Chapter 13

The system gave its intro: “This round, you will be surviving against the backdrop of natural disasters. Do your utmost to stay alive.”
“Note 1: Survive for 10 days to meet the clear condition. Afterward, you may request to leave the instance at any time.”
“Note 2: If stamina drops to zero, the character dies and the player is eliminated.”
“Note 3: The longer you survive, the greater the rewards at the end.”
“Note 4: If you complete the extreme challenge, survive 20 days in this instance, you’ll earn a bonus reward. After 20 days, all surviving players will be auto-teleported out.”
“Note 5: The B5 island server contains 30,000 players and 70,000 NPC residents.”
“Note 6: At 9 a.m. today, the natural disaster event begins.”
“So, we’ve got about an hour of free time again,” Su Han muttered to herself.
She started walking toward the pharmacy, racking her brain: What disasters could hit? After a while, she could only think up the usual suspects, drought, cold snap, floods, typhoons, tornadoes, blizzards, sandstorms…
But still…
“Why the pressure to fight tooth and nail just to survive?” Su Han grumbled, stumped. “Can’t I just hoard some food and hole up in a safe house?”
Suddenly, a thought struck her. They were on an island! The sea could totally flood the place! Even worse, she’d spawned right out on the street, so she’d have to find her own shelter from scratch.
“So that’s it.” With that realization, Su Han hurried toward the pharmacy.
But just inside, she ran into a familiar face.
“Zhong Rui?” Su Han blinked, surprised.
“What a coincidence.” Zhong Rui looked up, gave a casual nod, and went straight back to bargain-hunting.
Su Han didn’t mind in the slightest, happily joining in on the shopping spree, after all, Infinite Survival wasn’t just any VR game; stamina-boosting meds were crucial, so you could never have too many. With a whole wave of players about to flood in, she had to snap everything up while the place was still quiet. Once the crowd arrived, not only would she be fighting over supplies, but probably stuck in a huge line.
In just a short while, Su Han was done ransacking the aisles. She picked up three boxes of antibiotics, ten tubes of ointment, and ten jars of medicated balm, all for a grand total of 400 bai.
Ointment: restores +20 stamina, cures “frostbite.”
Medicated Balm: restores +20 stamina, cures “bug bite.”
Honestly, Su Han wanted to stockpile even more, but the pharmacy was small and already low on most products. Plus, a certain someone was spending like a trust fund baby, just sweeping everything into their cart at lightning speed, price be damned. So just the two of them completely cleaned out the store in record time.
“Aren’t you going to restock the shelves?” Su Han couldn’t help but ask.
The cashier offered a polite smile. “Inventory’s wiped out. We’re getting a new shipment delivered by boat tonight, so fresh stock will hit the shelves tomorrow morning.”
Su Han automatically decoded that as: “Come back for a restock tomorrow.” She felt a tinge of regret but was inwardly grateful she came early, any later and she’d have left empty-handed.
The real culprit, Zhong Rui, waved a breezy goodbye, then coolly announced, “I’ll go scout around. Get familiar with the layout.”
“Bye,” Su Han thought to herself. Yeah, right, that’s just code for “Let’s see if I can find another pharmacy.” With so many players about to log in, she really couldn’t be bothered to join the scrum.
She’d only just stepped out when a chorus of wails erupted behind her. “What? All the meds are sold out!”
“Who did this?!”
“I sprinted here as fast as I could, how is everything gone already?”
As one of the thieves who’d emptied the shelves, Su Han picked up her pace and melted into the crowd. Thinking it over, she swung by the bakery next.
Meat floss cream buns were 10 bai each, and Su Han bought eighty in one go, finally rounding her stash up to a full hundred.
With only 300 bai left jingling in her pocket, Su Han stopped to ponder, where was she going to crash these next few days?
Right then, an emotionless system voice cut in: “It is now 9:00 AM. The game has officially begun. Day 1. A shroud of fog envelops the island.”
Fog? That counts as a natural disaster? Su Han blinked in confusion.
But the change was immediate, visibility plunged. Where she could’ve seen fifteen or twenty meters before, now thick haze filled her view, and she was lucky to make out anything five meters away.
“Screeeech, smash!”
Suddenly, just beside her, a traffic accident unfolded. The fog had settled in so fast, two drivers were caught off guard, and both their cars crashed, hard.
The system’s announcement chimed in the next second: “Due to a shortage of personnel, the local Volunteer Association is urgently recruiting staff to man all intersections. Volunteers are only required to contact the hospital and escort patients after traffic accidents. Wages paid daily: 80 bai per day. Interested applicants may register at the Volunteer Association. One hundred positions available, five days total.”
Su Han murmured, “Is the system straight up telling us to take part-time jobs for cash? Too bad these jobs kind of suck.”
80 bai a day: no meals, no lodging, worse than her last gig waiting tables.
And more importantly, you couldn’t see squat in this fog. What if a driver swerved to avoid another car but ended up crashing straight into a volunteer at the curb? That pitiful wage wouldn’t even cover the hospital bills.
“Hands up!”
A low, sudden shout snapped Su Han out of her thoughts. She frowned and looked around. Two men had materialized, one at her left, one right.
The guy on her left flashed a pocketknife, trying to look menacing. His stats popped up: Satiety: 89%, Cleanliness: 92%, Stamina: 100%. Status: Healthy.
The one on her right held a baseball bat, lingering with the air of a low-level thug, though he looked exhausted. His stats: Satiety: 91%, Cleanliness: 90%, Stamina: 100%. Status: Healthy.
NPCs, or players? Su Han wondered.
“Bang.” The thug with the bat slammed it against the wall, full of menace. “Don’t bother calling for help. Everyone else is busy carting crash victims to the hospital, no one’s coming to save you. Hand over your cash and maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you walk away.”
The fog made for perfect cover. Whatever went down here, nobody was going to stick their nose in.
Su Han went quiet for a moment, then shrugged. “That’s a shame. I wasn’t planning to let you walk away, either.” With that, she whipped out her slingshot and a handful of steel pellets.
The guy’s face was blank. “???”
Her shots were sharp and precise, each hitting a soft spot, webbing between thumb and forefinger, wrist, anywhere that hurt. Both guys yelped, hands flying open as their weapons clanged to the ground.
One of them swore. “What the hell? She’s got a weapon on her, this chick’s a player, isn’t she?”
They’d thought robbing a girl would be a cakewalk, of course, fate had other plans.
Su Han didn’t bother replying. She just reloaded, preparing for round two.
The second guy snapped, “Stop it! Anymore of that and my stamina’s going to zero!” The slingshot hurt like hell, her aim for the joints had double the effect, and while they still had plenty of stamina, the pain wasn’t something they could tough out silently.
Su Han’s voice was cold, unmoved. “Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. You’ve got the guts to rob someone, but not to get it back?”
He had nothing to say to that. He wondered if they should just go for broke. But all they had were their weapons, what if their target popped a pill and tanked right through?
Su Han drew back the slingshot for another shot.
The other guy’s voice was hushed, urgent. “Let’s get out of here, can’t see a thing in this fog. Once we’re far enough, she won’t be able to hit us.”
Lightbulb moment. They snatched up their weapons and bolted.
Su Han managed to nail one of them in the shoulder as they ran. He just gritted his teeth and powered through, never even glancing back.
Su Han sighed. Slingshots were great for defense or hunting, but hopeless for a chase. By the time she aimed and fired, anyone with half a brain was long gone.
“Robbing people the moment you enter an instance? What, didn’t buy a personal inventory and lost your supplies already?” Muttering to herself, she quickly brushed off the thought and set off in the right direction.
In Su Han’s mind, finding a job should’ve been a piece of cake, not worth rushing over. Who could’ve guessed,
“Sorry, you don’t have the specialized skills we need.”
“Maybe try somewhere else.”
“Apologies, but we only hire professionals for this position. You’re just not the right fit.”
Su Han kept a straight face: What do they mean professional? Isn’t a bakery apprentice just someone who runs errands?
After a long, pointless circuit, she had to admit, finding a decent job was harder than expected. Either the bar was set ridiculously high, or it was bottom-of-the-barrel manual labor, fifty bucks a day, barely enough to eat and survive for twenty-four hours after essentials.
Thankful her portable storage was stocked with necessities, Su Han dropped the job hunt entirely and went looking for a place to stay.
“Beachside villa! Live like royalty for just 300 Bei a night!”
“Four-star hotel, single room, all meals and amenities included, only 150 Bei a day!”
“Cozy guesthouse, single room with one hot lunch daily, 100 Bei per night!”
Ignoring the overzealous agents, Su Han made up her mind. “I’ll rent a bamboo cottage by the sea.”
The bamboo cottage wasn’t glamorous, it was the cheapest you could get. Shared with strangers. Two stories, common areas downstairs, four small rooms upstairs. 50 Bei a night, buy your own food.
The agent: “……”
So she’s broke as dirt.
After handing over five days’ rent, Su Han was left with a single fifty-Bei coin, but she got a room key without a hitch.
Standing in front of her new place, Su Han realized the room was actually pretty nice. Rattan chairs, wooden table, sturdy cot, a blanket, spacious, way better than that staff dorm in her first instance.
Once she tidied up, she grabbed the water bucket from her room and headed out, nothing else to do, might as well try fishing by the shore.
The plan was solid, until she arrived and realized she didn’t need to fish at all. The beach was littered with tiny crabs and shells washed up by the tide. She even pocketed two fresh oysters!
Suddenly she remembered: People say, “Live off the sea if you’re by the sea”, waves toss seafood to shore all the time. Just scavenging along the sand, you could feast like a king. Locals were so used to it, some didn’t even bother to bend down and pick stuff up anymore.
But this was all new to Su Han. She stuffed her fishing rod back in storage and gleefully got to foraging. It didn’t take long for her bucket to overflow with shellfish, she trudged home, whistling, water sloshing happily with her haul.