Chapter 60

Two suns? Qiao Ning rolled down the car window and looked up at the sky. Because the sun in this world was so strange and the sunlight was so dazzling, she only dared to glance at it briefly.

There are indeed two suns, one large and one small. The smaller one is probably only half the size of the larger sun.

Since the solar energy has increased from one to two, will there be more and more solar energy on the fifth, sixth, and seventh days after the natural disaster?

Will humans still be able to survive on the surface then? They'll probably have to hide deep underground to survive.

The natives of this world have dungeons, but what about the players? They can't possibly hide underground too, and there are vehicles too.

Once a vehicle is gone, it will be automatically removed from the system; it will die even if it doesn't die.

With the appearance of two suns, not only did the radiation levels soar, but the temperature also rose higher and higher.

My car tire blew out, and I almost had an accident. It was a close call!

What kind of material are the roads everyone drives on? Mine is asphalt, and it's all melted by the sun. My car gets stuck as soon as I move. What should I do? There's a supply crate right ahead, and no monsters guarding it yet. I was almost there to pick it up.

[So different players have different roads? Mine is concrete, and although it hasn't melted from the sun, it's incredibly hot. Cooking rice and frying eggs is a breeze, saving me the trouble of cooking.]

[The temperature is already over 40, almost 50 degrees Celsius. I don't have any cooling water balloons, so I'm relying entirely on gasoline and the air conditioning to keep cool. Gasoline supplies are running low, and it's impossible to find any on the market. Isn't this driving people to their deaths?]

Qiao Ning looked at the highway barrier, suddenly started the car, and drove off the highway. The car body trembled slightly when it touched the barrier, then returned to normal.

She drove over the highway barrier.

During the last cataclysm, vehicles could pass through the barriers, but back then the barriers were gradually weakening and Iceborne monsters were frequently invading. This cataclysm didn't mention that the road barriers would become weaker and weaker.

Qiao Ning had just tried it out, and she didn't expect it to actually work.

[System Notification for All Players: All players and vehicles of level 3 and above can normally pass through the road barriers during this natural disaster cycle. The higher the vehicle level, the less fuel is consumed when passing through the barriers.]

It took Qiao Ning about 20 units of gasoline to get through the barrier.

The area outside the highway is mostly dirt ground, which, although it gets very hot from the sun, is much better than cement or asphalt roads.

This time, the area outside the highway wasn't a mine, but a village of stone houses with signs of human activity, suggesting that it was probably inhabited regularly.

The surfaces of these stone houses appear to have been coated with some kind of liquid, a strange mix of blue and purple.

Even though Qiao Ning didn't make a sound when she approached the stone house area, she was still discovered.

They were a group of homeless people with severe physical deformities. Qiao Ning saw a child who had grown eight arms.

There weren't many people in the village to begin with, but as soon as Qiao Ning was discovered, everyone, regardless of age or gender, came out of the stone house.

Qiao Ning noticed that these people were dressed like primitive people, with only thin leather covering their vital areas. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be made of a material similar to snakeskin.

Their entire bodies were also bluish-purple, exactly the same color as the stone house's surface. It was unclear whether this was their natural skin color or something they had applied later. Qiao Ning guessed it was most likely the latter.

"Who are you? Get out of here right now, we don't welcome outsiders." The leader was a deformed woman. From the front, her features were normal and her body was normal, but she had two long arms growing from her back.

There was no language barrier between the players and the natives of this world; their language sounded like standard modern Mandarin to her. Because it was so standard, the players easily realized that the game system was automatically translating the languages ​​between them.

If Qiao Ning speaks, they hear her in her dialect.

"I was just passing by. There were two suns in the sky, and I was getting so hot that I wanted to find a place to take shelter," Qiao Ning said, while keeping an eye on the female leader's expression.

"If you are willing to provide me with a place to rest temporarily, I can give you food, water, clothing, tools, and medicine..."

As each item of supplies was mentioned, Qiao Ning intentionally observed the subtle changes in the female leader's expression. When food, water, and clothing were discussed, the female leader's expression remained largely unchanged, but when tools and medicine were mentioned, especially medicine, the female leader clearly showed some interest.

"Do you have any tools and medicine? Show us what they are first, then I'll make a decision." Upon hearing the female leader say this, a man with severe physical deformities and advanced age immediately spoke up to stop her.

“Yao, we can’t let outsiders stay in our village. Have you forgotten the disasters that happened before? Although I don’t know how this woman crossed the rotten sand area to get to our village, it’s definitely a mistake for her to stay. She will kill us.”

Yao said impatiently, "Didn't I say we should see what she has first? If it's something we need, then we can discuss everything. If it's not something we need, then we should make her leave immediately."

“Otherwise, even if we don’t keep her, we will all die. Na’s disease is contagious, and many people in the village have already been infected.”

These people were speaking loudly, making no attempt to hide it from Qiao Ning.

Her car was right behind her, with Ice Scale hidden inside, ready to provide immediate support should anything happen.

Qiao Ning took out some tools and daily necessities from her spatial backpack, including everything from miner's picks to pots and pans, as well as some cold weapons.

As for the medications, they included hemostatic bandages, sterile cotton, and an antidote.

Because she overheard the conversation between the female chieftain and the old man, she guessed that there might be an infectious disease like a plague in their village, which could be cured with an antidote.

The full name of the antidote is antibacterial antidote. Its function is to remove all toxins from the body, including some infectious viruses.

As expected, Chief Yao immediately took a liking to the antidote. As the leader of Stone House Village, she was very generous. As long as Qiao Ning was willing to give her enough antidote, she could not only arrange for the stone houses to temporarily hide from the sun, but also help "maintain" her car.

It's basically just applying their herbal juice to the car so it won't crack from the sun or spontaneously combust from high temperatures.

The ice scale in the car was treated like a large pet. Only a few children paid attention to it, while the others didn't care about it.

Anyway, the stone house is big enough that Qiao Ning can bring her pet to live with her. If she doesn't want to live with them, they can help her build a temporary pet bed.

"Where did you get this medicinal liquid? Do you have any left over?"

Chief Yao hesitated for a moment upon hearing this, then shook his head and said, "This medicinal juice is extracted from the Sun Grass. The Sun Grass only grows during the alternation of day and night. After being picked, it can only be kept fresh for a day at most, after which it will wither and turn into ashes instantly."

“We don’t have much of the Sun Herb Liquid on hand.”

Qiao Ning noticed that she did not say how long the medicine could be kept fresh, and her statement that the medicine was "not much" likely meant that the amount was exaggerated.

Qiao Ning considered for a moment: "I can exchange more tools, weapons, and daily necessities with you, but the antidote... this medicine is very precious, and I really can't give you many. I can only give you 15 at most."

Chief Yao was getting anxious. Their village had over a hundred people in total, and half of them were elderly, weak, women, children, or the disabled.

Infectious diseases spread very quickly. If most people do not receive timely treatment, even if some people survive in their village, they may not be able to continue.

"I desperately need your Sun Herb Elixir. If you could give me some Sun Herb seeds, that would be even better."

"If you have enough medicine to exchange, we can discuss the quantity of the antidote."

This group of people are somewhat wary of outsiders, but not overly so. Perhaps their long period of isolation from the outside world has made them somewhat naive and unconventional.

Yao considered it carefully for a long time before finally nodding.

The Sun Herb Elixir can be saved up again, but life cannot be brought back. There are only so many people in Stone House Village, and every one who dies is one less.

These liquids are thick and have a strong staining effect. Just a little bit can be applied to a large area of ​​the car's surface, completely isolating it from sunlight and solar radiation.

Applying it multiple times will prolong its effectiveness. According to Yao, the herbal remedy can last up to a year, but that requires applying a very thick layer, like the one used on the surface of their stone houses. It would cost at least a whole bucket of the remedy.

Normally, applying a thin layer to a car can last for 1-3 days, requiring about 100ml of solution. This amount was determined by Qiao Ning through testing with her own car and the solution tube.

Qiao Ning traded over a hundred vials of antidote for three hundred barrels of Sun Herbal Liquid. Each barrel had a capacity of 10 liters.

Qiao Ning used her new storage backpack to put all the liquid medicine in. The sight of those huge buckets of liquid medicine disappearing one by one was quite shocking.

However, the people of Stone House Village did not seem surprised by this, as they probably also had storage containers.

Qiao Ning had previously discovered that while this world was indeed dangerous and human survival was difficult, technology seemed to have kept pace. This was evident from the gene-modifying drugs.

Storage containers are not exactly ubiquitous here, but they are certainly not rare either.

Even ancient villages isolated from the world have storage facilities.

The cooperation between the two parties was pleasant, and apart from a few individuals causing obstacles during the process, the transaction went smoothly.

Chief Yao also gave Qiao Ning many seeds of Sun Grass. Sun Grass only grows for less than an hour during the day-night cycle, after which it withers and disappears. But its seeds will scatter all over the ground.

As long as the seeds are harvested in time and protected from direct sunlight, they will not lose their viability.

Qiao Ning returned to the car and cleared out the planter pots.

She already has dozens of planters, some of which she got from opening boxes, and others she occasionally bought from the trading area.

Qiao Ning wanted to try the all-purpose planting pot to see if she could grow the sun grass, which has demanding growing conditions.

After planting the seeds, Qiao Ning sprinkled fertilizer into them and then left them alone.

She kept some of the potion for herself and put the rest up for sale, exchanging it for talent experience books and materials.

Qiao Ning sent ten consecutive messages in the chat channel, introducing the effects of the Sun Herbal Elixir and urging players who needed it to buy it immediately. Each bottle contains 10ml, and each person is limited to one bottle.

This herbal liquid is truly amazing. After applying it, her body adapted much better to the high temperatures brought by the two suns.

Qiao Ning returned to the highway and continued driving to look for supply boxes. She had used up a batch of antidotes and needed to replenish them as soon as possible.

While driving, a shadow suddenly flashed past in front of me. It was a strange bird with two heads, its whole body was red, and it could breathe fire.

Is this a treasure-guarding monster?

No, she didn't see the supply crate. This isn't a treasure-guarding monster! It's a mutated beast from this world!

But how did the mutated beasts get onto the highway? The highway barriers are still...

Qiao Ning looked up and saw that the highway wall, which had been faintly glowing in the sky, now had a hole in it.

The missing section is where the two suns are shining directly on it right now.

Qiao Ning was stunned. The sun could burn a gap in the highway barrier?

This is going to be a problem.