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

She just stood there, watching Ou Yun bandage Nanbei's wounds while babbling on and on.

Red Bean squatted beside him, occasionally licking Nanbei's ear.

"Team Cold."

Alexander lowered his voice and leaned closer, "Big Brother's expression just now... was terrifying."

I've known you for so long and I'm used to seeing you all laughing and joking. How come you'd show such a fierce expression?

"Is this the first time you've seen him angry?"

"It's not the first time, but every time I see him, he doesn't seem like the same person. He's usually so lazy, but when he gets angry, he's more terrifying than the lord."

"Your older brother is a man of strong emotions, after all!"

Leng Ruolan's voice carried a hint of tenderness that she herself was unaware of, "Everyone has a few bottom lines that are inviolable."

She walked over, squatted down next to Nanbei, and examined the wound. "Thankfully, no internal organs were damaged. It's just a skin wound; it will heal in a few days with some medicine. However, it shouldn't be subjected to strenuous activity for a while."

"So what do we do next?"

"Douglas asked."

"There is an even larger desert ahead. Without north-south warning capabilities, it will be difficult for us to detect danger in advance."

Leng Ruolan thought for a moment, then looked at Ou Yun.

"Brother, you just said it's charged to 89%?"

"right."

Ou Yun glanced at the display on his sword: "11% away from releasing energy."

"Then let's find another monster to replenish it. After it's fully charged to 100%, how many area-of-effect attacks can we unleash?"

"According to the skill description, 100% charge can unleash two 50% group energy releases, or four 25% area-of-effect skills."

Ou Yun flipped through the panel. "It seems to have a detection function too? It's said to be able to sense abyssal energy sources within a certain range."

"Then let's use it to scout ahead."

Leng Ruolan stood up.

"Since the monsters in this desert are all abyssal, let's use their energy signals to mark their locations. Early detection allows us to avoid them, making the warning area much larger than the north-south area."

Ou Yun seemed to be deep in thought, "So this skill can be used in this way..."

"Or do you think the skill descriptions are just for show?"

"I really thought it was just for show. After all, the things given out by the forbidden area often have some inexplicable functions."

"for example?"

"For example, that red and green machete, to this day I still don't know what other function it had besides cutting people."

"...That knife is only for cutting people; it deals 9999999999 damage."

"Too."

*

After Nanbei's wounds were bandaged, the expedition team decided to rest on the spot for half an hour.

Marcus used the remaining materials to make a makeshift stretcher—two iron pipes and a canvas—so that North and South could be placed on it and dragged around.

Nanbei initially refused—but then it remembered that it was actually the king of lynxes and didn't want to be carried on a stretcher like a Pokémon, with a helpless expression on its face.

But there's nothing it can do; with a warm-hearted and generous older brother like CEO Ou around, it has no choice but to lie down now.

Red Bean stayed by its side, occasionally brushing its nose with its tail.

Douglas stood guard around with a precision rifle, taking notes on the details of the battle in his notebook as he kept watch.

Alexander was wiping his heavy hammer, and in doing so, he was also wiping the sandworm fluid off the hammerhead.

Leng Ruolan and Ou Yun sat atop a sand dune, gazing at the vast expanse of golden sand in the distance.

The sun was already starting to move westward, and the shadows of the sand dunes were growing longer and longer.

The sky turned deep blue, and a halo of orange-red light appeared on the distant horizon.

Seeing this, Ou Yun couldn't help but ask, "Just how big is this desert?"

"If our previous map was correct, this desert plateau is at least twice the width of the forest area."

Leng Ruolan said, "It may take several more days before we can get out."

"And what area is that over there?"

"I don't know. The type of the next area in the Forbidden Zone hasn't been announced yet."

Ou Yun recalled the summary he had shared with everyone before.

"But based on the known information, the seven regions are forest, desert, snow mountain, swamp, volcano, ocean—and what the last one is, no one has seen yet."

After a moment's thought, Leng Ruolan asked, "Is the last one the abyss itself?"

"It could be, or it could be the core area of ​​the forbidden zone."

Everyone fell silent for a moment.

"Seven districts, seven lords. We can only go home after we've defeated them all."

He fiddled with a small crystalline fragment he had dug out of a sandworm's corpse.

"When can we go back?"

"What's the rush?" Leng Ruolan turned to look at him. "Didn't you say the Forbidden Resort was pretty good?"

"I may take a vacation, but I sometimes think about going back to visit."

Ou Yun tossed the crystal fragments up and caught them again.

"I want to see what the Dragon Kingdom is like now. Has the massive increase in supplies made everyone's lives any better?"

Leng Ruolan thought to herself, "Good grief, why are you suddenly starting to talk about value? Didn't you never care about these things?"

"I didn't care before. But that damned foreigner told me a lot from the watchtower."

Looking at the distant sea of ​​sand, Ou Yun said, "He said that the people of China are now the happiest in the world. He said that every time we invest ten thousand times more here, it makes the people of a country live a little better."

He chuckled. "You know what, I actually felt quite accomplished when I heard those words back then."

"Of course. We're here to do serious business."

Leng Ruolan had no choice but to pick up the water bottle and take a sip. "From the moment we were chosen to enter the forbidden area, we were no longer living for ourselves. Every move we make affects the country behind us. Winning a battle means more resources for the Dragon Kingdom. Triggering a 10,000x resource injection means more security for the people of the Dragon Kingdom."

"So we can't lose."

"Yes. We can't lose."

*

On the distant sand dunes, the sun is slowly sinking below the horizon.

The sky changed from deep blue to purplish-red, and then from purplish-red to inky blue. Stars lit up one by one, and the Milky Way stretched across the sky.

"Let's camp here tonight."

Leng Ruolan stood up. "It's too dangerous to cross the desert after dark. Let's set off early tomorrow morning."

"I'll go set up the tent," Ou Yun said, standing up as well.

"Do you know how to pitch a tent?"

"No. But I can get Marcus to teach me."

"...Then go and call Marcus."

The camp was set up on the leeward side of the sand dunes.

Marcus used the remaining steel pipes and canvas to build three simple tents—though rudimentary, they at least provided shelter from the wind and sand.

Alexander built a low wall of sand around the camp—he said it was an experience from his hometown of building snow walls to block the wind in winter, even though snow and sand are two completely different things.

Ou Yun took out tonight's dinner from his spatial ring—chilled roasted wild boar, pickled wild fruits, and a few pancakes.

Even Leng Ruolan looked on with a pained expression, "Why are there waffles again...?"