Chapter 37
Outside, the night fog was pitch black, so thick that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. Only the headlights of the car could dispel the fog.
Qiao Ning asked the smart assistant to turn the car lights to the brightest and maximum setting.
When the ultimate illumination is turned on, the area within a 50-meter radius around the vehicle is illuminated as brightly as day.
This is one of the functions of a Class III vehicle, and of course, this function is also very power-consuming.
Qiao Ning clearly saw that wherever the giant locust went, the woodlice retreated continuously. Those that were slow to run were instantly devoured. The locust had managed to eat away a path through the dense swarm of woodlice.
The giant locust descended like a queen; wherever it flew, the woodlice hesitated to gather around it.
It's unclear how it pinpointed the king's location within the sowbug swarm. Once it found the hidden king, it swiftly pounced on it. Before the other sowbugs could react, their king was already gone, leaving only two legs.
The next second, the locust used its wings to pluck the remaining two legs into its mouth and eat them.
With the death of the insect king, the swarm collapsed, and the woodlice scattered in all directions without a leader to command them.
As the giant locust leisurely prepared to fly back through the car window, it got stuck in its stomach.
At this moment, Qiao Ning said rather tactlessly, "Big Locust, you've eaten too much, your belly is too fat and you're choking."
Enraged, the locust made a move to bite the car window and ended up chewing it up.
Qiao Ning was startled and quickly opened the entire car door. "Come on, come on, come in through the door."
The giant locust called out to Qiao Ning, and out of respect for its master, flew into the car through the door.
Without the threat of woodlice, Qiao Ning had a very peaceful night.
After the giant locust ate the woodlice king, it went into hibernation and advanced. Qiao Ning simply put it into the pet inventory to prevent it from being affected by natural disasters during its advancement.
At seven o'clock in the morning, Qiao Ning was woken up by the smart butler. This time, she did not check the number of moisture-absorbing water balls consumed immediately, but instead checked the number of survivors first.
There are still more than 32,000 people left.
The survival rate was much higher than Qiao Ning had imagined. She looked at the chat channel and found that the reason why everyone's condition was not so bad was because after the pet system was activated, most people successfully captured pets in the wild, and a few experts even captured two pets.
These pets, regardless of species, seem to suppress woodlice, greatly protecting their owners from harm by them.
Having a pet for protection makes finding supply crates and entering wilderness areas much easier, and many pets are even more powerful than their owners.
In this way, a significant number of players will receive more resources, which will naturally lead them to trade and purchase items they need more, or they may take the opportunity to collect the low-priced items from this natural disaster, indirectly helping the weaker players. This will create a virtuous cycle, greatly improving the overall survival rate of the server.
Qiao Ning ate a more substantial breakfast than usual, mainly because so many delicious foods have opened up recently, and it would be a shame to leave them uneaten and take up space.
A large bowl of congee with preserved egg and lean pork, 5 shumai, 20 xiaolongbao, 4 tea eggs, plus two jujube rice dumplings.
This meal used to be enough for her to eat for a whole day, but now she only feels about 70% full.
After all, she still had to go into the wilderness to fight monsters, which required a lot of exercise. Last night, while taking a shower, she touched her arms, waist, and abdomen. The soft, flabby flesh that used to be there had now become well-defined muscles. It wasn't noticeable when she was dressed, but when she took off her outer clothes and wore only a close-fitting vest, her figure, waist, and legs were so stunning that Qiao Ning herself almost fell in love with herself.
At eight o'clock, Qiao Ning started the car and drove off.
Today is the last day of the natural disaster. As usual, there will be a warning about the type of the next natural disaster. Therefore, Qiao Ning did not let the smart butler drive, but drove herself, and paid extra attention to all the details on the road.
I drove until noon, and nothing happened except for picking up 6 supply boxes.
Qiao Ning parked the car to prepare lunch and tidied up her things, planning to go into the wilderness to gain some experience after lunch.
The Radiance Wilderness is great in every way, except it doesn't drop equipment. The drop rate for Black Stones used to upgrade the Black Flame Bone Blade and gems for socketing is extremely low.
She can only farm some equipment and stones in the regular jungle.
From 1 p.m. until 8 p.m., Qiao Ning was farming equipment and stones in the normal jungle area.
A total of 1,042 pieces of equipment were obtained.
100 black stones and 200 gem-encrusted boxes.
I don't know how many stamina potions I used up, but luckily monsters still drop them, so when I finally came out of the wilderness, I still had a few left in my inventory.
After 8 p.m., the number of online users, which was originally over 30,000, suddenly dropped by several thousand, leaving only about 28,000.
Qiao Ning was unsure of the reason and hurriedly contacted several people on her friend list.
Pei Jing replied, "I'm fighting monsters, we'll talk later," and then didn't reply again. No one else responded either. Li Yangxing didn't reply with text, but only sent a picture.
It looks like a quick snapshot taken during a battle.
"Is this... a polar bear? Or a brown bear with albino disease?"
Qiao Ning wasn't quite sure how to tell them apart.
She kept staring at the chat channel, and after a long time, people started saying that they had been attacked by monsters. This time, the attacks were random, and they had to kill the monsters to pass the level.
Some encounter emperor penguins, others Arctic foxes, and the unluckiest encounter packs of Arctic wolves, polar bears, or even leopards and eagles living in frigid regions.
Pei Jing, Li Yangxing, Yuan Heng, and others also replied to Qiao Ning's message one after another.
Pei Jing: [A monster attacked the car, and I'm surrounded by wolves. It's a bit troublesome. It took quite a few items to deal with it. Are you alright, Qiao Qiao?]
Li Yangxing: [Sister Qiao, I'm fine. That bear suddenly appeared and startled me. They're like evolved beasts; they can even use skills. They almost froze me, but luckily I had a debuff removal item. Otherwise, I would have been stuck in this monster attack.]
Yuan Heng: [I ran into a little trouble earlier, but it's resolved now. Thanks for the dinner you brought. By the way, I found a really special skill book. Do you want it? I don't need it.]
[Card Crafting Talent Experience Book] (Beginner): Can increase card crafting talent experience by 500 points at once. If it is forcibly used on other talents, the experience book will disappear and will not take effect.
Qiao Ning's eyes lit up; this was a good thing!
And that's exactly what she needs!
Her card-making expert talent experience was increasing far too slowly. This beginner experience book would increase her card-making talent experience by 500 points at once, saving her a lot of time!
Qiao Ning replied quickly: "What do you want to exchange it for?"
To be honest, the value of this kind of talent-boosting experience is immeasurable. Even if it means Qiao Ning goes bankrupt temporarily, she would be willing to trade it!
Yuan Heng thought for a moment: "The next natural disaster will most likely be related to cold weather. How about you provide me with the one resource I'm most in need then? Just provide it for this one disaster cycle."
Qiao Ning thought to herself, this soldier seems a bit silly, but not completely stupid.
"What if I also lack it and can't provide it?"
It's okay, you can use it first. Give me some of the extras. If you really can't get any yourself, then you can't blame anyone else; you can only blame your bad luck.
In the end, Yuan Heng unusually added a sighing, unlucky emoji.
Since things had been said to this extent, it would be foolish for Qiao Ning not to agree. The two sides happily reached a cooperation agreement.
Qiao Ning only picked up six supply crates today. After opening each crate, she organized the supplies inside. Then she opened the chat channel, watched a movie, and took out a table full of snacks.
We ate and watched TV, waiting for midnight to arrive.
The more than 27,000 online players were selected through a rigorous seven-day natural disaster screening process.
These players have survived this long; it's practically impossible for them to be alive without some brains and skills.
In the last two hours, the humidity increased dramatically, and more than 27,000 people died, leaving a significant portion of the population offline. Fortunately, the remaining people were prepared.
The number of online users remained at 24,582 until just after midnight.
Congratulations to 24,582 players in server 1408 for successfully surviving the second natural disaster cycle. The settlement and maintenance will take place at 12:00 on the third day.
After randomized calculation across all servers, server 1408 has the largest number of surviving players out of the 100 randomly selected servers. All surviving players from server 1408 will be transferred to an A-level safe service area.
Within the safe zone, all players are free to move around until the next catastrophe cycle arrives.
Friendly reminder: The safe service area is based on the principles of safety, peace, and freedom. Any form of attack or conflict between players is a violation of the service area's safety regulations, which may result in banishment or even expulsion.
Players, please cherish your lives and do not challenge safety regulations.
After a 10-second countdown, all surviving players in area 1408 will be teleported to a safe zone. The process may cause slight discomfort; please be prepared: 10, 9, 8, 7…
100 district-level service areas with unified accounting?
Level A security service area?
It seems these things are no longer available after the last newbie catastrophe cycle.
Qiao Ning didn't have time to think much before the familiar feeling of blindness returned. When her vision returned, she found herself in a huge parking lot.
Unlike the previous free parking, this time the parking lot seems to have strict queuing rules.
Even the nameplate in front of each parking space has the player's name on it.
Qiao Ning's parking space nameplate reads—
Player: Qiao Ning
Overall strength: 1st
There's another list of rankings after that. Except for the kill count, where she's number 3, she's number 1 in all the other lists.
Qiao Ning looked around and realized that her parking space was also quite eye-catching, with very luxurious decorations.
The 24k gold-plated diamond-encrusted parking space is twice as big and twice as tall as other parking spaces, making it incredibly eye-catching!
Qiao Ning: "..."
She's never been this high-profile in her life!
She's not afraid of being high-profile, but rather of this kind of high-profile that makes people incredibly embarrassed!
However, since the parking space couldn't be returned or exchanged, she had no choice but to get out of the car, even if it was a tough situation.
Now that we've reached the service area, we can't just stay in the car forever; that would be a waste of our hard-earned rest time.
Because the parking platform was so cool and high, a sliding elevator was specially provided for it.
Qiao Ning took each step with a stiff upper lip, afraid that the game would suddenly throw another one at her, accompanied by background music so embarrassing it made her want to dig her toes into the ground.
Fortunately, when they got to the second floor, she wasn't the only one feeling awkward; Pei Jing, Yuan Heng, and Li Yangxing were also there.
Seeing familiar faces, Qiao Ning finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Pei Jing kept smiling, and Qiao Ning knew what she was laughing at, so she rolled her eyes at her.
The sisters' appearances and personalities are also quite mismatched. In the game, Pei Jing gives Qiao Ning the feeling of being a kind and gentle older sister who is both rough and warm.
In reality, she's a cute girl with big eyes and pigtails, dressed in casual cartoon clothes.
"Six lists in first place, Sister Qiao is truly amazing."
"I never would have guessed, Qiaoqiao. You seemed like a model student, but you're actually a super big shot who crushes the entire region? Did I unknowingly latch onto the biggest gold digger in the whole region?"
Qiao Ning patted Pei Jing on the shoulder and said helplessly, "Yes, yes, you should be secretly happy to have me as your sugar daddy."
After introducing himself, Yuan Heng didn't say anything more. He didn't seem to like crowds and kept looking around, lost in thought.
This break lasts 72 hours, a full three days of relaxation, and everyone unanimously decided to just let it go.
Everyone has worked so hard during the natural disaster, and now that we've finally come out, we should definitely enjoy ourselves.
Since everyone wanted to go to different places, Li Yangxing and Yuan Heng left together, leaving Qiao Ning and Pei Jing behind. Later, the two of them met Tao Tao and Miao Qinghe.
There was another friend Tao Tao knew, an older woman whom everyone called Aunt Bai.
Aunt Bai seemed preoccupied, rarely showing a happy expression.
Later, Tao Tao told Qiao Ning and the others privately, "Aunt Bai has a daughter who also entered this survival game and is in the same server as us, which is why the mother and daughter had a chance to contact each other. However, during the last natural disaster, her daughter leaked her coordinates while looking for someone. After that... she lost contact with Aunt Bai."
Qiao Ning frowned: "Is Aunt Bai's daughter's profile picture still lit up?"
If a player dies, their avatar in the friends list will go dark, and there will be other death markers. You can even click on them to see the cause of death and a replay of the video from the half hour before the death.
"The light keeps shining, which proves that Aunt Bai's daughter is not dead, but it's unclear exactly what happened. Aunt Bai is very worried."
"Aunt Bai previously revealed that her daughter had a boyfriend who went missing after entering the game. I suspect that the girl was looking for a boyfriend but was tricked and exposed her coordinates, which led to the danger."
"But what exactly is the use of coordinates? Can they be used to teleport directly to the user's location? That would be too far-fetched, considering there are so many different server worlds between us."
Pei Jing then spoke up: "It's also possible that there's some kind of item that allows someone to teleport to the vicinity of another person after obtaining their coordinates."
“Even if Aunt Bai’s daughter isn’t dead, she’ll be in great danger,” Qiao Ning interjected. “And the danger of revealing the coordinates is probably more than that.”
The others looked puzzled, and even Pei Jing was somewhat confused.
Qiao Ning said, "Think about it, if you were a person with malicious intentions, and you obtained the coordinates of your prey, what would you do?"
"Murder and robbery?" Tao Tao asked tentatively in a low voice.
Qiao Ning then asked, "What if you weren't alone, but had other 'friends' around you who were similar to you?"
Tao Tao's face paled slightly: "Send the coordinates to your friends, and let's form a group to kill and rob?"
Qiao Ning continued, "What if you find that your server is far less prosperous and resource-rich than the other server?"
Everyone was stunned.
Qiao Ning said, "I think there's a possibility that the servers will be merged ahead of schedule."
After a few seconds of pause, Qiao Ning sighed, "Of course, this is just my worst-case scenario. The reality is probably not as bad as I think."
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