Chapter 152: Walking into a Trap
The development of the Golden Ruins went smoothly this time.
During this period, Wei Huan and others were on high alert, guarding against sneak attacks.
When developing the Golden Ruins, Wei Huan's undead army was lying in ambush in a circle 15 kilometers away, and any movement could not hide from his eyes.
The maximum distance of his summoning is one of the trump cards Wei Huan has always kept. He is confident that his enemies will not know it.
"No." Wei Huan said with certainty, "If this is a trap, they would never choose to attack now when both sides know the other is preparing to make a move."
Mu nodded: "I think so too."
Then Mu Zhong looked at Xu Qingqiang and said, "Brother Qiang, I'm sorry to bother you. I'll feel at ease only if the battle ends soon."
Xu Qingqiang made an OK gesture, lit a cigarette for himself at the car door, and in the smoke, he turned into a misty black shadow and rushed into the blizzard.
Even in the short seconds between opening and closing the door, the cold wind from the darkness blew in, and the temperature in the car suddenly dropped by more than 20 degrees.
Looking at Xu Qingqiang who flashed into the cave, he had turned into a hideous demon with black magic patterns all over his body. He laughed strangely all the way and rushed into the depths of the cave.
It didn't even take a minute to kill the gold treasure chest monster.
Especially after Xu Qingqiang was specially dispatched, they might have to return as soon as they arrived at this ruin.
However, in order to keep his trump card, Mu Zhong asked Xu Qingqiang to stay in the ruins for another ten minutes before coming out.
Even though they had deliberately extended the time, when the entrance to the ruins disappeared before their eyes as the undead army retreated, the Big Goose mercenaries still held their heads in surprise.
"It took us half a day to get here, but you guys only took a little over ten minutes to develop the ruins. I heard you developed a platinum ruin before and livestreamed it. I really should see how you did it after this assessment. Even with my personal involvement, this speed makes me wonder if you're dreaming."
Mu Zhong smiled as he distributed the spoils with the mercenaries of Daye, while also observing how deeply they were involved in this matter.
So, Mu Zhong asked casually, "The information this time is very accurate. How did you do it?"
The Big Goose mercenary said, "There are many professions that can predict the future, but in the past, developing advanced ruins was very difficult, so this kind of prediction is not very useful. Besides, people in our line of work must have many sources of information."
After saying this, the mercenary from Big Goose showed his large front teeth: "Looking forward to our next cooperation."
The mercenaries of Big Goose have no intention of going back, they want to continue exploring forward.
Although they cannot develop high-level ruins, they can still open basic treasure chests and low-level ruins.
Although it is safe to follow the main force, the income will be less, so the mercenaries choose to live a more dangerous but rewarding life.
Wei Huan's car was heading back.
Theoretically, it would not be a loss if you could open a golden treasure chest in this assessment. After all, the key point is to complete the assessment and successfully enter the fourth-level world.
The return journey was faster than the outward journey, and they were back in the convoy at just three in the morning.
With their return, the convoy, which was under high security, finally returned to normal. Even ordinary challengers could sense the difference between the tightening and loosening of the security.
The group of people who had been watching the changes in the convoy naturally figured out the truth.
"They didn't choose the person we arranged. It seems they made a deal with those bears from the Goose Country. It seems they know about our existence and are very cautious."
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who leads them. It's enough for them to reach the trap area."
"We have to hurry up and make arrangements in advance."
"The final plan starts a little slower. I've already encountered the third Dark Beast territory. Why are these guys building cities right on my route? I've been circumventing them. Damn it! This assessment is too difficult. Not only will we have to cause trouble for Wei Huan, but these Dark Beasts won't let him go either."
"This is the price of arrogance."
The young leader of Osham frowned at the last sentence. He tried hard not to scold, but the unhappiness on his face was very obvious.
What does "the price of hubris" mean? Does killing more Dark Beasts mean paying a price? Wei Huan did something that benefited all of humanity, yet was ridiculed by some humans. Looking at the arrogant and complacent expressions of the people speaking before him, the young leader of Osham felt an unbearable nausea.
He had always felt that the nation's high-ranking officials' hostility toward Daxia was superficial. Given the current situation, what was wrong with simply bowing their heads and coordinating the overall situation? He always clung to the glory of the past, always imagining that the world was still ruled by Osham, like a dying immortal who, before dying, still insisted on wearing the crown that would crush him.
He is full of dissatisfaction with the current state system of Osama, the attitude of the top leaders, and many decisions.
But he couldn't do anything.
He plotted against Wei Huan and attacked him, and every step he took made him feel extremely uncomfortable.
He is an Osamite, a soldier of Osam, he is trained and trusted by the country, so he should do things that are consistent with his identity and position.
The petty intrigues in the corner did not affect the celebration of Wei Huan's return.
When Captain Xue and Mu Zirui brought their men back to the car and saw an extra golden sword in the warehouse, all the farmers went crazy.
The golden greatsword!
Firstly, Farmer-class equipment is already extremely rare and expensive, and weapons are even more priceless. Even if you encounter a strange, alien weapon, it will fetch a stratospheric price on Blue Star. Those who obtain it will willingly change their fighting style and won't blame the weapon's peculiarities.
Among them, there are even fewer swords and knives, not to mention the "Golden Greatsword" that perfectly fits the self-definition of the Farmer Sequence, which is simply everyone's dream sword.
Including Zhou Yong and Lin Xu, there are a total of 13 farmers in the sequence, and their saliva is dripping with excitement.
Captain Xue was even more eager: "I'm going to fight to the death. I must get this golden sword!!"
Xu Qingqiang used platinum gloves to pick the flesh off his teeth and walked away staggeringly.
Write a sentence with your butt: What an ignorant guy!
As a result, the next day, the mercenaries of Daye contacted Mu Zhong again, saying that they had reliable information about another golden ruin and asked them if they still wanted to cooperate.
Wei Huan's car set off that night, and when he came back at dawn, there was another gold-level magic wand in the car's warehouse.
This time, the wise man in the car also went crazy.
In Wei Huan's car, the most numerous group are farmers, and the second most numerous group are wise men. Including the twin brothers, there are a total of 7 wise men.
If we include the shaman Mu Zhong, the prophet Dou Lin, and the two car doctors and prayers who have the same competitive needs, there are a total of 11 competitors.
Of course, the four people mentioned later don't have much need for magic wands.
Mu Zhong has a platinum staff, so Dou Lin and Che Yi don't need to compete with the first-line players for equipment.
But even so, when have these ordinary challengers who follow the legion or just follow private forces ever seen a day when they open their eyes every day to find an extra piece of gold equipment in their car?
This is gold equipment!
Even for a family like the Mu family, it would be good if the leader's car had three or four pieces of gold equipment, and these were either piled on the main soldiers or on the leader. Ordinary car crew members couldn't even take a look at the attributes.
But what about now?
These equipments are placed in the warehouse, with clearly marked prices indicating that anyone is eligible to obtain them as long as they have enough DKP.
Nothing could be more motivating than this.
The crew, who were already full of passion, simply wished they could fight every day and rush to the front to kill all the dark beasts.
This kind of challenging life is what makes life meaningful.
And I heard that there are not only platinum equipment in the car, but also hidden diamond equipment.
Hiss~hiss~As long as you have it, you can strive for it, right?
Cohesion is something that is hard to explain. When you don't have it, it is very difficult to achieve cohesion. A small setback may cause the group to fall apart again.
But in Wei Huan's car, cohesion has never been a problem. When the leader is strong enough, when the system is fair enough, when those unimaginable benefits are in front of them and can be obtained with just hard work. Even if Wei Huan said nothing and did nothing, the cohesion in the car was as strong as steel and iron, and it was incomparably solidified!
After adding advanced equipment to the car for two consecutive days, everyone was looking forward to the third night.
But today is already the fifth day in the Challenge World.
According to the progress of Challenge the World, they have now completed more than half of the assessment.
The Dark Beast Lord's territory increased visibly.
During the day, Wei Huan pushed down two territories that blocked his way. Later, he was told that there was another territory not far away. Considering that there were rare minerals in that territory, Wei Huan led his troops to push it down again.
In such frequent battles, Wei Huan's intelligence fell into the hands of the most likely fifth-level lord like snowflakes.
But now the people in Wei Huan's car are thinking about whether they have worked hard enough during the day and when they can accumulate enough DKP.
Also, we have fought three battles during the day. Will Boss Wei go to develop the ruins today?
Otherwise, Boss, save some energy and let them develop it. For the Terran race! For Boss Wei! For DKP!
What? Is this too utilitarian?
Then ask, when they encountered the Dark Beast, did they charge forward? Did they take Boss Wei's words as an ironclad command? Then ask, are they considered the most valiant and skilled warriors in the eyes of others?
So it doesn’t matter what they fight for, but whether they do it or not.
"Dreamers" are never qualified to laugh at "doers".
The enthusiasm of the people in Wei Huan's car is definitely higher than that of any other car. They are simply a group of passionate fanatics.
So when Wei Huan's car was about to leave the convoy again at night to develop the advanced ruins, all the crew members who were left behind to guard the car were watching the vehicle going away with excitement and regret.
"Isn't this also a golden ruin?"
"I want a set of golden daggers. If that doesn't work, agility gloves like Brother Qiang's will do."
"When can I go on an adventure with Boss Wei? Even without loot or DKP, it's fine. It's so cool to work with the undead army. They can provide cover, block gunfire, and roar and kill with me. Once you have teammates like this, you won't want to part with them."
"Oh yes, yes, me too!!"
However, compared to the crew members who stayed behind to guard the place, many old members who left with Wei Huan's car had slightly ugly expressions.
It wasn't anything else, but after deciding to set off, Xu Qingqiang suddenly said, "It smells good."
No one could explain exactly what Xu Qingqiang's gift of foretelling good and bad luck was, but everyone believed in his nose, which was absolutely accurate.
In the past two days, Mu Zhong had nothing to do and talked with Xu Qingqiang about the current situation, and told him all the intelligence he had collected about the enemy.
After obtaining more detailed information, Xu Qingqiang's magical talent finally began to take effect. Just now, he said a word that everyone had been waiting for for a long time but did not want to hear - "fragrant".
So are those people finally going to take action?
Just this day, they destroyed three Dark Beast Lords and led more than 60,000 human compatriots to survive this difficult test until now.
But even with such a huge contribution, in the eyes of those people, is it still not as important as their own selfish desires?
It's really heartbreaking.
Afterwards, a strong desire to kill arose again.
Not to mention Wei Huan, Mu Zhong, Xu Qingqiang and others, even Liu Chengzhi, who never ran to the front, had a gloomy face, and Xile's face also became gloomy and ugly.
"People like this don't deserve to live," Liu Chengzhi said. "Besides being a drag and a black sheep, what contribution can they make? Their existence is a waste of air."
Then Liu Chengzhi raised his hand and showed his silver dagger, "Tell me when you kill someone, my knife is thirsty."
Although Liu Chengzhi's words sounded funny, his anger was real.
No one would laugh at him because they were feeling exactly the same at that moment.
The direction the car was heading was the same as the direction Xu Qingqiang pointed out, which meant that there was indeed a trap set for them ahead.
As we went along, the atmosphere was very solemn, a murderous solemnity.
Mu Zhong's brows were furrowed as he said to Wei Huan, "It seems that the people from Big Goose are also unreliable."
The location of this golden ruin is very far away. Even if Wei Huan and his team drove there, it would take more than 6 hours to drive one way. They are already more than two-thirds of the way there and are close to the end of the road.
In fact, if the environment was different, Wei Huan would definitely go forward a day or two before going to the ruins. After all, the convoy was also moving forward, and the distance would be closer in two days.
But for Wei Huan, since he knew that someone was plotting against him, he was even more unwilling to wait. The cancer should be eradicated as soon as possible. Is it necessary to leave it and wait for it to expand and spread?
This time, it is not so much about exploring the ruins to open treasure chests, but more about making a long-distance raid to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys.
…
The wind and snow are very strong.
The weather on the assessment road becomes increasingly severe as we go further along in the journey, and even a Class 3 vehicle cannot completely keep out the cold on such a night.
At the edge of the map, the wind and snow were two to three times stronger than in the central area. When the blizzard came in the dark night, the temperature exceeded -200℃. People in the level 4 vehicles all put on thick clothes.
In such an environment, more than two hundred cars were painted white and hidden in the snow.
Not far from their hiding area, one can see a magnificent relic that looks like an ice and snow palace.
Once the difficulty of a treasure chest reaches the platinum level, Daxia will call the ruins where the treasure chest is located "ruins".
Although the treasure chest ruins and the underground palace ruins where the treasure is opened are two different things, what the challenger needs to face is indeed the failed civilization that remains in this world.
Civilization has many forms, such as human technological civilization, animal bloodline civilization, spiritual civilization of some spiritual bodies, etc. Any civilization chosen by the challenging world cannot be underestimated.
Not to mention, these civilizations have all participated in civilization competition as challengers. Even if they failed, their civilizations have reached the fourth-level world.
If civilizations are divided according to the level of the world they challenge, humans and dark beasts breaking through to level five are level five civilizations.
The Bluebearded people are a third-level civilization.
Then the fourth-level civilization in the current world must be stronger than the blue-bearded people.
Those people in the car ambushed in the heavy snow looked at the ice castle in awe, as if looking at it any longer would hurt their eyes and they felt as if they would be discovered and hunted down by the enemy.
The people in the car were overwhelmed by cold and fear. They spoke with deep doubt: "Will Wei Huan come here? We are close to the border. If it weren't for the protection of Colonel Jacques's tank, most of our cars would not be able to stay here."
"The people who stayed over there sent word that Wei Huan's car had indeed left. He set out before dark and should be almost here now. He's a level five car. If it were just a natural environment, no matter how bad the weather was during this assessment, it wouldn't have stopped him.
But we're worried he won't dare come. The news that's been circulating hasn't mentioned this being a platinum ruin. Now we can only bet on Wei Huan's greed, betting he'll definitely develop the ruins."
"What if he doesn't go in? Should we give up on this operation?"
"No, based on my understanding of him, he will definitely take action. There's a saying in Daxia that goes, 'Since you're already here,'"
"Now that he's here, he'll pay the price for what he said."
"In order to kill Wei Huan, General Omura spent 200,000 points. Add to that the points from Bang, Sanguo, and Osham. Colonel Jacques has already purchased a scroll worth 500,000 points. As long as his car enters the attack range, we can bypass his undead army and attack his car directly. No matter how powerful his undead are, they will eventually die."
"Come to think of it, this scroll only appeared after the fifth-level world was officially opened. If he dies from the attack of this scroll, will he regret giving away the Star Beast hide?"
Listening to the wanton conversation on the video, Colonel Jacques frowned again.
Colonel Jacques is the young leader of Osham. He is only 25 years old this year. Five years ago, he passed the primary assessment at the fastest speed, broke Daxia's dream of three consecutive championships, and won the platinum treasure chest reward that year.
After that, he spent five years making countless great contributions to Osham, but he only got this far.
Perhaps because he was always unwilling to deal with those old guys and had no background, he obtained great military merits and a prestigious military rank, but whether it was a car or training materials, he could only collect them bit by bit with great difficulty.
They don't want him to be too strong, but they always send him out when a battle is needed.
Jacques flipped his wrist, revealing the scroll in his hand. He stared at it for a long time, his eyes full of hesitation.
"Here it comes!" someone shouted on the video link. "There's a car coming! I saw it!"
Jacques looked up hastily, just in time to see his deputy driver turning away hastily, his eyes looking at him warily as if he were stalking him.
Then, in that evasive gaze, Jacques felt a faint sadness rising from deep within his heart.
"Use it directly? Is the distance enough?" A shrill voice, almost out of control with excitement, rang out. "Quick! Don't let him get away!"
But then another equally shrill voice shouted, "Wait! Wait! This is a convoy, not Wei Huan's car. He never brings so many people. He's too arrogant!"
"Yes, it's not Wei Huan, damn it, it's those big goose guys!"
Jacques loosened his grip on the scroll, and with a slight twitch, he felt the sweat on his palms, almost soaking through the parchment.
The magic scroll worth 500,000 points is now in his hand. When the time comes, he only needs to move his finger to kill Wei Huan.
But then what? Besides satisfying the greed of those treacherous politicians and unscrupulous capitalists, satisfying these villains with twisted smiles, what else can this bring?
But I have to always remember whether I have killed "the hope of mankind" with my own hands.
It's so painful. In this distorted environment, it's painful to maintain normal rationality.
Jacques prayed silently in his heart, hoping that Wei Huan would not come...
…
"Boss, there's something that doesn't seem right to me."
There were nine cars driving in the snow, with their outer protective covers overlapping each other to protect them from the blizzard outside.
Inside the car were a group of strong, bearded men wearing thick winter coats, as well as some women, whose eyes were often sharper than those of the men.
The mercenaries from Big Goose had planned this assessment a year ago. They gathered 12 like-minded vehicles and prepared to join forces to enter the fourth-level world.
It was purely a coincidence that I was taking the same test as Wei Huan.
But it wasn't entirely a coincidence, because when the news came out that Wei Huan was going to participate in this road test, they also discussed whether or not to get involved in this mess.
It could be said that they were arrogant, but they finally chose to come in.
Now the number of vehicles has been reduced from 12 to 9, and one of them is on the verge of being scrapped and is being repaired.
This loss has nothing to do with Wei Huan; it is simply a normal situation when they take risks to open treasure chests.
In the fourth-level world, even a silver treasure chest would bring endless risks to them. Therefore, what they looked forward to most was the cooperation with Wei Huan.
Without doing anything, just provide information and you can get 30% of the supplies, and they are all gold grade.
Big profit!
After tasting the sweetness of the first attempt, they actively collected information for the second and third attempts, and successfully cooperated with Wei Huan for the second time.
Today was their third time rushing to the intelligence location.
However, during the journey, everyone was not as happy as they had imagined, because the intelligence they collected unintentionally and the clues all pointed to someone trying to harm Wei Huan, and they seemed to be being used.
This group of Big Goose mercenaries have no relationship with Wei Huan, and the diplomatic status between the two countries has nothing to do with them. Logically speaking, they only need to provide intelligence, and any subsequent problems have nothing to do with them.
But things that are clear intellectually are difficult to accept emotionally.
The proud people of Big Goose will never be a gun in the hands of others! Moreover, they have a strong admiration for Wei Huan. In the civilized competition with the dark beasts, the existence of every strong person is the starlight that guides mankind to victory.
Without affecting their own growth, this group of Big Goose people would rather witness Wei Huan's strength, even if they suffer some losses in this transaction.
However, Captain Mu Zhong was an excellent person and had never been unfair in the distribution of benefits.
This impressed them even more.
Now, when all the clues pointed to something being amiss with this operation, someone in the Big Goose Mercenaries' main vehicle finally spoke up.
"I don't think it's right."
After the man finished speaking, he hesitated and said, "It's still not too late to evacuate now. I can already smell blood."
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