Highway 12

Having reviewed all the clues, Bai Ci felt more confident. She turned around and got back into the car.

After buckling her seatbelt, the vehicle started automatically and drove toward the fourth gas station.

This time, the host Beiguan's voice didn't come from the car radio; only the soothing, light music played on a loop.

Leaning back in her seat, Bai Ci listened closely for a moment, then couldn't help but ask the center console, “Beiguan, are you still alive? Why aren't you talking?”

Just like before, there was no response from the radio, only the light music continuing to play.

Bai Ci didn't press further. She simply leaned back in her seat, keeping an eye on the activity outside the window.

The vehicle glided smoothly along. The scenery along the way remained dark mountain forests, without any anomalies.

Come to think of it, according to the information on the navigation map, at least nine hours had passed, yet the night outside the car remained just as thick, neither deepening nor fading.

But since this was the Underworld, it didn't seem all that strange.

It would actually be stranger if a place like the Underworld had daylight.

Just then, Bai Ci noticed some structures resembling iron trees appearing along the roadside outside her window.

These structures were entirely silver-white, with blades inserted into large iron rods, barely resembling the shape of a tree. They looked as if they had been constructed from recycled scrap materials from the mountain of knives.

Beneath each iron tree was a dedicated spotlight. While it illuminated the entire tree with absolute clarity, the harsh reflections were a bit painful to Bai Ci's eyes.

Flashes of light appearing in the pitch black were eye-catching enough that she was able to notice them immediately.

“This must be the manifestation of the Iron Tree Hell,” Bai Ci thought as she watched the vehicle drive past the area where the iron trees stood, waiting for the radio host's belated introduction.

Unfortunately, the introduction wasn't late—it didn't come at all.

Before long, as the vehicle continued forward, the cold mechanical voice of the car's navigation system rang out even before the radio could.

“Arriving at Yefu No. 1 Expressway Service Area Gas Station in one kilometer. Please confirm whether to enter. Repeating: please confirm whether to enter the gas station.”

She had reached the fourth gas station?

For a moment, Bai Ci suspected she was hallucinating, but she couldn't think of any hell associated with auditory hallucinations.

She had only just passed the iron trees. What about the rest?

The journey was going so smoothly that it felt a bit surreal. She wondered if she was dreaming, or if the fourth station was going to be a massive trap.

Besides, the host, Beiguan, had gone completely silent, which made her feel rather uneasy and alert.

Seeing that the countdown was about to end, Bai Ci tapped the confirmation button on the center console. The vehicle adjusted its direction, entered the gas station, and parked in the self-service fueling area.

Right in the center of the gas station, the three red characters for “stamp station” on the LED sign were exceptionally eye-catching.

Bai Ci unbuckled her seatbelt, got out of the car, and walked toward the stamp station.

Posted next to the stamp station were only the operational steps for stamping, which were identical to those at the first and third gas stations, with no extra requirements.

She walked up to the stamp machine and placed the Stamp Book in the middle of the platform. The platform slowly pressed down, then slowly lifted, completing the stamping process.

Bai Ci picked up the Stamp Book. Sure enough, the fourth stamp had been pressed onto a blank space, reading: Yefu District City Hall Stamp.

Four stamps, all collected.

Was it about to end?

She felt it was a bit anticlimactic.

If this were a real-world murder mystery game script, such a rushed and anticlimactic ending could indeed happen due to the author's lack of writing skill.

But Anomalous Infection was no small-time murder mystery shop. How could it have such an absurd moment?

When one felt that something abnormal was happening in an instance, it was highly likely a premonition that something was about to be triggered, or had already been triggered.

The smoother her journey had been since starting the fourth leg of the trip, the more intense the unease in Bai Ci's heart grew.

She tucked the Stamp Book away, turned around, and walked toward her car.

Just then, she heard a voice from behind—a man's voice, calling her name: “Bai Ci—”

Hearing someone call her name, Bai Ci instinctively wanted to turn around, but fortunately, her reason caught up quickly. Her head had barely turned a fraction of an inch before she forced herself to stop.

“Was this the moment she was supposed to drink that refreshing beverage?”

Without looking back, Bai Ci walked briskly toward the car, her fast walk gradually turning into a jog.

Behind her, the voice continued to call out to her tirelessly, even mimicking the panting sound of someone running to catch up with her.

“Bai Ci, turn around and look at me. It's me... Bai Ci, stop walking forward, won't you turn back?”

As the voice behind her spoke more, Bai Ci recognized it. The voice calling her name had a tone extremely similar to—almost identical to—the voice of the host, Beiguan.

She had already had a vague suspicion before that the host, Beiguan, might be her husband, Yu Yue, who had died a step ahead of her.

Bai Ci pulled open the car door, slid into the driver's seat, and quickly buckled her seatbelt, wanting to start the vehicle and escape from this place.

But just then, the car's navigation screen suddenly popped up on its own. The estimated time of arrival at her destination showed ten minutes remaining.

Looking closer, the ten minutes was labeled not as driving time, but as walking time.

Before Bai Ci could even react to what was happening, the car's system sounded an alarm.

“The vehicle has experienced an unknown malfunction and cannot start.”

On the dashboard, the numbers on the fuel gauge rapidly plummeted to zero.

“I need to run,” Bai Ci quickly decided. She reached out to grab the refreshing beverage she had tossed onto the passenger seat while unbuckling her seatbelt with her other hand.

Just then, the voice of the host, Beiguan, finally rang out from the car radio once again.

This time, his voice was no longer gentle and flat, but carried a hint of urgency, issuing only a few short, commanding sentences: “Don't drink the beverage! Run! Run along the road, and don't look back!”

At the very end of his words, there was a faint swallowing sound, the kind made when someone was struggling to swallow some sort of liquid.

But Bai Ci didn't hear that sound, because the voice behind her calling her name was getting closer and louder, completely drowning out the tail end of his words.

She didn't think twice, nor did she have the time to. Grabbing the beverage, she opened the car door to run, popping the can open and blindly tossing it behind her as she fled.

Whether she missed or it simply had no effect, the metal can hit the ground with a loud clatter and went rolling away, while the voice calling Bai Ci's name remained entirely unaffected.

Bai Ci bolted out of the gas station at full speed.

Fortunately, the iron trees weren't too far away. Seeing the lights over there, she knew she had to run in the opposite direction.

As she ran, she silently rejoiced that she wasn't wearing high heels, and that she had previously put that one attribute point into agility.

Running now, her speed was significantly faster than usual, and her body felt much lighter.

She ran until she was out of breath, her chest heaving violently. Her ears were filled with nothing but her own footsteps, her rapid breathing, and the endless, enticing voice calling from behind.