But it was already too late!
Yang Yong watched helplessly as Li Zhi pushed open the door and walked, step by step, toward the dark figure beneath the streetlight.
His steps were impossibly unsteady, as though something were dragging him forward, or his soul had already left his body, leaving only an empty shell shuffling along.
He wanted to shout, but something seemed to have his throat in a death grip. He could not make a sound.
"Drive! Get out of here!"
"What are you waiting for?"
"That's a Lamp-Under Ghost, a rule-type Eerie!"
"Once you answer it, it'll latch onto you and never stop until you're dead!"
"There's no saving him now!"
Those voices seemed to come from far away, yet also seemed to explode directly inside his head.
Yang Yong felt his fingers stiffen around the steering wheel, his knuckles white, his nails almost digging into his palms.
In the pickup bed, the python seized the moment of chaos and slipped into the cab.
Yang Yong did not even see how it got in. He only felt cold scales brush his calf, then a thick snake tail swept past his eyes and hooked the door hard...
Bang!
The sound of the door slamming shut struck his heart like a heavy hammer.
Yang Yong snapped out of it, only to see the python staring at him with its yellow, slit-pupiled eyes.
There was actually a trace of undisguised contempt in that gaze.
As though it were looking at a useless fool.
Then came a sight that shattered everything Yang Yong thought he knew...
The python expertly pressed the brake with its tail.
Shifted gears.
Started the engine.
Turned the steering wheel.
Its movements flowed seamlessly, all in one go, more deftly than a driving instructor's.
The pickup lurched forward.