The footsteps of the three of them echoed on the road one after another. It was as if the long, straight sunlight had made it monotonous and dull.
Lin Sanjiu stared at the white lines drawn on the asphalt road and followed them. Bohemia, who was walking beside her, also stared into the distance without looking sideways. They had been hurrying for a short distance just now because Puppeteer was not far away from them. He was floating quietly in the silver circle, allowing it to carry them forward without making a sound.
Amidst the three footsteps that seemed to never change, Puppeteer said in a low voice, "I will chop off the head of anyone who dares to make a move."
Nobody dared to make a move. This was not the first time he warned them.
Lin Sanjiu had seen many strange things in her life, but this was the first time she had seen something like this. She tried her best to keep her head and neck still. She turned her eyes and glanced at the person behind them from the corner of her eyes.
The person was still like a shadow that rose from the ground, following closely behind the three of them. From the fleeting images she saw from the corner of her eyes, as well as the time when she brushed past him, Lin Sanjiu knew that the person following behind them was a middle-aged man of average build. He was wearing a checkered shirt and a pair of jeans. His broad shoulders made him look like a farmer who had just come out from a farm by the roadside.
However, no one knew where he had come from or when he had appeared.
He just stared at the three people in front of him and walked behind them like a shadow.
Obviously, Puppeteer had already noticed his presence before they noticed him. When Lin Sanjiu and Bohemia caught up to them from afar, Puppeteer's voice rang in their ears before they could even get close to them, "Don't touch him!"
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. Puppeteer paused for a moment before he continued, "Follow me. Stay away from him. Don't touch him without my order."
Just like that, the four of them walked on the road in silence for another ten minutes. Lin Sanjiu had never realized that she could walk so stiffly. Her back was stiff because she was constantly on guard. Bohemia even walked with the same hand and foot a few times.
"Is … is he breathing?" Bohemia could not help but ask in a low voice, "I think I heard something, but..."
Lin Sanjiu knew what she heard because she had heard it too. The peasant behind him was, in fact, making slight noises, rising and falling, long and short, from his body; but it was more like the sound of air striking against some half-full vessel than of breathing.
The farmer did not seem to respond to their words. After waiting quietly for a while, they saw that the farmer did not even move his eyes. The two of them became a little braver. Lin Sanjiu lowered her voice and asked Puppeteer, "Where did this person come from?"
"A second ago, this person wasn't there, but the next second, he suddenly appeared."
After a few seconds of silence, Puppeteer answered in a low voice. He maintained his floating position and did not look back, but he seemed to be aware of everything that was happening behind him.
"Did you notice anything? Why can't we attack him? "
This time, Puppeteer did not answer her question. When he spoke again, his voice was so deep that no one dared to ignore it, "Do you see the road sign in front of us?"
The sign was still quite far away from them. Even with her eyesight as a posthuman, she could barely make out the words "15 miles to Big Bear City".
"I will count to three. All of you, spread out and go in different directions. No matter what happens, we will meet under that sign in two minutes. "
From the corner of her eyes, she saw that the farmer was still expressionless. His thick, sunburned skin hung on his cheekbones and quivered with every step he took. Other than that, he looked like a dead man.
"Let's go!"
As soon as Puppeteer gave the number, the three of them split up and dashed in three different directions. Lin Sanjiu was still sprinting on the highway while the other two got off the highway and disappeared into the fields and bushes on both sides of the road. Lin Sanjiu squinted her eyes and looked around. Other than the swaying leaves and bushes, she couldn't even see the shadows of the two of them.
The only thing that remained by her side was the footsteps that clung to her like a parasite.
Suppressing the uneasiness in her stomach, Lin Sanjiu turned around to look at the farmer. He was running just as fast as she was. He did not overtake her, nor did he fall behind her. He kept a close distance from her, as if he was a shadow pressing against the back of her head.
When he started running, the sound of air hitting against each other became heavier. His face turned redder and redder, and his chest rose and fell like a suffocating frog.
Lin Sanjiu bit her lower lip. Just when she was hesitating whether she should do something or not, she suddenly stepped on the brakes. Her boots screeched as she stopped right under the sign. Her speed was astonishing, and she was running in a straight line. In less than a minute, she was the first to reach the rendezvous point with the shadow that she could not shake off.
The farmer followed closely behind her and stopped as well. However, at that moment, Lin Sanjiu heard a crisp crack coming from the joints of his thighs. Lin Sanjiu lowered her head and realized that she had stopped too abruptly, and the farmer did not manage to stop in time. His knees and calves were twisted out of place by the inertia, one in front of the other in the back. Lin Sanjiu could not help but gasp at the sight. However, when she raised her head again, the farmer was still expressionless.
For a long moment she and this unknown farmer stood face to face on the dry, monotonous road, and looked at each other in the eyes.
She did not move, and neither did the farmer. They were so close to each other that Lin Sanjiu could see the thick pores on his face.
"Lin Sanjiu!"
Bohemia's voice came from the farmland beside the road. Her voice was getting closer and closer, "He is not following us. Should we —"
Before Bohemia could finish her words, she had already arrived. When her eyes fell on the two of them, she swallowed the rest of her words. Bohemia slowed down and circled around the edge of the road. She was as cautious as a lynx that had discovered its enemy. "He … He has been following you?"
Lin Sanjiu nodded.
Two minutes passed in the blink of an eye. When a gust of wind parted the bushes and the silver ring emerged from the other side of the road, Puppeteer had arrived on time. However, he did not come back alone.
When the two of them saw the person following behind him, they were dumbfounded.
The person was slightly younger than the farmer. He looked to be in his thirties. Since the belt around his waist had been taken away, his pants were hanging loosely on his hip bone. The expression of fear that he had when he died could still be vaguely seen on his face. Even though Puppeteer had told Lin Sanjiu that the man could no longer stand up and was no longer a puppet, he still managed to follow Puppeteer's silver ring easily.
He was the posthuman who had mysteriously died on the road last night.
Puppeteer's face was extremely gloomy. His pale fingers were clenching and unclenching under his sleeves as if he was trying to control his urge to lash out. Initially, he wanted to find out more about the farmer, but now, he had recruited a guy who looked exactly like him. It was already a feat for him to control his temper.
Lin Sanjiu swallowed. She had a vague idea of what was going on. She exchanged glances with the two of them before she took two steps back from the farmer and walked to the dead posthuman. Slowly, she wrapped her [Defense Forcefield] with her hand and placed it on the posthuman's shoulder.
Just as she expected, the dead body could be kept in the [Planar World] before they departed, but now, it could not be turned into a card.
There was only one explanation for this.
The posthuman twisted his neck and stared at Lin Sanjiu's hand on his shoulder. Lin Sanjiu quickly pulled her hand back as if she was afraid of getting an electric shock. She said in a low voice, "It's really …!"
"Really?" Bohemia immediately understood what Lin Sanjiu meant. "Are they really duoluozhongs?"
Lin Sanjiu took two steps back, almost crashing into Puppeteer's silver circle. She turned around and frowned, "Why are they following us like this?"
"Don't always think with your toes," Puppeteer said coldly. "They are sticking close to us, but they don't attack us. They want us to take the initiative to attack them," Lin Sanjiu said.
In other words, unless they knew what would happen if they attacked the duoluozhongs, it would be better for them not to attack.
"If we keep ignoring them, will they … disperse by themselves?" Bohemia asked cautiously. When Lin Sanjiu left, the farmer took a step to the side. Right now, he was standing right in front of Lin Sanjiu. It was as if he could follow anyone.
"We can only find out after we walk for a while," Puppeteer said with a sinister smile. "Why don't you keep up with me?"
They were only fifteen miles away from Big Bear City, and they would finish their journey before noon. After knowing that they were duoluozhongs, Lin Sanjiu felt a little uncomfortable, but at least she was able to endure it. In silence, the group quickly passed through the farms and the wreckage of the cars. Then, they exited the "Big Bear City" exit on the highway and finally arrived at the streets of the city.
Big Bear City was a mixture of dead silence and lively.
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