Chapter 24

Qiao Ning left the highway area and entered the mountain forest at noon. She spent a long time fighting monsters there, and now she came out at 6 pm.

As soon as she came out, Qiao Ning felt that the air on the highway was slightly more humid than before she entered the mountains.

Qiao Ning returned to the car and instructed the smart assistant to continue driving.

If the return trip card could lock the vehicle's location, and the return exit would be located wherever the car goes, Qiao Ning could have the smart assistant help her drive and pick up the supply boxes.

Of course, she first had to drive to the robotic arm blueprints, build it, and install it in the car so that the smart home assistant could control the robotic arm to pick up the supply boxes without Qiao Ning having to get out of the car herself.

Unfortunately, she didn't have the blueprints for the robotic arm, and the return card only allowed her to enter and exit from the same point.

Qiao Ning encountered 4 treasure chests in the morning, fought monsters in the afternoon, and encountered 7 more treasure chests in the remaining 2 hours from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Four 4-star, two 3-star, and one 2-star.

She's already trying her best not to compare the current drop rate of supply boxes with that of the early game. If her situation is like this, other players with average luck are in an even worse predicament.

The chat history scrolled up and was full of people criticizing the game and the developers, and complaining.

Qiao Ning strongly suspects that this game has no planner at all, and relies entirely on the system's autonomous operation, or some kind of supercomputer calculation...

At 8 p.m., Qiao Ning parked the car, turned off the engine, and started cooking.

For dinner, I had noodles with soybean paste and a fruit platter. To entertain myself while eating, I watched a melodramatic family drama. I also showed off a bag of potato chips, two bags of yam chips, a plate of French fries, five Colonel's Chicken nuggets, and a large, bursting chicken cutlet.

After finishing her meal and brushing her teeth, Qiao Ning took a hot bath in the luxurious bathroom to relax. When she opened the toiletries, her hand was already reaching for the moisturizing set she had obtained during the last natural disaster cycle. However, just before opening it, she suddenly remembered how tricky the game system was... In the end, she abruptly turned her hand and opened the ordinary toiletries she had obtained earlier instead.

Based on the painful lessons other players learned during the last natural disaster, Qiao Ning decided it was best to be cautious. She decided to hold off on using the special items from the last disaster for now, to avoid any potential side effects.

After taking a shower, Qiao Ning put her clothes back on, which had automatically cleaned themselves and were now as clean as new. Her sense of security returned immediately.

She sat cross-legged on the bed, taking stock of the day's supplies.

7 supply crates, total contents:

Desiccant*10, Insect Repellent Incense*20 sticks

100 units of gasoline, 20 liters of drinking water

10 towel rolls, 10 egg tarts, 5 cheese buns, 10 deluxe sandwiches, and 30 10-inch large pizzas (beef and bacon, seafood, and fruit flavors).

10 sushi boats (20 different flavors per serving), 5 jin of beef, 5 jin of lean pork, and 10 jin of bananas.

Ten boxes each of dehumidifying camphor balls, dehumidifying mugwort patches, and dehumidifying and cleansing oral liquid, with 10 doses per box.

Although it can't compare to the harvest from the last natural disaster, there's still quite a lot of stuff; we have everything we need.

Qiao Ning noticed one thing: the food she ordered today all needed to be eaten as soon as possible, otherwise it would spoil quickly and was inconvenient to store.

She wasn't sure if this was a special case today, or if it would be the same in the future.

Qiao Ning opened the chat channel and found that she was not alone in getting a large amount of food that was difficult to store. At first, many players were smug, saying that they had gotten a lot of delicious food and finally satisfied their cravings.

The more people discussed it, the more unusual things they noticed.

This natural disaster is caused by dampness. What problems will occur in an excessively damp environment?

Food spoils easily.

Mold is growing everywhere.

Excessive moisture can also cause problems for the human body.

Among 100,000 people, it's impossible that Qiao Ning was the only one who thought of these things. There are plenty of smart people out there. After everyone realized what was happening, the prices in the trading area began to change dramatically again.

Gasoline and drinking water are essential necessities, and their exchange prices will not change significantly.

But food is a different story. Foods that can be stored for a long time, like compressed biscuits and canned goods, have seen their prices skyrocket. Meanwhile, the prices of fresh, delicious food have plummeted.

Qiao Ning has a 100-cubic-meter storage box where time is frozen and things don't spoil. So she took this opportunity to exchange her unpalatable dry food for a lot of delicious food that she loved but hadn't yet obtained. In addition to ready-made food, she also collected fresh ingredients, dairy products, dessert ingredients, and so on.

Qiao Ning obtained the storage box blueprint through a single draw from a wish box, and apart from herself, no one else has ever seen it. Perhaps the other owners are simply discreet and haven't let others know, thus preventing the news from spreading. Many people are still unaware that the game contains such an essential item for home and travel.

Qiao Ning's main targets for acquisition are still various basic materials. Today, she opened seven supply boxes and didn't even get a single piece of wood. The material drop rate is already extremely low.

The passive effect of Lucky Star, "Auspicious Star Descends," is triggered in the "wilderness" of the world outside the highway, where a set of stamina potions is obtained.

Qiao Ning currently has some materials in stock, but stamina potions are what she needs most, unfortunately, they're not sold on the trading market at all. After all, there aren't many players like Qiao Ning who can explore the wilderness and return safely.

Even if there are a few players like this, given the extremely low drop rate of stamina potions, they probably wouldn't even have enough to use themselves, let alone have any left to sell.

Qiao Ning doesn't expect to be able to buy stamina potions in the trading market anytime soon.

Before going to bed, Qiao Ning glanced at her private email. Li Yangxing had sent her some materials, as well as his caring greetings, asking how her day was and if she needed any help.

They also recommended someone's business card to him.

In the game, friends added for more than 7 days can recommend each other's business cards, thereby expanding their social network.

The person Li Yangxing recommended to her was Yuan Heng, whom he had mentioned before.

Qiao Ning added him without much hesitation. Anyway, if she felt that the person was not good after getting to know him, she could just delete or block him. It was just a matter of moving her fingers.

[Congratulations to players Qiao Ning and Yuan Heng for becoming friends! You can start chatting now.]

Yuan Heng immediately sent a message: "Hello, my name is Yuan Heng."

Qiao Ning: "Hello, I know your name is Yuan Heng."

Yuan Heng paused for a moment, then replied: "Xiao Xing said you're a very nice person, a trustworthy business partner, and highly recommends I add you as a friend. We can try collaborating sometime in the future."

Qiao Ning certainly wouldn't refuse: "Okay, Li Yangxing also praised you to me in the same way. I think he really wants me to become your friend."

"Is there... any other reason behind this? Since we're friends, I think if there's something going on, we should just talk it out directly and avoid all the beating around the bush."

Yuan Heng replied quickly this time: [You're very perceptive and intelligent, and there's definitely a reason for that. Xiao Xing said you seem to have good luck; the probability of getting scarce resources in the last natural disaster was quite high. I'm alright in every other way, but my luck is just... a little bit bad.]

[Xiao Xing wants me to share in your incredible luck—that's exactly what he said.]

Qiao Ning understood and couldn't help but chuckle.

She didn't know if other people's luck was contagious, but in all her years as a game booster, her good fortune in games had never been shared with anyone else. Even her former roommates couldn't get a piece of her good luck.

Luck is a very mysterious thing.

This result will likely disappoint Yuan Heng and Li Yangxing.

Having another expert friend is not a bad thing. Qiao Ning didn't explain much, only telling him not to have too high hopes.

Fortunately, Yuan Heng didn't seem to expect Qiao Ning's luck to actually work for him. After a few awkward words, the two left the chat and went to rest.

The next morning, Qiao Ning was woken up by the smart home assistant at seven o'clock sharp. A drop of water fell from the car ceiling and hit Qiao Ning's eyelid.

She wiped her fingers, looked at the dampness on them, and then looked up at the roof of the car.

"No way, the air inside the car is so humid after just one night that so many water droplets have formed?"