NOVEL NEXT Chapter 121: Train Entries
"The quest just started, don't say such demoralizing things."
Song Qingyun shook his head, gesturing for the other to get in the vehicle.
"But the problem is, if we start slow, it'll be really hard to catch up with them later, right?"
Lin Wenjue hesitated upon hearing this.
However, Song Qingyun was a bit impatient, directly pulling him up into the vehicle, then signaling Zhou Yingting to start moving.
Once the two of them were on board, the vehicle began to slowly move forward.
"If teaming up is allowed in the quest, it means there are benefits to doing so. Let's first observe the situation."
The vehicle continued on its path, and all around was desolate, with nothing in sight.
Song Qingyun carefully examined his surroundings.
The sun overhead was relentlessly scorching down. The vehicle was extremely basic, and although it had doors, there was no fan or air conditioning inside.
The heat radiating from the front of the vehicle, combined with the sun's intense light, caused the temperature to rise rapidly.
In just a moment, the three people inside were already sweating, and the wind that blew past carried heat.
"Is there any water around here? At this rate, we'll die of thirst before we even reach the destination, won't we?"
Song Qingyun looked around, licking his parched lips.
He was beginning to feel unbearably thirsty.
"Do you want water or some iced drink?"
Zhou Yingting was also feeling the thirst.
"What did you say?"
Song Qingyun was still scanning the desert, stunned by Zhou Yingting's words, and then looked at him in bewilderment.
"Take your pick."
Zhou Yingting shook his head and then snapped his fingers, instantly conjuring up bottled water, drinks, and various food items beside him.
When Song Qingyun turned and saw Zhou Yingting conjuring so much food and drink with a snap, his eyes nearly popped out.
"Whoa, are you Thanos? How can you snap your fingers and make food appear?"
Song Qingyun stared in disbelief at Zhou Yingting, completely clueless about how he did it.
A snap of the fingers to produce food—this was incredible!
"I obtained an entry that lets me create food."
Zhou Yingting explained after hearing this, casually grabbing a cold soda and taking a drink.
The moment the cold soda went down, much of the heat inside him subsided.
"Ah, refreshing!"
Song Qingyun grabbed the bottled water and took a sip, then poured a little on himself to cool down, feeling instantly revitalized.
Lin Wenjue, beside them, held a bottle of water in one hand and a drumstick in the other, his eyes shining as he started to eat.
"That kid, when I met him before, he was always not getting enough to eat. To save money, he'd skip breakfast and go out to work early."
Seeing Lin Wenjue like this, Song Qingyun explained.
Zhou Yingting nodded knowingly, watching Lin Wenjue's cautious demeanor, occasionally glancing at the other food with a look of wanting but feeling shy, and waved his hand dismissively.
"I can conjure up this food so easily, just take whatever you want. In this heat, if we don't eat the food soon, it'll spoil quickly."
Lin Wenjue was momentarily surprised to hear this, "Can I?"
There was a lot of food he had never tasted before. As a child, even a chicken leg his mother occasionally gave him would make him happy for ages.
Now, this food included seafood, grilled wings, and other items he'd never had.
"Yeah, eat whatever you want, it's free anyway."
Zhou Yingting casually waved his hand and replied.
Hearing this, Lin Wenjue was overjoyed, thanked him, and began to eat heartily.
"You just can't stand to see anyone hungry, can you?"
Watching this, Song Qingyun commented with a sense of reflection.
He had starved before and knew how unbearable it was.
Zhou Yingting nodded, agreeing as the vehicle continued for another half-hour, estimating the inside temperature had risen over forty degrees and continuing to climb.
"The water in the engine's radiator is almost gone."
Song Qingyun noticed that the water in the car's engine radiator was rapidly depleting.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yingting stopped the vehicle and proceeded to add water to the radiator.
If the radiator ran dry, the engine could fail outright.
"It seems the radiator water evaporates with the engine running."
After refilling, Song Qingyun remarked.
Zhou Yingting furrowed his brow, "The radiator water constantly evaporates? In this damn heat, we need more water already, now adding water to the radiator is necessary; if not, we might die here, right?"
Fortunately, everyone's three-dimensional attributes had improved, or they wouldn't handle the high temperature in the vehicle, which lacked air conditioning; an ordinary person would have succumbed by now.
But even so, the three of them were not especially comfortable either.
The temperature kept climbing; it was insufferably hot!
"There seems to be water over there!"
As the two of them were talking, Song Qingyun excitedly pointed to a spot in the distance that looked like a puddle.
Although Zhou Yingting could produce water, it was always good to prepare some water just in case.
"That's not it, that's a mirage puddle. The temperature is too high, creating a refracted image on the ground that looks like a puddle."
Zhou Yingting replied casually after glancing in the direction Song Qingyun was pointing.
Song Qingyun was taken aback by the response and realized when the train got closer that there was no actual puddle.
It was clearly just a mirage created by the intense heat, making the ground appear like a puddle.
About ten minutes later, Song Qingyun saw a small depression by the roadside with some animals drinking water.
"That, that must be water!"
Song Qingyun was immediately excited and quickly told Zhou Yingting.
Zhou Yingting looked over and indeed saw a small depression beside the road, with some small animals drinking water inside it.
"Seems like it's time to hunt; others haven't refreshed the entry, so we can only collect water and prey by the roadside."
Zhou Yingting understood that this scene was part of the resources to be collected in this level.
"We don't have anything to store water, right? These few mineral water bottles aren't going to be enough, are they?"
Lin Wenjue, having eaten his fill, grabbed a nearby bottle, ready to fetch water upon noticing it.
When he heard this, he paused and hesitated.
"Let's look around the roadside; there might be something to store water."
Song Qingyun thought for a moment and then said.
After finishing their conversation, the two immediately got out of the vehicle to search.
Zhou Yingting stayed in the car to keep watch.
The fuel gauge showed that the car could still travel 100 kilometers. If they couldn't find more fuel in that range, they'd be stranded.
By then, they might really have to push the car.
Perhaps that's one reason the level doesn't restrict personal attributes.
If the fuel truly ran out, they could still push the car. If restricted to ordinary human abilities, they'd likely exhaust themselves after just ten meters.
"There's an abandoned house over here!"
While Zhou Yingting was waiting in the car, Lin Wenjue's distant voice called out.
Hearing this, Song Qingyun quickly ran over.
Moments later, the two came out each carrying a large bucket and an oil drum.
But the buckets were empty, containing neither water nor fuel.
Moments later, they carried back water-filled buckets and loaded them into the vehicle.
"We checked the abandoned house. There were just these two buckets and nothing else."
Back in the car, the two were panting—not from tiredness, but from the heat.
"No other things? I'll get going then."
Zhou Yingting acknowledged and prepared to start driving again.
"Go ahead, I found something else too."
Saying this, Song Qingyun handed Zhou Yingting a piece of paper.
"What's this?"
Zhou Yingting took the paper and raised an eyebrow after a glance.
It was a communicator. Equipped with this entry, they could join a chat group, converse with other teams, and view their own team's ranking.
Whether to chat or not was secondary, but knowing their rank would help gauge their progress.
However, equipping this entry would increase fuel consumption.
The car originally could go 100 kilometers, but with this entry, it would only travel 80 kilometers.
"Should we keep this entry aside for now? We're running low on fuel, and equipping it would limit us to 80 kilometers."
Zhou Yingting pondered for a moment and spoke.
"You're the captain; it's your call."
Song Qingyun jokingly responded upon hearing this.
Seeing Song Qingyun's answer, Zhou Yingting smiled and continued to drive forward, but moments later, Zhou Yingting's face stiffened slightly.
The original speed of 30 km/h had decreased further to 28 km/h.
"The speed has decreased."
Song Qingyun didn't need to check the speedometer; the scenery outside moving slower made it clear that they were slowing down.
He glanced at the dashboard and realized the added weight from the water was the cause.
Could dropping speed mean they'd end up in last place?
Thinking this, Song Qingyun grew a bit anxious.
Zhou Yingting could conjure water, but it was never a lot. Leaving without extra water seemed risky.
"No worries, let's keep going. We'll likely find entries that increase speed later."
If entries existed for chatting and ranking, there should be ones for boosting speed too.
The water was already loaded; discarding it would be such a waste.