Chapter 42

【White Sandalwood (1408): What did I just say? Young man, let me teach you a lesson: when you speak, don't be too sure of yourself, leave yourself some room for maneuver.

As I've said before, Miss Qiao from our server really dislikes people stirring up trouble and affecting harmony among everyone.

[Pei Jing (1408): What happened to the last troublemaker? Have you forgotten so quickly? Should I remind you? Remember the Arena in the service area? We in 1408 haven't openly formed any gangs or alliances, but the number 1408 speaks for itself.]

[Pei Jing (1408): The spatial vortex will open in less than an hour. Everyone, until we meet again.]

[Pei Jing (1408): I forgot to mention, those troublemakers upstairs, I guarantee that given Qiao Ning's personality and temper, since she issued this prop, she'll definitely use it. If you're so stubborn, why don't you try arguing a few more times?]

After saying those few words, Pei Jing didn't say anything more. Strangely, the chat channel was silent for almost a minute.

There wasn't even a single advertisement seeking to make a deal.

After a while, things returned to normal. The people who had been jumping around earlier were no longer talking. Most of the chat was done by unfamiliar IDs asking to buy or sell supplies.

Qiao Ning closed the chat channel and continued looking at the items she had opened from the platinum supply crate:

200 units of gasoline, 20 liters of drinking water

Warming Cream*10 jars (100g per jar), apply 10g to any part of the body for 8 hours of automatic warmth.

Frostbite ointment*10 jars (100g per jar). Apply 10g to the frostbitten area, and all frostbite will heal immediately.

A highly effective medicine for cold rigor mortis*10 (10 tablets per box). Taking one tablet will relieve the cold rigor mortis state.

One 10g patch of the healing ointment (100g per jar) can restore frostbitten, broken, or necrotic areas to their original state by applying just 10g.

100 portions of herbs for dispelling cold; each portion can be decocted to make 10 bowls of soup for dispelling cold.

500 units of cotton, 50 cotton-padded jackets, 50 pairs of cotton-padded shoes, and 20 sets of cotton-padded overcoats (including hats, earmuffs, scarves, and hand warmers).

Five oxygen cylinders; each cylinder can be used for about two hours under normal breathing conditions. Qiao Ning had received some before during a drought disaster, but she didn't need them herself.

10 Extraordinary Flames: Magical flames contained in a lighter, impervious to extreme cold and strong winds. Each flame can burn continuously for 1 hour; if used sparingly, they can last a long time.

Qiao Ning previously obtained a white talent called "Fire Seed Merchant" from blind boxes, which automatically gives her 5 fire seeds every hour.

The rest are daily necessities and food.

During times of wet disasters, canned food is sold at exorbitant prices, but during this disaster, hundreds or even thousands of cans can be easily opened.

In the face of extreme cold, even opening sealed glass jars and cans can be a problem. The extremely low temperatures make the lids difficult to unscrew. To open them smoothly, the opening must first be slightly heated; thermal expansion and contraction make them easier to open.

But neither hot water nor heating tools are easy to obtain. A can of food should be able to be opened in theory, but no one knows what the actual situation will be.

The drop rate for insulated containers and lunch boxes is very high. If you have fresh, hot food, putting it in an insulated container is a good way to store it.

The key issue is that fresh food, which was readily available in the previous world, is now hard to find in this natural disaster.

At most, some raw or cold meat and vegetables were exposed.

The food Qiao Ning ordered consisted of a portion of fresh produce, a majority of hot meals that could be eaten directly, and the remainder of ready-to-eat snacks.

After driving for another several tens of minutes, Qiao Ning did not encounter any more supply boxes.

As the vehicle was moving, she suddenly received a system notification: [A spatial vortex has spawned. Lucky players who encounter a spatial vortex, please prepare for random teleportation.]

Qiao Ning carefully observed the strange phenomena on the road, but after driving a long distance, she didn't see any spatial vortex or even a ghost.

It seems she won't encounter the spatial vortex this time around.

After exercising, Qiao Ning would simply boil some cold-dispelling soup, fill it out bowl by bowl, and put it on the shelf of the storage box or on the table for later use.

It took Qiao Ning a full 100 portions of medicinal herbs to brew over a thousand bowls of cold-dispelling soup before she finally paused her work.

We didn't encounter many supply boxes along the way, only two metal boxes, which contained little stuff, mostly hand warmers, cold medicine, and the like.

In the afternoon, Qiao Ning encountered two platinum chests. Inside, she found a large number of heating packs, hand warmers, and other supplies, as well as plenty of fresh, hot food.

For example, boiled sliced ​​pork, boiled pork kidney slices, spicy hot pot, spicy bullfrog...

These meals will keep you warm for a long time.

Platinum crates contain a lot of supplies; medicines that you can't get from other crates are almost guaranteed to be found in platinum crates.

Various medicines, several water balloons for heating, and several items for keeping warm.

Qiao Ning's inventory instantly became abundant.

As agreed, Qiao Ning sent a small amount of the extra heating water balloons and warming supplies to Yuan Heng, but in the other party's eyes, these things were already frighteningly numerous:

20 water balloons for warming, 5 boxes of medicine for frostbite, 2 frostbite ointments, 2 patch repair ointments, 2 warming ointments, 2 cotton overcoat sets

Yuan Heng was still shocked when he saw the dazzling array of supplies in the email, even though he had long been aware of Qiao Ning's luck.

He looked at the few bags of noodles and a few eggs that he had just opened and thought: Why is there such a big difference in the game when everyone enters at the same time?

If he hadn't latched onto Joe's coattails, this unlucky guy would have been dead by the last natural disaster.

Qiao Ning noticed that his chat box was still in the "typing" state, but no messages were being sent. She assumed that Yuan Heng felt there wasn't enough information.

So she sent another message: "It seems my luck wasn't at its peak today. My harvest was so-so. I only found 6 supply boxes in total. If you don't have enough supplies, I'll send you some more after I open another batch of supply boxes tonight."

Yuan Heng slowly typed out a question mark.

[Is this considered only average luck, with the luck stat not maxed out?] Is this person's luck real?

Qiao Ning: "It's alright. We reaped more rewards during the last natural disaster."

Human joys and sorrows are not shared, Yuan Heng thought, he might never experience the happiness of the European Emperor in his lifetime.

However, the fact that he was randomly assigned to server 1408, the same server as the lucky player, out of millions of players, and later met her, isn't that a kind of good luck? From this perspective, he's not completely unlucky; he does have a bit of good luck.

The spatial vortex refreshed four times between eight in the morning and four in the afternoon, but Qiao Ning never encountered it, let alone any players who had teleported to her road through the vortex gate.

At 6 p.m., the spatial vortex refreshed again, and the vortex gate finally appeared before Qiao Ning.

The vortex gate exists for 1 hour, during which time players can use it to travel back and forth between the two roads.

[Ye Jun (1279): @Cui Ting, I found you.]

Cui Ting did not reply, and the connection was lost again.

[Liu Qinqin (1279): Brother Ye Jun, bring Sister Cui back soon!]

[White Sandalwood (1408): Are you even human? Stay away from my daughter!]

Zhang Tianye (1356): Aunt Bai, that's how the game works. Your daughter is unlucky to have been caught by Ye Jun. What can you do? If you're so capable, why don't you have Qiao Ning open a vortex door and rush over there? Besides, doesn't she have a portal? She can teleport there.

Oh, sorry, I forgot that other teleportation items cannot be used while the vortex gate is open. What a pity.

Now no one can help her.

If you ask me, what's wrong with Ye Jun? He has power, strength, and resources—he's got everything. What's wrong with following him? Think about it: there are plenty of women who want to be with Ye Jun but don't even have the chance.

[White Sandalwood (1408): Shut up! If you dare touch my daughter, I'll fight you to the death! Even if it costs me my life, I won't let you get away with this. I'll drag you down with me even if I die!]

[Zhang Tianye (1356): You're like a rock in a latrine—stinky and hard. Shout all you want, even if you shout until your throat is hoarse, your daughter can't escape. No matter how powerful Qiao Ning is, can she just open a vortex gate and fly over there?]

[Qiao Ning (1408): We've reached the highway where they are. Attached image: a group photo of the three.]

Behind Qiao Ning was a canopy of green vines, and to her left stood a huge iron-eating beast.

She leaned against the car hood and waved to Cui Ting, who was not far away: "Come here."

Cui Ting didn't even care about her own car and quickly ran towards Qiao Ning.

Ye Jun raised his foot to stop it, but the Iron-Eating Beast suddenly attacked, smashing the hard ice road with a punch, creating cracks in the surface.

At a critical moment, he was snatched away by a giant peregrine falcon. After surviving, Ye Jun looked at the cracks all over the ground and felt a wave of fear.

If it weren't for his pet's quick reaction and saving him, he would probably have been smashed to pieces by now.

“I sent Cui Ting over, not you.”

Qiao Ning looked at him expressionlessly and said, word by word.

Did I give you permission to move your feet?