Chapter 8: Highway Survival 5
Chu Yun hadn’t expected to find a service area here. Now that the trouble was resolved, she could properly check the place out. The people outside had probably already explored it during the day, as the interior was currently very quiet.
Just like a service area in reality, this place provided a temporary resting spot for long-distance travelers.
Chu Yun looked around. Like the community convenience store, there were several vending machines here. She had an ample supply of food and daily necessities, so she didn’t need any for now. Because of the cold weather, she bought a thick black sweater—the cheapest one available—and changed into it immediately. Wrapped in the sweater, her freezing body warmed up considerably.
The 80 gold coins she had painstakingly hoarded from fighting the king cobra and completing the “Life and Death Speed” stage were completely depleted in an instant.
Money truly slipped through one’s fingers too fast. No wonder that fat man from earlier was still wearing such thin clothing; it wasn’t that he didn’t want to buy anything, but rather that he had no money.
This place also provided free, drinkable hot water. Recognizing a prime opportunity to score freebies, the empty-bottle-collecting enthusiast Chu Yun filled up the mineral water bottles in her storage ring, which were already more than half empty. It went in hot and would stay hot when pulled out, and it was entirely free—it was truly wonderful.
With no one around, she openly summoned her storage ring, packing items inside one after another. If anyone had been present, they would likely have guessed very quickly that Chu Yun possessed a spatial item with a rumored one-in-a-hundred-thousand drop rate.
After taking one final stroll and finding nothing else she needed, Chu Yun walked out of the service area’s main doors.
However, the exact instant she stepped out of the doorway, her nose caught a strange scent. Within a mere second, the smell vanished completely.
It was a very familiar scent, but what exactly was it?
She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Just as she wanted to dig deeper into her memories for some clue, someone appeared and interrupted her train of thought.
“H-Hello, I want to trade some things with you for some food. Take a look and see if there’s anything you need.”
The newcomer was a man in his early twenties named Wang Mao. Right now, he was suffering from severe negative impacts; he was weak from starvation, and his limbs felt powerless as he stumbled unsteadily. His luck hadn’t been great since entering the game, as he hadn’t managed to find any necessary food supply packs. The food he bought with the gold coins from clearing the labyrinth had long been entirely consumed. While the “Life and Death Speed” stage offered rewards, it was hard enough for most people just to clear the track on time, let alone have extra time to pick up supply packs.
At the very beginning, he could still find desert locusts, sand crabs, and the like to stave off his hunger. But with the sudden drop in temperature over the last few days, even those were nowhere to be found. Relying on a bicycle he had picked up by the side of the road to ride here, he had been drinking nothing but water for two days and was now dizzy with starvation.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t thought about trading supplies with others, but everyone’s food was incredibly tight. No matter how much he begged, no one was willing to trade, and some were even waiting for him to lose his strength so they could steal his survival pack. Just when he was thinking about quitting the game altogether, Chu Yun appeared. When her luxurious sports car stopped stylishly not far from him, he knew her driving skills were excellent, meaning she definitely had many supply packs. Moreover, he faintly smelled the aroma of chicken leg rice.
He hadn’t planned on threatening her like Yue Shan did. Chu Yun clearly lived very well; this kind of person either had incredible luck or extremely high combat skills. Naturally, he was more willing to believe Chu Yun possessed great martial prowess. Sure enough, he saw Chu Yun handle Yue Shan without breaking a sweat.
“What do you have?” If something caught her eye, she didn’t mind trading some food for it.
“Do you need a canvas backpack? It’s sturdy and holds a lot.”
“No need.” She had her storage ring.
“What about a bow and arrows?” Weapons were very rare items. This was something he had obtained by defeating a mob in the labyrinth instance. Although Wang Mao had absolutely no idea how to use it, it was indeed a decent offensive weapon.
“No need.” She had her spiked mace and the sharp knife plundered from the short man in the red shirt.
“Then, then… what about a survival supply pack?” Wang Mao was getting a bit anxious. If he didn’t eat soon, he would enter a negative state of starvation-induced death today, which meant he would only get 9 days * 10 = 90 gold coins. As long as he survived past tomorrow, he could get 10 days * 20 = 200 or even more gold coins. Doing the math, it was still worth it.
“What exactly is inside?” Chu Yun happened to lack these things.
Seeing that Chu Yun was interested, Wang Mao knew it was highly likely a done deal and eagerly explained:
“There’s flint, a mechanical watch, a solar flashlight, and an escape rope.”
“I want the flint and the escape rope. How much food do you want to trade for them?”
Wang Mao swallowed his saliva. “I’ll keep one flint for myself. One flint and one rope in exchange for… just two pieces of bread!”
If this were in real life, this trade would be completely unequal, but in a survival game, food was the capital for staying alive.
Previously, someone had wanted to use half a mantou to trade for one of his items, but he felt it was too little and couldn’t bear to trade it. However, if he didn’t trade now, he wouldn’t make it to the tenth day. The gold coins he could obtain by surviving until the tenth day were highly appealing.
“I’ll give you one boxed meal combo, one plain white mantou, and one piece of bread. Is that acceptable?”
Chu Yun knew Wang Mao was desperate and his asking price was a bit low. She was never brimming with unearned charity, but she also wouldn’t take advantage of a good person for no reason. You had to give something to get what you needed from her.
In her view, this was a mutually beneficial matter; a fair trade where each got what they needed. In the game, she relied on food to trade for survival supply packs that couldn’t even be bought with gold coins, while Wang Mao needed to replenish his food to stay alive, allowing him to earn higher-valued gold coin rewards.
“Yes, yes, absolutely.”
Wang Mao nodded repeatedly in gratitude. Not only did she refrain from taking advantage of his misfortune, but she also offered a higher price than he had imagined. As expected, his judgment of her was correct.
Chu Yun walked back to the sports car, using the vehicle as cover to actually retrieve her last plain white mantou, a piece of bread, and a boxed meal combo food card from her storage ring.
The two exchanged items, and the trade was finalized.
“Thank you, thank you!”
Wang Mao excitedly accepted the food, walked into the service area, sat on the floor, opened the boxed meal, and began to eat. The negative impacts immediately diminished significantly, and his dizziness vanished instantly. He could finally eat a proper meal; this was his first decent meal in so many days, and the long-lost taste of real food moved him so much that tears nearly welled in his eyes. Armed with food, he could not only survive until the tenth day but also live much longer, thereby gaining the opportunity to encounter more catalysts. With catalysts in hand, why would he worry about an escape rope or a piece of flint?
Meanwhile, the guy who had previously intended to use half a mantou to trade for the survival pack now stared at Chu Yun with a face full of resentment. If it weren’t for her, that supply pack would have been his. It was all her fault for disrupting the market price.
At this moment, Chu Yun was making careful calculations:
Presently, Chu Yun’s plain white mantou and pork floss bread were entirely depleted. Her original stock of thirty boxed meal combo food cards was down to just twenty. There were still five days left to clear the game. If she ate two boxed meals a day, she would still have ten left by the time the final mission was cleared.
The night grew deep, and the surroundings became exceptionally quiet. There were no noisy voices or roaring car engines; everyone was thinking about tomorrow, thinking about how to survive, and they all tacitly remained silent.
Chu Yun lay on the reclined sports car seat, looking out through the sunroof at the starry sky. The pitch-black night was like boundless thick ink heavily smeared across the sky, without even the faint glimmer of a single star. In the zombie apocalypse, she at least had comrades, leaders, and colleagues. But here, she didn’t even have a single friend. Thinking of this, a sudden wave of loneliness washed over her.
Day 11 of the game, everyone woke up early.
During peaceful times, many people couldn’t be roused even by consecutive alarms. Now, with no alarms and no one urging them, everyone consciously scrambled up, terrified of a sudden accident.
Water was highly abundant now. Chu Yun rinsed her mouth with warm water and wiped down her body. Once she felt completely refreshed, she stepped out of the car.
The weather remained around 0°C, and a thin layer of ice had formed where water had accumulated.
Last night had been dark, so not many people had come out to move around. Several individuals had spent the entire night squeezed into their cars. Even though the weather outside was freezing, they couldn’t hold out any longer at this point, stepping down one after another to stretch their limbs.
Those who had been here a while and recognized each other’s faces would exchange a few words of greeting.
This place offered hot drinking water, shelter from the wind, and vending machines. It was very similar to a temporary shelter she had encountered before, and it would likely be difficult to find a second place like this in the entire instance.
Those who had survived until now mostly harbored thoughts of clearing the game. Those lacking supplies would only leave briefly before returning; the vast majority tacitly remained in place. Everyone shared the same idea: hold out here until the final day. Moreover, the gathering of people here brought an inexplicable sense of security.
The lights of the service area were like a lighthouse, guiding lost players. Following the lighthouse, people successively gathered toward this spot.
From 8:00 PM last night until this morning, the small parking lot in front of the service area was nearly full. Chu Yun counted around thirty vehicles and roughly a hundred people. Some were lone wolves like Chu Yun, while others were small, temporary teams.
Looking at this gathering fleet of cars and crowd, Chu Yun frowned slightly. Something wasn’t right. It was far too strange.
She felt that the game’s difficulty would definitely spike in the final few days. Yet right now, not only was there no danger, but everyone was even playing bartering games like they were playing house. The game had definitely gathered everyone together for a purpose, but what exactly was that purpose?
Unable to figure it out, Chu Yun strolled around the area to uncover more clues.
Passing by the public bus, she couldn’t help but cast an extra glance at it. This vehicle was parked farthest from her, right in her blind spot; if she hadn’t intentionally walked over, she wouldn’t have been able to see it.
She discovered that this public bus was different from the other vehicles. Its windows were tightly shut, letting no air through. If it was to block out the freezing weather outside, that would be understandable. But the atmosphere inside was far too bizarre. No one was speaking or interacting, and no one had stepped down from the vehicle even at this hour. Everyone maintained nearly identical postures, resting with their eyes closed. They seemed to be sleeping, their breathing steady, their chests rising and falling rhythmically with each breath. They were living people!
But it was still strange! Far too strange!
In this survival apocalypse, gathering so many people together within a few days was a strange thing in itself.
Chu Yun wanted to find out more, so she approached Wang Mao, the only person she had interacted with.
“Hello, I want to ask you a few things.”
Wang Mao turned his head, saw it was Chu Yun, and replied, “Go ahead, girl.”
Chu Yun asked, “When did you get here? Do you know who arrived first? Have you noticed anything unusual since coming here?”
Wang Mao pondered briefly before replying seriously, “I was the fifth to arrive. I asked the occupants of the SUV who got here before me, and they said the bus cohort was the absolute first to arrive here.”
“Speaking of that bus cohort, the people on it are truly bizarre. Since I got here, I’ve rarely seen them step off the bus. There are about twenty-odd people inside, and I rarely see them talking or interacting either.”
As if remembering something unpleasant, Wang Mao leaned closer and whispered, “A few nights ago, I came out to relieve myself and rarely saw them step off the bus to catch some air. The moment that bus door opened, the scent from inside wafted out. It was honestly more foul than if I hadn’t showered for several days.”
“At the time, I thought since we’d all been staying together for so long, I’d go over and greet them since I bumped into them. But those men were incredibly eerie; their eyes were blank, their faces expressionless, and their movements stiff.”
“Like… right, just like puppets. It nearly scared me to death at the time, and I haven’t seen them come down again since.”
Foul odor, stiff movements? Chu Yun seized upon the keywords. She suddenly recalled what that faint, unidentified scent she had caught yesterday was. Having spent so much time with them in her past life, she was far too familiar with that smell; she wouldn’t forget it even if she died. But she hadn’t expected to encounter it here too. Looking at their current appearance, they were completely intact, meaning there was likely still a little time before their complete transformation.
“What is it? You think there’s something wrong with that bus too, right?”
Seeing Chu Yun fall into silent contemplation, Wang Mao knew he had definitely guessed correctly.
Chu Yun stated, “Yes, there is a problem. I advise you to leave right now—the earlier, the better.”
Although she didn’t explicitly specify what the problem was, he believed Chu Yun’s words implicitly without a shadow of a doubt. Chu Yun possessed a commanding aura that compelled submission; if she said it was so, it absolutely was.
