The flames blazed fiercely, thick smoke billowing, blotting out the sun. Lin Ye knew that Father Kasugano was beyond saving.
And based on his experience from the last time, once Sora realized there was no possibility of bringing her dead father back, this cycle of reincarnation would come to an end, and everything would reset once more.
"Ahhh!"
"Boo-hoo-hoo..."
In his ears, there was nothing but the girl's sorrowful weeping.
When the flames swallowed the truck, Lin Ye realized that his body had once again sunk into absolute silence. He kept issuing commands, sending signals to his body, but his body no longer received any of them. In the end, his consciousness sank and gradually faded away.
But when he woke once more,
Lin Ye opened his eyes and found that he had returned to the very beginning, sitting in the back seat of the small car as it traveled normally along the road.
Another reset.
Everything had started over again.
The first thing Lin Ye did was examine his own body.
His chest was heavy and uncomfortable; the erosion level of the Strange infection had increased.
"Just as I thought—every reset after a failure increases the erosion level of the Strange infection in my body."
A few more times,
and the erosion level of the Strange infection would reach an irreversible degree. By then, no matter how strong he was, he could only transform into a Strange monster, utterly reduced to one of the creatures of the Strange world.
"Brother..."
The silver-long-haired girl sitting beside Lin Ye seemed to have heard his murmuring. She lifted her little head and gazed at him.
Her eyes were full of curiosity, waiting for Lin Ye's answer.
"It's nothing, I'm fine."
Lin Ye patted Sora's little head.
"Mm."
Sora gave a small hum.
The friendly scene between the two siblings in the back seat brought a sweet smile to Mother, who sat in the front passenger seat. There was nothing better than a warm, harmonious family.
She was very happy about it.
To have a loving, dependable husband, and a pair of adorable, obedient twin siblings—there was nothing more joyful and blessed than this.
The small car drove steadily on,
the scenery outside the window tranquil, everything perfectly normal.
But Lin Ye alone knew that, before long, trouble would appear.
Slowing down and pulling over to leave had failed; the second time, accelerating to escape, but in the end, trouble had appeared at the mouth of the tunnel.
It wasn't as if Lin Ye hadn't considered using a method of timing things—avoiding the moment of the accident—in order to successfully leave the dangerous place that was the expressway.
But he quickly rejected that idea.
If it were merely a matter of avoiding a few moments in time—for instance, if the small car was originally going to be struck by the truck and have an accident three minutes later, then changing the choice to stop the car four minutes later would avoid the truck's attack?
If this were reality, that would be quite possible,
but this was a Strange instance—an instance world subject to unknown, mysterious forces.
No matter which moment he chose to stop the car, he would suffer a car accident brought about by that mysterious force.
That was Lin Ye's conjecture.
If it weren't for the existence of the Strange infection, which limited the number of experiments he could make, Lin Ye would genuinely have intended to test everything, gathering more intelligence.
Slowing down and pulling over wouldn't work, and neither would accelerating forward.
So then,
the next thing to do was...
He called out to Father Kasugano.
Father Kasugano, in the driver's seat, was the driver, the one in control of this car.
It wasn't as though Lin Ye hadn't thought of taking over himself, but thinking of his own driving skills, he decided to let Father Kasugano—that veteran driver—keep driving.
"What is it?"
Father Kasugano glanced at his son.
He couldn't shake the feeling that his son was in an odd state today. Was he feeling unwell?
"From now on, drive according to my instructions."
"Huh?"
He let out a questioning sound.
The commanding tone left him stunned for a moment. When had his son ever dared to speak to him in such a tone—and giving driving instructions, no less? What was he trying to do?
Haruka knew nothing about driving, so how did he dare to give instructions?
"Listen to me. From now on, do everything I say."
Superpower Hypnosis—activated.
The two of them made eye contact,
and the ability took effect.
Father Kasugano's eyes shifted slightly. An invisible force exerted its influence on his brain, and his consciousness changed.
A second later,
Father Kasugano gave his answer. "All right, I'll follow your instructions, Haruka."
Sora was dumbstruck, staring blankly at her father and at the brother beside her. Mother, in the passenger seat, also wore a look of shock—how could her husband choose to obey their son Haruka's instructions?
"Haruka, don't joke around."
"Don't talk nonsense."
"Dear, honestly, how could you say such a thing—joking with Haruka like that!"
But faced with Mother Kasugano's words, neither Father nor Lin Ye replied.
"Slow down immediately."
'Swish, swish!'
The deceleration began. The smoothly traveling vehicle started slowing at a considerable rate.
One gave the instructions, the other cooperated and carried them out.
Mother Kasugano watched in a daze. She thought her husband was merely joking, sharing a friendly joke with their son—but who would have thought her husband was serious, that he truly meant to act on their son's instructions.
"Dear, the joke ends here. Suddenly slowing down on the expressway is extremely dangerous."
She didn't have a driver's license, but that didn't mean she was unaware of the enormous risks of slowing down on the expressway.
One careless move could result in being rear-ended by a vehicle behind them.
Father Kasugano gave no response at all, focused entirely on driving this small car.
"Next, immediately turn the car around—we're going to... drive against the traffic."
Yes,
this was Lin Ye's idea.
Since stopping to escape and accelerating away had both failed, he chose to drive against the traffic, committing an act that violated the traffic rules,
to see what response this instance would give in the face of such an action.
Ordinary methods had already failed to find a suitable breakthrough; if that was the case, then he would use abnormal methods to find one.
'Screech, screech, screech...'
With skilled technique, Father Kasugano performed the maneuver of turning the car around on the expressway.
'Swish, swish!'
One car after another drove past, and surprisingly, none of them hit the small car as it turned around.
Accidents would happen, but it wasn't as though every single car was guaranteed to crash into the small car.
Mother Kasugano was nearly going mad.
Slowing down on the expressway was already a dangerous act, and now they were turning around and driving against traffic—this was no different from suicide.
"Dear, stop right now."
"Stop playing around."
"This is very dangerous."
...
She cried out, even preparing to reach out and stop him, but Lin Ye immediately grabbed her wrist.
"Calm down."
"Stay calm."
Under Lin Ye's Hypnosis, Mother Kasugano gradually calmed her emotions. She leaned back and faced everything calmly, no longer agitated or panicking.
Sora's reaction was much quieter, but from her eyes and the responses of her body, one could tell the girl was extremely nervous and worried inside.
This came from a fear of death.
But that she could endure without screaming—bearing the terror and fear all alone—was already a remarkable display.
The turn was complete.
"Drive. Slow speed..."
Lin Ye said again.
Give it a shot.
There was a good chance they could break through.
Father Kasugano stepped on the gas, the vehicle accelerating, driving against the traffic at a moderate speed.
Vehicles came driving toward them from ahead. Facing the car going the wrong way, countless drivers cursed furiously, swerving and dodging. Many vehicles began to evade.
At one point, a vehicle even overcorrected while dodging and crashed into the guardrail.
"Boom..."
A car slammed into the guardrail, letting out a violent crashing sound.
Lin Ye didn't care.
This was an instance.
Even if they were living beings within the instance, Lin Ye was already able to ignore it.
'Swish!'
"Screech!"
One car after another came toward them.
Every car seemed about to collide with them, but with Lin Ye's warnings and Father's maneuvering, they smoothly evaded each one.
Several times they were about to crash, but they narrowly avoided it.
'Rumble, rumble, rumble...'
At last, Lin Ye saw that familiar truck in the distance of his field of vision.
It had appeared twice, and both times it had caused harm.
Lin Ye had at one point suspected that, in the original event, it was that truck that had caused the accident—that it was that very truck that had crashed into the small car carrying Sora's family of four, killing Sora's three closest family members.
"Haruno never mentioned exactly what kind of vehicle caused Sora's family's accident."
But based on the circumstances of this instance, he was eighty percent certain it was the truck that had caused the accident.
"The rightmost lane."
Keep as much distance as possible from the truck. As long as they successfully passed the truck, the road ahead should be much safer.
Closer.
Closer still.
The next second,
Lin Ye saw the oncoming truck change lanes, drawing near to the lane they were in.
Sure enough,
Lin Ye sounded the alarm in his heart.
The other side was absolutely coming straight for him—otherwise, why would it change lanes at this very moment?
Through the gap between the front and back seats, Lin Ye had already made his mental preparations.
By now,
the half-hour cooldown had already passed.
The Time Stop skill could be used again.
His confidence in winning had grown even greater.
"Turn the wheel hard to the left."
"Accelerate forward."
Two commands were issued at once.
Under the influence of Lin Ye's Hypnosis skill, Father Kasugano reacted quickly and executed them resolutely.
In the blink of an eye,
the small car turned left into another lane.
It wasn't over yet.
The small car continued changing lanes, striving to get as far as possible from the lane the truck was in.
But then,
the truck did something bizarre once more—it also began to turn, drawing near to the lane the small car was in, and immediately afterward turned even further.
In the blink of an eye, the two oncoming vehicles were once again in the same lane.
The other side was clearly here for the sole purpose of crashing into them and killing them.
At this moment,
the distance between the two was already less than fifty meters.
In the blink of an eye, within mere seconds, the two would collide.
This time, without Lin Ye even saying a word, Father Kasugano yanked the steering wheel hard and immediately turned to the right.
Given the situation in that very instant, the small car would graze past the truck and pass through safely.
But then,
the truck in Lin Ye's field of vision suffered yet another mishap—a 'bang,' a tire blew out, and not just one tire.
In the blink of an eye, the truck toppled over onto its side again, and as luck would have it, the direction it fell was toward the small car.
This was an accident aimed at the small car, aimed at them.
This point no longer needed to be questioned.
Swerving,
slamming on the brakes,
the friction sound of 'screech, screech, screech...' rang out continuously.
Screams arose.
Sora cried out,
"Daddy, Mommy..."
"Don't die..."
The silver-long-haired girl screamed and cried out in alarm.
Lin Ye was momentarily dazed, but quickly made his judgment.
At a certain moment after the car's emergency braking and rapid deceleration,
Lin Ye used Time Stop.
Just as he had the first time,
during the period of Time Stop, Lin Ye swiftly dragged the three of them away from the danger zone of the truck and its cargo.
For this,
he used it a full two times, a total of one minute,
and only then was he able to successfully bring all three out of the most dangerous area.
Time Stop ended,
and time resumed its flow.
'Boom...'
"Rumble..."
The three of them, following the residual inertia that lingered in their bodies from the sound, slid and tumbled for some distance.
Sora was protected by Lin Ye, while Father Kasugano and Mother fell and rolled for a stretch.
But because the final deceleration had been so rapid, the inertia wasn't very great, and Lin Ye judged that the actual harm done wouldn't be very serious.
"Sora, hurry, let's go."
The accident had only just begun.
Lin Ye was certain there was more to come, the most classic of which was the burning of the cargo.
The fire at the mouth of the tunnel—Lin Ye certainly hadn't forgotten it.
'Thud, thud, thud...'
Enduring his discomfort, Lin Ye dragged the staggering girl as he ran toward the two of them.
With one in each hand, supporting them, he ran toward the edge of the expressway as fast as he could.
At this moment,
'Screech, screech, screech...' the sound of braking went on and on.
One car after another crashed in a chain collision.
Violent friction sounds and screams rang out without cease.
'Rumble, rumble...'
The flames flared up once more.
Everything was developing toward the worst possible outcome.
Faster,
just a little faster.
Lin Ye kept shouting.
But a small car came barreling straight toward them in a charging assault.
Lin Ye took one look and once again found it was a familiar car—he had seen it before too.
In the original event, this was absolutely a vehicle involved in causing the accident.
Absolutely.
He made his judgment and once again used Time Stop, dragging and hauling the three of them out of the danger zone.
'Boom...'
The car crashed, only it hadn't affected the four of them.
"Hurry, leave the expressway."
It was very dangerous here.
Without Lin Ye even saying so, both Father and Mother Kasugano knew what they should do.
'Crack...'
But during the process of climbing over,
a violent explosion erupted with a roar, and a powerful shockwave came surging.
The same accident again,
another explosion.
Lin Ye remained calm.
Facing this scene, he always felt a sense of powerlessness—no matter how he struggled, it seemed there was no way to escape.
He used Time Stop for the last time.
But a new crisis had arrived.
Mother Kasugano's face went pale as she collapsed to the ground and began to tremble.
Her face was twisted with pain, both hands clutching her chest.
"An acute illness."
At one glance at this reaction, Lin Ye immediately realized something.
He had finally, with such difficulty, gotten the four of them to a safe place—and now Mother had fallen ill?
Did this even count as a car accident?
"Mommy."
"Mommy..."
Lin Ye looked at the silver-long-haired girl who was anxiously crying out.
He realized that whether it was an accident or not didn't matter—what mattered was Sora Kasugano's thoughts.
At this moment,
he was already ninety percent certain he had found the correct method to clear it.
So it turned out the method to clear it was this simple.
...
...
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