On the Survival Highway, the tricycle rolled forward at a steady speed.
Not only did Lin Luyao no longer need to pedal manually, but even the exposed cargo bed in the back, which should have been cluttered and messy, was now enveloped by a round, bulging cover.
No matter how the tricycle drifted, the items in the back remained completely secure without making a single sound.
Looking from the outside in, it was impossible to tell what was stored inside.
These were the first two upgrades Lin Luyao had tackled after receiving her upgrade points.
The first was the power system.
Having undergone two upgrades, the tricycle had now cost a total of 120 upgrade points.
It could now run on solar power as well as human-powered generation.
Whenever Lin Luyao had the energy to spare for pedaling, it would automatically recharge the battery.
The battery capacity had undoubtedly been expanded further as well.
With each upgrade, the battery level was reset.
At her current pace, the remaining charge should easily last for two or three days of driving.
Lin Luyao felt the cool breeze blowing against her face and narrowed her eyes slightly.
Now that she no longer needed to do continuous cardio like a beast of burden, even the oncoming cool breeze didn't feel quite so biting.
Though the rear cargo bed looked smaller, its usable capacity had actually increased.
It held a full 80 grid slots inside.
The stack limit for each grid slot was also 99 units.
What pleased Lin Luyao even more was that the round cover enclosing the cargo bed could be expanded and folded.
Lin Luyao could currently manually sculpt two appearances for it.
Once sculpted, the appearances could be saved and switched between at any time.
And this had cost her a mere 80 upgrade points.
In Lin Luyao's view, it was absolute value for money.
At the rest area, where every second cost money, she had quickly and roughly sculpted two appearances for the time being.
One was the current round, opaque cover that looked both petite and secure.
The other was an operating platform that could unfold when she set up her stall.
It even had a triangular canopy on top, so she wouldn't have to worry about rain interfering with her business when the time came.
On top of all that, she had also obtained the Divine Chef Grill, which greatly increased her cooking speed.
[Divine Chef Grill: Food grilled using this grill will have 100% of its ingredient flavors brought out, with 100% faster grilling speed.]
In addition to the credits and the Divine Chef Grill obtained from unlocking recipes, the system had also given Lin Luyao a reward for killing Floden.
[Congratulations to the player for killing Lv3 NPC-Floden, gaining EXP X100, Credits X30, Short Greaves X1.]
Those 100 EXP points directly leveled her up to Level 2, granting her two skill points.
Lin Luyao added them directly to her strength stat.
[Short Greaves (Green): Durability 50/50]
[After equipping, Total Stamina +10, Strength +5, Agility -10]
Though her agility would be affected, Lin Luyao ultimately decided to equip them anyway.
That way, even without relying on the tricycle's power system, pedaling manually wouldn't feel exhausting.
[Congratulations to the player for completing the daily quest: 40 km/day]
[Daily Quest Reward: Credits X5, Drinking Water 500ml X1, Dry Bread X1]
Upon receiving the system prompt, Lin Luyao finally brought the tricycle to a stop.
With a distance this far, even if Grum had truly vanished while leaving some trick up his sleeve, since it hadn't triggered over such a long stretch, it likely had nothing to do with an ambush—he had probably just abandoned his companion and bolted straight away.
Lin Luyao looked around and saw that the dazed, wandering zombies were gone from this vicinity.
Looking into the distance past the woods that were gradually withering as the temperature dropped, she could vaguely make out the sharp peaks of rooftops far off.
She looked curiously at the exposed rooftops for a couple of seconds and nodded.
"Alright, this place will do. Go ahead and call your trusted friends over."
Since the Slime had offered to help, Lin Luyao decided not to stand on ceremony.
With the Slime around, she wouldn't have to wait passively for customers to come to her.
According to the Slime, there were still plenty of NPCs who wanted to patronize her business, only they hadn't been able to find her.
After this incident, coupled with the Slime generously sharing the NPC forum interface with her, Lin Luyao's trust in the Slime had risen a notch.
At least, she no longer resisted its help in drumming up business for her.
Especially after browsing the forum, Lin Luyao felt like she had caught a glimpse of another side of this Highway Survival Game.
Those NPCs who played villainous roles in the game seemed to have joys and sorrows just like players.
They would curse up a storm on the forum when a quest failed.
They would break down and wail when they couldn't find their quest target in time as the deadline approached.
Even more remarkable was that among the NPCs, there was a faction advocating violence and misanthropy, as well as a peaceful, pro-human faction.
The two sides were like fire and water.
The Slime told her that these two factions not only tore into each other fiercely on the forum, but also threw hands on sight in real life, fighting to the death.
Take this time, for instance—the tall and short NPCs Lin Luyao had run into belonged to the misanthropic faction.
They were the nightmare of many NPCs along this beginner route.
Their personalities were utterly vile, they had devoured countless humans and NPCs, and they even formed gangs.
"Although Grum was often with Floden, they still have several helpers behind the scenes. I wonder if he'll find people to come back and take revenge on you after escaping this time."
The Slime was still clinging to the handlebars, browsing the NPC forum to send private messages to its pro-human comrades for publicity while chatting with Lin Luyao about Grum and the others, its face full of worry.
Lin Luyao glanced at the Slime, whose body was now only about the size of a soccer ball.
Though its size had shrunk significantly, lacking the extra heads on its back along with its gelatinous, bouncy physique...
The two little round balls that represented its eyes were now flattened by half from worry, making it look somehow even cuter.
"It's fine, if we can't beat them, we'll just run."
Lin Luyao was currently in a good frame of mind.
Especially after actual combat, she had a rough idea of the strength of the NPCs on the beginner route.
She believed that as long as she kept developing new recipes and improving her strength, NPCs of Grum's level wouldn't pose a threat to her for the time being.
Buoyed by this confidence, Lin Luyao even hummed a little tune cheerfully as she unfolded the cargo bed.
Without the constant threat of death hanging over her head, the Survival Highway didn't seem so gloomy and dark after all.
Lin Luyao fully extended the canopy frame.
The items in the cargo bed automatically sorted themselves back into their respective slots.
Inside the Divine Chef Grill placed below, the coal she had used earlier still retained glowing embers.
She glanced at it with satisfaction and turned to walk toward the edge.
Hoping to gather some dry branches for fuel before any NPCs showed up, she suddenly heard a squelching sound as her foot stepped on something wet and soft.
Startled, Lin Luyao looked down.
Mixed among the gravel was a dark red lump; under her tread, foul blood had squeezed out, staining the whitening gravel nearby.
Seeing this object that looked like rotting flesh, Lin Luyao's expression shifted and she instantly pulled her foot back.
Yet the very next moment, she realized the entire world had changed.
[Ding!]
[Congratulations to the player for activating the large-scale instance: Zombie Homecoming.]
[The system will now absorb all eligible players and NPCs into the instance, please wait.]
[Instance loading complete.]