"Bzzzt, bzzzt."
The radio static continued for a dozen seconds or so.
Finally, the static stopped, and Wang Feng's voice came from the radio. "Xiao Wu, I noticed something seems to be caught on the back of your car! It's seriously slowing you down. Hurry up and take a look!"
"Oh."
Hearing that something was wrong with the car, Xiao Wu quickly agreed. "I'll check right now."
"Lin, stop the car for a second. I'll get rid of whatever's dragging behind us." Xiao Wu gripped the door with one hand and motioned for Lin Qi to stop.
Seeing Xiao Wu carry out the instruction without a second thought, Lin Qi was exasperated. "Are you stupid? How could Wang Feng contact you through the radio?"
"Uh, oh, right." The reminder immediately brought Xiao Wu to his senses, and he hurriedly slapped the radio.
"What are you doing?" Lin Qi asked, puzzled.
"That's how we used to fix the TV at home," Xiao Wu explained in all seriousness.
Lin Qi: ...
Once again, Lin Qi suddenly felt that having a teammate was utterly exhausting.
"Just stay put. There's nothing wrong with the car. It's the radio."
Lin Qi barely needed to think about it. A wraith must have invaded the radio. He had no idea how it imitated Wang Feng's voice, but as long as they ignored it, they should be fine.
If it could attack them, it would never have tried to lure them out with its voice.
"Xiao Wu! What are you still doing? The wraiths are catching up! Get out and remove that dead weight behind you!"
Knowing it had been exposed, the Radio Wraith's imitation of Wang Feng's voice grew slightly distorted, tinged with frustrated anger.
"Look? Look at what?"
Lin Qi sneered. "I Fine You 800 Yuan!"
"Aaaaah!!"
A piercing scream came from the radio. Clearly, the fine had worked.
"Bzzzt, bzzzt."
After the scream came endless static.
Xiao Wu was baffled throughout, but obediently refrained from asking any more questions.
"Screech!"
The piercing squeal of brakes cut through the curtain of rain.
Lin Qi looked up and saw a car pull over to the left up ahead. The survivor in the front passenger seat climbed out, his face full of confusion.
The instant he lowered his head to inspect the back of the car, his body seemed to lose all sensation, and he collapsed into the rain with a thud.
Lin Qi's car was moving fast and passed the parked vehicle in the blink of an eye.
Looking only through the rearview mirror, he could not see what had happened behind the car at all. All he could see was the other people in the car getting out after the passenger and heading around back to look for him...
"They're done for."
Lin Qi's voice was flat. He did not understand why anyone would fall for such a clumsy little trick.
Lin Qi's car stayed close behind Wang Feng's two vehicles.
Neither vehicle pulled over or slowed down. Clearly, Wang Feng had enough sense not to fall for it either.
"Lin, Lin, don't get out of the car!"
Wang Feng's voice came again, but this time it came through the walkie-talkie.
"Whew, boss, I nearly fell for it." Only after checking Lin Qi's expression did Xiao Wu pick up the walkie-talkie to respond.
After his encounter with the Radio Wraith, he was noticeably more restrained and knew to seek Lin Qi's approval first.
The downpour continued to lash the convoy.
The silhouettes of the Transcendent Squad up ahead had almost blurred out of sight. The survivors could only vaguely make out the way by following the unbroken line of vehicles ahead.
No one knew what had happened. All they could do was floor the accelerator and try not to fall behind.
"Bzzzt, bzzzt..."
The radio static sounded again.
Xiao Wu hurriedly muffled the walkie-talkie and looked at Lin Qi in terror, not daring to utter a word.
"Bang!"
Under Xiao Wu's shocked gaze, Lin Qi raised his right foot and kicked the radio hard.
"Bang, bang, bang."
Several kicks later, the sound from the radio had not been affected in the slightest!
"Looks like it has nothing to do with the radio itself. The radio's just a vessel."
Understanding this, Lin Qi stopped trying to destroy the already shattered radio. Since the Radio Wraith could not attack them directly, he would let it carry on.
"Xiao Wu! Xiao Wu, I'm talking to you!"
"Xiao Wu, are you ignoring my orders now?"
"Lin, there's something wrong with your car. Hurry up and take a look..."
The voice from the radio persisted tirelessly.
Xiao Wu and Lin Qi remained silent, choosing to ignore the radio's voice.
As it turned out, even wraiths could not stand the silent treatment.
Finally, the voice from the radio began to change again, becoming distorted and resentful.
"Cold, I'm so cold..."
"Can you save me...?"
"Save me..."
"So cold, so cold..."
"Since you won't save me, come join me instead..."
Lin Qi and Xiao Wu continued giving it the silent treatment.
Lin Qi focused entirely on watching the road through the rain. A survivor's car had just overturned and nearly taken him with it. How could he spare any attention for the wraith?
"Crack, crack, crack..."
"Crack, crack, crack..."
"Hm?"
Lin Qi frowned as he concentrated on driving. The rain was loud, yet an even stranger sound reached his ears with unusual clarity.
"Did you hear some strange noise?" Lin Qi asked.
Xiao Wu looked puzzled. "You mean the radio?"
"No."
Lin Qi shook his head. "A different sound."
"Uh, I really didn't hear anything." Xiao Wu had become immune to the radio's voice. He did not know why, but it seemed that even wraiths became less frightening when he was with Lin Qi.
Did I hear wrong?
Lin Qi was puzzled too. The inexplicable sound had appeared for an instant, then never sounded again. "Hopefully, I imagined it."
"So cold..."
"So cold..."
"I'm so cold..."
"We're so cold..."
"Fuck, are you ever going to stop?"
Lin Yi looked irritably at the radio. Even the mildest person had a temper, let alone him. He could tolerate it at first, but after a while, it was like listening to the Tang Monk recite the Tightening Spell.
"Gulp."
The radio did not answer. Instead, Xiao Wu swallowed, his face pale. His voice trembled, and his outstretched finger shook as he pointed at the rearview mirror. "Lin, that voice really isn't coming from the radio..."
"Hm?"
Lin Yi shifted his gaze to the rearview mirror. With that look, he finally understood why the convoy was racing like mad through the rain.
In the rearview mirror, some distance behind the convoy,
a black wave three stories high was rapidly approaching, even though this was dry land!
The wave carried trees and mud, but far more numerous were corpses, each bloated grotesquely from soaking in water!
Wherever the wave passed, not a blade of grass remained! Even the abandoned vehicles parked along the road could not escape being swallowed!
Lin Qi stared fixedly at the black wave, trying to make out what it actually was!
"Boom!"
A thunderclap exploded.
For an instant, the entire landscape lit up as bright as day.
Lin Qi saw it clearly...
That was no fucking wave!
It was a towering wave of corpses piled on top of one another!
A wave that could swallow the entire roadway!
They moved their arms and legs, constantly cycling up and down in utterly contorted postures...
Before you continue