Chapter 66: Sky Island Survival Battle

Previously, Yao Qingshan had been quite puzzled, wondering how Yun Zhi and Ziji had ever made it into the survival world.
Yun Zhi had only briefly mentioned that she also had a system bound to her, though it was of a rather different type compared to the survival system.
As someone born in the 1950s who had been sucked into the survival world by a spacetime vortex in the early 1980s, Yao Qingshan had never read any multi-system novels. The only system he had ever encountered was the subsidiary system of the survival system.
Since every single one of the billions of players possessed this standard subsidiary system, naturally, it held no special favor for him. He had never even been able to engage in private communication with his system; his system interface existed solely for the purpose of receiving various announcements broadcast by the main system.
Yun Zhi seemed rather reluctant to elaborate on the nature of her system, likely because it involved her personal privacy, so Yao Qingshan had not pressed the matter.
Now, however, Yao Qingshan finally had some inkling of how these two had managed to cross over into the survival world. Could it be that they, too, relied on those so-called "energy stones"?
With a complex and conflicted expression, Yao Qingshan reached into his system backpack, produced a gift box, and handed it to Yun Zhi.
Yun Zhi took the gift box and deftly opened it.
Inside lay a scroll, bearing the title: *Introduction to the Rules and Clearance Guide for the 5501st Survival Challenge.*
Yun Zhi: ...?!
Goodness gracious! The great god of the survival system was certainly generous!
How was this any different from handing out the exam paper and answer key in advance?
The chat group system had previously claimed that the other entity was difficult to communicate with, but wasn't this communication going rather smoothly?
The chat group system had previously informed Yun Zhi that within the survival world, most of its functions would be blocked, and it would be unable to manifest before her in the form of a light screen.
However, as long as she summoned it, it would be able to hear her.
In short, should she ever truly find herself in a life-or-death crisis, the chat group system would intervene. After all, it had no desire to change its host.
Who knew if the next host would be as easy to manage as Yun Zhi? Nowadays, many hosts preferred to slack off, lie flat, and do nothing; once they achieved financial freedom, it became virtually impossible to trick them into doing tasks.
Striving? They couldn't muster even a shred of effort.
Therefore, prior to entering the survival world, the chat group system had instructed Yun Zhi in advance to cry out for its help the moment she encountered genuine danger.
This served as a reassurance for Yun Zhi.
It hoped that its host would remember its kindness and show a little mercy in the future when fleecing it, not being too ruthless.
Not fleecing it at all, of course, was out of the question.
When it came to fleecing, there were only two numbers: zero, and an infinite number of times.
Just as the chat group system had now also grown fond of fleecing its host.
The chat group system's light screen abruptly popped up in front of Yun Zhi: "Aahhh, Yun Zhi, why did you give it so many energy stones?! You prodigal spendthrift!"
Yun Zhi asked in surprise, "Didn't you say you couldn't manifest as a light screen inside the survival world?"
The chat group system deployed an angry cat-head emoji. "Isn't it because you gave it way too much?!"
The chat group system continued: "I only had it temporarily open a spatial vortex backdoor to let you two enter this world, and had both of you registered with temporary identity visas for pure rookie players, which only cost 9,998 energy stones. But look at you! You give a welcome gift and hand over 80,000 energy stones right off the bat!"
"I originally didn't want to give it to them, but it sent the return gift to you first, and you had already accepted it! There was no way for me to welsh on those energy stones anymore. I could only pester it relentlessly until it granted me an extra permission to manifest within the survival world."
Yun Zhi: ...
Good heavens, her chat group system was truly a miser!
No wonder it claimed the survival system was hard to deal with!
Yun Zhi said speechlessly, "The energy costs for Ziji and me to travel back and forth between the survival world and the real world certainly wouldn't amount to 90,000 energy stones, right? Just how much of a markup did you pocket in the middle? If you don't 'fess up, I'll go ask the great god of the survival system myself—it definitely knows."
Previously, when she was hiding in a spatial safe house while doing a mission in City X and needed to activate a high-level mental defense barrier, the chat group system had mentioned in passing that 1 energy stone was equivalent to 10 points.
Over the course of more than two months, Yun Zhi had undertaken several commission tasks of varying difficulty and completed over a dozen transactions with group members, only managing to accumulate 8,200 points.
If 90,000 energy stones were converted entirely into points, that would equal 900,000 points.
If spatial travel with the chat group system consumed hundreds of thousands of points' worth of energy every time, it would never have launched the cross-border travel function in the first place. Wouldn't that mean taking a catastrophic loss?
However, Yun Zhi had acquired this batch of energy stones quite easily, and her transaction with Bai Miao had yet to be fully concluded.
Bai Miao's Major General guardian had told her that she could take a little more time to collect common seeds and plant seedlings from Earth, and they would conduct the transaction after a while. He planned to purchase an agricultural planet, which would also take some time.
When the official transaction took place, he would pay her a generous sum of energy stones, certainly no less than the 30,000 energy stones Bai Miao had given as a token of gratitude.
That was why Yun Zhi was feeling so extraordinarily wealthy and bold when spending energy stones.
Even though she knew the chat group system's quoted fees bore a strong resemblance to extorting an exorbitant price, she hadn't bothered to haggle with it.
After all, rescuing her maternal grandfather was far more important to her.
Besides, the system taking the initiative to provide news of her grandfather made it well worth rewarding with a batch of energy stones as a token of gratitude.
The chat group system had also accurately calculated this point, which was why it dared to use the pretext of travel expenses to extract one-third of Yun Zhi's existing energy stones.
Yet Yun Zhi never expected that the energy stones it actually used to grease the wheels of the survival system only amounted to a few thousand, falling short of even ten thousand.
It was a wonder the other party had been pleasant to deal with at all!
The chat group system also knew that its little tricks had been seen through by its own host.
Faltering slightly, it stammered in explanation: "The pure travel expenses actually only cost a few hundred or a thousand energy stones... It's just that my consciousness entity suffered severe injuries previously, and it took 50,000 energy stones to fully repair those injuries. The benefits to me are naturally numerous, and as for the benefits to you—in the future, if you encounter a fatal danger you can't block on your own, my consciousness entity will be able to step in and block it for you."
"Furthermore, I've pre-ordered a lot of new features, which also cost quite a few energy stones... Once you reach Level 3, you'll be able to unlock these new features in advance."
"In short, after a massive shopping spree, I only have 10,000 energy stones left in my space. I have to keep at least 2 energy stones as my private stash, right? Charging the survival system a hefty price of 9,998 energy stones—I've already been extremely generous!"
At the end of its tirade, the chat group system even deployed a wronged cat-head emoji.
Yun Zhi: ...
So her system was essentially a compulsive shopper.
However, these expenditures by the system were indeed necessary, so Yun Zhi let the matter drop.
With a resigned sigh, Yun Zhi said, "Go ahead and withdraw another 20,000 energy stones from my private treasury; consider it pocket money from me. Once I conduct more transactions with Bai Miao and acquire more energy stones in the future, I'll give you some more pocket money as appropriate."
She couldn't give it too much, either, seeing as this fellow clearly wasn't someone capable of holding onto money.
Getting too familiar with the system had this one drawback: whenever it put on a pitiful act, she couldn't help but fork over funds.
The chat group system instantly brightened up: "Whoopee!"
"Host, you are simply too wonderful! I love you, mwah! [Cat-head kissing.jpg]"
Having finished communicating with her system, Yun Zhi waved at the empty air and said, "Thank you for the gift, great god of the survival system!"
In response, a large patch of white clouds floating in the sky suddenly rearranged themselves into the shape of a pair of hands forming a heart.
It was as if they were thanking the sugar daddy for the gift.
The main survival system thought with sullen gloom: Now you finally know just how miserly your own system is!
9,998 energy stones to open a minor spatial vortex gateway was indeed more than enough, and rigging up a pure rookie player identity didn't take much effort either.
However, Yao Qingshan was a top-tier expert who had secured nearly a hundred consecutive victories in the survival challenges. His will to survive was exceptionally strong, and the energy he generated for the survival world each year amounted to tens of thousands of energy stones.
If it hadn't been for the former Tongtian Xuanjing—now the Myriad Realms Chat Group System—threatening it like a bandit, refusing to trade, and promising that once it grew more powerful in the future it would come over and beat it up, dismantling its world core... and given that this fellow possessed the heaven-defying attribute of traveling across myriad realms, it actually might have been able to pull it off.
What could the survival system do? It was filled with despair as well!
Although the 80,000 energy stones gifted by Yun Zhi still fell far short of Yao Qingshan's value, it at least made it feel considerably better inside.
In case these three failed to secure 100 consecutive victories this time around, there was no telling how that shameless scoundrel of a Myriad Realms entity might torment it upon returning!
Better to simply leak the test questions to them directly; that way, if they still failed to pass, they wouldn't be able to blame it.
The survival challenge was unlike ordinary written exams; even if one knew in advance what topics would be tested and where the scoring points lay, passing it was no simple task.
While temporarily raising the difficulty of the survival challenge and detaining Yao Qingshan for another decade or eight wouldn't be too difficult, it feared that by that time, the fully matured Myriad Realms Chat Group System and its host would pay another visit and literally dismantle its world core to use as reserve energy.
Facing a shameless, unprincipled, bandit-like system that couldn't be reasoned with and would only threaten offline assassinations, the main survival system—traditionally the heartless capitalist of the system world—had no choice but to obediently release the prisoners.
*A smile concealing quiet fortitude.jpg*
Yun Zhi remained completely oblivious to all of this. In her mind, the chat group system was simply the cutest and best system in existence.
Of course, even if she had known, she would have felt the same way; after all, she and the chat group system shared a community of interests.
Ziji and Yao Qingshan, who had observed the entire interaction between Yun Zhi and her system: ...
Ziji stroked his chin, wondering if he could get the chat group system to help ask what the consciousness of the immortal cultivation world—or rather, the Heavenly Dao—liked.
Perhaps he could emulate Yun Zhi's divine (shrewd) maneuvering, bribe the Heavenly Dao, and have it open a backdoor for him when he underwent his tribulation of the inner demons!
Yao Qingshan felt that everything felt entirely surreal.
So this was how some people got along with their systems; so this was how the main survival system, which always took pleasure in exploiting players, could have such a "humanized" and "cute" side to it.
This young girl, barely at level 2, was truly extraordinary!
The three of them turned their attention to the "welcome gift" provided by the main survival system.
*The 5501st Survival Challenge—Sky Island Survival Battle!*
Yao Qingshan frowned and said, "It's actually the most difficult aerial combat map!"
Challenge Rules:
1. Players who survive on a Sky Island for seven days will achieve the "Minimum Clearance" achievement.
2. There are 10,000 players in each sub-arena. Within seven days, the player who hunts sky beasts and acquires the most floating stones will achieve the "Outstanding Clearance" achievement.
3. Hidden scoring points include: [...] Achieving condition 2 while gathering all hidden scoring points will grant the "Perfect Clearance" achievement.
4. Among the 10,000 sub-arenas, the first player to achieve the "Perfect Clearance" achievement becomes the champion of this survival challenge!
P.S.: As long as the Perfect Clearance achievement is attained, consecutive victory counts can be accumulated. However, for the 100th consecutive victory, one must achieve the earliest Perfect Clearance in order to earn the qualification to return to the real world!
...
This scroll detailing the rules of the survival challenge would be visible on the system interface of every player once the official competition began.
However, the version Yun Zhi had received differed in that it detailed every single hidden scoring point explicitly. Normal players in the official competition would only be able to see the number of hidden scoring points without knowing what they specifically were, forcing them to explore and discover them on their own.
Yun Zhi asked, "The Sky Island map—is this aerial combat? What happens if someone accidentally falls off a Sky Island?"
With a solemn expression, Yao Qingshan replied, "That's right. If one possesses flight capabilities, flying back to their own Sky Island in time has no consequences. Landing by chance on another player's Sky Island and seizing the other party's island allows one to continue surviving... If one can do neither, they fall into the abyss and become food for the abyss behemoths... and die."