Chapter 15
Qiao Ningxuan ordered two plates of fatty beef, one plate of beef strips, two plates of tripe, as well as beef aorta, duck blood, duck intestines, and a small amount of various vegetables. She usually has a good appetite, especially when eating hot pot, she always manages to eat exceptionally well.
After eating and drinking to your heart's content, clean up the pots and pans. Put the ones that are inconvenient to wash in the storage box. Since time stands still in there, you can take them out and wash them when you have enough water.
She glanced at the time; it wasn't even 8 p.m. yet, so she got out of the car to walk around and digest her food.
The highway world at dusk gives people an even stronger sense of desolation, loneliness, and emptiness.
The dim sky and the rising night fog along the roadside created an oppressive, suffocating sense of crisis.
Qiao Ning didn't like the atmosphere. She walked around the car a few times, and seeing that it was almost eight o'clock, she quickly went back to the car.
Qiao Ning no longer checks the chat channel. She exits immediately after listing her products and switches to watching movies on TV—she discovered that the video player can connect to the system's main interface, projecting images onto the system's virtual screen, creating a feeling of watching movies in a high-tech cinema. The visual effects are remarkably realistic.
It just requires electricity. It burns about one unit of gasoline per hour.
Qiao Ning has no shortage of gasoline, but she doesn't dare to waste it. She will watch one movie at most and then turn it off.
After watching a comedy, Qiao Ning felt drowsy. She quickly washed up, lay down on her small bed, and fell asleep instantly.
The seventh day of the natural disaster began at 8:00 AM the following day.
Qiao Ning had just gotten up, washed up, and made breakfast when she received a system notification:
Your vehicle is damaged. Failure to repair it promptly may affect your driving experience or even render it unusable. We recommend repairing the damaged parts as soon as possible.
Qiao Ning quickly opened the system's car icon, and sure enough, a red area representing damage appeared in the virtual car model displayed on it.
And it's an engine problem.
The entire engine is covered in yellow, indicating that it is about to fail.
The part that was malfunctioning was too critical to drive without repair, so Qiao Ning had to use a vehicle repair card to restore the car to its original condition.
She has a lot of vehicle repair cards. In addition to the 8 cards she makes every day, she has also opened boxes and found many more. She currently has 52 cards in stock.
No matter how much she uses it, she can't possibly use it all, so she simply sets aside some and will put it on the shelves for sale later, depending on the situation.
She encountered many high-star supply crates today, and even a 5-star crate once. She still didn't encounter the treasure-guarding monster even once.
The only danger she encountered was at noon when she stopped the car to stretch her back and was unexpectedly attacked by a small monster called an "earth snake"!
She was also poisoned by a snake, but luckily she had a first-aid kit containing antibacterial and antidotes.
It was her fault for being careless. The relaxed environment, having encountered no danger for the past few days, had dulled her guard. She subconsciously let her guard down, got out of the car without proper equipment, and fell victim to the attack. If she had been wearing the Spring Breeze Set, those earth snake monsters wouldn't have been able to break through her defenses or harm her.
After that, Qiao Ning became extremely vigilant and planned to wear the protective gear even while sleeping.
In the afternoon, the car broke down again. This time, the protective film on the windows completely peeled off. Before she could replace it, the window tint showed cracks and damage, requiring immediate repair.
Qiao Ning thought to herself, "What kind of window is this? It's as fragile as paper."
What she didn't know was that in the chat channel, other players' cars that hadn't been upgraded had broken down countless times; some had cracked tires, while others had their entire cars cracked.
The price of vehicle repair cards has skyrocketed, even exceeding the price of precious drinking water, and is more expensive than humidifier bulbs.
As the natural disaster escalates, the system interface will display more and more information, such as specific dryness values, the degree of water shortage, how much humidifying material is needed to eliminate the negative status, which parts are about to fail, and materials that can be fused together to extend the service life before failure...
The most cracked parts were the car body, windows, and tires.
To extend the time before these three parts are damaged, the following materials are required: four types of metal and glue, glass and glue, and rubber and glue.
In other words, the value of the materials went from being cheap and plentiful to being in high demand and short supply in just half a day.
Especially the glue, which already has a low failure rate, is now even scarcer. Qiao Ning couldn't find any bargains on the market, but she had previously established a good relationship with Li Yangxing, a major supplier of materials.
His talent is probably related to materials.
As time went on, the smart home system measured the external dryness level at 250, and it continued to increase every minute.
In this situation, the protective film needs to be replaced every 2 hours, and the reinforced tires can only be driven continuously for a maximum of 8 hours before their durability is completely lost.
To maintain the humidity inside a car between 40% and 50%, a humidifier bulb needs to be used at least four per hour—an extremely high consumption rate. However, normally, maintaining humidity above 20% will prevent heatstroke, though it may be a bit uncomfortable.
Ordinary car owners have limited resources and can't afford humidifiers, so they can only barely maintain a humidity level of 20 or higher inside their cars.
At 7:30 p.m., Qiao Ning parked the car and turned off the engine.
At this point, the number of online users in Zone 1408 had dwindled to only 48,000.
More than 20,000 people died and were eliminated in a single day...
The chat channel is no longer accessible; it's filled with messages of despair or cries for help, but there are also some normal transactions and mutual encouragement.
Some people are despairing and cursing all over the world one second, complaining about everything as if they wish everyone would die with them, but the next second, after receiving supplies from others, they burst into tears.
When he opened the supply box, he didn't use it himself. Instead, he kept only a portion for himself and gave the rest to those in need.
Qiao Ning saw a message:
Wang Xiulin: I am a high school teacher. I had a happy family and a lovely five-year-old daughter. A few days ago was my daughter's birthday, and I was pulled into a game while I was buying a cake.
For the past week, I've been struggling to survive, fueled by my longing for my daughter and husband. But just now, someone tricked me out of most of my supplies using a cheat card. I'm out of gasoline and don't have time to open any more supply crates.
Without enough supplies, I'm destined not to survive tonight, and I don't want to endure it any longer.
I donated all the remaining supplies I had via email to the people who were asking for help in the channel, hoping that you would have a chance to survive.
If anyone manages to leave the game alive, please go to apartment 203, Building 4, Fang'an Residential Area, Yunhai City, Nanxi Province, and tell my husband and daughter that I love them very much and that they... should live well.
"No, Teacher Wang, I can still give you some gasoline! Don't give up on Teacher Wang! No matter how hard it is, you have to try to live! Think of your daughter! She's still waiting for you to come home!"
[That damned, despicable liar! We're already struggling so much, why do this kind of scoundrel have to make things even worse?! May that liar die a horrible death!]
I still have some drinking water left, Teacher Wang, I've mailed it to you! Don't give up!
Qiao Ning mailed her some humidifying water balls, food, and a moisturizing kit.
[Wang Xiulin: Please don't send me anything anymore, I've already received enough. A kind person just sent me a lot of things. This disaster cycle only lasts until tonight, so I've sent the extra supplies to others who also need them. Thank you all for your help, thank you so much... I will pull myself together and try my best to survive.]
[I was planning to commit suicide by getting out of the car and walking into the night fog because I couldn't get any supplies. Just a second before I opened the car door, I received supplies from Teacher Wang, which instantly gave me hope for life again. Now I'm in the car, tears streaming down my face. Besides thanking everyone, I don't know what else to say.]
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