There were over 20 million citizens in New York City with over 900,000 buildings.

Due to the fact that 100,000 players were spawning within the city, it meant about 200:1 were players, and they were spaced out randomly at a distance of approximately one block away from each other.

When the first disaster struck, however, many would choose to escape to a sturdy building such as the New York Library. As a result, right now, among the thousand NPC survivors that fled to the library, Alan could see that a dozen were wearing the red tracksuit just like him.

None of the players seems interested in interacting with each other. All were still adjusting themselves in the aftermath of the disaster.

Alan was currently trying to dry up his clothes which had become thoroughly soaked as he helped those 50 civilians out of the drowning bus.

While at it, he logged into the game link in order to check his stats.

[Alan D Angello]

[Level 3: 500/1000]

[HP: 60/130]

[Stamina: 92%]

[Survival points: 800]

[You have one attribute point to distribute]

[You have 1x F rank reward, 1x E rank reward]

In this game, for every 3 levels, a player would get an additional 10 Hp and one attribute point as a reward. When he saw his current stat, a curve smile instantly formed on his lips. It was a very satisfying result, especially considering the fact that he only played for 15 minutes of the game.

First thing first, Alan grabbed his [Water Bottle] and drank it.

[Recover 20 HP and 10% Stamina regeneration within 5 minutes]

It might seem like a waste to drink the water at the moment, given the fact that both health and stamina would actually increase gradually in time depending on the person's endurance. Still, since the game would only last for a short 8 hours, Alan was unwilling to take any chances. Besides, he knew where to find more of those water bottles or similar items again.

As for the attribute points, he decided to stick with the plan he had initially devised and chose to increase his intelligence..

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

[Strength: E+]

[Agility: E+]

[Endurance: D-]

[Perception: E]

[Intelligence: D-] +1 [D- > D]

[Spirit: F-]

It was indeed a surprising choice; however, he needed it for his next plan. Alan opened the game link and went toward his skill list to find an [Upgrade] option.

[Choose a skill to upgrade]

He was then faced with the list of his skills available for an upgrade.

As planned, Alan went with one of his uncommon skills, [Science]. Following that, the information on the next proficiency level of the skill along with its requirements came out.

[Science (Novice)]

[Rarity: Uncommon]

[More effective in science-related tasks]

[Prerequisites: Intelligence D, Perception E]

[Cost: 300 survival points and 1x Rank F reward]

[Proceed?]

Because of his intelligence upgrade, Alan has now fulfilled the prerequisite to upgrade the skill.

"Yes."

[You have spent 300 survival points and 1x Rank F reward]

[You gained proficiency in [Science] - Basic to Novice]

This went exactly according to his plans, leaving him with the one E rank reward that he planned to keep for now.

After a short while, he received another notification through the game link to his mind.

[Updating current players]

[Players still in the game - 68,732]

In a span of time that was less than 30 minutes, one-third of the players had been eliminated from the game. The majority of these players should be those who tried to get extra points by helping survivors but ended up being carried away by the waves instead.

Although it was terrible news, this number brought a little smile to Alan as the last time he played the game, about 10,000 more players died with the waves. He took a little comfort that his warning had something to do with it.

Right after, another notification came to his mind.

[Warning: The snowstorm has come. The temperature will start to drop]

It didn't take long until a commotion could be heard as people started to look outside the window.

The previous heavy rain had stopped and was replaced by snowfall. Nevertheless, that was not something that made the situation turn rowdy. What was shocking for them was that the flood that drowned the city street 3 meters deep had gradually turned frozen, all the way to the first-floor lobby where the bus was.

There was a significant change in the circumstance in a very short time. As a direct result of this drastic climate change, Alan started to feel the chill as the temperature dropped quickly.

[You Received Status: Cold level One]

[Stamina Regeneration Drops 10%]

With this, the fight against the cold had finally started. All the players had to do was keep themselves warm and try their best to stay alive for 8 hours of the game.

However, another commotion was heard in the hall. A man in New York police uniform stood on top of a table and said

"Listen up, we need to get out of this city before it gets colder; we are heading south."

Hearing a man of authority speaks, Hundreds of civilians started to listen and were ready to leave.

To everyone's surprise, a young girl in a red tracksuit spoke up and said

"No! We need to stay inside and stay warm. It will only get colder outside. Please listen to me, my father is a scientist, he works in the government"

The girl kept shouting and managed to convince some to stay.

Seeing the group divided, another few dozen came close to Alan. These are the people that were saved by him before.

"Mister, what do you think we should do?"