Chapter 59: The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You I
The college entrance exam was over, and Zhang Heng received an unexpected mail.
It was from the game committee reminding the players that the annual auction was about to begin and that those interested in attending the event could register at any game checkpoint before the deadline on the 25th.
Zhang Heng did not want to wait, and was quite interested in the auction—buying and selling game items were secondary. The auction’s main appeal was that he had been playing the game on his own and had only superficial knowledge about the rules. Since he did not know what old players felt about newbies, Zhang Heng did not approach others in the lounge before and after the first two games. Now that a rare opportunity had presented itself, he did not want to miss it.
So, upon receiving the main mission, Zhang Heng went to register with the bartender lady at once. Filing in the necessary personal information, he had to pay an entrance fee of 1 game point.
While there were still 2 weeks until the end of the month, Zhang Heng decided he did not want to make another trip to the bar, immediately settling down in a booth the moment he was done with the registration. Deftly, he set the alarm at 23.55 with the intention of completing the third round of game ahead of time.
He was slowly becoming accustomed to the game’s format and would move his sleeping hours forward to the day. Furthermore, he would make sure to warm up before getting to the bar in order to keep his body and mind in tip-top condition. With the many skills and game items he had banked in the last two rounds of games, Zhang Heng was confident in the face of upcoming challenges.
Having said that, he would seem to have once again underestimated the challenges he was about to encounter.
23:55.
Once again, that familiar vertigo engulfed him. But because he was prepared this time, it was not as awful as it was the first two.
[Verifying player’s identity…]
[Identity confirmed. Random extraction of the third edition for player number 07958…]
[Extraction complete—Current quest is ‘The Mannerheim Line Welcomes You’]
“Please explore the game’s background on your own.”
[Mission objective: Survive within the Finland territory for 20 days]
[Mode: Single player]
[Time flow rate: 120] (One hour in the real world is equivalent to 5 days in this game. After
20 days, the player will be extracted and returned to the real world)
A friendly reminder. The game will begin in 5 seconds. Players, please get ready!
…
The moment the countdown ended, the first thing that Zhang Heng felt was frigid cold! He opened his eyes and saw that he was standing in a snow-covered forest. Whenever exhaling, his breath would quickly condense into ice crystals! This was the first time he had ever experienced a situation like this—the game did not provide any backstory at the beginning of the game, instructing him to explore it himself instead.
From the mission objective, he could confirm that he was in Finland. The Nordic pine trees all around him verified that fact as well. Zhang Heng’s knowledge of Finland was that it was a country with little human interference. Lush green forests took up 75% percent of the land area, and a third of its territory lay within the Arctic Circle.
But this country… Zhang Heng had never really heard of any perils within it. Why was this mission’s objective to survive like the first game?
Despite the fact that he was once again faced with a communication problem (Finland’s primary languages are Finnish and Swedish) which would make it impossible for Zhang Heng to be employed, he could simply roam around the forest and quickly make it through 20 days with his Level 2 wilderness survival skills.
Even so, Zhang Heng was not careless. The timing of the game this time was very anomalous—the exchange ratio between the real world and the game world was very low, and the overall gaming period was also the shortest out of the three so far, an indication of the degree of danger in this game. Other than that, the title of this edition ‘Mannerheim Line Welcomes You’ sounded very familiar. But he could not, for the life of him, remember where he had heard it.
Routinely, Zhang Heng checked his current status.
Name: Zhang Heng
Gender: Male
Age: 19
Player ID: 07958
Rounds of game played: 2
Current game points: 77
Item in possession: Lucky rabbit’s foot (E), Shadow Moment (D）
Skills:
Piano: Level 1
Language proficiency: Level 1 (three languages at general communication’s level)
Car tuning and repairing skills: Level 1
Archery skills: Level 2
Wilderness survival skills: Level 2
driving skills: Level 2.
Assessment: The player has slightly better luck than the average person. Shielded by shadow, he has some wilderness survival skills and archery skills. If lucky, he will be able to survive six rounds of the game.
After two rounds, Zhang Heng had managed to accumulate 77 game points. However, other than identifying game items, he had no idea what other uses they had—yet to receive the detailed service statement that the bartender lady had promised to send. However, it no longer mattered anymore as he could just ask the other players during the auction.
In terms of skills, the report was not too far from his projections. The one thing that he did not foresee was that his language skills level did not increase even though he had mastered Japanese. But considering that there were over 5,000 languages in the world, it was an acceptably fair verdict. The other one was the addition of the Shadow Moment’s protection in the assessment section, which raised his survival expectancy to six rounds.
After inspecting his character profile, he checked the belongings he carried. Perhaps due to an absence of background introduction, he was actually wearing his own clothes this time, which consisted of his Asics autumn-winter runners, a black Lee down jacket, and jeans.
Even though he was also wearing a set of thermal underwear underneath, one should know that winters in Finland could reach a toe-biting -20 degrees Celsius, which meant he was still feeling really, really cold.
His first priority would be to locate a store and procure warmer clothing.
Zhang Heng rubbed his hands together to keep them from freezing. He had his wallet and phone with him, but there was not much of a signal out here. The electronic compass could still be used, but without GPS, he had no idea where he was. The only thing he could do was trust his instincts and pick a direction.
After walking for around half an hour, Zhang Heng spotted something in the snowy pasture. He picked it up and found that it was a metal helmet. The style was a little strange with a big hat and outward protective ear covering and a raised metal ridge sitting on top. Evident by the bullet hole and the bloodstains on the inside, it now seemed that this object failed to protect its owner’s life.
Looking down at the object in his hand, Zhang Heng was filled with uneasiness. But before he could even examine this premonition, he heard a series of gunshots!
He instinctively ducked to the ground, but after a while, he could ascertain that shots were not fired in his direction. They were a distance away, probably two people firing at each other, where one was in pursuit of another.
As they were not heading toward his hiding place, Zhang Heng waited patiently for the gunshots to move further away before standing up and emerging from behind the tree.
Although he could still be in danger, Zhang Heng decided to explore the location where the shots were fired, needing to verify some things before deciding his next move.
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