Chapter Twenty: The Wrecked Plane

Walking along the frozen river, Qin Fei occasionally gathered some cattail. The blizzard today had calmed, so his pace quickened; in just two or three hours, he reached the end of the river.

There stood a house, and wild rosehips grew outside its walls.

In the game, this house was known as "The Deserter's Cabin."

After walking for hours, Qin Fei was a bit tired. He picked all the rosehips, then went inside to rest.

The interior of the cabin was small—barely twenty square meters, with a bed and two wooden cabinets, cramped and cluttered.

Searching the cabinets, Qin Fei found a small bag of rock sugar—those square-shaped crystals.

Foreigners seemed to enjoy adding these to coffee, but for Qin Fei, rock sugar was not particularly useful.

Better than nothing, though.

He stepped outside, built a small fire, and boiled a pot of snow on it. Into the pot, he added some dried rosehip flesh and three pieces of rock sugar.

When the water finally boiled, Qin Fei took a sip. The fruit tea was sweet, with a faint sourness beneath. The addition of rock sugar had vastly improved the flavor, perfectly masking the rosehip’s original tartness.

Together, the sweet and sour blended into a harmonious taste. After a sip in the cold, snowy day, Qin Fei felt his soul warmed.

Behind the cabin, a narrow mountain path wound upward.

After finishing his fruit tea, Qin Fei followed the path all the way to the mountaintop.

Here, he found a crashed airplane.

The nose was intact, but the wings and tail had shattered into several pieces of wreckage.

Supplies from the plane were scattered in the snow, most packed in suitcases. Among them lay several frozen corpses; they must have perished in the crash.

There were even some airline meals in plastic trays, tossed across the snow.

Planes had no kitchens—these meals were simply heated in their packaging and preserved with additives. Thanks to the cold, most of the food hadn't spoiled.

Qin Fei wasn’t certain if these meals were truly safe to eat, but at least they smelled fine.

The selection was abundant, and the transparent trays let him glimpse the dishes: noodles, burgers, and even rice with green vegetables like broccoli.

At last, a proper meal!

Qin Fei was a little excited.

Since arriving in this game world, he hadn’t eaten a single green vegetable in over a hundred days. And rice from his homeland—he could scarcely believe his luck.

He packed the airline meals into his backpack and searched the area, even peering beneath wreckage hidden by the plane’s fragments.

[Airline Meal—Vegetarian: Under the wrapper you see frozen broccoli and something resembling mashed potatoes. You never thought vegetarian food could be so wonderful.]

[Airline Meal—Chicken: Still frozen solid. This holds all your hopes for reheated chicken, though it’s a bit low in calories.]

Besides food, the suitcases in the snow contained clothing, but only a single pair of boots was useful to Qin Fei.

The rest was less warm than what he wore, so he discarded them.

[Decent Rubber Boots: Made from synthetic materials, these boots are superbly waterproof, with felt linings for warmth and comfort. Due to their large size, they may slow you down a bit.]

Apart from the weight, the rubber boots felt much warmer than his old work boots.

There were also magazines scattered about.

Since phones are forbidden on flights, finding magazines near the wreck wasn’t surprising.

All together, they weighed four or five kilograms; after stowing them in his spatial backpack, Qin Fei felt noticeably burdened.

After all, with all the airline meals he’d gathered, the pack was already heavy. The magazines made walking even harder.

According to game experience, the path to Wolf Forest Pass required climbing a cliff with a pre-tied climbing rope.

But with so much cargo, Qin Fei couldn’t possibly climb.

He decided to stay here for a few days and read through the magazines.

No houses stood near the plane, but Qin Fei remembered there was a basement nearby.

Not far from the wreck, he found the ruins of a collapsed house.

Searching among the debris, he discovered a skylight door in the ground.

This must be the basement.

The basement was well equipped—with a radio, washing machine, some fuel, and a dozen cans.

Half were tomato soup, the rest beef.

The radio had batteries and could be tuned; the signal seemed strong, but no matter how he searched, Qin Fei couldn’t find any channels.

He suspected that in this game world, perhaps he was the only living soul.

The washing machine lacked power, so it was useless.

Warm as the basement was, it had no bed, so Qin Fei spread his sleeping bag on the floor and settled in.

The blizzard in Pleasant Valley lasted only a day before roaring back, and this time, it seemed endless.

Unable to venture out, Qin Fei passed the days reading magazines, eating airline meals and canned food.

[You have survived: 142 days, 3 hours, 44 minutes]

He stayed here for twenty-one days.

One morning, upon waking, Qin Fei noticed the wind outside had finally ceased. He stepped out of the basement.

Indeed, the weather had calmed.

The blizzard, which had raged for over twenty days, was finally over.

Once, his backpack was so heavy he could barely walk, but after these days, he had consumed enough to lighten his load.

Taking advantage of the clear weather, Qin Fei followed the direction of the aircraft’s nose and walked to the entrance of Wolf Forest Pass.

Here was a cliff—the only way into Wolf Forest Pass. To continue, Qin Fei had to climb.

The cliff was six or seven meters high, with a red climbing rope dangling from the top.

Before climbing, Qin Fei wrapped his hands with cloth from his pack to protect them from the rope’s chafing.

He had no gloves.

Homemade gloves fell apart easily, so Qin Fei usually kept his hands tucked in his sleeves or pockets, only exposing them briefly for chores.

Thus, he didn’t need gloves much.

But during the climb, the rope was frozen, slippery and stiff, likely to injure his hands, so he had to shield them with cloth.

Climbing a seven or eight meter cliff wasn't much, really.

But Qin Fei carried too much.

The excessive weight forced him to place some supplies below, climb up, then return for the rest.

After two trips, he managed to bring everything to the top.

And thus, after scaling the cliff, he entered the realm of Wolf Forest Pass.