Escape plan

The red lanterns in the sky vanished, and the red glow blanketing the streets faded with them.

Neon lights illuminated the night once more.

Standing at the junction, constantly shaking the Imperial Bell for fear that the Shadow Fiend would ambush him, Su Wu seized his chance and sprinted out of the intersection, racing toward the Cake Shop on the right side of the street!

"Hah! Hah! Hah!"

Air flooded his lungs, and ragged breaths rasped from his throat.

Not daring to waste a single second, Su Wu sprinted at full speed to the Little Temple beside the Cake Shop, which radiated an orange-yellow glow.

Everything inside the Little Temple remained as it had been.

All the supplies Su Wu had prepared were sitting in the temple, completely intact.

The future had converged with reality.

The neon outside the temple went dark, leaving only the orange-yellow glow to hold open a patch of light some thirty to fifty feet across amid the darkened streets.

-This was the transition period before the Eye Fiend appeared.

Taking advantage of this interval, Su Wu opened a box of candles, took the keys to the Chevrolet Cruze, and checked the time on his wrist.

10:26 p.m.

Jiang Yingying would appear at that intersection around 10:55 p.m.

He needed to reach the intersection before then and wait for her!

Every extra second he spent now could cause him to miss Jiang Yingying!

Yet while the Eye Fiend shrouded the city, he had no choice but to restrain himself and stay put inside the temple.

Five minutes later, the red lanterns in the sky finally vanished.

Standing in the temple doorway, Su Wu glanced up at the sky and immediately noticed that the number of red lanterns had nearly doubled.

During that brief interval when neon and crimson light alternated, who knew how many more people's heads had become lanterns in the sky?

A chill ran through him, and he reminded himself to be twice as careful.

Then, holding candles lit from the temple's flame, he hurried out of the Little Temple and ran toward the restaurant on the right.

A black Cruze stood parked in front of the restaurant.

Unlike in Su Wu's previous simulations, however, a headless corpse lay on the left side of the car this time.

Judging by its clothes, it must have been the car's former owner.

In the earlier simulations, the owner had died in the driver's seat.

Who had caused this subtle change in the future?

Su Wu had no time to ponder that question. He hurried up to the Cruze, unlocked the door with his key, and climbed into the driver's seat.

Then all three hands moved at once, setting several rows of candles on the dashboard!

Orange firelight shone in the windows.

Su Wu started the car and drove straight into the street!

Vroom-

The engine roared as the car hurtled forward, weaving between vehicles abandoned haphazardly along the street.

His Veteran Driver talent had already upgraded to green, allowing Su Wu to handle even exceptionally complicated road conditions with ease.

He kept his speed under control.

He reached the intersection at 12:53.

Just in time to see Jiang Yingying slowly approaching from the other end of the road, carrying Emergency Can.

Her head was lowered, her shoulders trembling now and then as she walked in a daze.

Su Wu pulled up right beside her, and the beam of his headlights caught Jiang Yingying's attention.

From the driver's seat, Su Wu called to her, "Get in, quick!"

His Art of Speaking (green) talent took effect. On hearing him, Jiang Yingying froze for only a moment before opening the rear door and getting into the car under his gaze.

Just as in the simulation, it was only after Su Wu started driving that she belatedly grew nervous. "Y-you, where are you taking me?"

"Didn't you see those red lanterns in the sky?

"It's not safe here anymore.

"I'm taking you somewhere safe." Meeting Jiang Yingying in reality gave Su Wu a strange feeling.

Though he had spoken with Jiang Yingying many times in the simulations, none of those conversations had stirred this particular feeling in him.

This was reality.

Not a simulation.

A living, breathing person was sitting in the back seat. If she died here, she would truly be dead, gone forever.

Moved by that feeling, he spoke more than he usually did.

"How did you get out?

"Those red lanterns in the sky actually didn't take your head?" Su Wu asked Jiang Yingying, who had fallen silent behind him.

His words inevitably brought back memories of what had happened earlier.

Two trails of tears slid from her reddened eyes.

Through the rearview mirror, Su Wu saw Jiang Yingying silently wiping away her tears. He sighed and said no more.

"Sir, how did you know the lanterns in the sky take people's heads?"

Once she had calmed down a little, Jiang Yingying asked Su Wu a question of her own.

The light inside the car was dim, and she could not make out Su Wu's face, so she had addressed him with the broadly applicable "sir."

"I've seen it happen." Su Wu turned the steering wheel and headed back the way he had come.

This time, he would first take Jiang Yingying back to the Little Temple and make every possible preparation there before setting off again to clear the final Trapped Corpse Fiend stage!

"But you wandered around outside all alone for so long without those lanterns taking your head. I wonder whether you're just lucky, or whether you have something on you that can resist them?" Su Wu asked, already knowing the answer.

It was nearly midnight, and the neon lights still shone along the streets outside the temple.

The colorful lights blazed merrily, but not a single living person could be seen anywhere on the streets, turning even that lively neon display desolate.

A cold wind howled past, sweeping several garbage bags along the road outside the temple.

Jiang Yingying sat on a small plastic folding stool by the temple entrance, a thin jacket draped over her shoulders. As she watched the scene outside, she felt utterly at a loss.

"Have some hot pot."

Hearing the man call from behind her, she turned and saw Su Wu bringing over a folding table. The self-heating hot pot on it, to which he had just added water, was beginning to steam.

The man handed her a pair of chopsticks.

Jiang Yingying reached out to take them. She watched him lift the lid and push the hot pot toward her. "Go on, eat. Plenty of people would love a hot meal right now, but they can't even get one."

"Thank you." She nodded gently.

For some reason, merely listening to the man across from her made her instinctively want to do as he said, as though everything he said was right and ought to be trusted.

Yet this was only her first time meeting Su Wu.

How had she come to trust him so strongly already?

Jiang Yingying picked up a small piece of sausage with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Emergency Can asleep in a cardboard box specially prepared for the bird, and felt even more at ease.

Then she heard Su Wu say from across the table, "After we finish eating, we'll stay in the temple for a while. There's enough food here to last us a long time.

"I'll use that time to make some preparations.

"Once everything's ready, we'll leave this city."

He spoke of these plans naturally, including Jiang Yingying in them.

As she listened, a sudden warmth welled up inside Jiang Yingying. She lowered her head and softly murmured, "Mm."