Chapter 112 – The Unlucky One in the Survival World (Part 13)

Even though Zheng Haoyun was wearing her raincoat, the moment she picked up her weapon to fight, the game interface immediately issued a warning:

"Ding. Friendly reminder: Your hands are currently exposed and are gradually being affected by a mild frost debuff. Estimated time to complete body freeze: 25 minutes."

In other words, Zheng Haoyun had only one option left—finish the battle quickly. She absolutely couldn't afford to drag this out.

So, she abandoned her original plan and decided to lure the enemy in.

First, she used her psychic-type ability to trap the nimble Snowfield Leopards in an illusion. Then, she proactively opened the wooden fence gate, allowing a few beasts in at a time.

The first time, she misjudged the situation and let six beasts in at once.

Left with no choice, Zheng Haoyun gripped her machete and aimed a powerful slash at the leg of a charging Snowfield Bull. These beasts had terrifying strength—crippling its mobility was the top priority.

As for the remaining five Snowfield Wolves, Zheng Haoyun spun her blade, sending the large machete dancing like petals through the snow—each strike blooming like a vivid plum blossom in the white field.

Soon, all five wolves were dispatched by her and turned into five wooden treasure chests.

Before she could even turn around, she sensed a violent force coming from behind. Instinctively, she flipped backward to avoid the Snowfield Bull's deadly charge.

The moment she landed, she gripped her machete tightly and used her momentum to slice through the bull's neck from behind, instantly severing its head.

Only then did Zheng Haoyun realize the danger earlier had been because she'd only slashed the bull's front legs—from now on, she would have to target all four legs to fully disable this beast type.

Checking the time, five minutes had already passed. At this pace, she wouldn't make it.

So she ramped up her attack speed and power. In her haste, she was grazed across the back by a Snowfield Elk, but even while injured, her strikes only grew fiercer—every blow deadly.

In the end, only the most difficult opponents remained: a dozen agile Snowfield Leopards.

With less than eight minutes left on the clock, Zheng Haoyun withdrew the illusion, causing half the leopards to turn on each other in a frenzy, creating chaos among their ranks.

Standing behind the fence, she drew her bow and began sniping. With the leopards distracted and no longer able to leverage their speed, she methodically picked them off, one by one.

With only one minute remaining, Zheng Haoyun finally killed the last Snowfield Leopard.

Not sparing a second, she confirmed that all the loot had been collected into her backpack, then sprinted back into her icehouse at full speed.

At that moment, the full-body frost debuff on her panel was just 35 seconds away from activating—she had made it by the skin of her teeth.

She didn't even want to imagine what would've happened if she had been completely frozen. Most likely, it would've rendered her immobile, or drastically dropped her body temperature…

Though she survived, Zheng Haoyun still had to visit the game store to buy some anti-inflammatory medicine for her back wound and treat the frostbite on her hands.

And that was with preparation—her situation had already spiraled into chaos. One could only imagine how miserable things were for other survivors.

Some timid players simply turtled in fear, letting the beasts damage their icehouses' defenses without daring to fight back.

Others, like Zheng Haoyun, chose to face the threat head-on—but ultimately had to retreat due to serious frostbite.

For a time, the entire snowfield survival zone was in total disarray.

Most players perished during this wave of beast attacks. A few survived by burning massive amounts of resources, staying locked inside their icehouses and doing nothing but enduring.

"Ding. Due to over half the population of Zone 13 being killed or injured, a regional merge will be initiated after the snowstorm ends."

This announcement shocked Zheng Haoyun—she hadn't expected just one wave of beast attacks to cause such devastation.

"All survivors, please check your rewards. The next rounds of beast attacks will follow soon. You cannot afford to be as careless as today. Please stay strong and keep surviving!"

Meanwhile, those who hid inside during the attack received an extra notification:

"Dear Survivor, due to your passive performance during this round, the difficulty of the next beast attack for you will be increased. Please adjust your survival attitude accordingly."

These passive players hadn't expected the game to be so vindictive, but they had no choice—they had no power in this world. They had to obey the system's rules.

Earlier, Zheng Haoyun had spent a whopping 350 copper coins on a single-use medicine—a ridiculously high price.

It was clear now: getting sick here meant losing everything if you were an ordinary player.

After this brutal battle, Zheng Haoyun reflected on her combat mistakes so she could avoid injuries in the future.

Over the next few days, four more rounds of Snowfield Beast attacks took place. These endless waves wore down every survivor.

By the final attack, Zheng Haoyun couldn't finish off all the beasts.

She barely managed to kill most of them outside and had to rely on her wooden fence to stall the rest in a passive defense.

In the end, only the truly powerful players survived. Those who had only relied on stockpiled resources had long since perished in these brutal trials.

"Ding. Congratulations to the surviving players. The good news: you'll be receiving generous rewards. The bad news: the monthly Arena Tournament will begin tomorrow morning. See you all there!"

This survival world really didn't treat its players like human beings.

But Zheng Haoyun didn't complain. After all, wasn't this the kind of cruelty she had already grown used to?

Now, what she cared about most was—

What kind of rewards had she actually received?