Chapter 554: Bound to the Child-Bearing System, Becoming a Winner in Life Chapter 555: Infinite Flow Cannon Fodder (2)

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Main Character:

Shen Yao

Shen Yao opened her eyes, gazing at a pure white ceiling. She rested for a moment before slowly sitting up.

The bed beside her was already empty. Shen Yao slowly moved her wrist, then got up and left.

Xu Ningchen was sitting on the sofa at this time, with the hotel's breakfast laid out before him. Seeing Shen Yao come out of the room, he hurriedly waved, then smiled and handed her a bowl of freshly cooked millet porridge.

"Try it. The hotel provides three meals a day for free, but only during the novice mission period."

These were the words spoken by the staff member who delivered the breakfast.

Even now they were merely Normal Persons; apart from being unable to leave this Infinite Hotel and seeing nothing but white light through the windows, everything else was no different from normal life.

Shen Yao sat beside Xu Ningchen looking cute and obedient, spooning the millet porridge into her mouth. Mm, to be honest, the taste was actually quite good.

Soon, the bowl of millet porridge was finished. Shen Yao ate a few more small steamed buns and tea leaf eggs, then put down her bowl and chopsticks and began talking about their mission for today.

Without a doubt, one month's time was like a giant sword hanging over their heads, ready to fall at any moment.

Whatever the consideration, they had to pass the novice mission within one month to officially enter the Infinite World.

Xu Ningchen rubbed his chin and opened his phone, which had shown no signal and frozen time ever since they arrived last night. "The space here is strange; the flow of time is different from usual."

"This morning, while the staff was delivering food, I chatted briefly with the people in the rooms on either side. They've been here for two days already, and none of them are from Ling City."

Shen Yao took up the conversation. "Then they must enter the novice instance at the latest today?"

Xu Ningchen nodded. "Although some are reluctant, ordinary people generally don't dare to try the consequences of delaying."

In a strange environment, the behavior most likely to keep one alive is compliance. Choosing to rebel without sufficient information is either overconfidence in one's own strength or sheer stupidity.

Xu Ningchen did not deny that the novice instance was dangerous, but in a hotel that could not be explained by common sense, they temporarily had no other options.

After breakfast, the leftover food didn't need to be dealt with; someone would come to handle it.

The two decided to go to the First Floor Lobby to gather information. After all, the entire hotel had a hundred floors (the numbers had been displayed when they took the elevator last night), and there were certainly many people inside. As newcomers, they should still be cautious.

Ding—

The elevator descended and stopped at the First Floor Lobby.

Compared to the silence of last night, the lobby was obviously much livelier now.

Quite a few people were gathered around the front desk, no one knew what they were saying, and the sound of noisy discussion filled their ears.

Shen Yao looked up and met Xu Ningchen's gaze, then they split up to act separately.

Unlike the front area where there were many people, the people in the corners on both sides were relatively few.

Shen Yao turned her steps and simply smiled brightly as she ran toward a few people who looked youthful and awkward—clearly students at a glance.

The system also played its role at this time, openly eavesdropping in the lobby. Anyway, the technology here had no effect on it.

After Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen gathered information, by the time they met up it was nearly noon.

As mentioned before, the hotel provided three meals a day and accommodation for free, so the two did not discuss information in the lobby. Instead, they returned to Room 1015, eating while organizing the various intelligence they had heard.

First, a point must be clarified: the entire Infinite Hotel had one hundred floors. The fifty floors below were for newcomers who had been here less than three days; floors fifty to eighty were for those who had passed one novice mission; floors eighty to one hundred were for those who had passed two novice missions.

As for those who had passed three novice missions, they would not appear in the hotel but would be teleported directly to the Infinite World upon passing.

"Judging by the hotel floors, every novice mission is not simple," in other words, there were casualties. Because as the number of passes kept increasing, the floors available for residence kept decreasing.

"Not only that, newcomers check into the Infinite Hotel every day." Even while they were gathering information, several people had entered directly through the gate.

"No one who has passed the novice mission was seen in the First Floor Lobby," Shen Yao was not referring to those who passed three times and had the ability to enter the Infinite World, but to those who had passed once or twice.

Not only could they not see such people with their own eyes, but the system had not gathered any information about them either, as if they did not exist above the fiftieth floor.

Perhaps only after passing one novice mission themselves would they know the secrets above the fiftieth floor.

The information the two obtained was not much, because the First Floor Lobby was full of newcomers. No matter how much was said, they had not yet been baptized by the instance.

However, they did obtain some intelligence. Those who could enter here were all lucky ones who had once avoided various disasters.

Just as they had avoided the truck collision last night, these people had either dodged out-of-control vehicles, avoided falling billboards, or survived being robbed... In short, they had all had some strange encounters to be able to come here.

The two still planned to enter the novice instance first and see the situation after coming out. After all, their current channels for obtaining information were too few.

"Let's do it tomorrow. Rest one more night, and we can also replenish our spirits."

Xu Ningchen looked at Shen Yao's flat abdomen and felt somewhat anxious. Pregnant women were different from ordinary people; entering a novice mission would make accidents more likely.

Shen Yao smiled and grabbed Xu Ningchen's wrist, signaling him to relax and not think too much. She knew her own body best. As long as it wasn't a fatal injury, she could definitely handle it.

That said, when it came to life and death, Xu Ningchen might not be as capable of surviving as her. Not everyone carried a cheat system.

That afternoon, the two did not go out again. Instead, they analyzed the two options on the room card and finally unanimously chose the Mist.

The reason Xu Ningchen gave was very convincing: "No matter what instance, there is always a stable period."

"Compared to growth, which might involve too much movement, the Mist is easier to deal with."

They could first buy some equipment to isolate the mist, then quickly find its loopholes and escape rapidly. As long as they ran fast enough, nothing would happen.

Shen Yao:...

From a certain perspective, Xu Ningchen's inference actually made a lot of sense.

The Mist referred to the mist. Things in the mist would threaten human life, but it definitely had a time limit; it was impossible to unleash a big move the moment they met.

Growth referred to animals and plants that could rapidly grow and likely mutate. By then, the entire human survival space would be squeezed, vehicles would be unusable, and even if they wanted to escape, it would be very difficult.

So between these two options, the Mist was more suitable for their current ideas.

Once decided, do it. Since a decision was made, there could be no going back and forth.

The two went to bed early that night. When they woke up the next morning, they first sat in the Living Room and happily ate a meal personally delivered by the staff. Then they each chose the Mist option on the room card. White light flashed, and the two instantly disappeared from the room.

When Shen Yao opened her eyes again, she found herself standing at a crossroads.

People came and went all around, yet no one noticed her, including the not-quite-clear surroundings in the distance, which had grown foggy.

Beep-beep—

The sound of a car horn rang by her ear; Shen Yao subconsciously turned her head to look and saw Xu Ningchen sitting inside the car.

Thump-thump-thump

She ran over, opened the car door, got in and steadied herself, "Let's go to a large pharmacy first."

A mechanical sound appeared in their minds, prompting that their novice mission was timed survival.

Seven days

As long as they survived seven days in this city named Tiannan City, they could clear the instance.

Of course, besides this timed survival mission, if they could escape Tiannan City within three days, not only would they clear it but they would also obtain a ten-point reward.

What use are points? The mechanical sound did not explain, but Shen Yao deduced this might be the Infinite World's currency; they would only truly understand after clearing the novice mission.

Sitting in the car, Shen Yao first rummaged through her clothing pockets, then fished out her own phone to check.

After a series of operations, Shen Yao could be described as having mixed feelings.

Good news: the phone had signal, her ID card existed; bad news: the bank cards and pocket change bound in the real world had all vanished without a trace — currently she was a penniless ghost.

Phew

Since she herself was in this state, Shen Yao didn't need to ask how Xu Ningchen was.

She silently opened the lending system in her phone apps; Shen Yao didn't hesitate, ding-ding-dang-dang, by the time the vehicle stopped at the entrance of a large pharmacy, both their phones held five-figure emergency funds.

For this Shen Yao still felt some regret; if not for the missing bank card information, she clearly could have borrowed even more money.

"Buy medicine and protective suits, we'll get one set each first, then later we still need to prepare enough supplies for seven days of consumption."

Xu Ningchen pointed at the supermarket not far from the pharmacy; they would have to go there in a bit.

Shen Yao nodded; the two entered the pharmacy one after another, bought some daily-use medicines, then bought masks, protective suits, and oxygen bottles of various models as backup.

Crate after crate was carried out and loaded into the car by them; only at this moment did Shen Yao react — the car before her eyes wasn't the one they used daily? Could it be that entering the novice instance they would even bring their means of transport?

"Not necessarily; when I entered this time, the voice in my mind asked whether to bring it along," considering possible problems inside the fog, Xu Ningchen directly chose to bring it as a safety consideration.

After finishing purchases at the pharmacy, they then drove to the mall not far away.

A normal mall's basement level one is a large supermarket, with diverse items for sale; even if they included as much as possible of the two people's daily consumption, the supplies they purchased and took away would not be especially numerous.

Bread, chocolate, ready-to-eat items... Shen Yao ignored rice, flour, oil and other staples that still required cooking herself, selecting only supplies that could be eaten or prepared instantly.

The money in the phone flowed out like water; by the time they went to a gas station and filled the tank, several hours had already passed.

The originally only thin layer of fog became dense; visibility inside the car was no longer as open as when they first entered.

Opening the masks in their hands, the two put them on properly while planning their departure route.

They did not plan to stay in the urban area and scrape through seven days to clear; they would first attempt to leave Tiannan City within three days — only if this route failed would they consider the survival mission.

Tiannan City's urban area is very large and prosperous; the passages leaving Tiannan City are roughly divided into four directions.

The two prepared the items they would need, even stopping at a hardware store to buy some handy tools — after all, they couldn't guarantee a smooth departure; if they ran into trouble on the road, they could only resolve it manually themselves.

"The east side is the road to Tianqing City, but it's already closed, unknown when it will reopen.

The west side is the road to Gushui Town; that place falls within Tiannan City's scope; if driving, the journey takes a long detour and is unsafe — after all, a tourist town's facilities are built for recreation, not as complete as the urban area.

The south side is the road to Tianhai City; there is a highway, but that side passes through the university city and residential areas — accidents are very likely on the road.

The north side is the road to Tiankang City; the highway has been under construction all along, so they can only take the old worn-out roads, with a few scattered villages and towns distributed around the periphery.

Besides these, there are several other routes leaving Tiannan City, all are..."

Shen Yao opened her phone map; taking advantage that the network was still up, she directly packaged and downloaded it.

Xu Ningchen raised his hand and tapped the steering wheel before him, "East and south we won't go for now; between west and north, prioritize north — if north is impassable then go west," even though west requires a long detour, compared to the urban population, the tourist town is merely a minor problem compared to a major one.

The car beneath them moved, quickly merging with the surrounding traffic flow.

The phone was placed on the mount not far away; a clear navigation voice sounded; Xu Ningchen accelerated and headed straight for Tiannan City's north side.

The fog outside was already very dense; unknown whether because the light had dimmed, Shen Yao discovered these white fogs had changed color.

Confirming it wasn't her own eyesight's problem, Shen Yao hurriedly patted Xu Ningchen beside her, "Look, there are things hiding inside these fogs."

A flash of red and black, like winged flying insects flapping.

The system also agreed with the host's words in their mind; the scenes it captured were even clearer, making a fuss to emphasize that although this is a constructed virtual world, the characters and scenes inside have appeared before — 'Who knows, this world might have been destroyed by the insects inside the fog.'

Just like the missing persons cases constantly appearing in the modern society where the host lives, all belong to force majeure natural disasters.

At this, Shen Yao only pursed her lips, eyes fixed on the fog not far away.

Because the car windows were already sealed shut, and both of them wore masks, they didn't need to worry about being attacked or ambushed by those flying insects in the fog.

But besides them who were prepared early, the surrounding other people were completely defenseless.

Rising and falling car horns appeared, along with continuously colliding vehicles, jamming the originally slow-moving road solid.

Xu Ningchen had no choice but to stop the car; the people who had accidents ahead got out of their cars, arguing with each other and even raising hands to hit people.

Hm?

"Switch roads?"

Shen Yao felt waiting further had no benefit; the fog was growing larger and larger; they couldn't delay too long inside Tiannan City.

"Let's take the small roads."

Xu Ningchen turned the steering wheel and switched roads; the pedestrian flow obviously decreased, but the surrounding streets had many defenseless people showing all kinds of symptoms — coughing, vomiting, fainting... a chaotic mess.