Chapter 9 Treasure Chest

"Ahem!" Upon hearing this question, Feng Xing Shou covered his mouth and coughed, then replied somewhat awkwardly, "No, before you came, I couldn't drive at all, and I didn't find any treasure chests or anything like that on foot."

It was only after she found the car manufacturing plant function page that she realized that to upgrade the initial car to level one, she needed to collect 100 units each of black iron, plastic, and glass, and 10 units of electronic components.

To advance to a Tier 1 vehicle, the body, windows, tires, engine, fuel tank, water tank, center console, etc. must all be upgraded. In addition to the upgrade materials, each of these items also requires corresponding blueprints to be processed at the car manufacturing plant.

Before this, she didn't even know what materials were needed to upgrade the car in this game. It was only when Hagiwara opened the internal menu of the car processing plant that she saw these materials and realized that the car air conditioner she had been longing for also required blueprints. Sigh!

Upon hearing the answer, Hagiwara couldn't help but give Kazesei a sympathetic look. How unlucky must one be to be forced to participate in a road survival challenge when they can't even drive? She's already been overtaken by others for two days!

No wonder most of the cars on the racetrack today, although they were still small sedans, looked different from hers in terms of body, windows, and tires. But I don't seem to have the right to sympathize with her.

She lived to be at least 35 years old safely. If I hadn't taken off my blast helmet while defusing the bomb, my other colleagues might have had a chance of survival. If I hadn't met her, I wouldn't have even turned 23 by now!

This was a blatant slap in the face. He had just told his colleagues that the bomb suit was completely useless at the bomb site, and then the eight bombs were remotely detonated by the criminals. Tsk! He mocked himself inwardly, but didn't let his negative emotions show on his face at all.

Instead, he calmly said, "Heh...it's alright, now that I'm here, let's drive forward and see if the development ahead is similar to that American game."

"Okay!" Upon hearing this, Feng Xingshou nodded hurriedly, thinking excitedly that he had finally gotten on the right track in the road survival game! He could finally begin.

Seeing her sparkling eyes and undisguised eagerness, is she really 35 years old? Although her appearance is close to her listed age, her words and actions have a kind of innocent naiveté!

Thinking that even her older sister seemed more mature than her, Kenji Hagiwara couldn't help but smile: "By the way, I can teach you some basic driving knowledge while we're driving, Kaze-chan, you should study hard too!"

"I'm 35 years old, can you please stop talking to me like you're coaxing a child?" This person's personality is completely at odds with the serious and upright police officer; instead, he has a subtle, playful smile that makes him incredibly approachable.

Kenji Hagiwara, with an approachable demeanor, uttered 'cold-blooded' words: 'Sorry, this is just my way of speaking, and it's hard to change it in a short time!'

After saying that, he turned around and opened the passenger door, making a very gentlemanly gesture for Feng Xingshou to get in the car.

Those whose eyes were already bulging with mischief could only mutter to themselves that they, as ordinary people, couldn't handle She Niu's personality, but in reality, they were speechless and could only silently get on the bus and figure things out later. -_-||

However, as she was about to get into the car, she suddenly noticed the black box on the back seat, and then realized what had happened. She slapped her forehead and exclaimed, "Ah! I forgot about the black metal box we got in the competition. I wonder what's inside?"

.

"Let's open it and see! Maybe there's a surprise!" After all, it was a rare reward only given to the top 10, and Kenji Hagiwara had always remembered the box and was very curious about what was inside.

What's on the noodles?

However, given his considerate yet perceptive and quick-witted personality, he felt that if he brought up the box himself, in the early stages of their acquaintance when they were not familiar with each other and did not trust each other, it would easily make Feng Jiang suspect that he was spying on her things, so he did not mention it.

He initially thought Feng Jiang didn't mention it because she didn't want him to know the specifics of the reward, but he never expected her to forget something so important. Is she really someone with little worldly experience? Or is she just naturally naive?

Feng Xingshou didn't think much of it. Upon hearing this, he immediately opened the back door of the car, took out the black iron box, and found that it was quite heavy. It was sealed in all directions, and there was no way to open it manually.

Thanks to the popularity of road survival novels, she immediately thought of the crowbar in the back of the truck. She quickly put down the box, went to the back of the truck to get the crowbar, and then held it up to the box to see where she could best pry it open.

Unexpectedly, just as the crowbar touched the black metal box, a barrage of comments resembling a game screen appeared before her eyes:

[A black metal box has been found. Should it be opened? Yes? No?]

Kenji Hagiwara looked at the light screen, which resembled bullet comments on a video, with some surprise. He realized the level and sophistication it represented, and his curiosity and wariness about the game grew.

Fengxing Guardian directly clicked 'Yes'. As she made the choice, the black iron box immediately dispersed in all directions in front of her as if it were automatically disintegrating, falling onto the road and turning into 10 black iron blocks.

Meanwhile, the live chat quickly switched to new content: [Congratulations to the survivor for obtaining one Level 1 fuel tank upgrade blueprint, one can of 50 fuel, one 5-pack of Golden Beef Instant Noodles, one 1.5L bottle of drinking water, one apple, one unit of electronic components, and 10 units of black iron.]

Upon seeing the supplies revealed after opening the black metal crate, Feng Xingshou exclaimed happily, "Great! The reward includes fuel! Judging by the size of this plastic bucket, it can probably hold 5 liters! I was worried that we wouldn't have enough fuel in the car and what would happen if we couldn't find the crate after driving for a while!"

"Take a look at what materials are needed to upgrade this fuel tank, right? A larger fuel tank is definitely an advantage in a game like this," Kenji Hagiwara reminded her while thinking to himself.

The combined volume of these rewards is significantly larger than the previous black metal crates, suggesting that the crates distributed during this road trip game likely utilize some form of space compression or storage expansion technology…

Upon hearing this, Feng Xingshou quickly picked up the fuel tank upgrade blueprint, intending to look at it with Hagiwara! But then the barrage of comments suddenly changed again: [Level 1 fuel tank upgrade blueprint found. Learn it? Yes? No?]

She and Hagiwara exchanged a glance, and without asking, she chose yes. As she made her choice, the barrage automatically switched to the car manufacturing option, and then the Level 1 fuel tank upgrade menu lit up in the menu function that originally only had options and the font was black.

After Hagiwara gestured for her to click on the lit option, the message "[Requires 10 units of plastic material. Insufficient material to process!]" appeared, with a large, prominent red exclamation mark that was easy to understand.

Seeing this, Kenji Hagiwara raised his hand and touched his smooth chin: "With this attempt, we have probably figured out the basic functions of this game. It seems that opening boxes and upgrading cars are all mainly operated by this game panel."

There's very little that we need to do ourselves. Our main task is basically driving, finding the boxes, opening them, and then the rest is automatically guided by the game panel... It's really convenient!

.

"..." That's what they say, but why does Hagiwara's tone sound so cold right now? Is it just my imagination?

Feng Xing Shou wasn't quite sure what he felt, but he couldn't say whether the discovery was good or bad.

She could only go and collect other supplies on the road and store them in her spatial backpack. However, when she received the food, she felt her stomach rumbling with hunger and remembered that she had already eaten a few bites in the dungeon earlier.

The Japanese police officer, who had been brought here without knowing the exact time, asked hurriedly, "By the way, are you hungry? If you are, let's eat something first."

"You can eat in the car later! It's getting late, let's drive and look for other boxes." Having just survived an explosion, he was now in this situation, and the fate of his colleagues was unknown.

Kenji Hagiwara really had no appetite right now, but he could hear Fuu's stomach growling with hunger, and seeing that she hadn't washed up and smelled of sweat, he knew that she must have suffered these past two days.

Hearing him say that, and remembering the rumbling of her stomach from hunger, Feng Xingshou blushed slightly. If it were an ordinary-looking man, she probably wouldn't have felt anything, but to have such a handsome man hear it...

Suppressing her embarrassment, she packed her things and sat down in the passenger seat. To avoid her stomach making those embarrassing noises again, she had no choice but to take out a bag of bread from her backpack and start eating.

Kenji Hagiwara, despite the discomfort of squeezing his long legs into the small driver's seat and feeling cramped, began driving the car towards the unknown road ahead.

After Feng Xingshou finished his bread as quickly as a squirrel, he began to drive the car while explaining the function of each component and teaching her to recognize the car...

After more than an hour's drive, Kenji Hagiwara suddenly slowed down and stepped on the brakes, saying to Kazesei Mamoru, "I found a box, but it's different from the previous black one. This one looks like it's made of natural wood."

"Hey! I'll go down and take a look." Feng Xingshou opened the passenger door, got out of the car, went to the trunk, took out a crowbar, and walked towards the wooden treasure chest.

Seeing this, Hagiwara thought for a moment and got out of the car as well, standing next to Fuu-chan. Without Fuu-chan even realizing it, he adopted a defensive posture, even though the roadside treasure chests seemed to be a channel for distributing supplies.

But no one can guarantee that a crisis won't emerge from inside. However, his defenses were in vain at this moment. The wooden treasure chest, which was originally light brown, was touched by a crowbar and opened automatically, revealing very little in terms of supplies.

There was only a 550ml bottle of drinking water, a box of rice that looked like takeout, not even some pickled vegetables as a side dish, and 10 units of wood that fell naturally after the wooden treasure chest was destroyed.

Seeing the items inside the wooden treasure chest, Feng Xingshou couldn't help but feel a sense of disappointment: "Although I guessed that the wooden treasure chest would definitely have less stuff than the iron treasure chest, I didn't expect the difference to be so great."

"Well! At least we've confirmed one thing through this discovery: the roadside treasure chests in this game are also divided into different levels. This wooden treasure chest is probably the lowest level, while the iron treasure chest has a lot more resources."

"It seems that if bronze, silver, and gold levels appear, it will be even more exciting." Kenji Hagiwara, on the other hand, accepted the current result well, since this development was within his predictions.

Seeing his reaction, Feng Xing Shou felt a sense of pressure because she was older but her actual abilities were inferior to those of younger people. She suddenly remembered that she felt the same way in the dungeon, where the bomb disposal team members around her all looked like middle-aged men in their 30s and 40s.

Yet they all seemed to revolve around him, behaving like his subordinates, which made me curiously ask, "Hey! You must be some kind of big shot in the Japanese police force, right?"