.

By now, fewer than one in ten thousand people in Jiang City were still alive.

But where there were unlucky people, there were naturally lucky ones too.

One group had left before the rainwater completely swallowed Jiang City.

"Cheng Qian, are we really taking this road? It's surrounded by that fog. Nothing about it looks right!"

Outside Jiang City, beside the highway,

a blond-haired young man stared at the highway that had appeared at some unknown point, his voice trembling and his face ashen.

Hearing the blond's words, Cheng Qian, whom he had addressed, glanced at him.

Then he spoke.

"If we don't go this way, where can we go? Back?"

"Blondie, you saw what happened in the city just now. Going back now means certain death. But sure, if you lead the way, we'll turn around right now."

"Ha, Ch-Cheng Qian, I was just kidding."

"If you don't have the guts, shut up. We're facing death either way, so we might as well take a chance!"

As he spoke, his soaked shoe stepped onto the road, leaving a deep footprint.

The thousand people behind him followed close after.