She picked up some irrelevant leftover luggage items along the way. When Mu Shan searched the tail section, she thought there would be no more discoveries, but unexpectedly, her skill suddenly gave her feedback.
【Reminder: There is food in the cabin at the tail of the plane】
Mu Shan: ?
As everyone knew, both the tail and the front of the plane had kitchen areas set up, and the plane’s kitchen was for the flight attendants only—passengers could not enter.
The front cabin kitchen had already been obliterated into dust when it crashed to the ground from high altitude.
But the rear cabin kitchen remained largely intact, though the passage entrance was blocked dead by a slanted sheet of large iron paneling.
Mu Shan tried it, but could not pry it open. So she took out a crowbar, weighed it in her palm, spat twice to psych herself up, and raised her arm high.
Mu Shan spent twenty minutes wrestling with the iron paneling and finally broke open a small hole just big enough for one person to bend down and crawl through.
The tail kitchen was a mess inside. The meal cart had smashed into the wall, and kettles, teacups, and the like were spilled all over the floor. There were no flight attendant corpses in sight.
Mu Shan followed the skill’s guidance and opened a storage cabinet embedded in the wall. Inside, she found an iron box containing an insulated bag.
The bag held boxes wrapped in tinfoil… airplane meals.
Mu Shan: ??
The tinfoil still held a trace of warmth. She tore open the packaging to reveal about 200g of noodles—black pepper beef noodles without the beef.
Perfect. It fully matched the public’s stereotypical impression of airplane meals as crude and unappetizing.
Mu Shan sniffed it. It had not gone bad. It had just clumped up after sitting too long, but that did not affect edibility.
She packed the entire insulated bag into her backpack, discarding about ten damaged or leaking meal boxes. The remaining noodles totaled over fifty boxes—far more than she could eat in the short term on her own.
This passenger plane must have been a budget flight. Besides the noodles, Mu Shan found no other meals. More likely, the other supplies had been destroyed in the front kitchen.
But to scavenge supplies from a crashed plane with zero survivors—this luck was already extraordinary. Mu Shan briefly suspected she had gone from the world’s unluckiest to the luckiest.
She crawled out of the plane wreckage, and by then, night had fallen. She had to leave the crash site quickly and find a place to camp overnight.
“Goo-gwah—goo-gwah—”
Strange bird calls echoed from the branches of dim trees.
After crossing a few small hills, Mu Shan finally selected a high ground with sparser vegetation. She quickly pitched her tent and used another character card to summon a zombie worker to stand guard.
The ragged zombie squatted by the tent, glaring with its crooked eyes and baring its teeth at the red rainforest frogs in the grass.
A swarm of poisonous mosquitoes buzzed around the zombie but could find no opening to bite.
In the pitch-black night, the small canvas tent was the only light in the forest.
The high-intensity battles in the instance drained players’ energy every day. Mu Shan took off her shoes, socks, and outer clothes. The moment she touched the pillow, a tidal wave of exhaustion crashed over her, pinning her firmly to the bed.
Amid the zombie’s low “heh heh” growls, she soon fell into deep sleep.
The next day, the temperature had risen to increasingly unbearable levels.
Cicadas shrieked deafeningly in the forest. Some monkeys, overwhelmed by the heat, lolled with tongues out on shaded branches to escape the summer blaze.
The high heat accelerated moisture evaporation, but the brief coolness from sudden showers was quickly overtaken by muggy dampness.
The tropical rainforest instance environment grew hotter at a visible pace.
Mu Shan had already ditched her jacket and wore only a short-sleeved shirt. She had to stop every so often to drink water and wipe sweat. A wet towel draped over her neck for cooling heated up in moments.
After a grueling trek, she finally reached the position of Safe House 12 at 2 p.m.
No one had taken David’s spot.
Not only that, the safe house positions of 11 and 10, where the other two white guys had died in succession, had all turned into empty lots. The system apparently had no plans to add new players to the instance.
This was not good news. The players’ strength had been further weakened.
Mu Shan stood on the bare grass, a bad premonition rising.
When she reached the 9 position, she ran into Wang Ruizhi coming out to dump trash. Seeing the dusty Mu Shan, she waved and approached.
“You made it back on your own? You okay?”
“Better than ever.” After a brief exchange, Wang Da Ma handed over the familiar pink tub and Confession Balloon. “These are yours.”
Mu Shan took them and asked, “What’s his situation?”
“Still unconscious. We all worked together to carry him to Safe House 1.”
Wang Da Ma looked puzzled. “We don’t have safe house access, so we left him at the basement door. He should go in himself once he wakes…”
The two exchanged a glance and finished the thought together: “…right?”
Mu Shan scratched her head. She was not entirely sure about He Yuncong’s condition either, but for now, there was no better option. The NPC Village was crowded and gossipy—maybe not as safe as the wilds.
After bidding Wang Da Ma farewell, Mu Shan passed Safe House 8, Safe House 7, and the now-empty lot of Safe House 6, returning to her own home.
【Ordinary Player 421021 (Deceased)
ID: Huang Hongbo
Profession: Elementary Fire Mage】
She stood at her doorstep and observed the charred corpse hanging on the high voltage grid for a moment, then directed two zombie workers to remove and dispose of it.
The zombie workers cheered: “Heh ah—!”
A white sticky note was plastered on her home’s perimeter wall. Mu Shan peeled it off to find a simple thumb-up drawing, signed Xia.
Mu Shan smiled.
A few of Huang Hongbo’s dropped personal items lay scattered near the high voltage grid after his death. Xia Xueqin had passed by without picking them up, so they remained in place.
A windproof lighter, a set of men’s spare clothes, a compressed biscuit, two bottles of mineral water, some trauma meds and system hemostatic drugs, and a half-worn machete.
【Detected: Player possesses similar weapon (machete). Upgrade?】
Mu Shan confirmed.
【Machete upgraded to—Pink Laser Sword
Strength +2
“Star Wars Jedi same model.”】
Mu Shan: ……
She slowly gripped the short silver hilt, pressed the switch, and with a “buzz,” pink sword light shot out instantly. The blade was over a meter long.
She swung it casually, slicing tree bark with a mirror-smooth cut.
Wait, machetes and laser swords were the same category??
Mu Shan turned off the laser and secured the short hilt to her belt. This thing had far more combat power than an axe, took up little space, and was perfect for carry.
Melee, ranged, area magic—her profession path was veering ever more absurd.
Don’t ask. It was just support.
Among Huang Hongbo’s leftovers was one item whose use was not immediately obvious.
【Support Light Board (Auxiliary)
Quality: Common
Use: Hold with both hands; player’s inner thoughts convert to text on display screen.
Description: Versatile scenarios. Vent/release player emotions, stabilize mental state.
Note: Click to view usage examples】
Out of curiosity, Mu Shan clicked. A crude system video played before her eyes.
【Example】 Crowded morning rush hour road, cars refusing to yield, staging “Initial D.” A driver placed the board on his car roof; text appeared in 3D surround effect, visible to all nearby drivers:
[Damn, you %#& idiot driving the wrong way on a one-way!]
[No turn signal and you cut in—go back to driving school!]
Road rage natal item.
Mu Shan was speechless… It really was a gimmick.
Unfortunately, Huang Hongbo’s defense item [Warrior Armor] and life-saver [One More Bottle] had been expended in the showdown. She shook her head and pocketed the light board.
Back in the safe house, all her forced composure and feigned calm vanished.
Mu Shan kicked off her shoes, stripped off her clothes and pants, and padded barefoot into the bathroom, awaiting another bodily refresh under the hot water.
Outside in the forest, temperatures had hit 40 Celsius—scorching. The sunroom was about to become a steamer. To keep the vegetables from dying, Mu Shan opened the door, letting basement cool air flow into the sunroom.
The basement safe house, regulated by the climate control system, held steady at 27℃ indoors with 50% humidity.
The scavenged airplane meals took up space, but the fridge and freezer still held plenty of frozen meat and fish—no room to spare.
Mu Shan put two airplane meals in the fridge and stashed the rest temporarily in her virtual backpack, where time stopped and could preserve them a bit longer.
The basement was now crammed full of furniture and supplies; the 5m x 5m space already felt crowded.
She wanted to buy another freezer for storage, but there was no room. She tabled it for now.
After a quick shower and a sip of water, Mu Shan grabbed scissors and dove into fervent farm work.
After 27 days of growth, the navel orange tree bought from the agronomist had fully ripened. Thanks to skill-enhanced seeds, the fruits were large and red, dangling like little lanterns from the branches.
Normally, oranges took 6-12 months to mature, varying by variety but never less than 6. Something like this, ripened in a month, was like hitting fast-forward.
Mu Shan turned diligent gardener, clipping the navel oranges and stacking them in a woven basket.
Harvesting was a pure joy, letting one forget messy realities and immerse in fruitful abundance.
Harvest brought a happiness nothing else could.
Mu Shan picked one orange to slice and eat, storing the rest in a cool, ventilated spot.
The flesh was plump, juice abundant—a bite yielded tangy sweetness, far better than the forest’s tart wild berries.
She saved the peels too—for tea or compost.
Compost was simple: dig a pit, toss in leftover peels, cover with soil, add dry leaves, water it. It improved soil fertility.
Mu Shan was deep in farm work when someone knocked on the sunroom wall outside.
“Knock knock knock—”
“It’s me, Xia Xueqin!” came the clear voice from position 4.
The door opened, and the pink-haired girl looked her up and down, patting her chest in relief. “You’re back! No injuries—awesome!”
Mu Shan handed over two plump navel oranges. “For you. Thanks for not ditching me in the crisis.”
“Nah, no biggie. Those guys provoked me before too—beasts deserved slaughtering.” Xia Xueqin sniffed the oranges close to her face. “So fragrant!”
“Speaking of,” she leaned in gossipily, “big news today. Guess what?”
Mu Shan, weary, said, “What? Someone else died?”
Two seconds of silence, then Xia Xueqin gaped in shock. “Sis, you’re too spot-on!”
“Position 3 really died!”
Mu Shan paused. “…Who?”
“That Japanese guy, Anbe or whatever. Dead at his own doorstep—no battle traces. Super creepy.”
“Their blue team split midway and evacuated early. He was alive when he parted from his teammate.”
Xia Xueqin leaned in mysteriously. “Same throat-slit kill as 12, but he wasn’t drinking. Guy was notoriously cautious, total turtle—ran instead of fighting. Honestly, I thought he’d outlast everyone.”
After hearing the description, Mu Shan rubbed her temples with a headache.
She thought it was wilderness survival, but it turned out to be a real-life tower defense game.
Thought it was superhumans vs. bugs, but nope—player free-for-all.
Now they told her maybe neither: actually Blizzard Manor mode…
“Only 7 left in the instance now. 1 is in deep coma, unknown wake time—so really 6.” Mu Shan counted the survivors on her fingers, face grim. “You, me, Wang Da Ma make three supports. Conservatively, we can’t hold the next bug wave.”
Xia Xueqin blanked, then realized. “Shit, that’s tomorrow?”
“At first, twelve people held off the insect monsters, and now only six remain… Is the main god planning to crush us all at once and make this entire instance fail??” Xia Xueqin shook her head. “Such a vicious heart…”
“Player No. 2 and No. 7 are both strong. They’ll find a way.” Mu Shan comforted her.
“No, I need to hurry back and replenish the traps. Bye-bye!” Xia Xueqin waved her hand, pocketed an orange, and dashed into the lush bushes.
Mu Shan closed the door securely and set the two zombie patrol guards.
Player No. 3—his profession was Hawkeye. If taken literally, perhaps he had been silenced because his exceptional eyesight allowed him to spot something.
“Who could it be?”
Mu Shan was not familiar with Player No. 3. She had only seen him once on the first day in the village tavern—a timid-as-a-mouse middle-aged man who would never step forward voluntarily.
Xia Xueqin had also said he was extremely cautious. For such a player to be killed defenselessly right at his doorstep revealed several things.
First, either the killer possessed absolutely overwhelming strength and one-shot him, or it was an instant-cast assassination that gave him no time to react.
Second, there were no signs of a fight at his doorstep, meaning the killer was at least someone he knew and did not suspect.
Third, the death was so sudden that, in Player No. 3’s eyes, the killer was absolutely not someone who would murder him.
Was it the seemingly upright Player No. 2, Zong Rui? Or the assassin-class Catwoman, Li Gang, with her innate advantages?
As Mu Shan pondered, her eyelids grew heavier and heavier.
Whatever… She would deal with these messes tomorrow. Right now, no one could stop her from sleeping.
Her dreams were bizarre and fantastical. One moment, a massive fire incinerated the forest; the next, she sank into an endless desert, buried in a sand pit.
Above her head screeched the hellish birds with their “gu-gu” cries, while beneath her feet crawled mutilated zombie undead. Volcanoes erupted, lava surged, and deafening roars filled the air.
The rumbling of cracking rocks felt almost tangible.
“Bang—” A water glass toppled on the table. Mu Shan jolted awake, sat up abruptly, and realized she was drenched in cold sweat.
She looked upward, and what was even more terrifying was that the shaking and sounds from her dream had been real.
A violent storm had suddenly swept through the forest, smashing her sunroom to pieces!