Chapter 53: A Big Harvest
Before Zhang Tuohai could savor his triumph for even two seconds, two pieces of rubble fell onto his head, making a loud clanging sound against his helmet.
It was then that Zhang Tuohai remembered he was still in the mine and quickly rushed toward the exit.
It took him another five minutes to finally escape the mine.
As soon as Zhang Tuohai stepped outside, he heard a rumbling noise behind him.
Turning around, he saw that the previously intact mine had completely collapsed. He wasn’t sure how far the collapse would extend, but from the looks of it, the cave-dwelling spiders inside wouldn’t be getting out anytime soon.
Zhang Tuohai breathed a sigh of relief and carried the orange supply box toward his vehicle.
Xiao Ai, his AI assistant, saw him coming and promptly moved the car closer, even opening the door for him.
"Welcome back, Commander! That must have been a rough trip. o((^▽^))o"
"That feels good!" Zhang Tuohai sat down, feeling utterly drained.
At that moment, he realized how fortunate he was just to be sitting inside the car again—it was a blessing in itself.
"Commander, while you were away, someone crawled along the tracks and attempted to steal the vehicle. I hit and killed him," Xiao Ai reported.
"Someone managed to find me here?"
Zhang Tuohai was shocked. He turned his head and noticed a body lying not far away.
Looking further ahead, he saw that quite a few vehicles had stopped across the railway bridge. Several people had even climbed onto the tracks and were crawling toward this area.
"Are they insane? Why are they crawling toward this place?"
Zhang Tuohai was perplexed as to why these people didn’t just stay in their vehicles but instead chose to climb the dangerous railway bridge.
However, he soon understood their reason.
Not far away, a dark, oppressive cloud wall was surging toward them like a tidal wave. In front of the cloud wall were hundreds, maybe thousands, of vehicles and desert mutant spiders. At this point, everyone had stopped fighting and was desperately racing forward.
From time to time, slower cars and spiders were caught by the cloud wall and swallowed whole.
Their fate was obvious.
The constant death drove those still alive into an even greater panic, urging them to speed up as they rushed toward the mining area.
A few quick-witted spiders, seeing how fast the cars were moving, ran a few steps and jumped onto the roofs, clinging on with their eight legs and hitching a ride.
Watching this scene unfold, Zhang Tuohai mentally patted himself on the back for his foresight.
Luckily, he had acted early and crossed the railway bridge, finding a safe spot to hide. Otherwise, he would’ve been fleeing for his life like the others.
Zhang Tuohai checked his watch—there was only one minute left before the event ended. He wondered how these people would return. Would they be directly teleported back or would a path open up for them to leave?
If it was the latter, chaos was bound to erupt.
At the very least, those mutant desert spiders wouldn’t let them escape easily.
By now, the vehicles had reached the cliff's edge. Some had already driven up to the railway bridge, and when these people saw the bare steel tracks, they gasped in shock.
When they spotted Zhang Tuohai’s car on the other side, they were even more stunned.
There were only two steel tracks on the bridge—how on earth did his car get across?
Did he fly over?
"I don’t believe it! If he can make it across, I can too! I’ve been a pro driver for ten years. A two-lane bridge? Piece of cake."
A middle-aged man in a vest wasn’t willing to give up and tried to drive his car onto the tracks.
However, as soon as the front wheels touched the bridge, they slipped off, leaving the car stuck, half-hanging.
Seeing this, the others quickly abandoned any thoughts of trying the bridge.
"We can't cross the bridge, and the toxic cloud is closing in. What do we do now? Just sit here and wait to die?"
Someone, staring in terror at the approaching black cloud, exclaimed.
"It won't be a guaranteed death mission. If the toxic cloud has pushed us here, there must be a way to survive. Let’s keep looking."
"You guys can keep searching. I’m crossing the bridge!" One person said as he started crawling onto the bridge.
"Are you crazy?" Another person grabbed him. "This game is called Highway Survival. What will you do without a car?"
"I don’t care! I just need to survive this moment," the man said, struggling to climb the bridge.
Just then, the black cloud came to a halt, stopping just a meter away from the group.
Seeing the deadly cloud so close, many people sighed in relief.
The cursed toxic cloud had finally stopped.
The survivors in the group felt a wave of joy, grateful to still be alive.
However, before they could start celebrating, a hissing noise shattered their brief moment of happiness.
The mutant desert spiders that had taken refuge with them began to stir, their eyes fixated on the humans.
Some spiders on the car roofs started tapping on windows, while others even jammed their legs into the metal, trying to pry open what they saw as tin cans filled with food.
“Ahhh!”
Screams erupted from inside the vehicles. Realizing the danger, some people started their cars, driving recklessly in the confined space. Others rammed into the spiders, while some grabbed weapons, ready to fight to the death.
The mutant desert spiders pounced on the nearest humans.
Just as a brutal battle was about to break out, beams of white light descended from the sky, and a voice echoed.
"The rally is over. All vehicles will be returned to the starting point. Commencing transport."
One by one, the cars vanished in the white light, leaving the mutant spiders behind.
Zhang Tuohai was also enveloped in the white light.
In a flash, he found himself back on the highway.
It was the same familiar four-lane road, the same desert landscape.
Zhang Tuohai felt a strange sense of familiarity with the scene in front of him.
"There must be something wrong with my brain to feel nostalgic for this hellish place."
He cursed under his breath and opened the final orange supply box to see what was inside.
[Obtained bulletproof glass blueprint.]
[Obtained 12 units of high-grade glass.]
[Obtained bulletproof vehicle body blueprint.]
[Obtained 40 units of high-grade metal ingots.]
[Obtained a serving of Dongpo pork.]
[Obtained a case of Life Water (6 bottles, 96° Vodka).]
Seeing the pile of loot, Zhang Tuohai was satisfied.
Risking his life was well worth it—it had definitely paid off.