wavenovel Chapter 16 The Rules of Gas Stations: Conflict Begins!
Chapter 16 The Rules of Gas Stations: Conflict Begins!
Gas station!
This news was like a bomb dropped into a parched, dying desert, instantly igniting the entire Highway 1024!
After a brief pause, the regional channel erupted in a tidal wave of jubilation!
"A gas station! It's a gas station! We're saved! We're really saved!"
"Waaaaah... Thank God! Finally, I don't have to worry about fuel anymore!"
"500 kilometers! My car's range is just right! Let's go, guys!"
"Coordinates! Release the coordinates now! I need to fill up the gas tank first!"
"Safe zone! No attack allowed! Great! I can finally rest easy!"
"Game points? Special resources? Never mind! As long as there's hope!"
Liu Ruyan: @Brother Qiang, you're invincible! Great! We're saved! We don't have to drive so cautiously anymore!
"Brother Qiang is invincible: Hahaha! There's always a way out! Cao Shuang, see? There's a gas station! Your fuel reserves are worthless now!"
"That's right! With gas stations, who would want to sell themselves for 10 portions of fuel? Cao Shuang, your plan has failed!"
"Hey, you 'Mother Teresa' types, are you satisfied now? The game still offers a way out! From now on, everyone just needs to work hard to survive; no more fighting and killing!"
"Hope lies ahead! Charge!"
The channel was filled with jubilation, as if the end of the world had ended and the light was just around the corner.
Many people began to dream that in the future, they could live a comfortable life simply by traveling between gas stations and picking up random food boxes along the way. The shackles of fuel seemed to have been broken.
Even Chu Yao, in the passenger seat, showed a relieved smile on her pale face, and hope rekindled in her eyes:
"Great... there are gas stations now... hopefully, fewer people will die from this, right? People won't have to fight over gas anymore..."
"Foolish." Cao Shuang's icy voice ruthlessly shattered her fantasy.
Chu Yao turned her head in surprise and saw Cao Shuang with his brows furrowed, his face devoid of any joy, but instead his eyes were serious, even carrying a hint of sarcasm.
"You think this is a good thing?" Cao Shuang looked at the seemingly endless road ahead, his voice low. "No, this may only be the beginning of real chaos."
"What do you mean?" Chu Yao asked, puzzled. "With a stable fuel source, people won't have to fight tooth and nail for fuel anymore, wouldn't that reduce conflict?"
"Reduce fighting?" Cao Shuang seemed to have heard a joke.
"Look at the notice, the gas station is a safe zone, attacking is prohibited. But what happens when we leave the gas station?... "
"Where there's a price, there's competition." Cao Shuang's voice grew increasingly cold.
"In the past, fuel was scarce, but its distribution was random, so people could rely on luck to find some, or exchange it with other supplies like we used to."
Currently, fuel is concentrated at fixed points: gas stations. What do you think those with power and expensive cars will do? They'll tightly control the gas stations! They'll use fuel to exchange for everything they need—more supplies, better equipment, and even…people.
"Furthermore, the safe zone only prohibits 'direct attacks,' but not coercion, deception, or exclusion. The vicinity of gas stations will inevitably become a new meat grinder. Those who are weak will either not be able to afford gas, or they will be robbed immediately after they leave."
Cao Shuang looked at Chu Yao, his gaze sharp as a knife.
"Do you think more people will die when fuel was randomly distributed, everyone was living hand to mouth but had relatively equal opportunities, or when fuel is centrally supplied, the strong become stronger and the weak become weaker?"
Chu Yao's face drained of color instantly, her lips trembled slightly, and as she followed Cao Shuang's train of thought, she felt a chill run from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head.
She could almost see it: outside the so-called "safe zone" gas station, those menacing, powerful vehicles, those desperately pleading for gas but unable to get any, or being ambushed and killed as soon as they filled up...
"This...this..." Her voice trembled, and she couldn't utter a complete sentence.
"The conflict has only just begun." Cao Shuang withdrew his gaze, turning back to the front of the road, his eyes deep and thoughtful.
"Previous eliminations were natural selection, rule-based killings. Future eliminations will be more naked and brutal resource plunder and class crushing. This game has never intended for everyone to live 'peacefully'."
He gripped the steering wheel tightly, and the Wuling Hongguang emitted a steady hum. The core of its limitless energy seemed so precious at that moment.
"For us, this might be an opportunity." Cao Shuang's lips curled into a cold smile. "But for most people... hell has only just begun."
He opened the regional channel and looked indifferently at the comments from those still celebrating and dreaming.
Half an hour later, the gas station's coordinates were released.
The show is about to begin.
……
……
Chen Hai stared intently at the oil needle on the dial, which had fallen below the red warning line and was still trembling slightly. He felt his heart was about to stop beating along with the needle.
His throat was so dry and painful, like it was blocked with a handful of rough sand. He hadn't dared to drink more than half a bottle of water for two whole days.
It's not that they don't have them, it's that they dare not. Their daughter, Xiaoya, huddled in the passenger seat, clutching an old backpack with Doraemon printed on it tightly in her arms. It was the only thing she had brought from "the past," and it contained their only three bottles of mineral water and five packs of compressed biscuits.
This is all the belongings that the father and daughter had saved up over the past few days by living frugally and by luck finding three white boxes.
"Dad, is the oil... almost gone?"
Xiaoya's voice was very soft, carrying a caution and fear that an eight-year-old child shouldn't have.
She remembered that the last time the oil injection came here, her father's face was as white as paper. He stood by the roadside for a long time, staring blankly at an empty oil drum. In the end, he poured the last half bottle of viscous liquid, which looked like engine oil, into the car before it could move again.
But Dad said it was "all-purpose fuel," and there was only a little bit left; once it was used up, it was really gone.
Chen Hai forced a smile, though it appeared stiff and distorted due to exhaustion and anxiety.
He reached out and gently stroked his daughter's soft, yellow hair with his rough palm:
"Don't be afraid, Xiaoya. Look, there's a gas station up ahead. The notice said there's a gas station! Once we fill up the tank, Daddy will take you to get something delicious, okay? We also have cookies."
"Mmm!" Xiaoya nodded vigorously, a faint light returning to her eyes, but her little hands still gripped the backpack straps tightly.
She didn't quite understand what "apocalypse" or "game" meant. All she knew was that one day she woke up in this drab pickup truck with her father. There was an endless road outside, no sun in the sky, and terrifying gray things chasing after them. Sometimes, ugly and ferocious "monsters" would jump out from the roadside.
Dad said that if you keep driving forward and don't stop, you can survive. A gas station... it sounds like a good place to stop and catch your breath.
The pickup truck let out a heavy sigh as it struggled to drive into an area that seemed slightly different from the previous highway. The sense of emptiness along the roadside receded somewhat, and the outlines of what appeared to be abandoned guardrails and road signs could be vaguely seen.
More importantly, the feeling of being watched, which had been lingering in my mind as if a monster might pounce at any moment, has been greatly reduced.
The announcement stated that there would be no more zombie (mutant) attacks within a 30-kilometer radius of the gas station. It seems to be true.
Chen Hai's spirits lifted, and the instinct for survival overcame his exhaustion. He stared wide-eyed at the gray horizon ahead.
Soon, soon!