The Eldritch Files

Chapter 14: Chapter 12: Ghost Truck

The night fog grew thicker, as if layers of white ink were staining the night.

Just moments ago, they could still make out the distance, though their view was somewhat obstructed.

But in the space of just a few minutes, the fog had grown alarmingly thick. Even the sports car’s headlights seemed choked by it, their beams penetrating only four or five meters ahead.

In this incredibly dense fog, all surrounding sounds and sights were muffled and obscured, as if they had fallen into a desolate, sealed-off world.

The only sound was the engine, echoing in the confined space. But even that noise was bizarre—a discordant mix of the drone of machinery, heartbeats, gasps, groans, and wails.

Han Su didn’t know what was happening, but a feeling of irrepressible excitement began to swell within him, surging so powerfully that he could barely contain it.

"This is bad!"

He suddenly heard a slight change in the engine’s sound from behind the thick fog and was instantly on alert. The instincts honed by countless escapes from the Dark Castle acted almost before his conscious mind could.

As he shouted a warning, he yanked open the car door with one hand and grabbed Xu Ji with the other, diving out of the car.

ROAR!

The very instant Han Su yanked Xu Ji from the sports car without warning, two waves parted the thick fog before them.

Then, a massive truck burst through.

Its front stood four or five meters tall, a behemoth of solid metal and cold, hard lines. But its body was caked in filth and blood, with vein-like tissues woven among the mechanical parts—a truly visceral sight.

It hurtled toward them at a frenzied pace, looking like it was doing 260 kilometers per hour.

From a distance, its speed and power might have been manageable. But up close, it felt like an avalanche, an unstoppable force ready to obliterate everything in its path.

In the blink of an eye, Xu Ji’s flashy red sports car was crushed to smithereens by the giant truck.

The wreckage sprayed sparks as it was sent flying into the distance like a tattered rag doll. Parts clattered to the ground, the whole mangled chassis tumbling like a kicked soccer ball.

Even with Han Su’s quick reflexes in pulling Xu Ji out, the sheer force of the impact nearly sucked them under the truck’s wheels.

"Holy hell, holy hell, so this thing is actually real?"

Xu Ji collapsed, completely dazed by the impact. He stared, transfixed, at the spot where the demonic truck had vanished, as if he’d recognized something. It was like his soul had fled his body.

All he could do was scream, "This is insane! It’s insane! Things like this can’t actually exist..."

"If they did, my dad would have told me long ago..."

"..."

"What is it?"

Han Su, however, rolled twice to break his fall before immediately hauling the sprawled-out Xu Ji back to his feet.

He dragged him toward the side of the road, his gaze fixed on the fog that had swallowed the truck’s taillights. A sudden, unexpected delight glinted in his eyes as he calmly questioned Xu Ji.

"The homicidal truck from Highway 59..."

Xu Ji looked as if his entire worldview had just been shattered. He was in a daze, like a drunk. "Some bullshitter at the club used to talk about it. He was a drunk, always spouting strange nonsense nobody understood. No clue how he even got into the club."

"He said some big rig hauling cargo late at night crashed on Highway 59. Both the driver and the truck were obliterated."

"But the driver couldn’t accept his death. He fused with the wreckage and became a monstrosity of the wilderness. He comes out every night to run down and kill any living thing he finds..."

"But... but the guy said some Legendary Investigator dealt with it, sealed it on the abandoned Highway 59..."

"But this is clearly Highway 48!!"

"..."

"Huh?"

Han Su looked on with fascination. "So things like this really exist in the world?"

Xu Ji looked like he was about to cry. "How can you be so calm about this? This thing isn’t supposed to be real!"

Han Su paid him no mind, suddenly looking a little displeased. "You know I’m interested in this stuff, right? Why didn’t you tell me?"

"?"

Xu Ji’s expression was a bizarre mix of confusion and grievance. "I’m always asking you to hang out at the club! I told you the people there know everything, but you’re the one who insists on holing up in the library..."

Before he could finish, Han Su whipped his head around, and without a shred of courtesy, kicked out.

He put his full strength into the kick, sending Xu Ji flying five or six meters.

But in that exact instant, blinding lights cut through the dense fog in front of them.

The towering, oppressive front of the truck burst from the fog at a maddening speed, barrelling straight toward where they had been standing. Its headlights, bright yet tinged with blood-red, seemed powerful enough to shatter one’s sanity.

It thundered over the spot where Xu Ji had just been. With a deafening roar, it plunged straight into the fog on the other side and was quickly swallowed up.

An unnerving silence fell. There was only the fog, closing in on them inch by inch.

Deep within the mist, they could faintly hear the engine’s rumble, like a mechanical beast lurking in the haze, gathering its strength, its eyes fixed upon them.

The entire situation had taken on an unearthly, insane quality. It was grotesque, something that should not exist.

By now, Xu Ji was at a complete loss. Trapped in the thick fog, he didn’t even know which way to flee.

Logically, he knew he needed to get off the road to escape the truck. But surrounded by the dense fog, he couldn’t even see the edges of the highway.

Shaking, he felt along the ground, trying to crawl to the roadside, but his hands only met with more asphalt. He couldn’t find the edge.

As for Han Su, this was also his first time encountering something so bizarre in reality.

But he had been dragged back countless times before. Now, encountering this kind of monstrosity in the real world for the first time, he stared into the fog. He felt the oppressive, maddening atmosphere, a mysterious presence so chilling it could freeze the blood in his veins. And yet, his mind became unusually sharp:

’It’s real. Not a hallucination, and not one of those indistinguishable illusions I saw when I was abducted. This is something everyone can see, something that truly, tangibly exists...’

’Did that Spell summon this bizarre thing? Or has the world finally started to go mad?’

"..."

Either way, he was thrilled.

Even his right eye—an eye that had lain dormant for ten long years in this lifetime—began to ache, the pain steadily intensifying.

RUMBLE!

Deep within the fog, the heavy truck’s engine roared, its pitch rising sharply.

Then, the fog churned violently. Blinding light flooded their vision. The truck, which had just vanished into the fog on their right, now suddenly burst out from the fog on Xu Ji’s right side.

If they hadn’t lost their bearings, that should have been the empty slope off the side of the highway.

But the truck was impossibly charging from that direction, straight at Xu Ji, who had no time to turn.

At the same time, Han Su, already prepared, took a sudden step forward. He grabbed Xu Ji by the collar and yanked him aside. Then, ensuring his own safety, he thrust out his hand.

He faced the massive, four-to-five-meter-high front of the truck and its blinding lights. His figure looked minuscule in comparison. Next to the monstrous killing machine, a human body was as fragile as tofu. Yet with a crazed expression, he thrust his palm forward and rapidly chanted:

"The Gods deliver their oracle!"

The syllables rose and fell with a rhythmic, ancient, and mysterious cadence.

Within his mind, his dormant Spiritual Power surged into a tempest, roused by the ancient Fishing Song.

’It’s as if it’s practiced now. The first time, the Spiritual Power rampaged through my body before finally finding my right eye. But this time, it surged directly toward it. How many times stronger is this impact than before?’

In that same instant, blood began to seep from Han Su’s dull, grayish-white right eye.

It was as if it were being torn apart from the inside out by some immense force. The searing pain of ruptured flesh, so close to his brain, battered against Han Su’s sanity.

"SCREEECH..."

The bizarre, frenzied truck jerked to a stop.

Its wheels were still spinning madly, grinding against the asphalt. The smell of burning rubber filled the air.

The giant truck’s headlights were intensely bright. The beams swiveled slightly, like two enormous, luminous eyes turning to stare in Han Su’s direction.

All around them, the fog seemed to billow up from the ground itself, a vast, white expanse. Within it, phantom-like shadows began to appear.

Among them, they could even see Zhang He, covered in blood, and the innocent, long-legged, fair-skinned woman in the miniskirt. Their faces were twisted in pain and resentment, their mouths opening and closing as if they were trying to speak.

They too had been devoured by the homicidal truck, turned into its Chong Ghosts.

The pale, contorted faces were like a mask, giving the Ghost Truck its expression.

Opposite the Ghost Truck, Han Su stood motionless, blood flowing from his right eye. The intense pain assaulted his brain, but he actually found it exhilarating. The scars on his face looked ferocious, yet his expression was a demonic grin.

’Just now, when my Spiritual Power struck my right eye, it was deflected. It seems the restrictions on Spiritual Power manifesting in reality are even greater than I imagined.’

’I don’t know where this restriction comes from, but I can faintly sense that it’s a rule etched into the deepest level of human instinct.’

’Spirit must not enter reality!’