Chapter 565

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Protagonist:

Shen Yao

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen relied on their own diplomatic skills to successfully establish relationships with several households around them.

The chat content was relatively simple and did not involve personal privacy issues; they just cared about the rainy weather nowadays and expressed concern and lamented over their own personal safety issues going forward.

Well, some who could no longer endure had already become anxious, feeling that the place before them was indeed unsafe and that they must hurry to the top of Feng Shan.

"The altitude there is the highest, and there are several temples on the mountain with decent incense offerings," ordinarily people who come to climb Feng Shan enjoy an all-in-one service of eating and playing along the way; they belong to the category of plans failing to keep up with changes, but under the premise that they cannot go down the mountain right now, heading to the temples located at the top of Feng Shan is the best choice.

"This mountain road is so difficult to walk, and it's raining outside; how are we supposed to carry these things we brought?"

Some want to leave while some want to stay; people are just like this—no matter what they do, there are times when opinions are not unified.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen exchanged glances, wisely not participating, but they had long planned to leave a step earlier; this rain will only get heavier, and the crowd staying at the foot of Feng Shan, if they want to survive, can only head up the mountain.

The morning chat did not yield better suggestions; Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen, using the excuse that it was not early, neatly returned to the area where they were temporarily staying.

The pattering sound of raindrops fell on the tent, playing a special movement.

Raising her hand to look at the mountain ranges shrouded in clouds and mist in the distance, Shen Yao raised her hand to touch her hat-wearing head, "Tomorrow morning, no matter what others think, we must head up the mountain."

The position they were in was not even half the overall altitude of Feng Shan; it was foreseeable that more and more people would come to Feng Shan in the future; if they wanted to live more comfortably and have more opportunities to earn extra points, they had to stay one step ahead of others.

Xu Ningchen went back to bury his head in organizing things; besides some daily sundries in the tent, there was also the generator Shen Yao took out from the Space Backpack to generate electricity.

Of course it wasn't solar power; after all, this instance's name and weather meant there wouldn't be sun for long; this was a generator that needed diesel, and they had already stockpiled enough diesel usage before leaving the city—who let even the ships behind need to use these fuels to start up.

At noon, the two simply ate some cooked food and dishes from the Space Backpack.

Outside the door, two people who had interacted with them in the morning hurried over, probing Xu Ningchen's attitude in their words; upon hearing that Xu Ningchen planned to set out tomorrow morning, they hurriedly expressed that they also wanted to leave, suggesting they just team up and help each other along the way.

Xu Ningchen smiled and nodded, agreeing to set out at seven tomorrow morning.

"Have you two agreed on this?" Xu Ningchen pointed to the vast mountains behind them; this time they had to at least reach half the altitude; based on the current rain and road conditions, the time spent would conservatively be estimated at one day.

"Don't worry, both our families want to go to the mountain top; there, at least there is safety and food and drink conditions," otherwise staying in place being blown by wind and beaten by rain, the adults' bodies could endure, but the children's bodies couldn't take it.

These two were models of family outings, with adults and children; relatively speaking, they were more at a disadvantage.

"Go back and prepare; the earlier we go up, the better positions we can grab."

"No one knows how long this rain will last," if there really is some emergency, surely the mountain top with the highest altitude would be the last to be submerged.

Who doesn't know the mountain top is safe with food and drink; at times like this, being first or last is especially important.

After hearing Xu Ningchen's words, those two immediately hurried back anxiously and panicked.

Shen Yao pushed open the tent and saw two figures disappearing into the rain.

There was no way; this rain was dense and heavy, extremely unfriendly to visibility.

Shen Yao called Xu Ningchen in to rest; they had quite a lot of things to bring on the surface, and at times like this, the car couldn't be taken out for use.

Searching here and there, Shen Yao finally pulled out a small cart that could simply push goods; this kind of cart was often used for deliveries, but now it could place some things on top and tie them down; one pulling and one pushing, even walking on not-so-flat paths would be easier.

"Put these away; prepare more cold medicine, anti-inflammatory medicine, trauma medicine for falls and injuries, and disinfectant," Xu Ningchen pointed to the cardboard box on the side, and also mentioned that at times like this people easily catch colds and get diarrhea; anti-diarrheal medicine and other medicines should also be taken out a bit; their bodies as taskers were healthier than ordinary people in the instance.

Shen Yao made an "en" sound and nodded; the cardboard box was put back into the Space Backpack, but those medicines Xu Ningchen mentioned were all put into Shen Yao's rainproof backpack for external use, to the extent that the backpack looked bulging, causing Shen Yao to unconsciously attract many gazes when they set out the next morning.

Shen Yao:...

Shen Yao didn't take it to heart; it wasn't yet the most critical moment, and besides, they two also wanted to earn some points.

Intentionally or unintentionally, the news that Shen Yao had medicine spread in this temporary team; embarrassed adults, for the sake of the children at home, thickened their faces to come beg for medicine, and left supplies they used for exchange (all instant foods) on the side.

"When will the points be credited?" Shen Yao whispered to Xu Ningchen, "Providing help, is there a defined extent of help?"

Just lending a hand to support someone counts as help, and saving a person's life also counts as help.

Xu Ningchen shook his head, his gaze lightly sweeping over the two families not far away; both were families of four, plus the two of them—a standard vulnerable group, most easily targeted in a chaotic environment.

"Perhaps we have to wait until we clear the instance and see the settlement screen to know the specific situation."

After all, points are only settled by the system after leaving the instance.

This instance task had extra options for earning points; compared to pure survival instances, people would be gentler toward each other.

But this also brought a problem: helping people in the instance could earn points, but helping companions who were also taskers would only result in damaged interests (competing with each other for personnel).

The two of them must not expose their identity as taskers unless necessary.

The two quickly figured out the bottom line of this matter in an instant; they could pretend to be NPCs in the instance to help others, but could not associate too closely with other taskers.

"The later it gets in the instance, the harsher the conditions here will become."

By then, it cannot be ruled out that some people will take extreme measures to eliminate competitors whose interests conflict with their own.

Having experienced novice tasks, taskers all knew points were not easy to earn; facing such an excellent channel source, who could resist and not be tempted?

Shen Yao thought while walking; at the same time, she had the system not be idle, first determining how many taskers were on the entire Feng Shan; as the saying goes, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles.

System:...

The system was speechless; it didn't want to work; voluntarily listening to gossip and being forced to probe for information were clearly two different states of mind.

The system, cursing in its heart, turned around and left; even if a great rain fell from the sky, it had no effect on it.

Shen Yao and Xu Ningchen and others buried their heads in hurrying along; just as they had agreed before, the difficulty of going up the mountain in such rain had already increased a lot, let alone that there was a sick person in their team.

Meeting others stopping to rest on the road, with the idea of strength in numbers (just wanting to test whether lending a hand to save someone could earn points), this team of theirs was welcoming to all comers; as long as they weren't people with particularly odd personalities, all were welcome to join.

The team of originally only ten people quickly expanded; from afar it looked like a long dragon.

However, there were also many such troubles; their hurrying speed was lowered again; the originally estimated journey of about one day was completely insufficient.

There was no way; they could only temporarily find a relatively flat place as their lodging for the night.

Fortunately, at this time everyone on Feng Shan had tents; simply setting up a shelter to block wind and rain, they temporarily didn't need to worry about living issues.

However, the tents were still too weak; coupled with moisture in the air not evaporating, everywhere was a damp sticky feeling; people staying long would not only easily have physical problems, but their hearts would also become extremely fragile.

Xu Ningchen found the others again to discuss, and they still had to seize time to climb the mountain and reach the summit.

"There's a temple at the mountain top, with people, water, and electricity inside," Xu Ningchen pointed at the frail children and elderly, "we're strong and healthy, can endure a bit longer, but they can't."

Especially under this kind of extreme weather, the rain will only get bigger, moving into the house earlier means they can also think of the next countermeasure.