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

Ou Yun said, "Of course not! This thing helped us discover three sandworms and five remnants of abyssal energy today. It's much more efficient than our reconnaissance yesterday!"

Nanbei rolled her eyes slightly and turned her head to the other side.

Ou Yun had no choice but to appease him, "Alright, alright, I won't compare with you. You're a hero, a great general, the best in the world."

Ou Yun scratched Nanbei's chin and received an annoyed snort.

After patrolling her area, Leng Ruolan returned and sat down by the campfire. Ou Yun handed her a cup of insect blood coffee.

"I don't drink this. I'm a normal person."

"This isn't for you. It's to test whether the attraction of cooled coffee to coffee worms changes."

"Then why don't you just give them coffee bugs?"

"Because they've all had their fill and are asleep."

"?"

Leng Ruolan followed Ou Yun's gaze.

Sure enough, after finishing their coffee, the twenty-three coffee worms huddled around the campfire, belly up, fast asleep.

Hongdou was curiously poking at the straw-like mouthparts of one of the coffee worms with her claws when Leng Ruolan stopped her with a look.

"Don't wake them. They'll be the ones to explore tomorrow's path."

Dinner was again the stock from the European Space Ring—chilled roast meat, waffles (no one complains anymore, we're all used to it), pickled wild berries, and a small jar of Marcus's special dipping sauce made with sandworm blood and desert coffee grass seeds.

"This dipping sauce looks a bit like... well, you know..."

Alexander stared at the dipping sauce for a long time. "It looks like engine oil."

"It tastes a little better than engine oil."

Douglas had already dipped a piece of grilled meat in his sauce and was still relatively calm.

How do you know what engine oil smells like?

"...I was just using an example."

After dinner, Douglas took out his notebook and began recording the day's observations.

The behavior patterns of coffee worms, the attack methods of sand worms, and the regularity of the patterns on abyssal stone slabs—each item was described in dense detail.

Marcus helped him add technical details, and the two had a lively discussion.

Leng Ruolan leaned against a stone pillar, closing her eyes to rest. Ou Yun lay on his sleeping bag, gazing at the starry sky above.

Nanbei slept next to him, Hongdou slept next to Nanbei, and twenty-three coffee worms huddled together and slept around them.

But Leng Ruolan didn't actually fall asleep.

Although her eyes were closed, her ears were picking up all the sounds around her.

The whistling of the wind through the stone pillars, the soft patter of sand hitting the canvas, the occasional dreamlike meows from the north and south—all normal sounds were within her hearing range.

She was waiting for an unusual sound.

That huge shadow from last night.

It did not approach the camp, but it had clearly sensed their presence.

It was just waiting—waiting for an opportunity, waiting for them to lower their guard, waiting for them to be deep in the desert with nowhere to retreat.

"Team Cold."

Ou Yun's voice suddenly rang out, very low, "You're not asleep either?"

How did you know I wasn't asleep?

"Because your breathing rate is different when you're pretending to be asleep compared to when you're actually asleep. When you're actually asleep, you'll snore softly."

"...I don't snore."

"Hit me. Very quietly, like the sound a mung bean makes when its chin is being scratched."

Could your analogy be any more outrageous?

"Uh, it sounds like a coffee worm snoring after drinking coffee made from its blood—"

"Alright, stop talking."

Ou Yun wisely shut up.

"Let's get down to business."

Leng Ruolan closed her eyes again. "You felt it too?"

"Hmm. Below the sand dune, about a hundred meters away?"

"Something's moving," Ou Yun said uncertainly. "The coffee bugs sensed it twice this afternoon, but each time the signal only lasted a few seconds before disappearing. Douglas said it's probably the same creature, circling around us."

Leng Ruolan quickly concluded, "It's observing us."

"I've been observing it for two days, and I'm still not done. Either it's very cautious, or it's very bored."

"Or it's waiting for reinforcements."

Leng Ruolan's voice lowered further, "Do you remember what the Forest Lord did? Before officially engaging us, it sent wave after wave of weaker monsters to wear us down and deplete our ammunition. If the Desert Lord follows the same pattern—"

Ou Yun frowned. "Then there might be a second wave of insect swarms tonight."

"Or a third wave of sandworms."

"Or both of them."

"...Could you set fewer flags?"

"This isn't called setting a flag; this is called strategic foresight."

"..."

Leng Ruolan shook her head, looking like she had no other options.

However, soon—

Gudong!

The ground seemed to shake.

It doesn't look like an earthquake.

The vibration was so slight that you could only feel it by pressing your ear against the sand.

But Leng Ruolan sensed it, and so did Ou Yun—both of them had had their physical attributes enhanced by the Abyss Holy Spring, making their senses far more acute than those of ordinary people.

Leng Ruolan stood up, her movements as quick as a cat's—probably because she spends all her time with cats!

She walked to the edge of the camp and squatted down to place her palms on the sand.

The tremors continued.

The frequency is very low, but the range is extremely wide—covering at least a radius of one kilometer.

Moreover, the amplitude of the vibration is gradually increasing.

"Everyone, rise!"

She lowered her voice but her tone was extremely stern: "Enemy attack!"

Douglas was the first to react, grabbing his precision rifle and rushing behind cover.

Marcus quickly unfolded the folding steel plates and erected a temporary retaining wall directly in front of the camp.

Alexander swung his hammer and stood behind the retaining wall.

Ou Yun drew the Abyss Sword, its red light standing out conspicuously in the night.

The coffee bugs have also woken up.

They all turned a warning pale purple, and the straws all pointed in the same direction—due east.

"East!"

Douglas, scope in hand, reported, "At least five signal sources below the dunes, all large sandworms! About five meters deep, moving very fast—expected to enter attack range within two minutes!"

"Five?"

Alexander cursed, "One was enough yesterday, and now five?"

"Not five."

Leng Ruolan's voice came from the other side, "There are some to the west. There are some to the north. In total—at least fifteen."

"Fifteen?!"

Marcus nearly dropped the steel plate he was holding. "Six of us plus two cats against fifteen sandworms?!"

"There are still twenty-three coffee bugs."

Ou Yun added.

"Can coffee worms be killed?"

"No. But they can help us get early warnings—each coffee worm is watching the direction of a sand worm."

Ou Yun pointed to the group of coffee bugs.

Sure enough, the twenty-three coffee worms were staring in different directions, and each of their straws was pointing precisely at the movement of a sand worm.

"Fifteen targets, twenty-three coffee bugs, and the extra eight have time to chat with each other."

Leng Ruolan quickly glanced at the distribution of the coffee worms. "This means there are more than fifteen targets. There are many more waiting in the distance."