Chapter 2

Chapter 2

“I want to go…”

“I want to go… to Yellow Springs Road!”

“Hee-hee. You can all come with me!”

In the front passenger seat of the taxi, a woman with disheveled hair let out a chilling laugh.

Two girls in school uniforms sat in the back, their faces deathly pale as they struggled to remain calm.

[Hitchhiker Ghost]

A 2-Star anomaly commonly encountered along dimly lit roads around midnight. It disguises itself as an ordinary human and hitches rides.

The Hitchhiker Ghost had only one rule. It was simple, yet complicated.

You had to talk to it — but you also could not talk to it.

Every Hitchhiker Ghost had its own unique set of “forbidden words.” The moment a conversation touched on one, an attack sequence would be triggered.

But failing to respond to the Hitchhiker Ghost for more than ten seconds would also enrage it and cause it to attack.

With enough luck, you could keep the conversation away from its forbidden words until it got out of the car and escape unharmed.

Clearly, however, these two girls were not very lucky.

“Class Rep, what do we do? What do we do… Are we going to die here?”

“I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die…”

The short-haired girl clutched the arm of the girl beside her, her voice thick with tears.

She was so terrified that she did not even notice her nails digging deep into the other girl’s flesh.

The sinister chill inside the car grew heavier. The driver had long since vanished, leaving only the Hitchhiker Ghost in the front passenger seat, snickering without end.

“Come with me. Come down there with me…”

The headlights grew dimmer and dimmer, as though they might go out at any moment.

Once their surroundings fell completely dark, the Hitchhiker Ghost would begin its attack.

When that happened, one of the two girls in the back would inevitably be selected as its prey.

Compared to the short-haired girl’s panic, the other girl was much calmer.

She was delicate and gentle-looking, with her hair tied in a neat high ponytail. Her small nose had a refined bridge, and her lashes were long and soft.

Combined with her youthful, limpid eyes, she had the unmistakable face of a model student.

Had Qin Lan been there, he would have recognized her at once.

Su Xiaoyue, the celebrated campus beauty of Safe Zone 088 No. 3 High School.

She was not only Qin Lan’s class representative but also an outstanding student recognized by the entire school — and the only person in their year to possess an A-rank Talent.

If Qin Lan was the school’s greatest disgrace, Su Xiaoyue stood at the opposite extreme as its pride and joy.

From the day she enrolled, she had displayed extraordinary intelligence and academic ability. After awakening an A-rank Talent with tremendous potential, she became the star around whom everyone else revolved.

Hardly a single conversation among the boys could avoid mentioning her.

Even Qin Lan, who never socialized, had inevitably learned quite a bit about Su Xiaoyue from other people.

At that moment, Su Xiaoyue bit her lip. The situation clearly troubled her, but her gaze remained composed. She had not given up.

“Don’t worry. Even if we triggered a forbidden word, that doesn’t mean the Hitchhiker Ghost is impossible to deal with.”

Su Xiaoyue held the short-haired girl’s hand tightly. The warmth of her palm slowly steadied the girl’s nerves.

“I’ll stop the car for three seconds. Use that time to get out and run. Whatever you do, don’t look back. Understand?”

Her reassurance came in a soft, gentle voice.

The short-haired girl’s face had long since drained of all color. All she could do now was nod frantically; she could not even form a complete sentence.

She possessed only an E-rank Talent, which was completely useless against a 2-Star anomaly like the Hitchhiker Ghost. Her sole hope rested with Su Xiaoyue, the class representative beside her.

Amid the thick, penetrating cold, Su Xiaoyue slowly closed her eyes.

Almost simultaneously, the speeding taxi lurched to a sudden stop.

On closer inspection, the shadows beneath its wheels had turned into something resembling viscous liquid, binding the vehicle firmly in place.

“Now! Run!”

Su Xiaoyue’s eyes snapped open. Her once-gentle irises had turned pitch-black.

[Shadow Incarnation], an A-rank Talent, allowed its user to slip into any environment containing shadows to evade danger, or briefly command shadows to attack.

As the school’s most prominent top student, Su Xiaoyue had already received offers from several renowned academies.

In truth, she did not need to participate in this assessment at all. She could have entered an academy through direct admission.

Despite repeated attempts by the school administration to dissuade her, she had insisted on taking the college entrance examination like everyone else, determined to prove her qualifications and strength in the fairest possible way.

“Screech…”

The tires scraped violently across the pavement with a piercing shriek, yet the taxi did not move an inch.
Su Xiaoyue clenched her teeth, her face taut with strain.

She was not yet proficient with her Talent, but she could still hold her own against a 2-Star anomaly.

Those three seconds were enough. The door opened, and the short-haired girl bolted out of the taxi without hesitation.

Bang!

The door slammed shut. The taxi accelerated again and vanished at the far end of the murky road.

In the back seat, Su Xiaoyue grunted and slumped weakly against the seat.

Talent development was extremely limited during high school. Only after graduation, upon entering one of the major academies, could students learn proper methods for training their Talents.

With Su Xiaoyue’s current abilities, forcibly delaying a 2-Star anomaly for three seconds was already her limit.

“Hah…”

Her chest heaved violently, and sweat beaded across her forehead.

Each breath from her nose and mouth misted white in the air, evidence of just how far the temperature inside the car had fallen.

“What a shame. I wanted to take her with me…”

“Since you let her escape, you can come down there with me instead!”

The Hitchhiker Ghost’s voice turned even more vicious. Su Xiaoyue’s actions had plainly enraged it.

“Oh no!”

The moment she heard its words, Su Xiaoyue tensed, ready to activate her Talent again at any time.

She had dared to save the other girl first because she was confident she could protect herself.

[Shadow Incarnation] could both command shadows and let her hide inside them to evade an anomaly.

Any Talent rated A-rank naturally possessed formidable power.

Yet just as Su Xiaoyue prepared to act, two ice-cold hands burst from the seat back behind her and clamped around her throat.

“Ngh!”

Su Xiaoyue had never expected the Hitchhiker Ghost to be this clever.

Her Talent required a brief preparation period before activation. She had to concentrate before it could take effect.

Somehow, an anomaly had discovered that tiny weakness.

Now she had to fight desperately against those lifeless hands. She could not activate her Talent at all.

Su Xiaoyue thrashed violently, but the earlier use of her Talent had already exhausted nearly all her strength. She had no chance of breaking free.

As less and less blood reached her brain, the strength drained from Su Xiaoyue’s body and darkness crept across her vision.

Only then did she realize how arrogant she had been.

She might possess an A-rank Talent, but her enemy was an anomaly — an evil spirit straight out of hell.

Yet she had been conceited enough to believe she could save someone else first and still retreat unscathed…

No matter how detailed the lessons taught in class, they could never compare to the brutal reality of a true instance.

“Hee-hee, hee-hee…”

“Come with me. Come with me to Yellow Springs Road…”

Su Xiaoyue regretted her decision.

The sinister laughter drew closer to her ear as control over her body slipped farther away.

The cold enveloped her like a swamp, dragging her down into bottomless despair.

Now only she and the Hitchhiker Ghost remained in the car.

So whom would the anomaly choose as its prey?

The answer was obvious. Of course, it would choose–

Qin Lan.

“Motherfucker, why are you driving so fast? In a hurry to get reincarnated?!”

The crude shout reached Su Xiaoyue’s ears, making her shudder.

The hands around her throat instantly withdrew. Fresh air flooded into her lungs, bringing her senses back into focus.

Only then did Su Xiaoyue belatedly realize that the taxi had just slammed on the brakes.

“Oh? Class Rep Su? What a coincidence.”

Qin Lan, who had been cursing a moment ago, looked surprised.

After leaving the alley, he had wandered the streets in search of other anomalies but found nothing.

Then the roar of an engine caught his attention, and a taxi came into view.

Of all people, Su Xiaoyue was sitting inside.

Su Xiaoyue coughed violently. Too weak to answer Qin Lan, she could only warn him with her eyes to get away.

As far as she was concerned, Qin Lan’s arrival would only add another name to the casualty list.

Su Xiaoyue now also understood why she had been saved — the Hitchhiker Ghost’s hidden rule.

If another passenger boarded while the car was in motion, the hunt would reset.

In other words, Qin Lan’s appearance had saved her life.

With a single glance, Qin Lan spotted the two livid handprints on Su Xiaoyue’s fair neck and sensed the dense, sinister chill inside the car.

“Oh, so it’s a Hitchhiker Ghost!”

He reached his conclusion almost instantly.

Then, in the very next second, Qin Lan pulled open the front passenger door.

The woman conjured by the Hitchhiker Ghost stared at him in bewilderment.

“What… What are you doing?”
Qin Lan answered as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“I’m getting in.”

The Hitchhiker Ghost remained baffled. “Then why are you opening my door?”

Qin Lan continued in the same perfectly reasonable tone.

“I don’t have a driver’s license! Obviously, you have to drive.”

One minute later, Qin Lan sat in the front passenger seat, humming a tune as the breeze blew in through his open window.

The Hitchhiker Ghost sat behind the wheel, looking as though life had personally wronged it.

Su Xiaoyue, who had finally caught her breath, sat in the back.

The atmosphere inside the car had become exceptionally strange.

“Ahem.” Qin Lan cleared his throat and glanced sidelong at the Hitchhiker Ghost. “Hey, driver, it’s a little stuffy in here. Why don’t we chat?”

Su Xiaoyue instinctively tried to warn him not to stumble onto a forbidden word, only to discover that a mysterious force had sealed her voice.

Although she had survived the earlier hunt, the Hitchhiker Ghost’s rules still bound her.

She could neither offer Qin Lan any assistance nor use her Talent.

In other words, both their lives now rested in the hands of Qin Lan, the student with an F-rank Talent.

Qin Lan pondered for a moment, then raised a deeply philosophical question.

“So, driver…”

“What do you do for a living?”

“What do I do for a living?”

The Hitchhiker Ghost looked painfully exasperated — an expression difficult to imagine on an anomaly.

“Uh… I hitch rides.”

Qin Lan nodded. “I see. Then what made you decide to change careers and start driving a taxi?”

Silence filled the car.

The Hitchhiker Ghost turned to stare at him in utter disbelief, as though he were an alien.

“Weren’t you the one who told me to drive?!”

Qin Lan regarded it with disdain.

“You drive just because I tell you to? Why don’t you have any opinions about your own career planning?”

“Do you have any idea how brutal the job market is right now? Haven’t you given a single thought to your future?”

“AI is developing so quickly that self-driving cars will eventually spread through every city and village. Taxis are going to become obsolete.”

“Do you plan to drive one for the rest of your life?”

By now, even Su Xiaoyue in the back seat was staring in shock, let alone the Hitchhiker Ghost.

What the fuck are you even talking about?

Qin Lan sighed and asked another question.

“So, are you seeing anyone? When do you plan to get married?”

The Hitchhiker Ghost’s thoughts had yet to escape the subject of “career planning.” It stared blankly.

“Huh? Not yet…”

Qin Lan looked at it as though deeply disappointed by its failure to live up to expectations.

“Not yet? How can you admit that without shame?”

“At your age, at this stage in your life, how can you sleep at night without getting married?”

“Don’t you have any sense of social responsibility?”

“If you don’t have children and I don’t have children, how is society supposed to have a future? How will it move forward? How will the economy grow?”

The Hitchhiker Ghost opened its mouth. After a long, speechless pause, it finally forced out two words.

“I’m sorry…”

Su Xiaoyue’s eyes went wide, her limpid gaze filled with confusion and astonishment.

It apologized! It actually apologized!

Qin Lan, however, clicked his tongue in frustration.

It was not because he genuinely objected to the Hitchhiker Ghost marrying or having children late. He was annoyed because he still had not figured out what its forbidden word was.

“It’s not related to work, and it’s not related to romance. Then what could it be?”

Qin Lan glanced at the rearview mirror and met Su Xiaoyue’s eyes. He could tell she desperately wanted to warn him but was unable to speak because of the rules.

In the back seat, Su Xiaoyue prayed desperately that they would not stumble onto a forbidden word.

In the front, Qin Lan was racking his brain trying to find one.

What distressed one person delighted another.

“So, where do you plan on getting out?” the Hitchhiker Ghost finally asked, unable to take any more.

They had been talking forever. Qin Lan had forcibly dragged it through career planning, views on marriage and childbearing, the course of social development, and even philosophical issues.

Yet he still had not found its forbidden word.

By this point, no one wanted Qin Lan to get the hell out of the car more than the Hitchhiker Ghost did.

Su Xiaoyue’s eyes trembled. She immediately recognized the trap in that question.

She fought desperately to make a sound, but the Hitchhiker Ghost whipped around and fixed her with an icy stare.

Cunning glinted in its gaze.

Su Xiaoyue’s heart sank.

The anomaly truly was far more intelligent than she had imagined.

If Qin Lan fell for it as well… both of them would die here.

And just as Su Xiaoyue had feared, Qin Lan casually answered with a question of his own.

“We’re not there yet… What about you?”

The Hitchhiker Ghost’s face instantly split into a savage grin, one filled with the exhilaration of finally venting all its pent-up frustration.

“Ah! Ha!”

“I finally caught you!”

“I’m going to Yellow Springs Road!”