Life Game In Other World
Chapter 436: The Goal (Big - for Monthly Tickets)

Chapter 436: Chapter 436: The Goal (Big Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

An off-road vehicle was approaching from the opposite direction.

He Ao slowly slowed down the car.

At this time, the other party also noticed He Ao, and they too slowed down.

He Ao picked up the binoculars and glanced over, but the distance was too far to make out the people inside the vehicle, yet he faintly felt that the car seemed familiar.

Just then, he realized something, he pressed the brakes, but not fully, and then he took a bottle of purified water from the storage box and placed it on the brake pedal.

After that, he swiftly slid through the gap between the driver and passenger seats into the back seat, pulled Ennie, who was sleeping on the back cushion, down, and placed her behind the passenger seat cushion.

"Ah, Dad, what happened?"

Ennie woke up from her sleep.

Bang——

However, before she could get a response from He Ao, a sudden gunshot burst forth.

The thick windshield was instantly pierced and the bullet shot through the headrest of the driver’s seat, exploding the pure white synthetic filler fibers throughout the vehicle.

If He Ao had been sitting in the driver’s seat just then, it would have been his head that was blown apart.

The terrifying scene startled Ennie; just as she was about to scream, He Ao covered her mouth.

"Shh."

He Ao whispered in her ear.

Ennie nodded gently, and He Ao then removed his hand from her mouth.

The brake pedal, weighed down by the bottle of purified water, slowly rebounded, the speed of the off-road vehicle gradually decreased, and eventually, it came to a stop.

"Hmm..."

Ennie widened her eyes and pointed at the car door.

She was asking whether they should push the door open and run away.

She had been a bit groggy when she first opened her eyes, but the explosive gunshot had instantly snapped her awake.

He Ao reached out and pushed open the back door.

The tightly closed door opened slowly, but nothing happened.

Ennie got up, wanting to crawl out, but He Ao gently stopped her.

He Ao shook his head at her and then unzipped the luggage bag that contained the Black Shadow’s corpse, pulling the body out.

Nearly a day had passed, and the skin of the Black Shadow still retained a bit of its ruddiness, with no odd smell, and it looked as if it had just died not long ago.

Ennie watched dumbfounded as He Ao pulled out the corpse of the Black Shadow, and then waited just a moment longer.

The moment the off-road vehicle came to a complete stop, he instantly supported the corpse of the Black Shadow, pushing it outwards.

Bang——

The gunshot exploded almost instantaneously.

The thick bullet struck the head of the Black Shadow, carrying the entire body backward, crashing down into the night rain.

Ennie gaped at the scene.

But He Ao’s hands didn’t stop moving.

He Aopulled Ennie down quickly, squeezing their bodies into the cramped space in the back seat.

The next second, the headrest of the passenger seat behind him also burst open instantly, turning into exploding synthetic fibers.

As these synthetic fibers whirled inside the vehicle, He Ao pulled Ennie down, crouching behind the open car door.

"Quick!"

He Ao pointed behind the car, signaling Ennie to take cover there.

Ennie glanced at the muddy water on the ground, swallowed, knelt down, and quickly crawled over.

Immediately following, He Ao also rolled over to the rear of the car behind his daughter.

Then he made a shushing gesture to his daughter, activated Super Memory, and jumped into the roadside bushes.

Clad in pitch black, he blended into the night, like a shadow of the dusk.

Ennie watched her father’s departing figure, trembling as she glanced around at the dark, desolate hills, tears swirling in her eyes.

She had not been this afraid even when facing the Phantom Mushrooms.

But still, she hugged herself and, following her father’s command, carefully crouched behind the car without reaching for her father, pleading for him not to go.

The drizzling rain wet her strands of hair.

...

"How is it?"

As the off-road vehicle gradually slowed to a stop, the young driver clad in a leather coat glanced at the man standing out from the sunroof on the back seat.

"One in the driver’s seat, one in the passenger seat, one in the back."

The voice from atop the car called, "Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?"

"I was right in front of them; you have to trust my vision."

The driver chuckled, "Of course, there’s also the possibility they had infighting and one or two died. So, did you not kill them?"

"I’m not certain."

The young man half-commanded, "Move the car closer. It’s too far here; I can’t see clearly."

"Tch."

The driver muttered under his breath and gradually sped up the vehicle.

The young man rested his head on the scope, his finger on the trigger.

As the two vehicles drew closer, the scene he could see became clearer.

The entirely empty driver’s seat was fully exposed.

"Turn around!"

He shouted immediately.

But the next second, he would lose his voice forever.

A bullet pierced through the center of his forehead and exited the back of his skull.

"What’s wrong?"

The young driver violently turned the steering wheel, attempting to make an immediate U-turn.

"It’s nothing."

A slightly hoarse voice sounded next to the driver’s ear; then a cold gun barrel pressed against his temple.

The driver’s gaze trembled as he glanced sideways, only to see a gaunt middle-aged man standing outside the driver’s door.

"Get out of the car."

He Ao gave him a glance and said calmly, "Don’t move. Before you can step on the gas, a bullet will probably go through your brain first. It’s best if you drop that idea."

The young driver shuddered and slowly raised his hands.

He Ao reached into the car with his other hand, pulled open the door, then took two steps back, signaling the driver to get out.

The driver swallowed, slowly descending from the car.

He Ao took out a rope he had just made from fresh tree bark, had him turn around, tied him up, and tossed him into the passenger seat.

Then he dragged down the sniper’s body.

His judgment had not been wrong; this sniper was from the Wilderness Wanderer clan that had attacked the convoy, and this vehicle belonged to that same clan.

He Ao took the driver’s seat, started the vehicle, and glanced at the young driver tied up next to him. "Which clan do you belong to?"

"I can’t tell you."

The driver glanced at He Ao and quickly replied.

He Ao didn’t waste any words; he raised his pistol and fired at the driver.

The scorching bullet grazed the driver’s cheek, whizzing through the open car window into the night.

Fine beads of sweat slid down the driver’s forehead.

He looked at He Ao, trembling, and whispered, "The Merck family."

"Hmm?"

He Ao’s gun-wielding hand did not lower.

"The Merck family!"

The young driver shrank his head and said loudly.

This loud exclamation shattered all his psychological defenses.

He gasped for air, his body breaking out in a cold sweat as if he had been pulled from water.

He Ao glanced at him, then continued to ask, "Why did you two come here?"

"We were here to observe those Human-eating Mushrooms."

Having caught his breath, the young man stopped hiding anything and explained everything.

"Human-eating Mushrooms?"

He Ao’s eyebrows rose, but his expression remained unchanged as he asked indifferently.

"Didn’t you encounter those mushrooms when you came from over there? We first thought you’d been devoured by the Human-eating Mushrooms," the young man paused, looking at He Ao, "Don’t tell me you circled around? Did you find a safe path?"

"You’re asking me?"

He Ao glanced at him and asked calmly, deliberately pausing between words.

"No, no,"

The young man drew back in fear, then began to answer He Ao’s earlier question,

"The Human-eating Mushrooms recently appeared in the wilderness. At first, we discovered them at a clan’s settlement, and then they spread quickly, swallowing three or four clans in a short amount of time.

"Just a week ago, the biggest Wilderness Wanderer Camp nearby was devoured by it—that Wilderness Wanderer Camp is just up ahead. We couldn’t find a way to stop them.

"The High Priest estimated that soon, everyone in the wilderness would be devoured, and these terrifying Human-eating Mushrooms will grow everywhere. So the clan leader decided to loot more and then relocate to the south."

Hearing this, He Ao paused for a moment, then casually asked, "Doesn’t anyone know where these Human-eating Mushrooms came from?"

"Such mushrooms have never been found in this wilderness before," the young man seemed to recall something, speaking with a tremble, "They are too terrifying. The High Priest mentioned that there were rumors of similar mushrooms in the south, maybe there’s a way to stop them there."

There indeed was a method to stop the Phantom Mushrooms in the south.

Although the Phantom Mushrooms were full of juices, they were extremely fearful of fire.

If they were continually scorched with fierce fire, they could be reduced to ashes in about an hour or two. Moreover, the ashes produced were highly flammable, eventually burning the entire field of Phantom Mushrooms to ash.

This method came from Ronald’s father.

But including Ronald’s father, no one had ever been seen using this method.

This method also happened to be inadvertently collected while Ronald’s father was gathering information.

Even around Dawn City, information about Phantom Mushrooms was scarce.

Although there were terrifying legends of Phantom Mushrooms among the Wilderness Wanderers, very few had actually encountered them, and there were virtually no families or camps of Wilderness Wanderers destroyed by them in Ronald’s memory.

Suddenly, He Ao realized a discrepancy.

A discrepancy between reality and cognition.

The information He Ao had understood all spoke of the horrors of Phantom Mushrooms, but around Dawn City, there had never been a large-scale disaster caused by them.

If the Phantom Mushrooms were as He Ao had just speculated, the more numerous they were, the stronger their allure, then how had that young Wilderness Wanderer from Dawn City escaped from a field filled with Phantom Mushrooms?

And if there were so many Phantom Mushrooms around the wilderness of Dawn City, why didn’t they expand?

According to the description of that boy, the field of Phantom Mushrooms only lured and captured ’prey’ that inadvertently ventured near it.

The rumors mentioned that Phantom Mushrooms would control their host to go to the host’s gathering place had not occurred.

He Ao’s understanding of the Phantom Mushrooms was mostly derived from Ronald’s memories and the intelligence his father had collected.

Could there have been an error in Ronald’s father’s data?

No, that shouldn’t be the case, as the Phantom Mushrooms near Limen City clearly exhibited the same characteristics described in those documents.

So the problem must lie with the Phantom Mushrooms in the fields near Dawn City. Their aggressiveness had been suppressed to some extent.

He Ao then thought of the method mentioned in the memories for overcoming the Phantom Mushrooms.

Did this mean that, long ago, people near Dawn City had once fought against the Phantom Mushrooms?

Perhaps this "confrontation" was even older than Dawn City itself, dating back to the distant Era of the Great Cataclysm that had no written records, and hence no clear information had survived.

After that confrontation, the aggressiveness of the Phantom Mushrooms near Dawn City had been "suppressed".

However, if the aggressiveness of the Phantom Mushrooms could be "controlled", then what was doing the controlling?

He Ao felt that as he followed this line of thinking, more and more puzzles emerged in his mind.

This proved that his current leads were not sufficient to support an accurate conclusion.

He shook his head, setting aside these thoughts for the moment.

Judging from the state of the Phantom Mushrooms near Limen City, they were highly aggressive. If the information received by Ronald’s father was accurate, He Ao might be able to try dealing with those Phantom Mushrooms.

Unfortunately, since the Phantom Mushrooms hadn’t caused trouble for many years, even around Dawn City, fewer and fewer people were aware of them.

He Ao didn’t have another reliable source of information to verify the authenticity of the method for combating the Phantom Mushrooms.

Moreover, because of the loss of this information, when the Wilderness Wanderers of Limen City did encounter the Phantom Mushrooms, they didn’t even know the name of the Phantom Mushrooms.

There might be data on the Phantom Mushrooms in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but city dwellers never took the initiative to share information with Wilderness Wanderers, unless a disaster threatened the city itself.

However, He Ao guessed that he probably wouldn’t be able to seek help from the Federal Bureau of Investigation before returning to the city.

He Ao’s thoughts returned to the matter of dealing with the Phantom Mushrooms.

Without other sources to corroborate the method for dealing with Phantom Mushrooms, one could only rely on practice to discover the truth.

But to set the Phantom Mushrooms on fire, one must face their terrifying power of temptation directly.

For ordinary people, this would be a suicidal mission. Even if they went to their death, they might not achieve the desired effect. Perhaps they would be controlled by the Phantom Mushrooms before they could carry out the burning.

An idea flashed through He Ao’s mind, but his expression remained unchanged as he casually asked, "Do you have a safe route around that field of Phantom Mushrooms?"

These Wilderness Wanderers, like He Ao, had all been in front of the Phantom Mushrooms at the beginning. Now that they had appeared behind them, it proved they had a way to get around them.

After all, the Phantom Mushrooms blocked one of the few known safe paths, and crazier exotic beasts could be encountered on either side of the road.

"No," the young man shook his head,

"We came along the edge of these Human-eating Mushroom’s influence. The High Priest said that Anke—the sniper you just killed—and I are more resistant and less easily tempted.

"So he sent us around to observe the range of the Human-eating Mushrooms. The two of us made half a circuit and nearly got killed by exotic beasts before we got here."

"So there is a way, but it’s not safe," He Ao concluded.

"Yes!" The young man nodded.

Then He Ao didn’t pursue this question further. At that moment, the vehicle had arrived next to his own off-road car, where Ennie was still crouching at the back.

He Ao unlocked the car door and let Ennie get in, then turned to the young man and asked softly, "Do you know where the Andavi family is?"

The Andavi family was the family of Wilderness Wanderers mentioned in the travelogue that He Ao had found, which talked about the legend of the Fountain of Youth.

The travel blogger had not only visited cities but had also been to the wilderness.

And there, he heard secrets that few had heard.

That was why He Ao had come to the wilderness.

"The Andavi family?"

The young man was startled and looked at He Ao with some surprise.