Highway 1

Three days flew by in the blink of an eye. As the countdown in her personal independent space hit zero, the familiar wave of dizziness washed over her. Bai Ci closed her eyes, a practiced motion to ease the sensation.

Her consciousness returned before her sight did. The first thing Bai Ci felt was that she was sitting on something with the texture of a leather seat.

Her nose caught the stale, heavy scent of a new car—a mix of leather and gasoline—but it was masked by the much stronger smell of orange peels, which helped soothe her nausea.

Opening her eyes, she confirmed she was indeed sitting in a sedan.

Worse still, she was sitting in the driver's seat.

Bad news: she didn't know how to drive.

Bai Ci's hands rested stiffly on either side of the steering wheel. The speedometer on the dashboard clearly read 120 km/h.

Even worse news: the car was speeding along an expressway—and it was the middle of the night.

The vehicle continued to glide smoothly forward, but Bai Ci's heart was racing just as fast as the speedometer.

She considered herself to have decent mental fortitude, but in a situation like this, anyone who didn't know how to drive would panic at least a little.

Bai Ci's fingers subconsciously gripped the steering wheel, only to immediately loosen her hold, not daring to apply any force.

Her eyes darted frantically around the driver's seat, her mind racing to recall fragmented bits of driving knowledge. She was already bracing herself for the car to spin out of control and crash into the guardrails.

She instinctively wanted to step on the pedals below, but fearing she might hit the gas pedal by mistake, she forced herself to hold back. Her throat tightened, and her breathing grew rapid.

In all her years, she had never even set foot in a driving school. She had only watched other people drive and vaguely remembered that the brake and accelerator were both down by her feet, but she had absolutely no idea which was which.

If she mistook the gas for the brake and her hands slipped on the wheel, this instance would end right here and now.

And she would happily walk away with a record-low E-rank evaluation.

Just as Bai Ci was on the verge of panicking and completely losing her composure, the corner of her eye caught the center console screen in the middle of the dashboard.

The screen was lit up, clearly displaying a line of black text as if tailored specifically for her: "Current Mode: Autopilot."

That scared me to death...

Bai Ci let out a long sigh of relief, her tense nerves finally relaxing a bit.

So she didn't have to drive herself. Thank goodness.

She reached up to wipe the cold sweat from her forehead, feeling secretly grateful. Thankfully, Anomalous Infection was actually quite forgiving, giving her a buffer like this.

Once this instance was over, she would immediately learn how to drive. Never mind traffic laws for now—she just needed a crash course in basic vehicle operation.

She was ready to claim her spot as a future outlaw on the road.

With the most critical issue resolved, Bai Ci finally had the chance to observe her surroundings.

Outside the windows lay a pitch-black night. Dense mountain forests lined both sides of the road. There were no signs of human life, no streetlights, and no starlight. Only the car's headlights illuminated the expressway ahead, which stretched into the endless darkness.

The road was wide and smooth, like a well-maintained expressway. Curiously, however, there was no sign of any other vehicle besides her own.

Even the oncoming lanes were completely empty, as if she were the only person driving on the entire expressway.

And inside her car, she was completely alone. The passenger seat and the back seats were empty.

Aside from a black piece of clothing on the passenger seat—likely a jacket—there was nothing else.

After assessing her surroundings, Bai Ci checked what she had on her person.

She was wearing a beautiful vermilion dress. While it was lovely, as everyone knew, dresses almost never had pockets.

Unsurprisingly, she found absolutely nothing on herself.

The clothing on the passenger seat was indeed a coat—a long trench coat that was a bit too large for her.

The trench coat's pockets were empty too, but there was something underneath it.

It covered a booklet with a red cover, which had "Stamp Book" written on it. There were four blank spaces inside, all of which were currently empty.

Unable to glean any other information, Bai Ci turned her attention back to the center console screen, switching to the electronic map interface to verify some details.

She was currently on a road called Yefu No. 1 Expressway, located in a region called Yefu District.

There was also a clear navigation route on the map. The starting point wasn't displayed, but the destination was the toll exit of this expressway. The estimated travel time was 12 hours.

Bai Ci was a bit puzzled. Even though she had never driven, she had been a passenger before. Something was clearly off here, wasn't it?

Traveling at 120 km/h and still needing 12 hours to reach the exit... just how big was this Yefu District?

Bai Ci tried to zoom out on the map to see a larger view, wanting to see what Yefu District looked like as a whole and what lay beyond it.

Suddenly, a gray system prompt popped up on the screen: "Due to national security regulations, viewing the map of the current region is not permitted."

She tried several more times, even trying different ways to operate it, but failed.

The map remained stubbornly fixed on her current stretch of the expressway. She couldn't zoom out, nor could she view anything beyond her current driving area.

Bai Ci gave up struggling with the map. Having confirmed her immediate safety, she turned to her third source of information: her Rain's Message interface.

The familiar panel materialized before her eyes, clearly displaying the details of the Rain's Message NPC for this instance.

【Rain's Message NPC: Yu Yue

Appearance: Long black hair (dyed), red eyes, albino

Identity: Video platform blogger

Relationship to Player: Husband

Skill Level: None

Special Skills: None

Status: Deceased】

???

Brother, did you die a bit too early?

This shouldn't count as her jinxing him to death, right?

This was a total scam! She had only just arrived, and he was already dead.

Looking at the information on the Rain's Message interface, Bai Ci felt both distressed and puzzled.

The information provided by the Rain's Message interface this time was far too brief. In the past, when introducing her relationship with an NPC, it would at least mention some background. This time, there were only two simple words: "Husband."

Was it because it wasn't important enough to mention, or was it too important to be revealed?

As Bai Ci pondered, a melodious and lively tune suddenly rang out from the center console. It sounded a bit like the opening theme of a variety show.

After the short jingle ended, a warm male voice slowly drifted from the car speakers.

“Dear listeners and tourists, welcome to Yefu District. I am Beiguan, your host for the Yefu District Traffic and Tourism Radio. I will be accompanying you all through the upcoming journey.”