Perhaps because everyone was thinking about getting on the road quickly, no one paid much attention to the surrounding environment before. But after Xu Mo's reminder, it seemed that this was really the case.

So they stopped and began to observe and study carefully.

If you keep walking in this small area and can't get out, it will be futile to continue walking without finding out the cause of this problem.

However, there was nothing around except these flowers and trees, so even if they wanted to find the problem, it would not be easy. In their boredom, the group even poked at the surrounding trees and flowers one by one. What if the key to the mission was hidden here?

But it was obvious that this idea was unreliable, so after trying it all, there was still no change.

It was Yang Jia who noticed something different. "It seems like a lot of the vegetation here is new to me."

I had previously thought the environment was nice, but I hadn't really looked closely at what plants there were. And since it was a separate space, any differences were normal, I figured.

Yang Jia was able to discover these plants because she had developed a habit in the wild: whenever she saw an unfamiliar plant, she would collect one and add it to her collection. Previously, she had been so focused on her mission that she hadn't had time to do so. Now that she couldn't get there, she decided to collect them, only to discover that she didn't recognize any of them!

When others heard this, they observed carefully and found that it was indeed true.

Yang Jia had already opened his atlas. "I've checked, and these plants aren't listed in the atlas. In other words, they're not within the scope of what we can collect."

Whether it was an accident or a coincidence that they had gotten this far, these five people were quite capable and definitely not stupid. So after hearing what Yang Jia said, he immediately realized the key.

A game certainly couldn't be constructed entirely out of thin air. Especially the one they were in, which was inextricably linked to reality.

After Yang Jia and Li Bai had established their partnership, they no longer needed to hide their NPC identity, so Yang Jia asked Li Bai for a lot of real-world information. After all, their future battlefields would not only be in the game, but also outside of it, so they couldn't neglect anything.

Furthermore, she received a more accurate introduction to the game from Li Bai. This was something she had previously been curious about but hadn't been able to ask about—the fact that this game was so highly regarded was actually an experiment conducted by the top management of each region.

Many of the game's environments are completely simulated to resemble reality. This simulation doesn't just encompass Earth's environments, it even includes alien planets! The reason for this is to allow for a variety of experiments within the game.

In the 29th century, due to various changes, the land has long been unsuitable for planting, and even the entire earth is in danger. It is in this situation that humans have begun to explore space, hoping to find a habitable planet and migrate to it.

Disappointingly, while many planets with other life forms have been discovered, only one, Hope, has an environment similar to Earth's and could potentially be colonized there. The environments on these other planets are so different from Earth's that humans simply cannot survive on them.

But even Hope Star, after so many years of exploration and development, is still not habitable for humans.

Despite their similarities, Hope Planet is not Earth. Many of its creatures are absent from Earth, while some of Earth's flora and fauna are absent there. As a planet, it possesses its own complete and balanced ecosystem, but it's not easy for humans to join it, or even live there. A slight mistake could disrupt the ecological balance and even trigger a catastrophic disaster.

After what happened on Earth, humans have become much more cautious in this regard. Therefore, the pace of development is not urgent. After all, the Earth can still hold on for a while.

But no matter how cautious we are, as long as there's development, there are bound to be unexpected consequences. Undoubtedly, the most dreaded of these are the various viruses on Planet Hope. Due to the vastly different ecological environment, Earthlings are completely unable to combat these viruses. Ultimately, they're forced to freeze infected humans until a cure is found.

However, this follow-up is nowhere in sight.

To control the virus on Planet Hope, there was no doubt that species there were more useful. However, although many plants and animals had been obtained from Planet Hope, the quantity was limited and far from sufficient to meet the needs of research. Moreover, the cost of transporting these living creatures over long distances was unimaginably high.

As for raising these creatures on Earth, right? Unfortunately, today's Earth is so poor that even human survival is difficult, let alone creating a livable environment for these creatures.

If they can achieve this, why don't they transform the earth themselves? Then there is no need to travel thousands of miles to find a habitable planet outside the earth.

In desperation, the government launched a research project. Using an intelligent mainframe, with sufficient data input, it automatically generates a world combining Earth and Planet Hope. In this world, the flora and fauna of both planets can survive and reproduce rapidly. This will naturally make conducting various experiments in the game much more convenient.

Unfortunately, to avoid destroying this world, they couldn't release a sample of the virus. It's not that they hadn't tried, but previous worlds had been destroyed for this very reason, making it impossible to use. So they could only hope that this stable world would slowly develop and take on the form they needed.

This is why Li Bai had previously said that Yang Jia's choice was correct. Her approach of deemphasizing force and conducting various research projects was precisely in line with this development direction. Of course, without knowing the specifics, there were definitely some details that needed to be adjusted. But once Li Bai revealed these details, Yang Jia could make targeted modifications.

With this background, the existence of the game's illustrated guide is natural. There are plants on Earth that are not in the illustrated guide, and only creatures from Hope Star appear in the illustrated guide.

But why are these plants, which they have never seen before, not included in the illustrated book?

It's very likely that the secret they can't escape from is hidden in these plants. So we're back to the previous question: How can we decipher the key content hidden here?

Five people squatted in front of a blade of grass, staring at it with deep hatred and lost in thought.

After thinking about it for a long time, he couldn't figure it out. Zhuo Tianyang simply pulled up the grass and stuffed it into his mouth. "You can't tell anything just by looking at it. Why don't you try it? Maybe after eating it, you can get out."

Everyone else stared at him in shock, especially Yang Jia and Li Bai. This was the first time they'd encountered someone so... reckless. Encountering something unknown, instead of trying to stay away and study it, he thought of trying it? Is that the kind of thinking that a normal person would have? But judging by Xu Mo and Zhuo Han's expressions, this might not be Zhuo Tianyang's first time doing this.

Being so willful, he must have something to rely on, right? Yang Jia thought so and stared at Zhuo Tianyang, "What do you feel?"

"...It tastes good?" Zhuo Tianyang said.

“…”

"Just kidding, I don't feel anything. I'll go for a walk and see if I can get out." Seeing Li Bai staring at him, Zhuo Tianyang said hurriedly. Although he and Li Bai had collapsed a mountain, the victory had actually been decided before the mountain collapsed.

He was undoubtedly the loser, so he felt uncomfortable whenever he saw Li Bai.

Especially when he learned that Li Bai and Yang Jia had that kind of relationship, he felt even more uncomfortable.

Zhuo Tianyang is not a male chauvinist and has no discrimination against two women being together, but for some reason, he just feels inexplicably uncomfortable.

Perhaps it was because of the Zhuo family motto that one must marry a wife who is more powerful than oneself. As a person with a late stage of Chuunibyou, Zhuo Tianyang always felt that his wife must be the most powerful one. So after hearing Li Bai's name, Zhuo Tianyang had been planning to find her for a fight.

Of course, this kind of power is not limited to martial arts. For example, Zhuo Tianyang's mother is born gentle and graceful, and has no fighting power at all. However, she is smart and is a 360-degree all-round academic master. Zhuo Tianyang's father fell in love with her the first time they met.

So after seeing Yang Jia, Zhuo Tianyang thought again, Hey? This one is not bad either!

As a result... he got together the two candidates for daughter-in-law that he thought were good!

Even though they had only just met and he had nothing to do with this, Zhuo Tianyang couldn't help but add drama to his own story. He always felt uncomfortable being with these two people. But he had to share the hardships with them. How could he describe his sorrow?

With this thought in his mind, Zhuo Tianyang stood up, took a step, then fell down.

Yang Jia and Li Bai exchanged a glance. This situation... well, didn't seem all that surprising. Xu Mo had already expertly scooped up Zhuo Tianyang and laid him flat, and it was clear this sort of thing happened all the time. It wasn't surprising.

Holding back his laughter, Yang Jia said, "Let's rest here for a while and wait for him to wake up before seeing if there's any difference."

Xu Mo nodded, while Zhuo Han remained at Zhuo Tianyang's side without looking up. Yang Jia looked around and dragged Li Bai to a place farther away to talk—even if she wanted to, she couldn't go further.

"What's wrong?" Li Bai asked when he saw her expression.

Yang Jia squatted down and stared at the plant before him. It was a herbaceous plant with round leaves covered in fine hairs. At the top were flowers, tiny purple blossoms clustered together, forming an inflorescence larger than the leaves.

"This," Yang Jia pinched its inflorescence, "I think I've seen it before."