Chapter 64
The fiery clouds dissipated, and no more heavenly fire fell on this small area. However, Qiao Ning was busy collecting supply boxes, so she only patted Binglin on the head twice.
"Explain it to me properly later."
"Let's get to work. There are so many supply crates, I can't collect them all by myself. If we don't pick them up in time, they'll disappear soon." Qiao Ning could already see some of the supply crates in the distance gradually fading and dissipating.
Before she could finish speaking, Binglin's figure had already darted away.
Qiao Ning shook her head and, before the fire clouds in this area could re-condense, quickly retrieved all the supply boxes.
If it weren't for the ice scales dispersing the fiery clouds in this area, she really wouldn't have been able to collect most of the supply boxes. She'd be lucky to collect a few dozen, even if she could only protect herself.
The fiery clouds were about to re-condense, and Qiao Ning quickly returned to the car.
She looked at the fireballs constantly falling around her, and the earth riddled with craters from their impact, her expression thoughtful.
The heavenly fire will last for an hour, but since the ice scales can dissipate the fire clouds and temporarily stop the fireballs in some areas, it means that this additional natural disaster is not without a way to deal with it.
Qiao Ning currently has two methods to deal with the Heavenly Fire, but they have certain operational limitations, and their effectiveness is unknown. She is unsure whether they can be used.
The first method, of course, involves attacking the fireballs from the sky. The ice scales cause the fire clouds to dissipate, and they continuously devour the fireballs. Every time a fireball lands or dissipates, a new fireball will descend from the fire clouds. The speed of the fireballs increases with the number of times they fall, and the fireballs will fall faster and faster.
Ice Scales played like they were playing a mobile game where they caught red envelopes raining down; they didn't miss a single fireball. In the end, the fireballs in the fire cloud quickly ran out, and the fire cloud naturally dissipated.
Where uncollected treasure chests gather, fireballs will frequently fall from the fire cloud. Treasure chests that have already been collected, such as the ones Qiao Ning picked up, will no longer attract fireballs.
Players can pick up treasure chests or discard them, leaving them unclaimed.
If you throw the treasure chests you've picked up into the same area, will it cause a large number of fireballs to fall and quickly deplete the fire cloud in a short time?
Once the fire cloud dissipates, no more fireballs will fall on the area covered by it for a short period. Players can then take this opportunity to collect all the treasure chests in that area.
Fireballs land on areas with a high concentration of treasure chests without destroying them, allowing players to collect the most chests with minimal losses.
Of course, this is just Qiao Ning's guess. Whether it will work and how to get players to cooperate are all questions.
Qiao Ning also didn't know if the second method was feasible.
In her view, since the fire cloud can dissipate, why is the only way to go that it has to be exhausted and dissipated? They have survived several natural disasters, and most players will have both melee and ranged attack methods.
If we attack the fire cloud, and there are many attacks or many people attacking, and the damage is sufficient, will the fire cloud be scattered?
Don't think she's just daydreaming. She plays too many games, so naturally her thinking is broader than other players. She's also better at using game rules to explore and find shortcuts and bugs, which is almost instinctive for her.
Qiao Ning definitely needs to try both methods herself first. If they really work, then it won't be too late to tell other players. Otherwise, if she tells them too early and the methods don't work, in this life-or-death situation, even the slightest mistake can be fatal.
Qiao Ning first tried the first method, dumping a large number of treasure chests in one place. Sure enough, the fire clouds overhead began to send most of the fireballs crashing down on the area where the treasure chests were gathered.
The frequency of fireballs falling in other areas decreased significantly and rapidly. After about five minutes, fireballs stopped falling in areas other than where treasure chests were concentrated.
Ten minutes later, the fire cloud dissipated. No more fireballs fell over the area.
The first method is feasible.
Qiao Ning began testing the second type of equipment. The ranged attack equipment she had included bows and arrows with similar supernatural effects, as well as firearms and skill cards.
After trying them all, she found that ranged firearms, such as rocket launchers, were the most effective against the fire cloud. Her own special abilities, enchanted bows and arrows, and skill cards were next.
The Firecloud AI withstood two rocket launcher shots, and other smaller long-range thermal weapons were also effective, although they required more ammunition.
After confirming the effect, Qiao Ning immediately sent the message to the chat channel. Everyone was in a terrible mess because of the fire. In just half an hour, nearly two thousand players had died, and many more were injured or their vehicles were severely damaged.
Is this real or fake? Is it even possible to do this?
I don't care anymore, I'll give it a try!
I'm not going to care anymore. I'll try anything, even if it's a dead end. If this keeps up, I'll run out of my car repair card, and then I'll still be dead!
Qiao Ning doesn't speak much in the public chat, but she never speaks without reason. The method she mentioned should be effective; I suspect she's already tried it beforehand.
I've been quietly observing Ms. Qiao for a long time. I personally think she's a very cautious person, with a quick mind and a knack for discovering and utilizing rules. As soon as she messaged me about these two methods, I started experimenting.
Qiao Ning spammed the chat with messages, and players' first instinct upon seeing them was undoubtedly to use the second method. However, this method consumes more resources.
Neither method can be accomplished by one person alone, unless one is like Qiao Ning, who has neither a shortage of firearms nor a shortage of supplies.
Most of the players who survived until now in 1408 have become very united, quickly forming numerous teams. At this time, they gather all the supply boxes they have together, or launch an attack on the fire cloud together.
Soon the players' test results came out, and perhaps because they were temporarily out of danger, the chat channel started scrolling and becoming lively again.
[Qiao Ning: Players who are out of danger, don't relax! Seize every opportunity to pick up supply crates. The fire cloud will recombine very quickly; you must collect all supply crates before it does.]
Holy crap, is it even possible for the Fire Clouds to reunite?
[I won't say much more, I'm already busy collecting supply crates. If I can survive this disaster, I'll definitely make a fortune this time.]
If we can weather this 1408 disaster, we'll be even more prepared for the next natural catastrophe!
The first method requires almost no resources for the player, but it takes time to deplete the Fire Cloud.
The second method is slightly more difficult for smaller groups of players, but as long as more than ten people gather, they can easily break through the fire cloud, which is much faster than the first method.
Qiao Ning had done all she could. As the fire continued, she stopped paying attention to the chat channel and focused solely on gathering supplies.
Ice Scale quickly cleared away patch after patch of fire clouds for her, and also helped store the supply boxes into its Gluttonous Space.
The two of them worked together for half an hour, clearing more than twenty areas and collecting countless treasure chests.
Qiao Ning glanced at her blind box coin balance: 10,868.
In other words, she collected more than 10,000 supply boxes during this single firestorm!
Other players also reaped considerable rewards, to varying degrees.
Qiao Ning herself was stunned.
I suspect there might be a bug in the game system that's causing this huge bonus.
However, after thinking about it carefully, it seems... there's a reason why such immense wealth has fallen upon 1408.
First of all, the Heavenly Fire will only be around for an hour. Under the attack of the Heavenly Fire, ordinary players will be too busy to even think about how to deal with the Heavenly Fire, let alone dare to try to attack the Fire Cloud.
Only someone like Qiao Ning, clad in the red Night-Shining Flowing Armor, wielding the Black Flame Bone Blade, and wearing a defensive ring on her finger granting absolute protection, could possess such a weapon. Not only does she have a movement skill, but her vehicle is also level 5, and she's accompanied by an Ice Scale that can devour heavenly fire.
Only with such confidence can one dare to try things without restraint, and only then will one have time to delve into and reflect deeply.
Secondly, even if someone discovers these two methods, they may not be able to convince the entire server and unite them to deal with the Heavenly Fire.
First of all, very few players are willing to simply hand over the supply crates. Teams of ten or more also face problems. Fights might break out early on over the distribution of supply crates.
District 1408 certainly had these problems as well, but at least during the time of the Heavenly Fire, they didn't cause any major problems and managed to get through it smoothly.
After the first Heavenly Fire event, the number of surviving players in Zone 1408 was 31,872.
Besides those who died from the Heavenly Fire attack, a significant number of players also died at the hands of other players.
This was unavoidable.
Qiao Ning was unsure how many more heavenly fire attacks there would be, but if the losses were this great each time, their survival rate in this natural disaster would most likely be difficult to maintain at 20%.
Pei Jing and the others contacted Qiao Ning immediately, expressing their concerns. Qiao Ning was also quite helpless. She could only hope that other players, for the sake of survival rates, would control their greed; otherwise, the entire server would truly be doomed.
As time slowly passed, and seeing that the nine suns were about to align in a straight line again, Qiao Ning suddenly thought of a crazy idea.
[Qiao Ning: My coordinates are 1932, 756. Players who want to survive the natural disaster can teleport here as soon as possible. I will lead everyone through this level.]
Afterwards, regular treasure chests will be distributed equally, while rare treasure chests are mine. Those interested, come quickly!
This might prevent players from fighting each other for profit and thus stabilize the survival rate.
This method wasn't clever, but it was the only one she could think of.
Of course, Pei Jing or Yuan Heng could each take the lead, but if there are too many players and things get out of control, they might have a hard time keeping them in check.
She wasn't overestimating herself, but it was a matter of life and death, with no room for error, so she had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it herself.
As soon as she sent this message, Pei Jingyuan and the others teleported over immediately, followed by a large influx of players into the highway area where Qiao Ning was located.
In the end, less than 10,000 people didn't teleport over. This is normal; even though the players trusted Qiao Ning, that trust was insignificant compared to the rare treasure chests.
Most player battles stem from the uneven distribution of rare treasure chests. With regular chests, it doesn't matter much who gets more or less. But rare chests only spawn in limited quantities each time; clearing a whole area of fire clouds might only yield ten.
There are over 30,000 players in the entire region. There's not enough to go around.
Therefore, Qiao Ning said from the beginning that the rare treasure chest belonged to her, so that no one would dare to snatch it from her, thus avoiding other players from fighting over the rare treasure chest.
As the nine suns aligned, celestial fire descended once more. During the celestial fire, players were unable to leave the road world they were in.
The players were scattered across more than a hundred areas, and most of them used the first method to deplete the Fire Cloud. The supply boxes came from Qiao Ning's stockpile.
Another part involved Qiao Ning and Bing Lin quickly moving between different areas, working with the players to clear away all the fire clouds.
With experience and the cooperation of the players, only a few players were injured or killed after an hour of heavenly fire. After the final burst of fire dissipated, Qiao Ning, seeing that the time was almost up, distributed all the supply boxes to all the players along with Pei Jing and the others, and also took back the supply boxes she had invested in.
As long as everyone stays put and doesn't cause trouble, we'll definitely get through this.
Few players are fools now; most have guessed Qiao Ning's intentions.
Since forming teams privately will inevitably lead to uneven distribution of resources, let's gather together and enforce a distribution system.
This time, the players reaped even more rewards from the heavenly fire than before, because it was more efficient and avoided internal conflicts, saving them countless troubles.
In the following few instances of Heavenly Fire, some players left Qiao Ning's coordinates, while others joined, and the overall survival rate remained relatively stable at around 30%.
It's almost midnight, and the cycle of natural disasters is about to end.
Qiao Ning saw that in just a few seconds, the wasteland not far away suddenly became lush with green grass and clusters of flowers, and the plants quickly covered every inch of the land.
Even the highways have been completely destroyed by plants that have grown out of the ground.
Is this... a harbinger of the next natural disaster?
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