When she opened the book, a few pages fell off. It was very old, torn, and some parts were dirty, making it unreadable. With her arms in splinters, it was Gribouille who helped her gather the fallen pages.
Once everything was put back together, Sandrine excitedly looked at the content, and felt a sudden familiarity.
"Wait… Doesn't it look like a game guide ?"
Just like entering the death game made her remember that she had read survival novels before, seeing the content of the mysterious book suddenly made her remember that she used to play video games in her free time.
However, she wasn't exactly patient. If she was blocked somewhere and encountered the slightest difficulty, she would immediately look up game guides online. She wasn't the type to try and figure things out on her own.
"Yes, this looks exactly like a game guide ! Some parts aren't readable and some pages are missing, but this contains secrets and strategies about the death game !"
Reading carefully, Sandrine stumbled upon a page that described the various events that could be encountered during the newbie protection period. There were detailed descriptions of the offroad and the race event, two events that would always happen two times during the newbie protection period. Aside from that, there was the double road event which wasn't really an event but more like an introduction to a recurring mechanic of the game, and there would also always be a spontaneous event. For Sandrine, it had been the sudden popularity event, but this wasn't always the case, there were more such spontaneous events listed on this page.
She really wanted to focus on reading this book, but there wasn't any time for this. Her health had recovered somewhat, so after putting the book away and taking the splinters off, the whole group advanced once again.
They held on as much as they could, but three hours later they had to stop again. It happened to be noon, so it was the perfect moment for a break.
While Sandrine was feeding everyone, she didn't immediately take out the book. She had too many things to do before that, and anyway she had seen inside that for every new season, there would be two days left free for adaptation. The events always started on the third day. It had been the same when she had entered the game, the first two days didn't have any event.
She knew nothing would happen, so she had more time to check out other things, like all the messages from this morning.
"Let's see… First, the rankings for the race event."
[Rankings :
1st : 84jojo84 - 314km
2nd : AlphaWolf - 215km
3rd : Jackalope65 - 214km
4th : AnaïsDu33 - 206km
5th : Destructor - 197km
6th : RollingRolling - 192km
7th : Croissaaant - 185km
8th : BratataCanon - 183km
9th : Gargantua - 179km
10th : BigBelly123 - 177km
[...]]
Sandrine scratched her head. Those rankings hadn't changed much compared to the ones from the previous race, except for BratataCanon, the no bullshit guy who violently scolded slackers in the server chat. That guy hadn't been near the rankings in the first part of the newbie protection period, but had slowly grown stronger in the later part. The typical weak to strong hero. He didn't seem like a bad guy either, he was someone worth knowing.
BratataCanon had chased LeCanard off the rankings ! That guy was the exact opposite. He had been in the rankings at first, but then completely disappeared in the later part. He was an arrogant fellow who had a better start than others and always bragged in the chat, only to not work hard at all, trusting his luck, which worked against him and made him fall off.
For the others, there was nothing interesting to note. Sandrine was first by a large margin, but this wasn't surprising. Paquerette could jump above the obstacles easily, so for her it had only been a slightly harder road than usual, nothing more. In fact, seeing that the others were only a hundred km from her was truly a testament to their effort ! It was no easy feat.
The most surprising part was that Jackalope65 was so close to AlphaWolf.
"He must have a cheat or a strong job, otherwise this can't be explained."
Everyone has things they are good or bad at. Like Sandrine who is very strong in the offroad events and the races thanks to her pets, but can't even enter the top 100 when it comes to mileage, and is disadvantaged in bad weather.
Similarly, AlphaWolf is strong, good at fighting and has a big truck that he uses like a bulldozer, running over every obstacle, but his fuel consumption is a nightmare, to the point where if he hadn't become friends with Sandrine, he probably would have died long ago because he wouldn't have covered the required mileage.
However Jackalope65 was first, or close to it, in every category, every ranking, every event. This wasn't possible.
"Is he a regressor or something like that ?"
Sandrine laughed, but then she suddenly felt that it was very possible. After all, this whole situation wasn't very realistic, it seemed more like the plot of a novel. Having a regressor protagonist wouldn't surprise her.
"As for AnaïsDu33… That girl isn't simple, but she is always following the number 1. Either she is controlling her rank to be 2nd and attract less attention than the 1st place, or she is second because she copies the first place. It isn't exactly impossible. Strange jobs exist, she could have one that allows her to spy on others."
Anyway, no matter what the answer was, Sandrine couldn't verify it now. She waited eagerly for the day they would all meet.
Then, she looked at the overall rankings. Since the newbie protection period had ended, the rankings had been closed and rounded up. She had ended up first in the welfare rankings, as expected thanks to her pets, and AlphaWolf wasn't far behind her, maybe thanks to his massive meat and charcuterie stock. Even MomImThristy had made it into the rankings thanks to his monopoly on the water trade. Now that Sandrine thought about it, with the rainy season, his activity will surely take a hit. She should send him a message later.
The second and third places were Jackalope65 and AnaïsDu33, as expected. There really was something strange about those two.
They were also in 1st and 2nd place for the mileage rankings, not surprising. AlphaWolf had also made it here in the top 10, probably thanks to all the fuel Sandrine gave him everyday, and the one he exchanged for the meat he made. He would then drive some more, encounter chests, kill the animals guarding them, make meat from them, sell it for fuel, then drive some more, encounter chests… It was an infinite circle.
The third one was Croissaaant, a strange guy. Easygoing and loved drama, talking in the server chat only when there was gossip to enjoy. Everytime Sandrine made some moves in the trade tab, it was him who gave the notice in the chat so that everyone would know. But despite his easygoing appearance, the guy was quite strong ! He had been in the top 10 almost everytime, sometimes even coming close to the top two. He wasn't to be underestimated.
Sandrine finished analyzing and focused on the new rankings. With the new season, other servers had fused together and there were now server rankings. This included welfare, mileage, but also the newly added 'server strength'. It gave a numerical value to the strength of the whole server. Sandrine was really grateful that this didn't exist in individual rankings, or she would have a really hard time. If she was too strong, weak people could gang up on her to try and take her down for prestige or to go up the rankings themselves. If she was too weak, since she was first in the welfare rankings and considered rich, people would take this as a sign they could try and take her down for profit. Either way, it was bad. It was better that the individual strength rankings didn't exist.
"Looks like that's all for the messages. I also should check out the server chat to gauge the attitude of the other servers. It will be hard, the rankers from the other servers will surely shake up our own ecosystem."
It was a bit scary, nothing told her that the players from the other servers were good guys, but those from her server weren't exactly saints either. She would have to wait and see.
Sandrine made some water boil in order to make semolina, she would eat it with a can of couscous, a very easy but filling meal. While she was doing that, she checked out her private messages. As expected, her friends were sending her messages about the new season, asking if she was okay. The server merge and the strange rain that makes health drop must have scared them.
She spent a few minutes reassuring them before focusing on MomImThristy.
[84jojo84 : Will you be alright ? Now everyone can get water easily, and I'm even participating in it by selling water purifiers…]
The water trade was the core of MomImThristy's strength. He didn't fight, didn't participate in events either, so that was really his only source of wealth. If water wasn't a problem anymore, Sandrine was scared that her friend would end up poor and destitute.
Well, he probably had a job linked to water, and all jobs could evolve. Maybe if he worked hard to level it up, he still had a chance.
[MomImThristy : Thank you for worrying about me, I'm glad I have that much presence in your heart. To answer your question, I happen to have a job that is linked to water. It allows me to easily find water and refine it in large quantities. I think it is linked to the fact that my vehicle is a tanker truck and I named myself accordingly, which might have influenced my job. Anyway, the basic job is only that, but when evolved, I can create different types of water. At first I wanted to choose an evolution linked to consumable liquids, like juices or soups, but then I realized that the lack of food was temporary, and such an evolution wouldn't bring me far, so instead I chose an evolution centered on reinvigorating liquids. For now, it's only energy drinks that slightly reduce fatigue, but if I continue to evolve it, I might one day create potions to make people stronger ! I think the value of my job will keep going up. Anyway, you don't have to worry, everything is fine on my end. I hope it is the same for you too]
Sandrine blinked. That was a huge wall of text. She had to resist the urge to send back "Pavé César, those who didn't read salute you !"
After reading everything, her expression turned complicated. He revealed his secret so easily ? On one hand she was flattered, but on another hand she felt disgusted. Is that what love does to people ? It's a bit overwhelming. He didn't say anything out of line, but it gave her the feeling of being love bombed, pressured into accepting his feelings because he gave her so much affection, even though she had none for him at all. It was a bit icky.
"He was way better when he didn't know I was a girl…"
She couldn't do anything about it anyway.
[84jojo84 : Okay. Good for you]
With this short message, she closed the private chat.
Her couscous had almost gone cold after reading that long message, but thankfully it was still enjoyable. Since it came from a can, the merguez weren't as spicy as they should be, and the sauce was a bit watery, but thankfully the taste wasn't so bad, and there were plenty of vegetables and chickpeas, which Sandrine loved. Even the rest of the meat was good enough, not flavourful and filled with love like a traditional couscous should be, but it was a good meal.
After finishing and even licking the last grain of semolina off her plate, Sandrine finally cleaned up camp and left with everyone. Still, they had to stop again three hours later.
"Okay, the last thing I wanted to check was the content of the chests. Since the difficulty has gone up, the rewards should too !"
Sandrine took out one of the chests she had gotten today and carefully undid the latch, her pitchfork in hand. Paquerette was anxiously pacing next to her, and her nervousness made Sandrine's hand shake. The mare was very strong now, what could scare her ? Keep in mind, it's just a normal roadside chest !
When the lid opened, the monster jumped out and Sandrine reflexibly struck. It was fast and precise, the result of her battle training, but it didn't immediately kill the creature. The teeth sunk into its thick fur, making it shriek so high Sandrine felt as if her eardrums would rupture. To make it stop, she used all her strength, boosted by the tamer's pitchfork, changed the weapon into a hammer, and swung it down.
The thing slammed onto the floor and burst open like a watermelon with a squelch, scattering blood and brain matter everywhere under the outdoor tent.
The blood was green. In fact, the creature's fur had been green too.
"What even is this ?"
It was a bit too damaged to be properly studied, but Sandrine still changed the pitchfork into a shovel in order to unstick that thing off the asphalt and flip it around like a pancake to reveal its face.
It wasn't any animal Sandrine knew. It looked a bit like a cartoon hedgehog, how kids draw them by doing spiky balls. However, instead of spikes, it was covered in thick fur growing outwards wildly.
"Are normal animals too easy now ? The game is even throwing monsters and magical creatures at us ?"
AlphaWolf will have a hard time continuing his meat trade.
After that, Sandrine opened all the other chests. One time she found a normal animal, but it was actually an enormous bison, far removed from the small rabbits and boars she had found before. All the rest were strange things, like slimes, furballs, rainbow snakes, and salamanders covered in fire.
They were trickier to deal with compared to normal animals, because they had clear mechanics unique to each one. For normal animals, you could all stab them to death, but the furballs like the green one she had killed before couldn't be stabbed, so it had to be hit with a blunt object. The slimes were resistant to blunt objects but could be pierced when stabbed, resulting in death. The rainbow snakes were very quick, almost as fast as the fox boss that had injured Sandrine before, and the salamanders were annoying because their fire would make metal weapons melt and wooden ones burn. But they weren't very aggressive, so you could simply go around a salamander if you found one and you would be fine. However, not killing it meant sacrificing the chest's loot, since it would completely burn.
Thankfully, Sandrine had a linked weapon that couldn't burn down, but it didn't mean that salamanders were easy to kill. After all, to kill it you had to get close, but the flames were really too hot !
To sum up, this new season seemed to be full of surprises, mysteries, and new questions.