Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4
Chapter 2: Bone Ashes Rice
In her previous life, Lin Huai had also been pulled into this game by accident, along with her pushcart and the coffin. They called it a survival game for everyone, but there was no choice involved—no “willing or unwilling”—only forced teleportation. To survive, people fought with everything they had, stooping to any dirty trick necessary.
Lin Huai was an orphan. When she was only three months old, she had been left under a large locust tree outside the Lin Coffin Shop. Old Lin found her and took her in.
Old Lin was an old bachelor. He lived alone and rarely spoke, but his coffin-making skills were the best in the region. He had an excellent reputation, making his living by selling coffins and working part-time as a funeral director.
From the time she was a little girl, Lin Huai helped Old Lin build coffins. She learned wood carving, local funeral customs, ancient taboos, and the proper ways to care for the dead.
Everything changed on the day she got engaged to her fiancé. Old Lin was walking from the coffin shop to the hotel when he saw someone fall into the river. Without a second thought, he jumped into the water to save them. The person survived, but Old Lin was swept away by the fierce current.
Right before the survival game began, Lin Huai had been pushing this very cart, carrying the coffin with Old Lin’s body, preparing to bury him with her own hands. But before she could lay him to rest in the earth, she was suddenly teleported into the game.
Once she arrived, everything disappeared except for her personal belongings—and Old Lin’s body was gone from inside the box.
Still, this red willow wood coffin was the final resting place Old Lin had built for himself years ago. Lin Huai could not bear to leave it behind. So, she kept pushing the cart, carrying the heavy coffin forward along the road.
Later, she met Chen Feng—her fiancé. After Old Lin died, Chen Feng had promised to stay by her side through her grief, even insisting on delaying their wedding for three years to honor her mourning period.
Because of that promise, Lin Huai felt deeply indebted to him. When they ran into each other on the road, his vehicle had already been destroyed, and other players were hunting him down. He looked completely defeated, yet Lin Huai protected him without hesitation. Together, they agreed to reach the end of the road and escape the game side by side.
She never imagined that in such a brutal world, their deep love would not even survive three months.
Chen Feng hated being without a vehicle. Using sweet words and false promises, he talked her into letting him “borrow” her coffin.
Not long after, he found a new lover named Su Wan. Seeing that Su Wan had rich resources and rare items, Chen Feng turned on Lin Huai at once, trying to kill her where she stood.
Lin Huai barely escaped with her life. Hunted by Chen Feng and Su Wan together, she struggled bravely to survive for another six months.
During that half-year of misery, she watched helplessly as Chen Feng and Su Wan used her coffin to climb into the top fifty of the server rankings. The other players called them the enviable Ghost King and Queen of the Mystic Coffin.
Meanwhile, Lin Huai lived like a rat in a sewer, hiding in disguise. Every coin she earned went toward buying zone transfer cards so she could flee in panic from one district to another.
In the end, the gap in power between them was simply too wide. After six months of running, Chen Feng caught up to her.
The deepest, most agonizing betrayal was that Chen Feng used Old Lin’s coffin to strike the final blow himself. Afterward, he tossed her broken body into the Evil Ghost Path of the Abyss.
Down in that abyss, it felt like true hell. Her flesh and soul were torn to shreds and chewed on by countless hungry ghosts. Every second was a slow, unbearable torture that burned straight to the bone.
Trapped in that endless torment, pure hatred burned inside Lin Huai’s soul.
Just as her last bit of consciousness began to drown in the darkness, she heard a voice. It came from somewhere far away, cold, quiet, and echoing strangely:
“If you were given a chance to start over, what would you do?”
Gathering the very last drop of her strength, Lin Huai gave her answer. Then, total darkness swallowed her whole.
When she opened her eyes again, she had truly been reborn.
Lin Huai pushed the cart, taking steady steps forward on her own two feet.
As she walked, she looked at the light screen floating in front of her to check her details.
In her past life, she had chosen the nickname “May All Go Well”—a cute, innocent screen name. She had started in District 88, Sector 888, which everyone considered a lucky number. Because of those digits, the players there thought they were chosen by destiny, and everyone acted proud and powerful.
Because of that atmosphere, the moment Lin Huai showed up with a pushcart and a coffin, she was seen as an unlucky stain on Sector 888. A cute name could not save her.
Chen Feng used that hatred to his advantage. He turned the entire sector against her, telling everyone that her work with the dead was ruining the good luck of Sector 888. The other players agreed with him, joining Chen Feng and Su Wan to hunt her down like a monster. If she had not found a zone transfer card at her lowest point, she would have died back then.
Lin Huai looked at the prompt on the screen: Please enter nickname.
Her eyes turned cold. Without hesitation, she typed in a new name: Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice.
Player: Lin Huai
ID: 4444420520729
Nickname: Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice
Vehicle: Two-wheeled handcart with coffin
Stamina: 100/100
Spiritual Power: 100/100
Fatigue: 0/99
Combat Power: 25
Resources: French soft bread x3, Mineral water x3, Copper coins x2, Cinnabar x1
Lin Huai blinked at the numbers. District 44, Sector 444? Four was the number of death. This number suited her perfectly.
Even more surprising was her vehicle information. Lin Huai stopped in the middle of the road, opened the vehicle status screen, and read through it carefully:
Vehicle Name: Two-wheeled handcart with coffin (Level 1)
Max Speed: 5 km/h
Attack Value: 1
Defense Value: 24
Immunity Value: 5
Shield Range: 10-meter radius
Status: Crude but intact
In her previous life, the system had treated the coffin as a special item, separate from the cart. That was why Chen Feng had been able to trick her into handing it over. Her wooden cart alone had zero defense.
Now, the panel showed a vehicle defense of 24! For a starting vehicle, that was remarkably high. That durability belonged to the coffin itself, but now the cart and coffin were linked as one.
The immunity value of 5 came from the coffin as well.
The black mist drifting over the road would slowly get thicker over time. It was made of cold, dark Yin energy. As it spread, it would slowly eat away at the players’ vehicles. Later in the game, players had to spend valuable resources, like Yang energy crystals, to coat their rides with protective layers to resist the rot.
Basic starter vehicles never came with an immunity shield. But her coffin was different.
Back then, the coffin had an immunity value because of its special nature. Now, the system treated the coffin and the cart as a single vehicle. That meant she started with a huge defense bonus—and she never had to worry about someone stealing the coffin out of her hands ever again!
Realizing this, Lin Huai burst into a wide, happy grin. Old Hei was a hundred times better than that stiff assistant named Desolate!
Old Hei, completely unaware of what Lin Huai was thinking, began to bark insults across the channel again:
“I forgot to mention: survival on this road comes with a daily travel goal. Today, every player must cover twenty kilometers. Anyone who fails will drop dead on the spot!”
“Some players have already run three kilometers! You rookies sitting on your butts—what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for your dead grandpa to crawl out of his grave and drag you forward?”
Lin Huai had a strong feeling that Old Hei was taking a jab directly at her.
Still in high spirits, she grabbed the handles and pressed on. The pushcart’s two small wheels groaned and creaked under the weight as they rolled over the road.
Old Hei might be bad-tempered, and he certainly loved to curse, but he knew how to get things done!
Chapter 3: The God of the Altar
With a twenty-kilometer journey ahead, Lin Huai could not move quickly while pushing the heavy coffin. At a pace of twenty minutes per kilometer, it would take her about six point six hours to complete today’s task—roughly seven hours in total.
The Newbie Protection Period had one major benefit: safety. However, the price of that safety was finding very few supply boxes and resources along the way.
On the floating light screen, there was a public chat lobby where all the players in Zone 444 could gather and talk. A person could gather a great deal of useful information from their conversations. To stay informed in her previous life, Lin Huai had made it a daily habit to check the chat group whenever she had a free moment.
After taking only a few steps with the pushcart, she brought up the screen to see who had ended up in Zone 444 and whether there was anyone she recognized. After all, she seemed to remember passing through Zone 444 during her past life as well. She did not remember how long she had stayed back then; she used to spend just a few days in each zone before fleeing to the next, so much so that she eventually lost track of all the places she had visited.
[Little Red Eyes]: Oh no, I pulled a toddler’s wiggle car from the vehicle box! Even if I twist my legs off, there’s no way I can wiggle twenty kilometers, right?!
[Proud Little Bird]: At least you get to ride yours! I got a supermarket shopping cart—I have to push the whole thing!
[Snow Mochi]: Hahaha, I should change my name to Goddess of Luck! I pulled a Porsche!
[Wild Handsome Guy]: Ahhh, a Porsche?! I’m so jealous! Big Sister, please look after me! Can I take it for a spin?
[Fastest Hand at SF Express]: Haha, I’m the real God of Luck here! Thanks to my professional bonus, I got the delivery van I know best, hehehe.
[Starving Blue Knight]: Mine might only be an electric scooter, but I can drift around corners and enjoy the breeze. Isn’t that way better than a Porsche?
[Dragon Rising from the Sea]: Your starting vehicle doesn’t matter all that much. I’ve already checked into it: vehicles can be upgraded, so everyone will get a fair shot. Besides, players with high-end starting vehicles might run into severe fuel and energy problems down the line, so be careful.
Lin Huai glanced at the name, raising an eyebrow. There really was someone she knew.
Dragon Rising from the Sea—the top player in Zone 444 in her previous life.
Back then, when she had taken refuge in this zone, Chen Feng’s bounty on her head had reached here as well. But Dragon Rising from the Sea had canceled the bounty immediately. He declared that private vendettas were strictly forbidden in Zone 444, stating that anyone who wanted to hunt another player down had to take it outside his territory.
Thanks to his sense of justice, Lin Huai had earned a rare chance to catch her breath, and she had always felt grateful to him. She had assumed he only made those rules later on after rising to power to keep order. She had not realized he was genuinely kind and upright right from the start.
However, some players could not stand someone acting like a saint and began to complain in the chat.
[Snow Mochi]: Hmph, you’re just jealous that I got a Porsche.
[Don’t Run a Fever Everywhere]: Exactly! You talk like you know everything. I hate people who try to lecture everyone else on how to play the game.
[Goose Goose Goose]: Um… could I ask softly, my starter pack didn’t come with any water. I’m so thirsty right now… does anyone have some to spare?
[Dragon Rising from the Sea]: I have some. I can trade you a bottle. The game includes a trading system where players can exchange supplies.
[Mouthful of Murky Water]: Speaking of items, why are there copper coins and cinnabar powder in my starter pack? What are they for? Can you eat them?
[Cefazolin with Wine]: I got those too! No idea what they do—maybe vehicle upgrade parts?
[Jasmine Tea is a Bit Salty]: @Dragon Rising from the Sea, Big Brother, you seem to know everything! What is cinnabar for?
[Dragon Rising from the Sea]: Open your screen settings, everyone. There’s a scan feature in there. Once you turn it on, scan your items and their details will appear. I didn’t get copper coins, but I have cinnabar. The description says it’s a multi-use material for drawing talismans, warding off evil, and slaying ghosts.
[Steamed Bun]: Huh?! Ghosts?! I’m terrified of ghosts! What am I supposed to do?!
[Kindergarten Boss]: Can I trade a bottle of water for a slice of three-color sponge cake? This dry cake is choking me, I can’t swallow it without water…
Lin Huai silently observed the screen. For now, there was no valuable information to gather; having lived through this once before, she already knew all the beginner basics.
She closed the screen and kept moving forward. Fortunately, after walking only a few more paces, she spotted a small pile of stones arranged beside the road.
Her heart leaped, and she hurried over to take a closer look.
It was an altar!
By offering sacrifices to the God of the Altar, a player could receive valuable supply boxes in return. Generally speaking, as long as the offering was sincere and generous, the god’s gifts were quite good.
She had not expected her luck to improve so much after moving from Zone 888 to Zone 444. It seemed that she had never been cursed with bad luck after all; the number eight had simply clashed with her, while four was her true lucky number!
The altar was tiny, built from just a few small stones stacked together.
Lin Huai walked over, knelt down, and leaned in to peer through the small stone arch. Sure enough, there was a stone statue inside.
The carving showed a young boy holding a human heart in his hand. His face carried an irritated scowl, and his fingers looked ready to crush the heart to pieces.
If an ordinary novice saw such a creepy and terrifying statue, their first reaction would be pure terror. They would never think to worship it, missing a golden opportunity.
Lin Huai, however, smiled with genuine delight. Without a moment of hesitation, she took out all her edible supplies—four bottles of water and three small loaves of bread—and laid them carefully before the altar. Then, she bowed respectfully.
“Lord of the Altar, these are all the supplies I own. Please grant me your blessing so that I may survive!”
The moment she finished speaking, an impatient boyish voice echoed from deep within the stones.
“Hmph. Seeing how poor you are, yet still willing to give me every bite of food you have, I suppose I can reluctantly grant you my blessing!”
As the words faded, a fragrant sandalwood box with a yellow paper talisman stuck to its lid quietly materialized in front of the altar. At the exact same time, the stone altar vanished completely from the roadside.
Lin Huai’s eyes sparkled. A yellow talisman box!
Yellow Talisman Box: Yields extra basic resources, guarantees materials for warding off evil spirits, offers a chance to obtain enchanted equipment, and has a small chance to grant an upgrade card. Peel off the paper talisman on the lid to open the chest.
Before her death in her previous life, Lin Huai had only ever seen broken wooden boxes, yellow talisman boxes, green ghost boxes, and bone-crushing boxes. Higher-tier chests—such as profound stone chests or icy jade boxes—were things she had only heard top-tier players talk about.
Being able to open a yellow talisman box during the Newbie Protection Period was a massive head start. In her past life, over the entire month of the beginner phase, she had only managed to find two yellow talisman boxes; every other chest she came across had been a plain, broken wooden box.
Chapter 4: Highway Safety Ambassador
Lin Huai stared at the yellow talisman box, but she didn’t open it right away. Even during the Newbie Protection Period, monsters could still jump out of these boxes.
Whether it was a broken wooden box or a yellow talisman box, there was always a chance of encountering a type of ghost or monster known as a “Safety Ambassador.” They usually appeared in various gruesome states of death.
Lin Huai took a copper coin from her beginner gift pack and held it tightly between her index and middle fingers. After bracing herself, she stepped forward and cautiously reached out to open the box, acting as carefully as someone lighting a firecracker.
The moment her fingertips brushed the talisman paper, a freezing gust of yin wind suddenly swept past. The talisman curled and dropped off as if it were alive, crumbling into ash before the box lid sprang wide open!
“Giggle, giggle, giggle…”
Accompanied by the sickening sound of grinding bones, an enormous, flattened head popped out of the box. A single blood-red eyeball bulged from its bruised, purplish-blue skin, while the other eye socket was nothing but a pitch-black, empty hole. The entire head looked as if it had been crushed by a heavy vehicle. It was completely flattened, and pale brain matter oozed continuously from the top. To make matters worse, a clear tire track was stamped right across the monster’s smashed face.
The light screen immediately popped up with the scanned information:
[Safety Ambassador: Monsters who died violent deaths on the highway for various reasons. They come in many different appearances. The game officials remind you: reckless driving will turn you into an ugly monster!]
Lin Huai was speechless. Once again, she felt that whoever named these monsters was an absolute genius.
The moment the flat-headed monster emerged, it reached out and lunged at Lin Huai. Its dark green, razor-sharp claws barely missed her face. Lin Huai’s eyes narrowed. She quickly did a backflip to dodge the attack, then immediately spun around and flicked the copper coin from her fingers. The coin shot through the air and embedded itself deeply into the monster’s massive head.
Thick white brain matter and dark blood splattered everywhere. Even though Lin Huai had jumped two meters back, a few drops still landed on her. Feeling a wave of disgust, she walked to the edge of the road, grabbed a handful of dirt, and scrubbed the mess off her clothes.
Only after she was clean did she step forward to collect the box.
Finding an altar was like a gamble. If you won, a single box could change your entire fate. If you lost, you would lose everything you had offered.
Fortunately, Lin Huai had experience. Knowing the right “formulas” to solve these problems made changing her luck incredibly simple.
In her previous life, she had encountered four different Gods of the Altar, and this boy was one of them. Each god had their own unique tastes. You only received a good reward if you offered the right tribute. Giving them the wrong item would cut your reward in half.
But even a halved reward was a good outcome. If a player accidentally offered something the god hated or considered taboo, the god would kill them on the spot!
Lin Huai wasn’t entirely sure about all the preferences of this angry boy holding a human heart. She only remembered one crucial detail: he absolutely hated three-color cake.
As long as she didn’t give him that, anything else should be fine.
It turned out her guess was right, and the supplies inside the yellow talisman box were very generous.
Just as she was counting her new items, the light screen suddenly forced its way in front of her. At the same time, Old Hei’s robotic voice echoed in the ears of every player on the server.
[Server-wide announcement: Player ‘Bone Ashes Mixed with Rice’ from District 44, Zone 444, has achieved the first kill of a Safety Ambassador! Reward: one yellow talisman supply box.]
Old Hei added his own mocking comment, [The first kill has already been snatched up! You newbies are still peeing your pants in fear. Can any of you even do this? If not, do yourselves a favor and go drown in the river.]
Lin Huai froze for a second. By starting over, she had actually managed to grab the very first kill!
As soon as the announcement ended, a second yellow talisman box appeared and dropped right at her feet.
Having two yellow talisman boxes gave her a massive advantage, though she wasn’t sure how long this lead would last. Danger and opportunity went hand-in-hand on this highway. At any moment, another player could change their fate with a single lucky box. It was still much too early to relax.
Lin Huai immediately opened her new yellow talisman box. Luckily, not every box held a monster, and her good luck held strong.
She eagerly counted all the supplies she had gathered so far:
Mineral water (250ml) x8, AD calcium milk x4, French soft bread x3, leather jacket x1, instant noodles x3, canned food x2, compressed biscuits x2, self-heating hotpot x4, garlic x2, tea x3, Eight Treasure Porridge x2, konjac jelly x2, pickled chili chicken feet (small pack) x3, apples x3, whole roasted chicken x1, thermos cup x1, workwear set x1, thermal underwear set x1, dagger x1, batteries x7, gasoline x6, cinnabar x14, copper coins x14, peach wood x5, black dog blood (200ml) x3, glutinous rice x3, beef heart x2, pig lung x3, pig liver x1, three-color cake x7, bandages x2, evil-dispelling alcohol spray x1, Three Pure Ones bell x1, upgrade card x1, altar token x1.
Lin Huai let out a soft sigh of relief. While it wasn’t a mountain of basic supplies, it was enough food and water to last her for several days. This was already a hundred times better than her past life!
Most importantly, she had found an upgrade card within the first hour of the game!
She finally wouldn’t have to walk anymore. This was a massive improvement!
Without any hesitation, Lin Huai took out the upgrade card.
[Upgrade Card: A universal card. This is an essential material for all upgradeable items.]
The system screen showed that the only item she could currently upgrade was her vehicle.
After she selected the upgrade option, the golden card floated into the air and hovered over her small pushcart. With a blinding flash of golden light, the cart transformed. Sitting in front of her was now an electric tricycle, equipped with a cargo bed just long enough to hold the coffin perfectly.
This was the exact same upgrade path she had experienced in her previous life.
But what shocked Lin Huai was that the coffin had been upgraded alongside the vehicle!
Originally, it had been a plain willow wood coffin. The wood wasn’t expensive; it had merely been painted a deep red.
But now, sitting in the cargo bed was a coffin made of precious golden nanmu wood—the exact same high-level coffin that had accompanied her for so long in her past life!
Back then, the coffin had been treated as a separate special item. She had spent a very long time struggling to upgrade it from level two to level three.
Now, the entire box had instantly transformed into golden nanmu wood. Simple, elegant patterns were carved into its surface, and it gave off a faint, glowing aura that looked like shimmering dust. Within the rich, reddish grain of the wood, delicate golden threads caught the sunlight, radiating a brilliant, beautiful light.
Lin Huai gently rested her hand on the lid of the coffin, her eyes naturally growing red with emotion.
Old Lin had spent his entire life building coffins for other people, yet he had always been too frugal to use good wood for his own “final home.”
But now, this cruel survival game had actually upgraded his resting place into something luxurious.
More than once, Lin Huai couldn’t help but wonder: if she finally reached the end of the road and upgraded this coffin to its highest level… could she possibly bring Old Lin back to life?
