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

Upon hearing this, Ou Yun lowered his head and carefully looked at Douglas's hand-drawn map.

The three nodes extend from the edge of the forest area to a hazy, gray region, next to which Douglas has labeled: Unexplored Plateau.

It's like a flight path leading to an unknown world.

"So if we follow these three relay stations westward—"

Douglas lowered his voice, "Then we'll find the city."

Ou Yun hummed in agreement. "Or that city will find us."

The campfire crackled.

Ou Yun looked up at the western sky.

The sun had not yet fully risen, and the western horizon was still shrouded in a thin layer of mist.

The color of that mist was exactly the same as the purple mist emanating from the pillar in the basin.

"Then let them come and find it."

Ou Yun handed the notebook back to Douglas, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"Anyway, no matter who seeks out whom, they'll end up fighting."

At breakfast time, there were three more mouths to feed at the campsite, but no one felt uncomfortable.

Anyway, they have more food than they can eat, so having a few more people just means carrying a few more sacks of wheat to the mill.

Marcus quickly demonstrated his value.

Upon seeing the stone houses and low walls in the camp, the former architectural engineer immediately pulled a pen from his pocket—heaven knows how he managed to keep a pen in the forbidden area.

Then he began to draw on the wooden board.

"The structural integrity of your wall is flawed. The stone you used wasn't carefully cut and polished, and it will crack over time."

Marcus was even somewhat eager to demonstrate his value:

"Moreover, the distribution of this adhesive trap is too regular, and experienced people can easily find the pattern and bypass it."

Upon hearing this, Chen Hao immediately became interested: "You can improve it?"

"Yes. If stones of different sizes are stacked alternately to distribute the stress points, the lifespan of the wall can be extended by at least 100%."

Marcus's eyes lit up as if he felt he was actually of some use.

"The adhesive traps shouldn't be placed at fixed intervals; instead, they should be randomly distributed—but random distribution will reduce coverage, so we'll need to add another layer of tripwire traps. The tripwires can be made from treated vines or thin wire; do you have any?"

Immediately afterwards, Chen Hao's expression changed.

It's a resonance that only arises when you see someone like yourself—or rather, the instinctive reaction of one tech geek to another.

"I have wire! I dismantled a whole bunch of unused equipment and got a bunch of wire from it; it's all piled up in the warehouse! Wait a minute, I'll get it for you—and also, is your random distribution algorithm Monte Carlo or uniform distribution?"

"No, I prefer to use the Poisson distribution to simulate the spatial probability distribution of random events."

"Poisson distribution! Yes, yes, I thought of that before, but the sample size wasn't big enough—now someone has calculated it for me!"

Ou Yun, standing nearby, asked, "What are these guys talking about?"

Leng Ruolan, who was next to Ou Yun, said, "Never mind that, let's eat first."

Ou Yun silently carried her breakfast to the other end of the table.

Leng Ruolan laughed, "The logistics team is getting bigger and bigger."

"Yeah, after we defeat all seven lords, our camp should be able to form a reinforced platoon."

"By then, we'll have to build new dormitories."

"Let Marcus design it; isn't he an architectural engineer?"

"Do you think Marcus can build a dormitory building in the forbidden area?"

"What's impossible? We can even build brick houses, so a two-story house is not a dream."

Ou Yun took a bite of the meat pie and mumbled, "Anyway, the foundation is already laid, so let's just build on top of it."

So Leng Ruolan actually thought about that scene.

The forbidden valley.

A two-story stone brick building.

Next to it is another side, and next to that is a carnivorous plant.

Not far away were several mutated giant beasts sunbathing by the river.

A group of lynxes patrolled the wall, while monkeys whistled from the watchtower.

Then, the surrendering contestants surged in from all directions like a tidal wave—

Ah, thinking about it that way, building a dragon empire in the forbidden area isn't such a dream after all.

But Leng Ruolan still maintained a certain composure, "Hmm...it's alright."

Ou Yun glanced at her, a half-smile on his face, "That's right."

*

In the afternoon, the notification regarding the restricted area arrived as expected.

[Congratulations to the Dragon Kingdom players Ou Yun, Leng Ruolan, and Chen Hao for successfully defeating the Forest Lord.]

[First kill in this area achieved, additional reward obtained - Abyss Holy Spring activation permission.]

[Abyssal Spring: Permanently increases one attribute by 10% upon use. Limited to one use per person, and only for Dragon Kingdom players. The spring will appear within the Dragon Kingdom camp area; please find it yourself.]

[Whenever a regional lord is defeated, all players involved in the battle will be forced to stop, and the winning player will receive the stage settlement reward.]

Defeating all seven lords will trigger the final stage of the forbidden area.

Best of luck to everyone.

"The Holy Spring of the Abyss?"

"A permanent 10% attribute boost?"

"Once per person?"

Leng Ruolan's eyes lit up. "This reward is great!"

Ou Yun's expression was indifferent. "I think the Forbidden Zone has run out of options and can only raise the numbers."

He stood up and looked around the camp. "Where is the spring? The notice said it was within the camp area, but it didn't say the exact location."

No sooner had the child finished speaking than a low gurgling sound came from the direction of the river bend at the foot of the mountain.

That sound wasn't from the giant tortoise—Ou Yun was already very familiar with that guy's gurgling sound.

The sound wasn't so languid; it was deeper and more resonant, more like something ancient awakening from a long slumber.

Everyone looked towards the river bend at the same time.

Suddenly, a pale purple light appeared on the surface of the water in the very center of the river bend.

The ball of light was about two meters in diameter, suspended half a meter above the water surface, and slowly rotating.

Tiny energy ripples occasionally spread from the surface of the ball of light, and with each ripple, the surrounding air became exceptionally sweet.

The giant tortoise lay beside the ball of light, craning its neck to curiously examine the suddenly appearing luminous object.

Seeing Ou Yun and the others running over, it slowly turned its head and made another gurgling sound—

It's like they're saying, "You guys figure it out yourselves, we don't know anything."

Then it pulled its head back into the water.

"Is this the Holy Spring of the Abyss?"

Ou Yun squatted by the water's edge, reaching out to touch the ball of light, then pulled his hand back. "Won't it electrocute me?"

"The notice says it's a reward, so it shouldn't be harmful."

Chen Hao carefully examined the original notification text recorded in his notebook. "Usage method—it should be direct contact."

"Who wants to try first?"

Isn't that obvious?

Chen Hao and Leng Ruolan no longer needed to communicate via voice chat; they both stared intently at Ou Yun.

Ou Yun: "It's me again, isn't it?"

"Because you're the most resilient!"

"well……"