Chapter 51
As if realizing that its voice had "broken," Binglin immediately called out again, this time with a majestic and awe-inspiring roar, a sound that surpassed even the roars of dragons and tigers, making people's heads buzz.
Although this sound seemed to better suit the appearance of the ice scales, Qiao Ning couldn't shake the lingering "woof" in her mind, and always felt that its current roar was "forced" out.
Qiao Ning looked the dog up and down, but Bing Lin let her look at it, remaining calm and composed, as if it wasn't the dog that had barked just now.
This guy... has been putting on an act for quite some time now, and Qiao Ning didn't call him out on it.
On the sixth day of the natural disaster, the temperature is -45 degrees Celsius, with heavy snow, a level 5 cold wind, and a few pieces of ice mixed in with the wind. There is a 5% chance that an ice tornado will appear, and there is a 20% chance that the ice tornado will be triggered by the player.
This is a natural disaster forecast provided by the system. Generally, the more information is broadcast later in the forecast.
Upon seeing the keyword "[triggered by player]", Qiao Ning's right eyelid suddenly twitched a few times for some reason.
A sudden, heavy feeling settled over her, as if she sensed something bad was about to happen, but she didn't know how to stop it or what to do.
Because she had no idea what was going to happen.
Qiao Ning's goal for the day was to hunt beast cores. After hunting several small beasts, she discovered that the lighter the color of the Icefield Monster's eyes, skin, or fur, the lighter the color of its beast core, which was a faint blue that was almost invisible.
Conversely, the darker the color, the more intense the color. Some ice monsters even have cores that are almost blackish-blue. Most of these ice monsters are enormous and possess extremely powerful ice-related abilities.
In the constant battles with the Icefield Monsters, Qiao Ning's superpowers improved at a rocket-like speed. At the beginning, she was overwhelmed by the Icefield Monsters and needed Ice Scale's help, but later she was able to fight medium-sized behemoths by herself.
When energy is insufficient, replenish it with the beast cores you hunt. Each time you deplete your energy and absorb a beast core, you will experience a significant increase in strength.
The sun is not visible on the ice field; only the light changes in intensity. Around eight o'clock, a blue crescent moon hangs in the sky above the snow forest, and as time goes by, the crescent moon becomes more real.
"Ice Scale, this beast core is big enough. I'll tie it to the horn on your forehead later. Didn't you want to decorate your horn?"
Qiao Ning tossed a beast core the size of a goose egg up and down. The core was dark blue in color and had been left behind by a mammoth.
This mammoth was enormous. At first, Qiao Ning thought she was climbing a snow mountain, but when the ground shook, she realized that it wasn't a snow mountain at all, but a giant mammoth!
Giant beasts often need to eat voraciously as soon as they awaken. Qiao Ning initially didn't realize she was standing on the back of a giant beast. By the time she realized something was wrong and tried to retreat, the mammoth opened its blood-red maw wide in front of her—
If she fell into the mouth of a mammoth, she probably wouldn't even be as big as a grain of rice sticking out of someone's tongue from a sore throat.
Fortunately, Qiao Ning's reaction speed and combat awareness were far superior to when she first entered the game. She immediately stepped on one of the giant beast's fangs and flipped over to jump behind its head.
It took several hours to grind down the mammoth. During this time, Binglin wanted to help, but Qiao Ning refused.
Ice Scale had helped her hunt at least a thousand beast cores during the day, and she wanted to give it a high-level beast core that she had hunted herself.
When they finally obtained the mammoth's core, Qiao Ning had lost too much blood and was exhausted, collapsing to the ground, unable to move even a finger.
Ice Scale was whimpering anxiously beside it. It took out its carefully treasured spatial backpack and took out the wound medicine that Qiao Ning had given it. It didn't care whether it was for internal or external treatment, it used both on it.
When Qiao Ning recovered and her injuries healed, her face was still pale. Medicine could only heal the wounds; the blood she had lost could not be replenished.
"Don't cry, don't cry, am I not feeling well?" Qiao Ning saw that Bing Lin's clear eyes were brimming with water, as if they were about to fall at any moment, so she quickly rubbed and comforted it.
"Ugh..." Binglin whimpered softly, wanting to rub against her, but afraid that her injuries hadn't fully healed and that he might hurt her.
"I'm really fine. Do you like this beast core? If you do, I'll tie it on for you. If you don't like it, we can get another one."
"Awoo."
"Don't call me an idiot. You sound just like an idiot. Call me Mom!"
"Roar!"
"It's Mom. Come and learn the lip movements with me, mama."
"Awooo!"
"It's somewhat similar, but not entirely correct. I'll practice more when I get back."
Qiao Ning used a main vine that had fallen off from Green Pearl to tie the beast core to the root of Ice Scale's horn. After wearing it, the beast core emitted a deep blue light, which looked quite beautiful at first glance.
"By the way, Ice Scale, do you have a gender? Are you a boy or a girl?"
"Alright, alright, don't get worked up. I don't care about your gender. It's normal for children to have privacy as they grow up."
"I don't know why, but I've been feeling uneasy all day. I have a feeling that something is going to happen... Ice Scale, beasts usually have very keen senses. Have you sensed anything wrong?"
Upon hearing this, Binglin suddenly fell silent, her gaze towards Qiao Ning tender, affectionate, and reluctant.
Then it shook its big head, indicating that it didn't know.
Qiao Ning found its reaction a bit strange, but since the Ice Scale couldn't speak, there was a communication barrier between the two, and she couldn't find out the reason.
She wasn't usually a talkative person, especially when she was with people; she could be considered quite taciturn. However, since Ice Scale wasn't human, perhaps because Qiao Ning felt particularly relaxed and comfortable in its presence, she talked much more than usual, and sometimes she would deliberately chatter away in Ice Scale's ear.
Ice Scale was so annoyed that he kept yelling and cursing, "You're an idiot!"
As night fell, the temperature dropped again. Qiao Ning's watch, which monitored the temperature, showed that the temperature on the ice field had dropped to minus fifty degrees Celsius.
Minus fifty degrees Celsius, coupled with swirling snow and ice, and thin air—what does that mean? Even people who live in extremely cold regions in the modern world wouldn't survive more than three minutes on an ice field.
Qiao Ning really wanted to stay on the ice plains because Bing Lin seemed to prefer the environment there. Unfortunately, she had run out of oxygen tanks. She hadn't gotten many oxygen tanks from opening boxes recently; they were extremely scarce, and no one was selling them in the trading area. So, this was her last one.
With limited oxygen reserves in the bottle, Qiao Ning had to return to the highway within an hour.
As night fell, the highway barriers completely disappeared. Binglin followed her onto the highway and, seeing that Qiao Ning didn't intend to drive to retrieve the supply crates, lay down beside the car.
Because of its large size, even when it was lying down, its head was much higher than the car. When looking at Qiao Ning, it had to deliberately move its head down and look at the car window.
Fortunately, the road was wide enough that Ice Scale's body did not squeeze out of the road.
"Ice Scales".
"Ouch."
"I'm so tired, I don't want to move." Qiao Ning slumped on the sofa inside the RV. She had been fighting monsters all day and had been injured repeatedly. There was medicine to heal her skin and flesh, but it was difficult to restore her spirit.
"Awooo!"
"Could you help me catch a few treasure-guarding monsters? Of course, it would be even better if you could bring back the treasure chests they're guarding for me while you're at it." If possible, she even wanted Ice Scale to open the chests for her and finish her off.
When people get lazy, it can be really outrageous.
Ice Scale's massive body stood up, shook off the snow, let out a howl, and disappeared into the snowy night with a few leaps.
Qiao Ning was deeply moved. Bing Lin was so filial, taking such good care of its elderly mother who couldn't take care of herself.
That night, Qiao Ning was thoroughly served by Bing Lin, doing absolutely nothing except moving her fingers. The only thing missing was Bing Lin feeding her.
Perhaps she was exhausted from the day, Qiao Ning fell asleep without realizing it, and Bing Lin even helped her raise and close the window.
She slept for less than two hours, and it was a very restless sleep. When she woke up, Qiao Ning's heart was pounding, but she couldn't remember what she had dreamed about.
Qiao Ning paced back and forth in the car dozens of times before finally deciding to spend blind box coins to draw a wish blind box.
She felt uneasy if she didn't make any preparations.
Currently, the number of supply boxes that can be collected each day during the natural disaster cycle is limited. If we calculate an average of 10 boxes per day, after seven days, it wouldn't even be enough for her to do a ten-pull.
So Qiao Ning kept her blind box coins to herself, waiting for a crucial moment to use them. If she managed to get the item she wanted most, it might just save her life.
Qiao Ning wanted to use some now to try a ten-pull.
In her first ten-pull, Qiao Ning received 20 Talent Experience Books, 100 Mixed Metals, and 30 Oxygen Tanks.
That's all.
Qiao Ning frowned and pondered for a moment before continuing with a second ten-pull.
This time it's basically the same stuff, except there are more talent experience books, but the last item is a bit strange—
[Questioning Heaven Coupon *3]
Only then did Qiao Ning's intense unease gradually subside.
She clicked on the item description:
The "Asking the Heavens Coupon" is a mysterious consultation coupon. Just enter your question on it, and it will show you the correct answer, no matter what the question is.
Each Ask the Heaven Ticket can only be used once, and only one question can be asked each time. Therefore, players who possess this ticket must cherish each ticket and use each question opportunity carefully.
In an instant, many questions flashed through Qiao Ning's mind, such as where this game came from, how they, the players, could escape the game, how many natural disasters would take for the game to end, and so on...
But in the end, she didn't dare to use the three coupons easily.
Qiao Ning carefully put away the Heavenly Questioning Token and fell asleep again, this time sleeping much more soundly.
When she was woken up by her smart home assistant at seven in the morning, she thought it was the middle of the night—the sky outside the car window was dark, with no sign of dawn.
Ice Scale hadn't left yet; it was sleeping by her car. Sensing movement inside, it immediately pricked up its ears, and its tail unconsciously twitched slightly.
On the seventh day of the natural disaster, the temperature is -55 degrees Celsius, with heavy snow and hail, and a level 6 cold wind. There is a 10% chance of triggering a hail tornado, a 35% chance of a player-initiated hail tornado, and a 5% chance of a player-initiated avalanche.
Players are advised not to leave the road, not to make noise on the ice field, and not to touch anything unknown.
Qiao Ning glanced at the number of survivors; it was a staggering 60,000. Compared to the previous three natural disasters, the survival rate of this one was ridiculously high.
Qiao Ning felt increasingly uneasy. There were over 60,000 people involved. Could it be that everyone could truly avoid violating the system's warnings?
Qiao Ning felt it was risky.
She and Binglin had a lavish breakfast; she practically treated it as her last supper, eating whatever she wanted and as much as she could.
The road barrier has disappeared, and with the dim light, not only the Ice Scales but all the Icefield Monsters can easily walk onto the road.
Qiao Ning drove around the large monsters she couldn't handle, occasionally getting out to hunt down a few small to medium-sized ice field monsters that came to her.
The morning passed quickly without anything unusual happening, except for the wind getting stronger and the occasional hail.
The price of vehicle repair cards has skyrocketed again, as they are indispensable whether the vehicle is exposed to cold winds, broken ice, or hail.
Furthermore, excessively low temperatures can cause car parts to freeze or even crack and shatter. Right now, the most needed item in chat channels isn't warm clothing, but rather vehicle repair cards.
Qiao Ning's level 5 car is very durable, requiring only two repairs a day, while ordinary players need to repair it at least ten times.
As darkness approached, Qiao Ning stopped driving. The chances of encountering a gigantic ice monster were slim as long as she didn't keep driving. She didn't want to take a detour into the ice field just to avoid those behemoths. If the sound of the car triggered an avalanche, that would be disastrous.
Qiao Ning must nip all signs of disaster in the bud, giving the game system no chance whatsoever to increase the difficulty of survival.
However, to her utter surprise, around six or seven o'clock that evening, a system announcement popped up—
Players Zhang Runxiang (1279) and Zhang Tianye (1356) have triggered the hidden natural disasters "Hail Tornado" and "Avalanche" in the later stages of the Extreme Cold Disaster. From now until the end of the disaster cycle at midnight, all surviving players in the entire region may encounter Hail Tornado or Avalanche at any time. Players are advised to immediately enter the Ice Plains, find a suitable place to take shelter, and try to survive.
Qiao Ning cursed under her breath, not even bothering to check the chat channel, and immediately started the car and drove at full speed towards the ice field.
As if it knew what was happening, Ice Scale ran faster than a car, leading Qiao Ning in a certain direction.
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