Compound-Eyed Sunflower, escape

Most people scoffed when they saw the kindhearted man drive away.

But their scorn did not last long.

Because they heard... a scream!

"Aaaah!!!"

"Th-there's a wraith! There's a monster on my head! H-help me!"

This scream was louder than the last, and far more agonized.

So loud that plenty of people heard it, though that was also because many of them were already fleeing.

They turned and saw a young man clutching his head, his face twisted as he rolled on the ground in agony. As for the monster he claimed was on his head...

They looked, but there was nothing there.

Yes, nothing at all.

Yes, nothing at...

Just as everyone was wondering whether he had suffered a mental breakdown and was deliberately acting crazy to mess with them...

The next moment...

"Aaaah!!! No, please, I don't want to die..."

Another scream rang out, only to cut off abruptly.

But what they saw next sent chills down their spines.

After that scream, the man collapsed to the ground.

Then his body began visibly shriveling at a terrifying speed, starting from his head.

From his head to the soles of his feet, it was as though his brains, flesh, blood, and bones were all being visibly sucked dry.

Even his bones were not spared. In just a few dozen seconds, a living, fully grown adult was slowly drained dry before their eyes.

Then his head burst from the buildup of blood, sending crimson droplets spraying everywhere.

Only then did they finally see a small, spectral figure crouched over his head.

It clung tightly to his head, its humanoid arms and legs resembling a baby's. But its mouth was wickedly sharp, like the mouthparts of a mosquito or fly, and it was slowly withdrawing it from his skull.

The sight left everyone frozen in terror, but soon, a shriek rang out.

"Aaaah!"

"A-a monster! There really are monsters!"

They scattered instantly. The male college students on bicycles who had been complaining about their aching legs suddenly found that their legs no longer hurt. Those who had grumbled about not wanting to leave ran faster than anyone, scrambling onto their rides or wrenching open doors and diving into cars.

At that moment, the fear of death overpowered everything.

But it was clearly too late to run now.

"People... so many people. Found them. People, the smell of people!"

A sudden, layered voice rose behind them, as though countless people were speaking at once.

Then, the very next instant...

"People!"

With an excited yet chilling shout, a series of whistling projectiles hurtled toward them from behind.

Splat-

"I... I don't want to die yet..."

The fleeing survivors were struck by those whistling projectiles, and their bodies burst apart, spraying blood everywhere.

In that brief interval, the others looked back and finally discovered what had made that sound.

It... was a monstrous sunflower with white petals.

No, perhaps calling it a sunflower was not quite right. But the survivors had no idea how to describe the horrifying thing before them, so they could only use something familiar to give this unknown creature a temporary name.

It was a monster with an overall circular shape.

Pallid petals grew around its edges, and its center was packed tightly like a sunflower's. Unlike a sunflower, however, its center held not seeds, but human heads.

They all chattered over one another in a cacophony of voices, but without exception, their eyes filled with uncontrollable greed as they looked at the crowd.

From a distance, they looked like pairs of compound eyes, staring relentlessly at you.

Seeing everyone trying to flee, its grotesque roots, made up of individual human hands, began frantically crawling after them.

As it chased them, the sunflower kept firing "seeds" in their direction. Anyone struck had chunks of their body blown away.

And running low on "seeds" was no problem. As the Compound-Eyed Sunflower ran, it tore the heads off corpses on the ground and ate them. A few seconds later, a new "seed" grew in an empty spot at its center.

Everyone who saw this was petrified.

After all, anyone would feel sick and terrified at the sight of such a grotesque, revolting monster.

"Run! Hurry, run!"

Now they had only one thought: run and get away from these monsters.

But how could escaping be that easy?

Monsters never let food that came to their doorstep get away.

"Heehee, people, it's people..."

The spectral Infant Wraith crawled onto someone's head and began feeding.

As for the survivors lucky enough to dodge the "seeds," a second ordeal awaited them.

They had discovered a terrifying fact: those "seeds"-no, perhaps they were human heads...

...were alive.

"Uncle Huang, why? Why, why did you abandon me?!"

"Stay. Please stay, Uncle Huang. You smell so good..."

Hard feet sprouted beneath the heads of the seeds that had missed. They clamped onto the cars and hammered frantically on the windows, trying to break through and devour the people inside.

Startled by these sudden, terrifying monsters, some survivors jerked their steering wheels and flipped their cars, while others slammed on the accelerator and crashed straight into the vehicles ahead.

In short, utter chaos.

It was like hell, with screams and wails sounding endlessly behind them.

"Fuck, these disgusting things!"

Fan Shang glanced back at the hellish scene. The sight of the Compound-Eyed Sunflower in particular sent goose bumps crawling over his entire body.

But he dared not waste any time, pedaling his bicycle furiously.

Suddenly, a cat's cry rang out.

"Meow!"

Hearing it, Fan Shang looked at Little Black.

The next instant, Fan Shang felt something whistle toward him from behind.

It skimmed past his head and slammed straight into the cliff face ahead of him. With a bang, chips of stone flew everywhere.

The "seed" embedded itself in the rock.

Fan Shang's eyelids twitched at the sight.

"If I hadn't lowered my head just now..."

Fan Shang dared not imagine it. He could almost see his own head bursting apart.

"Thanks, senior!"

Once again, Fan Shang felt grateful that he had decided to bring Little Black along, and that he had saved Little Black in the first place.

Without Little Black, he probably would have died again.

But Fan Shang did not let that slow him down. Even feeling grateful took time.

He had already seen the "seed" in the cliff begin to move.

Without the slightest hesitation, Fan Shang shot forward again, following the vehicles.

And so, after four hours of fleeing...

The convoy finally stopped.

"Fuck, we finally shook them off."

As soon as a car door opened, a man fell straight out of the driver's seat and slumped onto the ground.

But he did not get up right away. He simply lay there, exhausted from driving for so long.

He was not the only one. The other veterans around him were in much the same condition.

As for the people who had joined alongside Fan Shang, more than half were gone.

The convoy had originally numbered nearly a hundred people, but a single encounter with monsters had killed almost fifty of them.

Of course, quite a few had escaped as well.

Fan Shang remembered several of them: two female college students who looked very alike, a fat man panting in a jeep, and one other person...

The former advisor for Software Class Two.

She was now in a pickup truck, with a man and a little girl sitting inside.

As for the others, most had escaped on bicycles or similarly narrow vehicles. Very few survivors had made it out in cars.

Seeing this, Fan Shang quickly understood why.

The chaos had clogged the lanes. Aside from the few who had reacted quickly and gotten out first, only those narrower vehicles could have squeezed through.

At that thought, Fan Shang let out a deep breath, got off his bike, and found somewhere to lean back and rest.

The other cyclists had collapsed like dead dogs the instant the convoy stopped.

After all, anyone would be utterly spent after riding so hard for so long.

Fan Shang was no exception. His legs had gone numb.

"Seriously, man, what did you do before this? You've been riding for ages and you're not even out of breath. Aren't you tired?"

One of the men sprawled like a dead dog noticed Fan Shang's condition and stared at him wide-eyed.

Fan Shang merely smiled.

"I'm all right. I used to cycle for fun, so I'm not that tired."

"Impressive."

The man gave him a thumbs-up, then went back to lying there.

Seeing that, Fan Shang could not help feeling relieved. Choosing to upgrade his constitution had indeed been wise.

Otherwise, with his original five points of constitution, he probably would have died on the road.

Thankfully, he had survived.

But this monster attack had once again made Fan Shang realize just how insignificant he was.

It also strengthened his desire to become a Sequence Transcendent.

After all, until he became a Sequence Transcendent, he was nothing more than an ant.

So...

"How exactly do I become a Sequence Transcendent?!"