Survival Queen of the Frozen Wastes novel Chapter 466

Chapter 466 The Great Reset

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Over the past few days, Riley had been monitoring market trends closety. She sensed several hidden players trying to capitalize on the chaos, hoping to drive fuel prices through the roof.

In this fuel war, the output from the Hope Guild coal mine served as the ultimate stabilizer.

For an entire week, whenever predatory merchants tried to inflate prices, a massive anonymous bulk sale of coal would hit the trading platform. The volume wasn’t high enough to crash the market, but it was just enough to meet the demand of desperate survivors, pinning the price firmly at the red line of 3x normal rates.

The underground speculators grew fearful. They remembered what happened to the Golden Rose Chamber of Commerce.

Seeing the relentless flow of coal, they didn’t suspect market manipulation; they assumed it was just another layer of the system’s aggressive price stabilization mechanism.

Faced with an unstoppable, game–breaking dealer like the system, the speculators didn’t dare double down. They took their marginal profits and retreated, leaving the feast for others.

Hope Guild, through this behind–the–scenes maneuvering, managed to keep prices stable while padding the coffers of their own members.

However, even with Riley keeping fuel prices in check, the shadow of death continued to stalk the icefield.

This wasn’t just a resource management challenge; it was a brutal hardware elimination test.

Fuel could keep the bonfire burning, but the level of a base’s architecture and its thermal insulation stats were what actually decided who lived and who died.

During this month–long, slow, agonizing attrition, bases below Level 4–regardless of how much wood they stockpiled–saw their flimsy structures become as thin as paper under the relentless/infiltration of extreme cold.

Most independent survivors perished in their sleep; they never even stood a chance to struggle as their body heat quietly bled away into the frozen air.

Even Level 4 bases faced a high probability of freezing over if they hadn’t invested heavily in insulation or possessed high–tier gear.

The survivors clinging to life were mostly huddled under the umbrella of mid–to–small–sized guilds, barely scraping by through

shared resources.

The blizzard was similar to the previous ones, but the suppression effect on camp bonfires and survivor heat retention was on a completely different level–the system was purging those whose base development couldn’t keep pace.

One month later,

When the howling that had dominated the icefield for thirty days finally died down, the lead–grey clouds parted. Long–awaited sunlight hit the snow, refracting in a blinding, piercing glare.

Riley checked the survival count on her system panel.

“Regional Channel / Remaining Survivors: 712”

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Chapter 466 The Great Reset_

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A singte calm snowfall, devoid of any monster raids, had whittled the remaining thousand survivors down by another three hundred. A thirty percent mortality rate; behind those cold numbers were three hundred souls frozen forever in the wind.

“Storm’s over.”

Riley pushed open the camp door and took a deep, refreshing breath of clean air.

“NorthWind, organize a crew to clear the entrance snow. Hanna, get the scouting party up on the towers. Deploy squads to survey the perimeter and clear any threats!” Riley issued orders to the core members via their private channel.

However, when Riley climbed up the Auto–Targeting Crossbow Tower in her own camp, goggled up with her gear, she was taken

aback.

The world had changed.

Following the blizzard, the topography had been completely reconfigured.

The bottomless Great Rift that had flanked Riley’s camp–which previously served as a natural barrier against the WarWolf Guild- was gone. In its place was a rolling landscape covered in massive ice ridges.

The terrain where the NorthWind camp once sat had also vanished, replaced by a flat, empty plain.

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The Drifters Alliance had already relocated right next to Hope Guild, so even if the NorthWind base despawned, they could just use the teleporter. It was a non–issue.

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