The 'Involution King' Second Female Lead Quits [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 66

Chapter 66: The Fourth World [12]

This Jinx!

After the plan was set, the four of them emerged from the only house they could enter and started walking toward the central signal tower.

Before they reached the lake, they found a warehouse-like building that held two snowmobiles, each seating two people.

The snowmobiles started right up, with the keys in the ignitions. They even found two cans of biofuel inside the warehouse.

This seemed like good news, as a mode of transport would increase their speed. But none of the four were happy about being able to ride a snowmobile.

“It looks like the frozen lake is more dangerous than I thought. We need to be ready for a tough fight,” Shu Heng said, letting out a small sigh.

Li Jianwei asked, “Riding a snowmobile requires a certain skill. Do any of you usually ride motorcycles?”

Xiao Gao raised her hand. “I ride a motorcycle, but I’ve never tried it on snow. Can I test it out?”

Li Jianwei nodded, straddled a snowmobile, and said, “Of course. We can also check the fuel consumption.”

Xiao Gao agreed and immediately got on the other snowmobile. After starting it up, she rode along the lake for about five minutes and then turned back, just like Li Jianwei.

“The tires have great grip. Acceleration and braking work normally. I’m confident under 100 mph,” Xiao Gao said with a confident look.

“Fuel consumption is around 5%. Even with more power, it should last us for an hour.”

Shu Heng analyzed the situation with binoculars in hand. “It takes half an hour to walk to the other side. The quickest route would only take five minutes on a snowmobile. The warning on the radio clearly doesn’t want us to get closer, so they wouldn’t intentionally leave a vehicle that would make it easy for us to move.”

“If I’m not mistaken, riding the snowmobiles will attract some monsters to follow us. Whoever is in the back needs to clear the monsters and not let them keep up with us.”

“No problem, my aim is good with a bow,” Xiao Di immediately stated.

Fighting monsters on a snowmobile would be much easier than fighting on foot. She didn’t think any monster’s speed could reach 100 mph!

The danger on the lake was unknown. No one knew from what direction a monster might lunge.

After some discussion, they decided that Li Jianwei would still drive with Shu Heng in the front, and Xiao Gao would take Xiao Di and follow behind. Both pairs would try not to get separated by more than 100 meters.

If Xiao Gao was attacked, she had to notify them via a friend message immediately to prevent the four from being defeated one by one.

After the new round of strong wind subsided, Li Jianwei twisted the throttle and shot out first, covering more than 100 meters in a few seconds.

Xiao Gao followed closely. Her statement that she “could ride a motorcycle” was pure humility; her skill level was mid-to-high among amateur racers, and on a good day, she could even place in a competition.

Once she was sure Xiao Gao could keep up, Li Jianwei didn’t hold back, twisting the throttle all the way to 100 mph, trying to get across in five minutes.

Without a helmet, Li Jianwei’s face inevitably felt the sting of the wind, and her health even began to drop.

Fortunately, only 1 point of health was lost, and with the special food buff, Li Jianwei’s health drop rate was basically on par with her recovery rate.

The change happened when the snowmobile reached the center of the lake. A visible crack suddenly appeared right in front of them.

When Li Jianwei changed direction to avoid it, a mutated polar bear, even bigger than the Mama Bear, leaped out of the ice crack. The moment it hit the air, its soaking wet fur instantly turned into icicles of varying lengths.

“I have a bad feeling. It’s not going to curl up and chase us, is it?” the relatively trailing Xiao Di, who witnessed the entire process of the monster’s appearance, couldn’t help but say.

The words hadn’t even fully left her mouth when the mutated polar bear really did curl up into a huge, spiky monster ball and rolled straight toward Li Jianwei’s snowmobile.

“Damn it! I really jinxed it!” Xiao Di couldn’t help but curse. “Xiao Gao, watch out for the ice. The ice where the monster ball rolled is very fragile. We might fall into the water if we run over it.”

Xiao Gao nodded to show she heard and then executed a bold and smooth drift to avoid the weak ice.

“Fortunately, the monster ball’s top speed is only 80 mph. There’s no pro…”

Xiao Di’s sigh of relief was cut short as she saw another mutated polar bear emerge from the ice. This one immediately formed a ball and rolled toward them.

“Son of a…! I’m not going to say anything anymore! This is seriously cursed!” Xiao Di grumbled, not forgetting to pull back her bow and shoot an arrow when the monster was close enough.

But the metal arrows didn’t seem to cause any damage to the monster ball, not even breaking the outermost layer of icicles.

[Shu Heng: Don’t panic. Try your best to keep up with us. I remember the specific route. Even if we don’t go straight, there’s another, longer passage to reach the land.]

Shu Heng’s message came just in time. After Xiao Di relayed it to Xiao Gao, Xiao Gao twisted the throttle again, accelerating to 110 mph—a speed that would sometimes be considered over the limit on a highway.

Xiao Gao’s snowmobile driving skills were excellent. Even as the path ahead became more complex, she steadily kept up with Li Jianwei’s snowmobile and didn’t let the monsters break their formation.

[Shu Heng: The strong wind is coming. Accelerate! We’re less than a kilometer from the entrance!]

Li Jianwei twisted the throttle all the way. Xiao Gao, with Xiao Di yelling behind her, also gave it full throttle. They barely made it up the slope and onto the mountain just as the wind began to pick up.

The two monster balls heavily slammed into the mountain, knocking down a lot of snow.

“Those two monster balls have turned back into mutated polar bears! They’re running toward us!” Xiao Di shouted.

“Watch out for obstacles and keep up with us,” Shu Heng said, wasting no time. She instructed Li Jianwei to keep the throttle twisted, navigating the bumpy, snow-covered mountain.

The defense and health of these two mutated polar bears looked even better than the Mama Bear. It wouldn’t be a wise move to fight them. Retreat was the best option!

Relying on Shu Heng’s excellent memory, the group finally found the signal tower-like building just before the snowmobiles ran out of fuel. After driving the snowmobiles into the small room under the signal tower, they quickly locked the door, blocking the two big monsters outside.

“Should we refuel? The energy display shows less than 10% left,” Xiao Gao said. She couldn’t help but touch her chest. This was the first time her heart had beaten so fast during the day.

At night, such a heart rate was nothing unusual.

“I’ll try a can,” Li Jianwei said, adding the biofuel from her backpack to the snowmobile.

“One can of fuel only provides half the energy. It looks like we’ll have to be a bit frugal,” Li Jianwei said.

The worst-case scenario would be adding the other can of fuel to her vehicle and then she and Shu Heng would have to go back to the raft for more biofuel.

“At least we’ve reached our destination. Maybe we can find new biofuel. This game probably isn’t meant for all of us to kick the bucket,” Xiao Di was more optimistic. As a sign of good faith, she also traded the biofuel from her backpack to Shu Heng.

Shu Heng didn’t refuse. It was better for her to have these important items in her bag since she was the one who knew the way.

“There’s a way down here. Everyone get ready. Eat and drink what you need to,” Li Jianwei said, flipping open a cellar-like iron door to reveal a staircase going down.

Li Jianwei went down first, followed by Xiao Gao and Xiao Di. Shu Heng took up the rear.

After descending the stairs, a very common tunnel came into view. It was a bit smaller than the ones in the dome city, but it was lit with electricity, and the signs for the emergency exit were very obvious.

All four of them had been pounced on by mutated rats before, so they didn’t let their guard down just because of the lights. On the contrary, they were more tense, afraid of accidentally stepping on a trap while the power was on.

They could go both left and right in the tunnel. After a show of hands, they unanimously decided to start from the right, following the rule of keeping to the right side of the wall.

After about half an hour, a door that required a password appeared in front of them.

“Do we have to go back to find a password? There were no monsters or side paths along the way,” Xiao Di said, scratching her head, which felt itchy under her leather helmet.

“Are they holding back something big?” Xiao Gao also felt uneasy. Sometimes, having no monsters was scarier than having them.

For example, when they explored the town, there were almost no monsters. Then, they encountered the two-phase mutated polar bears on the lake, which made her heart race.

“Let’s explore the other side. My gut tells me something bad might happen if we enter the wrong password,” Shu Heng was also a little unsure.

A tunnel with no side paths and a metal door with no clues rendered Shu Heng’s analytical skills useless.

Shu Heng even began to wonder if she had missed some detail when looking at the map or if they had to kill those two mutated polar bears to get the corresponding clue.

Twenty minutes later, the four of them returned to the stairs they came down from and started exploring to the left.

The path on the left seemed to be longer, but there were still no dangers or side paths.

After an hour, another familiar password-protected door blocked their way.

“Should we try entering the number on this?” Li Jianwei pulled out the metal ring left by the Divine’s Servant.

Compared to the metal ring dropped by the mutated vulture, the number on this one was shorter and looked more like a password. Without the first letter, it was exactly eight digits.

“I brought this too. Let’s see if the numbers are the same,” Xiao Di said, trading the two metal rings to Li Jianwei without thinking.

Li Jianwei took the bigger one and looked at it. “They’re not the same. In theory, we should have completed the mission on the same raft island, so the drops should be identical.”

“What kind of monster did you encounter on the seabed of the raft island?” Shu Heng asked.

“A huge mutated shark. Its attack speed was much faster than a regular shark, and one bite took away 50 health!” Xiao Di said. “But after defeating the shark, I got the key to the archive room, and then I successfully got the blueprints and a note.”

Li Jianwei and Shu Heng subtly exchanged glances. It seemed that the Divine’s Servant wasn’t a character that everyone could encounter. It was a special, non-respawning character.