After receiving that dreadful game notification, An Xiaomei's heart tightened.
Originally, she hadn't been too worried about the vengeful rampage of the local natives during the cold season—she still had her spatial portal as a fallback route.
But sure enough, in a survival game, you could never let your guard down. There were always unexpected "bugs" or sudden twists. Now that her escape route was gone, she needed to rethink her entire strategy.
With that in mind, An Xiaomei opened her backpack again and carefully reread the description of her Space Scroll:
[Space Scroll]: Primary use — to coordinate with a spatial portal.
Secondary use — allows instant relocation within a range of 3–80 kilometers.
Note: One-time use only. The scroll will disappear after activation.
"Whew… good thing my bad luck stat's already been cleared," she muttered to herself. Otherwise, this scroll would've just been another useless trinket.
That night, instead of sleeping in her insulated tent on the main island, An Xiaomei moved onto the icebreaker ship she'd acquired earlier. Her reasoning was simple—if she needed to escape, it would be much easier from there.
Yes, she was very aware that those enraged native creatures would track her down sooner or later. The only thing she could do now was keep strengthening herself and master every tool in her backpack.
From then on, she woke before dawn every day to train her body. She would only rest once her limbs were completely exhausted and her winter outfit soaked through with sweat.
It had been half a month since she last took an interstellar serum. So that evening, while changing clothes, she consumed the second-stage gene enhancement potion.
Because of her physical age, she could only take two such serums in this world—anything stronger would be too much for her body to handle.
The spectators watching her live feed couldn't help but feel uneasy seeing how tightly wound she'd been these past days.
[I swear, ever since Madam An entered the National Destiny World, she hasn't had a single moment of peace.]
[Can you blame her? That bounty on her head is still active. By the way, has anyone actually seen what a native looks like when they go berserk?]
[I know! My favorite streamer ran into one once—it was a mutated werewolf. When enraged, its size doubled and its attacks became ferocious. None of her weapons worked. She… died horribly. The footage was so brutal it had to be censored.]
[Good heavens. So during this rage phase, the natives' power spikes dramatically? I'm terrified An Auntie's gonna run into a whole pack of them!]
[There's no helping it. With that bounty on her, it's only a matter of time before they find her. Especially now that the frozen terrain is wide open for travel.]
Thirty kilometers away, a group of mutant murlocs was already closing in, following her scent.
For the past several days, they had been hunting for any trace of An Xiaomei. Unfortunately, every human they encountered turned out to be the wrong target. But instead of sparing those unlucky souls, the murlocs unleashed all their pent-up rage upon them—slaughtering most and leaving only a handful alive.
In this world, the cold season was always the time when the natives became aggressive. Normally, they'd pick fights with nearby adventurers—but this time, all their fury was concentrated on finding one human: An Xiaomei.
At seven that evening, An Xiaomei had just finished dinner when she felt her heartbeat quicken.
Her eyelids had been twitching nonstop since dusk—a bad omen if there ever was one.
"Beep beep—Alert! A group of mutant murlocs has been detected three kilometers from your icebreaker. Estimated arrival time: three minutes. Please prepare for combat or evacuation."
Her ship's alarm system blared the warning. An Xiaomei reacted instantly—she fired up the icebreaker's engines. Running was the only smart option.
She'd scanned the area with her psychic ability earlier and confirmed it—there were over thirty mutant murlocs, each nearly twice their usual size.
Fighting was possible, yes—but surviving the next two months after blowing all her trump cards? Not likely. It was better to avoid confrontation altogether.
The rumble of the ship's engines echoed across the frozen plain, catching the murlocs' attention.
The leading commander-class murloc frowned. "There's movement ahead. Full speed—something's up!"
The entire squad charged forward, covering three kilometers in under two minutes. But by the time they arrived, the only thing left was the lingering exhaust trail of a massive ship disappearing into the distance.
"Commander, shall we pursue?"
One of the murlocs asked eagerly, bowing low to show deference.
"Chase? What for?" the commander scoffed. "That's the Skyhawk Tribe's hunting ground ahead. We'll just inform them."
He spoke with absolute confidence. There was no point exhausting themselves over a ship they couldn't possibly catch. Better to sell a favor to the Skyhawks instead.
Of course, if he had known that the human they'd just let go was worth 2,000 energy stones, he would've chased her to the ends of the earth—even if it killed him.
Meanwhile, in the Skyhawk Tribe's territory, the Skyhawk King was discussing the clan's next winter hunting plan when one of his subordinates rushed in and whispered in his ear.
"Your Majesty, a message from the Murloc Tribe—they report a human driving a massive ship has entered our hunting zone."
"And you came running just to tell me that? There must be something more. Speak."
The Skyhawk King knew his underlings well—none of them would dare disturb him over something trivial.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Our elite scouts confirm that the human in question matches the one listed on the bounty notice."
The Skyhawk King shot to his feet, eyes blazing with excitement.
"Excellent! Mobilize half of our warriors! Hunt down that human at all costs!"
Unaware of the massive aerial force preparing to strike, An Xiaomei continued steering her ship across the frozen sea—completely oblivious to the danger approaching from the skies.
Her alarm system could only detect threats on land and sea.
It had no way of sensing enemies—like the Skyhawk Tribe—descending from above.