Chapter 85
"Instant kill of an A-rank!! She even killed the Poisonous Serpent! That Poisonous Serpent drained the life out of countless players yesterday, and she took it down so easily? Is she even human? Could she be a hidden boss created by the game?"
"The drought demons have really messed up this time."
"I told you, how could a player who has passed the second trial of natural disasters be a piece of trash? And since she's a woman, you shouldn't underestimate her."
"Did you guys notice? She didn't even use her pet. I think I've figured it out. This big shot, like her dog, is extremely deceptive in appearance, but in reality, they're probably ruthless killers who don't blink an eye."
"Anyone who can instantly kill an A-level person must be far stronger than an A-level person, probably at least an S-level. That damn system, and that crazy host, they don't even give us complete information. At least tell us how many levels there are in terms of strength."
"I was hoping to pick up some bargains today, but it seems that we players below B-rank should stay far away as soon as possible to avoid being caught in the crossfire when the big shots start fighting."
Just as the players present were starting to consider quitting, a fat man with a fierce-looking face suddenly stood up and said:
"Don't be scared by this woman, everyone. Only one person can pass this level. If we don't get the Law Stone, we'll all die. She'll kill us all sooner or later."
"Instead of waiting for her to slaughter us, why don't we all attack together? With so many of us, are we afraid we can't wear her down? Once she's dead, we can get clues to the Law Stone, and everyone can find it based on their own abilities. Wouldn't that be fairer?"
Before he could finish speaking, a dark-skinned, short-haired woman stepped forward and sneered, "Fatty, do you really think we're all idiots? Host #1 only said we could ask her for clues about the Law Stone, not that we had to kill her to get the clues. Stop trying to change things up. Do you really think we're the fools in your server who can be easily fooled by you?"
"Save your breath. No one is stupid enough to get to this level. The ones who died earlier weren't stupid either; they just got cocky and underestimated their opponents, which led to their deaths."
The fat man didn't expect to intimidate everyone with just a few words. He only needed to keep these people from leaving for the time being, and that would be enough. If the players dispersed, the clue would belong to Qiao Ning, and they wouldn't even get a share.
"Then what do you suggest we do? Are the rest of us just going to stand by and watch?" The fat man spoke politely, but the way he looked at the woman was anything but. He probably already had her dead in his mind countless times.
The short-haired woman glanced at him as if he were a bug. Since entering the game, she had seen too many disgusting people, and this fat man was one of them.
"What else do you want? You're such a piece of trash, you're not even as good as a worm crawling in a ditch like a poisonous snake. You think you can go and fight them?"
After the short-haired woman finished speaking, she strode forward and said, "Qiao Ning, the clues are yours now. I need your clues. Tell me, how can I get the clues from you?"
Qiao Ning looked at her for a moment, then said indifferently, "If you want to know, just come over here and I'll tell you."
The short-haired woman frowned and hesitated for a moment before stepping on the broken ice left by the dead snake and walking in front of Qiao Ning.
"Closer."
The short-haired woman walked a distance further, almost standing right in front of Qiao Ning. It wasn't that she was bold, but rather that she knew Qiao Ning could kill her from any distance if she wanted to.
Seeing that they were already very close, Qiao Ning told her directly, "A sea of garbage."
"The clue is the sea of garbage, that's all."
"Don't look at me like that. The scope of this clue is so vast, otherwise why do you think I'd still be here instead of looking for the Law Stone?"
The short-haired woman looked puzzled and wary: "Why are you telling me this?"
Qiao Ning was even more confused than her: "Didn't you ask me that?"
The short-haired woman was speechless for a moment.
If you can get the answer just by asking her, then...
She looked at the corpses of the people Qiao Ning had killed earlier, her expression indescribable.
They deserved it; they could have asked questions politely, but instead they resorted to threats and coercion.
"Can I tell other people about this clue?" The short-haired woman wasn't stupid. So many people saw Qiao Ning tell her, and next... don't forget she doesn't have Qiao Ning's strength.
A common man is innocent, but possessing a treasure is a crime.
"Whatever."
"Is the clue really just a sea of garbage?"
"If you don't believe me, there's nothing I can do. I can't just make up a clue for you."
The short-haired woman promptly posted the clue on the chat channel. Since the clue was free, she didn't care about sharing it with others.
Of course, some people won't believe it, but the short-haired woman has her own explanation. As for those who still don't believe it, they can simply ignore the clues. Anyway, everyone knows where it is, and those who can act have already started.
When some players got a clue and wanted to leave, Qiao Ning spoke up again.
"etc."
As her voice rang out, ice walls trapped some players.
"You come and go as you please, did you even ask for my permission?"
The chill emanating from the ice wall was almost tangible; simply being surrounded by it sent shivers down one's spine. Frost rapidly formed on one's face and body, and this chill was like the glacier encountered at the end of the Carboniferous extinction event—irresistible to everything, capable only of relentlessly eroding it.
"Qiao Ning! Do you intend to kill us all? Even a rabbit will bite when cornered. Don't push us too far, or we'll fight tooth and nail to get a piece of you, even if it means our own deaths!"
That's true. Qiao Ning doesn't intend to force everyone to join forces to kill her for a useless clue.
A large number of ants can even kill an elephant.
But a necessary deterrent is unavoidable. They can't be allowed to think they can cause her trouble anytime without paying a price.
Otherwise, with the natural disasters coming around every day, if she gets another clue, she won't have any peace and quiet.
Only a minority of people were trapped by the ice wall; the vast majority of people quickly left before Qiao Ning could make a move.
Among those who left, three men and two women left together in their cars.
"Shang Qi, are you confident?" A woman with a charming demeanor and delicate features asked through a communication device.
Shang Qi adjusted his earpiece, looking nonchalant and casual: "What's your confidence level?"
"Don't play dumb with everyone. You were the one who said you had a talent for copying items, which is why we agreed to cooperate. Now that Qiao Ning has shown her strength, just say what you're planning."
"Qiao Ning... just find a way to kill her. Anyway, if she doesn't die, then we all die. Only one of us will survive." Shang Qi said casually.
"Easier said than done. How do you kill someone with such a monstrous ability?" This time, it was another man in the group who spoke.
"Yeah, even if we team up, we probably can't beat her. Are we really going to have to gather other players to gang up on her and wear her down?"
Another girl sighed, as if expressing both envy and jealousy: "The power gap in this game is really huge. Why are some people so strong, while I can only get to where I am now thanks to the protection of my friends? If I had just been given a useful offensive ability, I wouldn't be in this situation."
As soon as she spoke, a male voice comforted her: "Lingling, I think your superpower is already very strong and useful. If it weren't for you, we would have been corrupted and eroded on the first day and wouldn't be alive now. You can heal all injuries and purify the pollution. This is the best superpower."
"Use your brain. You don't necessarily have to fight her head-on to kill her," the last man, who had been silent until now, finally said.
"Shengyuan, if you have a solution, just say it. Don't keep me in suspense like you're the smartest person in the world. I hate this kind of pretentious behavior that doesn't discriminate between occasions and places." The man who had just comforted Lingling started making sarcastic remarks right away, clearly indicating that the two had a long-standing grudge.
Sheng Yuan didn't bother to pay him any attention, and simply said, "What do you think is the most difficult thing for us to overcome in this hurdle?"
The woman who first questioned Shang Qi thought for a moment and replied, "Right now, the most difficult one to deal with is Qiao Ning. Even pollutants aren't as dangerous as her. If we can't completely resolve this, I suspect she's no longer a person, in the literal sense."
“I agree with what Chen Miao said,” Ji Lingling said.
Wang Hao supported Ji Lingling, while Shang Qi remained silent.
Sheng Yuan smiled and said, "You're wrong. I should say that the most difficult thing to deal with in this challenge is natural disasters."
You mean that garbage?
“Yes, don’t forget how Dongzi died. There was something strange about those trash. Dongzi didn’t even have time to call for help before he was gone. By the time we got to his coordinates, we couldn’t even find his body.”
"In fact, the most difficult thing to deal with in each cycle of natural disasters is the natural disaster itself. And don't forget, natural disasters can escalate."
"Who knows what these mountains and seas of garbage will become in the future?"
"Compared to the power of natural disasters, the power of humanity is always insignificant."
"We can't kill Qiao Ning? Natural disasters might not be able to kill her. If the Law Stone is really in the garbage sea, then we can find an opportunity to use the garbage sea to get rid of her."
Hearing this, Shang Qi finally looked a little serious: "What you said is a good idea. We'll discuss the specifics of how to do it."
...
Qiao Ning is currently dealing with the remaining people.
"Why can you let them go but not me? I haven't offended you."
"As long as you don't kill me, I can do anything for you. You can ask me to do anything you don't want to do. My special ability is mental, it's very useful, please don't kill me..."
"My superpowers are also very strong. I also have several fused pets. Your pet can eat them to fuse and advance. As long as you let me go, I can give you all my wealth!"
The people inside the ice wall had frost on their eyebrows and hair. They were shivering from the cold and had to keep begging for mercy, hoping that Qiao Ning would show them a little pity.
One of them, as if knowing Qiao Ning wouldn't let him go, laughed maniacally and cursed viciously: "I was just teasing you a bit in private, and you want to kill me? If I had your strength, I would torture you until you wish you were dead, and make you regret ever being born! A woman with a heart of stone like you will never have a good end. I'll be waiting in the underworld to see how you die!"
After saying that, he picked up his weapon and was about to end his own life, but Qiao Ning froze him with a frost.
"Want to die?" Qiao Ning looked at these people.
They may bow down and beg for mercy in the face of absolute power, but if she shows the slightest weakness, these are the very people who will be the first to skin her alive.
They have long lost the humanity that normal people should have.
"It's not that easy."
They liked to talk, so Qiao Ning turned them all into her puppets, making them, while still conscious, into walking corpses under her control, unable to speak for the rest of their lives.
Qiao Ning has rarely used her Thousand Puppet Technique since she learned it. At most, she has experimented on some mutated beasts. This is the first time she has used it on a human.
Although mutant beasts are not as intelligent as humans, they have strong spiritual energy, especially mutant beasts that are hungry or in a violent state, which can be easily turned into puppets.
Some humans are far more intelligent than beasts, yet mentally vulnerable. When faced with the manipulation of thousands of puppets, they hardly need to expend any time.
A gold skill is essentially a gold talent; it cannot fail to be released, but if the target being controlled is much stronger than Qiao Ning, it will take a long time to activate.
These people were already weaker than Qiao Ning. After the Thousand Puppet Masters were unleashed on them, their pupils dilated and they became expressionless and dull within minutes, like controlled zombies.
Judging from the number of online users, the system had already determined them to be dead; their cars had all been dismantled and melted down by Qiao Ning. As for supplies, she collected them all, regardless of whether they were useful or not.
She hadn't forgotten that this was a garbage world.
Cleaning up trash is allowed and even rewarded with supplies, but creating trash in return... Qiao Ning felt that curiosity was fine, but this kind of curiosity was unnecessary.
A single skill obliterated all the corpses and bloodstains on the ground. Qiao Ning picked up the puppy-sized Ice Scale and returned to the car. The car continued driving forward—towards the Garbage Sea.
The short-haired woman's car followed behind her, and further behind, a string of cars could be vaguely seen following.
Qiao Ning ignored them and, once she reached the vicinity of the garbage sea, immediately activated submarine mode, adding a thicker layer of air film.
We cleaned up the garbage yesterday and obtained a lot of supplies. We currently have 50 air-conditioning membranes in stock.
The components of air membranes include acid-resistant light-repellent membranes and anti-fouling light-repellent membranes, thus providing anti-corrosion and anti-pollution effects.
"What should we do? Qiao Ning's car is high-level and can dive directly into the sea. We need to use diving equipment. Not only that, the liquid in this garbage sea is not ordinary water. I only have one or two air membranes, which is not enough at all."
"If I had known about the last natural disaster, I would have stockpiled more air membrane materials. I curse this game every day, it's such a rip-off!"
"I do have some air membrane material stockpiled, but I used up all my diving equipment in the last two days after the last natural disaster."
"Why don't we try to clean up the trash and get some supplies first? There's no point in us just waiting here."
Regardless of what people on the shore thought, Qiao Ning never surfaced again after diving into the sea of garbage.
The Law Stone is unlikely to be in shallow waters; the game wouldn't allow players to find it easily. It's most likely in the deep sea.
There might even be deep-sea garbage monsters guarding it, or it might be inside the garbage monster's body.
This is a common setting in games.
Qiao Ning piloted the submarine straight to the deep sea. The giant turtle was released for some fresh air, but the giant locust only liked garbage mountains and disliked garbage seas, so it refused to come out. Green Pearl, Little Red, and Fat Tiger were the same.
Even Ice Scale, which Qiao Ning wanted to go out and play, didn't even want to peek at the seabed of the Garbage Sea through the hatch.
Dogs are truly clean animals; they adore their glossy, shiny fur or their beautiful, shimmering scales. Making them soak in such a filthy sea of garbage would be worse than killing them.
Normal pets clean themselves automatically after returning to their pet pen, but Icescale can't go into the pen, so it usually cleans and bathes itself. Qiao Ning tried to help it, but it wouldn't let her. A bath would take an hour or more, and it insisted on washing and soaking in a bubble bath before it was finally done.
Qiao Ning thought that if she really had the chance to return to the modern world, she would probably renovate the bathroom to make it bigger so that the dog could play more easily.
The shallow waters above the garbage-strewn sea are very viscous, but the deeper you go, the thinner the garbage liquid becomes.
There is less trash and impurities, and some areas can be described as clear.
This does not mean that the seawater is harmless. On the contrary, according to the smart system's monitoring, the corrosive power of these liquids is almost dozens of times that of shallow seas.
Even the air membrane cannot support it for long; it can only last for a maximum of 4 hours.
If players don't clean up the trash and get enough air membranes, they might not even be able to get to the shallow sea area.
When Qiao Ning was in shallow water, she also had the giant turtle help her swallow garbage and pollutants, and she obtained a lot of supplies. The air membrane's storage capacity was enough for her to dive for a long time.
Qiao Ning thought the Garbage Sea was like the ancient ocean of the last natural disaster, where one could not see the bottom even after diving tens of thousands of meters.
Unexpectedly, when the dive reached a depth of several thousand meters, the smart assistant warned that there was an obstacle below and that it could not descend any further than a hundred meters.
Qiao Ning simply put on a diving mask and an air liner, ready to swim over and see for herself.
Although the liquid from the deep sea is highly corrosive and polluting, it has the advantage of appearing clear and free of impurities, which makes it less psychologically unacceptable.
Just as she was about to exit the submarine, her sleeve was tugged.
Ice Scales stared at her and howled twice.
"Didn't you say you didn't want to go out?"
"Awoo."
"Are you worried about me? Don't worry, I'll be back soon."
Binglin continued to tug at her sleeve.
Qiao Ning sighed helplessly, "Alright, let's go together then."
After saying that, Qiao Ning also put an air membrane on Binglin, even if it didn't need it, it would at least prevent Binglin's scales from directly contacting the liquid in the garbage sea. This would alleviate the discomfort of the germaphobe dog.
As soon as Qiao Ning stepped out of the submarine, she looked down into the deep sea and was immediately stunned.
What appeared before her eyes was not a deep-sea trench or a sandy area, but an endless expanse of mechanical screens.
The screen displayed not only images of the players in the third trial at this moment, but also images of those eliminated in the previous trial. There was also a group of unidentified people; from their words, Qiao Ning roughly deduced that they were survivors from previous survival games.
Qiao Ning even saw some of the comments sent by other players.
[Isn't Qiao Ning's power a bit too much? Road Survival is still in its trial phase; it's not as mature as Sea Survival or Cloud Survival.]
I heard they're releasing an underground survival game, but I wonder when it will start operating.
[I think it's quite normal. It's a game about creating gods; if you're not strong enough, how can you qualify for the god-making trial?]
We used to be one of them, and now it's our turn to watch them struggle to survive. I have to say, it's a strangely bittersweet feeling.
Most of these veteran players were reminiscing or discussing topics that weren't really related to road survival. After scanning through some of the comments, Qiao Ning started searching for the others.
[Strange, is there a bug in the system? Why can't I see Qiao Ning anymore? Where is she? I only saw her diving in the submarine and then she disappeared. Can you see her over there?]
Her image hasn't disappeared yet, so she's probably still alive. It's likely that her privacy has been compromised, which is why the system has blocked it.
Qiao Ning searched for a long time before finally finding the eliminated players' comments. Many people were sending her gifts to boost her popularity. So that's how she gained popularity.
[As expected of my Sister Qiao, she kills without hesitation, just a swift head falls to the ground.]
Those scum don't deserve to live; they're all beasts. I hope Boss Qiao Ning won't be soft-hearted and can be even more ruthless, just wipe them all out.
[Shang Qi and his gang, they even wanted to use the garbage dump to kill Qiao Ning, what a pipe dream they're having.]
[By the way, do you guys know what level of pet Qiao Ning's dog is? I've never seen it show its power, could it really just be a dog?]
[Hey, don't call it a dog. Its name is Ice Scale. It carried me across the icy river back then. It's my benefactor, no, my benefactor beast. It's definitely not a dog. It looks more like a Qilin, or some other mythical beast, like the mythical beast totem that Lu Dicheng worships. It's very similar to Ice Scale's prototype.]
Life in Lu Di City is indeed too comfortable. I thought I was going to die in the last level, but I never expected to be able to live like a normal person in Lu Di City now.
"Yes, life is even better now than in modern times. I plan to get married in Lu Di City in a few days. Regardless of whether we can have children, I want to live here for the rest of my life."
[Qiao Ning, can you see the comments? This is Pei Jing. My friends and I are already calling on everyone to vote for you. You must survive and get through the game!]
[Sister Pei, I've told you so many times, the other players can't see our comments; only we can. Let's just watch the live stream and vote for Sister Qiao.]
Pei Jing ignored all that, not only sending encouraging messages but also updating Qiao Ning on other players' situations, even though she didn't know if Qiao Ning would see these messages. She was still doing things that seemed foolish to others.
Just for the sake of "what if".
What if her friend actually sees the message? Maybe she can help her, even if that help is insignificant.
Several other people were also sending messages with her; Qiao Ning recognized almost all of their IDs.
She smiled genuinely; no matter what, it was good to know everyone was alright.
Qiao Ning read the comments for a long time, and suddenly caught a piece of information in a veteran player's comment.
[To be honest, this year's road survival players are really unlucky. The key to passing the third trial is actually a Law Stone. The Law Stones in the Cataclysmic World have long been corrupted. If they can't purify the corruption, finding the Law Stone is useless; they'll still die.]
Ordinary energy can't purify the Law Stone. Now it all depends on how Qiao Ning breaks this deadlock and survives. In my opinion, even the luckiest person can fail eventually; her chances of passing this test are almost zero.
[Let's not say such discouraging things. Since she drew more than one gold talent at the start, everyone has high expectations for her, and her popularity remains high, so her chances of winning are still very high. It's just that we don't know exactly what her gold talents are; we can only see the number, not the type, which is a bit annoying.]
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