An uncanny attack

Just as Fan Shang found another spot to sit down and rest.

Three people had gathered at the head of the convoy.

Two men and a woman.

One man had a buzz cut and looked to be in his thirties or forties, with a knife scar across his stern face.

The other man was thin and looked somewhat younger, with a patch of tobacco-stained skin on his hand.

The woman looked only in her twenties. She had a good figure, wore her hair in a high ponytail, and had silver-rimmed glasses that gave her an intellectual air, like a university lecturer.

All three had noticed the commotion in the convoy earlier.

"Hey, Brother Tie, why didn't you step in this time? Those guys are cursing you behind your back. Still, that kid was pretty ruthless. He actually chopped his own classmate's head off.

"I thought this bunch were all useless, but now I've finally seen one who's decent. I like his style."

The man with the tobacco stain on his hand spoke. His name was Zhou Ping, and he had been in the uncanny world for a year. Since he was a Sequence User, everyone in the convoy called him Brother Ping.

The Brother Tie he mentioned was the scarred man with the buzz cut, Liu Tie, the convoy's current leader. Because he was ruthless but fairly impartial, most people in the convoy called him Captain, while even the troublemakers called him Brother Tie when they saw him.

Hearing this, Liu Tie snorted.

He glanced at the terrified crowd and the bodies on the ground, his face full of disdain.

"Hmph."

"Step in? They're cursing me behind my back? What's there to say? A bunch of useless idiots who still haven't figured things out after a week in this world. Getting involved would just waste my time. They're all going to die sooner or later anyway."

"Two people die and they're scared like this. When they run into something uncanny, won't they drag us down with them?"

Liu Tie sneered as his gaze swept over the crowd. When it reached Fan Shang, however, there was no disdain in his eyes, only a trace of approval.

As Zhou Ping had said, this kid really was ruthless. But in this uncanny world, ruthlessness was the best quality for staying alive.

After all, without it, an uncanny entity could easily kill you. Without it, people from other convoys could strip you of everything you had.

"Well said, Brother Tie. I was worried your bleeding heart would act up again and you'd try to uphold justice."

"Looks like I worried for nothing."

Zhou Ping gave Liu Tie a thumbs-up.

Liu Tie glanced at him and said irritably,

"So that's the kind of person you think I am? You think I can't tell right from wrong? Stealing supplies is taboo. Those two deserved to die."

"Now that's what I like to hear!"

With that, Zhou Ping turned toward the woman beside them.

"Lin Xue, what about you? What's your take on this?"

"I'll take it sitting down."

The woman named Lin Xue answered coldly.

"Uh..."

Zhou Ping couldn't help looking at Lin Xue, clearly taken aback.

He pressed his lips together and was about to speak when her voice rang out again.

"If you have time to meddle in this nonsense, you'd be better off planning where we should go next. They won't survive long on this road anyway, will they?"

"And Brother Tie, we've stayed on this stretch of road too long. We have to leave, or I'm afraid those uncanny entities will sense us."

Lin Xue looked at Liu Tie as she spoke, her expression serious and otherwise blank, as though she were simply stating a fact.

"Uh..."

Even Zhou Ping was left speechless.

"Lin Xue, you really haven't changed. Uh... you always know how to shock people."

Of course, he wasn't referring to her being cold-blooded, but to the way she spoke.

It really was difficult to take.

She was far too rational.

While Zhou Ping was thinking this, Lin Xue and Liu Tie were already planning their next route.

Just as Lin Xue had said, they had stopped here for too long. It would be bad if the uncanny entities caught up with them.

With that in mind, Liu Tie took out his map.

"We passed through Orange City before, so if we head north, the next place we should reach is..."

Just as Liu Tie was working out the next supply stop.

He suddenly felt a chill behind him.

The instant he felt it, his entire body went rigid.

Then he roared.

"An uncanny entity! There's an uncanny entity here! Convoy, move out now!"

The moment he finished shouting, Liu Tie charged into the SUV beside him without the slightest hesitation, and the vehicle shot forward.

The other two were just as quick.

As soon as Liu Tie shouted, their expressions changed, and they immediately rushed toward their own vehicles.

With the physical abilities they had gained as Sequence Users, they moved with astonishing speed, every motion flowing seamlessly into the next.

Both had started their engines and released their clutches before the people around them finally reacted.

Then came the screams.

"Aaaah!"

"Th-there's an uncanny-no... I don't want to die yet!"

As he spoke, a man only a few meters from Fan Shang began rapidly shriveling from his head down to his feet.

It was as though someone were sucking his blood out through his head, only the needle was as thick as a water pipe!

The surrounding crowd froze at the sight, then scattered in every direction, screaming.

Fan Shang froze as well.

Only when the man's head had been sucked dry did he snap out of it, a chill rising in his heart.

"Fuck!"

Fan Shang shouted, scooped up Little Black and tossed the creature into the basket, then swung his bicycle around and took off.

His legs pedaled furiously, but he was still slow compared to the others.

The veterans who had been following the three Sequence Users reacted almost the instant those three survivors sped off, and raced after them.

That left Fan Shang in the third wave.

He kept to the edge as he rode, afraid that a car charging up from behind would send him flying.

But only a few reacted quickly. Others stared blankly at the convoy as it suddenly began moving again.

They hadn't heard Liu Tie's earlier shout, so some kindhearted people warned them.

"Hurry, the convoy's leaving! Keep up!"

But the replies they got were,

"Huh? Didn't we only just stop?"

"Damn it, I'm not going. We've been driving all day. How long have we even rested? I'm staying. Go if you want."

"Damn it, I've been riding a bike all day, and my legs still hurt. Now that captain wants to leave? Does he have any consideration for other people? He's clearly trying to get those of us on bicycles killed!

"I'm staying right here. I don't believe that Liu guy will abandon us!"

"..."

In the apocalypse, an ordinary person's first reaction upon seeing an uncanny entity was to run. When those kindhearted people realized their warnings weren't working, they drove away too.

After all, some people feared uncanny entities, and some didn't. That was perfectly normal, because to those people, running at the sight of an uncanny entity was how a loser thought.

Yes, he was a loser!