After eating and drinking his fill, Su Ye stood up, put out the campfire completely, and returned to the car, shutting the door tightly.
He took stock of his mental state.
Having just eaten wild boar meat, and with his Mental Attribute at 2.1, he wasn't the least bit sleepy. His eyes were bright and alert.
So he decided to drive a little farther. Every bit of ground he gained counted.
As for the monsters at night, he wasn't worried about them at all.
With the [Gray Fog Medal] on his chest, monsters wouldn't attack him of their own accord anyway.
If he ran into fellow Blue Star Humans, they might even send some supplies his way.
At that thought, Su Ye stepped on the gas.
The Speedster's two powerful high beams instantly tore through the darkness ahead. With a roar, the car shot into the night.
The road at night was indeed much eerier than it had been during the day.
A thin layer of gray mist hung over the surroundings, reducing visibility so much that even the high beams could only illuminate a few dozen meters ahead.
The wind swept across the wilderness, its mournful howls sounding like the wails of ghosts.
But barely half an hour into the drive, Su Ye slapped the steering wheel and burst into curses.
"This damn game is such a fucking scam!"
He hadn't encountered a single monster in that half hour, but the road conditions were downright insane.
He had been driving along just fine when a huge concrete roadblock suddenly appeared ahead.
Without any warning, it had simply materialized across the middle of the road.
If he hadn't reacted quickly, and if he'd been driving at full speed at night, he would have crashed straight into it, wrecking the car and killing himself.
Even so, the side of the car had scraped against it in a shower of sparks, costing him 5% durability.
First it had been a concrete roadblock. Now a huge hole had appeared in the road.
Fortunately, the roadblock had put Su Ye on his guard, and he had slowed down again. The car stopped less than three meters from the edge of the hole.
Su Ye leaned forward in the driver's seat to take a look.
It was an enormous sinkhole over ten meters across, its bottom nowhere in sight, as though someone had dug a well right into the road.
"Night really is dangerous. The monsters haven't even shown up yet, and just a few roadblocks and holes could get plenty of players killed."
Su Ye drove around the huge hole and continued onward, going considerably slower than before.
At the same time, he opened the chat interface.
He wanted to see whether the system was singling him out.
But as soon as he opened the world channel, he saw messages flooding the screen.
"Help! My car crashed into a tree! Can someone tell me why a huge tree would grow in the middle of the road?"
"You can't drive at all at night! I nearly fucking drove into a river just now. Where the hell did a river on the road come from?"
"Tell me about it. I ran into a pack of Ghost Wolves. They don't attack the car, just the tires. All four of mine are blown now."
"Please save me, experts! My car's stuck in a crack in the ground..."
Discovering that he wasn't the only one having bad luck, and that the other players were cursing just as furiously, made Su Ye feel much better.
"Forget it. Driving this late at night is still too dangerous. I might as well get some proper rest and try again tomorrow."
"And although my Mental Attribute is higher than Humanity's, it can't compare to those Fivefold Race guys at all. One night won't be enough to catch up."
"I just hope my fellow members of Humanity have reached a decision and send me some good stuff tomorrow."
After watching the chat channel for a while, Su Ye yawned and turned off the engine. He checked that the car was securely locked, then looked at the workbench beside him.
"I can't make a hand crossbow without a Simple Trigger Component, but I can make bolts. I'll go through plenty of those, so this is a good chance to use up some more materials."
With that in mind, Su Ye set the workbench's crafting task, and it began operating.
Once everything was done, Su Ye put in his earplugs and settled down to rest.
Meanwhile, inside the Great Xia Civilization Hall.
"Everyone, that's the situation. We've spent long enough on this. It's time we reached a decision."
"I'll state my position first. I fully support Su Ye and helping him reach the end of the road. That isn't a bad thing for us. On the contrary, it's a good thing."
Chu Ge planted both hands on the table and leaned forward, radiating pressure. "As long as Su Ye reaches the end of the road, we'll learn exactly what awaits in that final stretch. That will be an enormous help in our third Road Survival attempt."
The Great Xia leaders present fell into thought.
They had learned of Su Ye's existence from Chu Ge several hours earlier.
At first, they couldn't believe that a member of Humanity like Su Ye had somehow ended up in the Fivefold Race's Road Survival.
But Chu Ge would never joke about something like this, so they had no choice but to believe him.
Afterward, they had launched into a heated discussion, carefully analyzing whether they should help Su Ye and what benefits and drawbacks doing so would bring.
"Based on our analysis so far, helping Su Ye does indeed offer us every benefit and no downside."
An elderly man spoke slowly. "If Su Ye still represents us Blue Star Humans, helping him reach the end of the road might mean we can finally escape this survival game."
"Even if he represents the Fivefold Race rather than us Blue Star Humans, all we'd be doing is letting the Fivefold Race pass this survival game, while obtaining information about the final stretch of the road ourselves. No matter how you look at it, we won't lose out."
The others nodded in agreement.
"I support it too. This isn't a gamble. It's an investment that cannot fail."
A middle-aged man in a black combat uniform added in a low voice, "Besides, going easy on them won't cost us any survival points. In fact, we could even cooperate with Su Ye during certain events and secret realms, helping us eliminate more of the Fivefold Race and earn more survival points."
"Exactly. The third survival attempt will be even harder. We barely have any confidence of succeeding."
"With Su Ye supplying intelligence about the latter half of the road, our chances of success could rise by at least ten percent, perhaps even more."
One after another, everyone voiced their support.
They wouldn't have to pay any substantial price, yet what they stood to gain would far exceed their expectations.
"Then should we inform the other Blue Star Civilization Halls and have them join us?" someone at the far end of the long table asked.
"I don't recommend that."
Chu Ge waved the suggestion aside without hesitation, his gaze instantly turning icy.
"Su Ye has only just entered the game. He's still far too weak. During our last survival attempt, Blue Star may have appeared united, but you and I know very well what conflicts lay beneath the surface."
Chu Ge snorted, his voice laced with undisguised contempt. "Some people are so attached to the false immortality of this Gray Mist World that they no longer want to leave. If Su Ye's existence is exposed, I don't need to tell you what they'll do."
"Immortality? Hmph!"
The elderly man slammed his hand on the table. "We only get ten survival attempts. If we haven't passed after all ten, our entire civilization will be destroyed. Do they think hiding will keep them safe?"
"Each civilization has a hundred-year time limit. If it has enough survival points, it's forced to undertake a survival attempt. If it doesn't, that counts directly as a failed attempt. Last time, we gathered enough survival points and delayed until the hundred-year limit forced us to participate."
"A thousand years may sound tempting, but it's insignificant compared with the destruction of an entire civilization. Especially when it means living as monsters in this Gray Mist World."
Everyone nodded. Even if they had little time left to live after leaving the Gray Mist World and returning to Blue Star, at least their entire civilization could continue.
True immortality would have been another matter, but this false immortality was no different from a fleeting dream.
Before you continue