Chapter 50: Thanks to the Bounty of Nature

Lu Xiao pondered for a moment, then replied.

"Well! Whether you count as one or not, I'm definitely a human!"

Hearing this, Dart's expression collapsed completely.

The driver sighed from the side.

"You really know how to comfort people!"

Lu Xiao shrugged.

"Why care so much? Is being human really that important?"

"You've already died once, isn't it great to still be alive?"

The driver pondered this carefully and felt it actually made a lot of sense.

Lu Xiao stood up and patted the dust off his trousers.

"Alright! Stop acting like sissies, what's done is done, make the best of it!"

With that, he walked over to the orange taxi, opened the front passenger door, and sat inside.

The driver walked up to Dart and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't think too much about it, Dr. Sir gave you a task, after all!"

With that, the driver also walked toward the taxi.

Hearing the driver's words, Dart's expression turned extremely complicated.

"To survive?"

...

Inside the taxi.

Chainsaw Man and Dart sat in the back row.

Chainsaw Man's muffled voice sounded.

"Friend...!"

"You smell so nice, can I take a lick?"

Dart didn't dare to move at all.

The massive chainsaw was resting across his legs, and out of the corner of his eye, he could even see the mottled rust on the saw blade.

Lu Xiao hurriedly stopped him.

"Uncle Chainsaw! It's not polite to treat a friend like this!"

"Oh, oh!"

Chainsaw Man nodded hastily.

The driver asked from the front.

"Where are we going next?"

"The mission arranged by the Doctor, we've already completed it!"

He raised his wrist and glanced at the time on his watch.

"We've been in here for a full day, and the Doctor said we must return within two days!"

Lu Xiao grinned widely.

"Since we're already here, shouldn't we bring them back some local specialties?"

"Don't worry, one day is more than enough!"

Then he turned his head to look at Chainsaw Man.

"Uncle Chainsaw, I'll trouble you to help me catch some food in a bit, I'm bringing it back for my other friends!"

...

就这样, the taxi drove aimlessly for about two hours.

According to the positioning on the driver's watch, they were now very, very far away from the "Door".

The moment the car stopped, Chainsaw Man rushed out, brandishing his chainsaw.

Lu Xiao was toying with the bone spur in his hand.

His memory stopped at the exact moment the bone spur pierced his heart.

He had no idea what happened after that.

He raised the bone spur and gestured toward his heart.

Seeing this scene from the back seat, Dart instantly felt his scalp go numb with terror.

Although he didn't know what had happened afterward, Lu Xiao's action filled him with instinctive dread.

That fear seemed carved into his very bones, and the tentacles at the back of his head were thrashing wildly.

Making rapid pattering sounds against the seat.

"Don't do anything rash!"

He yelled out in a stop.

Lu Xiao was somewhat baffled by the sudden shout.

He withdrew the bone spur, turned his head, and asked.

"What's wrong?"

Dart's voice was trembling.

"Are you going to shove that thing into your heart again?"

Lu Xiao blinked, speechless.

"Do I look like someone who self-harms for fun?"

Dart didn't answer the question, instead letting out a long sigh of relief.

At that moment, he felt a strange thrill of surviving a catastrophe.

Suddenly, he felt that being alive wasn't so bad after all.

Lu Xiao squinted.

"Before, when I stabbed this thing into my heart, did you see what happened?"

Dart shook his head.

"I only felt a wave of intense negative emotions trying to pollute me, and then I lost consciousness!"

Hearing Dart's words, Lu Xiao fell into a brief contemplation.

Although he didn't seem to care much about the incident afterward, it didn't mean he wouldn't think about it.

Chainsaw Man had told him that the flesh-mountain monster was already dead when he arrived.

Clearly, that monster wasn't killed by Chainsaw Man.

The only explanation was that his plunging the bone spur into his heart was what caused the monster to disintegrate.

Lu Xiao picked up the bone spur and continued to play with it.

Compared to S097, which had already been thoroughly studied,
the bone spur given to him by Ivan was far more mysterious.

The driver didn't dare to speak, and the atmosphere fell into silence.

Eerie, gasping sounds drifted from the surroundings from time to time.
Those were the noises made by low-level anomalous entities.

Right now, the driver only hoped that the chainsaw-wielding badass would return quickly.
Only staying by that entity's side gave him a full sense of security.

...

Time passed by, nobody knew for how long.

The driver suddenly let out a startled exclamation.

"Holy shit! A ghost!"

Lu Xiao and Dart followed his line of sight.

A tall woman in a red dress was standing directly ahead of them.
Her gaze was fixed intently on the three of them through the front windshield.

The driver stroked his chin and remarked.

"Not gonna lie, this lady is actually quite pretty!"

The woman had delicate features, except her skin was startlingly, unnaturally pale.

Seeing the woman's appearance, a fond memory suddenly welled up in Lu Xiao's mind.
Back when he was in the Dark Prison, he had also met a beautiful lady.
As it turned out, that lady crawled right out of his stomach.

The driver was about to get out of the car to say hello.
Dart hurriedly stopped him.

"Are you insane?! This is the Dark Prison! That is definitely a terrifying anomalous lifeform!"

The driver glanced at Lu Xiao beside him, the corners of his mouth curving upward slightly.
"What is there to be afraid of?"

With that, he added a phrase.
"Thanks to nature's bounty!"

Then he pushed the door open and got out.

Lu Xiao simply sat in the passenger seat with the expression of someone watching a good show.
Dart sighed, not daring to get out of the car.

The two of them watched as the driver walked toward the delicate-looking woman.

After getting out of the car, the driver first straightened his hair, then rubbed his hands together as he walked forward.
"Hello, beautiful lady, is there anything I can help you with?"

A gentlemanly smile appeared on his face as he bowed slightly and performed a polite greeting.

When he raised his head again, the woman's figure was completely gone from his line of sight.

He turned around in confusion and looked around.

Inside the car, Lu Xiao found the scene immensely amusing.
The driver couldn't see her, but both he and Dart could see it crystal clear.

The woman was clinging directly onto the driver's back.
Strangely, the driver didn't seem to notice anything amiss.

Lu Xiao said to Dart.
"No big deal, it should be a rule-based anomalous lifeform!"
"As long as she completes her rule, she'll leave on her own!"

As the two spoke, the woman clinging to the driver's back reached out a pale, deathly hand and slowly moved it toward the driver's neck.

The driver was still spinning in place, trying to find the woman's whereabouts.
But the woman's hand was already about to touch the driver's neck.

At that moment, the driver finally sensed something.

*Snap!*

The driver's head tilted sideways, and his neck snapped with a crisp crack.

Sure enough, the woman clinging to the driver vanished into thin air.