Chapter 4

Chapter 4

“Uh… Wel… come… to… what world?”

Liu Ye struggled to read the words on the screen. He couldn’t help it; he had never attended school a day in his life. The Fiends in his village weren’t exactly big on education, so Liu Ye was effectively semi-illiterate.

Since he couldn’t understand it, he stopped trying. He looked around, only to find himself surrounded by a vast, all-encompassing darkness.

He thought back to the word “world” on the screen and had a realization. This was probably the outside world. No wonder people said the outside was great-the technology here was incredible.

But what was he supposed to do?

He looked back at the screen and saw that the display had changed. Four options appeared: Profile, Inventory, Shop, and Quests.

Although the interface was simple, the only words Liu Ye recognized were “Profile” and “Inventory.”

Having no other choice, he tapped on Profile first.

[Name: Liu Ye]
[Age: 18]
[Gender: Male]
[Level: LV 9999]
[Experience: 9999/9999]
[Strength: &*!]
[Agility: !@#]
[Intelligence: @#$!]
[Constitution: !@#$]
[Perception: @#$%]
[Charisma: %$#]
[Title: None]
[Skills: None]
[Points: 0]

Liu Ye: “…”

Great. Another bunch of words he didn’t know, plus a string of symbols. This was just making things difficult for him. Liu Ye decided to ignore it all; he just wanted to know how to get out of here.

After poking around for a while, he clicked the last option: Quests. Information immediately flooded the screen.

[Quest: Suburban Taxi]
[Objective: Reach Huicheng alive]
[Reward 1: 0 Points]
[Reward 2: 0 Experience]
[Reward 3: Random Quality Item x1]

The long string of text gave Liu Ye a headache. He scrolled straight to the bottom and saw two buttons. He tapped the one on the left, and in an instant, he vanished from the spot.

Meanwhile, on Highway 404 outside the city, a woman was hiding under a tree, making a phone call.

“I told you, stop contacting me. We’re broken up. What’s the point of pestering me? If you love me, then let me go.”

“What? The bride price? Please, I was with you for three years. I wasted three years of my youth on you; I deserve some compensation. Fine, stop talking, my car is here.”

With that, she opened the front door of a car and sat inside.

“What took you so long? I’ve been waiting for almost an hour.”

Li Wei complained without looking up, her eyes glued to her phone.

The driver didn’t say a word. He started the meter, stepped on the gas, and drove off.

Shortly after the car left, another vehicle pulled up.

“Hey, Miss Li, I’m so sorry. There was a traffic jam, so I’m a bit late…”

The driver looked up and realized no one was there.

“That’s weird. Wasn’t it this spot?”

The driver checked his phone and saw that the order hadn’t been canceled. How was the passenger gone?
In the car, Li Wei was rapidly typing on WeChat.

“Honey, are you getting impatient? I’m in the car now, I’ll be there soon,” Li Wei typed anxiously.

“Hurry up. Why are you always so slow? If you don’t want to come, let’s just break up.”

“Don’t, honey! I’m almost there. Tell you what, I’ll buy you that phone you like. Seriously, I have money now!” Li Wei replied quickly.

“Fine, just hurry up.”

Li Wei let out a sigh of relief, then looked up with a flash of anger. If it weren’t for this useless driver, she wouldn’t be late.
Just as she looked up, she saw the driver’s eyes in the rearview mirror, staring straight at her.

Those eyes were terrifying, as if he were looking at prey.

In that instant, her heart tightened. The words she had been about to say were swallowed back down.

She quickly lowered her head and started scrolling through her phone.

As fate would have it, a news report appeared on her screen.

“Recently, several female corpses were discovered on Highway 404 on the outskirts of our city. According to insiders, the victims were all last seen entering a yellow taxi with the license plate… All single women are advised to be mindful of their safety…”

Li Wei panicked immediately upon seeing the news. When she had gotten into the car earlier, she had caught a glimpse of its color-it was yellow.

In this city, all taxis were supposed to be green.

At that moment, the speakers in the front suddenly crackled to life.

“That night, I hurt you; that night, you left me broken…”

“Our heads nestled together as we slept…”

“But my heart fell silent in the bitter, icy cold…”

“When it was time to eat, I watched you at the table…”

“You fed me with such love…”

“The delicious broth trickled down your neck, staining the white table along with that red…”

The singing was unpleasant, sounding like someone chanting in a monotonous drone right next to her ear. The lyrics were bizarre and deeply unsettling.

Li Wei couldn’t take it anymore. She immediately shouted at the driver.

“Stop the car! Stop right now! I want to get out!”

She pounded on the seat in a frenzy, but the driver didn’t answer her.

Outside, a heavy rain began to fall, the downpour so thick it looked as if someone were dumping buckets of water over the car.

Li Wei huddled against the back of her seat, shivering. She pulled her clothes tight around her as if that could provide some sense of security. It was then that she felt something sticky on her back. She reached back to touch it, and when she brought her hand forward, she discovered it was stained with blackened blood.

“AAAAHHHHH!”

Li Wei screamed. Throwing caution to the wind, she pulled desperately at the door handle, only to find that the car was locked.

Terrified, she began to sob.

“Sir, please let me go. I’m begging you, I don’t want to die! I’ll give you anything you want, just please let me go!”

By now, the singing from the car speakers had grown increasingly shrill, sounding like wire scratching against a blackboard.

The driver finally spoke.

“Once, I had a beautiful wife. I loved her very much. I gave everything I had to love her, but…”

At this point, the driver’s voice turned low and heavy.

“She betrayed me. She had an affair! Tell me, what should I have done?”

“She… her having an affair was her fault. You… you should have asked her for compensation.”

Li Wei felt as if she had stepped into an ice cellar; she was cold to the bone.

She had no other choice but to play along with the driver’s words.

However, as if he had been waiting for her to say exactly that, the driver’s mouth split open all the way to his ears.

“You’re right. I punished her severely. Hehehehe…”

The driver’s laughter began to turn Fiend. Then, he whipped his head around, staring fixedly at Li Wei with two pitch-black sockets.

“All unfaithful women deserve to die!”

*Splat!*

Blood sprayed inside the car, and a warm, fiery red coated the interior.