Before the man could react further, Shirley suddenly reappeared by the car door without warning.
The large truck was still maintaining its speed of 50 kilometers per hour.
How did Shirley appear so inexplicably?
How did she get here?
The man, startled, quickly withdrew his hand.
"You... you're back. What did the camp leader say?"
The man asked proactively, to cover his own guilt.
"We've accepted your supplies. Master agrees to let you follow us to the next city. Once you get there, you'll have to fend for yourselves!"
"Okay, okay, thank you!" The man quickly handed the supplies to Shirley.
After accepting the supplies, Shirley continued to ask:
"Also, Master wants to know what happened to your camp? Why did you say everyone in the camp went mad?"
The man, eager to make a good impression on the strong camp, recounted the events in great detail.
"It was like this. Tonight, I was on night watch with a few others. Everything was calm and peaceful, no problems."
"Although occasionally some straggling bugs wandered into the camp, we dealt with them."
"But just as everyone was settling down to sleep, we suddenly heard singing. It was a woman's voice, like mumbling to herself, or humming softly..."
"The sound was intermittent and faint. I got goosebumps from fear."
"Our camp is stationed in a small, very remote town, and few survivors come here!"
"Moreover, after the apocalypse entered its second phase, the living environment further deteriorated. The surrounding farmlands and forests became a paradise for mutated plants. A slight misstep could lead to being swallowed whole. Especially now, at night, how could someone be singing in the wilderness?"
Recalling the scene, the man swallowed nervously and continued:
"We were not allowed to turn on lights after dark because light attracts bugs, so we didn't know if the person outside was human or something else."
"We only heard the voice shifting unpredictably, sometimes to the left, sometimes to the right, sometimes below our fortifications. Those of us on watch were terrified, not daring to breathe loudly."
"We just hoped this entity wouldn't notice our camp and would leave soon."
"But the sound kept appearing around the camp, as if it were circling the camp."
"Sensing something was wrong, I hurried to notify the camp leader."
"As soon as I stepped out of the fortifications, I saw Da Zhuang suddenly start laughing, and while laughing, he began to dance..."
"Da Zhuang never knew how to dance! He was even ridiculed by everyone at the last gathering because of it. But then he suddenly started dancing, and it was the kind of dance only women did..."
"I was a bit stunned, but the next second, Da Zhuang suddenly pulled out his cleaver and, without any warning, chopped off Hei Zi's head. Following that, the other guards on watch also started dancing, their smiles extremely eerie..."
"I was so scared... I didn't dare go back, I ran directly to the leader's residence."
"Just as I reached the entrance of the leader's house, I saw the leader standing at the door, repeatedly chopping at something with his knife in a mechanical manner."
"I walked closer and looked in the moonlight, and I was terrified!"
"The leader was chopping at his own wife?! Her... her body was chopped beyond recognition, except for her head, which was intact..."
Hearing this, the man's wife gagged a few times.
The scene she imagined caused her discomfort and jealousy...
"I initially thought his wife had been infected, which was why he had acted so ruthlessly, killing her. After all, we were all used to such things. Once infected, whether it was a family member or a friend, they had to be killed, otherwise, it would endanger the entire camp's safety."
"But... when killing infected individuals, we always aim for the head... yet he was chopping at her body. This made me feel very strange."
"Even stranger, as he chopped, he was smiling and saying something... his expression was extremely eerie!"
"We all knew that the leader and his wife were deeply in love. Even if one of them got infected, forcing the other to act, they wouldn't have had that kind of smiling expression..."
"I was terrified and turned to run home... but along the way, I could often hear fighting, see people dancing inexplicably, and others holding weapons, grinning foolishly at me..."
"Even facing thousands of bugs, I had never been this scared! That scene... it was too bizarre! Even now, recalling it gives me chills, and my hands were shaking..."
"I woke up my family, grabbed two cars, and we drove out immediately. Then we were tracked by a swarm of mutated mosquitoes, and then we encountered you!"
The man detailed the entire incident.
"Understood!"
Shirley nodded noncommittally, her face expressionless.
Nothing like the man's wife, who was already curled up in her seat from fear just by listening to the story.
After all, Shirley had experienced a complete cycle and had seen many things far more bizarre than what the man had encountered.
Some things even remained unexplained to this day.
Having lived under the shadow of death and terror for so long, she had become numb to such things.
After saying this, Shirley leaped back and disappeared into the darkness again.
A moment later, Shirley returned to Zhang Chen's side and recounted the entire matter.
"Everyone in the camp went mad? And dancing?"
Zhang Chen frowned. It was indeed a rather strange phenomenon.
"I think it might be some kind of mutated creature releasing a hallucinogenic toxin, causing this result... that's quite common!"
Xu Ruina said from the side.
"Yes, that's a possibility, but the singing was very strange. Mutated creatures shouldn't sing, right?"
Zhang Chen asked.
"Indeed, mutated creatures can mimic other infected individuals and survivors, but... sound isn't their primary evolutionary direction. So, being able to utter a few semi-coherent words that resemble human language is already their limit!"
"I've never heard of a mutated creature that can sing, and sing for so long?!"
Shirley said with a frown.
"Heh, this is getting interesting. We have an existence that even mutated creature scientists and a seasoned survivor from a complete cycle haven't encountered!"
Zhang Chen said with a half-joking tone.
"Then... Master, the enemy's intelligence is unknown. Should we lie low for a while?"
"Judging by the trend, this monster is heading towards densely populated areas, and it's moving south. The next target will definitely be Huguang City."
"If we continue like this, we might encounter this monster there!"
"I suggest we return to the city and wait until daylight. Once the monster has cleared Huguang City, we can proceed. That would be safer!"
Shirley suggested from the side.
"No, quite the opposite. We should depart at full speed and strive to reach Huguang City before the monster!"
"Instead of living in constant fear of a monster's ambush, it's better for us to take the initiative! We'll prepare a grand welcome for it in Huguang City!"
Zhang Chen said with a smile.