◎The Damn Car Actually Ran Off◎
“Hey, call out the heads of the Jin Gang, Jin Buwei and Jiang Tiantian. Come out and say something! Why aren’t you talking anymore?”
“Weren’t you so righteous before? Now you’ve turned into a bunch of hiding turtles?”
“Exactly! The charcoal I bought from Yan Lan before could burn for over four hours. Yours didn’t even last an hour. What kind of crap is that?!”
“You have no idea how much secondhand smoke I’ve inhaled today. What a damn nuisance.”
“That’s still not the worst. You don’t know how ridiculous that roll of toilet paper I bought from you was! The paper was so thin!”
“Haha, sounds like there’s a story there, buddy. Spill the details!”
“Are you sure you want me to? I’m afraid it’ll be too disgusting.”
Not just disgusting, even the memory is shameful.
Zhang Li now absolutely loathes her former penny-pinching self. What era does she think this is, still dreaming of free handouts?
Every time she sees that roll of toilet paper dangling from the car handle, it fills her with dread. Recalling her embarrassing ordeal, she suddenly grabs the toilet paper, ready to toss it out.
But at the last moment, she hesitates, a bit reluctant to part with it. After all, she traded three pieces of wood for it!
After thinking it over, she can’t bear to throw it away. Zhang Li tosses the toilet paper into the back of the car, deciding that out of sight is out of mind.
Then, steeling herself, she goes to the trading center and finds Yan Lan’s products. It’s only 10 pieces of wood, she can afford that.
Wang Da has suffered from chronic rhinitis since childhood. The moment he smells dust or smoke, his nose runs uncontrollably. To accommodate this frail condition, all his personal items are made of the softest, infant-grade quality.
At first, he thought Yan Lan’s goods weren’t expensive, just 10 pieces of wood, which you could easily pick up along the highway.
But when the Jin Gang’s products appeared, comparing the two made him feel like he’d been ripped off, so he decisively abandoned Yan Lan for the Jin Gang.
He definitely got a taste of the miserable consequences. After lighting the charcoal, a foul, choking smoke spread everywhere, making him cough so hard he couldn’t see straight and leaving him teary-eyed and sniffling.
After tossing out the charcoal, the toilet paper in her hand caused another problem.
How could toilet paper be so thin and so rough?! You could even see wood fibers on it!
It already left her nose red and raw from wiping, using it for anything else would be a disaster!
Wang Da stood there in a daze for a moment, then silently made his way to Yan Lan’s transaction backend.
Similar situations were happening in many places. Some people decisively abandoned the Jin Gang’s products and switched back to Yan Lan, while others felt they could still tolerate it and continued using them.
“Yan Lan, did you see that? Did you see it?” Shi Yuanyuan sent a message.
Thinking about the bizarre experiences of the various players, Yan Lan let out a soft laugh. “Yeah.”
Shi Yuanyuan: “A lot of people are asking me if I still have any left for sale. Do you still have stock?”
Yan Lan: “Some people have asked me too. I happened to make some more yesterday. I’ll send them to you.”
Shi Yuanyuan: “Woohoo! This time, I’m going to humiliate them good!”
Shi Yuanyuan picked up the supplies and busied herself with the task. Meanwhile, the detector began beeping, indicating it had found a treasure chest.
“Wow! A golden treasure chest!”
In this game, gold-tier items and above are considered high-level and are extremely rare.
She slammed on the brakes, flung open the car door, and dashed out excitedly, forgetting even to take her hand warmer with her.
With plenty of space in her backpack inventory, she opened the chest on the spot.
【Obtained: Electronic Components ×5, Self-Heating Hotpot ×3, Instant Noodles ×3】
Nowadays, she gets excited just seeing electronic components, and she just got five of them in one go! Besides the components, there was also a self-heating hotpot and instant noodles.
After eating purple rice bread and buns for four whole days, she was already sick of them. Finally, she could have a change of taste.
Yan Lan happily packed away the supplies, turned around, and was instantly horrified!
The off-road vehicle was actually moving on its own!
She wasn’t seeing things, the off-road vehicle really was moving on its own!
Her heart nearly leaped into her throat. Without a second thought, she dashed straight after it.
As she ran, she yelled at the top of her lungs, “Wait, wait up, I’m still down here!”
The car seemed to be in its starting phase at first, moving very slowly. Then, little by little, it sped up, faster and faster…
The treasure chest had been at the edge of the highway, a fair distance from the off-road vehicle. By the time Yan Lan ran over, the car had already entered its acceleration phase.
Her hair stood on end, her whole body went cold, and the panic inside her grew and grew. She ran with all her might, stubbornly chasing after it, crying out miserably: “Wait for me!”
But no matter how fast a person runs, they can’t outrun a machine on four wheels. Soon, the off-road vehicle became a tiny dot and disappeared from her sight.
Yan Lan stared at the spot where the off-road vehicle had vanished, feeling completely devastated. Her face was pale, beads of sweat the size of soybeans formed on her forehead, the light had long since faded from her eyes, and her lips were trembling.
What on earth was going on?
How could she level up without transportation? When night fell, where would she even go?
And besides, why had the car started moving all by itself for no reason?
Thinking of this, Yan Lan suddenly realized someone was missing.
Right, where was Xueqiu?
Wasn’t he the one who loved snow the most, always fluttering out of the car excitedly every time she stopped?
Why had he disappeared now?
Putting this together with the sight of the driverless car moving on its own, the mystery found its answer.
It was him. He had looked so cute, yet he betrayed her at such a critical moment!
And she had been so stupid, letting a strange little snow spirit get into her car and trusting him so completely.
It felt as though she had been kicked from head to toe. Her heart was utterly shattered.
Like a deflated ball, her head drooped low. Her eyes gleamed with despair, her legs gave out, and she simply collapsed to her knees in the snow.
Her pants were thin, and the snow melted as soon as it touched the warmth of her body, turning into icy water that seeped through to her skin. Even though she was wearing thermal underwear, the cold felt as bone-chilling as an ice cellar.
A gust of cold wind blew into her ears, and it felt as if her entire head no longer belonged to her.
Yan Lan scooped up a handful of snow from the ground and pressed it firmly against her face. The moment the snow touched her skin, the cold shot straight to her marrow.
The snow crumbled and fell to the ground. Although she looked utterly bedraggled, her eyes had regained their clarity.
No matter what, she would never give up easily!
She would keep moving forward, and there was no way she wouldn’t catch up to that car.
If she remembered correctly, because she had been using the air conditioner on and off, the off-road vehicle only had 10 units of gasoline left.
One unit of gasoline could take her 10 kilometers. With 10 units, that was at most 100 kilometers. As long as she walked 100 kilometers, she would catch up to it.
Having figured this out, Yan Lan stood up and brushed the remaining snow off her knees.
The crafting table was inside the car, so she couldn’t produce new supplies. But since she was bound to the game, she could still take things out of her backpack inventory at any time. She would have to use these supplies sparingly.
She took out another hand warmer and a piece of charcoal from her backpack, lit a fire, hugged it to her chest, and walked forward step by step.
With the outdoor temperature at 5°C, she was only wearing a set of thermal underwear under a double-layered jacket. Even holding a hand warmer, she was still freezing.
The cold wind blew straight into her face, her cheeks turning red from the chill. She had no choice but to pull up her collar and wrap the lower half of her face tightly in it.
She tucked both hands into her sleeves, clutching the hand warmer tightly in an attempt to give herself some warmth. But the cold seeped in through every pore, making even her heart tremble.
She could only quicken her pace, hoping to generate some heat through movement.
After running for a short while, she was panting heavily and had to slow down to a walk. She repeated this cycle over and over again.
It was now 1:00 PM game time, and a full hour had passed since the off-road vehicle had driven off on its own.
The wilderness stretched wide and far, desolate for miles. Apart from her, there was no one else on the highway.
A drop of icy cold landed on her face. Yan Lan looked up at the sky. The weather was gradually turning gloomy, with thick dark clouds hanging ominously low. The air was unusually still, hinting that a storm was about to arrive.
Her heart sank, and she felt as if she had been hollowed out.
Truly, misfortunes never come singly! Without rain, she could still push herself to walk 100 kilometers. But if it started to rain, whether she would even survive the journey was another matter entirely.