Chapter 41

At seven o'clock in the morning, the first thing Qiao Ning did after waking up was to check the temperature and the weather.

The temperature inside the car is 14 degrees Celsius, and the temperature outside the car is 12 degrees Celsius.

The weather is overcast.

Qiao Ning crawled out of bed, got dressed, washed up, and cooked breakfast. For breakfast, she drank spicy soup with fried dough sticks and jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes).

While eating, Qiao Ning opened the chat channel and found that in addition to the players in server 1408, there were quite a few other players whose names were followed by numbers such as [1279], [1356], and [1657].

She looked up to check the number of people online: 115,842.

More than 110,000 people? What's going on?

She fell asleep shortly after upgrading the car last night because she was cold. What caused the system to mess this up?

Qiao Ning went through the system information records again and found that there were indeed several system announcements last night.

Because some players had already opened the teleportation channels for zones 1408, 1279, 1356, and 1657, and their coordinates are now interconnected, these four zones will now be merged into a four-line server.

After this natural disaster ends, if the overall survival rate of the four regions is greater than or equal to 20%, the region with the most surviving players will be the winning region.

The winning server has the right to continue using its previous server number. Other servers will lose their own server numbers and can only use the winning server's number.

[After the first server merge, players will have a chance to obtain teleportation items and communication items with other areas during the survival phase of natural disasters.]

[After this natural disaster ends, there will be no more server consolidation; servers will only be merged with other servers. The severity of the natural disaster will not increase in the near future, but there is a certain chance that additional hidden natural disasters will occur.]

After the server merge, the Survival Highway will no longer be limited to a single-lane solo mode. Players can use team cards to form a convoy to carry out survival activities.

Teammates cannot attack each other; players who are strangers can freely attack each other.

Players start with a white name and turn red after killing other white-named players. White-named players gain a large number of kill points for killing red-named players, and this does not affect the color of their ID name.

Players with red names will attract monsters to attack them.

During the twelve hours of daytime, a batch of spatial vortexes will spawn every two hours. Some players may be teleported by the spatial vortexes to other players' roads.

If multiple players are on a road, the probability, level, and quantity of supply crates will not change.

[This catastrophe has no wilderness areas, but many powerful evolved beasts will inhabit the ice plains outside the highway. As the catastrophe intensifies, the highway barrier will gradually weaken and eventually disappear. At that time, ice plain beasts will enter the highway, so players should make adequate preparations beforehand.]

If supplies are truly scarce and you're on the verge of despair, you might consider exploring the roads at night; you might find something unexpected. Of course, it's more likely to be your death.

Under extreme cold, ordinary flames cannot burn. Players can only obtain exotic fire through opening chests, killing treasure-guarding monsters and ice beasts, or purchasing it from the fire merchant.

The Strange Fire has a wide range of uses and is applicable to many natural disasters. Aside from its low drop rate, it has no other problems.

During this natural disaster, gold and diamond treasure chests will randomly spawn at any time and in any location. These chests may contain rare resources such as talent experience books, skill books, purple or higher-level equipment and weapons, and pet slot expansion crystals.

Once either type of treasure chest appears, its coordinates will be displayed in the server-wide chat. Players who wish to claim it can click on the coordinates to instantly teleport to the chest's location.

After a player picks up a treasure chest, the chest will be locked for one hour. During this time, the player cannot open the chest and must wait for the lock time to end before opening it.

During the locked period, the treasure chest can be looted by other players. After it is looted, the locked period resets to 1 hour.

After the server merge, the road survival game will be more fun and exciting, with danger and hope coexisting. We hope all players can enjoy the game and strive to survive.

Qiao Ning carefully read every word of the system announcement.

She never expected that this merger would involve four districts.

District 1408 still has the fewest surviving residents.

Looking at the chat channels and the players' interactions, it seems that server 1279 is showing signs of joining forces with server 1356.

The server with the most survivors is 1657. Several powerful players in this server have formed a team, and the team takes orders from Yang Mo, the player who ranks first in the server's overall strength ranking.

Only server 1408 has no advantages whatsoever. It hasn't formed a cohesive group within its own server; to put it bluntly, it's a disorganized mess.

All these statements and circumstances are extremely unfavorable to District 1408.

Qiao Ning didn't need to look to know that her private inbox must have been flooded with messages from Pei Jing, Li Yangxing, and the others.

Actually, she wasn't that fixated on the server ID, but it's best not to change it if possible.

At eight o'clock sharp, Qiao Ning set off on her car.

The weather was gloomy and cold. Even with the air conditioning on full blast, the temperature inside the car was already 30 degrees Celsius. Qiao Ning didn't want to drive herself and only told the smart assistant to call her when they encountered a supply box.

A Class IV vehicle has a maximum speed of 160 km/h and consumes 8 units of gasoline per hour at full speed.

This gasoline consumption is alarming. Adding the consumption of air conditioning and other appliances, driving for 11 hours a day will consume at least 110 units of gasoline.

Air conditioning also consumes a significant amount of resources.

Qiao Ning could only hope to find a supply crate soon, open it to get warming supplies, and then she could make warming water balloons. That way, she wouldn't need to turn on the air conditioning, saving a lot of gasoline.

About thirty minutes after the car started moving, Qiao Ning encountered her first supply box.

After the server merge, the supply boxes will no longer be categorized by star rating, but will instead be divided into wooden boxes, iron boxes, bronze boxes, silver boxes, and platinum boxes.

Picking up treasure chests no longer grants experience points; experience points are only gained by killing monsters or players with red names.

Qiao Ning encountered a silver chest, which she immediately opened, revealing:

100 units of gasoline, 100 units of cotton

Heating packs * 20, insulated containers * 5

Cold-dispelling soup recipe*1, cold-dispelling medicinal herbs*10 portions

10 liters of drinking water, 10 boxes of antipyretics

10 boxes of cold medicine, 1 piece of car window tinting film

10 water balloons for heating, 5 hand warmers

Among these supplies, heating packs and hand warmers can be used as raw materials for heating water balloons.

To make 10 warming water balloons, you will need 2 heating packs or 1 hand warmer.

A single water balloon can raise the temperature by 5 degrees Celsius for 5 hours. The larger the space, the less effective the heating becomes.

With the addition of a fold-out luxury bathroom and kitchen, Qiao Ning's Level 4 car space is already fifty or sixty square meters.

Each time, at least five heating water balloons are needed to raise the temperature of the entire vehicle by about 15 degrees Celsius, which is equivalent to one heating water balloon only raising the temperature of the vehicle by 3 degrees Celsius.

Duration... Qiao Ning glanced at the countdown display on the water sphere; it hadn't changed, still 5 hours.

Car window tinting can increase the interior temperature by 5 degrees Celsius, but it has a limited lifespan. The lower the outside temperature, the faster the durability of the tinting film wears off.

The heat packs are about the size of a band-aid and can only be used on players or pets. Each heat pack increases temperature by 10 degrees Celsius and lasts for 1 hour. The effects can be stacked, but the durations cannot.

Cotton is a newly emerging material that can be used to make cold-weather items such as hand warmers, cotton-padded clothes, cotton quilts, and cotton-padded shoes.

The prerequisite is that players must first obtain the blueprints for these cold-weather items.

With no jungle areas to enter, Qiao Ning suddenly seemed to have some free time.

The chat channel has over 110,000 people, most of whom are chatting or arguing while driving.

Where there are people, there will be conflict; this is an ironclad rule.

Even when people are busy trying to survive, it doesn't stop them from having conflicts and arguments.

[Shengtian Guild in District 1279 is recruiting. Our guild leader is Ye Jun, the top player on all seven rankings in this district. There are many benefits after joining, and we will regularly distribute various supplies.]

[Lu Wenfang (1657): Does any organization accept members? An entry fee is required.]

[Fan Xiaoyu (1657): Lu Wenfang, you shameless bastard! You hoarded so many supplies from Sister An, then abandoned us to fawn over a rich guy. How can you face Sister An in heaven? Don't you feel guilty? You should have a conscience! Even if you survive, what difference is there between you and an animal?!]

[Ye Jun (1279): Cui Ting, now that the servers have merged, we can be together openly. I will treat you well and won't let you down.]

[Liu Qinqin (1279): Sister Cui, Ye Jun has been waiting for you. Go back to him. He never intended to hurt you.]

[Bai Tanxiang (1408): Mr. Ye, if you still have any conscience and remember any past kindness, then don't come looking for my daughter again, don't contact her again! You know her personality perfectly well; she's definitely not on your side. Do you really want to force her to die?!]

[White Sandalwood (1408): Let my daughter go. Aren't you surrounded by plenty of girls? I know my daughter's personality. You two are really not a good match. She will never come back. Give up on her.]

[Lou Shasha (1408): Buying warming water balloons, price negotiable.]

[Zhang Tianye (1356): Hey, you upstairs, Aunt Bai, please stop yelling here. You're turning the chat channel into a soap opera. Also, I'm buying Fire Seeds at a high price.]

[Liu Qinqin (1279): Aunt Bai, are you the only one online in your server? Why isn't anyone saying anything for you? Can you and Sister Cui really live well in a server like this?]

Why don't you come to our Shengtian Club? With Brother Ye Jun here, he'll definitely take good care of you.

As you know, Sister Cui's talent is quite unique. Once someone discovers her talent, they definitely won't let her leave. At that point, you and Sister Cui won't be able to get out even if you want to.

[White Sandalwood: Miss Liu Qinqin, I've lived this long, I know what you're up to just by lifting your butt. I advise you to stop saying these divisive things.]

The girl who's number one on the district leaderboard isn't someone to mess with; she hates it when people do anything that could disrupt the unity of the entire district.

We may seem to have divided into four zones, but in reality, it's no different from any other zone. The overall survival rate is less than 20%, so neither you nor I are likely to escape death. Why resort to these self-destructive tactics?

The best course of action is to leave each other alone and focus on getting through this extreme cold disaster.

When Qiao Ning saw this, she picked up another supply box, a platinum treasure chest.

The first item you'll find after opening the portal is the "Anywhere Door." Using one Anywhere Door will teleport you to any designated player's location on the highway near that player's location.

Qiao Ning smiled; it was exactly what she needed. The system said players had a chance to obtain teleportation items, and the probability seemed quite high for her.

【Zhang Tianye (1279): Aunt Bai, we are all so far apart. Even if there is a spatial vortex, the probability of us being teleported together is extremely low. Instead of using your energy to intimidate others, you should quickly take your daughter and seek refuge with Ye Jun.

Let me give you a piece of advice: this natural disaster is going to be tough. Leave your disorganized server as soon as possible; you'll survive a couple more days.

Qiao Ning didn't say anything, she just posted a picture.

[Qiao Ning (1408): Attached image "Props - Anywhere Door"]