I woke up to find Liu Zhang staring down at me, with his pet Feng on his shoulders.
(A/N: Just to clear up any confusion, Fenghuang is the type of bird that Liu Zheng has as a pet better known as a vermillion bird and Feng is the bird's name.)
I also noticed that I wasn't roasted yet.
"Hey, thanks for the help sleeping."
"No problem."
He had probably asked his familiar beast to keep absorbing the heat even when he already woke up.
'Mannnn... this guy is too nice for his own good.'
I got up and dusted the sand off of my pants.
During the time back at the colosseum, I had been able to make an alliance/friendship with Liu Zhang, being able to convince him that I was useful by showing him that I was second ranked on the leaderboard, only behind Shin, so it was only natural that we helped each other.
It had actually taken some time for him to warm up to me, as it seemed like he was the quiet type, only talking when it was absolutely necessary.
I had actually agreed with this life style and adapted it myself, helping us get along together even more so, as we understood each other.
'But, why am I doing this anyways? Wouldn't it just be better to kill him and gain his stat points? I wonder what the hell Shin's thinking?'
Not showing the worries on my face, I turned over to Liu.
"Wait, how did you get your familiar spirit to come here?"
After all, they were supposed to be locked up.
"Oh, I just found a pass for a familiar spirit in my one and only chest."
'Fuck, is he the protagonist or something or is he just lucky? After all, even though it was only a child, a Fenghuang was still an extremely powerful beast.'
But, having cleared that up, I turned to the important topic for our conversation.
"Is this where you originally landed?"
"No, I traveled from this really harsh frigid mountain environment to get here."
"And I came from a badlands environment that bordered a mangrove forest environment."
Also, if you were wondering why we could converse freely like this, it was only due to the fact that I had been forced to learn 7 different languages as I had been the heir to one of the top 5 biggest business corporations in the world after all, so naturally, Chinese was one of them.
"Hmm, so it's obvious that we came from the outer regions of the map and that we're probably still in the mid regions of the map. We probably need to get to the center as quickly as possible."
Not wanting to waste our breath on more frivolous talk, we hurriedly started following the shoreline again.
Then, after 5 hours, we finally saw the reason why we had to move as quickly as possible towards the center of the map.
It had all started with this light crackling noise, that got louder and louder as each second passed, until we could literally see the sand and the water falling into the abyss behind us.
Our survival instincts immediately kicked in as we increased our pace drastically, the crumbling of the world behind us falling further and further behind.
I had actually been forced to slow down after my initial burst in the beginning, forgetting that my agility stat was way higher compared to a player with a vanguard position like Liu.
At this pace, we reached the border between this zone and the next in 30 minutes. We quickly entered it and then Liu collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily.
My breathing was also slightly faster than normal, but not by that much. It was probably due to the fact that Shin had told me to balance my stats out more and had told me to add more stat points to stamina, so I wasn't that tired.
While I waited for Liu as he rested, I kept watch for signs of the rumbling on the horizon.
...
After Liu rested for a while and I made sure of our surroundings, we started our trek into the new biome.
It was a jungle type biome that was filled with plants everywhere. To move forward, I had to use my shortsword like a machete, hacking away at all the greenery in our path.
We decided to take turns in taking the lead, so that not one of us would get too tired in case we met a monster or other players.
And just like that, we continued our journey deeper into the jungle.
What Hope and Liu Zhang didn't know was that they were already in the second safe zone. It was just that instead of monsters or a harsh environment, this "safe" zone's trial was something that was hard to see, even if you weren't looking for them. They could be considered little monsters that sucked on your blood, but never able to kill you. That's right, the trial for this "safe" zone was mosquitos.
As we moved more and more in this "safe" zone, the more and more we started hating the sight of water.
'Well, this was bound to happen eventually.'
As this was a "safe" zone, there were no monsters or harsh environments in here, but the constant process of having to get ourselves wet to cross a body of water was mentally numbing.
I mean, our bodies were basically sponges now, and our clothes were so wet that they actually repelled water.
I had expected this as I had made the two themes for the "safe" zones to be mental trials.
The good thing was that we were currently in the easier safe zone, although not by that much.
'I kinda feel bad for the players in the other safe zone right now, being eaten alive but never being able to die by a swarm of mosquitos, but that's just how I made it and the more players that commit suicide, the better.'
I then checked how many players were still left on this floor.
[Current number of players: 8]
'Ohh, that's actually pretty nice. We've already cut down the number of player to half of the original and we only need to get rid of the last 3.'
Obviously, the 4 other people that I wanted to clear the 10th floor with me were Hope, Little Sis, Onee-sama, and Liu Zhang.
'I probably only need to worry about little sis right now, as Onee-sama is right next to me and Hope and Liu Zhang are probably already together because that was the request I assigned her after all, and even though she's a brat, she's still very competent, especially in serious matters.'
So with all of my thoughts sorted out, me and Onee-sama continued on our hunt, at least that was until an ear-splitting scream resounded in the air.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
Both of us, having immediately recognized that voice through years of cohabitation, rushed towards the source of the scream.
'Shit! Please, please, please don't let her be dead already!'
Knowing the chances of her being already dead were pretty high, I just focused my mind on that single goal of reaching her before this worst case scenario happened, kicking my legs faster and transcending the limits of humanity, as I flashed towards her position.