There can't be a Harvest Moon in the RimWorld.

Jackie said, sounding troubled, but still steadily driving the car. "It could be the air, it could be the humidity, it could be something in my head, but it just doesn't feel right! I've been driving for so long, and I feel like something's really off here!"

"That's right! It was a rest stop! That rest stop never appeared again!"

"Calm down, keep moving forward, and we will definitely find our way."

The middle-aged man calmly reassured the driver, placing his hand on the door handle, his posture like that of a leopard, alert and restrained before a hunt.

This road, shrouded in thick fog, stretched out gently and endlessly, seemingly with no end in sight.

The passengers, lulled by the monotonous scenery and the continued fatigue of the journey, once again drifted into drowsiness, but none of them truly fell asleep. They dozed off with one eye open and one eye closed.

Inside the car, only the driver, Jackie, with bloodshot eyes, stubbornly kept driving forward, unwilling to let up for even a moment.

At this point, Jackie couldn't tell whether he was awake or asleep, or even whether he was still conscious.

Jackie felt as if he had become the soul within the body of this steel insect, vigilantly and nervously controlling his small, safe haven, relying on the thin sheet metal to defend against an indescribable, imaginary enemy...

When the car clock showed 5:30 a.m., which meant they had been driving for another two hours, the unexpected happened.

When his eyes were almost completely useless, he felt that the cloudiness in his eyes had lessened.

At that moment, Jackie thought he was getting used to the environment, or that he was finally going to go blind, and a strange sense of terror arose from the bottom of his heart.

But after walking a little further, he could finally confirm that the thick fog outside was receding...

When his incredulous gaze met that of the middle-aged man in the passenger seat, he knew this was no illusion.

The fog is finally going to clear!

…………

When the round-faced youth woke up again, he felt as if he were still driving on the endless east-west highway, and everything was still so boring and noisy.

But when he looked out the window, the strange scenery stunned him, and for a moment he burst into tears!

The thick fog outside the window has dissipated, and the vast sky shimmers with countless cold lights, telling of the unchanging, desolate years.

In the distance, the gloomy mountains were writhing in the darkness, changing shape as the car moved. Against that deep black background, not a single tree could be seen; they all merged into one, like a giant beast covered in jet-black feathers lying silently in the distance.

The round-faced young man turned his attention back to the road, which had finally been restored to its original state, with neatly painted lanes, well-constructed guardrails, and clearly marked road signs, all reflecting the appearance that a qualified highway should have.

"We're out!" he couldn't help but cheer with joy.

But driver Jackie wasn't as optimistic as he'd imagined; instead, his tone was heavy with a completely different kind of somberness: "We've broken through the fog, but it's not over yet..."

"The clock shows 6:00 AM, but there's no sign of dawn here. If we can't find a way out, we'll really be stuck on this endless road forever..."

The round-faced youth's heart sank to the bottom once again.

Yes, if they can't even escape from here by car, what other way is there?

Should we just stop on the side of the road and wait to die?

Or should we climb over the railing and escape into the forest?

Where exactly is the road exit that should be located?

"What should we do?" he muttered to himself.

As he looked up, a colossal bridge rose from the valley floor, standing proudly between heaven and earth, like a passageway spanning the sky. It crossed over him, casting a massive shadow that swallowed up all the light.

“What is that!” he asked.

"The elevated bridge of the second phase of the project," driver Jackie said calmly.

"Unlike the first phase of the project, the second phase consists entirely of elevated bridges. After the completion of the second phase, the road underwent a complete reconstruction. The two four-lane roads in the first phase were merged into one, while the elevated bridges in the second phase are now a separate road."

"This creates a unique two-way road pattern. Those of us traveling from west to east take the mountain road. Those traveling in the opposite direction from east to west take the viaduct the entire way."

"What you see is the viaduct in another direction."

At this moment, the square-faced young man in the back seat said, "Mr. Jackie, if we can get onto that overpass, can we go in the opposite direction and return to the starting point?"

Jackie smiled wryly, "Of course, the solution is feasible. But there's no way to turn around on a two-way highway, especially an east-west highway. How are we supposed to drive up that high?"

The middle-aged man in the front row pondered, "Unless we can drive out from one exit and then drive in from the other, we won't be able to achieve our goal of turning around."

“Aren’t we looking for an exit? If there were an exit, we wouldn’t be wandering around here aimlessly; I would have driven out long ago,” Jackie said helplessly.

Suddenly, the round-faced youth exclaimed, "Look! What's that?!"

The people in the car quickly looked in the direction he pointed.

Now that the fog has cleared and visibility is good, they can all see a tall road sign indicating the location of the exit.

And right next to that road sign was a ramp leading out of the highway!

Chapter 64 Road

The road they had been waiting for had appeared here so simply?

"Mr. Jackie, am I seeing things?"

The round-faced youth rubbed his eyes and asked incredulously.

"I saw it too!" the square-faced youth chimed in, his eyes gleaming as he gazed intently at the mysteriously appearing road.

The middle-aged man in the front seat remained calm: "There must be something strange about this road, but we have no other choice now, do we?"

The car remained parked by the roadside, quietly awaiting its next move, its headlights illuminating a limited distance and reflecting off the guardrail of the ramp.

Driver Jackie looked at everyone with a complicated expression and said with some difficulty, "We're running low on gas. If we drive out, we probably won't have enough gas to get back. Should we gamble on the road ahead, or take this ramp?"

By this time, everyone had had enough of this damned road and didn't want to stay there any longer, not even for another second.

"Let's go down, what if we find a gas station?"

"Perhaps we can find another entrance there, so we can get in touch with the staff."

"Alright, let's go then, everyone hold on tight."

After reaching a consensus, Jackie started the car again and turned straight onto the ramp without stopping.

The road is located on an inconspicuous hilltop. A road has been carved out of the mountainside to go downhill, only wide enough for two cars to pass side by side, but the road surface is still very well paved.

Strangely, the trees on both sides of the road were exceptionally lush, appearing as if shrouded in dark clouds that blocked out the sun, unwilling to reveal even a glimpse of the scenery to travelers.

The car drove slowly, but the intersection they had imagined did not appear. The road remained like the endless River Styx, leaving their hearts adrift in the void.

As the ramp advanced, the guardrails on both sides disappeared without warning, and the road deteriorated from asphalt to a mostly broken cement road. Only the trees on both sides remained dense and tall, obstructing the driver's view.

Sometimes, it feels as if the trees on both sides are pressing down on the middle like an overwhelming tidal wave; sometimes, it feels as if the trees on both sides are marching in a line along the road; and sometimes, it feels as if those trees have been alive, twisting their branches wildly and dancing a foolish and obscure dance...

"This place is terrifying! Could we have gotten lost?"

The round-faced youth nervously asked for everyone's opinions, even though he was only stating an obvious fact.

“Mr. Jackie, I remember you said your father walked along a secret path with tall trees on both sides, is it like this place?”

The middle-aged man remained seated in his place and asked, word by word.

"Hmm...this place does indeed resemble what he described."

Driver Jackie wasn't sure either, racking his brains to recall stories he'd heard before.

"But my father wasn't driving on the highway at the time. Back then, the highway was only in its first phase, and the second phase hadn't even started yet."

"They were traveling in several vehicles on an ancient road lined with trees on both sides. They stopped at a place that looked like a round ancient tomb after the experts finished their inspection and returned home."

"It was just a normal drive; there couldn't possibly have been so many bizarre events!"

Suddenly, a brilliant idea flashed through the round-faced youth's mind, and he thought of a very important clue: "No, our path doesn't resemble Mr. Jackie's father's story, but rather the story of that radio station!"

He practically roared these words, as if if he spoke softly or slowly, the clue would slip out of his mind.

"The same fog, the same unfamiliar road, the same endless journey," he said despairingly. "What awaits us might be an even longer, hopeless journey with no end in sight! We'll be trapped and die on this road, just like him!"

I can't find the end of the road, the highway exit, the location of the overpass, or even my own location...

The group suddenly turned around and saw that the road behind them was completely different!

The original highway had completely disappeared. From their perspective, all they could see, whether in front or behind, was a narrow and gloomy path, surrounded by layers of trees, creating an extremely oppressive atmosphere.

"We should have been on the highway ramp, right? We only drove there for a short while, and we haven't even reached the highway exit yet. How did we end up on this country road?"

The oppressive atmosphere, reflected in the dim light inside the car, carried several travelers filled with doubts and questions as they continued driving along the side road.

The square-faced youth's intense rationality had not been extinguished. He said, "Based on our experience, since we were able to get here by following a certain route, we should be able to deduce the way back."

"And now we are in an increasingly strange position. It can't be some unsolved mystery. We must have overlooked some important condition."

"Different results will only occur when the control variables fail to be controlled."

His round-faced companion listened for a while and then asked, "So, are there any obvious differences in our conditions? Is it listening to the radio, encountering heavy fog, or something else?"

"No, no, no," the square-faced youth said seriously, "What you said isn't the most important condition. Those anomalies were all triggered after we met certain conditions. So now we need to seriously consider where the problem lies."

"My guess is the wiring."

He displayed an astonishing intuition: "The route we took may have inadvertently fulfilled a certain condition. For example, traveling late at night, arriving at the abandoned engineering command center, and entering the ramp. These three routes may all be a special condition, so anyone could encounter the same situation as us."

"This possibility could explain why the stories on the radio are so similar to our experiences."

Driver Jackie also said, "Yes, could it be that after hearing this story, we unconsciously wanted to imitate their behavior? As a result, the other person only did one thing, but after listening to the radio, we subconsciously did everything. So we just happened to make a mistake at every step."

"At least if we hadn't heard the second story, we certainly wouldn't have gone to check the inside of that car in the fog, nor would we have been so terrified that we ran out of the engineering command center parking lot."

The group of people, one after another, gradually deduced the truth of the matter based on the square-faced youth's speculation, and they realized that their behavior had been greatly influenced by that broadcast.

The round-faced youth said bitterly, "If it weren't for that broadcast, we wouldn't be in this predicament. Maybe that broadcast wasn't some mysterious event at all, but just a pretext broadcast by someone with ulterior motives to induce others to do these things."

The square-faced young man gestured for the driver to stop. "Then let's keep going. This time we absolutely can't listen to what the radio says. It says we'll be stuck here and can't get out, so let's just keep going. Since this is a road, it must have an end."

After saying that, he picked up a stone, made a mark on a tree trunk by the roadside, and said...

“We’ll mark the tree every now and then. If the mark keeps appearing, it means there’s a problem. If not, we’ll definitely get out.”

He gritted his teeth: "Even if we have to walk, we will get out of here!"

Chapter 65 Strange Land

Every five minutes, the square-faced young man would get off the bus and make a clear mark on a tree.

This behavior is repeated over and over.