Night fell, and Su Ye stopped the car and lit a campfire.
He had already completed two of the Five Tribes' orders. Once he woke up tomorrow, he could finish the remaining three.
Su Ye nodded in satisfaction at the resources in his Storage Ring, which had surged yet again, then opened the Mileage Leaderboard.
Ling Yue still held first place. He had driven a full 4,000 kilometers today, bringing his total mileage to 6,600 kilometers.
His vehicle has to be at least level five, maybe even level six, Su Ye thought.
Then he checked his own mileage.
He had driven 3,700 kilometers today, not much less than Ling Yue. His total mileage now stood at 5,325 kilometers, and his ranking had shot up from below five thousand to 321st.
Finally made the Top 500. At this pace, I'll catch up to Ling Yue in two days at most. If I keep upgrading my vehicle, I should be even faster.
A smile spread across Su Ye's face. At last, he could see a chance to take first place on the Mileage Leaderboard.
After eating and drinking his fill, Su Ye browsed the chat channel for a while to pass the time.
The channel was still flooded with the wails and purchase requests of Fivefold Race players. As night fell, the monsters outside grew more frenzied, and the number of injured players rose exponentially. Demand for medical supplies had reached a fever pitch.
Su Ye didn't rush to post anything. Instead, he returned to the vehicle's cabin and set up the Workbench's crafting program.
With a low mechanical hum, Simple Bandages began rolling out automatically, one after another.
Once everything was ready, Su Ye returned to the driver's seat, reclined it, and settled down to rest.
After last night's experience, he had no intention of driving at night again.
Although his Gray Fog Medal could keep monsters from targeting him, the extreme road conditions and unknown traps at night were impossible to guard against completely. If an accident wrecked his car and killed him, he would lose far too much.
The night passed without incident.
Around six in the morning, dawn began to break, ushering in the third day of the Road Survival Game.
Su Ye opened his eyes and drew in a deep breath of the cool morning air. He quickly brushed his teeth and washed up, opening the Mileage Leaderboard as he did.
Ling Yue's total mileage at the top of the leaderboard had increased by another two thousand kilometers, reaching an astonishing 8,600 kilometers.
Clearly, he had stayed up driving last night.
He can still tear along at two hundred kilometers an hour at night. His mental attribute must be pretty high. He might already have reached the first tier, Su Ye thought.
He wasn't particularly surprised.
As the Feather Tribe's young chief, Ling Yue had plenty of people working their lives away for him. He must have obtained a massive amount of Mutant Beast meat.
On top of that, his starting attributes had been far higher than Su Ye's as a human. It was perfectly reasonable for both his attributes to reach ten points and make him a first-tier powerhouse.
If Su Ye's starting attributes had also been five points, he would have more or less reached the first tier by now too.
With that thought, Su Ye looked toward the Workbench. All the alcohol had been used up, and the finished products were waiting to be collected. It had produced forty thousand Simple Bandages in total.
"I'm rich."
Su Ye opened the trading interface and traded thirty thousand of them to the representatives of the three tribes as agreed, receiving a massive amount of basic supplies in return.
Then he listed the remaining ten thousand Simple Bandages directly in the Trading Hall. The price was blunt and simple: one unit of fuel for one Simple Bandage.
Once that was done, Su Ye posted a message in the Regional Chat Channel.
[Simple Bandages are now on sale. Ten thousand available. First come, first served.]
The chat channel, which had been relatively quiet in the early morning, instantly erupted over that single message.
"Thank you for saving my life, boss! A mutant wolf bit clean through my thigh last night, and it hasn't stopped bleeding. With this bandage, I finally have a chance to survive... Holy shit, how are they gone already?"
"Stop grabbing them! Save one for me! I'll pay double the fuel!"
"Fuck, whose hands are that fast? They were gone the moment I clicked in!"
Su Ye quietly watched the trading panel as the stock of ten thousand Simple Bandages visibly dwindled.
Five seconds.
In just five seconds, all ten thousand Simple Bandages had been snapped up. Ten thousand units of fuel sat quietly in the interface, waiting to be collected.
Noticing that players who hadn't managed to get any were still wailing and begging to buy them in the chat channel, Su Ye posted another message.
[Preparations are underway to craft more Simple Bandages. Another batch will go on sale tonight. Have your fuel ready, and be quick.]
"Boss, can you list some more now? I'll pay extra. Otherwise, I'm afraid I won't survive until tonight."
"Boss, I only need one bandage. Five units... no, ten units of fuel. Just give me one."
"Never Checks the Fuel Gauge, sir, since you have so many Simple Bandages, why won't you use them to save our injured brethren? Are you really so selfish that you'll just watch them die?"
"..."
All sorts of messages flooded the channel, including attempts to guilt-trip Su Ye.
"I'm not even one of the Fivefold Race. What the fuck do I care whether you live or die?"
Su Ye closed the chat channel and collected the ten thousand units of fuel, placing them in his Storage Ring.
He took stock of his supplies. Ling Yue and the other four had paid mostly in fuel, with a smaller portion paid in various materials.
He now had as many as ninety thousand units of fuel. At his current fuel consumption, that was enough to drive over one and a half million kilometers.
That really is a lot of fuel. I wonder if it'll have other uses later. Still, it's hard currency and holds its value. I don't have to worry about losing out by stockpiling more.
As he thought, Su Ye took out a roasted Corn Cob and a bottle of Milk. He wolfed them down, started the car, and stepped on the accelerator, driving onto the vast road once again.
I wonder how many groups of our people I'll run into today.
Su Ye pondered.
On the desolate road, fierce winds whipped up sand and dust, pelting the windshield.
It wasn't until half an hour later that Su Ye spotted an abandoned gas station beside the road ahead.
Half the gas station's canopy had collapsed. Its rusty sign swayed precariously in the wind, exuding an air of decay.
"I didn't expect it to take until day three to find a gas station. I have plenty of fuel now, but I won't turn down free supplies."
Su Ye immediately eased off the accelerator and slowly drove closer.
Inside the Abandoned Gas Station, meanwhile...
Thirteen figures lay concealed.
Three wore Great Xia camouflage uniforms and hid in a corner of the Convenience Store's ruins.
The other ten figures were scattered throughout the gas station.
Five Zombies, their bodies rotting and reeking, wandered beside the fuel pumps.
Four Goblins with sickly green skin crouched on the Convenience Store's roof, hand crossbows at the ready.
A Giant Bear standing a full ten meters tall lay in the middle of the gas station, snoring away.
"Old Wu, Spark should get here today, right? There are quite a few creatures at this gas station. Can he handle them alone?"
"Yeah, we can't really attack the others either. Once we trigger combat judgment, the other civilizations will definitely discover us. Great Xia will be in trouble then."
The man called Old Wu kept a steady gaze and lowered his voice. "Don't worry. Spark has the Gray Fog Medal. Forget the others-even the three of us can't initiate an attack against him. Once Spark arrives, we'll move farther away so we don't get caught in the crossfire."
The two nodded. Just as they were about to say more, the roar of an engine rang out.
Before you continue