[Milky Bun – Price: 1 Point] [Amino Acid Drink – Price: 1 Point] [Toothbrush & Toothpaste – Price: 1 Point] [Towel – Price: 1 Point] […] It wasn’t just Ye Shu—everyone was utterly stunned. The survival game had existed on Blue Star long enough that most people knew about the system shop, but nobody expected… the game would be so cruel, confiscating all goods and converting even basic food into something that had to be purchased with points. The prices were absurd! A single loaf of bread, costing 1 point. And each player only got ten points for clearing an entire game round. To make a home in this world… there was no avenue but to keep playing and earning points. “This is outright extortion and blackmail!” Su Bai’s round, pale face pinched into a bun of frustration. “Let’s buy one and see what it’s like.” Ye Shu checked the player status page for her remaining balance, her expression regaining its calm. Thankfully, her personal stash was still well-stocked. Thirty-nine thousand seventy points. If she was frugal, it’d be enough to support Su Bai too. Ye Shu exchanged for a freshly baked milky bun. [Ding! Purchase successful.] [1 point spent.] The bun was massive—about half the size of her face—and steamed invitingly, hot from the oven. She took a bite: pure, natural wheat flavor, soft, fragrant, filling. Perhaps it was her imagination, but after swallowing, Ye Shu felt her sapped strength returning. She paused, flipping open her status page. Her newly updated Health value had risen from 85 to 90. Su Bai stared at the half-missing bun in Ye Shu’s hand, then leaned in to sniff it. “Wait—Shu Shu, you actually bought it? Tsk, let’s see how salty a one-point mega-bun is.” Ye Shu, ever generous, tore off half and passed it to Su Bai. “Maybe you should check your Health stat. Eating this bun gave me five points back…” She let the rest trail off. If the shop’s food restored health… Did that mean failing to eat in time would make health drop? If it hit zero—what would happen? “Really—I feel alive again,” Su Bai admitted after swallowing, a bit of fatigue receding. “My health’s up by two.” Fu Jingchuan, for his part, would never accept charity from Ye Shu’s half-bun. Instead, he bought his own from the shop: a bun and bottled water. He soon noticed all food restored health—a milky bun added ten points, mineral water another ten, a meal box fifteen… The pricier the meal, the bigger the boost. Suddenly, the world channel bloomed—seven billion players online at once. [Guest Player #123: What’s happening!? Why am I a player too? This is awful! All the buildings around me—my apartment of ten years—gone overnight… I spent half a life paying for that!] [Xiyan: You don’t need to pay back now, haha… I’m the same.] [Fried Fishmint: I spent my starter points on buns and water. It’s wild—even the cheapest stuff is a point. I have a big appetite, so three buns only half fill me.] [Ying Chan Hua: What? New players all get ten points? Is the game really so generous? As old players we only get ten for clearing a run—what luck for the newcomers! I’m jealous.] [Honey Baby: Does nobody care if the old players live or die? Wuwuwu… Newbies start with points and get to choose their instance, and the survival rate is crazy high!] [Ji Sheng Yu: Us old players are cannon fodder, I tell you. Jealous of the leaderboard people. Still, tens of thousands of points isn’t too much… Tsk—it’s wild that with just twenty points in my pocket, I’m scoffing at those sums.] […] The world channel descended into chaos, everyone arguing over points and survival. It was as if the invasion of the survival game upon Blue Star had been swept aside by this uproar. A mechanical voice echoed from the sky. [Eleventh Round commencing. Player count insufficient; one million will be randomly drawn into the game.] [Please take this seriously.] [Failure to clear: player death.] [Welcome back, Ye Shu, to the Survival Game. You have cleared ten times. One bonus card draw granted.] [You have obtained: 1 case of hand warmers (100 packs). Description: Ultra-long warmth for 24 hours—a mini heater for winter.] [You have obtained: Strength +1.] [You have obtained: Constitution +1.] [You have obtained: Storage Ring +1. Description: Standard storage ring, 1 square meter capacity.] The screen popped up. [Player: Ye Shu] [Game ID: 10096] [Current Players Alive: 1,000,000/1,000,000] [Initial Supplies: 2,000 Flower Coins (game currency), ID, cell phone.] [Game Identity: Working-class wage slave] [Game Description: —] [Hint: This instance is called the "Frozen Expanse"] [Game Objective: Survive Twenty Days.] “Frozen Expanse…” Just from the name, you could tell cold was the central threat. Ye Shu upgraded her storage ring, expanding its space by 13 square meters. The urgent task: stockpile everything for warmth, food, water, and medicine. This run, her role was just an ordinary office worker. The original host had been living paycheck-to-paycheck, even in debt. Without much left except the starter fund from the game, Ye Shu decided to pawn off the gold jewelry she’d found in a previous game round—lucky to have it now. In exchange, she got 200,000 coins. Her first stop: the largest supermarket in town. Self-heating hotpots—ten boxes. Instant rice—ten boxes. Instant noodles—ten boxes. Candy, chocolate, bottled water, compressed biscuits—all in bulk. Besides portable food, she gathered gear: portable gas stoves, alcohol lamps, windproof lighters, solar crank flashlights, candles, thermos flasks, handwarmers, mini heaters. Given the extreme cold, she visited a wholesale market for down coats, padded jackets, hats, face and ear masks, scarves, thermal boots, and socks in all sizes. No surprise—being a born-and-raised southerner, cold was her weakest point. Since the instance spanned the globe, there was no “warmer place” to run to—best to be fully prepared. The only uncertain thing was how low the temperatures would drop. The coldest measured temperature by humans was -273.15°C… Good thing she was an ice ability user—maybe she’d have an edge in this freezing instance. No sooner had Ye Shu moved all her supplies into the storage ring than a video came in from Su Bai. [Sensual Cockroach in Black Stockings: Ye Shu, I’ve been transported way up north—I’m a meteorological researcher now, and it’s freezing! There’s no way back for a while—am I going to freeze solid!? The temperature seems to be dropping by the minute! Oh, tonight’s forecast is for even lower temps—you need to get ready.] The video showed swirling snow, a thermometer nearly swallowed by drifts—reading negative 25 Celsius. But it was still “hot season” at these latitudes. Normal should have been -15°C—so -25 was frighteningly low. Ye Shu’s expression grew tense. Barely an hour since entering the game, and already the survival challenge was under way—far too soon, with barely a moment to prepare.