Qi Xu walked up to the Silver Supply Crate.
“Congratulations, player, on obtaining abundant supplies! You have received: cotton ×10, 10 jin (5 kilograms) of flour, 10 jin (5 kilograms) of Wuchang rice, iron wire ×10, fabric ×1, white sugar ×6, smoke grenade ×2, bulletproof vest ×1, eight-treasure porridge ×10, Anti-Fatigue Sunglasses ×1.”
Qi Xu grinned. “Cool, a huge haul.”
She had cotton now—what incredible luck!
Without hesitation, Qi Xu crafted the sanitary pads first.
Each pack of twelve sanitary pads required cotton ×1, fabric ×1, and toilet paper ×1.
Qi Xu made three packs first, mainly because she only had three pieces of fabric. Still, three packs were plenty for now, so there was no rush for the rest.
She suddenly remembered she hadn’t installed the water condenser earlier, mostly because getting the sanitary pads had left her too thrilled to think straight.
[Basic Automatic Water Condenser: Produces 500ml of drinking water and 1,000ml of utility water per day.]
Although the basic condenser’s output was still fairly small, at least she no longer had to worry about suddenly running out of water.
A Level 2 vehicle could reach 70 kilometers per hour.
While the required daily mileage wasn’t high, total distance factored into the rankings. Survival Coins didn’t drop from crates; the only ways to get them were through the ranking boards and instances.
There should be one instance during this beginner protection period. With Day 5 just around the corner, it was probably due soon.
Once Qi Xu put her things away, China’s Little Master Chef sent over the menu.
“Pork and cabbage stewed with glass noodles, honey-glazed roast meat, stir-fried pork with potato slices, crispy fried pork belly, crispy-skinned pork belly, and pork and cabbage dumplings. Every dish will be heaped full on big plates like mine. I’ll give you three plates of each, plus extra pork and cabbage dumplings—100 of them! How’s that? If I can find sugar, I’ll make you sweet and sour pork tenderloin or cherry pork too. It might seem like a huge pig for just this much food, but it’s a ton of work. Between cleaning and cooking, it’ll take me several days at least, and whipping the filling is hard labor. Don’t worry about how it turns out, though. Nothing leaves my kitchen tasting bad. A lot of ingredients are hard to come by, and I don’t have much left myself, so this deal is already plenty fair.”
Qi Xu agreed without hesitation. China’s Little Master Chef’s cooking skills alone made it worthwhile. More importantly, Qi Xu wanted to eat well without spending the time to cook herself; right now, building up her own strength came first. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Invincible Black Whirlwind: “Sure, let’s go with those dishes. Do you need white sugar and flour?”
“I do! Give me sugar and I can make you sweet and sour pork tenderloin and cherry pork! I definitely won’t pocket your extra ingredients. If there’s plenty of flour, I’ll wrap more dumplings for you. Do you like noodles? Want some hand-rolled noodles? I’ll whip up some meat sauce for you too.”
“Deal.”
Qi Xu sent all 6 bags of white sugar, the 10 jin (5 kilograms) of flour, and the wild boar carcass lying on the ground straight to China’s Little Master Chef, using these extras to test whether he could be a long-term partner. Little Master Chef hadn’t expected the other party to send so much over at once. Delighted by that level of trust, he thought: Forget 100—I’ll wrap 1,000 for you!
Even looking strictly at this trade, Qi Xu didn’t feel she had lost out. Flour and sugar were useless in her hands anyway—first, she didn’t have that kind of culinary skill, and second, she had neither the seasonings nor the time. Once she finished up, she started her workout.
She did a full routine of running and warm-ups, then practiced chops, slashes, upward flicks, and thrusts with her blade before going to bed right at midnight. Getting enough sleep was non-negotiable.
Just as she closed her eyes, a notification popped up on the light screen.
“Tired of boring life on the highway day after day? Our game is super considerate! Tomorrow marks the game’s first instance challenge. Clear the challenge for generous rewards! Fail, and 5 types of your current resources will be deducted at random. Hey, pay attention—that’s 5 types, not 5 items. There’s no danger to your life, though, so what are you waiting for with a golden opportunity like this? Click the button below to sign up! As for you cowards who don’t dare register, run along to bed! Once the beginner protection period ends, instance challenges will put your lives on the line!”
“Instance Details: Fast and Furious, one-star instance. Randomly assigned by the system, 20 players per group, 50 kilometers total distance. The five players with the lowest scores will be judged the losers! First place to cross the finish line gets 100 points, second place gets 95 points, and so on down the line, with the bottom 5 getting zero points. Killing a green-furred monster along the road awards 20 points each. Overall rankings are determined by total score.”
In truth, all the announcements and game mechanics right now felt very accommodating to the players, so nobody had a strong sense of crisis yet.
Correspondingly, there wasn’t much sense of urgency either.
The instant the announcement dropped, the chat lobby shot past 9999+ messages…
Nearly everyone was debating whether to sign up for tomorrow’s instance challenge.
Donut: “Green-furred monsters? Oh my god, just the name sounds gross. Do we really have to be this sweaty? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone just chilled and slacked off together?” You are reading on novelping.com, the official source.
Light Shines on Everyone: “I agree. Let’s all work together to keep the game simple and just race for speed. Nobody kill the green-furred monsters—they’re living creatures too.”
Two Negatives Make a Positive: “You two sound like idiots.”
Player 1111: “There’s only no danger to our lives because it’s the beginner protection period. If we don’t use this chance to practice now, won’t we just croak the second protection ends?”
Feng Pangpang Hollered: “Right? That’s how a normal person thinks. Those two up there are blatantly trying to mislead everyone. What are they up to?”
Player 1002: “So are you guys all planning to join the instance? I don’t really want to. I have enough supplies, and if I lose, it won’t be worth it!”
Light Shines on Everyone: “I only meant well. Forget it, I’ll stop talking. Everyone be careful tomorrow—besides watching out for green-furred monsters, watch out for people with ulterior motives too.”
Qi Xu scrolled through the messages briefly, then shut off the public screen and went to sleep.
She had already clicked sign-up the moment she finished reading the notification.
Her electric tricycle wasn’t fast, but she could make up for it by killing more green-furred monsters. They were the lowest-tier early-game monsters—around a meter tall and chubby, all strength and zero agility.
Even if she couldn’t beat them, she could easily outrun them.
Defeating a green-furred monster also had a chance to drop “green fur.” It offered great insulation, and combining it with green fabric triggered a special effect to craft a Green Outfit Set.
Its cold resistance was formidable.
Qi Xu’s eyes lit up. She planned to buy up a batch of green fur after the instance ended, then stock up on green fabric if she ran into a textile mill at a stop and craft Green Fur Outfits. When the temperature plunged later on, she would make a killing.
So Qi Xu decided to focus on hunting monsters tomorrow! As long as she killed enough of them, her score was guaranteed to be solid. Better yet, this instance had a bug—if you wanted to kill monsters, you could farm them endlessly…
Turning those plans over in her mind, Qi Xu drifted off to sleep. She had stuffed herself so full the night before that she still wasn’t hungry the next morning, so she just boiled an egg and ate it with sesame-paste vegetarian tripe and a can of eight-treasure porridge.
After her workout, Qi Xu checked today’s required travel distance—still 60 kilometers—and hurried off. She also put on the Anti-Fatigue Sunglasses, which worked great at blocking both the wind and harsh glare.
……..