Chapter 234 Upgrade

◎Day 13 of the Highway Survival Game!◎

After a few days, thanks to Hagiwara's efforts, Kazesei Mori had gotten used to the distance between them and being taken care of by him. So when Hagiwara put a down jacket on her, she didn't even think that it might be a little ambiguous.

He quickly put on his down jacket, zipped it up, opened the car door, and immediately took out the various 'vehicles' he had collected and placed them around his own vehicle.

Seeing this, Matsuda remembered the prompts from vehicle star upgrades a few days ago and quickly reminded Feng Xingshou: "Feng-chan, you can upgrade the trailer star after the vehicle is upgraded. For now, upgrade the vehicle to level 2 first before upgrading the star."

"I wonder what features the Tier 2 vehicle will have. Will it be the same as the Tier 1 vehicle upgrade, with double the interior space and increased vehicle defense?" Hagiwara was also a little curious at this moment.

Morofushi Kagemitsu hadn't witnessed the first vehicle upgrade and didn't have a real sense of it. He simply handed them two more thick overcoats, reminding them, "It's getting colder outside now, so be careful to keep warm after you get out of the car."

"Haha... As expected of Jingdan, so thoughtful." Matsuda joked with his friend as he took the trench coat and put it on.

Hagi never misses an opportunity to win the heart of her beloved. At this moment, she walked over to Kaze Hoshino while putting on her trench coat, lowered her head and whispered in her ear in a coquettish tone, "Kaze-chan, when will you ever show me some tenderness?"

"Ahem...shut up." Feng Xingshou's cheeks, which were not easily flushed, turned red again due to his explicit words and intimate actions. He coughed awkwardly.

He quickly took a step back, hurriedly opened the game panel, and while searching for the vehicle upgrade option, he tried his best to keep a serious face and said, "Let's upgrade the vehicle first."

"Sigh! Alright!" Hagiwara sighed as if disappointed, but his eyes were actually full of smiles as he looked at Kazesei.

Feng Xingshou feigned composure, pretending not to see Hagiwara's gaze, and quickly selected the vehicle upgrade option. As she operated, the familiar thick fog once again enveloped the vehicle. Then, after the same amount of time as before, the fog dissipated, and a similar game announcement appeared on the game panel:

[Game Announcement: Region 0256 has completed the hidden mission {First Tier 2 Car}, rewarding an upgrade to the regional channel language function and unlocking the C-domain channel language for its respective region.]

[Announcement: The language function of the regional channel in this area has been upgraded. Survivors in this area can now post comments in the regional channel. The number of comments that can be posted per day has increased by one, and the text limit for comments in the regional channel has been increased to 200 characters.]

Domain C Channel Language Enabled: This game has a total of 1000 regions on Earth, with each hundred regions forming a domain. The domain names are named with the characters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and G respectively.

The region to which the 0256 competition zone belongs is called C. After the C region channel chat function is enabled, survivors from 100 competition zones numbered 0200-0300 can post messages.

When posting comments, the game defaults to using the language that the survivor is most proficient in. When viewing other players' languages ​​in the area channel, the game's language system will automatically translate them into the language that the survivor is most proficient in.

Regional and Mainland Channel Language Guidelines – Survivors must adhere to civilized speaking rules. Posting inappropriate language will result in a two-day ban, depending on the number of offensive words used. Please remember this.

[Game Announcement: Congratulations to Survivor Feng Xing Shou from Region 0256 for becoming the first to upgrade a Tier 1 vehicle to Tier 2, completing the hidden mission {First Tier 2 Vehicle}, and receiving a Gold Chest {1} as a reward]

[Announcement: Congratulations to Feng Xing Shou, the survivor from the C-Domain region, for becoming the first to upgrade a Tier 1 vehicle to Tier 2, completing the hidden mission {First Tier 2 Vehicle}, and receiving a Platinum Chest {1} as a reward]

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Upon seeing the content displayed on the game panel, the four subconsciously exchanged glances, their expressions turning serious. Matsuda was surprised: "I didn't expect that above these 1,000 regions, there would actually be a region belonging to another region."

"Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, Gui, I remember these are called the 10 Heavenly Stems in Zhongzhou culture?" Zhu Fujingguang said, looking at Feng Xingshou.

Feng Xingshou nodded upon hearing this: "Indeed, Zhongzhou has a division of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, which, after simplification, are Jia, Yi, Bing, Ding, Wu, Ji, Geng, Xin, Ren, and Gui—the ten Heavenly Stems."

Because the game announcement did not mention any words that correspond to the Earthly Branches, she did not mention them.

Hagiwara stroked his chin and pondered, "So, based on the information we have so far, the top 100 contestants belong to Domain A, those from the top 100 to the top 200 belong to Domain B, and those from the top 200 to the top 300 belong to Domain C."

And so on, until the competition areas numbered 900 to 1000 belong to Gui. Is there any special significance to these numbered competition areas and domain names? For example, the time displayed in the game is based on the lunar calendar commonly used in Zhongzhou before it was influenced by Western culture.

Although the regional competition numbers used numbers, they didn't use any English letters, and the domain names were all in Chinese characters. It felt like there was some kind of meaning behind this.

"At least we can confirm that the game's regional and regional channels are not divided by nationality. When I checked the regional channel chat last time, it was clear that people from all countries were there." Matsuda was certain of this.

Thinking of the speculation that the organizers of the game "Wind Star Guardian" were using this survival game to stimulate human mental strength, Morobushi Kagemitsu subconsciously guessed, "Could it be that the survivors are divided into groups based on their mental potential, physical potential, or overall potential level?"

"If we follow this rule, the survivors in Domain A have the highest potential, followed by Domain B, and our domain belongs to the third tier. Does this mean that there are at least 10,000 people in the entire game who are more powerful than Feng Jiang's awakened mental power skills?" Matsuda subconsciously had this thought.

Upon hearing this, Hagiwara shook his head: "Not necessarily. Don't forget, even if someone has the talent, that talent might not be able to be activated. If the game is divided based on the survivors' talents, then the talents of the survivors in this area won't be much different from Feng-chan's."

In this situation, think back to those who participated in the driving skills competition after the dungeon. Whether they passed smoothly or failed in the end, none of them displayed extraordinary abilities. If they had truly awakened mental power skills, wouldn't they have used them to struggle in a life-or-death situation?

There was another thing that Hagiwara didn't want Fuu-chan to overthink, so he didn't say it aloud. In fact, Hagiwara had noticed that among the disqualified survivors, almost none of them looked older than Fuu-chan; most of them were around 20 to 30 years old.

Despite being younger than Feng Jiang, they hadn't activated their mental power, which made Hagiwara suspect, after hearing Feng Jiang's theory about activating mental power, that Feng Jiang was older than the other survivors.

She was captured by the survival game even though she didn't quite fit the age where her talents could be nurtured and developed. It's very likely that her aptitude was so exceptional that she was chosen and captured even though she was past the appropriate age.

Now, if we add a regional division, his intuition tells him that if Feng Jiang is the same age as him, she might be in the A region of the game's regional division...

"...Why does this game use the language and ancient civilization of our Zhongzhou Kingdom?" Feng Xingshou didn't know what Hagiwara was thinking, and didn't even listen to what the three of them were saying. Only this one thought lingered in his mind.

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Upon hearing this, the three were taken aback. They all understood Feng Xingshou's concerns at this moment. If the game was being controlled using Chinese culture in various aspects, it meant that the game developers might have some kind of connection with Zhongzhou.

Even considering the parallel world theory previously mentioned by Zhu Fu, they all felt that the arrival of the game might be something caused by a civilization in a certain central continent of a parallel planet that had developed too advancedly.

This speculation was terrible news for Feng Xingshou, who was also from Zhongzhou. After all, no one wanted their own kind to be a 'world-destroying villainous boss' who would turn on their own kind...

So the three of them tacitly changed the subject, looking at the two treasure chests that had appeared next to Feng Xing Shou along with the game announcement, and pretended to be very expectant, saying one after another: "More than that, I'm more concerned about what the rewards of these treasure chests are?"

"Last time, we were rewarded with a level 2 engine blueprint, which saved us a lot of points in the post-dungeon driving skills competition, so we didn't have to exchange it for this most expensive thing."

"The roast duck, cherries, and hot pot are all delicious!"

Hearing the three of them so excited, Feng Xingshou could only take a deep breath, suppress the worries that had arisen from the game announcement, and while picking up the crowbar to open the chest, he also pretended to be very excited and said, "Then let's open it and see! A gold chest and a platinum chest, they must both contain good stuff."

As she moved, a familiar game announcement appeared, accompanied by a pile of items that appeared before them:

[Game Announcement: Congratulations to the survivor for opening the Golden Treasure Chest! You have obtained one Level 3 Engine Manufacturing Blueprint, 400 units of gasoline, one 10-liter sashimi platter, 40,000 grams of Water Peach, one whole stewed grain-fed lamb set meal, 40 units of plastic, 40 units of rubber, 40 units of glass, 40 units of electronic components, and 10 units of gold!]

[Game Announcement: Congratulations to the survivor for opening the Platinum Treasure Chest! You have obtained one Level 3 Acid-Resistant Gas Filter Car Body Manufacturing Blueprint, one Level 3 Holographic Cockpit Manufacturing Blueprint, 600 Energy Boxes, one 20-liter Jar of Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, 60,000 grams of Big Mac Bananas, one Stewed Whole Beef Meal, 60 Plastics, 60 Rubbers, 60 Glass, 60 Electronic Components, and 10 Platinum Units!]

The four were stunned by the generous reward. Hagiwara chuckled and said, "Heh... This is a Tier 2 vehicle, and the Tier 3 engine is already here."

"There's also a Level 3 vehicle body!" Matsuda said seemingly casually, but his heart couldn't help but feel heavy. Judging from the fact that the last vehicle upgrade focused on main functions related to low-temperature protection and the disasters that occurred were all ultra-low temperature disasters, this Level 3 vehicle body manufacturing blueprint was clearly hinting at something.