Chapter 283: Highway Survival 15

Most of these were defensive Skill Cards. She could fuse the majority of them, and even though some didn’t match her attribute, she could still absorb them thanks to her Yin Yang Balance card.

’With that in mind,’ Perry Yates chose two cards to fuse: Spirit Arrow and Wood Shield. One for offense, one for defense—both were Wood Attribute cards.

「Day 21 of the game.」

Perry Yates was still shaken by yesterday’s events. Sensing her mood, her little dolls had also become much quieter.

’This won’t do.’

Perry decided she needed to do something to ease her current mood.

She then opened the chat channel.

First, she glanced at the number of people online.

Then, Perry Yates’s eyes widened.

The number of people in the chat channel had dropped by half.

This was a horrifying number—it had been cut in half. And this was right after the two game servers had just merged.

If the player count continued to fall at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before the next server merge.

The usually bustling chat channel was now much quieter, with only a few players leaving messages trying to buy supplies.

Closing the public channel, Perry Yates opened her group chat. It was much livelier inside, and many people were talking about what happened last night.

Perry Yates checked the member count. Compared to yesterday, the group had lost over two hundred people.

Compared to the public channel’s numbers being cut in half, a loss of two hundred was already quite small.

’It seems the players in this group have some ability to protect themselves.’

Then, she began to scroll through the previous chat logs.

"Guys, I think I saw a ghost. There’s a dark, human-shaped shadow outside, but I’m absolutely sure it’s not a person."

"I saw it too! It’s waving at me, it’s so terrifying. I can’t see its facial features. Isn’t this supposed to be a survival instance? Why are there ghosts?"

"What the hell is that thing? I threw a rock at it, and the rock went right through its body."

"I’m warning you all, don’t get out of your vehicles. These things are probably after us. Don’t get cocky and think you can do anything just because you’re a player. Your own life is what’s important."

"No way I’m getting back in my car. The car has nothing. I’m living in a three-star shelter right now; I’m perfectly safe."

"Have you already forgotten the rule we saw? ’The vehicle is the only shelter.’"

"The rule might not be meant to be taken so literally. Who told you to nitpick? Besides, a shelter is an Advanced Card. Not everyone can get one."

"For you, the vehicle might be the only shelter, but not for me. I have a better option. Going back to the car now would be irresponsible."

"You can’t reason with someone who’s already damned."

The conversation ended there.

Perry Yates scrolled further down. She could still see messages from the person who gave the warning, but the one who boasted about their shelter had gone silent. When she tried to message them privately, their avatar was, as expected, grayed out.

"My card shattered!!!!"

"AHHH!! That monster is a demon! It just swatted casually and shattered my card! That was my only three-star card!"

That message was like a signal. One after another, people started reporting that their cards had also shattered, and the way it happened was strikingly similar.

In every case, a black shadow from outside would try to approach them—a humanoid but not-quite-human figure. Acting on instinct, the players chose to attack.

Then, when their attacks landed on the shadow, or when they made contact while trying to block it, their attacks would vanish. The shadow would vanish too, and then their cards would shatter.

"It was like they annihilated each other,"

someone in the group chat said.

’Yes, it was just like the shadow and the card had annihilated each other.’

Perry Yates thought back to what happened yesterday. ’Wasn’t that exactly like mutual annihilation?’

’But, if the shadows disappear after coming into contact with a Card Skill, then what happened to the two hundred people who died?’

’According to the people in the group, they only encountered one shadow each.’

’Or... did they run into other dangers besides the shadows?’

That possibility was quite high, so Perry Yates didn’t dwell on it for too long.

After reading through all the messages, Perry Yates summarized her findings. The black shadow was definitely not human and had no physical form. Its body seemed to be made of some kind of black mist, and it would make gestures similar to a greeting when it got close to people.

Currently, there were no effective methods for dealing with the shadows, unless one was willing to sacrifice a card to take one out.

After finishing her summary, Perry Yates let out a sigh of relief. If that was all there was to it, then things were manageable. As long as the shadows didn’t appear in overwhelming numbers, the cards she had should be enough to last her until the game was over.

’Also,’ she resolved, ’I absolutely cannot afford to waste another five-star card.’

Perry Yates’s heart settled a bit. By noon, she was eating lunch inside her vehicle. She planned to spend the remaining time inside it as well; after all, there were only a few days left, and yesterday’s incident had left a considerable psychological scar.

Besides, she had plenty of supplies, and the vehicle’s interior was large enough for her to carry out her daily life entirely inside.

In addition, Perry Yates forcibly moved some of her dolls into the Safe House, leaving only Little Lion, Little Tiger, Little Panda, and Little Elephant—the four with stronger combat abilities—outside to help stand guard.

Just then, a private message notification popped up. She opened it. It was from Vera Vance.

"The dolls you wanted are ready. I’m sending them over now."

"Okay," Perry Yates replied quickly.

Soon, Perry Yates received the dolls Vera Vance had teleported over.

As per Perry Yates’s request, these dolls were from the Divine Beast series: Aethelon, White Tiger, Pyralis, Terradon, Phoenix, Sylvaris, and the Nine-Tailed Fox—all highly iconic Divine Beasts.

In addition, there were also some animal dolls that had pairs of white wings attached to them.

The little dolls’ eyes were filled with confusion, and they looked at Perry Yates with a hint of wariness.

"Little Lion, I’ll leave these new dolls to you," Perry Yates said to the Little Lion in the passenger seat.

"No problem! Mission accepted, Commander!"

Little Lion saluted with a fuzzy paw, its voice full of vigor.

By now, aside from its size and shape, Little Lion no longer resembled a doll. In all other respects, it was becoming more and more like a real lion.

After Little Lion led the new dolls to the back to "eat some candy," Perry Yates turned her gaze to the chat screen.

"Do you have any more fabric?"