Chapter 13 Natural Disaster 1

Chapter 13 Natural Disasters, Part 1

The system began the introduction, "This round is a survival game set against the backdrop of natural disasters. Players are urged to do everything they can to survive."

"Note 1: After surviving for 10 days, players meet the completion requirements and can request to leave the instance at any time."

"Note 2: If the stamina value drops to zero, the character dies, and the player is disqualified from the game."

"Note 3: The more days survived, the richer the completion rewards."

"Note 4: If players complete the extreme challenge—surviving 20 days in the instance, they will receive additional rewards. After 20 days, surviving players in the instance will be automatically teleported away."

"Note 5: B5 Island (the server where players are located) has a total of 30,000 players and 70,000 resident NPCs."

"Note 6: Starting at 9 AM this morning, natural disasters will officially start."

"In other words, there is still about an hour of free activity time," Su Han murmured to herself.

As she walked towards the pharmacy, she pondered—what natural disasters could there be? After much thought, she could only come up with some common ones, such as drought, cold waves, floods, typhoons, tornadoes, blizzards, and sandstorms.

But...

"Wouldn't it be enough to stock up on dry food and hide in a safe house?" Su Han was puzzled.

Suddenly, she remembered something—the instance takes place on an island! The surrounding seawater might flood in! Even worse, after entering the instance, she appeared directly on the street, and the rooms for shelter needed to be found by herself.

"That makes sense," Su Han thought, quickening her pace towards the pharmacy.

However, in the store, she encountered an acquaintance.

"Zhong Rui?" Su Han was quite surprised.

"Fancy meeting you here," Zhong Rui responded casually, not stopping to chat but continuing to grab the goods.

Su Han didn't mind and followed suit—since the Unlimited Survival Game is, after all, an online game, and medicines that can replenish stamina are very important. The more stocked, the better. A large wave of players was about to approach, so she naturally wanted to shop quickly while it was still quiet. Once more players arrived, not only would they have to compete for medicines, but they would also have to queue up.

In just a short while, Su Han completed her shopping. She bought 3 boxes of anti-inflammatory drugs, 10 tubes of ointment, and 10 boxes of cooling oil, spending a total of 400 shells.

Ointment: After use, restores 20 stamina points, "frostbite" status disappears.

Cooling oil: After use, restores 20 stamina points, "mosquito bite" status disappears.

Actually, Su Han really wanted to buy more medicines, but the pharmacy had a limited variety and quantity of medicines. Plus, someone was quite wealthy, grabbing the medicines into the shopping cart at an extremely fast speed, seemingly without worrying about the price. Thus, just the two of them emptied the pharmacy.

"Won't you restock the shelves?" Su Han couldn't help but ask.

The salesclerk explained with a smile, "We've run out of stock. A new batch of goods will be shipped from elsewhere by boat tonight and will be on the shelves tomorrow morning."

Su Han automatically understood this as "the items are sold out, and new stock will be available tomorrow morning." While feeling regretful, she also felt fortunate that she came early; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to buy anything.

The culprit, Zhong Rui, greeted her and then calmly said, "I'm going to explore the area to get familiar with the terrain."

"Goodbye," Su Han thought, putting it nicely, but isn't it just to see if there are other pharmacies on the island? Considering that a large number of players were about to come online, she didn't bother to join the crowd.

Not long after leaving the pharmacy, Su Han heard a wail from behind, "Why are all the medicines sold out?!"

"Who did it?"

"I came as fast as I could. How could this happen?"

As someone who had just cleared out the pharmacy, Su Han silently quickened her pace and swiftly departed. After some thought, she went to the bakery.

Pork Floss Cream Bread was 10 Bei each, and Su Han bought 80 at once, finally reaching a total of 100.

Holding the last 300 Bei in her pocket, Su Han was deep in thought. Where would she stay for the next few days?

Just then, the system's mechanical voice announced, "9 o'clock sharp, the game officially begins. Day 1, the island is shrouded in a layer of fog."

Fog? Is this considered a natural disaster? Su Han was momentarily stunned.

But soon she noticed the visibility had dropped significantly. Originally, she could easily see more than ten meters ahead, but now thick fog was everywhere, and she could barely see the scenery within five meters around her.

"Screech—Crash!"

Right beside Su Han, a traffic accident occurred. The fog had appeared too suddenly, and the driver was caught off guard, causing two private cars to collide.

The next moment, the system issued a notice, "Due to a shortage of manpower, the local volunteer association is urgently recruiting people to stand guard at various intersections. Volunteers just need to call the hospital if there's an accident and send the patients for treatment. Wages are paid daily at 80 Bei per day. Interested parties can register at the volunteer association. A total of 100 people are needed for five days."

Su Han muttered to herself, "Is the system game hinting that players can work to earn money? Too bad the jobs on offer aren't great."

80 Bei a day, with no meals or lodging provided, is worse than the waiter job she had before.

Most importantly, in such heavy fog, it's impossible to see far. What if a driver swerves to avoid a car and hits a roadside volunteer? The pay wouldn't even cover the medical bills.

"Robbery!"

A sudden low growl cut through Su Han's thoughts. She frowned, spotting two men flanking her.

The one on the left held a small knife, with a fierce expression. His stats showed, "Satiety: 89%, Cleanliness: 92%, Stamina: 100%. Status: Intact."

The one on the right, holding a baseball bat, looked like a thug but seemed worn out. His stats were, "Satiety: 91%, Cleanliness: 90%, Stamina: 100%. Status: Intact."

NPCs or players? Su Han wondered.

"Bang." The guy on the right slammed the bat against the wall, menacingly. "Don't wait, everyone else is busy sending the injured to the hospital, no one will come to save you. Be smart and hand over your cash, and I might consider letting you go."

With the thick fog as a natural barrier, even if something happened here, others would hardly know.

Su Han paused for a moment, then said, "But I have no intention of letting you go." With that, she pulled out a slingshot and steel balls.

The man was utterly confused, "???"

The steel balls seemed to home in on the tiger's mouth, wrists, and other sensitive spots. The two men, in pain, involuntarily let go of their weapons, which fell to the ground.

One couldn't help but curse, "Damn! Carrying weapons around, this one must be a player, right?"

They thought robbing a woman would be easy, but they had kicked an iron plate.

Su Han didn't respond, just reloaded, ready to shoot again.

The other man whispered urgently, "Stop shooting! You'll run out of stamina!" Although the steel balls attacked the joints, causing double damage, the initial stamina was high, and there was still plenty left. But the pain from the steel balls was unbearable, and he was too embarrassed to say it outright.

Su Han looked coldly at them, "What goes around comes around. You dare to rob, but can't handle the consequences?"

The man had no retort. He thought, maybe just go all out? But they had nothing but weapons, what if the other side took drugs?

Su Han pulled back the slingshot, ready to shoot.

The other man lowered his voice, speaking quickly, "Let's go! With all this fog, as long as we run far enough, she won't be able to aim."

Her companions suddenly understood the situation. They quickly picked up their weapons and took off running.

Su Han landed a hit on one of their shoulders. But the man gritted his teeth and bolted without looking back.

Su Han looked helpless. The slingshot worked well for self-defense and hunting, but it was no good for chasing someone down. By the time she reloaded and aimed, they’d already be long gone.

“They just entered the dungeon and already started robbing—did they forget to buy a Portable Storage and lose their supplies?” After muttering this to herself, she shrugged it off and headed in the right direction.

**

Su Han thought finding a job would be a breeze, so she wasn’t in any hurry. But—

“Sorry, but you don’t have the skills we’re looking for.”

“You might want to try your luck somewhere else.”

“Sorry, we’re looking for professionals, and you’re not quite what we need.”

Su Han thought blankly, “Isn’t a baking apprentice just a glorified errand runner?”

But after searching everywhere, she had to admit that finding a decent job was tough. Either the requirements were too high, or it was just backbreaking labor with no qualifications needed. The pay was 60 coins a day—just enough to cover food and daily necessities for a single day.

Since she had all the essentials in her Portable Storage, she gave up on the job hunt and started looking for a place to stay.

“Beach villa—ultimate luxury for just 300 coins a day!”

“Four-star hotel, single room with all meals included, 150 coins a day.”

“Homestay inn, single room with one lunch daily, 100 coins.”

Ignoring the agent’s enthusiastic pitches, Su Han cut to the chase: “I’ll take the seaside bamboo house.”

The seaside bamboo house was the cheapest option, but it meant sharing with others. There were two floors—the first floor was shared space, and the second had four rooms. Each room cost 50 coins a day, with meals self-provided.

The agent paused, thinking, “So she’s broke.”

After paying five days’ rent, she only had 50 coins left in her pocket, but Su Han successfully got the room key.

When she got to the bamboo house, she was pleasantly surprised—the room was actually pretty nice. It had a rattan chair, a wooden table, a wooden bed, and a quilt. The space was also quite spacious, much better than the employee dormitory she stayed in during the first dungeon.

After a quick tidy-up, Su Han grabbed the bucket and headed out. With nothing else to do, she decided to try her luck fishing by the sea.

The plan was good, but after arriving, she found that there was no need to fish. There were many small crabs and shells washed ashore on the beach, and she even found two oysters!

Su Han suddenly remembered a saying—living by the sea means eating from the sea, as the waves often wash seafood onto the beach. Just by casually picking things up on the beach, you could find a lot of food. People living by the sea for a long time were already used to it, sometimes even too lazy to bend down and pick them up.

But this was the first time Su Han encountered such a situation. She simply put the fishing rod back into the storage box and enthusiastically started picking up seafood. Before long, the seafood she picked filled the bucket, and Su Han happily carried the bucket home.

Author's note: There's a movie called "The Mist," which is about a town surrounded by thick fog, and everyone starts causing trouble together ≧▽≦