Driver

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Human Life and Marriage

Hu Haichao attended university, married after graduation, and worked at the same job for more than ten years before becoming a taxi driver 185.

According to his account, he first approached his future wife after finding her surrounded by knife-wielding strangers near the university library. He intervened, suffered more than a dozen stab wounds, and awoke in hospital with her beside him. They subsequently began dating 187.

His wife repeatedly disappeared during university and after their marriage. Investigators later concluded that their initial meeting had been arranged and that she joined the Salvation Society afterward. Doctor Li suspected that Hu’s unusually reckless intervention might have involved psychological suggestion, but did not establish this as fact 186 188 207.

His Wife’s Disappearance

Driver dated the onset of his alternate personality to roughly a week after his wife disappeared. He described dreams in which she begged him to save her, but admitted that fear kept him from doing more than contacting the police 187 207.

He later told Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong that he was already dead. In his account, his wife offered to reunite with him and told him that eating people would make him stronger. He denied immediately following that instruction, saying that the wife he perceived eventually merged with him and might have been something he imagined 207.

Investigators recovered his wife’s badly decomposed, animated corpse. Confronted with it, Driver accepted Bai Xuedong’s offer of resources and revenge against the Salvation Society. His decision also reflected his confinement: refusing would have left him subject to further experiments 206 208.

Survival in the Dark Prison

Driver initially remembered only waking in the Dark Prison, with no clear recollection of how he arrived there. He found the Transforming Vehicle there and eventually drove it into the human world 36 37 39.

He later described surviving alone—searching for food and fleeing other monsters—until the vehicle gave him a sense of companionship. After finding it, he spent most of his time inside it 987.

Appearance

• General appearance: A frail-looking, middle-aged man. Lu Xiao explicitly distinguishes Driver’s apparent weakness from the considerable power of his vehicle 986.
• Later styling: Appears with slicked-back hair and a gold chain when meeting Lu Xiao in Hell 880.

Personality

Driver is openly fearful of stronger anomalies and usually prioritizes escape over confrontation. Prison Doctor and Ivan terrify him, while leaving the Transforming Vehicle immediately strips away much of his sense of security. During his seven-day Box Experiment, he refuses to leave the first room despite repeated provocation 39 122.

His caution does not prevent him from helping his companions. He intervenes when Lu Xiao is about to shoot himself, uses Positivity to restore Lu Xiao and Dante’s clarity, and volunteers for a dangerous reconnaissance trip so He Shang can remain at Mocking Heaven Palace 122 128 472.

He is also vain, flirtatious, and eager for recognition. He competes for a third-class merit, requests a global livestream for the Transforming Vehicle’s unveiling, and asks whether he could become a minister of transportation rather than remain “just” a driver 65 422 928.

Loneliness underlies his attachment to both the vehicle and Tina. Although he doubts Tina’s motives, he admits that being wanted is unfamiliar and struggles to accept a plan to kill her. The Omniscient Mirror’s prediction that only the vehicle will remain his companion troubles him repeatedly 116 958 986 987.

Abilities & Skills

Skilled Vehicle Operation

Driver’s registered target ability is “Skilled operation of vehicles.” He supplements it with practical study of unfamiliar vehicles 38 167.

• Learns to fly aircraft, including fighter jets 167.
• Studies a luxury car’s interior so that he can reproduce its details with the Transforming Vehicle 136.
• Frequently prevents Lu Xiao from taking the controls, remembering his dangerous driving and flying 167 905.

Transforming Vehicle Control

Driver operates Sequence 302—Vehicle, a separate S-level anomaly capable of changing form and teleporting 38.

• Transformation: Uses taxi, aircraft, and other vehicle forms; can also suppress the vehicle’s sound 47 118 167.
• Teleportation: Travels between coordinates and provides rapid extraction and long-distance transport 73 234.
• Combat form: Summons its Mobius Strip form, whose potential increases with stronger fuel 1207.
• Mental requirement: Explains that transformation requires substantial Mental Power 54.
• Fuel requirement: The vehicle consumes flesh and blood or anomalous power 38.
• Range limits: Remembered coordinates can fall outside its teleportation range. External interference can also disrupt a jump 118.
• Control limits: Cannot freely redesign an unfamiliar form’s interior and later admits that he still cannot fully control the Director’s creation 167 421.

Manifestation

Driver can externalize the personality he imagined as his wife 208.

• Before its separation, he speaks in a woman’s voice, while Lu Xiao sees a decaying woman behind him 186.
• After separation, the manifestation can embrace him and move independently of his wife’s actual corpse 208.
• He can make it vanish with a gesture 208.
• He cannot manifest her as a normal-looking person; the manifested body does not reproduce the corpse’s smell 208.

Anomalous Physiology and Mental Power

Driver possesses physical and mental capabilities beyond those of an ordinary human, without being established as a powerful combatant 188 986.

• Survives having his neck snapped by a rule-type anomaly, manually straightens his head, and returns to the taxi 50 51.
• Produces enough light during a Mental Power test to illuminate the testing chamber, though his result remains far below Lu Xiao’s 188.
• Shows no obvious mutation after eating substantial quantities of powerful anomalous flesh 99.
• Remains vulnerable to anomalous drowsiness and restraints such as the Immortal-Binding Rope 119 208.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Transforming Vehicle — Sequence 302: His principal transport, protection, and long-term companion. Its familiar form is an orange-yellow taxi 38 880 987.
• Name badge: A token of his friendship with Lu Xiao; Lu Xiao points to it when reassuring Driver that he does not eat friends 81.
• Communication watch: Uses an upgraded communicator developed following the Director’s technological advances 234.
• Cigarettes: Regularly smokes and shares cigarettes with companions, including Dante and Lu Xiao 73 893 986.

Relationships

• Lu Xiao — Friend and frequent passenger. Lu Xiao calls him a comrade after containment, but also frightens him with threats and jokes about eating him. Driver nevertheless protects him during moments of mental vulnerability 38 81 122 337.
• Transforming Vehicle — His closest enduring companion. Driver credits it with relieving his isolation in the Dark Prison and regards it as a living being rather than merely transportation 987.
• His wife — University classmate and spouse whose disappearance, death, and imagined personality shape his anomalous history. He agrees to oppose the Salvation Society partly to avenge her 187 208.
• Dante — Fellow traveler and friend. Driver lights a cigarette for the critically wounded Dante and is moved by his willingness to risk his life for a mission 73.
• He Shang — Close companion who calls him “Elder Brother,” while Driver calls He Shang “Second Brother.” They share responsibilities at Mocking Heaven Palace 234 284 472 760.
• Shadow — Mission organizer whom Driver chooses to support despite his manipulative methods. Driver values Shadow’s consideration for others and jokes that he will “follow procedure” in hating him if personally targeted 337 358.
• Doctor Li and Bai Xuedong — Recruiters who offer him revenge and ability-development resources. Driver places greater personal trust in Doctor Li 208.
• Tina — Zerg empress who embraces him as her partner and proposes making him the Heavenly Insect Clan’s Emperor. He reciprocates her affection but fears exploitation and remains conflicted over her fate 946 947 958 986 987.
• Gambler — Companion and rival in flirtation. Their friendly exchanges can quickly turn competitive when an attractive woman is involved 904 905.
• Nellie — Recognizes Driver as the master of one of her clansmen. Although aware of him, she later says she has not met him personally and deliberately maintains boundaries because that clansman knows many human secrets 1482.

Connection to Fantasy

• Lu Xiao’s theory: Driver may be an incarnation or projection of Fantasy whose conscious connection to the original has malfunctioned. Lu Xiao deliberately avoids telling Driver, while treating him as a possible means for Fantasy to observe events 956.
• Supporting circumstances: Lu Xiao considers Driver’s possession of the unusually powerful Transforming Vehicle suspicious and questions whether Driver’s pessimism about humanity is his own opinion or Fantasy’s 956 958.
• Later identification: Narration subsequently identifies Driver as “Fantasy,” while noting that Antioch knows only that Driver’s identity is mysterious. The precise mechanism of their connection is not explained in the supplied passages 1147.
• No demonstrated inherited rank: Lu Xiao briefly considers whether shocking Driver might awaken Fantasy’s power, but abandons the idea as speculation. Driver’s own strength remains distinct from that of Fantasy and the vehicle 986.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Notable Quotes

“The mortal world is too dangerous! I want to go back to the Dark Prison!” 38

“This family's going to fall apart sooner or later without me.” 128

“When the time comes, I promise I'll follow procedure and hate you.” 358

“Back then, I always thought having some company was pretty nice, even if it was only a vehicle.” 987

Trivia

• Doctor begins assigning Driver a D containment level before changing it to S. His file’s combat capability remains “pending research,” so the designation is not a demonstrated combat rank 38.
• Driver plans a novel about his relationship with Tina titled The stunning Zerg empress actually threw herself at me, a taxi driver 947.
• A proposed divine statue of Driver instead depicts the Transforming Vehicle, with only his face visible against its window 926 927.
• The Omniscient Mirror clarifies that its prediction of lifelong companionship with the vehicle does not mean everyone else around Driver will die 987.