Chapter 76: Merging the Area

Chapter 76: Chapter 76: Merging the Area

Wang Peng scratched his head. "But merging regions causes dangerous tremors. That’s not something people can control."

Jiang Yuxing raised an eyebrow. "Not necessarily. The system never said the Spaces can’t hold living people during a natural disaster. And if a Space can hold one living person, it can hold more."

Wang Peng had an epiphany. ’No wonder Brother Nan insisted on giving away those two Spaces as rewards back then. So that was his plan all along.’

Shi Zhile listened in silence, arriving at another conclusion. ’So the sinking island I encountered in the dungeon back then wasn’t a random event, but an inevitable consequence of a region merge.’

’If merging regions causes disasters, then merging *large* regions must be even more dangerous.’

There was also what Jiang Yuxing had revealed about the Spaces being able to hold people indefinitely.

She narrowed her eyes slightly. For the first time, she had the strange feeling that the two of them were in-game NPCs.

Leaving the two of them, she moved through the shelter, quickly stashing its supplies into her backpack.

Watching her busy herself, Wang Peng muttered, "Why are you suddenly gathering supplies? The shelter is supposed to be perfectly safe during a region merge."

[Region Merge Notification: Countdown to Merge: 3! 2! 1!]

Shi Zhile grabbed the two of them, about to enter her Space, but Jiang Yuxing stopped her.

"Don’t be hasty. The two Spaces are just for temporary survival. Unless it’s a last resort, isn’t it better to try and survive on our own?"

The countdown ended. Shi Zhile looked out the window, but nothing happened. There was only the vast, white snow.

She opened her panel. The chat channel was completely divided.

[Wang Dacheng (Region 1): Whoa, there are suddenly a lot more people. Did the region merge succeed? Last time, we nearly got wiped out in the dungeon during the merge.]

[Lai Cai (Region 1): +1.]

[Sun Ci (Region 3): ??? What are you talking about? The last merge was just as quiet as this one. Anyway, welcome, newcomers! *clap clap*]

[Domineering CEO Falls for Divorced, Menopausal Me with a Kid (Region 3): Welcome, welcome. To all you players on the leaderboards, remember we’re all in the same boat. If the death toll shoots up and our region has to merge again, the natural disasters will level up.]

[Lan Lan (Region 1): Yeah, exactly. Let’s hope everyone dies a bit more slowly. As long as we all stay alive, the disasters won’t upgrade.]

[Lian Po is old (Region 5): My god, after the merge, the outside instantly turned into a frozen wasteland. Compared to the flood, surviving seems even harder now.]

Shi Zhile brought out a lounge chair and lay down. "Last time the regions merged, the Region 3 players were in their disaster phase, but none of them entered a dungeon. The Region 1 players, however, really did experience tremors inside a dungeon."

"Does this mean... that every time the regions merge, as long as players are on their own islands... or in their shelters, they won’t face any tremors or danger?"

She turned to Jiang Yuxing. "What does your foresight skill say? Is my analysis correct?"

Jiang Yuxing nodded. "Correct. Regardless of the size of the merging regions, players are safe as long as they’re in their shelters. But that’s just for now. We don’t know if or how the rules will change later."

With the addition of Regions 4 through 7, the chat channel became exceptionally chaotic.

The players from the newly merged regions couldn’t handle the sudden, severe cold and were scrambling to trade for supplies.

Wang Peng was scrolling through his panel when he suddenly spoke up. "These four new regions are really struggling. Forget the top three on the supply leaderboard, they don’t even have anyone in the top five."

"Zhile is holding steady at number one, Brother Nan is second, Chuyi is still fourth, and Jiang Jing is eighth. Whoa, I actually got knocked down to thirtieth place."

"By that count, only eight people from all four of those regions made it into the top thirty."

Jiang Yuxing commented, "They haven’t experienced a major disaster yet. Such a high death toll means either they’re too foolish, or their environment is just that harsh—or monsters are washing ashore too frequently."

Shi Zhile couldn’t agree. "There were so many different people on Earth. The old, the weak, women, children, the disabled... If any one of them was left alone on an island, it would be easy to be consumed by fear and lose all reason."

"Not many people can truly remain calm, and even fewer can adapt to this awful, barren environment. So, of course, many would die."

"This game is relatively fair, at least giving everyone their own island. If everyone had been forced to survive on a single island, the death toll would be even higher. Disasters are the ultimate test of human nature, and human nature is the one thing that rarely passes the test."

A day passed quietly. When the 48-hour mark was reached, Wang Peng was teleported back.

Night fell, and Shi Zhile stood at the window, watching the heavy snow drift down.

The days passed, one after another. On the fifteenth day, the snow finally stopped. A bright sun emerged right after, beating down on the snow-covered ground.

In just two or three days, the snow had almost entirely melted away. As the snow vanished, the temperature plummeted to its lowest yet.

After getting up, Shi Zhile asked her daily question, "System, what’s the temperature?"

[Current temperature outside the shelter: -73°C. Temperature inside the shelter’s cave: 19°C. Temperature in the courtyard: 8°C.]

She opened her panel. The chat channel showed that the current population of the region was just over 220,500 people.

The population had dropped from nearly 290,000 to 220,000 in just eighteen days.

After freshening up, Shi Zhile entered her Breeding Space as usual to feed the chickens, ducks, rabbits, and her cow.

The quails had hatched, and to feed them, Shi Zhile had traded 200 portions of corn with someone from Region 2 for a corn grinder.

The grinder was taller than a person. You poured whole corn kernels in the top, and after turning a hand crank, coarse cornmeal came out the bottom.

The meal was too coarse for people to eat, as it would scratch their throats, but it was perfect for feeding the chickens and ducks when mixed with water.

Shi Zhile gave them a basin of the cornmeal mash every day. After a while, her daily egg count from the chickens and ducks successfully surpassed fifty.

The millet in her Planting Space was still ten days from harvest. By collecting more soil, she had managed to increase the Planting Space’s area to thirty square meters.

Since she hadn’t added any new types of animals, the area of her Breeding Space remained unchanged.

The most gratifying development was her character stats: her agility had successfully increased from 5 to 7.

After mixing the mash, Shi Zhile fed the last of her wild grass to the rabbits and the black cow.

’There’s no more wild grass,’ she thought. ’Elder Guo can’t gather much each day, and the dungeons aren’t open. Looks like my only option is to use Growth Liquid to force-grow some weeds in the Planting Space.’

Recently, the hens and ducks had started sitting on eggs. Aside from a few roosters and drakes, none of them were willing to leave the Breeding Space.

So, to grow the weeds, she didn’t shoo them into the Planting Space this time.

[Planting Space Notification: The soil is currently dry and in a state of minor dehydration.

Appropriate watering can help crops mature faster! To provide a better growing environment for your crops, please water them in a timely manner.]

"I just watered you last night, and you’re already dry again after one night," she grumbled. "You’re so high-maintenance."

Grumbling aside, Shi Zhile still left the Space and went to the freshwater lake to fetch water.