Chapter 20

The number of online players in the server has returned to exactly 100,000.

Qiao Ning opened the chat channel and learned from the messages sent by everyone that, apart from the original 30,000-plus people in District 1408, the rest were all survivors from other districts who had been merged in.

But this is not a true server merge.

A true server merge involves reshuffling and merging all servers with a survival rate below 20%.

The current situation seems more like there aren't enough players in the server to "fill the gap".

The server number is determined by the server number with the most survivors among the several servers in the area to be filled.

Regardless of which district those people were from before, everyone is now in district 1408.

Qiao Ning never expected that District 1408, with only over 30,000 survivors, would have the largest number of survivors among the several infilled districts.

[Your district actually has over 35,000 survivors? Our district only has 20,000-odd survivors; we almost had a disaster.]

Our district is a bit better off than yours; we have a few hundred more people.

[District 1408 is truly amazing. Several top players in our district have been consistently contributing resources, which has barely kept the survival rate above 20%. I don't know how District 1408 managed to do it; perhaps they have a lot of skilled players?]

[In response to the comment above, perhaps it's because our area is relatively united and cooperative. There were always experienced players leading the way in buying scarce resources at low prices, and on the last night, someone even provided a method to deal with monster attacks on vehicles. Otherwise, so many of us really wouldn't have survived.]

[It's true that more people survived in District 1408, but I'm sure the top players in your district aren't as strong as those in ours. Our top player is incredibly powerful; he topped all seven major leaderboards. Isn't that amazing?]

[That's not necessarily true. How much combat power does the top player on your district's overall strength ranking have? And how many points do they have on the kill ranking?]

[Our district's big shot...]

Seeing that the topic had veered off to comparing which district's big boss was more powerful, Qiao Ning simply stopped watching.

It's dark now, and driving is too dangerous. Qiao Ning and Li Yang had spent the whole day at the service area, eating, drinking, bathing, and having fun. They were a bit tired, so it was a good time for them to wash up and rest.

She instructed the smart home assistant to wake her up at 7 a.m. the next morning, and then Qiao Ning went to bed.

At seven o'clock the next day, only the housekeeper could prepare to wake Qiao Ning up.

She yawned, got up, put on her clothes, rinsed her mouth, and washed her face.

For breakfast, Qiao Ning had spicy soup and fried dough sticks. The fried dough sticks were made by Qiao Ning in an air fryer, and the spicy soup was homemade. Qiao Ning's maternal grandmother is from Henan and makes excellent spicy soup, the kind that could be sold on the street. Qiao Ning learned how to make it from her grandmother.

People in Henan province drink a lot of spicy soup, and the spicy soup from Xiaoyao Town is very famous. Qiao Ning even considered going back to her hometown to set up a stall and sell spicy soup.

Qiao Ning loves to soak fried dough sticks in hot and sour soup and can eat several big fried dough sticks in one meal.

She likes to add a little vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil to her hot and sour soup, which makes it taste even better.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content and cleaning up the pots and pans, Qiao Ning checked the time and, having finished upgrading and modifying the car, started the engine and hit the road.

The game system said that the newbie period was over, and everyone would encounter supply boxes more frequently and have a lower drop rate when opening them. Qiao Ning was naturally affected as well.

Upgrading to a Level 3 car significantly increased her interior space, enough to fit a two-meter-long bed, and even a number of large appliances and furniture.

Now she can reach a top speed of 120 kilometers per hour, driven by a smart assistant. Even on winding mountain roads, she can drive at full speed without worrying about overturning.

There's no longer a guarantee of a supply crate based on how many kilometers you travel; all supply crates appear randomly.

At kilometer 60, Qiao Ning encountered a supply crate, but there was only one, and it was a 3-star crate.

She didn't open it, but put it in the glove compartment for the time being, and then continued driving.

After that, the frequency of encountering supply boxes was unpredictable. Sometimes they appeared at 60 kilometers, sometimes at 120 kilometers, and at most once after driving 180 kilometers.

It's always the same one. Most of them are 3-star or 4-star, very few are 2-star, and there are no 1-star ones.

Compared to the three supply crates you get every time during the beginner phase, the difference is quite significant. Fortunately, the star rating isn't low, giving me a considerable advantage over others.

A Class III car consumes 4 units of fuel per hour. Over a day, driving for 11 hours, and adding the fuel consumed by in-car appliances such as washing machines, cooking, toilets, lighting, and smart home systems, the total fuel consumption would be approximately 46 units of gasoline.

This is the most basic consumption.

With a smart assistant driving, Qiao Ning has more time to focus on the chat channel.

She made pizza and Orleans roast chicken in the oven this morning when she had nothing to do. She already had plenty of seasonings and ingredients, and if she really needed anything, she could easily find it by searching in the trading area. They weren't expensive.

Since most people don't use much seasoning, they'll put their surplus on the shelves to exchange for other supplies. The prices are low.

Survival games have a fast-paced daily life. Players are busy driving around during the day to find supply crates, so they basically don't have time to cook for themselves. Therefore, in the trading area, things that can be eaten and drunk directly are a bit more expensive, while ingredients that require cooking, such as rice and flour, are rarely bought with supplies.

Qiao Ning gave some of the food she couldn't finish to Li Yangxing as a favor, and put the rest up for sale, which also helped her exchange it for a lot of ingredients.

At noon, Qiao Ning picked up another 4-star supply box. As she was about to return to her car, she suddenly noticed that the figure of a wild animal seemed to flash by in the woods to her left.

Qiao Ning was stunned. In the last natural disaster cycle, the environment where the highway was located was a barren land with no living creatures at all. It wasn't until the last day that they encountered living insects.

This highway winds its way up the mountains, so it's normal for there to be wild animals in the forests. What Qiao Ning is worried about is whether these animals will break out of the forests and come onto the highway.

What if she parks her car to rest at night, and a wild animal discovers it and attacks?

Qiao Ning scanned the chat channel's message history; no players had been attacked by wild animals yet. However, some players, driven by excessive curiosity, couldn't resist approaching the roadside and venturing into the forest while getting out of their vehicles to collect supply crates.

This player has lost contact with their friends; private messages and emails sent to their friends list have gone unanswered.

His friend mentioned this in the chat channel, hoping he would see the message and let him know he was safe. He also wanted to remind others not to leave the road unnecessarily.

Outside the highway... it felt like another world to her, and it was very dangerous.

Qiao Ning was naturally curious as well. With the equipment she had, she felt confident that exploring the world beyond the highway wouldn't hurt. Gaining some information early would be beneficial later on.

Based on her gaming experience, she knew that in the later stages of the game, the system would never allow them to simply drive around, search for resources, and even bypass the monsters guarding the treasure, in such a comfortable way.

In her opinion, the world outside the highway will be unlocked sooner or later, making survival more difficult for everyone. It would be too passive to start facing and exploring it when that time comes.

Qiao Ning has never liked playing games passively like this.

She prefers to gather as many resources and information as possible in the early stages of the game to prepare for the later stages.

Qiao Ning wasn't recklessly bold; she only conceived the idea of ​​exploring the area outside the highway after acquiring the defensive treasure ring. She certainly wouldn't risk her life by leaving the highway without being absolutely certain of her safety.

The problem now is that if we want to explore areas outside the highway, we will inevitably have to sacrifice some of the time we spend driving around during the day looking for supply crates.

She needs to carefully consider this loss; she can't let it outweigh the gains.

Wild animals in the forest are mostly active at night. The darkness and shady trees would greatly impair her eyesight and alertness, increasing the danger.

Therefore, Qiao Ning did not plan to explore too late. Currently, the smart butler was driving, waiting for her to finish lunch and take a half-hour nap before parking and heading into the mountains.

For lunch, I had a whole 9-inch pizza, four Portuguese egg tarts, a bottle of thick yogurt, a cup of hot water, a plate of cherry tomatoes, an apple, and two bananas.

She discovered that her appetite had been increasing ever since she started playing the game.

The Level 3 car had a large interior, which she had modified to resemble a typical campervan. She folded up the luxurious bathroom with a folding gem, saving space and freeing up a large area for her daily exercise and activities. Besides cooking and watching TV, she spent the rest of her time practicing her Fiery Blade Technique here.

Learning a skill book only means you've learned the skill, not that you're proficient. To use it more skillfully, you need to practice it regularly.

Especially combat skills; if they are not used for extensive training and real combat, even if you learn the skill book, you will not be able to unleash their full potential.

Qiao Ning was worried that spending all day eating and drinking in the car would make her gain weight, so after getting a level 2 car, she never stopped exercising every day. Gaining weight affects agility, which doesn't matter in a peaceful society, but in a survival game, it's best to avoid gaining weight as much as possible.

After a half-hour lunch break, Qiao Ning tidied up, put on all the gear she could, got out of the car fully equipped, and walked to the edge of the road.

Strangely enough, at the junction of the highway and the forest, there seems to be an invisible barrier in the middle, forming a clear boundary line of black soil about 2 centimeters wide. Not even a single weed grows on this side of the boundary line.

Qiao Ning felt inexplicably nervous. She glanced at the lush green forest, gripped the Black Flame Bone Knife in her hand, took a deep breath, stepped off the road, and crossed the boundary line.