Chapter 155: Torrential Downpour

Chapter 155: Chapter 155: Torrential Downpour

Shi Zhile didn’t want to hear their answer and continued on her own, "We of Huaxia love peace, but we Huaxia people would rather die with honor than live in disgrace.

But we are also warm and hospitable, and we always repay kindness."

’So unless you can make Earth explode in an instant and wipe out humanity, we will declare war on you interstellar forces sooner or later.’

’Too many players had indeed died in the game, but no one knew if death was truly ’quitting the game’ as he claimed.’

’She clearly remembered what the System had said at the time: "All flora and fauna in the game are real. If a player dies in the game, they will die in all dimensions."’

’And once the game began, it could never be paused.’

’If the System’s announcement was correct, then "the way to quit the game is to die" was wrong.’

’Jiang Yuxing could impersonate the System. Did that mean the System itself belonged to Jiang Yuxing? Or was the System something Jiang Yuxing had bound to her?’

’But if that were the case, it wouldn’t explain why the System’s definition of death was the opposite of Jiang Yuxing’s.’

Shi Zhile snapped back to reality and, under Jiang Yuxing’s indescribable gaze, collected all of the Japanese team’s supplies.

The treasure chest showed no signs of being opened. She opened it and, to her surprise, found ten boxes of anti-inflammatory medicine. Without a second thought, she sent them directly to Jiang Jing.

Knowing that Jiang Yuxing was connected to the System, Shi Zhile simply handed the job of leading the way over to him.

Jiang Yuxing didn’t disappoint, leading them to the location of the gold.

It was a towering mountain of gold. The entire mountain was made of pure gold, without a single piece of rock. At its base flowed a golden river.

It truly lived up to the name Golden Island.

Meanwhile, at the Huaxia Base, a three-story building was brightly lit.

Around a long table sat several older players, both men and women, all with solemn expressions.

"The machine isn’t working; it needs to be upgraded further. But we’re short on materials."

"Yeah, the hand-fabricated parts have too large a margin of error. My current research requires a welding machine and a sufficient amount of gold.

Getting a welding machine is easy enough, but we have no way to get rare metals like gold. What we get from trading outside is nowhere near enough."

Voices rose one after another.

Wen Changming rubbed his temples, dark circles under his eyes. "Wei Zhan has scanned the regional chat. Currently, there’s only one player on Golden Island in our region, but we can’t contact them.

They even blocked our people, especially after we revealed our identity as the Huaxia Base.

So far, the amount of gold that has flowed into players’ hands is extremely scarce. It’s very difficult to obtain a large quantity."

Wei Zhan, who was sitting to the side, said in a low voice, "I suspect the player on Golden Island isn’t one of our Huaxia people.

A player as rich as Shi Zhile doesn’t lack for supplies, and even she knows about the base without having to rely on trade to survive. As for the other players who are starving, it goes without saying how much they want to restore their former lives.

Leave the mission to collect gold to me this time. Once I pinpoint the location, I’ll take a team to Golden Island to investigate."

Wei Zhan was the strongest fighter in the group. He was a soldier, and his physical fitness was far superior to that of the experts who spent their days cooped up in research labs.

The moment he spoke, nearly everyone agreed.

Wen Changming was silent for a moment before speaking slowly, "Going out to search for gold consumes too much time and manpower.

We’re already short on people. If we divert another group, we won’t have enough left to build the base.

Have Jiang Jing contact Shi Zhile. Water is the scarcest resource in this extreme heat. Having Shi Zhile help us collect the gold would be far simpler than us doing it ourselves."

It was a well-known fact throughout the region that Shi Zhile was wealthy.

After the last instance dungeon had ended, her score on the resource leaderboard had once again surpassed Jiang Yuxing’s. She now ranked first, a figure all other players looked up to.

And so, the matter was decided.

On Golden Island, Shi Zhile was also worrying about gold.

Unlike the Huaxia Base, she was worried because she had too much gold.

Her backpack’s infinite slots were full. She tried sending the gold directly to Mr. Wen to place on the island without putting it in her backpack, but the System showed that Stone Island could not bear the weight of another mountain.

But she couldn’t bear to just watch Golden Island sink.

As she mulled it over, Shi Zhile thought of the Huaxia Base.

’The base is currently under construction, so they must be short on many things. Gold isn’t as important as food, but it’s still useful for trading.’

At this thought, Shi Zhile directly sent the entire mountain of gold, along with the golden river, to Jiang Jing.

The golden mountain had taken up half the island. Once it was gone, Golden Island was completely barren. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but sand under the moonlight.

After regrouping with Shi Zhiyi and her companion, the group continued on intermittently, harvesting a few coconuts by the sea.

This time, Shi Zhile didn’t keep them all for herself. She divided the coconuts evenly among them, only keeping the coconut trees for herself.

As the moon rose high, Shi Zhile collected a batch of yellow sand and sent it to Jiang Jing on her way back.

After the group left the island, Golden Island instantly sank into the sea and vanished without a trace.

Back on Stone Island, Shi Zhile had a good night’s sleep. At the crack of dawn the next day, she set off on her journey once more.

Half a month passed in a flash. It was time for the monthly instance to open, but just as Jiang Yuxing had predicted, it didn’t start on time.

With the instance dungeon closed, the accompanying natural disasters grew more severe. The highest daytime temperature reached fifty-five degrees Celsius. Months without clouds or rain made life for the surviving, water-deprived players a living hell.

During this time, Shi Zhile traded for water with players every day. Since her personal energy was limited, she roped in Shi Zhiyi and the others to help. They exchanged two bottles of water with players for the lowest price: "one piece of wood or one sea fish."

A large amount of fresh water flowed into an area of several hundred thousand square kilometers, but it was just a drop in the bucket.

They traveled by day and rested by night.

Every two days, the group would follow Jiang Yuxing to explore newly spawned islands.

This continued for another half a month. During this time, the temperature dropped slightly, but it remained just as dry.

One morning, they woke up to a rare sight: the sun was nowhere to be seen. This discovery caused the players in the chat channel to explode with activity.

[Is A Player: The sun didn’t come out today. Is the natural disaster over?]

[Xue Kun: It’s probably over. I don’t know if you all noticed, but over the past half-month, the highest daily temperature has been dropping by one degree each day.

The sky is overcast today. It’s already getting dark to the north of my island. A heavy rainstorm is probably coming.]

[Wei Zhan: According to observations from Huaxia Base experts, a massive rainstorm will hit around noon and will last for one to three days.

Players on islands with contiguous mountain slopes should be wary of landslides.

Additionally, the weather at sea is volatile. Experts predict the massive rainstorm may cause gale-force winds and storm surges. All players should prepare their defenses.]

The already lively chat channel, blown wide open by Wei Zhan’s message, instantly erupted into chaos.

Message after message flooded the screen, quickly burying Wei Zhan’s post without a trace.

Perhaps the base was afraid Shi Zhile hadn’t seen the message, so they had Jiang Jing send her a special reminder.