Chapter 146: Temporary success
An Wujiu drove with his uninjured hand, his eyes searching for Yang Erci and Zhong Yirou’s car. There were too many people fleeing on the road, causing chaos, and the noise from the pollutants interfered with him to some extent, making it difficult to find them.
Occasionally, the headset device emitted the noisy sound of the AI radio, but it was intermittent, and An Wujiu couldn’t get a complete audio signal, so he gave up.
“The current road conditions… fire has occurred, traffic jam, please be reasonable… a fire has occurred in front of the municipal building…”
Due to the network disconnection, even the AI lost its simulated voice package, leaving only a distorted electronic voice that didn’t take up too much memory. The intermittent electronic voice mixed with the symphony, creating a subtle and eerie feeling as reality and virtuality intertwined.
The whole world was in chaos now, but only the AI continued to work tirelessly.
An Wujiu suspected that even if it were the end of the world and all humans disappeared from this planet, these AIs might still work as usual until they evolved their own civilization.
While driving, An Wujiu noticed a fact he had always overlooked: whenever someone was attacked by pollutants and their sanity value dropped to zero, the name of the victim would flash above their head.
For example, the blonde man lying in front of him now had a name flash above his head—Wilson Swickster.
Although it was a small detail, An Wujiu always found it strange. In their previous game at the altar, every player’s name was clearly displayed from the beginning so others could call them.
Perhaps this time it was not directly displayed due to the vast number of people.
There was no time to delve into it; An Wujiu had more important things to do.
Ahead was the intersection, already very close. If his estimation was correct, Yang Erci would drive from Road A to this intersection, originally turning to Road B, where they were killed by the masked man and where An Wujiu was now driving to find them.
But now, with monster corpses blocking everything behind, even if they didn’t meet him, they would be forced to turn at the intersection and head to Road C.
While thinking, An Wujiu casually glanced at the rearview mirror and suddenly noticed a black car following him. Looking more carefully, he saw that the driver was not the masked man but an ordinary middle-aged man.
An Wujiu felt uneasy and wanted to shake off the car, but worried that after passing the intersection, he might miss them.
After experiencing so much during the rewind, any slight disturbance made An Wujiu unconsciously think of the masked man.
He glanced at the rearview mirror again. The man driving looked tense, his expression and movements stiff.
An Wujiu suddenly turned the wheel, changing lanes, driving the wrong way on Road A, and passing the car behind him.
In the moment they passed, An Wujiu looked at the back seat of the other car, trying to see if his guess was correct.
But at that moment, the car suddenly swerved, and An Wujiu heard the sound of a silenced gun. In the next second, the window on the driver’s side was splattered with blood, covering the entire glass.
Obviously, the driver had been shot in the head.
As An Wujiu had expected, such ruthless behavior could only be the masked man, no one else.
The black car changed lanes again, turned, and accelerated towards An Wujiu’s car.
Through the window, he saw the masked man impatiently pulling the driver out of the seat.
This was probably the first time he had lost control of the situation, which made him so angry.
The opponent’s speed was almost at its limit, but An Wujiu remained still, stopping his car in place.
According to the previous loop, Yang Erci and Zhong Yirou would appear here in a few minutes. For the masked man, his target was obviously the two of them. Killing An Wujiu now would take away much of the game’s fun for him.
He focused entirely, staring at the opponent, who could potentially cause a fatal crash.
Two meters.
One meter.
The engine sound got closer and closer, louder and louder.
Sure enough, just before the collision, the masked man’s car braked suddenly.
Now!
An Wujiu aimed at the person in the driver’s seat and pulled the trigger!
But he hadn’t expected the car to suddenly swerve, quickly changing lanes to the right. His shot, even with his quick reflexes, missed, only shattering the windshield and not even grazing the masked man’s shoulder.
An Wujiu watched as the black car brushed past his own, heading towards Road C.
Road C…
An Wujiu’s heart skipped a beat, and he immediately turned his car around!
Sure enough, under the blinding lights deliberately turned on by the masked man, An Wujiu saw Yang Erci’s face in the driver’s seat.
The masked man drove at high speed, charging straight at them!
Despite all his calculations, he had misjudged Yang Erci and Zhong Yirou’s decisions. They hadn’t come from Road B but from Road C, exactly the opposite of what he had guessed.
The AI broadcast he had just heard mentioned the municipal building, but he hadn’t paid attention. The municipal building was on Road B, and if there was a fire there, that road would be impassable.
Seeing the masked man’s car rushing towards them, and with the masked man already raising his gun inside the car, An Wujiu had no choice but to confront him head-on. He drove his car to collide directly with the masked man’s vehicle and fired again to disrupt the masked man’s actions.
Seeing An Wujiu, Yang Erci felt more stable and tried her best to avoid the oncoming fast car.
On a narrow road, three cars met head-on.
Through their cooperation, An Wujiu, using a nearly suicidal method, rammed the masked man’s car towards the roadside. The two cars, under the tremendous impact, crashed directly into a roadside shop, shattering the glass display windows instantly.
Countless glass shards flew out, piercing An Wujiu’s body. The massive impact felt like it was shattering his internal organs. The old car no longer had a high-level defense system, and his head slammed hard, making his vision go black for a moment.
The only consolation was that An Wujiu was not an ordinary person.
He struggled to open his eyes; his vision was filled with blood from his head. An Wujiu wiped it with the back of his hand, feeling a delayed, dull pain. Only then did he realize that his hand was scraped by the deformed car during the crash, the skin and flesh torn open, revealing the metal bones inside.
Not just his hand, but his right leg was the same, with the metal kneecap exposed.
No time to bandage, An Wujiu picked up his gun, kicked open the severely deformed car door, and staggered step by step towards the masked man’s car.
He was still inside. An Wujiu saw his hand trying to hold onto the car door.
The impact the masked man received should have been far greater than his own.
An Wujiu raised his gun, aimed at the back of the masked man’s head, and dragged his injured body closer.
This time, he hit the mark, but he didn’t know if the masked man was dead or alive.
Pain continued to spread, An Wujiu’s internal organs were damaged, and breathing became difficult. He lowered his hand, pondering whether to fire another shot.
But he feared falling into the masked man’s trap.
He looked around; it was eerily quiet, not like a place where a large number of pollutants would ambush.
But what if there were?
To be safe, An Wujiu stood where he was and repeatedly shot at the unconscious figure until he was down to his last few bullets.
Even if it were a target, it would now be riddled with holes.
An Wujiu turned and limped out, leaving the area.
Just as he was about to exit the ruined shop, a sudden outburst of howls from a group of pollutants erupted behind him.
So they still came.
These pollutants were different from the ones he encountered along the way. Their inner voice had only one phrase:
[Kill An Wujiu 99.]
This confirmed that the masked man could indeed control the pollutants.
But he didn’t know if they were summoned by the masked man before he died, or if the masked man wasn’t dead at all. Now there was no time to think. He needed to find a new vehicle, or he would be trapped here.
An Wujiu didn’t look back, desperately moving forward, but he could feel a tentacle about to reach the back of his head.
“Wujiu!”
He heard Zhong Yirou’s voice.
A bullet whizzed past his ear, striking the tentacle behind him and piercing it.
The pollutant let out a painful howl, and An Wujiu saw Zhong Yirou holding a gun. Their car stopped in front of him.
“Get in quickly,” Yang Erci said, looking at the pollutants rushing towards them.
“Alright.”
The car door was open, and An Wujiu immediately got into the back seat and closed the door, which trapped a pollutant’s claw and tentacle. The tentacle kept splitting, causing Zhong Yirou to scream.
“Quick, quick, quick!”
An Wujiu drew his bamboo-leaf green sword and cut off the things that had intruded.
Zhong Yirou sat back in the passenger seat, letting out a long sigh of relief, “That scared me to death.”
Yang Erci curved her mouth and said, “Nice shot.”
“Of course, these hands are used for surgery after all.”
An Wujiu looked at the two of them, somewhat dazed. To be in the same car with them now, hearing them talk and even laugh, felt like a dream.
Zhong Yirou smiled proudly and turned to check on An Wujiu. Seeing him covered in injuries, she felt distressed, “Oh my God, Wujiu, you’re so badly injured. What do we do? We don’t have a first aid kit…”
“It’s fine,” An Wujiu shook his head, his face pale, pressing down on his bleeding hand, “As long as you two are okay.”
“We’re fine, doing well,” Zhong Yirou was still worried about his injuries, “This won’t do. Let’s go to my house first. I can get my tools and treat you. Otherwise, it will get worse.”
Hearing her mention going home, An Wujiu immediately recalled the shadow of the previous rewind, “No, don’t go back. I just separated from Shen Ti, Nan Shan, and Wu You. They are heading to L City now, preparing to go to Sha Wen.”
“Sha Wen?” Yang Erci asked, observing the road conditions, “Going overnight?”
“Yes,” An Wujiu planned to explain more later, “Anyway, let’s meet up with them first.”
Yang Erci nodded, re-planning the route, then spoke again, “That masked guy just now, he seemed to want to kill us. I initially thought he was trying to steal our time, but it didn’t seem like it. Do you know him?”
“Yes,” An Wujiu told them as briefly as possible about what had happened before. Without Shen Ti’s help, he couldn’t directly transmit the memories of the previous loop to them and could only describe it.
After listening to him, Zhong Yirou was stunned for several seconds.
“Is this true? You can travel through time?”
An Wujiu nodded, “You could say that. In any case, that masked man is very dangerous.”
“More than dangerous, if this is true, he’s your arch-enemy,” Zhong Yirou believed him unconditionally. Even after hearing the complete failure of the previous loop, she wasn’t discouraged and remained optimistic, “But this time you saved us, so you changed history, right? Thinking about it that way, I feel so lucky now.”
“But every change can lead to other disasters, which are unpredictable,” An Wujiu said.
Yang Erci said softly, “Just seize the moment.”
She glanced at An Wujiu in the rearview mirror. In so many previous crises, he had always been calm and in control, rarely ending up as injured as he was now, covered in wounds and blood, looking like shattered but glued-together fine porcelain.
“Thank you.”
Hearing this, An Wujiu raised his eyes belatedly, meeting Yang Erci’s gaze in the mirror.
“You’ve worked hard, Wujiu.”
That bloodstained face, originally extremely calm, showed a bright smile after hearing those words, with her cool eyebrows curving slightly.
It was the first time she saw An Wujiu smile like this, almost with a childlike innocence.
“They will definitely be very happy to see you all safely reunited.”
Yang Erci felt a strange sensation.
She thought that perhaps An Wujiu could be knocked down many times, even shattered into many pieces, yet he could still start anew completely.
He was clearly an incredibly smart guy, yet stubborn to the point of being clumsy.
“By the way,” An Wujiu remembered something, his smile fading, and he hurriedly asked, “Did you receive an email from your father? Before the game started.”
Yang Erci nodded, “Yes.”
“The masked man seems very eager to get that email,” An Wujiu told her. “Last time, he killed you because of it.”
Yang Erci understood, “It was indeed sent by my dad. According to what you said, it might have been mistakenly sent to me by a father from a parallel world who is still alive. Actually, I haven’t completely decrypted the email’s contents yet. There simply wasn’t enough time before the damn game started.”
She shared everything she knew with An Wujiu without reservation, “This email contains information my father collected about Sha Wen and the altar. Twelve years ago, there was a prosthetic manufacturing plant belonging to Sha Wen that was shut down because a researcher named Shen discovered a bug in the code and believed it shouldn’t continue. However, according to my dad’s investigation, all the prosthetics produced in that factory were later handled by one person, sold at low prices, and circulated in the market. That person, coincidentally, is our old friend Maguire’s father.”
An Wujiu frowned.
“That’s the earliest batch of problematic prosthetics he traced back to, including implanted skeletal structures, prosthetic eyes, and limbs, all widely circulated. Due to the interconnected use of prosthetics, the ‘virus’ in these prosthetics circulated through the interconnected neural networks, and the medium connecting them is something almost everyone has.”
An Wujiu realized this, as he should have long ago.
“The citizen chip.”
“Exactly,” Yang Erci said solemnly. “That’s why the altar can now invade everyone.”
