Chapter 110

The two of them shared a simple lunch, and then Lin Tu prepared to head home. The reason was simple—she was entering the next disaster tomorrow night.

Lin Tu handed Zhou Yi the Honor Medal and a Single-Use Backpack packed with enough supplies to last through a disaster. She had originally wanted to persuade Zhou Yi to leave Qing City with her to take shelter, but Zhou Yi refused.

"With this much stuff, what do I have to be afraid of? This is the perfect chance to show the government what I'm made of." Zhou Yi found it amusing, taking things out and putting them back, out and back again, then hoisting the noodle shop's table with one hand—nearly scaring the old man eating next door half to death—before she finally stopped. "Go do what you need to do. I've got things covered here. Watch your own back! And remember, there's still one of me here, waiting... for you to come save me!"

Lin Tu nodded with a faint, amused smile.

Before they parted, the two embraced once more. In the worst-case scenario, this could be the last time they ever saw each other. But neither of them panicked. The worry buried deep in their hearts was precisely what drove them forward.

Lin Tu gave Zhou Yi the radio communicator she'd bought from the store, waved goodbye, and loaded Xiao Huang onto the motorcycle before starting the journey home.

At nine that night, Lin Tu arrived safely at the cabin.

She tossed the motorcycle aside and collapsed onto the bed, nearly blacking out.

But now wasn't the time to pass out. Lin Tu drank a cup of coffee and forced herself to stay awake to reply to messages.

While resting at the service area, she'd taken the opportunity to upgrade her upcoming D-level disaster—twice in a row—

[Player "Lin Tu" will load into a B-level disaster world in one day.]

[Endless Desert

Introduction: A game called "Fight Your Way Out" has descended. Overnight, the entire world has become a desert game field. Only by walking from the starting point to the end and escaping this desert can you survive. This game includes the original inhabitants of this world, veteran players of "Fight Your Way Out," and of course, you from the "Infinite Calamity." You won't want to become waste material in this desert game, so... good luck!

Mission: Escape the desert!

Side Mission: None for now.

Note: Becoming a player of "Fight Your Way Out" and completing its missions grants rewards that can be brought back to Doomsday Town tax-free, stored in the form of vouchers.]

She'd never seen this kind of game-within-a-game model before, but having seen nesting dolls before, Lin Tu immediately understood—wasn't this just sending her to fleece "Fight Your Way Out" for all it was worth?

Still, she wasn't entirely certain, so she immediately sent screenshots to a few players she knew well, asking if they wanted to join.

Lin Tu had spent the whole afternoon on the road without checking her messages, and only now did she see them on her phone.

She'd invited seven people. Guan Suiyue declined, but Guan Suixing accepted. Probably because her sister was coming, Guan Suiyue gave Lin Tu quite a bit of extra information—

First, this kind of nested game could indeed be exploited, but the rewards came with risks. The players from the other game weren't easy to deal with either. The good news was that they generally had no idea that "Infinite Calamity" players existed.

Second, Guan Suiyue had never heard of "Fight Your Way Out," but it might have appeared in other disasters before. It was worth looking into.

Finally, Guan Suiyue mentioned the matter she'd been helping with—

"There haven't been any recent thefts of [Useless Inner Cores], but it might be someone on the inside. The Church isn't spotless—that's a problem every organization has. When I get the chance, I'll send you the info on everyone who's recently accessed [Useless Inner Cores], including where they were used. Of course, doing this comes at a great cost to me. Take good care of Guan Suixing, and I'll give you a discount."

Lin Tu immediately replied with a cheerful "Deal."

Sure enough, things were easier when people dealt with each other straightforwardly. Why had she invited both sisters, Guan Suiyue and Guan Suixing, in the first place? It was to tell Guan Suiyue she was willing to look after her younger sister. And sure enough, Guan Suiyue repaid the favor, immediately resolving the issue Lin Tu had been asking about for days, and even offering more information. Would Guan Suiyue have disclosed the Church's internal affairs to just any player she'd survived one disaster with? Of course not.

As for the fact that this information still came at a price—Lin Tu, nursing a fire of vengeance in her heart, certainly didn't mind. She'd already gotten plenty from looking after the sister. She couldn't just freeload everything. Relationships needed give-and-take to grow deeper.

After thanking Guan Suiyue, Lin Tu looked at the replies from the others. Luo Yongzhi, Yi Ying, Liu Sheng, and Dong Huadan all agreed to join. Even though there was only one day to prepare, as players, weren't they all on standby at all times? One day and three days made no real difference. Of course, the main reason was that with Lin Tu leading, they were in safe hands.

Dong Huadan was the fastest of them all. She'd already started looking into "Fight Your Way Out" and casually asked Lin Tu if she had any team-up vouchers.

Lin Tu happened to have some on hand, so she used one and split it into six instances. She sent five one-time team-up vouchers to the others and asked if any of them had companions who wanted to join.

Too tired to reply to the rest of the messages, Lin Tu burrowed into her blankets and slept straight through until dawn.

Early the next morning, Lin Tu was out the door without a moment's rest.

She first went to the hotel to find the workers who'd built the cattle and pig pens. The good news was that all the workers had called home yesterday and everyone was safe—even Master Niu Tieli had returned.

Lin Tu converted a few dozen points into cash and unleashed her money power again, asking if they could finish the shelters in one day, no matter the cost. A few people might need several days, but with dozens of people, wasn't one day plenty? As the saying goes, money talks... no wait, many hands make light work!

They all agreed to finish within the day and gave her a rough budget.

Lin Tu didn't hold back on the money. She transferred the full estimated amount to them upfront, and on top of that, handed out packs of cigarettes she'd stockpiled from the [Place of Exile]. That put the workers in high spirits, and they hurried off to round up more hands, determined to have the shelters built before ten tonight.

With that settled, Lin Tu headed straight to the market to stock up.

Getting rice, flour, oil, and grain these past two days was no easy task. Earthquakes were happening all over the country, and everyone was afraid one might hit their own home soon. Stockpiling was deeply etched into the blood of this nation. With the crisis looming, everyone was hoarding, so supplies were either running out or prices were soaring.

But that wasn't what Lin Tu wanted to stock up on anyway. After being baptized by several disasters and clearing out countless warehouses, she'd long since hoarded enough supplies to last her decades. What she needed now was seeds, seedlings, daily necessities, books, and the like.

Lin Tu went to the vegetable market first. This was the season for sowing wheat, so she went to a specialty seed store to buy seeds. Earthquakes had been frequent these past two days, but life went on. Farmers passed by, carrying spring planting gear and chatting happily. Lin Tu, buying enough wheat seed for two mu of land, blended right in without the slightest bit of awkwardness.

She humbly asked an old farmer where to buy vegetable seeds. Perhaps her novice look was too obvious, because the old farmer recommended an agricultural supply store. The store was like a clinic—they had everything, and the sales assistant could even recommend treatments and help solve farmers' problems.

Lin Tu followed the advice and went straight there.

Just then, a sales assistant was helping a farmer examine his wheat seedlings: "Did you water from the top down, and pour a lot of water at that?"

Lin Tu looked from a distance. The wheat seedlings were tiny, but their stalks were already bent, leaning this way and that in a ragged, uneven mess.

The man immediately cried out in protest: "I didn't! Do you think I don't know any better?! My whole family depends on these few mu of land to survive! I tend to them as carefully as I possibly can, I don't dare make a single mistake, but..." He slapped his hands together, wailing and nearly in tears. "What am I supposed to do?!"

"Don't panic. It could also be the lack of sunlight these past few days. The stalks grew too fast and too thin, turning into tall, leggy seedlings." The sales assistant was a young woman, and she was just as anxious seeing this. "Lodging can happen for many reasons. Everything I mentioned, you said wasn't the case, so this is most likely the cause."

"Then what do I do?!" The farmer paced on the spot, frantic. "I... if my fields yield nothing, my whole family will have nothing to eat! I really have no other options! My old mother up there has chronic back pain and can't work the land, and my wife has diabetes and needs to go to the hospital all year round. What am I supposed to do?! Just give me some medicine!"

"In this situation, I don't dare prescribe anything randomly! Just take it out and let it get more sunlight—that should do it." The sales assistant was also panicking, especially with so many people watching. But she'd already asked about every possible cause, and the farmer had denied them all. She could only blame the weather.

"I bought the seeds from you in the first place! I followed your instructions for planting and fertilizing, and now my seedlings are dying—so it's your responsibility!" Seeing that he couldn't get a solution by asking, the farmer switched to being unreasonable. "Either give me medicine to cure my seedlings, or pay me compensation! I don't believe for a second that sunbathing will fix anything!"

The bystanders murmured among themselves. The farmer was being a bit of a scoundrel, sure, but he was also at his wit's end. This was his family's livelihood. If the store didn't give some kind of answer after his crops mysteriously toppled, who would dare buy seedlings or ask for advice here in the future?

Just as the farmer was about to speak again, Lin Tu stepped forward—

"I feel like it..." Lin Tu sensed with her beginner-level Plant Affinity, "...it's a bit like joy turning to sorrow. The stalks bent because they were too happy."

The farmer shot her a glare, about to demand what she meant, when the sales assistant suddenly had a realization and scolded him: "Did you fertilize and water early?! And you went out of your way to show me the better seedlings! Look! Even this one—its first and second internodes are longer than normal, and I didn't notice it earlier!"

The farmer immediately went quiet, shrinking back like a quail and not daring to say another word.

"This is your family's first time growing wheat, I know, so I told you again and again—wait until the right time to fertilize, wait until the right time to water. Doing it early isn't helping them, it's harming them!"

"Go home and roll the soil first, two to three times. Stop using nitrogen fertilizer. Switch to organic fertilizer instead. Take this potassium dihydrogen phosphate and spray it a few times as directed. Finish this bottle, and it should alleviate the lodging problem."

The farmer, who had thought all was lost, was overjoyed and thanked her profusely.

The others were speechless too. If you don't follow the doctor's orders, at least don't make a scene about it. It was already kind of her to give him medicine.

"Next time you have a problem, just talk to me properly! We'll do our best to help however we can. But lying to me and to yourself—even if you manage to get my wages docked, what good does it do you? In the end, you're the one who loses when your fields produce nothing."

The sales assistant handed over the medicine, scolded the farmer a bit more, and only after she was satisfied that he'd truly learned his lesson did she turn to Lin Tu.

"Thank you for that just now. Looks like you know a fair bit about wheat yourself?"

"Not at all. I just happened to read it in a book." Lin Tu changed the subject. "I have a mountain where I'm raising cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, plus fish and pigeons in large numbers. Besides growing wheat, vegetables, and fruit for myself to eat, what else could I plant to use as feed?"

So she was a big client. The sales assistant handed off the small-scale farmers to another colleague and led Lin Tu toward the vegetable section.

"Corn, peas, pumpkins—those make the best feed. When they're young and tender, you can eat them yourself. When they get old, chop them up and feed them to the chickens or pigs. Wheat, we don't need to talk about. Honestly, as long as you have leftovers you can't finish, chop it up and just about anything can be feed. Take chickens, for example—give them watermelon rind. It's cooling and clears dampness, and it prevents heatstroke. And it's not just chickens—birds, pigs, they can all eat it!"

Lin Tu had never read that in a book before. She nodded, feeling she'd gained something: "With that in mind, I'll need to get some watermelon seedlings too."

"That's not all!" The sales assistant quickly added, "Let me put together some corn seedlings, pea seedlings, pumpkin seedlings, carrot seedlings, sweet potato seedlings..." She rattled off a whole string of items, and Lin Tu nearly felt like calling the police—

"Do I really need this much?"

"Didn't you say you have a mountain?" The sales assistant said with a smile. "Of course, you should plant whatever can be planted. I can hook you up with fertilizer, pesticides, plastic mulch—everything."

Lin Tu: "..." She wanted to throw a fit too! She had an eighty-year-old grandfather upstairs and a few-months-old puppy...

Still, Lin Tu wasn't one to turn away free food. The sales assistant drew up a list, and the final price tag read a whopping sixty-five thousand three hundred twenty-four yuan.

Although the sales assistant said she could trim the list, Lin Tu said: Trim what? She wanted it all!

After adding the sales assistant—who went by Xiao Cheng—on her contacts, Lin Tu sent her the address. The goods would arrive around noon today.

Next, she grabbed an early lunch, then drove to the poultry seller and picked out another twenty or so local Muscovy ducks, a hundred or so ducklings, and two hundred kilograms of duck feed—spending around three thousand yuan.

She'd already bought chickens before; those chicks had grown quite a bit. From a distance, they looked like a flock of teenage chickens on the verge of adulthood. A few more months and they'd be full-grown. Still, Lin Tu bought a dozen or so free-range chickens, fifty free-range chicks, and thirty black-bone chick—spending nearly two thousand yuan.

She also bought twenty geese and a hundred or so goslings plus feed, coming to about four thousand yuan. Goslings were much bigger than chicks, and their beaks were hard—they looked like they'd hurt if they pecked you. Poor Xiao Huang would be in trouble later. These big geese loved nothing more than pecking at dogs.

For cattle, sheep, and pigs, Lin Tu bought fifteen adults and fifty young ones of each.

The pigs were a local black breed, with bristly black coats, wide flat rumps, and tails that swished back and forth, smelling a bit rank. Pigs could be bred at seven or eight months. Pigs needed to be castrated to improve the meat quality, and these piglets had already been done. Lin Tu would need to learn the castration technique herself for any future piglets born on her land.

For cattle, she bought yellow cattle and dairy cows. Dairy cows were technically yellow cattle, just a carefully bred variety—after calving, they could produce milk for over three hundred days a year, which made them extra expensive. Good dairy cows could go for seven to eight thousand yuan a head.

For sheep, she only bought five big goats and ten goat kids. Lin Tu had originally wanted sheep—they were suited for large-scale grazing, had less gamey meat, and produced wool. But the problem was... there were no sheep for sale locally, only goats. Goats had bad tempers, loved to fight, and their meat was gamey. Their wool could only be used for blankets and felt, and their meat needed heavy seasoning with chili and cumin to be palatable—like barbecue or goat offal hotpot. As for mutton buns... forget it.

The chickens, ducks, and geese were cheaper, only costing around ten thousand yuan. But the cattle, sheep, and pigs were pricey—nearly two hundred thousand yuan, and that was before feed.

Finally, Lin Tu bought about twenty pigeons plus feed for a little over a thousand. The fish fry were cheap—crucian carp at a mao each, grass carp at three mao. Lin Tu stocked two ponds with blue carp, yellow catfish, and more, spending only a bit over a thousand yuan in total.

Luckily, all these sellers offered home delivery. Otherwise, hauling all these cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, pigeons, and fish back home would've been another fortune!

After buying seeds, pesticides, seedlings, and feed, Lin Tu rushed over to the library. She sat at the front desk and swept through the bookshelves, picking one and marking it, picking another and marking it, until she'd bought several thousand books. She called a moving truck to haul them all home. Then she went to an electronics store, bought a big-screen TV for watching dramas, plus a few iPads and smartwatches, and restocked her depleted supply of surveillance cameras and drones. Finally, she hit the supermarket for tissues, towels, sanitary pads, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face wash, and so on—everything in multiples of ten, adding on in whole tens. Tissues alone—she bought thirty packs, spending over three thousand yuan.

By the time she left the supermarket, it was already six or seven in the evening.

Lin Tu didn't go home. She found a place to eat dinner, then started sweeping through the food market, buying up her favorite ready-to-eat foods—freshly braised pig trotters, a just-baked durian pizza, freshly pan-fried crispy soup dumplings, and so on. She grabbed several portions of each, and when her hands were full, she slipped them into the Single-Use Backpack when no one was looking. After all, if anyone saw her buy so much and then the food disappeared moments later, there was only one explanation—she was a glutton, and she could eat.

By the time she finished buying cooked food, it was nearly eight.

Lin Tu hurried home to receive deliveries. The chicken coops, duck sheds, and such were already built, and the ponds were dug and filled with water. Once the chickens, ducks, geese, and the rest arrived, the workers helped move the livestock into their pens and release the fish fry into the water. After she verified everything was in order, Lin Tu handed out generous red envelopes to the workers as promised, plus a few bottles of good liquor as thanks.

At nine o'clock, Lin Tu started furiously ordering takeout. Anything edible, whether it looked good or not, she ordered to the house. The latest delivery would arrive by eleven—plenty of time!

She went back and forth retrieving the deliveries, and finally, the time came.

Amid the restless mooing of cattle, crowing of roosters, and quacking of ducks, Lin Tu closed her eyes. The next second, the world spun, and she entered the disaster world.

Hot! Her butt was burning hot!

Like a shrimp dropped into boiling water, Lin Tu curled up and leapt to her feet with a start. Before she'd even looked at her surroundings, the first thing she felt was—heat. It was unbearably hot!

The blazing sun beat down overhead. She felt her skin cracking from the exposure! Even with her thermoregulating vest, only the upper half of her body felt normal. Everywhere else, she was sweating nonstop. The vicious sun was like a cruel governess, holding a needle and stabbing specifically at the thinnest spots of skin.

Yellow sand stretched in every direction. Only straight ahead was a road with no end in sight. Both sides of the road were empty—not even a single blade of grass. A few hundred meters away, a small structure poked up from the sand, but under the scorching heat, it seemed to waver and shimmer, as if it were some strange hallucination Lin Tu was having.

Lin Tu turned around. Behind her butt was a small cart, and beyond that, the endless road came to an abrupt halt.

It was as if something was telling her—you must move forward.

Lin Tu: Forget it, let's get the sun protection out first!

Given the disaster's name, "Endless Desert," Lin Tu had long since prepared sun protection supplies—

She pushed the cart in front of her and loaded things onto it one by one.

"Sun-protection jacket, straw hat, fan, cooling mist, ice-cold cooling patches... let's stick this cooling patch on first. Whoa... instantly cool! Put one on the soles of my feet too! Grab a fan, scoop some ice into the water bottle..."

While Lin Tu was busy at work, a row of bloody text suddenly appeared out of thin air before her—

"FIGHT YOUR WAY OUT!"

"See the desert around you? Feel the heat of the weather? Feeling parched and desperate?!!!"

Lin Tu: "..." Actually, after just putting on the cooling patch, she felt she no longer needed so many exclamation marks to convey her feelings.

"You! A survivor with NOTHING! NOTHING AT ALL!!!"

Lin Tu continued applying cooling patches, sprayed on some sunscreen, put on her sun-protection jacket and hat, took a sip of water, and silently stared at those bold words—nothing at all, huh?

"How will you survive in this desert with nothing? Trust me, look down at the cart by your feet and the road beneath you. Only by walking forward relentlessly will you encounter resource replenishment points. Only by replenishing your resources can you reach the end of the road, escape this desert, and become the victor who fought your way out!"

"My advice to you: collect as many resources as possible, upgrade your cart, press forward steadfastly, and finally—what do we do when we run into other people?"

A splatter of blood burst across the screen—

"Go forth! Brave survivor! A grand adventure starting from zero..."

No sooner had the words "starting from zero" lit up than Lin Tu saw a barrage of messages popping up one after another—"Ding ding ding ding—"

"Detected that your supplies are sufficient. Would you like to upgrade your cart?"

"Detected that your supplies are sufficient. Would you like to upgrade your cart?"

"Detected that your supplies are sufficient. Would you like to upgrade your cart?"

"..."

A staggering hundred-plus messages in total!