Chapter 275: Highway Survival 7

Day nine of the game.

Using her spiritual power, Perry Yates silently watched the heavy, feathery snow fall relentlessly outside.

By 7 a.m., her vehicle, and even the barrier around it, had been completely buried by the snow.

A chill transmitted back through her Spiritual Body made Perry Yates shiver, even though she was inside her Safe House, wrapped in a soft, plush blanket and warming herself before a stove.

A sweet potato, nearly done roasting, sat atop the stove, its sweet aroma filling the entire room.

Perry Yates split the sweet potato in two and took a bite. A sweet flavor instantly filled her mouth.

"It’s so sweet and delicious."

Perry Yates’s eyes crinkled with happiness.

She did a quick calculation. It was now the ninth day of the game.

In all her rounds of the game, this was the first time she had ever encountered such a severe natural disaster as early as the ninth day.

The temperature outside had already dropped to minus fifty degrees. Without proper heating, it was impossible for humans to survive such temperatures.

Leaving the Safe House, she got into her vehicle and opened the chat channel. A glance at the player count showed that it was dropping at an absolutely terrifying rate.

’If this snow doesn’t stop soon, the player-NPCs here will probably all be wiped out in just a few days.’

She then exited the chat channel and opened the other chat group.

Perhaps because Perry Yates had been ignoring them, the people in the group had mostly stopped pinging her.

The group was currently buzzing with lively conversation.

Compared to the player-NPCs, these people, the real players, were far more comfortable.

After all, they were all veteran players and surely carried plenty of supplies. A mere minus fifty degrees didn’t affect them much.

On the contrary, the heavy snow cover meant no more nocturnal beast attacks, so they could actually get a good night’s sleep.

Many in the group were now hoping the snow wouldn’t stop, that it would ideally last until the end of the game.

However, their wishful thinking was met with a harsh reality. The next day, the tenth day of the game, the snow stopped, and the temperature began to slowly rise.

Yesterday it was minus fifty degrees, at its coldest even reaching minus seventy. Today, it was only minus forty.

Still cold enough to freeze a person to death, though.

But this didn’t affect Perry Yates much. She continued to hide out in her Safe House, eating and drinking, until the thirteenth day of the game.

By now, the outside temperature had risen above zero, and the accumulated snow had begun to melt. However, Perry Yates’s vehicle was too small to move, so she remained where she was.

Around noon, Perry Yates was in her Safe House binge-watching a show, a pile of opened snack bags in front of her.

Just then, she heard a sound of impact from outside.

Ever since the incident with the Green-Fur Gorilla, Perry Yates had added a layer of Cold Moon Guardian outside her Flame Barrier. This way, the heat from the Flame Barrier wouldn’t melt the surrounding snow.

"What’s going on? It looks like there’s an igloo here."

"It really is an igloo. Maybe there’s someone inside."

As Perry Yates moved to check, she heard the voices of a man and a woman from outside, followed by the sound of shoveling snow.

Seeing what was happening, Perry Yates put away the Safe House and bundled up in thick winter clothes as a cover.

After doing all this, she then deactivated both the Flame Barrier and the Cold Moon Guardian.

With the barriers gone, the two people outside quickly made their way in.

Perry Yates was warming herself by a fire. When the two strangers suddenly entered, she feigned a look of surprise. "Who are you?"

The young woman of the pair saw that Perry Yates was alone and looked a bit embarrassed. After all, the two of them had just destroyed the shelter she had worked so hard to build.

"Hi, my name is Vera Vance, and this is my younger brother, Caleb Vance. We were just passing by and noticed something unusual here, so we wanted to dig and see what it was. We didn’t mean to destroy your shelter."

Although Perry Yates didn’t care about her "shelter" being destroyed, the polite words still improved her mood considerably.

Just then, an incredibly sweet and adorable voice sounded from behind Vera Vance.

"Master, Master, we found lots of boxes!"

Then, a small pink bear, only about calf-high, trotted in from outside.

Perry Yates looked at the doll, a flash of astonishment in her eyes.

"This doll is alive?" she asked.

Vera Vance nodded. "It’s my Talent. I can give life to dolls, but only to ones I’ve made myself."

’I can’t believe a Talent like this exists,’ she thought. She immediately used a Copy Card on the two of them, wanting to see if she could copy something from non-players.

She had only tried it on a whim, not expecting much, but to her surprise, it actually worked.

After stowing away the two Talent Cards, Perry Yates suddenly asked, "Are any of these dolls for sale?"

Vera Vance hadn’t expected Perry Yates to ask such a question.

Her dolls could be sold, technically, but she normally wouldn’t sell them. How to put it... after she gave them life, she always felt a sense of responsibility toward them.

It was a responsibility like that of a mother to her child, and a mother would never sell her own children.

But then again, nothing was absolute. Because of the snow over the past few days, she and her brother, Caleb Vance, had nearly run out of supplies. That was the very reason they were on the road, trying to find more.

But so far, they hadn’t found a single treasure box, seen any beasts, or found any sign of supplies. Instead, their own fuel tank was running on empty.

She looked at the person in front of her. ’Her complexion is rosy, and even in this freezing weather, she doesn’t seem cold at all. She must have a lot of supplies.’

"I can sell you a few dolls, but I have one condition: you have to trade for them with supplies."

Hearing this, Perry Yates nodded. "Deal."

Seeing Perry Yates agree so readily, Vera Vance went straight back to her own vehicle and returned with a large pile of dolls. These were all dolls she had made by hand recently but had not yet brought to life.

She had no intention of trading the dolls she had already animated. Having spent time with them, she had grown attached. These new ones, however, were fair game.

Perry Yates looked at the dolls Vera Vance brought over. There were quite a few of them—more than twenty by a rough count. Every single one was exquisitely crafted, even more beautiful than dolls sold in stores.