"Don't worry, he paid the price." (1)
Two days ago.
Due to the lack of points to "offset" the debt, Lin Yan Ming and Shi An were forced to join this team. To put it nicely, they were members, but to put it more bluntly, they were baits. Using the leader's words, "When you help us earn enough points from that magical creature, I'll let you guys go."
Two days later.
The squad handed the watch back to Lin Yan Ming and Shi An, telling them to get as far away as they could. Shi An looked reluctantly at the group's back as they fled and asked, "Why aren't they moving with us anymore?"
Lin Yan Ming: "……"
You still have the nerve to ask?
一Since the two of them became the bait, the whole squad never encountered any of the magical creatures anymore. Most importantly, Shi An was eating too much. The whole squad's food stock was consumed by him alone after just two days of moving together. If they had continued to go on, then their points would definitely not be enough to cover their expenses.
Basically the two were only burdens without being able to give or do anything. So the conclusion was them getting kicked out without hesitation.
Lin Yan Ming sighed a long, long sigh of frustration, and for the first time he felt so hopeless about the next few days of the exam. Shi An looked down and studied his watch for half a day, and said, "Next, go east."
Lin Yan Ming looked at the map. They were now at the boundary of the desert and rainforest areas. The difficulty of the rainforest area was a bit too high, and all those high-level freshmen were definitely there too. So the best way now was to skirt around the rainforest area and go to the forest area on the east where the difficulty was moderate, and they should be able to survive a little longer.
一Further east, there was a piece of gray area.
Scorched earth area.
S-grade danger zone.
However, Lin Yan Ming did not even take a single glance in that direction.
After all, how could any human with a sane mind voluntarily choose to go to that area?
He replied directly, "Fine, east then."
*
On the other side.
Zhao She led his team members forward. This was a small team formed temporarily by the freshmen. There were eight members in total, and although their performance was quite good, there were no outstanding ones either.
It was because of this that they came together to take advantage of the terrain and numbers to ambush the creatures and earn points. They had originally stayed in the rainforest area before, but the rainforest area was occupied by another team that was stronger, so they had to move towards the edge of the area; to the border between the rainforest and the desert area.
The atmosphere in the team was extraordinarily grave. No one could be happy after two consecutive days of no harvest and losing most of their food stocks. Suddenly, one of the team members sensed something, making her focused and cautious. "Be careful." The group of people turned serious at once.
The jungle ahead looked very peaceful and quiet. The ferns here were so dense and jagged that they covered the sky, and the air was damp and dense, which gave off a sense of breathlessness. Not far away came the sound of rustling footsteps, and the vague magical fluctuations became clearer.
A familiar figure appeared in front of the crowd. Zhao She slightly narrowed his eyes, "Shi Rui, the rainforest area is already yours, what else do you want?" The rest had also put up two hundred percent spirit, vigilantly watching the few people in front of them, seemingly ready for a close combat.
Shi Rui showed a faint smile. He looked somewhat similar to Shi An, but with more of a scholarly air than him. "Don't worry, I don't mean any harm."
"I heard that recently you guys were acting together with my brother?"
Zhao She narrowed his eyes and didn't answer.
Shi Rui: "Don't be so wary, I'm just looking for him to settle some old dispute."
He pointed to Duan Hua standing behind him and said, "My friend had a little conflict with my brother before and wanted to take this opportunity to apologize to him."
Zhao She snorted coldly without giving the other face, "Apologize? In the middle of the combat test? You guys certainly chose a right timing."
He heard plenty of those rumors, and despite having not much goodwill towards a loser like Shi An, he had seen plenty of people like Shi Rui. Although there was a good reason with the family's eldest son being weak, as an illegitimate son who can be brought back by the main family and even become a candidate as the heir, Zhao She didn't think this guy would be some kind of naive and kind type towards others.
"Don't be so hostile to us, I just want to know where my brother is headed towards."
"We separated from Shi An a long time ago," Zhao She said coldly.
"As for where he went, it's out of our hands, and we don't want to care."
After saying that, he signaled the members of his team behind him. The few of them retreated backwards in an orderly manner, seemingly still on guard against a sudden attack from the other side. Shi Rui didn't do anything, and just watched them disappear from his sight.
