Chapter 304: Escape from the Desert 8

Facing Yara North’s shock, Perry Yates was completely speechless.

’Seriously? We’re all players. Even if the number of items we can carry is limited, who doesn’t have a few tricks up their sleeve to stay alive? What’s with that look? Do you really think so little of me that you thought I couldn’t even last a single night?’

Perry Yates couldn’t be bothered with her. Right now, her attention was on something else.

A sandstorm was coming.

She had gotten this information from a nearby cactus during the night.

After everyone had breakfast, they set off again.

After traveling for a while, Perry Yates looked up at the sky, then patted the camel beneath her. She whispered a quiet warning in its ear, telling it not to run off and to stay close to The Oasis Caravan.

The camel bobbed its head, as if to say it understood.

On the afternoon of the sixth day of the game, the once-blue sky was covered by yellow sand.

"Everyone, don’t move! Wait for the sandstorm to pass."

Hearing the leader’s words, Perry Yates guided her camel to lie down, lowering its center of gravity and reducing its exposed surface area. Then, she tightened the veiled hat on her head that blocked the wind and sand, lowered her head, and wrapped her arms around the camel’s hump.

The supplies in the baskets on either side of the camel had long since been stored away in her Safe House.

An unknown amount of time passed before the sandstorm finally ended. By now, Perry Yates and her camel were covered in a thick layer of sand.

"Phew, it’s finally over."

Just then, a miserable scream came from behind.

"AHH!!! My water!"

Hearing the scream, Perry Yates looked back and saw someone staring at her waterskin with a look of utter devastation.

For some reason, a cut about a finger’s length had been torn in the waterskin, and all the water inside had long since leaked out.

Suddenly, the woman glared ferociously at the people closest to her, as if they were the culprits.

"Speak! Did you cut my waterskin when I wasn’t looking? It must have been you! You kept staring at my waterskin yesterday, it was you, wasn’t it?"

The person she pointed at was another player.

That player rolled their eyes. "Who cares about your pathetic bit of water?"

Hearing the mocking words, the accuser’s eyes widened in fury. She looked like she wanted to eat the other player alive.

At that moment, the caravan leader walked over. After inspecting the waterskin and the mark on it, he said, "This was done by desert beetles. They must have smelled the water on the waterskin while you were buried in the sand, so they tore it open.

"I’ve warned you all before. After drinking, you must tighten the cap and wipe the surface dry."

Questioned by the leader, the woman looked away guiltily.

She remembered that she had been drinking water right before the sandstorm hit. In her haste to take cover, she had only put the cap on without tightening it.

"But... all my water is gone. What am I going to do?"

With that, she looked at the leader before her with hopeful eyes, wishing he would help her through this crisis.

However...

"That has nothing to do with me. Everyone’s supplies are limited. I already warned you before we set out. You’re the one who didn’t listen."

After saying his piece, the leader turned and left without the slightest hesitation.

Seeing how cold he was and that he had no intention of helping, the woman turned her gaze to the others.

However, although everyone sympathized with her plight, not a single person stepped up to help her.

The leader had a point. Everyone’s supplies were limited. If they helped her, who would help them?

Even Perry Yates said nothing at this moment, silently turning away with the others.

On the seventh day of the game, everything was normal.

The woman who had lost all her water, after her breakdown, still followed the caravan.

She knew that staying put meant certain death. By following the caravan, she still had a sliver of hope for survival. She just had to hold on until the next Scourland Town.

「Afternoon of the eighth day of the game.」

In the distance, a cluster of earthen-yellow buildings appeared before their eyes.

"Great! We finally made it."

For the caravans that traveled between the various Oases, these small towns in The Scourland were the best places to restock.

Here, not only could they buy some rare supplies, but more importantly, they no longer had to brave the elements.

However, upon arriving in the town, people suddenly sensed that something was wrong.

"Why are the prices so high?"

Some of the players who wanted to restock supplies, especially water, were shocked after asking about the prices.

While water in the desert was precious, the price here was several times higher than in the last Scourland Town.

And it wasn’t just water; the prices of everything else were also several times higher.

"If I had known the prices here were so high, I would have bought more back there," one of the players complained.

"What good would that have done? Even if we bought more, we wouldn’t have been able to carry it. Our Space Backpacks are limited, and the system backpack is disabled."

Perry Yates, who was secretly eavesdropping nearby, had a sudden realization. ’That’s right, spatial items are extremely rare cards.’

Even a one-star Space Card was incredibly rare.

The reason Perry Yates thought Space Cards were common was because of her Talent, which allowed her to turn containers from White Cards, like bags, into spatial items.

In fact, before Perry Yates came along, spatial items on Cerulea were also extremely rare. It wasn’t like now, where spatial items and identification items have become standard issue for almost every player.

The people who had been hesitating about whether to buy anything found that after hesitating for a while, the local residents had stopped selling. They wouldn’t sell even for a higher price. Instead, they started buying things from passing caravans.

Seeing this, the passing caravans started raising their prices and made a huge profit.

In contrast, The Oasis Caravan that Perry Yates was with didn’t sell a single thing. Everyone who came to buy from them was turned away.

Perry Yates watched their frantic behavior and got the inexplicable feeling that it was the calm before the storm.

This suspicion grew stronger when Perry Yates discovered that the locals were even going after the cacti growing outside the town.

’Something big must be about to happen. Otherwise, these people wouldn’t be so tense, acting as if they’re facing a great enemy.’

Perry Yates also tried to get information from the caravan leader, but he was tight-lipped and absolutely refused to reveal anything useful, not even for money.

But it wasn’t a total loss. After all, his refusal to say anything was, in itself, an answer.