novelno Chapter 642 - 603: Headcount Detector
Chapter 642 - 603: Headcount Detector
But just as Zhao Rong was about to open his phone to see the video his assistant had sent him, the three women immediately stopped him. They ushered him into the car, saying, "Brother Zhao Rong, we need to get out of this awful place right now! If we stay any longer, who knows what other horrible things might happen..."
Hearing their pleas, Zhao Rong had no choice but to put his phone away. He got into the driver’s seat and started the car, thinking, Forget it. I’ll just watch the clip secretly in the bathroom later when they’re not around... If it’s any good, maybe I can even get one off...
However, as Zhao Rong drove onto the highway, he suddenly felt that there weren’t five people in the car, but six. He glanced in the rearview mirror at the three women in the back seat and asked, "Ladies, does it feel to any of you like there are six people in here instead of five?"
When the three women heard this, they grew frightened. "Brother Zhao Rong, are you joking?" Lili asked. "It’s just your assistant, you, and the three of us. That’s five people. Why would you say there are six?"
Hearing Lili’s question, Zhao Rong immediately took a high-tech device from his Magic Ring. "This gadget is called a People Detector," he explained. "If you don’t believe me, you can use it to check for yourself."
Lili took the People Detector from Zhao Rong, examining the curious device. "Brother Zhao Rong, is this another high-tech product you bought from the Paradise Shopping Cart?"
As he drove, Zhao Rong explained to Lili, "It’s called a People Detector. It’s not exactly my most high-tech gadget, but it can accurately detect the number of people within a defined space."
Amazed by how magical it sounded, Lili immediately pressed the red button, pointing the device around the interior of the car. The result she saw on the screen made her jump. To her astonishment, the People Detector confirmed it: there were indeed six people in the vehicle.
Yu Lan, sitting beside Lili, peered at the device’s screen. It clearly displayed six human silhouettes. After counting everyone in the car again, she asked in disbelief, "Brother Zhao Rong, is this People Detector from the Paradise Shopping Cart really reliable? Why does it say there are six of us when there are obviously only five?"
Zhao Rong replied to Yu Lan grimly, "Everything from the Paradise Shopping Cart is the real deal—top quality and technologically advanced. So, the number it detected is definitely correct. That can only mean one thing: there really are six people in this car. The sixth one is just... invisible to us. But the detector can still pick them up."
Hearing this, Xuelian felt a chill run down her spine. "Brother Zhao Rong," she stammered, "are you saying that the sixth person in this car has an invisible body, or... or it’s a ghost without a body? Something we can’t see with our own eyes?"
Zhao Rong couldn’t say for sure. "As for what this sixth person is—human, ghost, alien, monster, or even a magical beast—I have no idea."
The assistant, sitting beside Zhao Rong, pulled a pair of strange-looking glasses from his pocket. He put them on and began meticulously scanning every corner of the cramped vehicle. "I don’t buy it," he declared. "How could six people fit in a space this small? I’m going to find this stowaway."
However, after searching the entire car with the special glasses, he found absolutely nothing.
Just as they were all searching for the sixth person, Zhao Rong realized something was terribly wrong. The car was no longer responding to him—the brakes had failed. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead. He yelled to his assistant and the three women in the back, "What’s going on? The brakes are out! And we’re careening down the highway at 150 miles per hour!"
Hearing that the brakes had failed while the car was speeding frantically at 150 miles per hour, the assistant quickly buckled his seatbelt. He gripped the handle above the door, his palms slick with cold sweat. "Brother Zhao Rong, don’t scare me! If we can’t get the car under control, we’re all going to die in a wreck!"
Lili, bewildered, asked Zhao Rong, "Brother Zhao Rong, what’s happening? The car was perfectly fine a minute ago! How did it suddenly go out of control?"
Zhao Rong offered a terrifying guess to the women. "It’s probably our invisible sixth passenger. It must be tampering with the car, trying to kill us all..."
Yu Lan spotted a toll plaza looming in the distance and cried out in fear, "Brother Zhao Rong, you have to slow down! We’re about to hit that toll station!"
Xuelian stared in horror at the lanes ahead, which were jammed with large trucks, dump trucks, and cement mixers. "Brother Zhao Rong, get into the ETC lane!" she shouted frantically. "If we go through the manual toll lane, we’ll crash right into the back of those trucks!"
Wrenching the steering wheel, Zhao Rong aimed the car toward the automated ETC lane, preparing to smash through the gate. "Everyone, seatbelts on and hold tight!" he yelled. "I’m punching through! The speed is out of my control!"
Hearing Zhao Rong’s command, the assistant and the three women braced themselves. They all squeezed their eyes shut at the moment of impact. With a loud CRACK, Zhao Rong’s Mercedes SUV shattered the barrier gate and shot through successfully, continuing onto the next stretch of the highway.
When the three women saw that they had made it through without serious damage to the car and that everyone was safe, they let out a collective sigh of relief. Looking back at the demolished toll gate, one of them said guiltily, "Brother Zhao Rong, we were forced to do that because the car was out of control. Once we get it sorted, we have to go back and apologize to the toll station staff and compensate them for the damage."
Zhao Rong nodded in agreement. "Once we regain control of the car, we’ll absolutely go back, pay for the damages, and accept the legal consequences."
With that settled, Zhao Rong pulled out his phone again. He opened the Paradise Shopping Cart app, intending to find and buy a Divine Artifact capable of overriding an out-of-control vehicle.