As soon as Deng Yuqi finished speaking, she rushed to the driver’s seat of the haunted car, raised the fire extinguisher, and smashed its base against the window. The moment the glass shattered, she twisted open the extinguisher’s valve and unleashed a torrent of freezing spray directly at the burning, ghostly driver inside!

Standing behind her, Shen Ge immediately felt the surrounding air drop several degrees. Then, he watched as the flaming window, seats, and even the driver became encased in a layer of ice.

This was the latest “Supernatural Energy Equipment” developed by the Special Countermeasures Department’s technical team—capable of releasing a blast of cold air far more potent than a standard dry-ice fire extinguisher.

Once a supernatural entity was frozen, it could be shattered.

Just then, Shen Ge heard a sudden noise behind him. A nearby sedan, apparently terrified that the burning haunted car might explode and take it down too, swerved sharply in an attempt to escape. But the panicked driver mistakenly slammed the accelerator instead of the brake, ramming into the car ahead.

The impact sent the front car lurching toward Deng Yuqi, who had her back turned.

“Look out!” Shen Ge reacted instantly, lunging forward and tackling Deng Yuqi to the ground just in time to avoid the collision. However, his arm was grazed by the freezing spray, instantly frosting over. Meanwhile, the out-of-control car was shoved forward again by another vehicle behind it, slamming into the burning haunted car.

Crack.

Crack.

Inside the haunted car, the driver—its lower body engulfed in flames, its upper half frozen solid—turned its head directly backward, then sharply to the right. The middle-aged woman in the out-of-control car let out a piercing scream before her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.

The ghostly driver’s mouth gaped open once more, revealing a pale, horrifying face within its basin-sized maw. It lunged toward the unconscious woman.

Deng Yuqi sprang up and charged forward, pulling on a pair of black gloves as she moved. Just as the spectral head was about to sink its teeth into the woman, she seized it by the throat.

BANG!

A gunshot rang out in the distance. A bullet struck the ghostly head’s neck, severing it cleanly!

The sniper, Huo Yu, had taken position at a high vantage point overlooking Chenghong Road. The moment chaos erupted, he’d located the supernatural entity through his scope.

The moment the ghostly head’s neck was severed, it instantly transformed into a chunk of wood. But before long, another ghastly face began to regrow inside the driver’s gaping mouth!

This time, however, the driver didn’t get the chance to spit it out—because Shen Ge had already rushed to the driver’s side with the fire extinguisher and blasted the interior with another wave of freezing gas!

Deng Yuqi’s original plan had been to use the “Supernatural Energy Equipment: Freezing Device” to immobilize the driver completely before figuring out how to destroy it for good.

But Shen Ge, after half an hour of life-or-death struggle inside the car, had deduced that the driver’s mouth—and the ghostly face within—was its weak point.

The driver’s entire head, including the terrifying face, was now frozen solid.

But before Shen Ge could even sigh in relief, a sound like shattering glass echoed through the air. The frozen face cracked the ice and inched forward again.

Shen Ge’s gaze flicked to the discarded chunk of wood Deng Yuqi had left on the ground. Then he remembered his first encounter with the driver—how, in a daze, he’d seen it turn entirely into wood.

“Your turn!” Shen Ge shoved the freezing device into Deng Yuqi’s arms, then vaulted onto the hood of a nearby car, leaped to the roof, and dashed across the greenbelt toward the sidewalk.

…He was running away?

Deng Yuqi was stunned—but honestly, his escape was for the best. The fewer civilians caught up in supernatural incidents, the easier it was for the Special Countermeasures Department to operate.

Only two or three minutes had passed since the haunted car emerged from the supernatural space, yet the department’s operatives had already swarmed the area, evacuating bystanders under orders.

Two agents, carrying a bulky machine, approached the haunted car and began scanning the driver’s seat with a specialized device.

“Data transmitted. We’re in a crowded urban zone—analyze and identify the weakness ASAP!” the scanner operator barked into his comms.

Deng Yuqi, still maintaining the freeze on the entity, suddenly noticed the chunk of wood at her feet. Then she recalled how quickly Shen Ge had set the driver ablaze earlier.

The weakness was fire.

“Its weakness is fire! Contact support—get a flamethrower here NOW!” she ordered.

Just then, Shen Ge came sprinting back, clutching a basket. The two scanning agents immediately moved to intercept him.

“Sir, this area is dangerous. Evacuate immediately!”

Ignoring them, Shen Ge dodged past and rushed to Deng Yuqi’s side, hoisting a bucket of liquor. “Officer Deng, stop freezing it—let me try something!”

Deng Yuqi, seeing the alcohol, instantly grasped his plan and shut off the freezing device. “Mr. Shen, let me handle this!”

But Shen Ge had already unscrewed the cap.

CRACK.

The ghostly face broke free again—only for Shen Ge to force the entire bucket into the driver’s gaping mouth, pouring the liquor down its throat in a relentless deluge.

Then, he flicked open a lighter.

SNAP.

The ghostly face inside the driver’s mouth twisted in agony. Earlier, Shen Ge’s accidental fire had nearly destroyed it—only for the supernatural space to collapse and Deng Yuqi’s intervention to save it.

But now that both of them knew its weakness, fire would be their weapon of choice.

[Host demonstrates exceptional wit and courage, single-handedly slaying a Tier-2 supernatural entity. Reward: 100 System Points, 1 Random F-grade Supply Item.]

[Extract reward now?]

Huh?

System, your latency is kinda ridiculous.

Shen Ge hadn’t expected the system—silent all this time—to suddenly reactivate after killing the haunted car driver, complete with a reward for the kill.

Was it because of the four-year time discrepancy?

Did the system only detect supernatural entities that would still exist four years later?

Or did it perceive targets based on their state four years in the future?

This Tier-2 entity, the “Haunted Car,” might not exist in four years—which would explain why the system hadn’t detected it initially. Only after its destruction did the reward trigger.

“But neither the stray cat earlier nor the stationary entity ‘Immobile’ triggered kill rewards…”

After some thought, Shen Ge hypothesized that the system’s reward mechanism had two modes:

* For entities that still exist four years later, rewards come from selling their remains or absorbing their traits.

* For entities that don’t, killing them grants system points and random supplies.

Either way, rewards were rewards.

With the entity eliminated, cleanup began.

Deng Yuqi directed her team to assist the police in crowd control and scene lockdown before escorting Shen Ge to the Special Countermeasures Department for debriefing.

Shen Ge was ushered into a room that looked suspiciously like an interrogation chamber, though the sign on the door read “Discussion Room.”

An agent brought him a glass of water and left. After a short wait, Deng Yuqi entered with a notepad and sat across from him.

“Mr. Shen, according to your account, you received a ride-hailing voucher from the BaBa App this afternoon. After work, you attempted to use it and were subsequently drawn into the supernatural incident. Is that correct?” Deng Yuqi asked.

Shen Ge nodded. “I think the BaBa App needs another investigation—”

Deng Yuqi almost nodded in agreement—until Shen Ge added:

“—They only give out one 15-yuan voucher per month. How is that enough? Rides are expensive these days. They should give users more discounts!”

“…”

That’s what you’re concerned about?

Deng Yuqi’s expression stiffened. Suppressing the urge to retort, she continued the debrief.

“Mr. Shen, have you heard of Supernatural Energy Equipment?”

Shen Ge shook his head. Deng Yuqi proceeded to explain:

“The ‘fire extinguisher’ you used earlier to freeze the entity is one such device—the ‘Freezing Module.’”