Chapter 3
Chapter 3
That was the Hitchhiker Ghost’s forbidden subject.
Anything involving its destination, even a simple question, would trigger the hunt.
Su Xiaoyue’s heart went cold, only for her to see Qin Lan growing excited in the passenger seat.
“Ah! Ha!”
“I finally caught you!”
After all that effort, he had finally figured out its forbidden words.
Why had it not said so sooner? It had made them ramble through all that nonsense for nothing.
The Hitchhiker Ghost could not understand why Qin Lan seemed so thrilled to face death. But the irritation built up over the ride had exhausted its patience, so it simply assumed it had met a masochist.
Now it wanted nothing more than to drag this insufferable chatterbox straight to Yellow Springs Road and teach him true despair.
The hunt began.
As the Hitchhiker Ghost released a vicious shriek, dense nether energy enveloped Qin Lan. The scenery beyond the taxi changed rapidly, as though the car were heading toward some unspeakably dreadful place.
Qin Lan peered outside with curiosity, eager to see what kind of five-star tourist attraction this so-called Yellow Springs Road might be.
But as time passed, his pupils began to tremble.
[You entered a world that does not belong to the living. Driver: Hitchhiker Ghost.]
[Spirit permanently increased by 0.4.]
“So, where do you plan on getting out?”
Qin Lan jolted back to awareness and heard the familiar question once more.
His chest heaved. At some point, cold sweat had soaked his back.
His heart pounded, and the terror and despair he had just experienced still clung to his mind.
“That place… was Yellow Springs Road?”
His memories had already grown hazy, as though merely remembering that place were taboo.
Qin Lan knew only that he had left the world of the living and reached somewhere utterly horrifying.
No words could describe the sensation.
If he had to try, it was absolute despair fused with absolute terror. The slightest brush against it would condemn a person beyond all hope of salvation.
“Hiss…”
Qin Lan drew a deep breath and promptly made his decision.
Fuck this. He was done.
Even if he could grind another attribute gain, he absolutely refused to experience that again.
One death by Hitchhiker Ghost was more than enough.
“Where am I going?”
Qin Lan repeated the question. Then he turned toward the expectant Hitchhiker Ghost and enunciated each word.
“I’m going to dig up your ancestral graves, squat on the headstones, and gorge myself on the offerings to your ancestors.”
Hitchhiker Ghost: ???
“You don’t understand?” Qin Lan asked calmly. “Then let me put it in terms you will.”
“I’m going to your house to ****, find your mother and **** her, then **** as hard as I can until she ****.”
“While I’m at it, I’ll invite your father to **** beside us. Maybe I’ll find a few more *** to **** your father while your mother watches, just to spice things up.”
The Hitchhiker Ghost’s face changed drastically. “You… You…”
Qin Lan narrowed his eyes.
“You know, I grew up in the slums. I can spend an entire day insulting you with obscenities centered on your parents and extending three generations through your family tree without repeating myself once.”
“And I still won’t touch your forbidden subject,” he added.
As long as he avoided its forbidden words, nothing he said to the Hitchhiker Ghost could trigger an attack.
“So you can either keep listening to my poetry, or move to the passenger seat, ride for a while, and get the hell out. Which will it be?”
Qin Lan’s voice was cold.
Five minutes later, he expertly shifted into gear and sped away, leaving the Hitchhiker Ghost standing blankly by the roadside.
It raised a deathly pale hand and scratched its head in confusion.
“Is that thing really human?”
Elsewhere, with the Hitchhiker Ghost out of the car, Su Xiaoyue was no longer bound by its rules. She immediately asked,
“Qin Lan…”
“How did you know what its forbidden words were?”
She truly could not comprehend anything Qin Lan had just done.
Never mind the conversation that could have given a listener a heart attack. Never mind that the Hitchhiker Ghost had somehow been transformed into a taxi driver.
The fact that Qin Lan had somehow guessed its forbidden words after an elaborate torrent of abuse was enough to leave Su Xiaoyue’s mind blank.
“I tricked it,” Qin Lan replied casually.
What a joke.
Did she expect him to tell her he could resurrect?
Su Xiaoyue stared at him.
You could do that?
This had begun as an ordinary instance assessment, yet her entire worldview had already been overturned twice today.
First, she discovered that anomalies could possess intelligence comparable to, or even surpassing, a human’s.
Then she discovered that anomalies could be deceived.
Su Xiaoyue could not help studying Qin Lan as though she had discovered a monster.
“Do you really have an F-rank Talent?”
The sudden question made Qin Lan’s hands twitch on the steering wheel.
“Ha-ha… Why do you ask? My Talent was personally tested by United Government personnel. How could it be fake?”
Qin Lan laughed dryly, alarm bells ringing in his head.
People said a woman’s sixth sense was accurate. Could it really be this accurate?
Su Xiaoyue tilted her head as though thinking, then shook it.
“It’s nothing. Just a feeling.”
“You don’t seem afraid of anomalies at all.”
“Even I feel frightened around them.”
As she spoke, Su Xiaoyue watched Qin Lan’s profile, searching his expression for a clue.
“Why aren’t you afraid?”
Qin Lan lied without hesitation.
“I’m brave.”
Su Xiaoyue blinked and understood what he meant: I do not want to tell you.
This boy had always been nearly invisible at school, mentioned only occasionally as the butt of a joke. Yet now Su Xiaoyue had the strange impression that he had become someone else entirely.
“You could have left the instance a long time ago, couldn’t you?” After a moment’s hesitation, Su Xiaoyue changed the subject. “Why did you stay?”
Their group of examinees had entered a 2-Star instance called [Road to the Netherworld].
To leave, an examinee had to complete any one of the following conditions:
1. Find the exit to the alley and survive. (Slit-Mouthed Woman)
2. Ride the roadside taxi and survive. (Hitchhiker Ghost)
3. Finish a bowl of beef noodles at the noodle shop and survive. (Unknown)
4. Escort a child home from school and survive. (Unknown)
Each condition corresponded to a different anomaly.
Once a condition was fulfilled — once the examinee had survived the anomaly — they could choose to leave the instance.
From this pattern, it was clear that everyone who entered was immediately assigned at random to an area occupied by one of the anomalies.
That was how Su Xiaoyue knew Qin Lan had already escaped one anomaly before meeting her.
“This instance is dangerous. With an F-rank Talent, you had no reason to stay any longer…”
“Why did you get into the car?”
Su Xiaoyue waited for his answer.
She had been in terrible condition, but she was certain Qin Lan had noticed the marks around her neck and sensed the nether energy filling the taxi.
His subsequent reaction proved he had recognized the Hitchhiker Ghost.
He had no reason to risk himself, yet he had climbed into the car anyway.
Why?
Qin Lan swallowed. His mind raced, struggling to find an answer more acceptable than, “Obviously because I was looking for a way to die.”
But even with his brain nearly smoking beneath Su Xiaoyue’s burning stare, no suitable lie came to him.
What could he say? That he enjoyed driving taxis?
That he had thought he was playing GTA, lost his mind, and pressed F to carjack the taxi?
After a moment of silence, Qin Lan forced himself to answer.
“Because… I had a reason I couldn’t stay out of that car.”
The instant he said it, he wanted to slap himself.
What fucking reason? That excuse only made him look guiltier.
But Su Xiaoyue heard something entirely different.
“A reason you couldn’t stay out of the car?”
She tilted her head and recalled the scene. Aside from herself, nothing in the car had been remotely special.
“Could he mean… me?”
Su Xiaoyue’s slender body trembled. A rosy blush spread from her neck all the way to her ears.
Her thoughts dissolved into chaos. She had no idea what to say.
Had he seen her in danger inside that car and risked his own life to save her, heedless of his own safety?
That was…
That was the most subtle and moving confession she had ever heard!