Chapter 064: Directly Strengthening the Mind

The air conditioning in the room was set to full blast.

Qin Qing lay on the sofa, wrapped in a blanket, watching television.

The TV was replaying a comedic variety show. The hilarious moments that once would have made Qin Qing laugh out loud now failed to draw even a faint smile from her.

Dark circles shadowed her eyes, her spirit was wilted, and compared to five days ago, she had grown noticeably thinner.

The weight she had once dreamed of achieving was now a boundary she kept breaking below.

It had been five days since the day everyone disappeared.

Though she had lived comfortably during these five days, for reasons unknown, every night as soon as she drifted to sleep, she would relive the night she killed someone ten days ago, startled awake by those recurring scenes.

She had tried many methods—taking sleeping pills among them—but nothing had helped.

Unable to sleep and constantly exhausted, she had become this shadow of herself.

Qin Qing even thought that if things didn’t improve in another week, she would consider ending her life to escape this living torment.

The only reason she persisted was her curiosity: if the so-called god had left behind ten thousand "chosen ones," it must be for some purpose. Whatever that purpose was, she wanted to know, and this curiosity kept her holding on.

Otherwise, being the last person in the world, tormented by both insomnia and loneliness, would have long driven her to despair.

“I wonder what that so-called god’s intention was in leaving behind ten thousand people. What’s the purpose?” Qin Qing yawned as she watched the comedy show, thinking silently.

Five more days slipped by.

Qin Qing was watching a horror movie, the scenes bloody and terrifying, yet she showed no sign of fear.

She still had deep, heavy circles beneath her eyes and looked unwell, but her state had not worsened compared to five days ago; it was as if time had reached some equilibrium.

Forcing herself to focus on the gory film, Qin Qing suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest.

“Foolish humans, the Decade of Life and Death Hunt begins!”

A voice thundered through the room, echoing three times like a bolt from the blue.

“The Decade of Life and Death Hunt!?” Qin Qing jolted upright at the reverberating voice, murmuring in shock.

An hour later.

Through the smart assistant on her black wristband, Qin Qing learned that the god’s purpose for leaving ten thousand people was to have them slaughter each other, like a cruel experiment, until only the strongest remained.

Her chosen number was 685, and her personal stats panel read as follows:

Base attributes:
Stamina: 75
Spirit: 65
Strength: 70
Speed: 82
Overall Combat Power: 72

Remaining enhancement (tenfold effect): 1 time
Remaining full restoration: 1 time

Exhausted in both body and mind, Qin Qing, after reading the explanations for her base stats and the effects of the full restoration, immediately chose to use it.

In an instant, she felt like a new person—her dark circles vanished, her gaunt face filled out to a healthy glow, her vitality soaring to unprecedented heights.

Her skin was now whiter and more delicate than ever, her figure perfectly proportioned without an ounce of excess, and even her features were more beautiful than at her peak.

“So this is the effect of full restoration? Truly a miraculous gift from a god,” Qin Qing whispered in delight as she gazed at her transformed reflection.

Her personal stats panel had changed as well:

Base attributes:
Stamina: 80
Spirit: 85
Strength: 75
Speed: 90
Overall Combat Power: 102

Remaining enhancement (tenfold effect): 1 time

Qin Qing was overjoyed at the changes in her stats. Remembering the assistant’s explanation, she realized that the spirit stat determined how long she could stay alert.

After a moment’s hesitation, she used her first tenfold enhancement on her spirit stat.

The next second, her spirit stat jumped from 85 to 170, far surpassing the average of 100 for women on Earth.

Even at her restored peak, she could distinctly feel the difference: her thoughts were clearer, her focus sharper than ever.

Qin Qing activated the tracking feature on her smart wristband.

A translucent, circular virtual interface about ten feet in diameter floated before her, displaying not just her location, but a full map of the central district of BS City and the surrounding twenty kilometers. Her position was marked by a yellow dot in the upper left of the map.

Besides her own yellow dot, there were two blue dots in the lower right, both seemingly at the same spot and about twenty kilometers from her in a straight line.

“Huh? So there are two other chosen ones in this city, and they’re very close to each other.”

Qin Qing was first surprised, then set the thought aside for the time being.

She saved this map layout as a backup and set an alert zone centered on herself with a ten-kilometer radius. If any other chosen one entered this range, the assistant would immediately warn her.

She also set it so that any chosen one entering this map area would receive their own notification from the assistant.

With the alert zones set, she turned her attention back to the two blue dots in the lower right. Judging by their position, they should be within the central district of BS City.

Though the two dots seemed to overlap, the map’s scale was broad—it was possible they were actually several kilometers apart.

Qin Qing zoomed in, shrinking the map’s radius to the minimum five hundred meters, but the two dots still overlapped, their positions unchanged.

“Could it be that these two people knew each other before, and by some stroke of luck both survived to become the god’s chosen ones?” Qin Qing doubted the tracker was faulty; she simply speculated.

In a global population, the odds of acquaintances both becoming chosen were slim, but not zero. It was possible, and not so strange.

Yet the proximity of these two, and their presence together, filled her with a strong sense of threat and unease.

Staring at the tracking map, Qin Qing thought for a moment, then decided to leave her home to maintain a safe distance from the other two, and to be ready to flee at any moment.

If they made any move toward her, she would not hesitate to escape.

Now, since the start of the Decade of Life and Death Hunt, and after experiencing the effects of full restoration and enhancement, Qin Qing’s thoughts of suicide had vanished. Her mind was wholly occupied with survival, with growing stronger in this deadly game.

She longed to become a true powerhouse.

Time passed—five days later.

Qin Qing now lived on the outskirts of BS City’s central district, in a luxurious villa. Though her spirit wasn’t as vibrant as right after her last enhancement, she was only a little fatigued, not truly unwell.

On the first day of the game, she had left her home for this place, keeping a straight-line distance of over thirty kilometers from the other two in the city.

She felt this was a safe distance for now.

In the following days, she gathered a getaway vehicle and basic supplies, ready to flee at a moment’s notice.

Her escape vehicle was a pickup truck, with a motorcycle in the back—so she could quickly switch to it if the roads became impassable.

Over these five days, nightmares still woke her from sleep, but less frequently, and she was pleased to find her recovery time was almost halved: with just over four hours of sleep, she could fully restore her spirit for the day.

Apart from the initial days spent preparing her car and supplies, she downloaded extensive wilderness survival knowledge and videos to her smart wristband, as well as a variety of technical skills that might be useful in the future.

At present, Qin Qing was jogging on a treadmill in the villa.

With little else to do, she had started a regimen of basic training. After enough exercise, she would practice cooking, watch survival videos, and diligently study wilderness survival.

She had just finished a half-hour jog, sweating and breathless.

Her personal stats panel floated before her.

Base attributes:
Stamina: 85
Spirit: 170
Strength: 77
Speed: 91
Overall Combat Power: 118

Compared to five days ago, all stats except spirit had improved.

“Compared to the start of the game, these clear changes must be the invisible effect of the game’s second rule: as long as I keep training, I’ll steadily improve,” Qin Qing murmured, staring at her stats.

Her spirit stat hadn’t increased—she guessed it was because it was already much higher than the others, and the higher the stat, the slower the growth.

Her daily training mainly consisted of long jogs on the treadmill. She knew that prolonged jogging was the most comprehensive and effective exercise she could do.