"Please note, monsters in higher-level regions will be stronger. Survivors are advised to proceed with caution during exploration."
"Higher-level regions?"
Han Xing looked around and noticed that there were indeed more clouds of varying sizes in the sky, far more than in his current area.
"It turns out I've been in the beginner's area all this time. Only after defeating the strongest monster in this region can I access the higher-level maps."
Han Xing seemed to have figured out some of the game's mechanics and shook his head. "Never mind, that area is still far from here. At my current speed, it would take at least four to five hours. I'll deal with it tomorrow."
With that in mind, Han Xing decided to handle his current spoils of war first.
He walked over to the corpse of the Gray Rock Wolf and began to dismantle it.
- "Successfully dismantled the corpse of the Gray Rock Wolf, recovered 13 refined iron arrows, obtained 1 piece of one-star quality beast hide, 104 kg of thick wolf meat, 1 beast heart, and 5 vials of warrior's blood..."
"Quality beast hide?"
Han Xing examined the thick hide on the ground. "I remember this can be used to craft blue-grade leather armor. A good find!"
As for the beast heart and warrior's blood, he wasn't yet sure of their uses, so he stored them away for now.
There wasn't much of value in the Gray Rock Wolf's territory, but when Han Xing merged the floating islands, he stumbled upon a pleasant surprise.
Under the moonlight, at the edge of the wolf's territory, several rock formations shimmered with silver light.
"Treasure!" Han Xing's eyes lit up.
He walked over, crouched down, and observed closely.
"I'm not entirely sure, but this looks like some kind of ore."
"Should I dig it up?"
Thinking this, Han Xing pulled out a pickaxe from his backpack and started swinging.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sound of metal striking rock echoed.
As Han Xing chipped away the outer layer of stone, revealing the silvery mineral inside, a system prompt appeared.
- "Mithril ore. Must be smelted to extract the mithril."
"Smelting?"
Han Xing was puzzled. "I don't have any equipment. Does this mean I need to build a smelting workshop?"
Mithril is valuable, and a key material for crafting blue-grade gear. However, at this stage of the game, survivors can't yet refine this metal.
Unless the game is updated later, unlocking the territory construction feature.
Once that happens, survivors will be able to build various facilities in their territories, such as smelting workshops, weapon research institutes, defensive fortifications, and even taverns.
Currently, the only way to obtain mithril is through a rare drop in treasure chests.
The 20 or so mithril ingots Han Xing previously acquired came from the efforts of some lucky players, though the odds are extremely low.
Since he couldn't refine the mithril at the moment, Han Xing stored all the mithril ore in his storage box.
Then, he glanced at the leaderboard.
1st Place: Galaxy, Territory Points: 184.
2nd Place: Whisperer, Territory Points: 162.
3rd Place: Black Eagle, Territory Points: 123.
4th Place: Papaya Starling, Territory Points: 115.
5th Place: …
"Hmm? Whisperer is catching up? And Black Eagle overtook Papaya Starling for third place?"
Seeing the leaderboard, Han Xing was surprised.
The gap between him and Whisperer was gradually narrowing, with Whisperer clearly pushing hard to catch up.
On second thought, it made sense. While Han Xing was equipped with nearly a full set of green-grade gear, the actual stat gap between him and other survivors wasn't that large.
As survivors continued exploring other territories, they would also find various pieces of equipment, skill books, and more.
Even if they couldn't use them personally, they could trade them in the exchange channel.
The survivors' strength was steadily increasing, especially among the top-tier players, whose progress was even faster.
Of course, this came at a cost.
Han Xing noticed that the number of survivors in Area 107 had dropped from 10,000 to 9,632.
This meant that in just three days, over 300 people had lost their lives here!
At this rate, the total number of human deaths among all survivors must be staggering.
While many died due to accidents, as survival became more difficult and the monsters grew stronger, this number would only continue to climb.
At that moment, a message popped up in the group chat from Cheng Jianyong: "Brother Xing, that Whisperer guy is pretty good. He's almost caught up to you!"
Ever since Cheng Jianyong found out that Han Xing was Xinghan, he'd been keeping an eye on the leaderboard.
Han Xing replied, "Yeah, he's really strong. If I'm not mistaken, he's probably a mage."
"Mage?"
"Yes."
Han Xing confirmed, "Mages have five skills early on, four of which are offensive. As the leader of a team, Whisperer likely has all the skills by now with the help of his teammates. Combined with his gear, his exploration speed is much faster than other classes."
"I see." Cheng Jianyong understood and asked, "How do you know all this, Brother Xing?"
"Read the game guides, and you'll learn too."
After a pause, Han Xing continued, "By the way, what are your ranks now?"
"Hmm?" Cheng Jianyong sounded confused. "Brother Xing, haven't you checked the leaderboard? Brother Yun and I are both on it!"
"You never told me your in-game names, how would I know?"
"You never asked."
Han Xing: "..."
"Quit messing around and just tell me."
Cheng Jianyong laughed, "Alright, my name's 'Lone Warrior,' and Brother Yun's name is 'Cloud Skybright.'"
"…"
Han Xing: "Such cringey names…"
"Right? I also think 'Cloud Skybright' is pretty cringe."
"I was talking about yours."
Cheng Jianyong: "???"
At that moment, Shen Yun was still grinding for territory points late into the night and hadn't seen the chat. Otherwise, he would've argued with Cheng Jianyong for half an hour.
Han Xing opened the leaderboard and saw that 'Lone Warrior' had climbed to 65th place with 33 points.
Meanwhile, 'Cloud Skybright,' aka Shen Yun, had already reached the top 40, ranking 37th with 57 points.
Han Xing was a bit surprised but quickly realized it made sense.
After all, he had given them nearly full sets of high-quality green gear, many skill books, and a large amount of spirit spring water, allowing them to explore boldly without much concern.
Their rapid progress on the leaderboard was to be expected.
After closing the chat, Han Xing continued moving toward other floating clouds.
After reaching level 3, his floating island now moved at 8 meters per second, or about 28.8 kilometers per hour—already quite fast.
While traveling, Han Xing glanced at the chat channel.
After a whole day of battling and exploring, survivors were sharing their experiences.
"Man, I had terrible luck today. While exploring, I ran into an elite Jungle Tiger. It almost bit me to death. If I hadn't used my family's ancient sliding skill, I'd be dead now."
"You think that's bad? I encountered a massive bear today. It slapped me so hard it broke half my ribs. Thankfully, I was an athlete, so I ran ten kilometers with it on my back before it gave up chasing me."
"You guys are something else. Compared to you, being bitten by a five-step snake doesn't seem like a big deal."
"Wait, you got bitten by a five-step snake and you're still talking?"
"Oh, I pulled its fangs out first, so getting bitten wasn't an issue. Actually, it felt kind of nice. I'm thinking of keeping it as a pet."
"…"
"…"
"Dude, you're sick…"
The chat channel was flooded with speechless reactions.
At that moment, someone said, "Quit joking around! Papaya Starling just posted another guide."
"Another guide? I followed his last one and avoided several monster-filled clouds."
"Same here. Thanks to his guide, I easily unlocked a bronze chest."
"What's in this one?"
Everyone clicked the post, and within a short time, it had hundreds of replies.
However, the title of this post was different from the previous ones, carrying a more serious tone:
"Warning! Dark Elf Squad!"
---