Chapter 27 The Ancient Town Wanderer - Countdown to the Second Game

Since the end of the first game, Bai Xiao hadn't worn a skirt again, even wearing convenient everyday clothes to sleep.

She was prepared to enter the game at any time and had nothing to carry on her person; anyway, everything she brought would disappear upon entering.

For the second game, Bai Xiao was still a bit nervous. She calmed her somewhat uneasy mood, then tapped the black butterfly. A blue light screen popped up instantly, with a 12-hour countdown hanging on the home page. The enlarged time paused for a few seconds before shrinking to the top left corner.

So it wasn't an immediate entry; it gave a notice 12 hours in advance.

Bai Xiao let out a quiet sigh of relief; having time to prepare before entering was certainly better.

She opened her storage slots, intending to organize them once more.

Three storage slots were for water: one for small bottles of mineral water, one for bottled drinking water, and one for domestic water.

There were 130 water tanks of domestic water in total, which she had been filling up over the past few days. She originally wanted to leave 10 empty to see if there was a chance to scavenge materials like gasoline or diesel later.

The lack of electricity these past few days was very inconvenient. She thought if she had a chance to get a small generator in the future, she wouldn't be able to generate power without fuel, so she wanted to keep some water tanks empty for storage.

But on second thought, she didn't know when she'd have the chance to find those things. It was better to fill them with water first; maybe by the time she found fuel, she'd already have empty tanks from use.

Four more slots were for food: one for various instant vegetables, one for various instant meats, one for fresh produce, meat, eggs, grain, oil, and non-staple foods, and the last one was for dishes ordered from restaurants and homemade dishes from a few days ago. The dishes took up less than half the space; the other larger half was stocked with instant carb-heavy supplies.

The remaining three slots: one for clothes, bedding, and outdoor gear; one for medicine, cleaning, and personal care products; and the last one for various tools and survival supplies, including the various weapons she had purchased.

The last three slots weren't completely full. Bai Xiao reorganized a portion, freeing up nearly half a space to put in the instant food she had previously taken out and left in the room.

This way, every storage slot was considered full. It would depend on whether she could bring them in to use when the game time arrived at 12 o'clock tonight.

Thinking of this, she opened the mall again. She had 15 points left and had been hesitating whether to buy food, a defense capsule, or a recovery potion. After thinking it over these past few days, she decided to buy a 5-point survival package.

In case the items in the storage slots really couldn't be used and the game lasted a long time, she couldn't just starve to death inside.

This survival package contained five bags of bread and five bottles of water. If she really had to stay for a long time, it could last at least three days, or five days at the limit. She could buy more if it wasn't enough, but she feared shopping might not be allowed during the game, so she bought one first as a backup.

With everything ready, she changed into clothes more suitable for walking outside: black leggings paired with matching Martin boots, a long-sleeved tight T-shirt with a fitted vest over it, and a brownish-black mid-length leather trench coat on the outside.

Time passed minute by minute. Bai Xiao sat at the foot of the bed, staring at the clock on the table.

It's here.

[Welcome to Hunting Ground No. 1327. Player certification in progress. Game ID 526. Qualification confirmed. Game is loading. Please be prepared, player. Countdown: ten seconds, 9, 8, 7... 3, 2, 1.]

Ding—

As the game voice sounded, Bai Xiao entered that familiar black space again. Strangely enough, she had felt a bit apprehensive before coming in, but now that she was inside, she felt nothing at all.

Bai Xiao closed her eyes, waiting for the game countdown to end. When she opened them again, she found herself sitting on a tour bus.

Outside the window were continuous green mountains on both sides. The bus they were on was weaving through the mountains, heading to an unknown destination.

"Ah!"

"Where is this? Why am I sitting in a bus?"

"This isn't a dream, is it? How did I get on the bus?"

The familiar questioning from newcomers rang out one after another.

After entering, she immediately opened her personal game panel to check her storage slots. Her heart sank halfway when she saw they were grayed out, clearly indicating that the items inside could not be accessed.

Bai Xiao let out an imperceptible sigh. Although she had mentally prepared for this outcome, she was still a bit disappointed. Being unable to open the storage slots meant the supplies she had prepared would be useless in the game.

Then she opened her [backpack]. The items in the [backpack] were still lit up. The Close Combat Course could still be clicked, and the survival package she bought was also there.

She checked the [Game Mall] again, and it was also lit up. Bai Xiao's cold heart finally warmed up halfway.

She closed the panel and focused her attention back on the game.

By now, the people in the bus were already chattering and arguing in a mess.

Bai Xiao took the opportunity to observe the positions of several people. This was a spacious bus with a total of eleven people, including the driver.

The driver was in the driver's seat; it was unclear if he was a player.

The bus was the double-seat type. Including Bai Xiao, there were ten players, five sitting on each side, each occupying a row.

Everyone sat by the window, with a black travel bag placed on the seat next to the aisle.

Bai Xiao opened the travel bag and did a quick flip through. Inside was the same food sold in the Game Mall, but unfortunately, there was only one bottle of water and one bag of bread. Besides that, there was a wallet containing ten hundred-yuan bills in a style she had never seen in reality.

Bai Xiao was checking the supplies in the bag when someone suddenly called out to her in a shrill voice.

"Hey! You're too strange. Since coming in, you haven't screamed or asked anything, just looking at this weird bag. Do you know something? Are you an accomplice of that driver?"

"Exactly, that driver is just like you, doesn't respond even after being called several times. Are you really accomplices? Where are you kidnapping us to?!"

Hearing this, Bai Xiao inwardly blamed herself for being too eager to check the storage space. Now she had to pretend she hadn't reacted yet and said, "I'm just too shocked."

The others still didn't quite believe her, but they found the driver even more suspicious. Separated by the driver's cabin, they couldn't get in to touch him, so they kept pounding on the cabin glass.

But no matter how they pounded, the driver was like a robot, not even blinking an eye.

Seeing that calling the driver was useless, several people began pushing the bus doors, which didn't budge, and pulling the windows, which seemed to be welded shut.

After searching for a while and not seeing any window-breaking hammers, a burly man, seeing no tools, used his elbow to strike a corner of the window with all his might. His elbow throbbed with pain, but the window didn't even develop a crack.

Everyone returned to their seats in frustration; some of the more timid ones had already started crying.

"What on earth is going on? We must have been drugged and brought up here. Everything on us has been taken. Are they going to sell us off in the mountains?"

A pretty young girl was sobbing uncontrollably, her mind flashing with tragic images of women being sold into the mountains and abused.

"Don't say that, it really does look like it. How can we be so unlucky? We've already been trapped at home for over ten days with little food or water because of the heavy fog."

Heavy fog? Someone seemed to catch the keyword, and a man asked in confusion, "Heavy fog? How did we get from home to here if there was heavy fog? How can anyone drive in heavy fog? The news clearly said there was fog nationwide; why isn't there any here?"

The more they analyzed, the more absurd it felt.

[Players, welcome to this game. The theme of this game is—Game Theme.]

[Please confirm whether to participate in the 'Game Theme' game.]

[Countdown: 1 minute. Choosing 'Yes' will join the game. Players who choose 'No' or fail to make a choice within the specified time will be immediately eliminated.]