Ye Shu's eyes gleamed with desire! Thrown straight into the desolate black desert at the very beginning, Pang Pangzi truly lived up to his reputation as a man blessed by fortune. Even after being abandoned in a cactus forest, he ended up being saved, and managed to stumble into a tribe after getting separated from the other players.
Ever since that game at sea, Ye Shu had been certain—Pang Tong was like someone equipped with a good luck system. Wherever he went, fortunate things seemed to happen.
Yet who knew what possessed the game this time? Despite being bound by the team card, she was still tossed into a remote, forgotten corner all by herself.
The desert was vast and unforgiving.
Ye Shu spent a night beneath the cactus trees. At least, food was abundant—she even managed to hunt down an ostrich.
She plucked the bird's feathers and stitched them into a cloak; the meat she smoked into jerky. With the desert temperature soaring to forty or even fifty degrees, she only had to toss the meat onto the sand and it would cook right through. Of course, there was no salt, and ostrich meat was notoriously tough.
She didn’t even know if she’d made it out of the black desert region yet.
Tonight, though, there was no sign of the death worms.
Ye Shu wrapped herself in her feathered cloak and slept soundly for the first time.
On the fourth day of desert survival, she thought she could simply hide out in the cactus grove until the game ended. But that irritating game prompt chimed again, refusing to give her peace.
[Ding! Friendly reminder: a black sandstorm is imminent! Players are advised to leave the central region of the desert. The slumbering monsters are about to awaken. Please exit as soon as possible, or bear the consequences yourself.]
[You have one minute to check the map. Countdown: 59, 58... ]
Slumbering monsters? Did that mean the death worms, or something else entirely?
Gritting her teeth, Ye Shu quickly found her current position. Sure enough, the map showed... she was still in the heart of the desert.
Having fought so hard to claim a corner of cactus paradise, the idea of leaving now felt bitterly unfair.
Before she left, she stuffed her storage to the brim with cactus fruit and flesh. This stash would last her at least seven or eight days—enough to reach the small tribe marked on the map.
Ye Shu set out once again. When hungry, she chewed cactus; when thirsty, she ate the ice she'd packed.
In that endless expanse of yellow sand, she spotted a group in the distance—a line of men and women, about twenty in all. Most likely fellow players.
It was rare to see another soul in that barren wasteland, and Ye Shu’s spirits soared. Still, caution kept her trailing at a safe, inconspicuous distance.
Clearly, their destination matched hers—the small tribe a hundred-odd miles away.
The sun blazed overhead, turning the sand to a searing griddle. Players staggered onward, dizzy from the heat but unable to stop.
At the back of the group, a man spat onto the sand. His saliva vanished in a blink, baked away instantly. He fished a plastic bottle from his coat—inside, a garish crimson liquid. He took a swig, scowling. “Damn it! What hellhole is this? Isn’t a survival game supposed to be a simulation? It feels real enough! I swear, I’m about to melt out here.”
Women in the group cast longing looks at the bottle and its vivid red contents—but it wasn’t theirs to covet.
Su Bai’s cracked lips bled as she forced herself to ignore it. The metallic taste of blood brought her mind back from the edge. She couldn’t look.
It was trusting this bunch that had gotten her into this mess—her only water and food snatched away… now they were saving her as a future meal.
Last night, a woman in the group had already—well, she was gone. Su Bai wondered in terror if she'd be next. Her eyes lowered, panic breaking through her usually calm facade. Was this her first time in a survival game? Just like before—nearly ninety percent of players died every round.
“Shut up and watch where you’re going. If your ability wasn’t so special, you’d be the next snack,” growled the burly leader.
Li Lao Jiu flinched and plastered on a smile. “Big Bro, we’re all family here—I was just complaining. If you don’t want to hear it, I’ll shut up.”
With Li Lao Jiu leading, the group always managed to find the right path amid the shifting sands.
…
Without a water source, people themselves became the next reservoir. Blood and raw meat—their only sustenance. Blood contained salt, after all. No wonder this crew kept so many women: they were treated as little more than walking livestock.
Ye Shu observed how they never seemed caught by sandstorms—thanks, perhaps, to the power that man mentioned.
She eyed the thin guy. Likely, his gift was a sort of navigation—or weather sense. Useless in most games, invaluable here in the wastes.
With two suns overhead, Ye Shu, despite carrying lumps of ice, was drenched in sweat as if standing under a waterfall. The players ahead of her must be suffering even worse.
“Damn, water’s about gone…”
“We need a new donor. That one!”
The men’s eyes fell on one of the women: Su Bai.
She froze. She wanted to run, but the desert was endless—even with full strength, escape was uncertain.
Liang Wei leered, approaching with faux sympathy. “Little sis, I’ve got no choice. If you don’t die, we do. We’re all players here—you understand, right?”
Desperation brought out a savagery no one expected. Su Bai snatched up a rock and crashed it against his skull, only stopping when the man was dead and still.
“You come any closer, and I’ll take every one of you with me,” she threatened, brandishing her blood-streaked weapon.
Meek and unassuming in real life, Su Bai now radiated a fierce, primal menace.
“We won’t move. Just… toss over his body.”
The leader, startled by her ferocity, gave up the fight. Besides, Liang Wei’s body was, after all, just another water source.
One moment allies, the next, nothing but meat to be butchered. To call these people beasts was unfair—beasts had more honor.
Su Bai trembled as she watched them refill the plastic bottle with fresh, warm liquid. She gagged, unable to stop herself.
Suddenly, a woman cried out, jabbing a finger at a nearby dip in the sand. Her hollow eyes flared with hope. “There—it’s water!”
Sure enough, a few hundred meters ahead, a pool had appeared.
“It’s really water!”
“We’re saved—there’s always a way out!”
“Water! It’s water!”
The group, half-mad, tore toward the spring. Su Bai was stunned—when had a pond appeared in the heart of the desert? She’d seen nothing before… as if it had appeared from thin air.
Was it a trap? She remembered no tales of hidden oases here. Still, thirst pushed her forward, her body screaming for water. She hadn’t drunk in almost two days. If she couldn’t drink today, she would die—she couldn’t die, not yet. She hadn’t seen her yet.
From atop a distant dune, Ye Shu munched sweet cactus flesh, keeping watch. There was something oddly familiar about that girl—especially when she fought.