Chapter 13: The Cross-River Bridge.
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The instant dawn broke, countless residents awoke from their dreams and poured into the streets. In the blink of an eye, the roads had grown extraordinarily lively.
Some pedestrians were out for their morning runs. Others hurried along with briefcases in hand. Shops of every kind opened for business along the streets.
For a time, the city brimmed with the warmth and bustle of ordinary life.
...
Chen Jiang had already switched to a new car. Before daybreak, he had parked it before the invisible wall at an intersection, waiting only for the barrier to vanish so he could head toward the cross-river bridge on the edge of the city.
This was the final difficulty of the instance.
It was also the crux of the hidden quest.
Once daylight came, the number of residents in the city would rise dramatically. That meant the number of Crawlers would increase as well. This stretch of road was perilously dangerous; a moment’s carelessness could leave the way completely choked with Crawlers.
Fortunately, the information on the interface stated that one could leave the instance directly upon reaching the brink of death. That was probably a privilege granted by low-difficulty instances.
The enticing aroma of pastries drifted through the air.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!”
An urgent horn sounded from behind. A man stuck his head out of the vehicle behind them and shouted, “The light’s green! Are you blind?”
Chen Jiang glanced at his watch. There was still some distance to the cross-river bridge, and little time remained before the next mutation node. He needed to go faster.
“...”
He let out a soft breath and leaned back against the seat. He had needed only one glance at the map for the optimal route to be etched into his mind. His fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel, and the instincts of a professional racing driver took control in an instant.
Without hesitation, he floored the accelerator.
The engine roared as the car’s speed shot into triple digits. The crossing streams of traffic at the intersection had begun to move. Chen Jiang tapped the steering wheel twice with his fingers, and the car skimmed past the front of a bus by a hair’s breadth.
A storm of shrill horns and furious curses erupted behind him.
But his speed did not drop in the slightest. If anything, he only accelerated further.
Ahead, the traffic of the morning rush hour crawled along like snails. Chen Jiang swept a glance toward the lane with lighter oncoming traffic, wrenched the steering wheel, and sent the car surging into the opposing lane. The engine’s revolutions climbed straight toward the redline.
One piercing screech of brakes and horns followed another.
Chen Jiang made rapid, minute corrections with his fingers, brushing past the side mirrors of several cars. The terrified faces of their drivers flashed past the windows one after another.
At the next intersection—
The light was red.
Countless pedestrians crowded the crosswalk.
And yet—
Chen Jiang showed not the slightest intention of slowing down. With the accelerator pinned to the floor, the car charged into the intersection like a savage beast. Countless pedestrians were sent flying into the air, and the entire crossroads instantly dissolved into chaos.
Several out-of-control vehicles slammed into the roadside fire hydrants. High-pressure columns of water shot into the sky.
“Beep! Beep! Beep!”
A heavy truck, its load out of control, ran parallel to Chen Jiang’s car. It was already tipping toward them. Just as the truckload of concrete was about to crush their vehicle completely, Chen Jiang suddenly stamped on the brakes, sending their speed plunging.
At the same time, he avoided the catastrophe and violently spun the steering wheel once more, veering into the opposing lane.
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The middle-aged man who had been sitting quietly in the back, hoping to coast to victory, now clung to the handrail in terror. His trembling voice was thick with sobs.
“Brother Jiang! Sir Jiang!”
“If we die in the instance, we really die in the real world too!”
“Y-you be careful!”
If yesterday night’s joyride had merely made him vomit violently, this morning’s drive had made him feel as though he were dancing madly on the edge of death. It was as if he were performing a window-wiping dance before the King of Hell.
Especially when that concrete-laden heavy truck had tilted beside their car just now—he could have sworn he saw his great-grandmother smiling gently and waving him over.
...
“...”
Although Chen Jiang’s hands were constantly making minute adjustments, his face showed no extra tension. He even found the time to light a cigarette with one hand, saying casually, “When you fear death, death comes knocking.”
“It’s something I learned as a child.”
“The magician’s first lesson—”
“Look death in the eye.”
The middle-aged man was now on the verge of complete collapse. He curled up in the corner of the back seat, the seat belt providing him not the slightest sense of security, and screamed at the top of his lungs, “What the hell kind of magician did you study under?”
Chen Jiang did not answer.
He merely turned around and looked toward the middle-aged man.
“Brother, brother, keep your eyes on the road first, would you?”
“Duck.”
The middle-aged man bent down without the slightest hesitation. Only afterward did he ask in a trembling voice, “What is it, Brother Jiang?”
Then—
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The sound of bullets punching through glass rang out.
Several rounds pierced the rear windshield and shot into the vehicle.
The Mute Serpent, seated in the front passenger seat, immediately drew an assault rifle from inside his coat. Turning his body slightly, he aimed at the police cars pursuing them and squeezed the trigger. But when he saw the middle-aged man huddled in the corner of the back seat, a trace of surprise flickered through his eyes.
His master had been Brother Jiang’s master’s partner.
His master had once told him that no matter what order Brother Jiang gave him, he was to carry it out first and ask why afterward.
That was not an easy thing to do. It had taken him a long time to grow accustomed to it.
He had not expected this middle-aged man to grasp the principle instinctively.
If he had ducked even a moment later, he would already have been dead.
...
A large number of traffic officers had set up a roadblock ahead.
The vehicle could not force its way through.
Traffic officers blocked the road ahead, while members of the Law Enforcement Bureau pursued them from behind with heavy weapons. They were trapped between attacks from both directions.
“...”
Chen Jiang raised an eyebrow. He had not expected the hidden quest to be this difficult. Wasn’t this going a little too far?
But he said nothing.
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He merely wrenched the steering wheel and drove toward the pedestrian overpass beside the road. At that moment, the bridge was packed with onlookers eager to watch the spectacle. Yet disaster descended from the sky.
Trailing sparks and flashes of lightning, the car raced up the pedestrian overpass, then shot down the other side and cleared the roadblock.
It continued hurtling toward the cross-river bridge.
Only the final stretch remained.
Once they passed through the tunnel ahead, they would reach the cross-river bridge.
Chen Jiang drove at 220 kilometers per hour through the wrong side of the two-way tunnel. The high beams of oncoming traffic rushed toward them like a meteor shower, while countless sirens wailed in frantic pursuit behind.
“...”
His eyes narrowed slightly.
Ahead, two container trucks traveling side by side had completely sealed off the opposing lane. The lane in the other direction was already jammed solid.
The speedometer read 235. There was no time to brake—and he could not brake anyway.
“Brother Jiang!”
The middle-aged man’s heartbroken cry echoed through the car. “We can’t leave the instance anymore!”
He had just tried to exit the instance, only to receive a notification from the interface: he was currently involved in a capture event and could not leave.
Several hundred meters vanished in an instant.
The vehicle was about to collide with the two container trucks blocking the road. At that speed, a head-on collision left no hope of survival.
The next moment—
Just before impact, Chen Jiang wrenched the wheel. The car rose onto its side. Its left wheels scraped against the tunnel wall, while the right side mirror was instantly torn away by the asphalt. Sparks from metal grinding against concrete cascaded past the windows like a waterfall.
Pressed tight against the tunnel wall, the vehicle passed between the two heavy container trucks at an utterly absurd angle, nearly perpendicular to the ground.
When the car slammed back onto the pavement, there was not another vehicle in the tunnel. Light shone ahead, guiding the way forward.
...
A minute later.
The battered vehicle slowly came to a stop on the cross-river bridge.
Chen Jiang rested both arms on the railing overlooking the river, a glowing red cigarette pinched between his fingers. With a faint smile, he admired the blood-red sunrise rising over the distant riverbank.
The Mute Serpent leaned against the railing with both hands in his pockets, gazing at Chen Jiang’s profile with amusement in his eyes.
A large number of police cars arrived late, and amid the urgent wail of sirens, countless law-enforcement officers piled out and surrounded the entrance to the bridge.
The scene gradually froze, then shattered into fragments.
And in one corner—
A middle-aged man with a deathly pale face lay curled up on the ground without a shred of dignity. His body trembled uncontrollably, and his lips had turned blue.
He was still alive.
But he felt as though he had already died.
Mom...
I want to go home...
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