Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

The trees at the edge of the treeline seemed to be pushed up from the ground by an invisible hand, their roots and large chunks of soil being turned up to the surface, causing them to fall one after another, crashing onto the trunks of nearby trees with continuous muffled thuds.

Then--

A claw, almost as thick as a tree trunk, emerged from among the fallen trees.

Its claws parted the last row of tree canopies, and its four toes slowly clenched, snapping a tree trunk as thick as a bowl in two.

The tree canopy tilted, and the dust that hit the ground rose up, only to be dispersed by the airflow from the claw.

Immediately afterwards, a huge head rose up from behind the tree canopy.

That was neither a bear nor a lion.

Leng Ruolan had seen the mutated black bear king; it was quite large.

But this thing in front of us was a whole size bigger than that bear king—it was at least seven meters tall when it stood up.

It looked like some kind of wild beast, yet stood on two legs like a human, its body strangely smooth and hairless, like a skinned bear—

Its body is thick and strong, with its shoulder blades arching outward to form two distinct bony protrusions, and its entire body is covered with dark brown bony plates.

Although irregularly shaped, they fit together perfectly, like a living suit of armor.

A dark red light seeped through the gaps between the bone plates, flickering like a breathing light.

With each change in light intensity, a wisp of white smoke would rise from the edge of the bone plate, accompanied by a distinct burnt smell in the air.

The smell grew stronger and stronger, and even the wind on the mountaintop couldn't dispel it.

The creature's head was drooping, and the angle of its upper and lower jaws was completely wrong; this was not the structure of a normal living being.

Leng Ruolan's pupils dilated in shock, and she instinctively held her breath.

The monster's mouth was split into four lobes, each capable of opening and closing independently. When the lobes were open, there was no tongue or throat inside, only a cluster of eerie blue flames.

With each breath, the blue flame would suddenly leap up a few inches, and the gaps in the bone armor would light up for a moment.

There were no offensive actions.

It just stood there, took a breath, and the surrounding plants began to ignite.

"Don't move."

Leng Ruolan's words sounded like they were being forced out through clenched teeth.

The thing stopped, and it seemed to twitch its nose, as if sniffing something—until its four-lobed mouth split open, and its head slowly turned around.

We stopped when we turned to the direction of the mountaintop.

The ghostly blue flames suddenly surged.

"...!!!"

Leng Ruolan's heart skipped a beat.

"It has spotted us!"

"Run!"

As soon as Leng Ruolan finished speaking, the monster moved.

It has a massive body that is seven meters tall, but it moves almost without warning.

Its two thick hind legs sank down, the ground beneath its feet instantly cracked, and it leaped directly into the air from the hillside.

The dim light from the gaps in the bone armor turned into a dazzling orange-yellow the moment it leaped up, and a ring of heat emanated from its body.

It left a straight trail of black smoke behind it, which slowly spread along the trajectory of its leap—

A whiff of barbecue wafted up to the mountaintop, making the two cough.

"Cough... wait, what kind of monster is this?"

"Is this forbidden area no longer going to lay its cards on the table? They're starting to bring in creatures they've never even seen before, huh?"

"Stop complaining! Go call the big brother right now!"

At this moment, even the usually noisy monkey next door suddenly shut up—not that it stopped making noise, but that it was too scared to utter a sound.

Nanbei growled and took half a step forward, while Ludou shrank back so that only the tip of its tail was still sticking out.

Leng Ruolan aimed her gun at the rapidly approaching dark figure.

Her finger was on the trigger, but she didn't fire; she just stared intently at it, her face pale.

Chen Hao was still holding the binoculars, seemingly rooted to the spot. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. Judging from his lip movements, he seemed to be repeating, "What the hell is this?"

The audience in China was stunned:

"Holy crap! What the hell is this?!"

"What... what kind of monster is this? I've never seen anything like it before! Is this still a forbidden wilderness?!"

"This isn't wilderness at all... but it's definitely forbidden territory!"

"No, even though our players have high hidden MMR, you can't just randomly match them up!"

"These aren't even beings from the same dimension!"

"Forbidden Zone, wake up!!"

But others need to be sober up right now:

"Big brother! Big brother!"

At this moment, Leng Ruolan rushed into the house like the wind, gun in hand.

Europe is still asleep—

It was even snoring.

"...Big brother!"

You really don't shy away from making things worse!

How can you sleep at this hour?! You actually manage to sleep?!

Leng Ruolan was at her wit's end, so she grabbed Ou Yun's shoulders with both hands and shook him violently.

"Stop sleeping, bro! We're going to die!!"

"W-what...?"

I was so excited about the supply crates that I didn't sleep all night, and now that I've been forced to turn on the computer, I'm completely disheveled and don't even look human anymore.

Leng Ruolan glanced out the window.

At first glance, the monster wasn't visible, but Chen Hao was seen tumbling down from the watchtower, nearly falling, but luckily Nanbei caught him.

It had gotten dark, and the wind carried the scent of fire, making people very restless.

Leng Ruolan was too lazy to explain and dragged Ou Yun downstairs.

After being jolted several times by the stairs, Ou Yun finally regained some consciousness.

He instinctively looked out the window.

Then they saw a giant beast that looked like it had been skinned alive, its body engulfed in flames, walking towards them step by step.

With each step I took, evil fire began to rise from beneath my feet.

The surrounding area also caught fire!

Leng Ruolan had completely recovered from the initial shock. Seeing this scene, she immediately snorted coldly, "She could have flown here, but she insisted on walking. How arrogant!"

Ou Yun's eyes widened. "Holy crap... what kind of monster is that?"

"I can't tell, stop looking."

Leng Ruolan regained her rationality and began to address the root cause of the problem.

"I don't think guns and other firearms will be very effective against this monster. But I've already sent Chen Hao to retrieve the energy cannon. If that still doesn't work, we'll have to abandon this camp and run away."

When Leng Ruolan said these words, she felt a pang of pain in her heart.

Sigh, it took so much hardship and traversing so many mountains and rivers to build this campsite.

We haven't even enjoyed a few good days, and now we're going back to square one?

"Oh……"

Over here, Ou Yun, having recovered from his surprise, was still being held by the back of his collar by Leng Ruolan, but his expression had become much more alert.

"Does this monster use magic or physical attacks?"

"It looks like dual cultivation... wait, why are you suddenly asking this?"

"Just out of curiosity. Knowing yourself and your enemy is the key to victory."

Ou Yun reached into his clothes and started rummaging through his inner pocket.

Leng Ruolan looked at him with a completely bewildered expression—

As he rummaged through his clothes while looking at her, he slowly spoke:

"Captain Leng, do you have a dream?"

"……Um?"

Leng Ruolan: Alert.jpg