As night slowly fell, Xi Xi was intently flipping through Sallyman's comic book.
The book's unremarkable contents did not attract much attention from Xi Xi. She simply scribbled simple drawings on her diary as she read, until the light inside the car gradually dimmed.
The vehicle continues to move forward, and thanks to its autonomous driving capabilities, it seems to have some energy left over for today.
Xi Xi closed the book, turned on the car's interior heater, leaned over the workbench, and stared into thought as she gazed at the increasingly blurred outline of the sand dunes outside the car window.
The surroundings were completely enveloped in deep darkness.
Outside the car window, there were no city neon lights, no streetlights to guide the way, only endless darkness, like a thick velvet cloth, silently covering the earth.
The little white duckling had laid another egg at some point, quacking excitedly as it flapped its wings and flew to Xi Xi's side, as if showing off its achievement or perhaps reminiscing about the feast it had enjoyed the previous night.
Xi Xi ignored it, casually stroked its little head, and turned her gaze to the thick, impenetrable darkness outside the window. As if suddenly remembering something, she took out the seven talismans she had exchanged for scorpion leg meat during the day.
The talismans were neatly stacked together, including two invisibility talismans and five talismans that had never been seen before.
Xi Xi vaguely remembered a talisman that she cared about. She stroked the stack of slightly rough yellow hemp paper in her hand, carefully examining the patterns and runes on each talisman, and pulled out the night vision talisman that depicted a vast starry sky.
[Item Description: Single-use consumable. Use grants 30 minutes of night vision, making nighttime as clear as day.]
Xi Xi carefully took out the talisman and put it in her pocket.
Since she has plenty of energy and there's an autopilot system, she wants to explore the night tonight, and this talisman might come in very handy.
The pixel map on the central control screen began to flash red dots one after another, which slowly moved backward as the car moved forward, and eventually disappeared.
Xi Xi then used the car seat talisman. With a faint flash of light, all the seats in the car seemed to be given new life. The surface was coated with a brand new coat, and the seat material became soft and comfortable, making people feel as if they were sitting on the clouds.
Xi Xi gently stroked the car mat with satisfaction, feeling its delicate texture, and then reached out to pick up the high-powered mirror talisman and examined it carefully.
Unlike other talismans that floated to their corresponding objects, the high-powered mirror talisman suddenly ignited in Xi Xi's palm without warning. Blue flames shot up, and the burning fragments danced and disappeared into the air.
The little white duck seemed to be seeing this for the first time. It swooped down to chase after the burning paper scraps, and with a muffled "bang," it crashed headfirst into the back of a chair.
"Alright, stop making things worse." Xi Xi chuckled as she scooped it into the soft carpet, then picked up the duck egg from the floor, pointed it out, and put it in the car refrigerator.
Following the prompts from the previously viewed talisman items, Xi Xi opened the light screen camera. Sure enough, a new telescope icon appeared in the lower right corner of the light screen camera, which Xi Xi tapped.
[Game Hint: High-powered light screen camera, usable 5 times. Current usage progress is 0/5. Consume one use to activate the high-powered camera?]
"No!" Xi Xi quickly rejected the idea. Since there were only 5 chances, she wouldn't waste them. She turned off the light screen and picked up the remaining two talismans—one illusion talisman and one tracking talisman.
[Item Description: One-time consumable. Can transform into any non-living object in the vicinity for 3 minutes.]
[Item Hint: One-time consumable. You can track the target's location using any item left behind.]
Xi Xi was engrossed in reading the item prompts when a familiar and crisp notification sound from the central control screen suddenly rang out, breaking the surrounding tranquility.
She snapped out of her daze and quickly peered over. There, on the pixelated map, a flashing treasure chest icon was prominently displayed on the sand dune to the upper left of the car.
I hadn't encountered a single treasure chest all afternoon, but I've finally found one.
Xi Xi, who had thought that her luck had been damaged by the curse and that she would probably have a hard time finding a treasure chest today, was suddenly filled with a sense of surprise.
Looking through the windshield, Xi Xi saw the car headlights as if the night were breaking through the darkness. Two beams of light tore a narrow slit in the darkness, illuminating the road not far ahead, but as the car sped past, they were quickly swallowed by the darkness again. This alternation of light and darkness gave her a sense of inexplicable loneliness and unease.
When the vehicle was aligned with the treasure chest on the map, Xi Xi hurriedly called for a stop.
She put on her coat, then grabbed a flashlight and got out of the car.
The air outside was bitterly cold, and the wind tousled her hair. Xi Xi jogged along, cautiously looking around.
The distant, undulating sand dunes became blurred in the night, like sleeping giants lying quietly in the darkness.
Even though the journey is so close, and I could arrive in no time, for some reason, when I am in this boundless darkness, it feels incredibly far away.
The flashlight beam occasionally swept across strange shapes, perhaps weathered sand or the remains of some creature. In the dim light, everything seemed so eerie and terrifying.
Just as Xi Xi approached the treasure chest, a dark shadow swept overhead at an astonishing speed.
Immediately afterwards, a gust of cold wind swept over me, carrying with it an indescribable fishy stench.
Xi Xi's heart tightened, and she quickly retreated, trying to avoid the dark shadow, but the sand here was too soft, and every step was extremely sluggish.
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