Zheng Haoyun took a moment to check the regional information on her personal panel and discovered that her zone was no longer Zone 13, but had now become the newly merged Zone 8.
From the new zone's chat, she learned that Zone 8 was a combination of four zones merged together.
With that in mind, Zheng Haoyun quickly estimated that the survival game's mortality rate had already reached 75%—since only 25% of the original players from each zone remained.
Calculating further, that meant the elimination rate was absolutely terrifying—and it had only been the first month of the game!
Looking at it from another perspective, the original host's early death in her past life might've actually been a kind of mercy—an escape from this cursed survival world.
But there was no point in dwelling on it. Zheng Haoyun forced herself to shift focus to the rewards given by the game.
System Notification During Snowstorm Period:
"Congratulations, Survivor 'I Want My Luck to Turn Around'. You've successfully completed the 15-day trial during the snowfield storm.Due to your outstanding performance in the five rounds of beast wave battles, your overall ranking is 1st place.In addition to the Silver Treasure Chest awarded to all survivors, you are also granted a unique Golden Treasure Chest."
This was the first time she'd heard of a Golden Treasure Chest, and she could only imagine how extraordinary its contents must be.
But with her current negative luck stat, Zheng Haoyun decided not to open it just yet—she didn't want her "cursed hands" to contaminate such a rare prize.
The Silver Chest, on the other hand, was safe enough to open—so she wasted no time.
Upon opening it, she received:
One Level 1 Defense Card
One Random Attribute Card
One set of Cold-Resistant Clothing
She quickly used the attribute card. As expected, it once again boosted her Spirit stat by one point.
Her current personal stats were as follows:
Constitution: 8(Average is 5. Congrats! Your relentless efforts have put you above baseline.)
Luck: -2(Your luck has improved slightly, but sadly you're still among the unluckiest survivors in this world.)
Spirit: 12(Impressive! Despite being so unlucky, your spirit stat has skyrocketed.)
Backpack: 10 slots(Upgraded from 5 slots after using a backpack expansion card.)
This batch of treasure chest rewards was suspiciously good, unlike previous rewards, which instantly raised Zheng Haoyun's guard.
She couldn't help but think: Is this game feeding us a last supper before killing us all off? If she could get so much loot with her negative luck, others probably got even better.
Sure enough, after browsing the world channel, she saw many other survivors also reporting unusually generous loot drops from their treasure chests—far better than any previous round.
Now that only the smarter, tougher players remained, they quickly sensed something off about the game's sudden generosity.
But for now, all they could do was wait and see—there was no escaping it anyway.
Meanwhile, on the planet Toska, light-years away from Earth, a scientific research team recently received a formal complaint:
"Can your survival livestream be a little more challenging?That last tournament was painfully boring.If this laziness continues, we, as investors, will pull our funding."
As a result, the difficulty level for Blue Star (Earth) was silently increased from the backend—skipping many transition stages—all to provide wealthier audiences with more intense and thrilling content in the next livestream.
This was the real reason for the recent spike in deaths.
The next morning at exactly 8:00 a.m., all surviving players were transported to a new location.
The environment was eerily similar to a tropical rainforest on Earth, with stifling heat and humidity.
Upon arrival, Zheng Haoyun immediately took off her cold-resistant clothing and gloves. Though she acted quickly, the sudden shift still left her soaked in sweat, sticky and uncomfortable.
Just then, a new public announcement appeared:
"This time's competition is fierce.Every 10,000 survivors will be randomly dropped into a mysterious new region.Only 1,000 survivors per region will ultimately make it out alive.You must compete for 1,000 advancement tokens scattered throughout the area.During this time, you may no longer use the system store or trading panel.You may only rely on the supplies in your backpack or what you can scavenge in the new area."
"One more important note!Advancement tokens can be stolen.As long as you possess a token by the end of 7 days, you'll return to the previous zone.Survivors without tokens will be mercifully destroyed by the game.Good luck, and enjoy your journey!"
I'm a Survival Pro:
"This game isn't even trying to hide it anymore—it's blatantly forcing us to kill each other. So shameless!"
Gotta Hold On:
"With the way this game's going, I honestly doubt anyone will ever make it to the end…"
Dead Fish Doesn't Want to Struggle:
"This is too much. A 10% survival rate?! Is there a quit button? I can't take this anymore…"
"Ding. Due to player 'Dead Fish Doesn't Want to Struggle' expressing intent to quit, you are now being logged off."
Everyone watched in shock as that player's once-lit avatar turned gray in an instant.
From that moment on, no one dared to say another word about quitting.
This game was the definition of a tyrannical contract—resist, and you die. With a clear example laid out for them, no one else dared to speak recklessly.
As for Zheng Haoyun, she now had to carefully plan her next move.
Because according to her calculations—there might not even be 1,000 survivors left when this round was over.