The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

Su Mu sat up in bed, looked at the numbers on the panel, and remained silent for a moment.

The 100,000 yuan item added 10 points to comfort, while the 10,000 yuan item added 1 point to the toilet.

It cost 110,000 yuan in total, only to get 21 points of comfort.

The current gain in building strength, durability, and output efficiency is 21%.

This number is much better than before, after all, he spent 110,000 World Coins, and the 21-point bonus means that all building attributes have increased by more than 20%.

But he still felt it was lacking.

"The comfort level could probably be improved," he pondered, "but..."

He had never studied these things before.

In the real world, his living situation can be summed up in four words: just not starving to death.

He had no concept of water temperature, mattress or sofa firmness, or light color temperature.

"Let's take it one step at a time," he sighed, putting the matter aside.

However, trouble is brewing.

The bed, the toilet, the original planting platform, the weapon rack, the supply box, and the control panel—what was originally a fairly spacious 64 cubic meters of space—now feel noticeably cramped.

He stood in the middle of the cable car and looked around. It felt like a cramped apartment crammed with furniture. When he first came in, he could walk in a straight line, but now he had to turn sideways to get around.

Su Mu was thinking about how to rearrange things, but then gave up. It was a huge project, and it would be better to wait until the cable car was upgraded and the area was expanded.

Having finished everything in front of him, Su Mu casually opened the world chat channel.

Upon entering, the screen was filled with news of Ash City's fall.

Ash City is gone.

"The ghost was too powerful. So many members of the Golden Pagoda organization were wiped out. They couldn't even last three hours."

"Yeah, I was with a few scattered squads on the west side of the evacuation route, trying to bypass the main battlefield and get to the safe zone. But then we saw a giant bear-like monster in a ruined alley. I can't really describe how big it was, you'll see. At first, I thought it was a building moving."

"It caught a grizzly bear."

"I recognize that grizzly bear. It's the one from the zoo that was being discussed in the channel before. It suddenly rushed out and bit the forelimb of a ghost, rescuing a team of professionals from being surrounded by ghosts. If it weren't for it, we would all be dead on that road."

"It just got caught by that giant bear-like monster."

"That giant bear-like monster is the one that smashed through the shield wall on the left flank. Some of you should have seen it. It was many times larger than that grizzly bear. The grizzly bear was already covered in wounds, and it pinned it to the ground without even breaking free."

"And then there was that giant bear ghost..."

The person who sent the message paused for two seconds, as if they were hesitant to type out the sentence.

When the next segment was sent, everyone in the channel saw it, but no one dared to respond immediately.

"It swallowed the grizzly bear whole."

"From my vantage point, I could see it. Its entire body was swallowed whole. The grizzly bear didn't make a sound until it died; it just struggled a few times and left some marks on the rubble with its hind legs."

"And then nothing happened."

It sounded like something was choking the channel.

It took a while before someone spoke:

"Holy shit..."

"How the hell are we supposed to fight this? Even creatures that size were swallowed whole, what are we?"

"I saw it too. I stayed far away, hiding behind the collapsed wall. I was too scared to move, afraid of making a sound and attracting the attention of those ghosts. The sound of that giant bear ghost eating could be heard from half a street away. I covered my mouth, and just hearing the sound almost made me throw up."

"That's fucking terrifying."

"We're just here to deliver food. Our level isn't high enough, our equipment isn't good enough, and it takes us forever to even fight a regular ghost. As for a monster of this level, we can only wait for it to leave on its own; there's no way we'll ever get one."

"To be honest, this world never intended for us to leave alive. Safe zones, dungeons, and defense lines are all just tricks to lure us into willingly going to our deaths."

The atmosphere in the channel was more somber than before.

Su Mu looked at those descriptions and his brows slowly furrowed.

The grizzly bear is dead.

It was swallowed whole by the monster that was transformed from a golden giant bear.

He recalled the image of the grizzly bear, covered in blood, limping into the darkness at the zoo.

He didn't chase after it then. At that time, he felt he had done enough... It was alive, it could walk, and it could choose its own path.

But it later returned to the battlefield.

And it was eaten by the bear that had previously fought so hard to protect it.

Su Mu swiped the communicator interface away, leaned against the edge of the waterbed, and looked up at the cable car ceiling.

He was silent for a while.

Then continue to check if there is any other information.

The chat was scrolling by rapidly, mostly filled with this tone of despair.

Someone posted footage they took before the city fell. In the blurry screenshots, dark purple mist and countless ghostly silhouettes filled the entire field of vision.

Some people also mentioned what they saw before teleporting when the final line of defense collapsed... all the defensive towers went out, and the regular area was swallowed up by ghostly mist.

Su Mu scrolled down.

There were also some strange comments, such as someone from the US cable company saying, "If we had gone in earlier, Ash City wouldn't have been lost."

The crowd erupted in uproar.

"If you're so good, then you do it."

"What level of strength does Ash City have? You probably wouldn't even be able to get through the city gates."

"Is there any point in bragging like this now?"

Su Mu didn't look at him much. People like that exist all the time.

What caught his attention even more was another type of statement...

Many people began to discuss what would happen to these independent individuals, small guilds, and lone wolves if even a professional lineup like the Golden Pagoda Organization couldn't stop the ghosts.

Previously, we could rely on defensive towers and professional players to hold the front line while we scavenged experience points in the back.

Now that Ash City is gone, who can they rely on next time if a similar event occurs?

No one answered.

Su Mu scrolled through the channels for a while, but found it pointless, and was about to turn them off.

Then he saw a message.

"Didn't you receive a notification?"

The person who sent the message is a level 3 user, and there is no occupational label after their ID.

"I am in the gray fog and infected by it. I lose 10 points of constitution every hour."

Su Mu stopped trying to close the panel.

He flipped down.

"Me too. I lose 5 points every hour."

"I was just about to ask that. I'm level 5, and I didn't get any notification. Have you guys not changed jobs yet?"

"I'm at level three, and I haven't leveled up yet. My physique is still declining."

"That's it, I haven't saved up enough Ghost Crystals to buy a job change book yet."

As soon as the first message appeared, similar comments began to appear one after another.

Those who were infected were almost all level three, and had not changed jobs.

None of the people at level four or above, or those who had completed the job transition at level three, mentioned receiving infection alerts.

Su Mu quickly scanned through the comments and made a preliminary count in his mind.

Level 3 is a hurdle.

Level 3 players who haven't changed jobs will be infected by the gray fog, causing their constitution to drop every hour.

The amount lost varies; some lose five, others ten, possibly related to total constitution or other attributes. However, this has no effect after changing jobs.

Just as he was about to double-check, his communicator vibrated.