Translated using Omni Literary Translator.
Chapter 2: UFO
by Cristae“I want to curse that bastard who stole my money!”
Wen Luan angrily slammed his hand on the steering wheel. The few coins in his pocket had disappeared; during lunchtime, lacking these cents, the strict highway service area hamburger shop refused to provide him with a bacon sandwich.
“The suspicious fellows I encountered today… it seems there were only those three travelers from the morning,” Wen Luan thought, turning his neck uncertainly.
But those three hadn’t even approached him.
Could they be the legendary superhumans? Using telekinesis to steal things? Just to snatch a few coins?
“Haha, this is truly ridiculous!” Wen Luan muttered to himself. “I’d rather believe they’re zombies from a movie. Look here: desolate roads, suspicious fellows stopping buses, greenish faces with stiff expressions— isn’t this the best opening for a zombie movie?”
It was already evening, and the bus was on its return journey. On board, there were only two young people who had gone out of town yesterday for fun, now lying back in the rear seats snoring loudly. No matter how bumpy the ride got, they didn’t care at all, continuing to snore as usual.
When passing by the place where he was stopped earlier that morning, Wen Luan couldn’t resist taking a careful look at the roadside.
The Jeep was no longer there, but the sign written with ‘Meteorite Town’ lay tilted, and someone was still lying beneath it.
Screech— The bus made an emergency brake.
Wen Luan stuck his head out of the car window and looked back. His eyesight was good, and he recognized it immediately.
“My goodness, Old Man Su Ta! What happened to you?”
The two passengers who had been thrown to the ground from the back seat angrily jumped up. Hearing Wen Luan’s shout, they also followed suit and opened the windows. When the two tall and strong young men saw Old Man Su Ta lying by the roadside in a life-or-death manner, they were so shocked that their jaws nearly dropped off.
Because lying on the ground wasn’t just Old Man Su Ta, but also the priest from the town’s church, the teachers from the school—all strewn haphazardly from the highway to the broad-leaved forest.
More terrifying still, both sides of the road ahead had turned into steep cliffs, with dozens of large pits appearing out of nowhere.
“Goodness!”
Wen Luan could hardly believe his own eyes.
He and the two passengers worked together with seven hands and eight feet to lift the people lying on the ground back onto the bus.
“Hi, dear boy, can you believe it? Just this morning, there suddenly came a super big hailstorm…” Old Man Su Ta weakly raised his hand, his shriveled face turning slightly as one small eye rolled around, staring intently at Wen Luan while gasping desperately for breath, “We were taking a walk outside the town and didn’t make it home in time, so we ran towards these woods! God protected us until rescue arrived.”
Wen Luan looked at the large pits on both sides of the road with black lines in his eyes.
Who has seen hailstones with a diameter of thirty meters? Could broad-leaved forests stop them from crashing down?
Old Man Su Ta couldn’t catch his breath and fainted.
Wen Luan shook his head, estimating that this old man had been scared silly.
He turned around to lift the second unfortunate “victim,” which was the old priest from the town’s church. He was well-informed and respected by people, but now he was covered in mud, his front teeth broken, saying weakly, “Devoted child of God, do you believe me? Just this morning, there suddenly came a meteor shower…”
“…”
Wen Luan almost threw this venerable priest into one of the pits beside the road!
Is it because Easterners are easy to deceive? What kind of crude lie is this?
He really wanted to grab hold of the old priest and shake him while shouting, but the exhausted priest gasped like a bellows, then rolled his eyes and fainted as well.
At this time, the third victim, who had been carried onto the bus by two passengers, came over. He struggled to grasp Wen Luan’s hand and said sorrowfully, “My loyal friend, do you believe me? Just this morning, there suddenly came a tornado outside the town…”
“Slap!” The two passengers rudely plugged up this guy’s mouth.
Unfortunately, there was a fourth victim as well. He swayed his body, stumbling and leaning against the car door. After straightening out his muddy collar and cuffs, he let out a long sigh and looked at the people in the car with sympathetic eyes.
“How unfortunate, can you believe it? Just this morning—”
“How could I possibly believe?” Wen Luan roared angrily. This feeling of being utterly deceived was too absurd.
“UFO! Really, an unidentified flying object came, emitting pale blue light!” The fourth victim said, somewhat panicked yet also filled with compassion as he looked at the person lying inside the bus. He even pointed behind himself. “After they were exposed to the light, they became abnormal! Oh God, how could such a thing happen! I never believed in UFOs before!” He heavily dropped his head, restlessly burying his hands in his hair.
“…”
Wen Luan stiffly looked around.
Seemingly, apparently, perhaps, only extraterrestrials could cause such destructive effects!
When encountering absurd accidents, emotionally, people still tend to believe familiar individuals.
Wen Luan had lived in the town for twenty years, here since he could remember. He knew these people very well. They had no reason to deceive him, nor the ability to create such a terrifying scene.
“This must be a nightmare!” Wen Luan thought in a muddle.
The other victims were also gradually carried onto the bus.
Then two tall young men who sold their labor secretly cast admiring glances at the fourth victim, and while Wen Luan was in a daze, they whispered softly, “Your Excellency the Duke, you’re truly amazing! Lies are indeed the blood race’s natural talent.”
Look at the dark wizard and his clumsy excuses with his beastfolk companion! See the difference in effect!
“But what exactly happened?”
“Something… appeared,” this vampire duke said vaguely. “But when we chased after it, its scent disappeared again. We all suspect one person quietly took it away.”
So the dark creatures started fighting fiercely.
“Hurry up and sit down, we’re about to drive off, we need to get back to town!”
Wen Luan unconsciously pressed on the accelerator, and the bus suddenly jolted. He saw huge pits hundreds of meters deep on both sides of the road, along with the half-suspended road before his eyes, causing his pupils to contract from terror.
Just then, his whole body suddenly went stiff, and he slowly slumped over onto the steering wheel.
Yet the bus still magically continued traveling on the road, except now it had become much smoother.
The large pits on both sides of the road were swiftly filled, broken trees grew back upright, and even the burned road surface regained its original unevenness.
When the wind blew, dust flew, and Meteorite Town’s crooked sign stood as before in the desolate road.
Except for the “victims” inside the bus who were bruised all over, everything was like nothing had happened at all.
Meteorite Town wasn’t big, being entirely made up of gray brick buildings. The town only had about three hundred people, and the church chimed with evening prayers.
Wen Luan seemed to be startled awake by the bell chimes. He jerked his head up, discovering the car hood was almost going to hit the barber shop’s signboard. He instantly turned the steering wheel, rubbed his eyes wearily, and at the same time, all passengers on the bus disappeared.
Wen Luan stopped the bus in the square in front of the church and got off while yawning.
Another bumpy day had ended. This small-town bus only ran once every three days; he could rest properly now.
The bus was the private property of the town chief, and Wen Luan was only responsible for driving it out and bringing it back.
Wen Luan strolled leisurely out of the square to eat dinner at the little tavern. He had completely forgotten everything that happened today, so when he heard in the tavern that the old priest from the church accidentally fell and injured himself while wiping down the statue, he shook his head along with the noisy townspeople.
“He’s already so old! There are many capable young people in town! May God bless him.”
“Hey, I heard Old Man Su Ta had an accident today too, his gun discharged accidentally!”
“Oh!” The townspeople in the tavern collectively drew in cold air, it was truly unfortunate.
Wen Luan rubbed his stomach, feeling particularly hungry today.
Strange, didn’t he eat a smoked meat sandwich at noon today?
Dinner cost more money than usual, after finishing his last cup of beer, Wen Luan left the tavern. The sky was pitch black, he put his hands in his pockets, suddenly feeling something hard inside one of them.
“What is this?”
A large brass key, covered with rust stains.
“Strange, where did this come from?” Wen Luan held the key, a vague image of a vulture appeared in his mind, along with some fleeting fragments, but they were too fast, he couldn’t remember anything.
Hmm, this key looks somewhat like an antique, maybe quite valuable.
Wen Luan discreetly patted his pocket.
That night, Wen Luan was sound asleep in his lowly ordinary house when the key he had placed in his jacket pocket suddenly floated out by itself, layers of black demonic runes appearing.
Like the soft crackling sound of leaking electricity, dozens of terrifying spatial rifts suddenly appeared in the room.
The mottled wallpaper was the first to be pulled inside.
At the same time as the dark creatures in town were startled awake, these spatial rifts had already closed into the invisible maw of a fierce beast, swallowing down the deeply sleeping Wen Luan, along with his bed, in one gulp.
Clang.
The brass key fell lonely to the ground.
Translated using Omni Literary Translator.