Chapter 60: Road Trip Tips (Part 4)
The woman's sharp nails were forced to stop at the side of her shoulder a few centimeters away.
The toilet plunger was placed across the front, preventing it from moving any further.
As soon as he touched the toilet plunger, the restaurant owner immediately retracted his hand with a hiss and retreated into the shadow inside the door in fear.
Tang Xinjue turned the toilet plunger, as if it was just a slight block, and raised his eyes to ask: "Boss, is there anything you can do for me?"
The woman's facial muscles kept twitching, but she didn't make another move. She just forced out a stiff smile: "It's just a joke, little girl, don't take it to heart."
After saying that, the woman really stood inside the door motionless, as if she wanted to watch Tang Xinjue leave.
——As long as she leaves the restaurant, she won't be attacked anymore? Or...
Seeing the restaurant owner's nails returning to normal, Tang Xinjue remained motionless, as if he was waiting at the door. "Boss, aren't you going to take me to the highway? This is my first time here, and I'm afraid I'll get lost."
The edge of the road where the convertible was parked was about five steps away from her.
“…”
The restaurant owner looked grim, but finally said reluctantly: "You are on the road now."
Once you leave the building and are on the road, you are still subject to the same road rules.
Tang Xin Jue nodded: "It seems that the requirements of the "Road Trip Guide" are not only applicable to tourists, right?"
The other party avoided the question and continued stiffly: "As for getting lost...little girl, don't worry, Grandma Mayas will pray for you."
In the shadows, the woman smiled strangely again, "No one will get lost on this road, everyone will find their destination, Grandma Mayas is waiting for you at her home..."
"Oh. Then give me a bento."
Tang Xin Jue interrupted her and said as a matter of course: "Remember to heat it up. It should be enough for one day. Then ask Grandma Mayas to reimburse you."
Restaurant owner: “…”
The middle-aged woman turned around in anger but dared not say anything, grabbed the child and walked into the kitchen, scolding him with the sound of spanking: "I told you not to run around outside and act wild, you don't do your homework, you don't know how to help, you only know how to cause trouble for me... I would rather have a barbecued pork than you..."
After beating the child, a few minutes later, the boss came out holding a lunch box, and the faceless child was leaning against the door frame and peeking out from behind.
"Here is the lunch box you requested, have a good trip."
She bit the last four words very hard, her eyes fixed on Tang Xin Jue until her figure was left far behind on the road by the exhaust of the car.
After driving for twenty minutes, the convertible began to slow down and slowly stopped on the side of the road.
Tang Xinjue let go of the steering wheel, suppressed the stabbing pain in his head and the discomfort in his stomach, and took two deep breaths.
Having just blocked the attack of the restaurant owner, the right hand that had held the toilet plunger slowly opened its palm, revealing a cracked knuckle with blood flowing out.
The power of ghosts should not be underestimated. Even if the toilet plunger is not damaged, the human body often cannot withstand it.
If they got into a fight with that NPC in the restaurant, they would inevitably suffer even if there were four people in their dormitory.
The restaurant owner's obviously fearful expression emerged in Tang Xinjue's mind, and his brows were furrowed again.
The restaurant owner lied, lied from beginning to end.
The watch belonged to Guo Guo, and both NPCs, one large and one small, had signs of fighting. His perception did not detect any danger or traps in the restaurant, and the only sense of danger came from the NPCs when they were angry.
Moreover, the restaurant owner had an inexplicable fear of her... a fear mixed with hostility.
While he wanted to attack her, he seemed to be undecided for many reasons, and finally gave up in the face of road rules.
Both the logic of the action and the reactions in the details are very strange.
Even though I had the faceless kid's coat in my hand, which could impose some currently unclear restrictions on the NPCs, this walk around the restaurant was too safe.
The safer it is, the more unreasonable it is.
There is no way that there is no danger in the exam copy. Coffee shops are safe, restaurants are barely safe, and the roads are also safe...so where is the danger?
Tang Xinjue lowered his eyes, and the scenes he experienced on the road were disassembled and replayed in his mind, from waking up in the car, getting on the road, parking, and the conversation with NPCs... Every detail was magnified repeatedly, trying to find an entry point that could be cracked.
The feeling of abnormality became more and more intense, but it seemed as if there was a layer of fog covering the sea of consciousness, and it was impossible to break through it and capture the truth.
Tang Xinjue rubbed his eyebrows.
If this is the only information we can collect, there is no way to determine the location of our roommates.
The only clue about her roommate was that Guo Guo had been to the restaurant and had probably had a conflict with the NPC, leaving behind a watch. However, after her observation, she found no familiar smell inside or outside the restaurant or on the nearby roads.
She ignored the wound on her hand, opened her phone, and saw from the [Dormitory Member Status] that except for her who was slightly injured and lost two health points, the other three had full marks.
This is even more abnormal.
Even she was injured after a simple fight. If the marks of fighting on the two NPCs were caused by Guo Guo or other roommates, then their health bars would not be intact.
What exactly is the problem?
The rumbling sound of his stomach broke the silence, and Tang Xinjue decided to clean up and eat first.
He sprayed the hemostatic spray and simply repaired the injured palm with a large Band-Aid. Tang Xin Jue opened the lunch box and couldn't help but eat when he smelled the smell.
It’s not that the food smells bad, but when hunger reaches a certain level, the blood sugar level is too low, which naturally causes nausea and vomiting.
It was four o'clock, less than an hour after she had finished a cup of hot coffee. But her stomach felt empty, and hunger spread through her body.
Tang Xinjue calculated the time in his mind: when driving on this road, physical energy is consumed at a rate about ten times higher than normal.
So even though she had only driven for an hour, it felt as if she had been driving for six hours straight, and her hunger was growing rapidly.
From this point of view, there is a reason for the NPC to "give" her food - without these foods to fill her stomach, ordinary people simply cannot survive on the road for more than two hours, let alone get to "Grandma Mayas's house" before dark.
If this reason is valid, then the next logic will follow:
Grandma Mayas wants her to succeed in her mission.
The NPC entrusted by Grandma Mayas also has a common goal and cannot refuse the candidates' request for help to complete this journey.
There was no obvious danger in front of him, but Tang Xinjue's eyes became increasingly gloomy.
What is more disturbing than the undefeatable ghosts is the elusive feeling of the unknown caused by the lack of information.
It was as if an invisible hand had covered her eyes. Even though the road was clear, she felt like she was walking alone in the fog, unable to determine the direction.
The stabbing pain in her head lingered, as if trying to remind her of something. Whenever Tang Xin Jue tried to grasp it, she was shattered by her chaotic thoughts.
After a while, she put away the half-eaten lunch box, and after making sure that her strength and satiety had recovered, she suppressed her chaotic thoughts and continued driving on the road.
…
When the third building appeared, Tang Xinjue quickly identified it without any hesitation.
Because it is exactly the same as the previous two, painted with oily green all over.
This is a gas station.
The steering wheel turned, and the car drove into the gas station and stopped steadily. After accelerating all the way, the fuel gauge just slipped into the dangerous zone where refueling was urgently needed.
Everything seemed to have been carefully calculated and arranged to ensure that the car could continue to drive on the road.
The gas station was very quiet. Tang Xinjue honked the horn, and the green door next to it was pushed open, and a yellow figure in a special .
This time it was a thin young man with pale skin and messy hair. He didn't have the exaggerated smile like the previous two NPCs, but instead looked very indifferent.
The young man came over, first looked at the car, then glanced at Tang Xinjue, and pulled the corner of his mouth weakly: "How much?"
Tang Xin Jue: "Fill it up."
Without saying a word, the young man pulled out the gas pump, stood in front of the gas tank and started refueling.
Less than two seconds later, he suddenly said, "Oh, it's broken."
What's wrong? Tang Xinjue subconsciously turned his head, but the moment he felt the danger, he reacted and quickly leaned forward and bent down.
The gas gun passed over her head and hit the ground ten meters away, with wisps of black smoke rising from it as if it were burnt.
The young man walked over slowly, checked it for a few times, and shrugged, saying, "The gas pump is broken. I'll change it for you."
After saying that, he walked into the green station building and closed the door.
The coolness of the gas gun still lingered on her neck. Tang Xinjue raised her head. Years of fighting and chasing in nightmares made her almost able to imitate the young man's action of throwing the gas gun.
Just "broken"?
She was not angry or questioning, and there was not even a trace of emotion on her face as she had just escaped a disaster.
Without friends around, she didn't need to communicate with anyone. For a moment, the expression on this face was almost exactly the same as the young man just now, cold and indifferent without showing any emotion.
Turning around, he saw a line of words printed on the door the young man entered: No entry for non-employees.
In this exam, every object marked with a prohibited symbol gave her a strong sense of danger and rejection.
Looking away with no interest, Tang Xinjue opened the door and got out of the car, measuring the gas station step by step.
The gas station was about two or three times the size of the restaurant. There were no other vehicles or people, and outside were trees covered in fog.
After walking around quickly, there was still no new discovery and the young man still hadn't come out of the station building.
Tang Xinjue turned his wrist slightly and was about to knock on the door when his footsteps suddenly stopped.
In the corner of my eye, a small figure sneaked out from the bushes.
He turned around suddenly and before the little figure could run away again, Tang Xinjue had already grabbed the other person's hat.
It's the faceless kid!
"Why did you follow me here?"
Finally seeing something new, Tang Xinjue asked with interest.
The faceless child whose hat was grabbed was like being strangled. He was spun around without any power to resist, looking very weak and helpless.
But his arms were still flapping, trying to grab what was in Tang Xinjue's pocket.
Following the direction the child's hands were trying to reach, Tang Xinjue raised his eyebrows: That was Guo Guo's watch.
"You stole or even robbed others, and you still have the audacity to ask for them?"
Tang Xinjue found it a little funny, but then he was stunned. A guess that he had never thought of suddenly appeared in his mind.
Seizing the flash of intuition, she asked directly: "Did someone give you this watch?"
The child stopped struggling and nodded.
"Who gave it to you?"
A few seconds later, in Tang Xinjue's sight, the little boy slowly raised his hand and pointed at herself.
