Chapter 1: Died Suddenly and Came Back to Life

"Cheng Shuili, this feature goes live tomorrow; it must be fixed tonight!"

"Cheng Shuili, the server crashed, hurry up and fix it!"

"Cheng Shuili..."

Cheng Shuili flung her eyes open, gasping for breath. The manager's roar still seemed to echo in her ears, but before her eyes was no longer the familiar office and that line of code that would never compile.

Her last memory was a sudden stab of pain from her heart, then the world plunged into darkness.

After working overtime for 72 consecutive hours, her heart finally gave out.

What... have I died?

Cheng Shuili's first reaction was: 'Great, finally I don't have to fix those damn bugs anymore,' and then she heard the system's announcement.

【Welcome to the Road Survival Game, all 7 billion global players are in place】

A cold mechanical voice sounded in her mind, and Cheng Shuili saw a semi-transparent system panel appear before her:

【Player: Cheng Shuili (ID AAAJCCJ8888)】

【Initial talent draw in progress...】

【Congratulations on obtaining talent: Bug Physique (SSS rank)】

【Description: You can always find and exploit system loopholes】

Cheng Shuili blinked.

Bug Physique? What kind of freaky talent is this?

As a former programmer, she was allergic to the word 'BUG'. Even seeing those three letters, her heart would faintly twitch.

She looked around and found herself standing on a barren wasteland, a straight road stretching ahead beneath her feet, with endless mountain ranges on either side in the distance, the sky an abnormal dark red. Wind blew through the dry grass, producing a rustling sound.

She finally realized the reality.

Ah, it seems I've transmigrated, how great.

Not having to work is great!

Cheng Shuili jumped up with excitement, bouncing several times before calming down.

The system's announcement sounded again.

【Welcome all players to Road Survival, this is Long Guo Third Major District 1000 Subdistrict, please all players choose your initial vehicle.】

Four semi-transparent option boxes suddenly appeared before Cheng Shuili:

【A. Mountain Bike (basic transport, storage 5kg, no fuel required)】

【B. Electric Tricycle (low-speed cargo tool, storage 20kg, battery range 50km)】

【C. Pickup Truck (multifunctional vehicle, storage 100kg, relatively high fuel consumption)】

【D. Box Truck (large vehicle, storage 300kg, high fuel consumption)】

As a former programmer, Cheng Shuili instinctively began analyzing this interface.

The edges of the option boxes showed subtle pixel misalignment, and a nearly invisible loading icon spun in the lower right corner.

"This UI is really rough," she couldn't help but complain, "they didn't even do responsive design well."

She reached out to drag the interface, discovering she could actually move this floating window. Professional habit drove her to test the system's boundaries—double-click, long press, swipe, multi-touch…

When her finger triple-tapped the C option quickly, the interface suddenly flickered.

Immediately after, the entire interface blurred before Cheng Shuili's eyes, all options turning into mosaics.

Cheng Shuili: "???"

What does that mean? Not letting her choose?

The system panel suddenly flashed with blinding red light, a string of garbled code popped up before Cheng Shuili's eyes, then the four option boxes shook wildly like a stuck video, and finally popped out of existence with a 'bang'.

Cheng Shuili: "..."

She suddenly had an ominous premonition.

Sure enough, the next second, the system popped up a new prompt—

【Detected player abnormal operation, vehicle allocation mechanism triggered a bug…】

【Reallocating…】

【Allocation failed.】

Cheng Shuili: "???"

She watched helplessly as the system panel went completely black; three seconds later, a line of small text slowly appeared: '【Due to an unknown error, your initial vehicle has been lost. As compensation, you have received:】'

【A rusty shopping cart (durability 10/100, storage 50kg, no power, requires manual pushing)】

Cheng Shuili: "..."

Is this correct?

She lowered her head to look at the shopping cart that had appeared out of thin air before her, crooked and askew, with a wobbly sign hanging from the basket that read 'XX Supermarket promotional price 9.9 yuan'.

Cheng Shuili: "..."

Is this the power of the SSS-rank talent Bug Physique?

OK, since it's come to this, let's summarize first.

First, the Bug Physique will trigger bugs in the game world; after triggering a bug, there should be two possible outcomes: bad or good.

Cheng Shuili's face darkened; the first bug trigger was a bad outcome.

【All players have finished vehicle selection, the game is about to officially begin, now announcing the game rules.】

【1. Please proceed straight along the road; supply boxes will occasionally spawn on the road, containing not only surprises but also frights.】

【2. Daytime is from 8 a. m. to 8 p. m.; when resting at night, please do not leave your vehicle within a 6-meter radius, for darkness is always unknown, and the unknown represents danger.】

【3. The system provides a game panel, chat channel, and trade channel. Theoretically each road has only one player, but some lucky ones may encounter a 'road merge' probability event.】

【4. Humans have an interesting saying: 'Neighbors hoard grain, I hoard guns; neighbors are my granary.' Fellow survivors, the game officially begins.】

【Newbie Protection Period has started, lasting seven days, during the protection period there are no natural disasters, first night monster, chest scare probability reduced, vehicle damage auto-repair.】

【The first day's journey must be completed: 50 kilometers.】

Cheng Shuili took a deep breath, tried to calm her emotions, then attempted to push the shopping cart.

「Creak—」

A piercing metal scraping sound rang out, the shopping cart's wheels turned crookedly a half turn, then got stuck with a "click" sound effect.

Cheng Shuili: "……"

She crouched down to check, and found that three of the four wheels had rusted solid, while the only one that could still turn was about to fall off.

"Fine, at least it's better than walking."

She consoled herself.

Cheng Shuili wiped her face, then continued to tinker with the shopping cart.

She discovered that the bottom of the shopping cart had a small recess, shaped like a USB interface?

Cheng Shuili: "?"

What a coincidence, she happened to have a data cable in her pocket, a USB interface one, which was also the only item she brought to this world.

She hesitated for a moment, with the mindset of giving it a try, and plugged the data cable into the recess.

【Warning: Illegal vehicle modifications prohibited!】

This broken data cable isn't even plugged into power, this broken shopping cart is about to fall apart, what counts as an "illegal vehicle modification"!

Cheng Shuili yanked out the data cable, and taking advantage of the moment when the system was confused, she kicked the shopping cart's wheel.

"Crack!"

The wheel flew out, but at the same time, the system panel flashed wildly.

【Vehicle damage during the Newbie Protection Period!】

【Error! Cannot be repaired!】

【Compensation mechanism activated……】

【Congratulations, player obtained:】

【"Supermarket Promotion Exclusive" electric shopping cart (infinite durability, storage capacity 200kg, top speed 40 kilometers per hour, range 100 kilometers per charge)】