Chapter 113

Lin Tu drove up to the traveler with her head bowed. As she got closer, she realized the woman's neck had been sliced from the front—her head was attached to her body by just a thread of flesh, hanging at a ninety-degree angle.

From a distance, she looked like she was bowing her head, but what was actually facing the ground was the back of her skull. Her wallet was stuck to her heel, but the eyes staring blankly at the sky could never see it.

Lin Tu walked over, patted her on the shoulder, and reminded her, "Why don't you turn your head?"

It didn't turn. Instead, it lunged at Lin Tu in a fury. After a brief fight, Lin Tu happily scored a two-star supply box.

Half an hour later, Lin Tu finally passed the third stretch of road and entered the fourth. In truth, she could have floored the gas and blown through this section in ten-odd minutes, but she kept having to stop to grab supply boxes by the roadside, so she'd slowed down quite a bit.

The fourth stretch's sign read—

At the very top: "A1JRS23" Highway. The second row listed two different exits, each 20,000 meters away. Below that was a spine-chilling exclamation mark—

"Beware! It is forbidden to laugh on this stretch of road! Legend says a traveler who found treasure in the desert laughed wide-mouthed into the wind. The wind was so strong it blew his mouth crooked, and he could never close it again. As he carried his fortune home, sand kept blowing into his mouth. At first he dug it out with his fingers, then when that stopped working, he prodded it out with a stick. Finally the sand clogged his throat and he couldn't breathe—he could only imitate a laugh to cough the sand out. From then on, his laughter echoed across the desert. Whoever laughs, he will gladly befriend."

Another active task.

Lin Tu let out two awkward ha-ha's. No monster was drawn out.

Lin Tu: "..." Was she supposed to sit in the driver's seat like an idiot and cackle at nothing?

A moment later, Lin Tu thought of a great idea. She pulled out her iPad and opened a variety show, soon bursting into cheerful, natural laughter.

Of course, she was having a grand time—but the Butler suffered. It had to drive, scan the roadside for treasure boxes, and constantly worry about the monster's appearance. About ten minutes later, just after Lin Tu collected a one-star supply box, a monster with a mouth split almost ear-to-ear appeared.

"It's coming! It's coming!" the Butler sounded the alarm.

Lin Tu: "That's a fire truck siren, not an alarm!"

"Then what should it be?" The Butler tried another alarm. "A police siren chasing a criminal? Wee-woo, wee-woo~"

Lin Tu: "..." She thought no alarm at all would be fine.

She stopped the show, drew her long blade, and was about to get out and chop down the poor traveler when the monster suddenly opened its mouth, revealing a throat packed with yellow sand. It spat forward—a great gob of sand, like magma or acid, hissing with corrosive sounds as it shot toward Lin Tu.

The Butler reversed just in time, leaving only a bit of paint damage on the front of the car.

"Ranged attack, huh!" Lin Tu put away her blade, pulled a gun from her backpack, and fired three shots at the monster's head.

In the blink of an eye, only a two-star supply box remained on the ground.

Another two-star box in the bag. The car rolled on. Between the fourth stretch and all the previous ones, Lin Tu had collected nine one-star supply boxes and three two-star supply boxes.

She opened them all and got: "Electronic Components ×15, Glass ×20, Metal ×20, Rubber ×20, Bread ×10, Ham Sausage ×5, 500ml Water ×11, Blanket ×1, Matchbox with 1,000 Matches ×1."

She'd even lucked into a pale-white item!

Lin Tu happily picked up the card, then suddenly thought of something. She took out the D-grade item [Unquenchable Match], placed it beside the pale-white card, and slowly brought them together. A faint flash, and the card vanished.

The matchbox, which had been down six matches, instantly refilled to full—the item's effect had taken hold. Lin Tu struck a match; it burned in the wind for a long while without going out. So the unquenchable property was intact too.

Lin Tu tucked the matches away with a grin, happier than if she'd earned points. Points came one at a time, but this pale-white card had doubled her D-grade item. If a box of these matches was worth 25 points, adding a thousand more to it meant it was now worth six or seven hundred points.

Not that the math was guaranteed in practice, but Lin Tu was thoroughly satisfied.

She needed more pale-white items!

"Keep driving!" Lin Tu commanded with gusto.

The car soon entered the fifth stretch of road.

The layout here was different from the previous sections. Just as Lin Tu was curiously trying to read the exit names, a strange wind howled past.

The sky went black instantly, as if a hand had covered the moon.

The entire desert became a graveyard—countless tombs and grave markers under the eerie moonlight, with a rather horrifying air.

"Th-this... which way do we go!" The intelligent Butler felt its computing power was insufficient.

The road ahead split into countless intersections, and at the end of each one gaped an open grave, as if waiting for some homeward traveler. Only the middle road ran straight ahead, seemingly—

Just as the one-person-one-machine pair was hesitating, Lin Tu suddenly felt a tremor under her seat. The shaking came from behind. She looked into the rearview mirror, then, in disbelief, rolled down the window and half-stuck her body out to look back—

A pitch-black tombstone, seven stories tall!

On it were inscribed large words: "A1I2QS23 Highway, 25000m" and "A1JRT22 Highway, 25000m," plus "Beware!"

Just as Lin Tu finished reading, the tombstone moved. It rose into the air, shifted forward about a meter, then slammed down hard, scattering dust and shaking the ground again.

"It's chasing us!" The Butler rapidly deployed its computing power. "One minute forty seconds... thirty-nine seconds... until it catches us! One minute thirty-eight seconds!"

Lin Tu listened to the countdown: "..." Did she really need such an intelligent Butler?

She kept reading the tombstone's text.

"Graveyard Gauntlet! A giant tombstone is hunting you! Move forward as fast as you can. You may head straight to the next exit, but over the 25,000-meter stretch, the tombstone will keep chasing you;

Alternatively, you may take on the gauntlet. Use the information in the grave mounds to decide which way to go. Each correct decision reduces the number of levels you must clear; each wrong one increases it. Note, however, that the levels may multiply, but the tombstone will never go backward. Clear all the levels, and the tombstone disappears;

Rest assured, if you unfortunately die on this stretch, you will stay here forever and become part of the road~"

"Gauntlet! Just pick one and go!" Lin Tu decided.

The task description said only the grave mounds could give information. Right now, eight roads lay ahead, and with no extra intel, it was a gamble.

Lin Tu took the wheel herself and floored the gas, charging toward one of the gaping graves. As she got close, she eased off the throttle a little. When the grave didn't change, she slammed the pedal and shot inside.

"Red, blue, green, or yellow?"

Suddenly she found herself on a suspended track surrounded by glowing orbs. A line of text appeared before her, dead ahead: "Please read the text aloud, then drive toward the road in the color the text represents! Your speed will keep increasing!"

—And then a green "Yellow!" appeared before her eyes.

Lin Tu: "?" What the hell kind of Greedy Snake game was this!

"You steer, I'll read!" To ensure accuracy, Lin Tu chose to fight dirty.

She shouted "Yellow!" and the Butler turned toward the green-glowing lane. "Red!" The Butler turned toward the blue one... After five or six rounds in a row, the car's speed got so high she only had a second or two to react. But thanks to their cheating, they chose correctly and shot out of the track.

Lin Tu found herself back in the graveyard, facing the open grave behind her.

The road ahead had shrunk to six lanes, down by two. Her successful clearance had reduced the number of levels left.

The tombstone was far behind now. The one-person-one-machine duo drove confidently toward the next level. With luck, three more clears would finish the gauntlet.

But no one is lucky forever.

This level was about choosing how to answer—

"You are not a mental patient; you are a transmigrator! Half of you lives in the desert, begging for food from passersby; the other half lives at your desk, being berated by your boss. Please answer the passerby's/boss's question without letting them notice anything wrong!"

Passerby: "You useless piece of garbage, you can't even speak properly. I'm asking you—why should I give you my water?"

Boss: "You useless piece of garbage, you can't even hit your targets. I'm asking you—why should I pay your salary?"

Answers: "Lane 1, Because I'm your daddy!; Lane 2, Because I genuinely won't survive otherwise!; Lane 3, Because I have human rights too!"

"Hurry! Hurry! What do we pick!" The Butler urged desperately.

Lin Tu's first instinct was to pick Lane 1, but she immediately realized this wasn't about saying whatever she wanted—this required high emotional intelligence. Then she reconsidered Lanes 2 and 3...

Lin Tu: "..." She couldn't tell. She genuinely couldn't tell!

If she had more time, she could analyze and maybe pick the emotionally intelligent option, but with only a few seconds, how could someone like her, who wasn't particularly tactful, choose?

"Lane 1!" Lin Tu decided.

At the last second, the trusting Butler swerved into Lane 1 just as it was about to enter Lane 2. A big red X appeared overhead!

After five or six consecutive wrong answers like that, she shot out of the grave again. The road ahead had reverted to eight lanes, and the tombstone behind was even closer than before.

The Butler drove on in silence. Lin Tu fell silent too—was her emotional intelligence really that low?

"How about next time we hit a level like that, you use your algorithm to try?" Lin Tu offered.

The Butler had no choice but to agree.

The next few rounds went smoothly enough, and Lin Tu made it to the final level: the boss fight.

She instinctively reached for her long blade, but found a row of guns had automatically materialized on the track. "Please choose your weapon!"

Lin Tu picked a gun model she was familiar with. Then a giant appeared out of thin air before her. A two-lane track looped around and around the giant. Its shoulders were so broad that part of the track ran along them, making the course look extremely steep.

"Every attack it makes exposes a weak point." That was all the text overhead said.

"Let's just charge," Lin Tu said. The tombstone was getting close. No time to waste.

The car shot onto the track like an arrow from a bow. The giant raised its arm and slammed it down at the car's position—

"Switch lanes!" Lin Tu shouted, spotting the weak point at the same time.

Right on the giant's fist!

She raised her gun and fired at the weak point. Hit! Meanwhile, the car drove up onto the giant's shoulder. It tried to scratch behind itself, exposing another weak point—the neck!

"Speed up!" Lin Tu fired.

After about ten laps around the giant, the Butler was horrified to discover the tombstone had followed them into the game!

"One... four minutes twenty seconds, four minutes nineteen." It quickly calculated how long until the tombstone arrived.

"Stop calculating! The boss only needs two more hits!"

Lin Tu floored the accelerator. The SUV traced a beautiful arc, sweeping across the giant's body. She fired two shots, hitting both weak points. The car kept going and finally burst through like a finish-line ribbon.

"Ding~ Congratulations to Lin Tu of Zone A1, the first player in the game to clear the novice level and complete all tasks! Your task reward, the two-star supply box, has been upgraded to three-star! Other players, keep pushing! Starting from the fifth stretch, you will see an even richer, more exciting world!"

The moon shone bright again, and the eerie graves around vanished. The SUV hummed along the road, a faintly glowing box appearing in the car—the three-star supply box!

Before Lin Tu could open it, she spotted a two-story motel up ahead, with a tall road sign to the right: "Next service area, 100,000m."

"A rare find; let's pop in and see what's inside?" Lin Tu directed the Butler while opening the three-star supply box.

The three-star box yielded "Glass ×50, Fabric ×50, Self-Heating Hotpot ×1, Camel-Summoning Blueprint ×1, Sand-Wind Goggles ×1."

Lin Tu grabbed the pale-white card first, pressed it to her gold-rimmed glasses, and waited for the card to vanish before putting them back on. The card itself could have become a pair of glasses, but Lin Tu had originally thought her gold-rimmed glasses were just ordinary items, so maybe she wouldn't need the item. But then she reconsidered—these glasses gave her a sense of security. Switching to another pair would feel wrong.

The motel offered plenty of services.

Besides lodging, you could fix your car or upgrade it. Lodging let a player sleep while the car covers 10,000 meters on its own, and you'd get a 50% chance at supply boxes. Repairing was exactly what it sounded like. Upgrading improved the car—a canopied tricycle could turn into a compact SUV, for example.

But! All these services required special cards—[Lodging Card] [Repair Card] [Vehicle Upgrade Card (Low/Mid/High)]

So what could you do at the motel without cards? That was a good question.

Lin Tu got out, wandered around inside, and found she could sit in the lobby for free and read some road manuals.

The manuals introduced some low-grade card items, including the sand-proof shoe covers and sand-wind goggles she already had. Besides those pale-white cards, they also introduced some pale-green cards!

According to the book, green cards could drop from three-star supply boxes, but only with a 20% chance. From four-star boxes, it was a 50% chance!

Lin Tu: She had opened this many three-star boxes without a single green item. What did that make her? Someone with great hands-on skills?

A little unlucky, Lin Tu flipped through some other free magazines, found nothing useful, and walked out of the motel feeling bored—

That's it? She'd rather sleep in her own house.

Still, that green item card had sparked some thoughts.

Could the Camel-Summoning Blueprint be traded for a green item? She listed the camel and tentatively priced it at one green item. The game prompted her that the price was a bit steep.

Lin Tu: So what? Who says good things can't be expensive? As long as she wasn't breaking the rules, it was fine!

By the time she left the motel, it was already 11 PM.

Lin Tu got back in the car and decided to drive a bit further, picking up a couple of item cards before going to sleep before the sixth stretch.

The night was hazy. The small SUV rolled slowly forward, stopping from time to time. Finally, just before the exit, Lin Tu picked up two two-star supply boxes and three one-star supply boxes—"Electronic Components ×15, Wood ×20, Bread ×3, Self-Heating Instant Noodles ×1, Water ×10, Oil-Proof Repair Gloves ×1."

It was almost midnight.

Lin Tu tossed everything into her backpack, told the Butler to stay up on night watch, and crawled back into the little cabin to sleep.

Early the next morning, the regional channel exploded.

For no other reason—overnight, while everyone was off guard, two blueprints had appeared on the trading platform!

Uninformed players rushed over at the channel's urging, shocked so badly they nearly dropped their eyes.

"Charcoal and a camel? One's a night-warming essential, the other a travel essential—how come both are up for sale?!"

"The seller is that Lin Tu again. She acts like she doesn't need anything. The moment she gets a blueprint, she sells it."

"The question is, where is she getting this many blueprints?"

"Didn't the world announcement just come out? Oh, never mind about that. Be grateful she's even selling! Some people still don't have rope yet! That alone shows how valuable blueprints are. Seriously, no one's buying? Why isn't anyone buying?"

"I'm dying, I'm dying! I got up at night and saw these two blueprints. I wanted to buy them right away, but one costs three pale-white items and the other a green item—help! I can't afford that!"

"Sister Lin! Lower the price, please! I sincerely, really, really want to buy!"

"Where's that guy who swore he'd definitely buy if Lin Tu ever sold another blueprint? Someone call him—tell him to come buy!"

"..."

Some people were curious about the blueprints, some were desperate. But overall, one emotion dominated—pure envy.

"God damn it!" Lan Yanzhen woke up to find the sky falling. She kicked her canopied tricycle, and still not satisfied, kicked it twice more.

As a veteran player, she knew perfectly well that the fifth stretch's task was the first mission after the novice level. Completing it would grant an achievement and a three-star supply box—exactly why Lan Yanzhen had been so confident last night that she'd get a blueprint today.

She'd camped out at the exit of the fourth stretch, ready to gun it into the fifth the moment dawn broke.

She never expected someone to cut her off. Now, even if she went to the fifth stretch and cleared ten tasks, she wouldn't get a three-star box!

"That damn bastard!" Lan Yanzhen cursed. "How dare she drive at night?!"

"Sister Lan~" Just then, Li Haohao sent a message. "A lot of people in the group are complaining, saying we didn't get the blueprints~"

"Tell them to drive at night, then!" Lan Yanzhen sneered. "Let them die with that Lin Tu!"

"Ohh~" Li Haohao said sweetly, "Don't be mad, Sister Lan~ They're just dumb. Look at the trading platform—what blueprint is that Lin Tu selling?"

Before Lan Yanzhen could irritably go look, Li Haohao quickly said, "It's a charcoal blueprint! The moment I saw it, I thought of how brilliant Sister Lan is—you found someone who could make charcoal back in the last disaster and brought them into our faction. We won't have to worry about charcoal at all! As for the others... Lin Tu priced it so high, let them go make trouble for her."

"That's right!" Lan Yanzhen realized. "Quick! Go tell Old Li to start making charcoal! Allocate wood from the faction to him and have him burn as much as possible! If we get charcoal on the market before that blueprint sells, everyone will know it's no longer worth paying a fortune for it!"

Li Haohao gave a delighted "Whoa! Sister Lan, you're so smart! I'm on it!"

"We can't let this Lin Tu snowball. If her advantage grows, all the rewards will go to her from here on." Lan Yanzhen hummed, thought for a moment, then switched over to the regional channel—

"Charcoal selling this expensive? Isn't it something anyone can do? There are plenty of people who can burn charcoal."

Below, someone from her faction picked up the thread: "I know someone who can burn charcoal. I'll have him make some to sell. That charcoal blueprint is way overpriced!"

"Really? I'm just a regular player—blueprints don't matter to me. I just need charcoal! If someone can make it, sell it quickly!"

"True. To be fair, we're all innocent people dragged into [Fight for Survival]. This Lin Tu gets an advantage and instead of helping everyone, she prices her charcoal blueprint sky-high. It's kind of... Can she really sleep at night making money like that?"

"It's her blueprint, what's it to you?! If not for the system's rules, she could price it at a hundred items and it'd still be none of your business."

The regional channel erupted into arguments. Li Haohao hurriedly tried to mediate: "Ohh! Everyone, don't fight! Sister Lin Tu is nice enough to sell her things. Selling them expensive is still for everyone's good—after all, everyone needs charcoal!"

Lin Tu woke up to exactly this spectacle.

She was a little curious why no one was talking about the camel—oh, right. It was too expensive. These gossiping people couldn't even imagine the camel, so all they could do was nitpick the charcoal.