"Chapter 1: Road Survival, Critical Lexicon Talent

Where is my brain?

“Where the hell did it dump me? Is this even Erlong Lake anymore?”

Lin Ye stared at the endless stretch of asphalt stretching into the distance, utterly dumbfounded. The scenery was completely foreign. And seriously, who the hell builds a highway a hundred meters wide?! In the middle of a fucking desert, no less!

[Congratulations! You have been selected as a player in the Multiplayer Road Survival Game. Farewell to your wage-slave life!] An abrupt voice echoed in Lin Ye’s mind.

[Assigning random vehicle and talent!]

[Acquired Starter Vehicle: Eighth-Hand Bread Van!]

[Acquired Talent: Critical Lexicon!]

[Assignment Complete. The game begins now. Familiarize yourself with your vehicle and talent, and carefully read the Survival Guidelines. Teammates will be assigned randomly in ten minutes.]

As the notification ended, a dilapidated minivan materialized out of thin air before Lin Ye. He rubbed his eyes, taking a solid ten seconds to process it.

Holy hell. He’d crossed over into a survival world!

Lin Ye cautiously approached the van, half-afraid that a heavy breath might scatter it to pieces. With a loud clang, he yanked open the driver’s door. A cloud of dust billowed out, revealing a battered driver’s seat where exposed springs poked through the foam. Resting on it was a small booklet:

Road Survival Guidelines!

Always proceed forward. Do not attempt to backtrack.

Resource Crates periodically spawn along the road. Open them for basic supplies. Daily distance traveled increases your crate yield. Additionally, Treasure Chests may randomly spawn in the wilderness beside the road, offering richer rewards. Beware: Chests may be guarded!

Upgrade your vehicle diligently. This enhances your range, safety, and comfort.

Brave Trials: Random trial quests appear on the road. Completing them yields special items. Meeting specific conditions can unlock Regional Dungeons! Forks in the Road demand careful choice. While forks offer significantly more Resource Crates, Treasure Chests, and a chance for Serendipity Quests!! be warned: danger escalates drastically on these paths, and encountering other survivor squads becomes far more likely!

Natural Disasters: After the Newbie Period, catastrophic natural disasters will strike every 7 days. Always be prepared!

Monster Encounters: Don’t panic. Fight them! You might earn special items and gear. Consider this the Trial of the Brave. DO NOT ram monsters with your vehicle – the consequences are unthinkable!

Teammates: Valuable assets. They share danger, provide emotional support, and can serve as emergency rations!

Team Size: More teammates significantly increase Treasure Chest spawn rates and monster kill loot bonuses! However, the likelihood of encountering danger also rises.

Lawless World: Forget ethics and morals. Saints die first. This is a friendly warning.

Survival Panel: Every player possesses a survival panel. Summon it by focusing your thoughts.

Ten rules that painted a stark picture of the ruthless world he now inhabited.

Lin Ye, acing reading comprehension as always, instantly grasped the reality: Survival. Survival! And more goddamn survival!

“Panel!” Lin Ye focused his thoughts. Instantly, a translucent screen materialized before him. Just like playing a game!

[Vehicle Info] [Player Stats] [Crafting Station] [Trading Hub] [Inventory Space] [Communication Channel]

Six options. Lin Ye mentally selected [Vehicle Info].

Name: Eighth-Hand Bread Van!

Grade: White Level 1 (Reach Level 10 to choose a superior vehicle!)

Fuel Tank Capacity: 30L / 50L

Fuel Consumption: 8L / 100km

Top Speed: 50 km/h

Upgrade Requirements: 20 Iron Ingots, 10 Rubber, 5 Glass

Description: Count your blessings it even starts! Don't ask for miracles.

Lin Ye glanced skeptically at the rattling van. Fifty km/h? Yeah, right! Pull the other one!

Closing Vehicle Info, he opened [Player Stats], far more interested in himself.

Player: Lin Ye

Talent: Critical Lexicon Lv1

(Critical Lexicon: When encountering probabilistic effects, this talent guarantees their activation and applies double the effect! Upgrade with Talent Augmentation Stones.)

Attack: 9 (Affects damage output)

Defense: 8 (Affects resilience & regeneration)

Reaction: 8 (Affects speed & ability activation)

Stamina: 95 (Combat drains Stamina rapidly. Below 20: All Stats halved. Below 10: Weakness/Unconsciousness. At 0: Dead.)

HP: 100 (Injury, poison, illness, and certain activities reduce HP. Below 30: Stats halved + Weakness. Below 10: Stats zeroed. At 0: Dead.)

(Note: Average contemporary college student baseline stats: 6. HP & Stamina base value is fixed at 100. Base stats only increase via special items.)

“Solid stats, beat the college average!” Lin Ye nodded, satisfied. His talent, especially, was insane. Guaranteed effect activation! Any gamer knew how terrifying a guaranteed proc could be. Give him a weapon with even a 0.1% chance to instantly kill, and thanks to his talent, it became a god-tier weapon striking death with every blow. He wondered if such gear even existed here.

Satisfied with his stats, Lin Ye scrolled down.

[Crafting Station] opened to reveal slots of schematics – some lit, others greyed out. The lit ones covered basic survival crafts like cups, bowls, chopsticks – click a schematic, spend materials, craft instantly. Greyed-out schematics required blueprints to unlock. The station also included a Deconstruct function to break items into raw materials. Lin Ye browsed briefly before closing it.

[Trading Hub] and [Inventory Space] were currently blank. The Hub allowed peer-to-peer trades without fees. Inventory Space was a colossal, stationary 100-cubic-meter storage dimension. Anything stashed inside stayed perfectly preserved. Extremely convenient.

Lin Ye moved to the last tab: [Communication Channel].

It was subdivided: World Chat, Regional Chat, Team Chat, Private Messages.

World and Regional Chat icons blazed crimson with 999+ notifications.

Checking World Chat was futile – a relentless tsunami of messages scrolls by too fast to read. Judging by the speed though, the number of unfortunate souls drafted into this “game” was staggering.

Regional Chat was slower. It also displayed Online Player Count and Weather:

Region 9527 Online: 5000/5000

Weather: Sunny. Temp: 22°C – 32°C (72°F – 90°F)

Current Disaster: None (Newbie Protection: 7 days. After this period, prepare for Extreme Heat.)

The chat itself was trickling:

“Haha! Finally my turn! This is what crossing dimensions is all about?!”

“Damn scam system gave me a bicycle! Seriously?!”

“Started with a Cullinan! Instant VIP! Hell yeah! [pic]”

“WTF. I got a unicycle? How do I even ride this thing?!”

“Wild. Anyone else got a weird ride? Post pics, need a laugh!”

“Y’all chill AF? Are you NPCs?”

“Who you callin’ NPC? Modern college kids see everything. Easy peasy interdimensional squeeze!”

“Am I the only one terrified here? I want to go home...”

The chat wasn’t frantic. Despite 5000 players online, few seemed casually chatty yet. Some people adapted unnervingly fast, though. Lin Ye even chuckled seeing the unicycle guy. Suddenly, his rust-bucket bread van didn't seem so bad. Riding a unicycle in this heat? Nightmare fuel!

[Ding! Commencing random teammate matchmaking!]

[Match Successful! You have gained 1 Teammate!]

[Acquired 7-day Teammate Protection! For 7 days, teammates cannot harm you! (Voluntary actions excluded.)]

[Teammate death will result in reassignment to another team.]

Before Lin Ye could react further, another flash of white light pulsed. As his vision cleared, a petite figure stood before him… and parked behind her: a Wiggle Car!

“Ridiculous!”"