26: Chapter 26: Three Girls Level Up, Survival Challenge Mission!

The night was deep, and the cold wind of the wasteland scraped against the armored shell, creating a sharp whistling sound.

The Lv.8 mobile heavy fortress sped along Branch Road No. 29.

The B-grade all-terrain self-healing armored tires displayed terrifying grip, crushing over dense piles of gravel and deep pits, yet the vehicle body remained so steady that the cup of water on the dashboard did not ripple at all.

Chen Chen rested one hand on the steering wheel while toying with the infinite-ammo [Bronze-grade Tactical Silenced Pistol] with the other.

He lowered the car window by a narrow slit, and the muzzle poked out silently.

"Pfft."

A violent Aberrant that had lunged at the sound fell to the ground, a bloody hole visible through its forehead.

The system notification popped up right on time.

[Killed Level 1 Aberrant, EXP +1]

Chen Chen glanced at the experience bar, which didn't budge.

After reaching Level 5, the rewards for killing such low-level trash had plummeted off a cliff.

Killing hundreds of them wasn't worth a fraction of a single elite monster.

The underlying logic of this crappy system was obvious—it encouraged survivors to actively hunt high-level monsters; hiding in a comfort zone to farm small fry was a complete waste of time.

Chen Chen tossed the gun onto the dashboard and closed the window tight.

No matter how strong one person was, their firepower coverage was ultimately limited.

In the future, when facing hordes of high-level corpses numbering in the thousands, he couldn't drive and fire in all directions at the same time.

These three women in the car couldn't just be ornaments that passively triggered talents.

He had to equip them with basic self-defense and auxiliary combat capabilities.

"Take it." Chen Chen tossed the silenced pistol to Shen Wanbing in the passenger seat.

He turned around, pulled those two [D-grade Adaptive Tactical Repeating Crossbows] from his 36-slot storage backpack, and threw them onto the large hard bed in the back.

"Jiang Yanxue, Shen Wanxing. One for each of you."

The three women looked at the weapons in their hands and exchanged glances.

"Level up." Chen Chen engaged the automatic cruise control, stood up from the leather driver's seat, and looked down at them.

"Before dawn, you three must raise your levels."

Jiang Yanxue weighed the carbon-fiber repeating crossbow in her hand, the red dot of the infrared sight dancing on the armored wall of the cabin.

She walked to a firing port and looked out at the shadowy, swarming monsters in the night.

"How do we level up? Open the door and let a few in for a one-on-one fight?" she asked.

"Use your talent." Chen Chen pointed outside. "Take over their brains and have them line up to be delivered."

"Got it!"

Jiang Yanxue closed her eyes, and her SS-grade [Aberration Domination] fully activated.

Invisible mental energy, like countless tentacles, radiated hundreds of meters outward with the camper as the center, piercing into the neural centers of those low-level monsters.

A scene that was extremely absurd yet incredibly satisfying unfolded.

Those low-level Aberrants that had been wandering the wilderness, ready to go berserk upon smelling human scent, stopped in unison.

They turned stiffly, walked with extremely uncoordinated steps, formed a long queue, and wobbled to the outside of the vehicle's firing ports.

They stood still.

Stretched their necks.

Didn't move an inch.

It was literally a slaughterhouse on an assembly line.

Shen Wanxing was stunned as she peered through the firing port, her small mouth slightly agape.

"This... this works too?"

"Less talk, fire." Chen Chen ordered.

Shen Wanbing was the first to act.

She gripped the silenced pistol, poked the barrel out of the firing port, and her slender fingers pulled the trigger.

"Pfft."

Headshot.

[Killed Level 1 Aberrant, EXP +10!]

Shen Wanxing and Jiang Yanxue also raised their repeating crossbows.

The automatic cocking mechanism saved the greatest amount of physical exertion, and the bolts accurately pierced the monsters' skulls.

The monsters fell in rows without even letting out a scream.

What was truly terrifying were the system notifications that followed.

Jiang Yanxue's golden trait [Slaughter Feast] was passively triggered, with monster drops fixed at +1.

Shen Wanxing's [Lucky Critical] took effect immediately afterward, with multipliers of two, five, and ten times stacking crazily.

The materials, primary vehicle core fragments, and tattered cloth bursting out outside the vehicle piled up into a small hill at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Chen Chen stood to the side, his 36-slot storage backpack open.

He didn't need to do anything; he just needed to use his mind to frantically sweep the fissioned resources into his backpack.

Resource freedom was just that simple and brutal.

An hour of one-sided slaughter ended.

The low-level monsters within hundreds of meters were cleaned out completely, not even a hair left behind.

Jiang Yanxue had the best foundation and shot straight to Level 4.

Both Shen sisters leveled up to Level 3.

"Add your points." Chen Chen looked at their attribute panels and began to allocate strategic resources.

Shen Wanbing's god-tier radar consumed an extreme amount of mental energy, so Chen Chen had her focus on adding points to "Spirit," with the remaining points split between Constitution and Agility to ensure she could withstand the high-intensity consumption of detection.

Shen Wanxing held her free attribute points and looked at Chen Chen with eager eyes.

"Put them all into Luck." Chen Chen didn't hesitate at all.

Pushing the human koi fish trait to the limit was more useful than adding any defense to her.

As long as this girl could still breathe, she was the core logistics guarantee for this vehicle.

The night gradually faded, and the gray-white daylight reclaimed the horizon.

The emotionless voice of the system rang out in the minds of all survivors across the server.

[Survival Challenge Quest "Altar of Flesh" has officially begun!]

[Rules announced: An Altar of Flesh will refresh 500 kilometers ahead on every road.]

[Players must sacrifice a monster corpse to the Altar. The higher the level and grade of the sacrificed monster, the higher the ranking obtained.]

[Those at the top of the ranking will have the chance to obtain top-tier rewards such as unique skill books, advanced blueprints, and rare equipment.]

[Quest countdown: 36 hours.]

The cabin was silent for a few seconds.

"Altar of Flesh..." Jiang Yanxue chewed on these four words, a wild glint flashing in her eyes.

"Unique skill books, good stuff."

In this digitized survival game, equipment could be dropped and vehicles could be crafted, but only skill books, which were supernatural abilities that acted directly on oneself, had an infuriatingly low drop rate.

Not to mention the "unique" prefix.

Once obtained, it was a dimensional reduction strike.

Shen Wanbing closed her eyes, and her god-tier radar, bolstered by her high Spirit attribute, operated at full power.

A moment later, she opened her eyes, her tone carrying a rare fluctuation of emotion.

"We are only 200 kilometers away from the Altar in a straight line."

Last night, Chen Chen had taken Branch Road No. 29 and had been speeding along without stopping.

This put them far ahead of those players on the main road at the starting line.

Chen Chen opened the regional chat channel.

It was already boiling over, filled with wails and complaints.

"500 kilometers? My crappy tricycle wouldn't make it even if I pedaled my legs off!"

"Don't even mention it! The main road is blocked solid. Several cars piled up in front, and it attracted a huge wave of ghouls!"

"Damn it, can someone tell me what the hell happened on Branch Road No. 29? All the monsters from that military factory have run out! They blocked the entrance to the branch road completely; there's no way to get through!"

"Which son of a bitch did this? Isn't this just trying to cut off our way of survival?!"

Shen Wanxing looked at the screen full of curses in the channel, guiltily shrank her neck, and stuck out her tongue.

Chen Chen closed the panel and let out a cold snort.

This game was essentially a zero-sum game.

Only when others ate dirt could he eat meat.

Climbing up by stepping on the corpses of others was the most basic survival rule of the wasteland.

As for those unlucky ones blocked behind, they could only blame themselves for running too slowly.

"Don't be too happy too early." Shen Wanbing's slender fingers swiped across the virtual map.

"My radar detects seven or eight red dots moving at high speed ahead on this branch road. They are all player vehicles."

Chen Chen raised an eyebrow.

"Their driving style is extreme." Shen Wanbing continued her analysis.

"They aren't stopping at any stop points, giving up all opportunities to scavenge for high-level supplies. They rely purely on grabbing scattered basic supply boxes by the roadside to maintain fuel consumption and survival. This desperate, scorched-earth driving method is all to seize the first-mover advantage for the Altar."

No wonder.

Shen Wanxing muttered to the side, "I was wondering why I haven't seen even a black iron box this morning. Turns out the people in front drank all the soup."

Without supply boxes on the side of the road, Shen Wanxing's Lucky Critical talent became useless.

Jiang Yanxue leaned against the armored wall, wiping the repeating crossbow in her hand.

"Those seven or eight cars in front, daring to drive like that, must have some hard currency in their hands. They might have formed a vehicle alliance. If we rush in alone, will there be trouble?"

"Trouble?" Chen Chen retorted, his gaze fixed through the windshield on the endless road ahead.

"In the face of absolute armor and firepower, all tactical alliances are just scrap metal."

Shen Wanbing nodded in agreement.

"The defense value of the Lv.8 mobile heavy fortress is 1200. With the average firepower of players at the current stage, they can't even scratch our car paint. It is worth noting that these desperate players have scavenged all the basic supplies along the way, so their trunks are now our ready-made mobile supply stations."

It saves the trouble of getting out of the car to open boxes; we can just take the whole lot.

This task release mechanism of the system is itself a huge filter.

Using top-tier rewards as bait, it concentrates all ambitious and capable players at the same coordinate point.

This is not a simple race, but a battle royale.

In front of the Altar of Flesh, there will inevitably be a meat-grinder-style bloody battle between players, and between players and high-level monsters.

Chen Chen didn't care about the battle royale.

He only intended to be the final surviving king.

Chen Chen rested his hands on the steering wheel, his fingers rhythmically tapping the leather edge.

That group in front had eaten everything on the road, not leaving even a scrap.

That was good.

"Since they like to snatch the road ahead," Chen Chen pressed the clutch and shifted to the highest gear, "then both the people and the vehicles will be my supplies."

The 11-ton mobile heavy fortress erupted with a deafening roar.

The C-grade turbocharger kit ran at full power, and the exhaust pipe spewed out scorching waves of heat.

The reinforced heavy serrated bumper on the front of the car glinted with a bloodthirsty, cold light in the morning sun.

Prey locked.

Chase them down and rob them all.

While on the way, slaughter a few more high-level elite monsters as the first top-tier stepping stone to open the door to the Altar of Flesh.