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

"At our current pace, we should reach the edge of the desert plateau before this evening."

He pointed to a stretch of undulating sand dunes ahead. "The problem is the terrain of this area. Look at how those dunes are arranged; they're parallel to each other running east-west, with almost equal spacing. This wasn't formed naturally."

"Artificial?" Douglas frowned.

"It's not necessarily caused by humans. It could also be caused by the activity of some large organism. This arrangement of parallel dunes usually means that there is some kind of rigid structure beneath the dunes guiding the direction of sand flow."

Marcus crouched down and used his hands to brush away a layer of sand, revealing a hard, dark substance underneath.

"For example, this one."

It was a stone slab with a surface covered in patterns.

The stone slabs looked like some kind of black rock, with a faint dark purple sheen visible in their veins.

The slab was buried less than half a meter below the sand, but judging from the area Marcus dug up, it was at least several square meters in size.

"Another Abyss-type thing?" Alexander leaned closer.

"It should be. The color of the pattern is the same as the pattern on the scorpion carapaces before; they are all residual traces of abyssal energy."

Marcus tried to flip the slab over to see what was underneath, but it was stuck too tightly and he couldn't pry it open after several attempts.

"Move aside, I'll do it."

Alexander swung his hammer, aiming at the edge of the stone slab—

"etc!"

Marcus's call came too late.

Bang!

The heavy hammer slammed into the edge of the stone slab, the immense impact causing the entire slab to sink sharply. Then, the sand beneath their feet began to tremble.

It wasn't an earthquake; something was moving under the sand.

The vibration frequency is getting faster and the range is getting larger.

More than a dozen moving ripples appeared simultaneously on the surrounding sand dunes, each converging towards the center of the expedition team.

"Sandworms again?"

Douglas picked up his rifle, cold sweat already beading on his forehead.

"It's not a sandworm."

Leng Ruolan drew her twin swords. "The ripples from the sandworm's movement are wider than this. This time the ripples are finer and more numerous—they're made of small things. A lot, many small things."

The sand exploded as soon as the words were spoken.

boom!

What emerged from beneath the sand wasn't insects, but a swarm of very strange things—

They were about the size of rabbits, with round bodies covered in a layer of dark brown scales, and six short legs that made them run very fast on the sand.

The head mountain has no eyes, no mouthparts, only a long, straw-like organ, the end of which is still wriggling open and closed.

Everyone was terrified.

"What the hell is this thing?!"

"I don't know! This kind isn't in Brother Chen's guide to mutated creatures!"

Douglas fired, taking down the two leading figures, but immediately more surged out from beneath the sand. "Just how many monsters are lurking in this desert?!"

"Never mind what they are! Attack them!"

Leng Ruolan's short sword flew through the monster horde, each swing felling a group of them.

But there were just too many of these little monsters, and their scales were surprisingly tough—a short sword could only leave a shallow scratch on them, and it took a lot of force to cut them completely open.

Ou Yun drew his Abyss Sword, preparing to try and clear out a wave with an area-of-effect skill—

Then, he discovered something extremely outrageous.

Those little monsters don't attack people.

They bypassed Leng Ruolan, bypassed Alexander, bypassed everyone, and all surged in one direction—towards the direction of Europe.

Leng Ruolan was startled and quickly shouted, "Big brother! He's heading your way!"

Even Ou Yun was confused. Why the hell is this happening to me again?!

"Big brother!"

The others were also shocked and grabbed their weapons, rushing towards Ou Yun's direction.

A little monster has already jumped high into the air—

Ou Yun instinctively dodged to the side.

The little monster brushed past him—then with a flick of its mandibles, it snatched the water bottle hanging from Ou Yun's waist.

European Express: ...

Leng Ruolan: ?

"What's wrong?"

With the water bottle taken away, the little monsters that were originally rushing towards the European fortune were all lured away and gathered in the direction of the water bottle.

The little monster that had snatched the water bottle stretched out its straw, inserted it into the bottle, and took a big gulp.

Then its entire body of scales instantly turned dark red, and it let out a satisfied cry.

Then the second, the third, the fourth—all the little monsters rushed to the kettle, scrambling to stick their mouthparts inside.

After drinking, the little monsters all turned red, making strange "chirp chirp chirp" sounds.

Everyone: ...

"Brother, what's in your kettle?"

"Well……"

Ou Yun hesitated for a moment, seemingly struggling with whether or not to speak.

"Yes... well..."

"Big brother, what time is it? Hurry up and tell me!"

"Sigh, it's morning coffee..."

"..."

"..."

Marcus was moved to tears.

So, my older brother doesn't like coffee!

Leng Ruolan looked at her with a knowing expression. "They...like this coffee?"

After saying that, she suddenly pulled out a half-empty bottle of coffee from somewhere, her expression subtle, "This is coffee that even we can't drink?"

"Waaaa, Captain Leng..."

"Perhaps this coffee tastes just right for them?"

Ou Yun crouched down and slowly approached a small red monster that was being sucked in by a storm.

When the little monster saw him approaching, instead of running away, it waved its straw at him as if to say hello.

"So they're treating us like coffee suppliers."

Ou Yun sighed, "Marcus, what recipe did you use when you made your coffee?"

Marcus grunted and tried to recall: "Three parts desert coffee grass seeds, ten parts water..."

I suddenly froze while I was thinking.

"What's wrong?"

Marcus stammered for a moment, "This coffee..."

"Is there sandworm blood in the coffee?"

"Holy crap, how did you know?!"

"I saw it."

Leng Ruolan had already poured out more than half of the coffee—her other finger was stained with a reddish-purple liquid.

"It tastes similar." No wonder it tastes so bad.

Leng Ruolan sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Looks like this insecticide blood is actually somewhat effective?"

Looking at the group of little monsters huddled around the awful coffee, Ou Yun suddenly revealed a meaningful smile.

"I have a bold idea."

"Big brother."

Leng Ruolan's expression instantly turned alert. "Every time you say something like that—"

Ou Yun simply gave a wicked smile. "Marcus, can you make any more coffee?"

"Uh... I tried my best?"

"There's plenty of sandworm blood."

Ou Yun pointed to the dark red bloodstains left on the sand by the giant sandworm from yesterday, "There's sand under that spot that's soaked in the worm's blood. You should be able to squeeze out quite a bit."