Sandrine slapped her cheek to force herself to focus, but even her pupils were shaking.
"Let's get this over with."
She still hadn't prepared dinner for the colorless gang, she couldn't afford a breakdown right now. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and quickly opened the two chests then put them back into her inventory. Only then did she check out what she had gotten.
[Small trap blueprint, sanitary pads pack x10, back scratcher, skin scrub, vehicle repair card, heated dog mat, horse mash recipe]
The last two items were those targeted for her. The first was similar to a hot water bottle. There was a small opening on the side of the mat where you could pour hot water, that would then fill the inside of the mat for your dog to stay warm. For now, Gribouille didn't need it since the newbie protection period didn't have any season, but it would be useful after running around in the rain later. It was also the first ever item that could be linked to low temperatures that Sandrine had seen, but since it was for her dog and not for her, she didn't react.
The other thing was a horse mash recipe. A mash is a type of very rich food, much like a health supplement, that people could give their horse if they were weak, needed energy, or had lost weight, were sick… It was overall quite rich and not to use everyday, but most horses loved the taste. What surprised Sandrine was that it wasn't listed as 'blueprint' but as 'recipe', which meant she could craft that food as long as she had a stove, and she wouldn't even need to really cook, just like with blueprints. She was already familiar with those peculiar things. For example, when she crafted her pet clothes earlier on the crafting table, she could do so only by putting her sewing kit inside the drawer of the crafting table. Clothes couldn't be crafted without a sewing kit. She was really glad that AlphaWolf had given it to her on the first day.
As for the vehicle repair card, it was a game item that would instantaneously repair your vehicle, which was useless for Sandrine.
"Overall, not bad. The small trap can also be useful during the offroad event."
Maybe she could catch new pets, which would feed into her new job and help her upgrade it ?
Anyway, she felt like she was about to pass out. Even if mentally she was more or less good, the effect that trauma had on the body was surprising.
She felt really sick but she had to eat. She took a few remaining olive bread from her inventory. It was about to turn stale and hard, and Sandrine had no interest in eating hard bread now that she could have the luxury of eating good stuff. It was better to use it now.
She was a bit tired of cooking in a primitive way, so she had crafted a wooden stove using the blueprint she had gotten earlier. She cut the bread into two horizontally, they were already quite flat so it gave her thin slices. Then she brushed a bit of olive oil on them, took out a jar of sun dried tomatoes and put some on the slices, added a bit of goat cheese from her cheese platter, and some Provence herbs. It would have been better with basil and oregano, as well as mozzarella for the cheese, but she didn't have any for now. Then she put some wood in the stove, lit a fire, and put all the slices in the oven part, where the fire was burning, then closed the metal door.
Tonight she would eat bruschetta.
The time it took to cook was the time it took for Sandrine to prepare camp and feed her pets. She took out the bruschetta from the oven and waited for them to slightly cool down before biting one. The crisp crunchy olive bread almost burned her tongue, crumbling into pieces in her mouth while leaving an aftertaste of olive oil and hot green olive. The olives burst in her mouth, mixing with the tomatoes and their juice, while the goat cheese coated Sandrine's palate and stuck to her teeth. The Provence herbs seemed to link everything together and almost fill her nose, gentler than spices but still full of flavour.
It was incredibly good and warm, very different from the game's food. The dishes in the cans were more elaborate and luxurious, yes, but they could never compete with homemade food.
Even if Sandrine didn't feel well, she still managed to eat all the bruschetta. Afterwards, her belly felt better, weighted by warm food and no longer as uneasy. Still, despite herself, her hands were shaking.
Gribouille and Paquerette didn't seem relaxed either, eating their dinner without relish.
"Okay, we all need to think about something else. Let's read a bed time story !"
She had earned a strange collection of children books earlier, so she could try to read them to her pets.
Sandrine took out her chair from her inventory and sat next to Paquerette, with Gribouille on her knees. Then she opened Little clever's book collection, and took out the first book. The title was a bit strange.
"Pinpin's rabbit teeth… It's weird but why not ?"
On the cover, there was a very cute little bunny, all white with blue eyes, looking funny and a little silly with those two long front teeth. In French, such teeth are called rabbit teeth or happiness teeth, and Sandrine had to admit that the bunny looked a little happy. She opened the book to the first page, marveling at the illustrations that seemed to have been painted with watercolors.
"Pinpin is a rabbit with big front teeth. All his friends are nice to him, but they also talk a lot about his teeth. Pinpin likes his friends, but he doesn't like when they talk about his teeth."
The story was overall quite nice, highlighting the importance of not talking without thinking, and that sometimes casual remarks or jokes can greatly hurt the recipient. The lesson was good, the text was easy to understand, and the illustrations were very pretty and dreamy.
Sandrine felt a bit better while reading, her hands had stopped shaking and her head was filled with watercolor drawings, no longer thinking about what happened during the day. Gribouille, on her knees, was completely focused, looking at the drawings with wide eyes, his stubby little tail wagging wildly behind him. He looked just like a little kid that had found his next obsession.
Paquerette was calmer, looking above Sandrine's shoulder at the book, but she also looked more relaxed and studied the illustrations and the text with interest.
It looked like reading bed time stories would become their next evening routine.
When the story was over, Sandrine kissed her pets good night and placed Gribouille back in his little bed. The puppy was a bit excited, jumping around like Pinpin in the book, while holding his little worm plushy. Absolutely adorable.
"You need to sleep now, I'll read another story tomorrow."
Gribouille obediently laid down and Sandrine put on her splinters before jumping into bed. She didn't see the glowing light in the puppy's eyes and the slight shimmer of his fur.
The next morning, Sandrine was getting ready as usual while reading her messages. MomImThristy had sent her the content of the deal he proposed for the blueprints. To sum up, he would give her the blueprints he found in exchange for getting the crafts first. And if Sandrine ever wanted to sell the crafted stuff for money, she would need to share profits. It was a pretty standard deal, with nothing detrimental to Sandrine. It was even quite advantageous for her, getting tons of blueprints for free ! It showed that MomImThristy truly considered her a friend, and was grateful for everything Sandrine dumped onto him everyday when she tried to clear her inventory.
"A nice friend to know !"
All happy, Sandrine finished brushing Paquerette's coat and took out the mongolian saddle. To be truthful, with the mare's evolution her coat had become quite magical, no dirt could cling onto her, so she was forever clean. But even if that was the case, Sandrine wouldn't abandon the bonding moment of brushing her. Paquerette seemed to like it too, so it didn't make sense to stop.
After making sure everything was ready, Sandrine took Gribouille with her as she jumped on Paquerette's back. The puppy had grown a lot, he was as heavy as a toddler, and when Sandrine put him in the kangaroo pouch, he could no longer be hidden. There was always his little head or his little paws poking out.
"Stop growing so fast ! What will mom do if she can't hold you anymore ?"
Sandrine felt a bit sad and helpless, but the kid growing up was a good thing, so she didn't complain much.
While waiting for daytime at 6am, Sandrine studied the server chat.
[Server chat (5,216/10,000)
Perdrix : I don't want to live anymore. What's the use ?
Uwawa9876 : help food please
TataYoyo : Someone actually attacked me, my car is broken, I didn't reach today's mileage… I'm just waiting for death…
FeetQueen : Please, can someone give me some food ? I'll exchange it for everything I have, even my used underwear or sexy pics!!!!
BigBelly123 : Exchanging bread for blueprints or 200 upgrade materials. Check out the trade tab
FeetQueen : I don't have upgrade materials but I can give you everything I have, big shot please give me bread wuwuwu T-T
MostBeautifulCashier : We should all gather together during this crisis, why try profiteering off of the hungry ? It's evil to see someone die of hunger and not help !
JusticeBoy56 : Yeah, he is right, can't you give us just a little ? Just a little bit of bread, and I promise we'll repay you !
IamSn00t : you'll go to hell if you watch people starve]
Sandrine read everything with cold eyes. As expected, people were still hungry. More than 300 had died today, and even if there had been a few murders on the double roads, it wasn't that many. After all, most people in this death game had been normal citizens before, how could taking a life be that easy ? At most, pushed by hunger, they probably attacked, hit, and stole, but actually killing and eating like the madman she had met, that was very rare.
Most deaths were probably due to hunger. However, this would change quickly. MomImThristy had already told her that his plants were not far from being mature, the first harvests were going to happen. All players with plants in their trucks were going to have food. Same for those who captured animals to raise and breed, the timing was somewhat similar.
Anyway, the newbie protection period was reaching its end, it was about time for the food issue to resolve itself, the server couldn't afford to lose all its players. Otherwise, what was the point of the game ?
Sandrine also noted that JusticeBoy56 and his follower IamSn00t were once again stirring up trouble. This time, they were targeting the stronger players and those selling food, trying to guilt trip them into giving to others. Or maybe it was a ploy so that the other players, the hungry ones, would target the rankers ? Anyway, JusticeBoy56 seemed to be a despicable person, Sandrine made a mental note to avoid him at all costs.
She read for a while but thankfully nobody talked about her. She had been very scared that, during those double roads, people saw Paquerette and talked about the horse on the server chat. During this famine, the information was guaranteed to be explosive ! But Sandrine seemed to have been lucky. The first person she had met on the double road had been overly timid and scared, not daring to share the info, and the second had died over-confident, not taking any picture in his last moments.
For now, she was safe. However, after today the double roads would become a regular occurrence. Maybe not everyday, but often enough. This meant that she would always have to be tense.
Just as she was pondering, the sky suddenly turned bright, almost burning her eyes. It was 6am.
[Players who didn't reach the required mileage will disappear]
[4,982 players enter the 11th day]
[Congratulations on entering the 11th day]
[You are the 1st player to upgrade your vehicle to level 5, rewards have been sent to your inbox]
[The Double road event has ended]
[Required mileage for today : 60km]
[Time left for the newbie protection period : 4 days]
Sandrine frowned. No ranking for the event this time ? No reward ? But it somehow made sense, how could this event be ranked ? How many metal chests you picked up ? But there had been only two double roads, so 4 metal chests. If all the people who had grabbed them all would share first place, what was the use ?
Sandrine nodded and was about to ask Paquerette to walk, when she noticed the black fog on the side of the road recessing in a familiar fashion.
[Today is an event day !]
[Event : Roadside opening]
[The black mist will disappear from the roadside. Players are encouraged to explore the roadside]
[The roadside has more opportunities, but also more dangers]
[To encourage exploration, chests on the road will appear 50% less often, and will contain 50% less supplies. Double roads will appear 100% more often]
[This event will last 3 days. Enjoy !]
Sandrine's eyes opened wide. Another offroad event ? This was unexpected. And the penalties for those on the road seemed very terrifying. Not only would they have less chests with less things inside, but they also had two times more chances to encounter double roads ! All the people that didn't participate in the events were either scared, weak, or hurt. But now, there would also be the bloodthirsty and those that thought pillaging was easier than encountering the game's dangers. All those weak and hurt people would be in danger.
The game was now pushing everyone to play. You had to at least try to explore the offroad, or you would have to fight other humans, and with almost no benefits at the end.
"What a wicked sense of humor…"
After sighing, Sandrine finally looked towards the sides. Surprisingly, this time she didn't see a dilapidated city. The landscape was wildly different.
A sea of green trees covered the sky with their high, wide trunks and their thick verdant foliage. There were bushes as tall as men, ivy and climbing plants sticking to the bark, thin dots of light that had succeeded in passing through the leaves falling on the mossy ground. It was a normal forest but not like a normal forest. A jungle but not a jungle. Halfway between normal and not at all.
If it was a jungle, the vegetation was too normal, too European looking. But if it was a normal forest, the trees were way too tall and the ivy grew more aggressively than it should. They say ivy always grows thicker towards the North, that's how you're supposed to find your way in a forest, but here the ivy grew wildly on all sides.
Sandrine frowned slightly, trying to gaze farther, behind the trees and the bushes, but the foliage hid too much of the light, the forest seemed completely dark and uninviting.
Also, she had the feeling that she was being watched.
"That's creepy… But that won't stop us, right ?"
Paquerette snorted and rolled her eyes as usual, and Gribouille barked with energy.
If the colorless gang was being brave, it wouldn't do if Sandrine was cowardly.
"Let's go, gang !"