From his appearance, Hu Biao was indeed one of the strongest among the 20 people, and he had learned fighting, so his combat power was truly strong.
As a result, of the remaining 19 people, 14 gravitated towards Hu Biao, already forming a group.
The rest, if they didn't join the group, could easily become isolated.
Su Muyu was a little worried and whispered in Lu Heng's ear, "Should we join them?"
Lu Heng shook his head and spoke in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Joining them is useless, the mode of this round is Desert Escape Killing.
"When the Horned Demon Commander appears, everyone will have to run for their lives; the more people clump together, the quicker they will die."
Without the experience from his past life, Lu Heng probably would have joined Hu Biao's team to discuss strategies for the Abyss Battlefield.
However, because he had the experience from before his rebirth, some things were simply beyond the capacity of humans.
Hu Biao's previous offer to recruit people was indeed tempting, aiming to keep everyone alive.
Yet, in a 20-person scale Desert Escape Killing mode, it was impossible to achieve.
The problem lay not with the Abyss Demons, but with the 20 people here.
Twenty strangers were not capable of trusting each other.
Nobody knew what kind of creatures had gathered here.
Without mentioning others, there were two or three thuggish-looking individuals.
Who knows, among us there might be criminals, vermin, or even "Demons" living among humans.
When facing that Horned Demon Commander, one could be betrayed and attacked by a teammate at any moment; under such circumstances, forming an alliance had no meaning.
Lu Heng had seen with his own eyes, in the Desert Escape Killing mode, some Superpower Users, in order to survive, had broken other people's legs.
Because there was a treacherous survival law in the Escape Killing mode: to survive, you didn't necessarily have to run faster than the Demons, but you definitely had to run faster than the other people.
Lu Heng scanned the 15 members of Hu Biao's team and saw that nearly half of them were no good.
"What do we do then?" Su Muyu began to get anxious.
Lu Heng began to arrange their escape strategy:
"The danger level in this world is too high, we need to do everything we can to survive.
"Once we leave the cage, we'll go in a different direction from this group.
"There's a lot of junk piled in this building. After getting out, we'll search through the piles to see if there's any survival supplies.
"The highest priority for supplies is medicine, then weapons, ropes, food, drinking water...
"If someone fights you for the same item, immediately let them have it and run out of the building as quickly as possible."
Lu Heng placed food and drinking water relatively lower in the priority of supplies.
Generally speaking, in outdoor survival, water is the most important. But in the Abyss Battlefield, it's not always the case; it depends on the situation.
This time, the Abyss Battlefield was in Survival Mode, and the main objective was to survive for three days.
Even if there were no food and water, there was hope to hold out for those three days.
Of course, finding food and water would be even better.
Time passed by every minute and every second.
Lu Heng thought quickly, reminding Su Muyu of whatever came to mind, all for the sake of surviving.
As for the challenge tasks on the mission board, they didn't even consider them.
It was the first time the Abyss Battlefield was opened, with 20 people and a danger level of 3.
Lu Heng was all too familiar with these data; this was 99% going to result in a team wipeout.
The 15 people with Hu Biao had already formed a group, leaving Lu Heng, Su Muyu, and three others who had not joined them.
Among these three, two seemed to be quite capable, but in a world with a danger level of 3, they were still not enough.
Hu Biao seemed to know that he was recruiting cannon fodder. Seeing that Lu Heng was whispering all along, he approached and initiated a conversation, "Brother, want to join us?"
Lu Heng didn't want to conflict with him and, pointing to Su Muyu, said in a friendly tone, "The two of us are together, afraid we might drag you down."
Hu Biao glanced at Su Muyu and felt sure in his heart that Lu Heng would die because of a woman.
If it were anywhere else, seeing such a pretty girl, flexing muscles and stepping in to protect her would be fine, but in a world where death could come at any moment, thinking with a small head was tantamount to seeking death.
Hu Biao gave up on Lu Heng and turned to persuade another young man wearing rimless glasses, but he was unsuccessful as well.
After a round of persuasion, the rest were unwilling to join.
Hu Biao didn't waste any more time and said to his recruited team:
"Everyone listen to me, break into groups of three and scatter to find weapons. Rendezvous here in ten minutes.
"Then, when we encounter Demons, follow my commands and attack together.
"The dropped Demon Crystal Cores will be distributed by me. I will allocate the Crystal Core Skills best suited to everyone's Talents and abilities."
Hearing his arrangements, Lu Heng sighed undetectably.
Hu Biao had formed the largest team, but they hadn't yet started to address the problem of the cage.
Lu Heng had no choice but to remind aloud, "Everyone, pay attention to the Horned Demon Commander's feeding countdown. It would be best to open the cage before that time is up."
"I've got this one—lock picking is my forte," boasted the blond thug, eager to show off his skills. He flashed a sycophantic smile at Hu Biao, then produced a wire and walked over to try and pick the lock.
He inserted the wire into the keyhole and started to fiddle with it.
Beside him, a youth dressed in a hoodie, wearing rimless glasses, with an air of a scholar, tapped a spot on the cage that had been welded by flames and said, "Look closely and see what this is. Stop wasting time."
Everyone looked in the direction the scholarly youth had indicated, and indeed, they saw that the cage door was welded shut. Even if they managed to pick the lock, the door couldn't be opened.
There were only 15 minutes left until the Horned Demon Commander's feeding time, and time was running out.
The sooner they opened the iron door, the safer it would be.
So, Lu Heng had no interest in waiting for them to ponder a solution and directly offered one, "When I woke up just now, I saw a bottle of water hidden away, and outside the cage, there was a steel bar.
"Find someone with the ability to retrieve objects from a distance, bring the steel bar inside then take off a garment, soak it with water, and use the steel bar as a handle to twist the cage bars."
Hu Biao looked around the group and demanded, "Who hid the water? Bring it out."
The blond thug, nodding and bowing, pulled the bottle of water from his crotch and handed it to Hu Biao, "Brother Biao, I was actually saving it for you."
Hu Biao didn't say anything, pointed at the steel bar outside the cage and asked, "Who has the ability to retrieve objects from a distance? Bring the steel bar inside."
The steel bar was about a meter and a half away from the cage, impossible to reach with an outstretched hand for an ordinary person.
The scholarly young man walked to the edge of the cage and said, "I'll give it a try."
As he spoke, he extended his hand outside of the cage, trying to reach as close to the steel bar as possible, but his fingers were still 20 centimeters short.
He held his breath and exerted himself with all his might.
Suddenly, the steel bar twitched, inching a bit closer to his fingers.
Once it was close enough, the pulling force increased, the bar moved faster, and finally, the scholarly youth grabbed it in his hand.
Immediately after, Hu Biao, eager to assert his leadership, took off his sports vest and soaked it in water, then began to twist the bars of the cage.
Once the cage bars were bent, they were wide enough for a person to slip through.
Lu Heng was the first to order, "Let the girls go first. Everyone else line up, and move quickly—no dawdling."
The reason for letting the girls go first wasn't due to any principle of priority, of course.
Lu Heng was ensuring Su Muyu's safety.
Otherwise, if a demon appeared, it was likely that a stampede would occur inside the cage. Not only would Su Muyu be unable to push through the crowd and would end up at the back, but she might even get injured.
Furthermore, letting Su Muyu out served another crucial purpose.
Hu Biao took a look around; the floor was still relatively quiet. Wanting to show some gentlemanly conduct, he agreed with Lu Heng's arrangement, "Let the girls go first, the rest line up."
There were only three females among the twenty people. All three safely crawled out of the cage.
Then, the rest of them began to line up to get out.
After Su Muyu crawled out, she looked back at Lu Heng through the bars of the cage, visibly anxious.
Lu Heng whispered a reminder, "Find supplies, and don't stray from my line of sight."
Actually, Su Muyu was a little scared, but she knew that being afraid was useless now. To survive, finding supplies was the most important thing.
She immediately turned around and began to jog towards the piles of miscellaneous items on the floor, starting to search for something useful.
Seeing this, the others inside the cage quickly prompted the two other women outside, "Go find stuff, find weapons!"
Only then did the two women snap to their senses and hurriedly ran off to search for supplies.
Next, as each person got out, they immediately rushed to start searching for weapons and supplies.
Since Lu Heng and the scholarly youth weren't part of Hu Biao's team, and Hu Biao was guarding the exit, naturally, his team got priority to exit.
Lu Heng and the scholarly youth were aware of this and didn't argue with them.
Starting infighting before any danger appeared would only make things worse.
Hu Biao let all his team members out before letting the remaining four people go without lining up.
With only four people left in the cage, they could all be out in a few seconds, so there was no need to fight over who went next.
Lu Heng didn't hesitate and promptly crawled out.
The scholarly youth was the last one out and the moment he left the cage,
A roar erupted from the building, followed by earthquake-like footsteps.
A Horned Demon Commander, four meters tall and three meters wide with horns growing on its head, appeared.
The Horned Demon Commander was incredibly muscular, looking like a giant gorilla with horns and a carapace.
It roared in fury when it saw its food escaping the cage, prematurely jumping into its "dining room" and pouncing on the closest "meal."
"Ah!"
"Damn, what is this thing!"
With the terrifying sight of the Horned Demon Commander, the Superpower Users immediately forgot their promises to unite against the enemy and turned tail to flee.
Lu Heng recognized it as a High-Rank Demon with a Level over 20, the moment he saw the Horned Demon Commander appear.
At this point in time, the Levels of human Superpower Users were generally only around 3 or 4; they had no chance of confronting this Horned Demon Commander.
Not to mention 20 people—even 200 or 2,000 would at most only bloat the Horned Demon Commander to death.
"Desert Escape Killing" mode had set the game rules from the beginning.