Fantasy Game: Infinite City

Chapter 553 Route 85 (2)

"According to our station, a major fire broke out tonight in the industrial area west of Shaxi Bay. The Fire Department has dispatched firefighters to extinguish the fire, but as of now, the fire has not been effectively extinguished. Based on on-site analysis, the cause of the fire may be a chemical accident. Currently..."

Thirty kilometers away from Shaxi Bay, Liz was driving the off-road vehicle they had robbed from the drug factory along Highway 30. She could see the emergency news from Shaxi Bay on the display screen on the central console. More than ten minutes after leaving the industrial area on the west side and out of the city area of ​​Shaxi Bay, the flames shot up into the sky. Even though no one called the police, people discovered the fire. The fire brigade immediately rushed to the scene. Although they controlled the fire from spreading to all sides, that was all. The drug factory ignited by thermite was not so easy to extinguish with water. The fire brigade did not know the specific situation, and the dangerousness of the fire prevented them from conducting an in-depth investigation at the fire scene. It was estimated that they would be powerless before the factory was burned to the ground.

After leaving Shaxi Bay, the three men fell into an awkward silence. After all, there wasn't much to talk about. None of them knew much about Johor Bahru. Adenauer might be a bit better, but he wasn't the talkative type. He was currently resting his arm on the open car window, smoking a cigarette. Meanwhile, Frank, in the back seat, was inspecting the guns they had looted. The road itself was normal, deserted, with the occasional wild animal passing by. There wasn't much to note.

One hundred kilometers after leaving Shaxi Bay, Frank proposed to change the driver. One reason was to prevent Liz from causing an accident due to fatigue driving, and the other was because the stolen car was not full of gas. Its tank was almost empty, and they needed to find a place to refuel. There happened to be a rest area not far away, so the two planned to wait until the car drove to the rest area to change the driver.

"Oh, damn, it's completely out of gas."

"Luckily, we're only a few dozen meters away from the rest area now. Let's get out and push it."

"Row."

Frank didn't say anything. This was a common occurrence. Frank's old Meteor sedan was often too busy investigating cases to refuel, and he'd lost count of how many times he'd pushed it. Adenauer seemed unfazed by this as well. He nodded, opened the door, and got out. But Liz noticed that before getting out, Adenauer glanced at the dashboard and the fuel gauge. He seemed wary of both her and Frank.

A distance of dozens of meters is not far. In addition, although the car was completely out of gas, it was still moving forward slowly due to inertia. This saved Adenauer and Frank, who were pushing the car, a lot of effort. Soon, the two pushed the car, and Liz controlled the steering wheel. The car was sent to the rest stop by manpower and parked next to the gas station.

"You stay here and refuel. Liz and I will go to the rest area to get some food and drinks."

Adenauer picked up a large-caliber pistol from the guns in the back seat, put it in his waistband, covered it with his clothes, and threw a gun to Frank. Then he casually pointed at the pile of guns and asked Liz to pick one up. Although Adenauer no longer seemed to be wary of the two men in terms of weapons, it can be seen from the people who acted separately that he still suspected that the two men might escape with the car.

Liz is already certain she's not a synthetic, so keeping her with them means Frank, who's also a real person, will be concerned about her safety and won't try to escape by car. He'll stay and wait for them to return. If Liz is left with the car, then she, who can't be 100% sure of Frank's true identity, might try to escape by herself. Therefore, leaving Frank with the car is the wisest option at this point.

Adenauer grabbed a handful of cash from the backseat and stuffed it into his pocket. Then he and Liz headed towards the rest area, while Frank stayed behind to refuel. The rest area was huge. The supermarket alone was approximately 300 square meters, with many shelves filled with various goods. However, since it was located nowhere besides Highway 85, there was no other car in the huge parking lot except for an old motorcycle. The owner of this old motorcycle was probably the only person in the supermarket at the moment, the supermarket clerk behind the counter, who was probably no more than 20 years old. He was also the only person in the rest area besides Adenauer, Liz, and Frank.

After grabbing some instant food, snacks, and canned goods, Adenauer gave Liz some money to pay while he peered through the supermarket window at Frank, who was filling up his car with gas. Adenauer used cash instead of a cell phone to prevent anyone from using Liz's or Frank's phones to locate them. So, after leaving Shaxi Bay, Frank and Liz threw their phones out the car window and into the wilderness.

Although Liz had previously messaged and called Lugosi, she hadn't explicitly stated her plans for Johor Bahru. She simply said she was taking an early vacation and would be using Frank as her bodyguard. Lugosi had some complaints about Frank and Liz working together, but Frank was reliable, so Lugosi didn't say anything. Naturally, he wouldn't investigate Liz and Frank's whereabouts.

After placing the items on the cashier counter, Liz knocked on the table, waking the snoring cashier. This place was remote, with nothing but roads and wilderness. Aside from wild animals, there were few other people around. The cashier's demeanor indicated he wasn't nervous about being there at night, suggesting he hadn't just recently started working there, but had been there for a while and was already accustomed to the environment. He slept in a relaxed position, sprawled on his back, snoring with his mouth open. He showed no signs of vigilance, suggesting he'd been working there for at least a few months. Of course, there was also the possibility that he was simply careless. However, judging by the fact that even in his sleepy state, he was still able to yawn and accurately handle the cashier's tools, he must have been there for a long time and was accustomed to this situation.

"It's 425 euros in total, and the gas is 200 euros. Do you want a receipt?"

"Need not."

"Thank you...ha...for your patronage..."

After collecting the money, the cashier stretched, left the counter, and walked drowsily to a place inside the supermarket. Soon, the sound of water could be heard from inside. It must be the employee restroom. After returning from the restroom, the cashier ignored Liz and Adenauer in the supermarket and continued to sleep on the chair behind the counter. Soon, the sound of snoring could be heard again.

There didn't seem to be anything strange in the rest area, so after finishing shopping, Adenauer and Liz quickly returned to the SUV.

"Did you see anything strange?"

"No, did you find anything?"

"It's very normal here. I didn't notice anything unusual."

As they loaded the food and drinks into the car, the three chatted. Nothing much happened at the rest area, but Liz did see a few deer running across the road. That was normal. After all, deer were the most common wild animals in the state. Even in cities near the woods, deer were often seen crossing the road or entering urban areas.

"It's done, let's go, I'll drive this time."

After refueling, Frank got behind the wheel, Liz moved to the back seat, and Adenauer remained in the passenger seat. After starting the car, the three of them left the rest area and continued along Highway 85. Along the way, they occasionally encountered a few other vehicles traveling in the opposite direction, seemingly no different.

Driving at night was easy to get sleepy. Liz had already fallen asleep in the back seat, and Frank was also a little tired, relying on energy drinks to stay awake. Adenauer was similarly resting, mostly with his eyes closed. After about two or three hours, Frank, having consumed too much energy drink, needed a break, so he pulled over, got out of the driver's seat, a cigarette in his mouth, and stood by the roadside, unbuckled his belt.

"Wow~~~"

A cool breeze blew by, refreshing Frank as he was draining water. He looked around. If the rest area before wasn't truly deserted, then this place was truly wilderness. It was pitch black, with a few small green dots visible in the distance. Frank knew they were wolves, but since they were so far away, he wasn't worried about them.

After draining the water and pulling up his pants, he leaned against the parked car, stretched his body, and looked up at the starry sky. The pleasant temperature and the quiet wilderness made Frank feel much better. After staying outside the car for a while, Frank spit out the cigarette butt in his mouth, returned to the driver's seat, restarted the car, and prepared to continue driving along Highway 85. However, just as he closed the car door, a loud noise in the distance immediately caught Frank's attention, woke Liz in the back seat, and made Adenauer in the passenger seat open his eyes immediately.

"what happened?"

"I don't know. Sounded like an explosion?"

"There's a fire ahead, probably a few hundred meters away. Let's go take a look."

A distance of several hundred meters is very close for a car, so the three of them immediately drove to the location where the fire and explosion occurred. The wreckage of a car engulfed in flames was lying across the road. Judging from its size, it should be a long-distance truck, blocking two-thirds of the road. The doors on both sides of the front of the car were open, and there were no charred corpses in the car, so the people in the car should have left the car before the explosion. However, there were no footprints or anything like that around, so it was not clear whether they survived.

On the right side of the road, there was something metallic that gleamed in the reflected firelight, and Frank went down to examine it.

"It's the license plate. It might have been blown away by the explosion."

"Did you see anyone in the car?"

"No, I guess he ran away."

"Then let's go. We can't help."

Adenauer, driven by his own agenda, certainly didn't waste time searching for and helping any survivors of the truck. Frank and Liz had no choice but to return to the car and continue on. The SUV skirted the burning wreckage of the truck via the dirt roads on either side, continuing along Highway 85. After a while, perhaps because they had gained enough distance, or perhaps because the wreckage had lost its flammable parts, the flames vanished in the rearview mirror.

After driving for a while, Frank suddenly slowed down and finally stopped the car on the side of the road. He looked very confused, which inevitably attracted Liz's attention.

"What's wrong Frank?"

"Look ahead."

"Isn't it just a rest area with a gas station? What's the matter?"

"This isn't just any rest area, this is the one we left earlier."

"Huh? What does that mean?"

Looking at the lights not far away, Frank found the same rest stop name and a roadside sign indicating the arrival at the rest area. Before seeing the sign, Frank thought it was just a different gas station of the same oil company and a rest area of ​​the same company, but after seeing the sign, Frank immediately realized that something was wrong.

Frank clearly remembered that he didn't see the front of the sign because he was sitting in the back seat. But as he drove past it, he clearly remembered the back of the sign: a broken deer antler stuck in the back, probably left by a wild deer that accidentally hit it. Frank remembered it so clearly because he remembered that the broken antler pierced the crotch of an oil company mascot. The sign had its own lights, and the broken antler didn't damage the internal wiring, so it was very obvious.

"I remember this antler very clearly. It's in the exact same position as the one we see now. I don't think wild deer have this hobby."

"Didn't you stop the car once during the journey? Was it because you were driving tired that you subconsciously turned the car around and drove the wrong way?"

Liz naturally raised questions, but unexpectedly, Adenauer became Frank's witness.

"No, Frank didn't turn the car around after he stopped. We were indeed moving along this road."

"Then what's going on?"

"I've seen similar plots in horror movies from other countries before. I think it was called something... something about a wall? I can't remember it right now."

"You mean the ghost wall?"

"I think so. Anyway, the idea is that no matter which direction we go, we will eventually return to the same place. We won't encounter the same thing again, right?"

"Don't jump to conclusions just yet, Frank. Pull into the rest area and we'll go see for ourselves."

"Ok."

Frank and Liz were a bit terrified by the bizarre experience. Soon, Frank drove into the rest area, and this time the three of them got out of the car at the same time and walked into the supermarket inside the rest area. And sure enough, there was only one other person in the rest area besides the three of them: the young cashier who was fast asleep in a chair.

"Is this really a ghost?"