Chapter 9: Announcement of the Trial Dungeon

“Trade!” Gao You nodded repeatedly.

Accumulating mileage still had its benefits! He had struck lucky!

This girl seemed to be struggling to survive, yet unexpectedly, she was so capable.

He tactfully refrained from asking how she obtained the healing potion until he saw her username during the trade.

“Damn! It’s you, the big shot!” Gao You lowered his voice, so excited he could barely speak coherently. “No wonder you have this potion. Can I add you as a friend? I promise I won’t disclose your information.”

He was wise enough to know that building a good relationship with someone who could craft healing potions was valuable.

Yu Jiang nodded. In fact, she intended to use this exchange to gauge whether the other party had potential as a long-term partner.

At this stage, surviving alone as a lone wolf and hunting in the wild was manageable.

But over time, for survival or dungeon raids, the mode would inevitably shift to team play, or even national team style.

Then, being a lone wolf would become difficult; how could one person compete with a team's shared resources?

Joining others’ teams inevitably involved issues of profit sharing and interpersonal relationships.

Yu Jiang was unwilling to be overly cautious, sacrifice her own interests, or ingratiate herself with others.

After parting ways with the duo, Yu Jiang headed to the women’s bathhouse at the back.

Everyone showed restraint; two vehicles parked one on the left, one on the right, each finding cover without disturbing the other.

After all, they had just met—no ill intentions, but no complete trust either.

Seeing the somewhat outdated yet reasonably clean bathhouse, Yu Jiang exhaled deeply.

Three days had passed, and the stench of zombie rot clung to her body; she felt as if she were marinated in it.

She quickly took a refreshing hot shower, then spent some time washing her inner clothes and a quick-dry jacket she wore in the game.

Wearing the khaki trench coat she didn’t bother washing outside, she reasoned that as long as the inner layers were clean, the outer could be dirty.

One of the game’s most humane features was that once you qualified as a survivor, your physical condition adjusted to better suit post-apocalyptic survival.

Women no longer menstruated, solving the discomfort at its root.

Yu Jiang opened five sets of underwear from the supply box; clothes and shoes from the box didn’t have sizes—whoever opened them got the perfect fit, making usage very convenient.

Women’s sets were quick-dry sports underwear, while men’s were athletic vests.

These non-essential survival supplies weren’t expensive; Yu Jiang had just purchased two sets instantly through the trading system for 20 crystal coins.

Remaining crystal coins: 182.

Finished washing and feeling refreshed, she took advantage of the water there to clean her utensils, started a fire to boil water, and cooked the instant noodles she’d opened yesterday.

After they softened, she drained them, mixed in the only canned braised pork she had—it smelled heavenly.

In the past two days on the road, lunches were either compressed biscuits or bread with Sachima, while dinners were the only decent meals.

Long-term survival required nutritional balance.

During her free time, Yu Jiang used two traded materials to craft five basic hemostatic medicines.

Riding her luck, she also used six blue mushrooms from her backpack to produce two hallucinogenic drugs.

Current medicines in hand: 15 hemostatic medicines, 6 hallucinogenic powder doses.

She also opened a level-one survivor supply blind box.

Items obtained:

- Outdoor windbreaker set + waterproof Martin boots
- Windproof lighter ×1, small water condenser part A1
- Tin sheets ×2, steel blocks ×2, steel mesh ×1
- 10 pounds of flour, 10 pounds of rice, 10 small potatoes, 5 cans of luncheon meat, a packet of leek seeds, 10 units of cotton

Not bad; she wasn’t sure if this was lucky or not.

Cotton could be used for bandages and clothes, but required blueprints she didn’t have yet.

The condenser was excellent, fundamentally solving water supply issues, but needed three parts to assemble—she only had one.

Moreover, this item was hard to come by; the trading system had a part A2 listed.

The asking price was 500 crystal coins or 6 healing potions plus 10 steel blocks.

Many tried to haggle, but the seller wouldn’t budge.

Too expensive—Yu Jiang had only found two steel blocks in blind boxes over three days.

This item upgraded vehicle defenses, only useful at vehicle level 4; at this stage, it was non-essential, so storing it was a wise choice.

Many lacking food, water, or energy sold steel blocks cheaply.

She posted an offer: 3 compressed biscuits in exchange for one steel block. Compared to others trading hardened black bread for steel blocks, her price was quite good and quickly resulted in a deal.

At that moment, a public announcement popped up:

[Player ‘X’ killed a hospital mutant infected, earned achievement ‘Virtuous Warrior’ and generous rewards.]

A lively discussion followed; Yu Jiang quietly gathered information.

Was the hospital a solo mission assigned to that player?

Night had just fallen, and several vehicles arrived at the service station one after another. Some had already exchanged all their crystal coins for supplies and couldn’t afford parking cards.

They could only pace anxiously outside, begging for crystal coins on the public screen or venting with curses.

In the darkness, people in several vehicles exchanged glances and turned toward a lone vehicle that looked weak and isolated.

It was 9 p.m.

Yu Jiang had just lain down, covering herself with her coat against the cold, preparing to sleep.

She could repair the car door now but saw no need; it was more cost-effective to upgrade everything at once.

Parked in this corner, it blocked the wind and rain just right.

Suddenly, a message flashed on the screen:

[Good evening, survivors. The newbie protection period is about to end. Friendly reminder: tomorrow, a multiplayer dungeon mission will be released.

To help everyone adapt to the game, the first dungeon failure will not result in loss of survivor qualification. Instead, it will trigger a three-day ‘No Gain’ buff, during which you cannot open or collect any supplies while traveling!

Dungeon introduction: Silent Town
Difficulty: One star
Participants: 30

Here, you can freely explore and find the key item ‘Wishing Star.’ Killing monsters earns you points.

The dungeon lasts two hours; reaching 100 points allows early exit with rewards of 200 crystal coins and one survivor resource blind box.

Failing to reach 100 points or dropping HP to zero counts as failure (upon exit, HP resets to pre-entry status).

Survive until the dungeon ends to participate in rankings; top three scorers gain extra 300, 200, and 100 crystal coins, plus 5, 3, and 2 skill points, one crafting scroll, and one material blind box (which may contain surprise finished products or advanced materials~).

Tonight is the last night of newbie protection. Sleep well, everyone.]

As soon as the message was posted, the public screen erupted.

Moonfall Knows Autumn: “No way, no supplies for three days? That penalty’s terrifying.”

Sleeping Dragon: “I have an idea. Everyone who hits 100 points should hide in the dungeon. Scores will be equal, so everyone gets ranking rewards, right?”

Strawberry Candy: “Holy crap, genius! I think that works. Everyone knows when a player dies, their backpack slots vanish; outsiders can only get what’s outside the slots. Why fight each other so fiercely?”

Lone Wolf 2009: “Those ahead are naive; someone will sneakily grab everything.”

My Surname is Gu, Wugu: “Can you see others’ points in the dungeon? If so, this plan might work.”

With Wind 220: “Support this. We were all randomly thrown here; we should help each other and stick together. Fighting over rankings only hurts unity.”

Bang Bang Bang: “I think this dungeon is a chance to train. Didn’t the announcement say it’s the first dungeon? That’s why the penalty is mild. Even if you hit zero HP, you won’t die. Better seize the chance to get stronger.”

Because of the dungeon announcement, many sought to buy potions from Yu Jiang.

Potions were precious, but if they could rank high, it was definitely worth it!

Just the crafting scroll alone was tempting.