19: Chapter 19 The Perfect Upgrade Path: A Monopoly Blockade from Major Guilds!

On the morning of the fifth day, the gray light of the Desolate Continent shone through the porthole, casting a cold, hard glare into the Captain's quarters.

Yu Feng opened his eyes on the five-meter-wide bed.

A cold, mechanical voice sounded in his mind right on time.

[ Ding. Day five check-in reward issued: Free Attribute Point +1, Personal Space +1 cubic meter. ]

With a thought, Yu Feng unhesitatingly added the attribute point to Constitution.

The panel refreshed.

[ Name: Yu Feng ]

[ Current Attributes: Strength 11, Constitution 24, Agility 9. ]

A surging wave of heat instantly swept through his entire body, completely washing away the trace of fatigue from last night's high-intensity exertion.

His 24 points in Constitution kept his body in peak combat state. His Personal Space also expanded to 5 cubic meters.

Pushing open the cockpit door, he saw Liu Ruyan sitting in the co-pilot seat, staring at the instrument panel.

This ice-cold counselor was wearing a tight sports vest, and her ample curves were strained into a breathtaking arc.

Seeing Yu Feng enter, she immediately stood up, her cheeks slightly flushed as she handed him a steaming cup of tea.

"Yu Feng, good morning. Have some morning tea. The Black Fog is still quite far from us, about 1500 kilometers away." Liu Ruyan's voice was cold yet carried a hint of gentleness.

Yu Feng took the tea and drank a sip. Under the blessing of God-level Cooking, even a simple cup of tea had a subtle effect of soothing the mind.

He sat in the pilot's seat and opened the Regional Channel.

The number of survivors in the upper right corner remained at 10 million / 20 million. A 50% survival rate.

After four days of brutal culling, those players flying dilapidated gliders or small transport planes without enclosed cabins had basically been wiped out by the extreme cold and the Black Fog.

Those who could still speak in the Regional Channel now were at least flying Level 1 modified passenger planes.

The Black Fog followed like a shadow, forcing all survivors to fly forward like mad dogs.

In comparison, Yu Feng's state was extremely comfortable.

His Lv.3 Heavy Assault Passenger Plane came with infinite fuel, and the thrust lever was permanently locked at 120%.

The extraordinary trait "Steel Hull" allowed this behemoth to ignore all low-level air currents and small obstacles on its route.

Occasionally, a few foolish low-tier birds would crash into the front of the plane, but they couldn't even leave a mark.

However, Yu Feng did not feel complacent.

Yesterday's golden announcement, pinned to the top of the entire server, was still hanging there: [ Player Li Tianbao has successfully upgraded his vehicle to Lv.4. Unlocked the fully automatic computer intelligent driving module. ]

On this deadly continent where stopping meant death, intelligent driving meant being able to speed continuously for 24 hours, completely freeing up one's hands.

If he didn't hurry to catch up to this progress, those lunatics flying Level 4 planes would sooner or later snatch up all the high-level supply crates ahead, or even turn back to hunt him with higher-tier weapons.

"Keep an eye on the radar, and call me if anything happens." Yu Feng patted Liu Ruyan's curvaceous lower back and turned to walk toward the logistics area at the rear of the cabin.

The originally spacious logistics cabin was now packed full with the loot dropped from hunting the giant eagle yesterday.

Thousands of catties of high-level eagle meat were stacked like a small mountain next to the freezer, with over twenty Tier 2 Wind-type Crystal Cores scattered nearby.

Yu Feng pulled out the [ Lv.4 Passenger Plane Upgrade Blueprint ] that was emitting a blinding golden light from his Personal Space.

Probing it with his mind, a complex mechanical structural diagram unfolded on his retina.

The blueprint offered two upgrade directions: one was a standard capacity expansion plan, and the other was...

The perfect upgrade path that Yu Feng was staring at intensely—Heavy Firepower Type.

Not only could it significantly increase the hull defense and internal storage space again, but most crucially, it could directly unlock 4 DEFA aviation cannons.

With this thing, he wouldn't need to risk close-quarters combat when encountering monster swarms; he could simply tear them to shreds with cannon barrages from two thousand meters away.

Yu Feng looked at the list of materials required for the upgrade.

[ Upgrading to a Level 4 passenger plane requires: Steel Composite Plate x2000, High-grade Rubber x800, High-grade Electronic Components x10, Tier 3 Crystal Core x1. ]

He quickly checked his current inventory and arrived at a frustratingly large deficit.

[ Currently lacking: High-grade Steel x1500, High-grade Rubber x500, High-grade Electronic Components x10, Tier 3 Crystal Core x1. ]

The gap was huge. Especially the High-grade Electronic Components and the Tier 3 Crystal Core; these couldn't be gathered just by opening a few wooden crates.

Since searching for them himself was too slow, he would use resources to smash his way through.

Yu Feng switched to the trading hall and immediately listed several hundred catties of high-grade eagle meat and 50 units of Universal Fuel, specifying that he would only trade for steel, rubber, and high-grade electronic components.

He had thought that with the absolute hard currency of this continent, the supplies would fly into his backpack like snowflakes.

But an hour passed, and the trading backend only had requests from a few scattered individual players, collecting a total of only 200 units of steel and a few dozen units of rubber.

Yu Feng frowned and switched to the chat panel of the Regional Channel.

The full screen of messages was scrolling in a uniform format.

"Tianxia Alliance is buying steel and rubber. 5 liters of Universal Fuel for 10 pieces. Don't hide it, individual players; if you don't sell to the Tianxia Alliance, you won't be able to upgrade even if you hold onto the materials."

"Dragon God Alliance is buying High-grade Electronic Components at a high price. Providing coordinate protection."

Yu Feng watched these spamming messages with cold eyes.

In just five short days, the individual players in District 360 had been almost wiped out by the Black Fog and monsters.

Those who survived had quickly gathered into six major alliances to huddle together for warmth.

These great guilds used their numerical advantage to sweep the flight paths for supply crates like a dragnet, and they had forcibly monopolized all high-grade materials in the trading market.

As for that Li Tianbao who was the first to upgrade to Lv.4, he was the leader of the "Tianxia Alliance," which currently had the greatest power.

No wonder the progress was so fast. When thousands of people support one plane, even a pig could fly to the sky.

Now, the major guilds were strictly controlling the market, maliciously suppressing prices, and even intercepting private trades between individual players. Although Yu Feng's eagle meat and fuel were tempting, those individual players didn't dare to bring out materials in large quantities to trade, fearing they would be targeted and hunted down by the guilds.

Since steel and rubber were monopolized, Yu Feng simply withdrew most of his trade orders for the time being.

There was no rush to clash head-on with the guilds. He turned his gaze to another item in the corner of his Personal Space.

A Beretta 92F pistol.

This gun was obtained from opening a supply chest. Although it might be like scratching an itch against high-tier monsters in the late game, at this stage, the high muzzle velocity and armor-piercing capability of a firearm were absolutely a god-tier tool for close-quarters survival and ambushing people.

Unfortunately, there were only a pitiful 8 rounds of ammunition in the magazine.

In this stage where gunpowder couldn't be manufactured, a gun without bullets was not even as useful as a fire poker.

Yu Feng re-edited a trade message and pinned it to the top.

[ Premium High-grade Eagle Meat / God-level Hot Pot Soup Base / Universal Fuel. Trading for Beretta bullets. Ratio negotiable via private chat. ]

For those players struggling on the line of life and death who hadn't eaten a bite of hot meat in days, while weapons were certainly important, the threat of starving or freezing to death was more immediate.

Less than a minute after the message was posted, a crisp "beep" sounded from the system backend. Yu Feng raised an eyebrow slightly and quickly opened the blinking private chat panel.

The message was sent by a female player named Shen Tiantian, whose tone sounded particularly urgent:

"Big Boss! I have 30 bullets in my hand, can I trade them for your high-grade eagle meat and hot pot soup base? Please, I haven't eaten for three days, I'm about to starve to death!"

Looking at the screenshot of the item sent by the other party, it was indeed the golden 9mm bullets he desperately needed.

"Fine, 15 catties of eagle meat for your 30 bullets."