26: Chapter 26 Yun Xiao

Deep night, pitch black as ink.

The cold wind was like a knife, ruthlessly cutting into Yun Xiao's thin body.

On this wilderness highway that seemed to have no end, she had been stumbling along alone for several hours.

Hunger, cold, exhaustion, and that suffocating fear were slowly devouring her sanity.

In the Global Survival Game, besides the conventional Health and Stamina, there was a fatal attribute: Sanity.

Maximum score of one hundred.

When Sanity drops below sixty, players start to experience hallucinations.

Below twenty-five, players will go completely insane, turning into monsters that only know how to kill.

Once it hits zero, the whispers of the Old Gods will force the player to commit suicide directly.

Yun Xiao tremblingly opened the system panel; the Sanity value on it was already flickering with a harsh red light, having dropped to fifty-four.

As a high school student who had just turned eighteen, her starting position could be described as disastrous.

On the first day she arrived on the highway, she drew an old man's scooter, and before she could drive twenty kilometers, it ran out of power.

Behind her was the rolling, deadly red mist, almost forcing her into a desperate situation.

Just when she thought she was doomed, a dilapidated off-road vehicle stopped in front of her.

The driver was a middle-aged man with a weather-beaten face, named Shen Hai.

"Girl, get in. I'll give you a ride."

In this apocalypse where there was no moral bottom line and murder and looting were as common as eating, Yun Xiao had hesitated for a long time.

She was afraid of meeting a pervert, afraid of jumping out of the wolf's den only to enter a tiger's mouth.

But looking at the red mist closing in behind her, she finally gritted her teeth, pulled open the car door, and sat in.

Facts proved that she had won the bet.

Uncle Shen was a truly good person, the kind of person who was super good.

Along the way, he had completely protected Yun Xiao as if she were his own daughter.

Yun Xiao still remembered the words Uncle said while touching the steering wheel, his face full of worry.

"I also have a daughter, about your age."

"This damn apocalypse survival game, I don't know which region she's been assigned to, or if she's being bullied."

"I'm helping you out, just consider it accumulating merit for my daughter."

"If I can, I only hope that when she encounters difficulties, there will also be a kind person to give her a hand."

Over these days, Yun Xiao actually knew very well in her heart that she was just a burden, frail and powerless.

But Uncle had never thought of abandoning her.

Encountering zombie pursuits, Uncle always took a rusty iron rod and rushed to the front to cover the retreat.

On that extreme cold night a day ago, the off-road vehicle didn't have much fuel left, and the car's air conditioning was broken.

The car cabin was as cold as an ice cellar.

Uncle didn't hesitate to tightly wrap the only thick blanket around her, while he himself shivered from the cold.

Even when they collected precious water and food, Uncle always insisted on giving her half.

If not for Uncle Shen, she would have long since become a pile of dry bones.

Until a few hours ago, when this nightmare descended.

At that time, the sun was about to set, and the system suddenly released an exciting region-wide announcement.

The big shot Red Wolf had cleared the four-star highway secret realm, and as a regional reward, the fuel tanks of all surviving players in District C-72 were automatically filled instantly!

This was originally a huge miracle.

The off-road vehicle whose fuel gauge had long been flashing red instantly regained its vitality.

But no one expected that this gift would turn into a death warrant in the blink of an eye.

Because the system's announcement was not kept secret from other regions.

In the eyes of those red-named thugs in the adjacent C-71 and C-75 districts, every player in District C-72 was now a mobile gas station overflowing with wealth.

As long as they killed someone and looted the car, they could get a full tank of fuel!

When they were resting on the side of the road, they encountered an ambush by two armed modified vehicles.

Facing the crazy pincer attack of the two vehicles, the off-road vehicle had no power to resist.

At a sharp turn on the highway, Uncle slammed on the brakes.

He pushed open the passenger door with force and roared at Yun Xiao.

"Jump out! Jump into the sand pit and hide!"

"Their target is this full tank of gas; I'll lure them away!"

"Yun Xiao, you must survive!"

That was the last sentence Yun Xiao heard Uncle say.

She rolled into the sand pit by the highway with momentum, covered in blood from the fall.

When she raised her head again, she only saw Uncle's off-road vehicle being tightly pursued by two red-named vehicles, its taillights gradually disappearing into the sky full of yellow sand.

The bone-chilling cold wind forcibly pulled Yun Xiao's thoughts back to reality.

The sky had completely darkened.

She didn't know if Uncle was dead or alive, and she didn't know how much longer she could hold on in this desert.

Beep.

The system issued a faint warning.

Sanity: Forty-nine.

The red light flickered faster and faster.

Yun Xiao's vision began to blur, and strange whispers even overlapped with the sound of the wind in her ears.

She felt her eyelids growing heavier, and her legs were unable to move as if they were filled with lead.

Just then, in the dark wilderness ahead, a faint but warm yellow light suddenly lit up.

Along with the light, a mouth-watering aroma of food drifted into her nostrils with the wind.

That was... the smell of barbecue?

Yun Xiao rubbed her dry eyes.

In the halo at the end of her vision, she vaguely saw a cozy kitchen.

A familiar figure was wearing an apron, holding a spatula, busy in front of the stove.

"Mom..."

Yun Xiao's chapped lips opened and closed slightly, and a drop of hot tear slid from the corner of her eye.

Her brain was completely unable to think; the plunge in Sanity made her completely unable to distinguish between illusion and reality.

She was like a puppet that had lost its soul, stumbling away from the main road of the highway.

Walking step by step towards the light deep in the wilderness...

The warm halo seemed to be close at hand, and the aroma of barbecue was so rich it almost made her shed tears.

"Mom... I'm back..."

Yun Xiao squeezed out a weak smile, slowly stretched out her small, blood-stained hand, wanting to push open the wooden kitchen door that was warm in her memory.

However, the second before her fingertips were about to touch the "wooden door."

The illusion vanished, and she lunged forward violently, falling heavily behind a sand dune by the road.

The rough sand and gravel ruthlessly cut her palms, and the biting cold wind mixed with ice shards instantly poured into her collar.

The intense pain and the extreme physical cold were like an ice pick, fiercely piercing into her muddled brain.

Yun Xiao shuddered violently.

The Sanity value, which had dropped to forty-nine, fluctuated violently at this moment, producing a brief flash of clarity before the end.

The illusion before her eyes shattered like broken glass!

Where was there any cozy kitchen, where was there any mom wearing an apron.

Appearing a few dozen meters away in her line of sight was a blood-red steel behemoth, as huge and ferocious as a mountain, crouching in the yellow sand of the night!

The leaping campfire illuminated its cold armor, making it look like a Shura demon.

"Beep—!"

With the movement of her falling into the sand dune, the heavy motorcycle that had been quiet suddenly flashed with harsh red light, erupting with a sharp electronic alarm sound.

But Yun Xiao could hardly hear this harsh sound anymore.

The huge gap and despair after the illusion shattered, along with her completely exhausted stamina, instantly crushed her last trace of clarity.

"Uncle... I'm sorry..."

She closed her eyes in despair, her body went limp, and she completely passed out behind this cold sand dune.