Chapter 1
Qiao Ning leaned on the car hood with one hand, frowning as she looked ahead.
This is a highway with no end in sight.
Qiao Ning was working overtime late into the night for a game boosting studio's order just a second ago. She only took a nap, and when she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a dilapidated car.
She was certain that she wasn't hallucinating, dreaming, or half asleep.
Everything around me felt incredibly real: the withered grass swaying by the roadside, the sun in the sky, the cool breeze brushing against my skin…
Beyond the highway stretched an endless wasteland, with only a few scattered withered grasses lying sparsely on the cracked yellow earth.
It felt like I was the only one left in the whole world.
Qiao Ning let out a breath, got back into the car, and prepared to drive forward.
Although the hope was slim, she still wanted to see if there were any indigenous people nearby, or... people who, like her, had inexplicably appeared here.
As soon as the car started, Qiao Ning heard a soft, almost distorted female voice:
Welcome to the Infinite Highway Survival game. I am System 1. Your game panel has been activated. Please call out or silently say "panel" to view it.
If you have any questions about this game, please click on the game manual on the main panel; you will instantly receive all publicly available game information.
Please listen carefully and remember the following points:
1. Death in the game is real death.
2. Upon entering the game, all items already in a player's inventory will gradually become invalid or destroyed within 24 hours. All resources needed by players must be obtained from within the game.
3. Every seven days is a natural disaster cycle. The first natural disaster cycle is the beginner period, during which the probability of resource boxes appearing is doubled, and the resources inside the boxes are doubled.
4. After opening the first supply crate, each player will unlock their personal attribute panel and receive one chance to draw a talent. Each player has only one chance to draw a talent.
5. During the natural disaster cycle, the intensity of the natural disaster increases daily. The seventh day is the settlement day, during which a hint about the next natural disaster will be given. Survivors are requested to pay attention to every detail on the seventh day.
6. Highways are dangerous at night; only inside a car is safe.
7. During non-event periods, under normal circumstances, two players will not meet unless you reveal your coordinates to others.
8. At the end of each natural disaster cycle, the higher the server's survival rate, the richer the rewards. Conversely, the rewards are significantly reduced. When a server's death rate reaches 80% or higher, the servers will be forcibly merged ahead of schedule, and the severity of the next natural disaster will be upgraded.
9. Although this is a survival game, it's not as simple as just surviving on your own.
10. More cruel than natural disasters is the test of the human heart. Even in the most difficult times, never forget that you are human. Those who fall will inevitably perish.
A road survival game?
Out of professional habit, upon hearing the word "game," she quickly opened the game panel as instructed by System 1.
The first thing you see is a light green virtual screen that is about 2 square meters in size.
The layout above has many similarities to common online games.
Qiao Ning, a professional game booster, looked very familiar.
First is the homepage, and at the top is the server number: s.1408.
Online users: 100,000
Current natural disaster: drought
On the left is her personal virtual image, on the right is her personal panel (greyed out and locked), and at the bottom are two icons: friend list and chat/trade.
After clicking, the page is completely blank.
Qiao Ning ignored all of that and directly clicked on the game manual.
Immediately afterwards, her brain felt like it was being flooded with a massive amount of data, leaving her stunned. It took her several minutes to recover.
At that moment, she realized her situation.
Just as she had guessed, she had indeed transmigrated, pulled into an endless highway survival game by some force.
She was alone on the road, like playing a single-player game. It's unclear whether "multiplayer" will be added in the future.
Qiao Ning's current task is to use this dilapidated car to drive forward and find the supply boxes.
Supply boxes have five stars, with five stars being the highest level.
All the supplies needed for survival can potentially be found in supply crates.
It is important to note that:
1. Players will be in danger if they leave the road.
2. Players should try not to reveal their coordinates. Otherwise, they may attract the attention of other players who want to track them.
3. You can only encounter supply crates by driving forward. When you obtain a supply crate, you may also encounter a monster guarding it.
4. The road world is divided into day and night. Night is extremely dangerous and not suitable for beginners.
There are twelve hours in a day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. This is the time when you can drive around looking for supply crates.
During the beginner period, you are guaranteed to get a 1-star supply box for every 50 kilometers you drive during the day.
There may be multiple supply crates, or even high-star supply crates, depending entirely on luck.
After dark, the treasure-guarding monster goes into a berserk state.
Supply boxes appear less frequently (by a factor of 3), while high-star supply boxes appear more frequently (by a factor of 50%).
Driving at night consumes twice the fuel. If you get out of the vehicle at night to collect supplies, you must use a light to dispel the surrounding black fog, otherwise you will be killed immediately by the monsters in the fog.
As the system previously stated, death in the game is a real death.
She will die in the real world too!
Server number 1408, a total of 100,000 online players, relying on luck to obtain more and better supplies, dangers beyond the highway, monsters in the night...
This is not just a game, but a killing field full of survival competition!
Qiao Ning was glad that she had a knack for games.
She couldn't change the fact that she had been dragged into the highway survival game, so all she could do was try her best to survive.
She was only twenty-four years old, still very young, and had no desire to die.
In reality, Qiao Ning is a professional game booster for many large-scale online and mobile games. In her opinion, this bizarre road survival game has something in common with many ordinary online games.
The most important thing right now is to seize the time during the novice period, accumulate as much initial capital as possible, and get off to a good start so that you will have more opportunities than others on your journey to survival.
Qiao Ning started the car. The car looked old and the interior space was small, but it had everything it needed, and all the functions were complete and working properly.
She has a driver's license in the real world; she got it after graduating high school and bought a car for herself during her junior year of college with the help of her game studio. She has a good talent for driving and her skills are decent.
The car navigation system doesn't display a map, but rather a virtual screen, currently showing her exact speed and fuel consumption.
The initial gasoline supply is 30 units, and the virtual screen shows that the car's top speed is 70 km/h.
If she drives at a speed of 40-70 km/h, she consumes 2 units of fuel per hour.
At speeds below 40 km/h, fuel consumption is 1 unit per hour. Unless the vehicle is turned off, fuel consumption will decrease by at least 1 unit per hour.
In this game, gasoline is almost as important as food and water; lacking any of them will lead to certain death.
Others would likely maintain a speed between 35 and 40 mph, but Qiao Ning wanted to seize the initiative and get the chance to draw her talent as soon as possible.
In the real world, Qiao Ning excels at drawing various equipment and items in games, or farming dungeons with a high chance of dropping divine gear and rare items. This is because her luck is average in other areas, but exceptionally good in games.
She usually gets equipment and items that others spend thousands of dollars to obtain through in-game purchases, either by drawing them for free or by acquiring them with very little money.
I wonder if her luck in this game will carry over to this road survival game.
Qiao Ning drove her beat-up car at a top speed of 70 km/h. After about forty minutes, she finally saw the supply boxes, and there was more than one!
Qiao Ning stopped the car, quickly opened the door, ran over, and picked up the supply box.
There were three supply boxes in total, which looked like the brownish-yellow wooden treasure chests in the game. Two of them were 1-star, and the remaining one had two glittering gold stars engraved on its lid.
This is still a 2-star supply crate!
The supply crate was extremely light, not at all like it contained anything. The lid wasn't locked and could be opened directly.
Back in the car, just as Qiao Ning opened the first supply box, she received a system notification:
Congratulations to player Qiao Ning for opening a 1-star supply box and obtaining:
1 bottle of mineral water (550ml)
Soda crackers (milk and salt flavor) * 1 bag 100g
Talent Draw Chance *1
Should I proceed with the talent draw immediately?
Qiao Ning did not hesitate and chose yes.
Immediately afterwards, her system's main interface popped up automatically, displaying a huge, all-red spinning wheel with its pointer rapidly rotating.
There is a stop button at the very bottom.
There are no patterns to follow; it all depends on luck.
Since that was the case, Qiao Ning didn't think too much about it. After waiting a moment, she pressed the stop button based on her intuition.
The next second, three eye-catching system notifications flooded the screen:
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