Chapter 35
Li Yangxing mailed the giant rabbit back. He originally wanted to keep the big rabbit for one night, but the rabbit was destructive and aggressive towards him, so he had to send it back as soon as possible.
Qiao Ning: "If the Dark Stone Fragments don't come back, I'll go into the Radiant Beast Wild Area again tomorrow and bring you back a few more Giant Rabbits. If one doesn't work, I'll just get another. I'll eventually be able to tame them."
If you're not lucky, make up for it with quantity.
The original Heng's cloud-patterned black panther is hard to get; we might not be able to get many tomorrow.
Qiao Ning also has a baby bird, its breed is unclear, and it looks rather ordinary and not very pretty. Specific information will only be available after it is tamed.
The cubs can only stay in the Beast Taming Bag for a maximum of 48 hours. Qiao Ning posted a message in the chat channel to sell two untamed cubs.
It was already very late, but many people were still sending private messages to Qiao Ning, asking about the price and the specific sales process.
Qiao Ning only accepts Dark Stone Fragments and nothing else, which eliminates a large number of players who want to buy them.
Some players who couldn't buy it couldn't help but make sarcastic and cynical remarks in the chat channel. Perhaps because Qiao Ning was frequently in the headlines, they didn't dare to be too obvious or say too much.
Quan Dazhi, who was blocked by Qiao Ning last time, is a cautionary tale. The day before yesterday, he was asking around in the chat channel for supplies, but who would dare to openly sell them to him?
Some people secretly sell to him, taking the opportunity to fleece him and inflate the price.
How many days can Quan Dazhi hold out under these circumstances? He hasn't spoken in the chat channel for the past two days, and we don't know if he's alive or dead.
Everyone knows that powerful figures have a strong influence. Going against them means you'll be in trouble just because their trade in goods is restricted, even without them lifting a finger.
Qiao Ning prioritizes female buyers; she only deals with men when there are no suitable options. It's not for any other reason than that many men have no sense of propriety, always thinking they're incredibly charming, and instead of focusing on business, they're always trying to flirt and curry favor.
After this happened repeatedly, Qiao Ning became extremely annoyed and decided to prioritize girls when selecting buyers.
It has to be said that this method is very effective. In recent exchanges, Qiao Ning has not been bothered by any random harassment.
The buyer of the giant rabbit was a 20-year-old girl named Lou Shasha. She was a sweet girl and seemed to be quite strong. She took out two Dark Stone Fragments and paid without even haggling over the price.
The girl who bought the clown bird was about the same age as Qiao Ning. Her name was Wei Miao. She spoke concisely and to the point, never uttering a single unnecessary word. The entire transaction, from start to finish, took less than a minute.
"If you fail to capture it after five attempts, you can mail the cub back to me. The Dark Stone Fragments will not be refunded, and I will exchange them for other cubs the next day. However, they may not be the same breed as before. I can only guarantee that I will keep exchanging them until you succeed if you fail to capture it."
Qiao Ning made this condition clear from the beginning, and both of them could accept it.
After the cub was successfully shipped and the buyer was confirmed to have received it, Qiao Ning stretched and went to watch a movie and go to sleep.
The sixth day of the natural disaster, at 7:00 AM.
The smart home assistant woke Qiao Ning up on time, and she sleepily checked the remaining number of moisture-absorbing balls.
That look instantly woke me up.
There were only a few dozen left initially, but then they exchanged four hundred with Li Yangxing and Yuan Heng. After one night, only a little over three hundred remained.
This rate of consumption is simply astonishing.
The number of online players dropped by 8,000 overnight, and now there are only a little over 40,000 players left.
The situation is not optimistic.
Although there are still more than 40,000 people alive now, if the natural disaster tomorrow is even more severe, the number could drop by a large margin.
Maintaining a final survival rate of over 20,000 is highly risky.
Qiao Ning felt heavy-hearted. At that moment, Zhang Peng, the male player who had an unpleasant encounter with Miao Qinghe yesterday, was now cursing and swearing in the chat channel as if he had lost his mind, biting any woman he saw.
It's not hard to guess from his words that after Miao Qinghe blocked him, he couldn't buy insect repellent products and had to exchange them for them at a high price from others.
He's almost run out of savings, can't get rid of the woodlice, and can't get out of the car to collect the supply boxes. He's almost at his wit's end.
The area outside the highway is the wilderness, and he could enter it in just a few steps after getting out of the car. Unfortunately, he didn't have any insect repellent. There were too many woodlice, and the extermination items couldn't clear any space for passage. Every time one batch died, a new batch of woodlice would swarm in to fill the gap in less than a second.
Seeing the jungle just a few steps away, yet it felt like an insurmountable chasm between him, impossible to reach or save himself, wouldn't that drive him crazy?
The more arrogant he was yesterday, the more pathetic he is today.
In a survival game, failing to understand oneself, lacking common sense, and deliberately sowing discord within the region—this is the end result. Not a single person even spoke up for him.
The later the cycle of natural disasters goes, the more clearly everyone realizes the importance of unity. The fewer bad apples like these die, the fewer people will harm everyone.
Miao Qinghe had already blocked Zhang Peng, so she couldn't see his outburst, but she could see the screenshots that Qiao Ning had forwarded to her.
Qiao Ning had assumed that the young girl was soft-hearted and would think that Zhang Peng did not deserve to die, but she was much more rational and clear-headed than Qiao Ning had imagined, and had no intention of letting Zhang Peng off the hook.
"This kind of person who stirs up conflict between male and female players and affects the unity of the whole region is like a time bomb, who knows when he will explode and kill everyone. He is probably used to boxing in the real world and thinks it is okay to box and belittle women in a survival game."
"He didn't realize that the living environment had changed, and here girls were no longer objects to be manipulated at will."
"Life becomes incredibly fragile here, death is commonplace, killing someone is easy, and even murder is not illegal."
"Everyone's life and fortune are not in their own hands. Who can guarantee that they won't have to ask someone for help tomorrow?"
"He chose this path, and he walked it himself. He ruined his own path, so he can only blame himself and no one else."
Qiao Ning saw that she understood, so she didn't say anything more.
Not long after, Zhang Peng went silent in the chat channel, and no one cared whether he was alive or dead.
With natural disasters becoming increasingly severe, everyone is busy trying to save their own lives. Who has the time or energy to care about the lives of others?
The severity of the natural disaster on the sixth day completely exceeded Qiao Ning's expectations. A large number of moisture-absorbing water balls were being consumed every hour.
The elimination and eradication of fungi and molds must continue, and so must effective medications.
Outside, woodlice were squashing their heads and trying to crawl into the car.
The most frightening thing is that the escalation of the natural disaster finally exposed the car's problems.
Even with protective film, mold and fungi cannot be prevented from growing on car parts. The terrible dampness, like some kind of toxin, causes the metal to corrode and rust quickly.
You might have just fixed the car's engine one second, and the next second the tires will be flat.
Countless players are stranded on the highway, unable to move forward due to their broken-down cars.
Fortunately, the game didn't intend to wipe them all out; today, the car scrapping rate is high, and the vehicle repair card drop rate is also high.
Unless you're extremely unlucky, you're guaranteed to get a vehicle repair card from every crate you open.
The prices of metal materials and vehicle repair cards have risen to unbelievable levels.
Next are moisture-absorbing balls, drying items, insect repellent and insecticide products, fungal and mold removal products, and treatment drugs.
In addition, all edible food and drinkable water became incredibly precious.
Food can get moldy, and drinking water can also be contaminated by bacteria or moisture.
Many people die in agony after drinking unclean water, and bacteria grow in their bodies after death.
Before one player died, he warned everyone to pay close attention to food and water safety.
He took photos and videos, and when he cut open the skin with a knife, what came out was not blood, but an unknown green liquid that looked like it had countless living microorganisms swimming and swirling inside, which made people's scalps tingle.
The player died and disconnected shortly after uploading the pictures and videos.
Qiao Ning put some of her unused inventory on the shelves in exchange for basic materials such as glue.
She plans to open a blind box after this natural disaster cycle ends. If she gets car upgrade blueprints and parts blueprints, she will upgrade her level 3 car to level 4.
For some reason, she always felt a sense of urgency, wanting to upgrade and strengthen the car as soon as possible, otherwise she felt that something bad would happen later.
Today, Qiao Ning caught dozens of cubs in the Radiation Wild Area—everything that flies, runs, and crawls. After selling them all, she obtained 162 Dark Stone Fragments.
Since each person can only fail to capture a cub 5 times, any cubs that fail to capture are given to other buyers to try to capture.
Most players can successfully catch one after trying two or three. Those who are unlucky may need to try four or five.
Li Yangxing and Yuan Heng are two exceptions.
Li Yangxing tried 14 cubs and failed every time. These included giant rabbits and other types. In his words, he was just trying to accumulate the probability.
I finally managed to capture it on the 15th attempt.
However, it wasn't the big rabbit he had been longing for, but a baby tortoise of an evolved species.
All it does is eat and sleep; it won't budge even if you try to pry its shell. It truly embodies the ultimate lazy and homebody trait.
Every time Li Yangxing got angry, he would shout that he wanted to return the goods, but when Qiao Ning actually offered to replace them for him, he couldn't bear to part with them.
This was the first pet he had finally managed to tame, and no matter how much he complained, he was actually reluctant to give it away.
"What if Prime Minister Turtle is so lazy and doesn't like to move around? What if he curls up and goes to sleep during a battle?"
Li Yangxing replied in despair: 【What else can I do? Just let it be. I've given up on the Turtle Prime Minister helping me; hoping the monster will take pity on me and spare my life is better than hoping for its help.】
Qiao Ning found it funny, but since he was already in such a miserable state, she couldn't be too harsh on him.
Besides Li Yangxing and Yuan Heng, who are in a rather unfortunate situation, Pei Jing also has a sister who is unlucky, which is also quite unfortunate.
That sister's name is Tao Tao, and everyone calls her Tao Tao.
Qiao Ning spent the whole day catching baby animals in the wild. She had just come out to rest, eat, and watch a movie. She hadn't even taken a few bites when she received a message from Tao Tao.
[Sister Qiao, help! I failed again! Even the contract scroll can't save my bad luck. Am I doomed?]
Qiao Ning calmly scooped a spoonful of shredded pork with garlic sauce into a bowl of rice and casually handed a bamboo shoot to Fatty Tiger, the iron-eating beast next to her.
He then replied, "Don't worry, you only used 5 scrolls. I know a friend who used 20 scrolls to successfully form a contract."
Tao Tao was shocked. Could someone really go to such lengths?
Indeed, how bad it is is only apparent in comparison. After comparing it to others, she realized that losing only 5 scrolls wasn't so bad after all.
Tao Tao rallied and went back to contracting pets. A few minutes later, Qiao Ning's chat box started vibrating wildly.
[Sister Qiao, I did it! Although the contracted pet isn't quite what I expected, at least I succeeded!]
Qiao Ning thought of the few cubs that hadn't been contracted and suddenly had a bad feeling.
"What did you contract with?"
Tao Tao: [I've made a contract with a dragonfly! It's huge! Almost twice the size of my head, and it even has black and white stripes.]
Qiao Ning: "..."
How can I tell this woman that she didn't contract a dragonfly, but a big mosquito?
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