Chapter 118

"A sandstorm is coming! Everyone stay in your vehicles and don't come out!"

"Close every window and door you can! If your three-wheeler has gaps, stuff them with your clothes!"

"Hold on tight to your vehicle! Be careful you don't get blown away!"

The regional channel was scrolling by at lightning speed. Some people were crying for help in terror, some were enthusiastically offering suggestions, and others were trying to buy a few more things in their final moments to increase their chances of survival.

Fear, panic, and dread spread through everyone's hearts. Survive! Defeat this damn sandstorm—it was the only thought in anyone's mind.

Lin Tu had already shut the car doors and windows, sitting quietly in the driver's seat. This little SUV carried all the attributes and functions of her [Anju], and although she was confident in the small shelter whose foundation, walls, doors, and even windows she had reinforced, the moment she actually saw the sandstorm bearing down like a colossal wall sealing heaven and earth, she felt her heart stop for a few seconds.

In just a moment, that wall of sand swept over them.

As the sound of rustling grew louder and louder, the surging, churning sand first brushed against the windows like a fine drizzle, then quickly turned into waves of small hail or machine-gun bullets, pounding relentlessly against the windows and roof.

The little SUV was like a stone beneath a waterfall, enduring the violent battering, but it couldn't move an inch—otherwise it would be swept away without a trace.

It remained still for a few seconds, or perhaps a few centuries—

"Bang!" Lin Tu suddenly heard a loud crash from beside her, followed by a scream.

"Are you okay!" Lin Tu quickly looked over, but outside the window she couldn't even see sunlight—only a wall of yellow sand. "Hey! Hey!" Lin Tu shouted, trying to make the other person hear her.

In the current environment, she didn't dare get out of the car at all. Even though she had enhanced her physical abilities, Lin Tu was certain that without the vehicle's protection, she could easily be swept away by the wind and sand. Scrapes would be the least of her worries—if she broke an arm or leg and was carried off to some unknown place, losing contact with Anju, that would be truly disastrous.

"If you're okay, type 1!" Lin Tu quickly sent a message in the group chat.

Luo Yongzhi, Liu Sheng, Dong Huadan, and Yi Ying all replied immediately, leaving only Guan Suixing silent for a long time.

Lin Tu confirmed it—the one who had just screamed was her.

Just as Lin Tu's mind was racing through possible solutions, two more loud crashes sounded from either side—"Bang!"—followed by cursing and screams. Lin Tu immediately recognized one voice as Luo Yongzhi's and the other as Liu Sheng's.

"Are you guys okay!" Yi Ying shouted.

Outside, only the howling of wind and sand answered. No one replied.

Could Guan Suixing, Luo Yongzhi, and Liu Sheng all be dead already? The worst-case scenario flashed through Lin Tu's mind. She was about to log into the [Fight Your Way Out] screen to check the status of their avatars when Guan Suixing finally replied—

"Damn it, my window's broken! The wind keeps blowing sand into the car! I don't dare talk—every time I open my mouth, I choke on a mouthful of sand!"

Lin Tu breathed a sigh of relief and immediately took out materials to start crafting a repair tool.

Soon, Luo Yongzhi and Liu Sheng also reported in—

"My window's broken too! I crawled into the back seat and tied myself down with my clothes. I'm still safe for now."

"If your window's broken and you can't get blown out anyway, shouldn't you find a light piece of clothing to cover your nose and mouth?"

"...Oh, right."

Lin Tu: "..." They're still cracking jokes at a time like this—guess the situation isn't serious enough yet.

She quickly crafted the first repair tool and traded it to Guan Suixing. After the latter fixed her window, she used up all two charges of the repair tool. It seemed the vehicle had taken quite a bit of damage in the sandstorm.

Lin Tu continued crafting repair tools, making three more in succession and handing them to Luo Yongzhi, Liu Sheng, and Yi Ying—whose window hadn't broken yet but likely soon would. Only after the trades were complete did she finally relax.

The temporarily safe players waited quietly in their vehicles. Guan Suixing and the others were too exhausted to even clean the sand-caked cars, collapsing in their seats to watch the weather outside after their narrow escape. The sandstorm probably wouldn't end anytime soon.

Lin Tu kept crafting repair tools. The crafting recipe required one of each material, and gathering the materials was the slowest part—crafting itself was fast, about one per minute.

Once crafted, Lin Tu immediately listed them on the trading platform. She quickly made a second, then a third, putting each one up for sale the moment it was done, and every single one sold instantly.

She didn't need to check the regional channel to know they'd gone where they needed to go, helping someone who might otherwise have died.

Lin Tu felt that maybe she had a bit of a savior complex. She listed them at the system's minimum price—one of each material plus any five extra materials. At that price, she only earned a bit for her labor, but the thought of pulling someone back from death's door felt more meaningful than making a few extra crafting fees.

Yi Ying noticed too and introduced the repair tool's function on the regional channel. Seeing the heartfelt gratitude from everyone made her proud, and she screenshotted it to the group chat. Dong Huadan realized the road conditions were about to get even harsher, so she urged the players to study the blueprints they'd just obtained and craft more in preparation.

But Lin Tu wasn't thinking about that. Her repair tools were critical right now—every second could mean the difference between life and death for someone. She had to craft faster, even faster. Lin Tu felt her hands were about to catch fire, but her proficiency finally rose to one tool every thirty seconds.

A full half hour passed before the sandstorm finally receded. By the end, Lin Tu couldn't even say how many repair tools she'd crafted—she just felt like her hands were about to fall off.

"One hundred twenty-nine," the Butler said. "Your fastest time was ten seconds per tool."

Lin Tu lay back in the driver's seat with a contented sigh.

"My friend's avatar went gray... We were supposed to meet up on the road..."

"My friend too. Her car was blown apart right in front of me—she's gone!"

"It's all my fault! I was careless. My friend came out to save me, and she got blown away..."

Mourning filled the regional channel, heavy with grief and somber tension.

"My god, how many people died this afternoon?!"

"The fact that we survived that sandstorm is a miracle!"

"I can't take this anymore! Why does it have to be this damn road? Why do we have to be tortured like this?!?!"

No one could answer his question, because that was simply the nature of calamity. Veteran players had already adapted to this atmosphere—endless disasters and death, accidents and partings. They knew all they could do was try their best to survive a little longer.

The regional channel fell silent for a long time, until finally someone said—

"The canopy on my three-wheeler got blown to pieces. I was about to die. A stranger gave me a piece of windproof cloth and a bread roll. I used that cloth to protect myself and survived. Thank you to that friend—I'll do my best to live and repay you on the road ahead!"

"I was about to die too, but I bought a repair tool from Sister Lin Tu. I watched my canopy get torn off and then watched it get fixed. I almost cried in my car. Feeling like I'd run a lap around death really made me grateful I'm still alive, still walking this road!"

"No need to thank me for that—I also bought one of Sister Lin Tu's repair tools, so that windproof cloth was just sitting around. If you want to thank someone, thank her. She sells her repair tools so cheap that I had to give back to society by passing that bread to you."

"I want to thank the young lady who shared sandstorm safety tips on the channel. The shelter she taught us to build with cloth, plastic, and wood saved my life!"

"..."

The regional channel was filled with gratitude, the joy of surviving, and the warmth of mutual support, making everyone feel connected as one. A single person was tiny before a sandstorm, but thousands of people together were formidable. They could mourn their fallen together, and they could encourage each other toward the unknown, even harsher future ahead.

"Everyone, whatever you do, don't use your windshield wipers on the front glass! It'll damage both the glass and the wipers. Just wipe it gently with a cloth!"

"I'm using my shirt directly—compared to what I'm wearing, my car is way more important!"

"Visibility is really low right now! Drive slowly, or you'll miss the supply crates on both sides!"

"I almost missed one. The road was covered in a layer of sand. If I hadn't noticed a little bump and gotten out to check, I'd be missing a one-star supply crate right now."

"Going straight back on the road is pretty hardcore. Clean your vehicle first before driving! It's not about being clean or not—for three-wheelers, clean the sand off your chain; for SUVs, open the engine compartment and clear out the sand. If sand damages those critical parts, you won't be able to move at all. Ugh, watching you guys is giving me anxiety!"

"Thanks to the person above, I'm pulling over now."

Yi Ying also listed several vehicle parts her team had just acquired on the regional channel. In the endless desert, especially with a layer of sand covering the road, these parts were extremely important.

Especially the solar panel and battery blueprints Lin Tu had traded five people for.

At this point, the temperature was still slowly climbing, already past sixty-something degrees Celsius, with projections of up to seventy. Poking your head outside for even a second would give you an instant headache, and your whole body—especially your throat—would ache.

And without air conditioning in the car, it was like an oven.

But using gas to run the AC was such a waste. With solar panels, not only could they run the AC during the day, but the electricity stored from all that intense sunlight might even keep it running through the night—an absolute steal. More importantly, it was a necessary component for upgrading to a camper van!

Of course, that was a concern for later. For the players who had just been through a sandstorm, the immediate priority was repairing the damage and packing up before hitting the road again.

As for the canopied three-wheeler players, who still made up the majority, they were frantically spamming the regional channel: "Sister Lin! Hurry up and craft those fuel engines!"

.

Perhaps because the day had been so harrowing, night fell before anyone really noticed.

Six vehicles drove at a controlled speed across the sand-covered road, stopping when they reached the junction of the 31st section, where it was time for dinner.

At this point Lin Tu, using the gaps while the car was moving, had already made a trip to the Anomaly Space and placed her newly acquired item—[Garden Gnome (Green/D-rank): Once the faith of a family. Place it on the ground for a small chance to increase the yield of surrounding plants.]—beside the corn, the barbed wire, the night blueberries, and Little Black.

To others, this was just a throwaway D-rank item, but to Lin Tu, it was practically a god-tier artifact!

After placing it, Lin Tu returned to the car, crafted several fuel engines, and even put together a solar panel and battery.

Guan Suixing's materials were already sufficient. The vehicles pulled over to the side of the road, and Guan Suixing piled her supplies onto her vehicle, jumping two levels at once to upgrade it to a small camper van.

This van was twice as big as a small SUV, with the extra space all going to the trunk. The trunk had double doors that opened up, revealing four folding poles and a canopy cloth—spread out, it looked like a camping tent. Below that was a board on wheels that could be pulled out to serve as a bed. There were also sliding boards on both sides—one side had a stove for boiling water and cooking, and the other had storage cabinets for keeping things.

"Ding~ Congratulations to A2 zone player Guan Suixing for successfully upgrading to a small camper van, becoming the player with the highest-level cart in the entire game! Reward: Three-star supply crate ×1!"

Previously, a player from another zone had already upgraded to a standard SUV, so even though she'd jumped two levels this time, there was only one announcement.

"Why don't you upgrade, Sister Lin Tu?" Guan Suixing asked curiously, holding the three-star supply crate. She always had a feeling that if Lin Tu wanted to upgrade, she could have done it long ago—to a camper van, or even a luxury RV. "This one and the last three-star crate should really be yours."

Lin Tu: Because she was already at the highest form. An RV just turned a vehicle into a small house—she was literally bringing her house along.

"No need," Lin Tu said after a moment's thought. "I can live quite well without an RV. Spending so many materials on upgrades just for these three-star crates... not worth it."

If upgrading to the highest level [Fight Your Way Out] rewarded an ultimate supply crate that could yield an S-rank item, Lin Tu might consider it. But the problem was, that would never happen—the system only symbolically rewarded the players at the front to encourage competition.

Guan Suixing was utterly baffled. How could such a small SUV be more comfortable than a camper van? But she still said, "Want to sleep in my van tonight? All the girls can sleep here."

Yi Ying immediately raised her hand, while Dong Huadan said she had her own props.

Guan Suixing looked at Lin Tu. She didn't want to say it outright, but she was a little worried Lin Tu wouldn't sleep well. Then Lin Tu's next words made her realize—how could this woman not sleep well? She was here to enjoy herself! How could she have forgotten?!

"To celebrate your camper van upgrade," Lin Tu said with some excitement, "how about we roast a whole sheep?"

Roasted whole lamb was a famous delicacy in desert regions. And now that they were in a desert, how could they not experience the classic lone smoke over the vast desert and the round sun over the long river? Lin Tu absolutely wouldn't admit that she'd been craving those bouncing mountain goats since that hotpot night at the start of the game—she just hadn't had the time to roast one back then. Now that they had more people, it was a different story.

Yi Ying immediately raised her hand: "I'm a hundred percent in favor!" Dong Huadan smiled and raised a hand too. As for Liu Sheng... he was the type who was fine with anything.

Luo Yongzhi scratched his head: "But where are we getting a sheep? Do we need to go catch one now?"

Lin Tu: "Give me a moment."

She ducked back into her little SUV, emerged a moment later, and opened her backpack. A goat as tall as a human leg appeared before everyone—its fur hadn't even been plucked yet!

"The blood's already drained," Lin Tu said with some experience on the matter. "Now we just need to skin it and take out the organs. Anyone know how?"

Seeing everyone shake their heads, Lin Tu had no choice but to pull out her saved sheep-butchering guide. Dong Huadan helped by reading the guide while assisting at the side. Luo Yongzhi, Yi Ying, and Liu Sheng went off to dig a pit, start a fire, and build a spit.

Butchering a sheep was more difficult than butchering a chicken, but the hard part was mainly the skinning. And since Lin Tu didn't need to remove a complete hide, the difficulty was halved.

She quickly finished butchering it. She tossed the head and hooves to Liu Sheng to pluck clean, and after blanching the heart, liver, lungs, stomach, and tail fat, she threw them into an iron pot with the cubed blood, along with ginger slices, scallion sections, and Sichuan peppercorns to make soup. Once Liu Sheng finished cleaning the head and hooves, those went into the pot too.

Luo Yongzhi used wire to tie the whole sheep onto the freshly built spit, while Yi Ying kept hammering the meat to tenderize it. Lin Tu made another trip to the Anomaly Space, picking some celery, onions, carrots, and other vegetables. She blended them with garlic, ginger, and scallions, added cumin powder, black pepper, turmeric powder, chili sauce, and oil, then had Dong Huadan brush the mixture onto the lamb.

To have something to watch while eating, Lin Tu somehow pulled out a large TV from who-knows-where—playing a palace intrigue drama she'd downloaded from some world or another, which was oddly compelling.

After watching for a while, Guan Suixing unconsciously sat down in front of the TV and started peeling carrots for the soup. She conceded—she really did concede this time.

None of them were master lamb roasters, but there were six very hungry players. To keep the meat from burning, Luo Yongzhi sat beside the sheep, turning it while watching the drama. Yi Ying kept a close eye on the heat—she was from Inner Mongolia after all, so even if she hadn't eaten pork, she'd at least seen a pig run. She knew when to add fuel and when to reduce it. Liu Sheng took over the sauce-brushing from Dong Huadan, while Dong Huadan periodically stirred the bottom of the soup pot. Guan Suixing dutifully chopped the freshly roasted chili peppers for dipping sauce, and Lin Tu, deciding that roast lamb without a proper drink just wouldn't do, used a portable stove to brew some milk tea.

They'd started roasting at a little past five. By the time everyone was starving and ready to eat, it was already 7:30—just in time for sunset.

Lin Tu took out the lights in advance so they wouldn't be plunged into darkness.

"Let's eat, let's eat!" Luo Yongzhi called everyone over with unusual excitement.

He ran a small knife slowly across the charred skin. A crisp crackling sound came from the shell splitting open, and as soon as it did, the oil beneath sizzled and bubbled out, revealing the soft, tender meat that looked like it would fall apart at the slightest squeeze.

"To the table, to the table!" Luo Yongzhi waved his hands animatedly. If he'd known how, Lin Tu suspected he would have broken into a celebratory dance.

The table was spread with aluminum foil, and the whole sheep was laid out on it. The offal soup was also done—parsley and scallion pieces went into each bowl first, then the soup was ladled over them, releasing all the fresh aromas. Everyone got a bowl.

Lin Tu handed out disposable gloves to everyone. Luo Yongzhi was the first to tear off a hind leg and offer it to Lin Tu—

"Thank you for the lamb, Sister Lin. How about we cheers?"

Lin Tu didn't stand on ceremony. She took the leg and raised her milk tea: "Cheers!"

Yi Ying sighed: "Too bad we have to hit the road tomorrow. Otherwise, wouldn't tonight be perfect for a drink?"

Guan Suixing said, "You can drink if you want—nobody's going to breathalyze you for drunk driving. As long as you don't crash into us tomorrow."

"My life's more important than that!" Yi Ying quickly shook her head. "No drinking, no drinking. Come on, cheers, cheers!"

Six cups clinked together. Beneath the bright moon, laughter rose into the air alongside the smoke thick with the scent of roasted meat and sweet, savory soup.

"You really shouldn't drink," Lin Tu suddenly thought of something and said. "There'll be monsters coming around later. If you don't want to die in their jaws..."

"That's what Sister Lin's for," Yi Ying said happily, pressing closer, while Guan Suixing mimicked her tone with mockery.

"Ah! Guan Suixing, you—!"

.

After the sandstorm, everyone rested up and set out again. And soon, they discovered that things were even grimmer than they'd imagined.

First, the temperature difference was insane. In the day, over seventy degrees—the air was like a water pump, and every breath left your throat dry and desperate for a drink. Under the blazing sun, one misstep meant heatstroke or even heat exhaustion. At night, it dropped to minus forty-something—colder than a freezer. Without the AC on or a brazier burning by the bed, no amount of bundling up would keep you warm.

Second, sandstorms seemed to be the new normal. Sometimes the sand was so thick you could barely see the road. The sand on the highway was piling up thicker and thicker. If not for the occasional road sign and the random little peaks poking out of the endless flat desert marking supply crates, players would've thought they were lost.

Finally, the road missions were getting harder and harder! Fewer missions tested your wits. As the game title [Fight Your Way Out] suggested, many players found themselves in life-or-death battles the moment they entered a road mission! And before the disaster, they'd just been ordinary people—students, office workers, the most common sorts. Often they'd die within seconds of entering.

In a short time, a wave of new players died. Every day, people mourned their friends on the regional channel, and even more had no one left to mourn them at all.

The cruel disaster seemed to have only just begun revealing itself.

"Now this is more like it!" Seeing that things were finally back in familiar territory, Lan Yanzhen let out a long sigh of relief.

The Endless Road had never changed. What came before had been mere anomalies. Now, it was about to return to her—Lan Yanzhen's—home turf.