61: Chapter 61 The Indescribable Strangeness

Danger had already quietly targeted the ordinary people in the camp.

The camp was crowded and chaotic, with survivors gathering to rest and walking around everywhere.

An ordinary female survivor, timid and easily embarrassed, felt too self-conscious to relieve herself near the crowded camp.

Taking advantage of the sparse crowd in the early morning, she quietly slipped away alone.

She ran deep into the secluded, overgrown weeds on the outskirts of the camp, intending to relieve herself in secret.

The weeds grew half a person high, blocking the line of sight, making the spot quiet and hidden.

Just as she squatted down and before she could do anything, a faint rustling sound suddenly came from deep within the weeds.

The sound wasn't loud, light and airy, spreading along the ground, making one's scalp tingle.

The woman panicked, but summoning her courage, she shouted twice toward the depths of the weeds:

"Who's in there? Come out!"

The empty weeds gave no response, remaining as deathly silent as before.

The wind stopped and the grass stilled; that faint rustling sound also vanished instantly, absurdly eerie.

A chill instantly ran down the woman's spine, and her hair stood on end. She didn't dare stay for even another second.

This place was too sinister. With her heart pounding, she immediately stood up, planning to find a safer spot.

But the very instant she lifted her foot to turn around!

A mass of pitch-black, thick, shapeless weirdness suddenly lunged out from the shadows of the weeds!

It was incredibly fast, silent and stealthy, without the sound of wind or any unusual noise.

The woman didn't even have a chance to scream, struggle, or call for help; her body was instantly enveloped and swallowed by the black mist.

In less than a single second, she was completely integrated into the anomaly, vanishing into thin air.

The weeds on the ground swayed gently, returning to calm, as if no one had ever been there.

In the apocalypse, the lives of ordinary people were so cheap they weren't even worth mentioning.

Silent disappearances and deaths played out in turn across the major convoys every single day.

It was too common; no one would care, let alone notice.

That indescribable horror that devoured living people did not wander far after consuming the aura of life.

It lingered constantly in the gaps and shadows between the camps of the major convoys.

Lurking and roaming, it greedily sniffed the scent of living beings everywhere, biding its time and waiting for its next prey.

Undercurrents surged in the camp, and killing intent was hidden, but everyone was blinded by the surface calm, completely unaware.

Meanwhile, over at the Dawn Convoy, another crisis was quietly unfolding.

Captain Wu Jue had previously led a team to catch a large number of wild fish in a wild lake, storing a lot of dried goods.

Although Mountain City had plenty of basic supplies, fish was a scarce and high-quality resource, making it very valuable.

Wang Laowu thus arranged for Li Yiming of The Convoy to take a bag of dried fish.

He sent him to the nearby Trainee Convoy to trade for some ordinary supplies to supplement The Convoy's consumption.

Li Yiming was a Transcendent recommended by Wang Laowu; his combat strength was decent, his personality was stable, and he was reliable in his work.

Now that all the anomalies in the city were suppressed, the entire convoy circle was incredibly secure, with no danger at all.

He let his guard down, strolling along the way in a leisurely manner, completely unprepared.

The camps within the Mountain City convoy circle were spaced very far apart, separated by large areas of ruined open ground and overgrown wasteland, which were empty, remote, and rarely traveled.

Li Yiming walked alone along the desolate stretch of road, his footsteps light.

As he walked, his footsteps suddenly halted, and his entire body froze instantly.

Something was wrong!

Something was terribly wrong!

The sound of footsteps reaching his ears did not belong to him alone!

With every step he took, a heavier, duller footstep followed behind him.

The rhythm matched perfectly, without the slightest discrepancy!

But the sound was wrong; his own footsteps were not that heavy.

He stopped, and the footsteps behind him also came to a sudden halt.

There was no one around, the field of vision was wide open with no cover, and there was absolutely nowhere for anyone to hide!

A bone-chilling cold instantly surged up his back, rushing straight up his spine to the top of his head!

Having lived this long, Li Yiming realized in an instant—he had run into an anomaly!

Although he was terrified to the core, he was a Transcendent after all.

His psychological resilience far exceeded that of ordinary people, and he forced down his panic.

Not daring to run or scream, he slowly and stiffly turned his head bit by bit.

This turn of his head caused his pupils to dilate in shock, and the blood in his entire body froze instantly!

Behind him was completely empty, with no phantom of a monster, only an incredibly familiar and terrifying mass of pitch-black mist!

It was none other than the Wraith Black Mist that had nearly wiped out their Convoy back in The Desert!

After all this time, this deadly bringer of death had actually appeared again!

Cold sweat instantly drenched his forehead, sliding down his cheeks frantically.

The clothes on his back were completely soaked, and his legs trembled and grew weak uncontrollably.

The despair, suffocation, and agonizing terror of having his soul gnawed when they encountered the black mist in The Desert instantly swept through his body, vivid in his mind!

This thing didn't rely on physical attacks; it specialized in invading the mind and devouring living beings. It was unsolvable, troublesome, and utterly terrifying!

The Wraith Black Mist writhed slowly, closing in on him inch by inch, its cold and deathly aura locking down his entire body.

Li Yiming wanted to flee, but his feet felt as if they were pinned to the ground by the invisible black mist, weighing a thousand pounds, rendering him completely unable to move!

He wanted to roar at the top of his lungs and scream for help to attract the camp's Transcendents to come to his aid.

But his throat felt as if it were blocked, unable to make any sound at all.

His chest felt suffocated, his entire body was stiff, and even breathing became difficult.

In the face of this bizarre, suppressing power, his meager Transcendent combat strength...

...was as minuscule as an ant, and he couldn't even summon the thought of resisting.

Despair instantly enveloped his entire body.

*Thud*

The cloth bag containing the dried fish slipped from his powerless hand and fell onto the dusty ground.

In the next second, the pitch-black mist completely enveloped his body.

There was no scream, no struggle, and no trace left behind.

In just a few seconds, the spot was completely empty.

Li Yiming had completely vanished from the face of the earth, silently devoured by the anomaly.

Immediately after, the Wraith Black Mist transformed back into an indescribable mass.

Time passed bit by bit. Over at the camp, Wang Laowu waited at the station for a long time, but Li Yiming was nowhere to be seen.

The distance to the Trainee Convoy wasn't far; a normal round trip shouldn't have taken this long.

The longer he waited, the more panicked he became. His intuition told him that something had happened!

He didn't dare delay and immediately found Shen Fei, his expression grave:

"Little Li went to trade for supplies but hasn't returned. Something is wrong. Let's go out and look for him."

Going out alone was too risky; only traveling together offered any guarantee of safety.

Shen Fei's heart tightened, and he nodded immediately, also calling along the brave and meticulous Zhou Botao.

The three of them formed a group and quickly headed toward the Trainee Convoy, carefully observing the tracks along the way and checking for risks.

Hurrying all the way, they successfully arrived at the Trainee Convoy's station.

The captain of the Trainee Convoy was a young guy, nicknamed Brother Kun within the circle.

Before the apocalypse broke out, he had been a trainee for two and a half years.

He had trained hard all the way to prepare for his debut, but before he could make it big, the apocalypse arrived.

His former dream of stardom was completely shattered, leaving him with no choice but to lead a group of low-level trainees to band together for survival, struggling at the bottom of the apocalyptic world.

Brother Kun was smooth and sophisticated, well-versed in the social ways of convoys, and polite to others.

Shen Fei and the other two found him and got straight to the point:

"Brother Kun, did Li Yiming from our Dawn Convoy come to your convoy today to trade for supplies?"

Hearing this, Brother Kun looked completely blank and shook his head in confusion:

"No. Not a single person from your convoy has visited our station all day today."

He keenly sensed that something was wrong and immediately pressed:

"What's going on? Did someone from your convoy go missing?"