The finest ingredients require no cooking at all. The translucent eggs are only about half the size of a finger joint, cool to the touch, and you can even smell a faint sweet aroma when you get close.

"Xiao Cheng?" Fang He's voice suddenly rang out, pulling her back from her bizarre fantasy.

The egg was still safely in his palm. Xiao Cheng was momentarily stunned, and it took her a beat to respond, "...Um, what's wrong?"

"The way you looked at this just now, it was like you were possessed." Fang He calmly withdrew his hand and looked her up and down. "Are you really alright?"

"To be honest, I'm not quite sure," Xiao Cheng answered frankly. "But it might not be normal, since I was just trying to eat it."

"Eat it?" Fang He frowned deeply.

"It can replenish my energy." Xiao Cheng truthfully described what he had just felt. "It was telling me that if I wanted to level up, I should eat it. One is not enough, I need a lot more, but it can at least restore some of my combat power."

Fang He nodded thoughtfully: "So, is there any danger?"

"What?" Xiao Cheng didn't understand what he meant and was slightly stunned.

"Will it be dangerous for you?" Fang He asked again, repeating the question, "If it won't harm you, and you really want to eat it."

He looked at Xiao Cheng very seriously, then reached out again and placed the egg in front of her: "Then eat it without worry."

Xiao Cheng didn't eat it, or rather, she didn't truly eat it. The moment the egg touched Xiao Cheng, it instantly turned to ash and slowly seeped into her body.

After a long time, she finally felt what it meant to be full of energy again, even to the point of being overly full, to the point that she felt dizzy, as if she had drunk too much.

The bracelets on both of their wrists went crazy, frantically emitting urgent alarms.

[Warning! Warning! Energy detection error! Identity authentication error! Reporting an error!]

"What the heck? What's going on?" Xiao Cheng stared blankly at his identity panel, where his experience points had started to skyrocket and eventually stopped displaying, leaving only three large, bold question marks.

The screen flickered wildly, quickly becoming covered with a thick layer of pop-up windows. Before they could even see what the warnings were, all the pop-ups suddenly disappeared, and everything returned to normal.

Everything around them suddenly became ethereal and indistinct, and the buildings began to rapidly turn to dust, with rising white powder completely enveloping them.

Suddenly, a mechanical, synthesized voice rang in my ears.

"Player No. 99 and Player No. 53 have been identified. The third hunting ground is being imported. Have a pleasant hunt."

The powder completely dissipated, revealing the boundless desert surrounding them. Two fireballs, comparable to mortar shells, exploded with a deafening roar not far from them, one on the left and one on the right, the flames and smoke quickly spreading out.

A tremendous impact swept towards them, and Fang He immediately used his supernatural ability, which temporarily stopped time, even freezing the air.

Xiao Cheng, isolated from the area where time had stopped, raised her hand as if sensing something and said calmly, "None."

All the smoke and flames vanished without a trace in an instant.

Time resumed its flow, and Player 66 stood not far from them, looking over with a surprised expression.

"You..." She was completely stunned. Even the fireball in her palm could not be maintained and turned into a wisp of black smoke, quietly going out.

"Isn't it a bit impolite to greet people like this?" Xiao Cheng looked around but couldn't find any zombies. It was obvious that the attack was aimed at her and Fang He.

"No, aren't you all dead? Your numbers have been removed from the screen, and there are clearly only 37 players left!" Number 66 was convinced that they couldn't possibly be resurrected. The flames in her palms gathered again, becoming much stronger than before, almost turning into a long fire serpent that coiled around her.

"But you have to believe in miracles." Xiao Cheng, relying on her high experience points, felt confident and unafraid of her. "Besides, look at the numbers on the screen."

She pointed to the large screen hanging high above her head.

Number 66 looked up and watched as the number 37 was slowly erased, eventually becoming 39 rather reluctantly.

"Impossible..." Her eyes were still full of doubt, as if her worldview had been greatly shaken.

Xiao Cheng wasn't really interested in fighting or giving her psychological counseling, so he sighed helplessly, "The players haven't reached the point of killing each other yet, have they?"

Obviously not.

A few groups of players were standing a little further away. Some of them looked familiar; Xiao Cheng remembered that they had been in the same team before, but they were obviously no longer complete.

Instead of Su Xin and Xu Chu, Qiao Liao sat alone atop the sand dune, holding his whisk in his arms, looking untouched by worldly dust, as if he were about to ascend to immortality at any moment.

Number 66 stopped attacking and watched with a complicated expression as Xiao Cheng and Fang He walked towards Qiao Liao.

As the two approached, they realized that Qiao Liao seemed to be acting a little strange.

It wasn't as if they were about to ascend to immortality; they were truly flirting with death.

Xiao Cheng had noticed that he hadn't responded and, considering that the man's eyesight was poor, gently patted his shoulder to remind him to come over.

Before his palm could even land properly, his body swayed slightly and he fell straight backward.

"Holy crap! What's going on?!" Xiao Cheng and Fang He reacted quickly, each holding one of him firmly on either side. They then checked his pulse and breathing, which were so weak they could barely feel them.

"Qiao Liao?!" The two quickly laid him flat on the ground, but there was no response.

"Don't waste your energy," Number 66 said coldly as he walked over. "He's dying, no one can save him, not even your other two teammates."

"What on earth happened?!" Xiao Cheng's gaze suddenly turned cold. "What happened during the time we were out of contact? Why did they become like this?!"

Number 66 sneered, and was about to speak when he saw the sky suddenly darken, and rolling yellow sand covered the sky, with sandstorms raging.

All the players present instantly became alert, exclaiming, "Warning! It's coming!"