NFBE Chapter 1 Desperate Situation! He's Starting to Dig His Own Grave!
Chapter 1 Desperate Situation! He's Starting to Dig His Own Grave!
"Great Xia Kingdom, Su Chen, Vehicle: Tricycle."
Su Chen looked down at the rusty pedal tricycle in front of him. Three spokes on the rear wheel were broken, the chain was so loose it was about to fall off, and the cargo bed was covered with a layer of dry, cracked yellow mud.
He raised his head.
A thick, grayish-white fog surged in from all directions, engulfing everything in sight.
The ground beneath their feet wasn't a road, but a dark brown swamp. The sticky mud had already submerged half of the tricycle's wheels and was still slowly creeping up.
The air was filled with the smell of rotten eggs, which stung my nose.
The global road survival campaign has begun.
A total of 2041 drivers from 187 countries were selected in this survey.
[The life of every driver is tied to the fate of the nation: the death of a driver will result in a corresponding disaster impact on the country.]
[Your Birth Location: S-Class Calamity Zone: Deadly Swamp]
The system panel floated in front of him.
The number of viewers in Da Xia's live stream has exceeded 300 million. The barrage of comments is so dense that you can't see the individual messages; all you can see is a screen full of scrolling terror.
What does this mean? Does it mean we're all finished if he dies?
[A three-wheeled vehicle? What kind of vehicle is used in other countries?]
Wait, what exactly is an S-class disaster zone? Has anyone seen a description of it?
......
Meanwhile, in the US's live broadcast studio, blond-haired, blue-eyed host James Hall was holding a glass of champagne and forcing an exaggerated smile at the camera.
"Ladies and gentlemen, let's cut the camera to the contestants from the Great Xia Kingdom," he said, swirling the bubbles in his glass. "Good heavens, a tricycle! What's that, a food delivery?"
The studio erupted in laughter.
The screen was flooded with comments...
Hahaha, a tricycle? Are you kidding me?!
May the Great Xia Dynasty rest in peace. Having witnessed it all in this lifetime is enough.
[Pop the champagne! The Great Xia Dynasty is about to be destroyed!]
The live stream from Japan went even further, with the commentator rapidly reciting: "According to the system rules, Great Xia has a population of 1.4 billion. If this driver dies, the disaster will impact the entire Great Xia... It's no exaggeration to say that this could be the largest disaster in human history."
He pushed up his glasses, and couldn't help but smile.
Su Chen couldn't hear any of this.
All he could hear now was the sound of mud bubbling.
Glug, glug.
The tricycle sank another two centimeters.
Su Chen tried pedaling, the chain screeched, and the rear wheel spun freely in the mud. It didn't budge.
He pedaled three more times, but the vehicle tilted to the side, the edge of the cargo bed hit the mud, and mud splattered onto the back of his hand, instantly turning his skin red and burning with pain.
Acidic mud.
He pulled his hand back, looked at the small blisters that were rapidly forming on the back of his hand, and squinted.
The tricycle was still sinking. At this rate, in fifteen minutes, the mud would cover the cargo bed. In twenty minutes, it would be up to his waist. Half an hour later…
Not half an hour later.
A new line of red text popped up in the upper right corner of the system panel.
[WARNING: The toxic gas concentration in the Deadly Swamp is increasing, and your health is continuously decreasing.]
Current Health: 93/100
The chat in Da Xia's live stream room went from panic to despair.
[Oh no, oh no, oh no! I'm already losing health after only two minutes of the game!]
[Can any experts analyze how much longer he can live?]
I just watched the contestants from other countries. The one from the US was driving a modified off-road vehicle, the one from Russia was driving an armored personnel carrier, and ours... a three-wheeled vehicle...
[Are the lives of 1.4 billion people tied to a beat-up tricycle?]
93 became 91.
Su Chen gripped the handlebars tightly.
The swamp was swallowing everything, the poisonous gas was corroding his lungs, and there wasn't even a path he could walk on.
The thick fog blocked our way, the ground was all mud, and all around us was the same gray and desolate silence.
dead.
91 became 88.
He closed his eyes, his temples throbbing, his throat dry and stinging, each breath a sharp pain. The smell of poisonous gas grew stronger, and it felt like hundreds of ants were crawling into his lungs, causing both itching and pain.
87.
Just as his health bar jumped to 85...
A crisp notification sound rang in my mind.
[Ding—Daily Intelligence System successfully bound]
A pale blue, semi-transparent panel unfolded in the center of the field of vision, overlapping with the blood-red system panel, carving out a patch of light in the deathly silence.
Daily Intelligence System
Three pieces of intelligence are automatically refreshed daily at 0:00, including but not limited to: coordinates of supply boxes along the way, monster weaknesses, shelter locations, and conditions for triggering hidden events.
Today's intelligence has been updated.
[Intelligence 1: 4.2 meters below you, a dormant Class D aberration "Swamp Devourer" is slowly awakening and is expected to be fully activated in 7 minutes. Weakness: The breathing hole at the back of its head, approximately 3 centimeters in diameter.]
[Intelligence 2: There is a Class E supply crate buried 38 meters north of you, beneath the surface of the swamp. It contains 1 basic medical kit, 3 compressed rations, and 1 mini vehicle repair fluid.]
[Intelligence 3: A passable, hard-surfaced strip exists at the edge of the Dead Swamp, located 12 degrees north of northwest, approximately 220 meters from your current position.]
Su Chen read the three intelligence reports twice.
He pulled open the bottom of the tricycle bed and pulled out his only starting equipment: a rusty shovel with cracks all over its wooden handle.
Then he fell off the tricycle and stood in the acidic mud.
The mud instantly covered his calves, and a burning sensation spread from his ankles upwards, causing his health to jump from 85 to 82.
He bent down, stuck the shovel into the mud, and began to dig.
It's not about moving forward.
It wasn't about desperately trying to escape.
It involves digging down from the spot.
In DaXia's live stream, 300 million people were completely dumbfounded.
【？？？？？】
What is he doing? Is he digging his own grave?
【No way, bro, what's with digging down there?!】
In the American livestream, James nearly choked on his champagne, laughing so hard he almost fell over: "He's digging his own grave! The Chinese really know how to have a sense of ritual!"
The comments section was filled with laughter and mockery.
Su Chen didn't stop.
With each shovel strike, mud splattered, and his trousers were burned with several holes by the acid, his skin covered in red spots.
Health: 79.
When the fifth shovel went down, the shovel head hit something.
The texture was completely different from mud; it was elastic, it bounced back, and there was something slowly undulating underneath.
Breathing.
Su Chen squatted down, pulled out the shovel and stuck it aside, then reached directly into the acidic mud with both hands to dig.
A burning sensation shot from his fingertips to his wrist, and his skin quickly turned red and blistered, causing his health to drop from 82 to 81.
He didn't stop.
The layers of sour mud were peeled away, revealing a large patch of grayish-brown skin underneath.
It is rough, covered with scaly wrinkles, and has a layer of translucent sticky substance on its surface, leaving a slippery feeling when rubbed against the hand.
The area is getting bigger and bigger.
This is a back view.
It was over two meters wide, with a row of bone spurs protruding from its spine, each as thick as an adult's index finger, its tips slightly blackened. The entire back undulated at an extremely slow frequency, each rise and fall causing the surrounding acidic mud to sway slightly.
A new message pops up on the system panel.
[Nearby creature detected: Class D Aberration: Swamp Devourer (Hibernating)]
[Danger Level: D]