Chapter 75: Ghost Mother’s Lair
Her blood debt with Sector 888 was finally going to be settled!
The hatred and agonizing memories she had pushed down for so long flared up the instant she realized her revenge was within reach. Lin Huai’s eyes burned crimson. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to endure, waiting for tomorrow to come.
“Chen Feng, Su Wan, and every single one of you who stabbed me in the back… I, Lin Huai, am coming for you!”
Since Old Hei said this matchup wasn’t his doing, it almost certainly meant Chen Feng had bribed Sector 888’s assistant, Huang Mo, to pull the strings. It was clear Chen Feng was just as eager for this reunion, and he had undoubtedly prepared every dirty trick in the book.
Lin Huai rose and returned to her control console to make her own preparations.
Along the way, she stopped by the trading post to stockpile a fresh batch of Yang energy crystals.
At six o’clock the following morning, the system’s official daytime began. Just as drivers were gearing up to grind through their daily mileage quotas, glowing notification panels forced themselves onto everyone’s screens.
[The Ten-Sector Joint Instance, Ghost Mother’s Lair, is about to open. All players, please prepare yourselves.]
Old Hei’s familiar mockery cut across the channel:
[Hey, rookies! The ten-sector joint instance is officially underway. Registration will remain open for thirty minutes; no late arrivals will be allowed.]
[If you’ve got any real guts, step up and enter the instance. If you know your skills are pathetic, your willpower is fragile, and you can’t even handle a roadside ghoul, then keep plodding along with your daily mileage. It’s thoroughly cowardly, but at least you might live another day.]
[This joint instance is a large-scale team trial. A team of six players may enter with their vehicles. You can form your own squad or rely on random matchmaking.]
[Registration begins now!]
The moment Old Hei finished his speech, the Elite Group’s main chat lobby exploded as players scrambled to organize squads.
The private Elite Squad chat was just as loud:
[Dragon Emerging from the Sea]: Boss? How should we split the teams?
[Jiangzhehu Inheritor]: Ahhh, Boss, please let me ride with you!
[Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar]: Can I sit this one out? I’m genuinely a little terrified…
[Cute and Sparkling]: Ghost Mother’s Lair… that sounds horrible. If I drive a food truck in there, won’t I just drag the team down?
[Hungry Spirit Blue Knight]: Boss, Boss, look over here! Take me!
The rewards for a ten-sector joint instance were exceptional. Lin Huai had originally hoped the entire squad would participate.
If the goal were purely securing the first-place prize, assembling the strongest combatants into one super-team would guarantee a top ranking.
On the other hand, if the aim were squad development and survival, she would need to balance their firepower evenly between two groups so everyone could walk out alive.
However, Lin Huai had an entirely different objective for this trial. Her primary mission was to track down and slaughter her “old friends” from Sector 888. She intended to handle that vengeance alone, without dragging her companions into her past life’s baggage.
After careful consideration, Lin Huai made her call.
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Group One: Myself, Brother Long, Brother Wang, Sister Cai, Milk Tea, and Sparkling—six of us.
[Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice]: Group Two: Miss Jiang, Brother He Ping, and the Three Knight Brothers. That’s five. Pick one reliable driver from the main guild to fill your sixth slot.
Once the roster was posted, no one objected. Everyone replied with an affirmative “OK” and locked in their entries.
Lin Huai, however, did not hit the confirm button immediately. She climbed out of her cab and safely stored her green jade coffin inside the Space Jade Bangle. Only after slipping back into the driver’s seat did she click register.
Chen Feng’s ultimate target was that coffin. She had to stay several steps ahead.
Flash!
With their registrations processed, the players and their vehicles were teleported straight into a boundless, desolate desert.
Overhead, a blazing sun as massive as a basin poured down merciless heat. The air shimmered with scorching waves, and stray droplets of moisture on the vehicles instantly vaporized into thin trails of hissing white steam.
Teams were always teleported to the same staging area. Lin Huai had barely finished assessing the terrain when the familiar growl of heavy engines rumbled nearby.
Old Wang’s voice came over the squad radio: “After soaking in acid rain for half a month, seeing the sun feels fantastic. This dry heat is baking the damp chill right out of my bones—it’s so comfortable!”
Dragon Emerging from the Sea let out a low chuckle. “You won’t find it comfortable once the heat bakes you into jerky. I’d bet this instance features a drought disaster.”
Having explored the Ghost Mother’s Lair in her past life, Lin Huai spoke up: “It’s extreme high temperature. Everyone, watch your tire pressure closely to prevent blowouts. Keep your climate-control systems running and focus on staying cool.”
If You’re Bad, Practice More chimed in, full of energy: “There must be tons of squads in here, right? Boss, do we kill every car on sight, or talk first?”
Cute and Sparkling asked timidly, “Um… shouldn’t we focus on clearing the instance mission first?”
Milk Tea Seven Parts Sugar pulled her ambulance alongside Lin Huai’s armored hearse. Her clear voice came through the comms: “Sister Cai, do we have to hunt the ghosts inside the trial? If it’s called the Ghost Mother’s Lair, does that mean our final boss is the Ghost Mother herself?”
Registration was still open, and the instance system had not yet broadcast the official rules and objectives. Once all six vehicles regrouped, they engaged autopilot and began rolling slowly across the dunes.
The mechanical female voice of the Yellow Springs Road Guide spoke up:
[Terrain shift detected. Drivers, proceed with caution. Current terrain: Desert. Current environmental disaster: Extreme High Temperature. Surface conditions are complex; beware of quicksand hazards. Eighteen vehicles detected stationary ahead. Approach?]
Lin Huai launched her roof-mounted reconnaissance drone, zooming in on the screen to survey the three teams parked in the distance.
The three convoys sat in different clearings, keeping a safe distance from one another. Since the trial objectives hadn’t been released yet, they were simply idling on the sand, waiting for the signal.
Lin Huai gave an order: “Scan the vehicle tiers and sector affiliations of those eighteen cars.”
[The eighteen vehicles ahead belong to three sectors: Sector 78, Sector 276; Sector 37, Sector 962; and Sector 78, Sector 352. Breakdown: one Level 4 vehicle, five Level 3 vehicles, and twelve Level 2 vehicles.]
None belonged to Sector 888.
Lin Huai recalled the drone and adjusted their heading without hesitation: “Go around them. Scan for the coordinates of the Ghost Mother’s Lair and move out immediately.”
Guided by the road guide, the automated system steered the convoy wide around the idling squads and began scanning the perimeter.
[Heavy Yin energy detected emanating from both the northwest and southwest. Both locations have a high probability of being the Ghost Mother’s Lair. Drivers, please select your heading.]
Faced with the choice between northwest and southwest, Lin Huai picked the northwest without a second of hesitation.
In her past life, the true Ghost Mother’s Lair lay to the northwest. Back then, she had chosen the southwest—only to stumble straight into a nursery of vicious ghost infants. That lethal trap had nearly claimed her life.
