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

There were originally three of us.

Marcus's eyes were filled with tears.

"Our former teammates died on the spot at the hands of mutated beasts, and the three of us have been hiding on the edge of the forest. After the area interaction function was enabled, we knew we couldn't hide any longer, so we thought we'd come find you."

Marcus's voice sounded pitiful yet sincere.

"We know we can't win, and we don't want to fight. The forbidden area is forcing us to participate in the battle, but if surrendering counts as participation—then we're willing to surrender."

Does surrender count as participation?

Ou Yun looked at Chen Hao.

Chen Hao thought for a moment: "Theoretically, surrendering is a result of combat. If the forbidden area only records whether or not one participates in combat, then whether one wins, loses, surrenders, or is captured—it all counts as participation in combat."

Alexander nodded in agreement. "The reason why the Lynx haven't triggered the punishment mechanism since they surrendered must be based on this principle."

"That makes things easier."

Ou Yun looked at Marcus, "How do you intend to surrender?"

"Unconditional surrender. We don't want any conditions—just let us stay. We can do manual labor, help with hunting, chopping wood, farming, patrolling—any kind of work! We just want to survive."

As Marcus spoke, he took a small cloth bag out of his pocket and placed it on the table.

"This is all the supplies we have left. Consider it all a token of our loyalty!"

The cloth bag was opened, revealing several translucent mineral fragments, a small bag of salt, and an old-looking but still glowing fragment of abyssal crystal.

Not to mention the European team, even Alexander remained completely unfazed, and even secretly wanted to laugh.

Indeed, these few items are all good on their own.

Ore fragments can now be used for a lottery in the furnace.

Abyss Crystals, without a doubt, are already at the gold supply level.

Salt is an essential element for human survival.

Unfortunately, this was at the Dragon Kingdom camp.

Brother, all I can say is that you're far from being good enough.

After Marcus finished speaking, he looked at Ou Yun and the others with a slightly expectant expression.

Hey, these are all my most treasured possessions!

Those were rewards earned by the brothers who risked their lives fighting against mutated beasts, going in and out seven times.

This would be a hot commodity in any camp!

For all of this, you should at least take us in, right?

not at all.

Neither Ou Yun nor Leng Ruolan even looked up.

Even Chen Hao, who is usually quick to seize opportunities, simply pushed up his glasses calmly.

Maxim, standing nearby, chuckled, "Look, Brother Chen's pushing up his glasses."

Alexander: "After all, it contains Abyss Crystals, so it still has some weight to it."

Hassan: "No, didn't you hear? Big Brother and the others were just making a bet that there were no Abyss Crystals inside, and now Brother Chen has lost."

Maxim, Alexander: ...

But Mr. Ou still politely asked, "Where did this salt come from?"

Marcus said with a hint of pride, "We discovered a small salt mine in the southeast... but it's already been occupied. We looted this salt before it was taken over."

"Salt mine?"

Leng Ruolan became interested. "Do you remember the location of the salt mine?"

"I remember. I can draw maps."

Marcus was well-prepared and quickly drew up a standard operational sketch.

Ou Yun then turned to look at Leng Ruolan.

Leng Ruolan also looked at him.

Ou Yun stared at her blankly.

What do you mean?

Just a little something.

That's not interesting.

What do you mean?

That's the gist of it.

You're really interesting.

Ike, standing nearby, looked on with curiosity and asked, "What are they doing?"

Chen Hao: "Nothing much, just flirting."

The very curious Alexander asked, "What kind of violin is it?"

Chen Hao: "It's family affection."

"What kind of zither is 'qinqin'?"

"It's alright, go play now."

"Okay!"

*

Out of respect for the salt mine, the man eventually accepted the money.

Mr. Ou was a little unhappy: "I don't even know where this country is, yet I'm collecting things. Are we just junk collectors?"

Leng Ruolan was prepared: "This country is in Africa, in a remote corner of the world. I've been there before."

"and then?"

"Salt is indeed of little use to us, but salt mines are somewhat useful."

This was one of the many ingenious ideas Leng Ruolan had previously come up with—

She was at least a first-generation player.

When I first arrived in this forbidden area, I actually found similar mines along the way, but they were all guarded by terrifying beasts, so I didn't dare to venture too far in.

Since reuniting with my older brother, we haven't seen a single mine.

She almost thought it was her imagination—

Until later, the abyssal mineral vein appeared.

Okay, then it's fine.

Although they don't need salt mines for their personal health needs—after all, they already have a bag of table salt that they can eat indefinitely.

However, just because they don't need it doesn't mean others don't.

They can be used to do some big things.

Just like investing in a piece of land, they can take over the salt mine for their own use and attract other players to come.

Marcus was stunned for a moment when he finally heard the good news, and then his eyes suddenly reddened.

He took a deep breath, nodded vigorously, and said thank you several times, his voice choked with emotion, almost unable to continue.

His two teammates—a young man and a middle-aged woman—both wore expressions of relief.

The middle-aged woman even burst into tears on the spot, wiping away her tears with her sleeve as she cried.

Hassan took it quite seriously and quickly went over to comfort her, saying, "Don't cry, sister. Crying will attract mutated wild beasts."

Then call out to the others:

"Come, come, I'll take you to your lodgings—there's an empty bed in the storage room, two people can squeeze in. The third person can sleep in the warehouse for now, and I'll set up a hammock later."

The three of them left with Hassan, filled with gratitude.

Douglas remarked from the side, "This is much better than when I surrendered. When I surrendered, Captain Leng and his men searched me for half a day."

"really."

"really."

"That's because you were a reconnaissance soldier, which puts you in a high-risk position."

As Ou Yun spoke, he suddenly remembered something, "By the way, have the energy nodes in the north been marked yet?"

"Marked up—wait, something's up."

Douglas paused, his expression suddenly turning serious.

"Well, I've noticed that the direction in which the Forest Lord's energy is being channeled westward is a bit off. Look here, brother—there are three energy nodes over here, their positions forming a straight line that points directly to the western plateau."

Douglas paused.

"It feels like something like a cell tower."

Ou Yun's expression remained largely unchanged. "A signal tower?"

"The lord gathers energy in one place and then transmits it to more distant places through this thing."

Douglas took out his notebook from his pocket, turned to the latest drawing, and handed it to Ou Yun.

"These three nodes are not large in scale, but their energy density is exceptionally high. If the 'city' we speculate on does exist, these three relay stations are the final three paths for supplying it with energy."