Highway Survival: I Run Fast So I Can Fish

[Welcome to the Extreme Highway. Mandatory distance today: 300 km.]

[Note: The land on both sides of the highway is an uninhabited wilderness, including forests, ruins, and snowy plains. Resources are abundant, but it's extremely easy to get lost.]

[Warning: Distance traveled off the highway does not count. Be sure to return before the gray fog descends, or face the consequences.]

All the players went mad.

To cover the required distance, they gripped their steering wheels all day, afraid to turn off their engines, sleep, or even get out of their cars to relieve themselves.

Meanwhile, Tao Ran was crouched beside a crashed old helicopter on the roadside, tapping it with her [Universal Wrench].

[Refinement successful!]

[Obtained rare loot: Hypervelocity Engine Bearing]

[Unlocked "Explore Outside the Vehicle" mode]

After that, everything on the highway went completely off course:

While other people spent fifteen hours a day racing down the road, then the remaining hours anxiously gathering twigs by the roadside to make a fire, Tao Ran used her heavily modified engine to pull over, grab her fishing rod, and venture deep into the wilderness in search of a phantom fish said to yield a "power core."

While others were too afraid of getting lost to venture far, she explored the heart of the ruins, removed a top-grade heat-insulating panel, then went back to her car and built a temperature-controlled bathroom. While others were too afraid of wasting resources to get out, she collected the best oak in the forest and returned to her car to build a fragrant solid-wood cabinet set.

Tao Ran: "Driving fast saves time for fishing. A nice interior means I can take a hot bath after fishing. Nothing wrong with that."

-

Deep in the wilderness, forbidden to other survivors, Tao Ran could always use her "anchor navigation" to reach lost tribes and ruins. When she returned to her car from a snowy plain expedition, dragging specialty fish so frozen they were stiff as boards, she found a wary-looking local wrapped in animal hide, crouching beside her RV tire and curiously poking at the drain.

Tao Ran thought it over and didn't reach for a weapon. Instead, she passed through the car window a caramel pudding she'd just refined with her [Universal Wrench].

"If distance doesn't count," she said, watching the other person's eyes light up as she casually swung her fishing rod, "then I might as well take advantage of the abundant supplies in this otherworldly expedition, too."

She had only meant to share a little food, but somehow Tao Ran ended up opening a mobile general store deep in the wilderness.

While other players were still fighting on the highway over a moldy biscuit, Tao Ran had already begun trading in bulk with the locals. She used the cheap refined salt, clean water, and fragrant pudding she made to trade for "associated ores" and "ritual antiques" that the locals considered worthless.

Trade after trade, Tao Ran somehow ended up at the top.

Looking at the perfectly ordinary wrench in her hand, Tao Ran waved energetically to the locals. "Don't throw away shell-beast bones, scrap metal, or anything else. I'll pay for it all, and you can trade it for pudding!"

Theme: Enjoy life