Instances generally started at 10 a.m. every day. If things went smoothly, she could finish today’s mileage requirement before entering the instance.
Yet in a single hour, Qi Xu ran into three wooden supply crates in a row. When luck came, there was no stopping it.
Qi Xu couldn’t very well ignore a crate once she spotted it, so going back and forth cost her quite a bit of time.
Even if there was nothing great inside, Qi Xu was still happy. Every little bit helped!
At 9:55 a.m., the notification that she was about to enter the instance arrived right on time.
Qi Xu took her blade in hand and tapped confirm to enter.
Players could kill each other freely inside instances, and she had to stay on guard against that.
Qi Xu had participated in this one-star instance, “Fast and Furious,” during her last run as well. She had placed fifth in her group back then, though she had only killed 3 green-furred monsters.
That was mainly because she hadn’t held back on the gas, and her off-road vehicle had been exceptionally fast, allowing her to cross the finish line second and rank fifth in total points.
When Qi Xu arrived at the starting line, she immediately picked the outermost lane. The distance was the same no matter the lane, but the edge was a bit safer.
All 20 people started at the same time, though after 500 meters they would gradually be split into separate lanes. This was probably another form of protection for new players.
Only in the final 500 meters before the finish line would everyone merge together again, protecting the currently weaker players as much as possible.
Out of 20 people, only 5 would be penalized. If someone managed to finish off 5 people before the race even began, there would be no risk of elimination during the drive.
That was why Qi Xu chose the outermost lane—to guard against anyone deciding to launch a malicious attack before the race.
The Highway Survival Game didn’t encourage killing, but it never protected the weak either. Everything came down to personal strength.
Before long, the other players loaded in as well. Everyone looked curious, and several people even struck up conversations. The scenario Qi Xu had worried about didn’t happen.
Starting over had caused plenty of butterfly effects. The instance, the people and situations she encountered, and even the supply crates were already completely different from her previous round of the game.
Qi Xu certainly wouldn’t go looking for trouble herself, but if someone came at her, she definitely wouldn’t be afraid.
Next to Qi Xu was a girl who seemed rather introverted and showed no intention of chatting or interacting.
Still, Qi Xu noticed that the girl kept sneaking glances at her aggressively pink tricycle… and blushing for some inexplicable reason.
Qi Xu scanned the other players’ vehicles. At a glance, they were all Level 1 vehicles. Two sedans and a van were among the better-off ones. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Besides those, there were motorcycles, bicycles, pedal tricycles, and kick scooters—a wide variety of types, each looking different..
Bicycles and kick scooters looked weaker on the surface, but anyone confident enough to sign up surely had something up their sleeve.
The race countdown began: “Three, two, one!”
With the crack of a starting gun, all 20 small vehicles shot forward at once!
The girl next to Qi Xu was riding an electric scooter, which had a slower pickup. Qi Xu was just about to overtake her when a man on a motorcycle on the girl’s other side suddenly swerved to cut her off and forced her to a stop.
The girl lost control of her handlebars for a moment and crashed straight into the cargo bed of Qi Xu’s tricycle. If Qi Xu hadn’t slowed down slightly, who knew—one of them might have been knocked right over.
The man on the motorcycle began circling around Qi Xu and the electric-scooter girl.
Qi Xu hadn’t wanted to meddle at first. There was no helping it—this sort of thing was all too common. Sometimes, weakness is the original sin.
Still, since you dragged me into this too, I’ll be taking your motorcycle.
Qi Xu was just about to get off her vehicle.
Unexpectedly, the electric-scooter girl beside her had quite a bit of nerve. She tugged at Qi Xu and said, “No need to get off. I have something good.”
Then she pulled out a poison gas grenade and threw it straight at the man. It hit the body of the motorcycle, and within three seconds, the motorcyclist was on the ground, convulsing all over.
The girl took a deep breath, still rattled. “Let’s hurry and go! We’ve already fallen behind!”
Qi Xu asked, “Not going to finish him off? Aren’t you going to loot his supplies?”
The girl froze slightly, then steeled herself, hopped off, and slapped him across the face before fishing a lighter out of his pocket. There was nothing else on him; the rest was probably in his inventory backpack.
After the girl rode off, Qi Xu stared in disbelief. What a good-hearted girl.
The guy was still alive. What if he had an Antidote Pill on him, or managed to trade for an Antidote Pill? Leaving him behind would definitely mean trouble.
Qi Xu took her blade and cleanly slit his throat.
What good was slapping him? Qi Xu used her work credential to scan and upload the man’s motorcycle, and then froze in amazement.
[Hello, Scrap Recycler. WOW! Even a brand-new motorcycle is being recycled as scrap now? What a prodigal! Wear level is 3%, no obvious scratches, parts intact, fully functional. Assessed at 119 Survival Coins. Confirm sale?] This chapter was taken from novelping dot com without permission.
It was actually worth 119 Survival Coins! That silver van from before had only fetched 89!
Qi Xu tapped sell right away. Vehicles couldn’t be dismantled or recycled; apart from selling them, she had no other use for them.
Qi Xu felt that having this work credential was basically no different from having cheats turned on. Survival Coins would be hugely useful later on, and at critical moments, they could save her life.
Out of habit, Qi Xu tossed the body into the black mist by the roadside before setting off again.
Before long, she spotted a green-furred monster. She swerved her front wheel straight toward it and rammed right into it without the slightest intention of getting off!
The instant the impact killed it, Qi Xu aimed her light screen at the corpse and collected “green fur ×3.”
She had even cleared an extra slot in her inventory backpack specifically to hold green fur.
For the green-furred monsters she ran into after that, Qi Xu rammed the ones she could. If the angle was awkward, she didn’t dwell on it and just kept moving. The green-furred monsters only appeared one at a time, and the further she went, the more frequently they spawned.
Near the finish line, they would practically respawn the very second one was killed.
So Qi Xu planned to drive all the way to the final merge point first, and then start farming monsters.
Qi Xu twisted the throttle all the way down. Her little pink ride tore down the wide highway like the wind. With the Anti-Fatigue Sunglasses on her face, Qi Xu finally didn’t have to keep squinting while riding.
Better yet, her vision didn’t feel darkened at all. It was as if a soft, low-saturation filter had been laid over everything, giving the world a comfortable, eye-friendly tint.
Only when she spotted the merge point ahead did Qi Xu swaggeringly hop off her vehicle, blade in hand.
A green-furred monster immediately chased up from behind. Its cry was pretty cute—a little “chi, chi, chi” sound that really didn’t seem threatening at all—even as it raised a balled fist to smash her skull in.
It was just very slow.
Pressed for time, Qi Xu didn’t even bother dodging fully. She simply sidestepped and drove her blade into its neck.
No sooner had this one died than a fresh one spawned…
At the finish line.
Seven people had already arrived.
“How long do we have to wait here?”
“Who knows? Probably until everyone crosses the finish line before the rankings come out.”