Chapter 44

Nobody in District 1408 paid any attention to Zhang Tianye.

Aunt Bai does love her daughter, but she's not unreasonable either. She's over fifty, almost sixty.

She had worked within the system for over twenty years. What kind of people hadn't she seen? What kind of monsters and scoundrels hadn't she dealt with?

Was Zhang Tianye apologizing to her?

Given his temperament, does he seem like someone who has realized his mistakes and sincerely repents?

That's obviously not it.

He was using this as an excuse to gauge Qiao Ning's attitude.

If she were to bypass Qiao Ning and reply to this, she would truly be senile!

Aunt Bai now only hopes that her daughter can be well and stop being bothered by all sorts of shady people; she would be content with that.

When two people are on the same road at the same time, the probability and quantity of supply boxes appearing will not increase or decrease.

This means that the two people who were originally traveling together have become competitors instead.

Fortunately, the next wave of spatial vortexes is about to refresh.

At 8 p.m., Cui Ting volunteered to teleport over, but Qiao Ning stopped her.

Cui Ting's strength is average, but her talent is not bad. It's hard to tell much about her character at the moment.

The spatial vortex teleportation is full of uncertainty; no one knows which player they will be teleported to.

If Cui Ting is summoned there and encounters some danger, then as the last person to be with her, it's hard to say what will happen.

Even if she were to die, she couldn't die at this time.

When she kills enemies, players will speak up for her actions. However, when the victims are people from her own server or people she knows, many players will question her actions, which can affect team unity.

Qiao Ning found that she was becoming more and more able to view things rationally.

She wasn't sure if this was growth or assimilation into the game; all she could say was that she could accept these changes in herself for now.

At 8:00 AM sharp, Qiao Ning sat in the car, drove through the vortex gate, and was teleported to an unfamiliar highway.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, the player's screams could be heard.

She turned on the headlights and switched to the highest brightness mode. The strong light from the headlights dispelled the night fog, allowing Qiao Ning to see the scene ahead clearly.

A player was impaled and pinned to a vehicle by a monster with giant pincers. The monster, which was feeding, was disturbed and let out a sharp cry, instantly going berserk.

It no longer chewed slowly, but opened its huge mouth and swallowed the car and the corpse together.

After finishing its meal, the monster strolled along with a touch of elegance, slowly approaching Qiao Ning's car window. Suddenly, one of its eyes lowered and focused on the driver's side window.

Qiao Ning stared at it for a long time.

Then, a clear breath was heard from the monster, like a human snorting.

The monster let out two more cries, the meaning of which was unclear, but after that, it walked around the car and left.

Before leaving, he smeared a sticky substance on Qiao Ning's car, which was either saliva or snot.

Qiao Ning ignored the slime and continued driving.

This was her first time driving at night.

The probability of encountering supply crates while driving at night will be greatly reduced, but the probability of encountering high-star supply crates will be increased.

The treasure-guarding monster is in a state of hunger and frenzy at night, but unfortunately Qiao Ning can't encounter it.

No, she actually encountered it too.

The car stopped, and Qiao Ning rolled down the window, expertly tossing an egg yolk pie out the window.

The monster, clutching the egg yolk pie, lay prone on the ground. After carefully tearing open the packaging with its paws, it wagged its scaly tail and licked the egg yolk pie with its long, thin tongue.

They probably couldn't bear to eat it.

Qiao Ning couldn't stand it anymore, so she threw another one away.

This monster has been following her car for a long time. Every time Qiao Ning finishes picking up a supply box, it will appear and act as a treasure guardian.

You might say it's being unreasonable, but it knows to give Qiao Ning face and only shows up after she's finished collecting the supply boxes.

If you say it's sensible, it's like it's attached to Qiao Ning, following her around and refusing to leave.

The most outrageous thing is that every time it appears, it knows to change its identity—

It's basically just changing the color of its scales.

It probably thought that by changing the color of its vest, Qiao Ning wouldn't recognize it and could keep feeding it.

Qiao Ning's transformation from initial silence to tacit cooperation is largely due to the monster's shamelessness.

After feeding the monster, Qiao Ning rolled up the car window and continued driving forward.

The supply crates you find while driving at night are of a very high level; they are almost all platinum crates.

On average, Qiao Ning can collect 2 per hour.

Qiao Ning collected five boxes and fed the monster five snacks, including egg yolk pie, Sichuan pepper chicken leg, roast meat, and deluxe roast meat (with dipping sauce and lettuce rolls).

After five experiments, Qiao Ning discovered that the monster's tail shook the most when it ate lettuce wraps with grilled meat.

When picking up the sixth box, Qiao Ning didn't get out of the car this time.

The monster was very sensible and clever; it used its tail to curl up the platinum supply box and tossed it into the car when Qiao Ning opened the window, thoughtfully avoiding hitting her.

Qiao Ning: ...?

It seems that being a monster in a survival game isn't easy either.

Qiao Ning tossed it an egg yolk pie, which the monster ate, but its eyes still shone as it stared at her.

Qiao Ning thought for a moment and then gave her a Sichuan peppercorn chicken leg.

After finishing its meal, it licked its lips, looking like it wanted to leave but didn't want to.

Qiao Ning gave it another piece of roasted meat.

After the monster finished eating, it wagged its tail and sat up straight, waiting for her to feed it again.

Qiao Ning had no choice but to give it another piece of lettuce wrapped around the grilled meat.

Strangely, the monster grunted twice after eating.

It is not very large, and its face and nose are somewhat like those of a feline or canine animal, but it has long mane around its neck and its entire body is covered with scales that gleam with a bluish-black sheen.

Qiao Ning didn't understand what it wanted to do.

Just as she was about to take out a piece of roasted meat and wrap it in lettuce, the monster suddenly let out a soft cry, as if reminding her of something.

Qiao Ning looked at it, then looked down at the roasted meat in her hand.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck me, and I understood.

She took out the dipping sauce and spread it on the grilled meat, then rolled it up in lettuce. This time, after feeding it to the monster, it finished eating and ran away wagging its tail.

Qiao Ning: ...

So all I wanted was grilled meat with dipping sauce wrapped in lettuce.

It won't do without the sauce.

They're quite picky eaters.

Qiao Ning shook her head, glanced at the time, and realized it was almost 3 a.m.

She instructed the smart assistant to drive for her, and then placed a small table on the driver's seat, neatly arranging a dozen or so pieces of roasted meat on it.

"Once you find the treasure chest, open the car window. Wait until the monster takes the roast meat from the table, then close the window," Qiao Ning instructed the smart assistant.

As an intelligent machine, this was the first time it had encountered such a strange request, but it had to obey its master's orders.

The smart assistant followed Qiao Ning's instructions precisely, stopping the car and opening the windows upon encountering the supply box.

Sure enough, a platinum treasure chest was tossed into the car by a red tail.

Qiao Ningxin said, "Great, the vest has been changed to red again."

The monster, unable to wait for food, stuck its head out of the car window and saw Qiao Ning resting with her eyes closed. It then carefully and quietly used its claws to grab a lettuce wrap of roasted meat from the table, snatched it, and ran away.

It didn't even think about taking a few more.

Qiao Ning coughed lightly, unsure whether to call it clever or stupid.

Judging from the results, it was very clever.

A monster that knows how to give back, has a sense of proportion, and isn't greedy is the kind of monster that Qiao Ning would feel it's okay to feed.

Qiao Ning rested in her bedroom for the next few hours.

Upgrading a car to level 5 provides space comparable to a 100-square-meter fully furnished apartment, and the interior can be customized by the customer.

Qiao Ning likes a cozy style, so the interior of the car was modified to be very comfortable and warm, like a cozy home.

Several water balloons were placed inside, and the smart system replaced them as needed.

Qiao Ning no longer needed to pick up the supply boxes herself, and slept soundly all night.

The next morning at seven o'clock, Qiao Ning woke up on time, stretched, and found that there seemed to be quite a few more boxes in the car. She counted them and there were twenty-five of them.

Logically, she shouldn't have encountered so many platinum boxes in half a night or a few hours.

As soon as she opened the window, Qiao Ning saw the monster she had encountered the night before lying listlessly on the ground, seemingly unaccustomed to the morning light.

She quickly wrapped a lot of grilled meat with dipping sauce in lettuce, put it in a sturdy backpack, and handed it to the monster.

After getting what it wanted, the monster snorted twice at Qiao Ning and quickly left. Its figure swiftly disappeared into the night mist that was about to be completely dispelled by the sunlight.

This guy must have been really uncomfortable from the sun. Judging from the way it ran away and the speed at which it was running, it seemed to be fleeing.

Qiao Ning was very convinced.

It deserves to be able to eat grilled meat wrapped in lettuce, dipped in a spicy and numbing sauce, because it's willing to go to such lengths for a single bite.