Desert Ruins
Chapter 41
At six o'clock in the morning, the moment it got light, the wind and sand stopped.
The sun returns to the earth, scorching hot.
The natural environment of the second-level challenge is harsh, but it is also a gradual process.
The first day would not present too difficult an environment to the challengers, so the sandstorm stopped at dawn.
The chat room became lively again, and someone was posting data tables.
In the national vehicle performance rankings, combat effectiveness rankings, points rankings, and life rankings, Wei Huan still takes first place. And I've noticed these stats change every time I wake up. Is he secretly working on something at night again?
[Every morning when I wake up, I bow to the name of the master, and pray for his blessing.]
[Is it confirmed that there was a sandstorm last night? Why is it that the boss can still drive, but I can only hide in the car and shiver? ]
"Big Boss, can you please wait a moment? I don't ask for anything else, I just want to follow you. Looking at your majestic back, I feel at ease."
[I'm also looking for a follower, and I hope he'll start a fleet.]
[Same request +1]
If you want to die, just form a convoy. Didn't they teach us that in school? Forming a convoy is prone to running out of supplies. When you're running low on fuel, do you need a big boss to help you? You'd better explore and open the treasure chests yourself.
[I'll tell you a secret: if a team encounters a high-level treasure chest, they'll fight like hell.]
[Big guys, you don't need to form a team. Just keep selling discounted blueprints and equipment at the auction house. Our district has developed very well thanks to big guys.]
[Same as above +1, it would be nice if the discount could be a little bit cheaper (no, shut up!).]
After the first night of the challenge, the gentle environment and the confidence in Wei Huan created a very good atmosphere in the entire region.
Everyone started today's challenge while chatting and laughing.
Mu Zhong also got up, brushed his teeth and washed his face, and had some heated up vegetarian buns for breakfast, along with a bowl of hot soy milk.
Breakfast was also perfect.
Wei Huan didn't waste any time. He finished eating and drove out.
There is still wind and sand in the marginal areas during the day, but it is much better than at night.
The purpose of these dust storms is "warning."
Remind challengers that you have reached the edge of the road and exploring further will double the risk.
Unless there are special circumstances, Wei Huan would not enter it. If he just wanted to open the box, the Ghost Crow would be enough.
But that special situation really happened soon.
A ghost crow flew out from the depths of the sandstorm, making a "quack quack" sound.
After reaching the second level, the ghost crows' intelligence improved slightly, their cognition of objects became much more complex, and communication with Wei Huan also became simpler.
"See... the ruins... the big..."
Only Wei Huan can understand the language of the ghost crow.
I was delighted to find the ruins!
He immediately turned the steering wheel and drove in the direction indicated by the ghost crow.
When Mu Zhong came over after finishing his work, he could see at a glance that the course had deviated.
They were heading further up the desert road.
"What did you find?"
"The ghost crow told me there is a ruin."
The two spoke almost at the same time.
Mu Zhong was then pleasantly surprised: "We found the ruins so quickly?"
Then he added as a matter of course: "Given your plowing efficiency, it's not surprising."
Mu Zhong sat in the passenger seat and was already sorting out the supplies that Wei Huan had obtained last night.
"Bronze-level items are still the most abundant. To upgrade our vehicles to level three, we need supplies from Iron and Silver treasure chests. I heard that high-level treasure chests are often hidden in ruins. If there aren't any this time, I'll have to buy them from the mall."
At the beginning, Wei Huan and Mu Zhong were both eager to upgrade their vehicles to level three.
Because only a level 3 car can fearlessly take on the level 2 challenge.
The emergence of "Dead Ranch" changed their minds.
Now their strength has doubled, and with the protection of the undead army, completing the second-level challenge is no longer a problem.
Now Mu Zhong wants to accumulate points more. Later on, there will always be supplies that cannot be found in treasure chests, so he can only buy them at high prices in the mall.
Hundreds of thousands or even millions of points are at stake. Not to mention whether the landlord has enough food, even the dark beasts cannot be killed at will by you.
We are all intelligent beings, and after suffering losses, we will definitely try to avoid war.
Harvesting points in the later stages is not as easy as imagined.
Mu Zhong has now started to live frugally and manage the household well, and Wei Huan also supports him. The two have basically the same values, and they get along very comfortably.
Wei Huan continued to drive deeper into the cave, while Mu Zhong began to put items on the auction house.
The challengers who had been waiting in the auction house for a long time basically bought all the bronze equipment and level one blueprints in seconds.
Although the remaining Black Iron equipment is very expensive, its sales volume is also not low, especially the equipment that can be used by the farmer sequence, which is basically sold out as soon as it is put on.
These equipments can be sold even at a 98% discount, but Mu Zhong still only offers an 20% discount.
Auxiliary equipment is sold at a 50% discount.
The chat room is very harmonious today.
The person who wanted to stir up trouble yesterday fell silent after being criticized.
After all, challenging the world is too dangerous, and any supplies may save lives. The actions of Wei Huan and Mu Zhong indirectly saved many people.
It’s just… there’s nothing to criticize, and forcing it to be so is very low-class, so I’ll just stop talking.
After the equipment was hung up and the blueprints were halfway hung, Wei Huan suddenly said, "We're here."
Mu Zhong looked out of the car, gazing at the ruins, in silence for a long moment. Then, he turned back abruptly: "Do you want to get out?"
The ruins are dangerous because they are not accessible by car.
Once the challenger leaves the protection of the vehicle, his strength is reduced by half.
Of course, Wei Huan doesn't have to worry.
But Mu Zhong still hoped that he could be more cautious.
"No rush." Wei Huan was indeed very cautious and didn't try to save face. "I'll let the undead go in first to check. I'll go in after confirming there's no danger."
"Yeah." Mu nodded, knowing that this was necessary. Some ruins were very special, and the mechanisms needed to be touched by the challenger before they could be opened.
Wei Huan would definitely get off the car, but he would feel relieved if he could carefully check for dangers first.
Wei Huan sent ten of each of the three types of undead creatures, namely, running wolves, hidden cats and ghost crows, into the ruins.
Soon, they disappeared.
Mu Zhong said, "It seems they have found a way down."
"Some of the ruins are huge, like a maze-like underground palace."
"Yes, some people who went down there didn't die at the hands of the monsters in the underground palace, but were trapped in the maze."
"Exploring the maze will affect the results of the gold medal challenge, and we must complete the challenge early and move on to the next challenge as soon as possible. What do you think?"
Mu Zhong was silent for a long time this time, then he smiled and said, "I'm getting more and more greedy now. What can I do?"
Wei Huan raised his eyebrows, not smiling.
Mu Zhong said, "How about this? I'll buff Xiaodian so that he can send more troops down."
Wei Huan could have sent more troops to explore, but that was Wei Huan's ability. Mu Zhong was greedy and wanted more, so he had to use his own abilities. He couldn't just ask for help and expect others to complete the task.
In Wei Huan's army, there are not many small species such as running wolves and hidden cats, and the ghost crows have no killing power, so the number of options for the exploration team he sent out is limited.
Mu Zhong’s suggestion was a good idea. The facehugger with a diameter of one meter was definitely the trump card for exploring the underground palace.
Thinking of this, Wei Huan said, "Let's not use the small one for now. It's an elite and its main job is to protect us. Once the buff is applied, it will become weak and have to return to the tomb."
As soon as he finished explaining this, Mu Zhong saw female ground beasts appearing outside the car one after another.
Huge earth beasts as big as container trucks appeared on both sides of them, one appeared every ten meters, and there were 20 earth beasts in total, almost surrounding the ruins.
Wei Huan likes recruiting ground beasts very much. Not only is it cool to feel that "my little brother can summon little brothers", but the key is that these ground beasts can also allow him to "explode troops".
They are the core troops of his undead army.
These underground beasts were not all that Wei Huan recruited. With only 20 of them showing up, one could already feel his vision being filled up and facing the fear and oppression of the giants.
But in the eyes of Wei Huan and Mu Zhong, this is a complete sense of security.
Mu Zhong beat the drums, applying a layer of light blue light BUFF to the five earth beasts, and the number of soldiers they could summon could be tripled.
The other earth beasts did not have any additional attributes, but when they gathered together and poured into the ruins, there were more than 300 of them.
Yellow sand, ruins, giants, dry bones and a large number of white bone spiders form a weird and absurd picture.
It's simply a horror movie.
The two people in the car were at ease, and even changed their posture out of boredom because they were uncomfortable sitting for a long time.
Finally, the first harvest popped up on the screen.
[Obtain Silver-level Stamina Potion x1]
[Obtain the exterior crash barrier blueprint (Part 3) x1]
【Get portable anti-tank missile x1】
…
Mu Zhong said happily, "A good start! The first one is a silver treasure chest! There are indeed more good things in the ruins!"
Wei Huan didn't say anything because he felt the number of summons was decreasing.
They were attacked by treasure chest monsters, and their combat effectiveness was not low. Even after upgrading to two stars, the losses were still huge.
But after all, the human wave tactic was very unstoppable, and Wei Huan's brows soon relaxed.
Supplies appear on the screen.
[Obtain 10 scaly snake scales]
"Alien species!?" Mu Zhong exclaimed, "We've encountered an alien species so early in the morning?"
Wei Huan mused, "It's probably because of the ruins."
"The ruins are indeed dangerous, but I wonder how strong this alien species is."
"□□ Huan calculated the enemy's combat power based on his own casualty ratio. 'It's equivalent to a third-tier lord-level dark beast, not counting territory.'"
Mu Zhong sighed: "With this level of strength, the challenger at this stage is really unbeatable."
"The danger level of the silver treasure chest will only increase, not decrease."
"Yes, this has blocked most people's upgrades, which is why level 5 vehicles have only appeared now."
After getting the items from the silver treasure chest, Wei Huan took out the endurance potion and handed it to Mu Zhong.
Mu Zhong didn't hesitate and drank it. This was the first bottle of silver-grade endurance potion he had ever consumed, and it significantly improved his endurance, raising his upper limit to 400 points.
This endurance quality has reached the endurance value of the upgraded two-star violent bear.
Even if you bombard it with missiles, you won't be able to kill it in one shot.
In the face of the powerful attributes of the professionals, the anti-tank missiles in this treasure chest become very useless.
Killing people is not enough, taking a taxi is like scraping, and human weapons of war are unpopular here and have become weapons to kill monsters.
Not only did they have the blueprint for the exterior crash barrier (Part 3), they had even successfully upgraded it. Since it was useless to keep it, Mu Zhong put it up for auction.
The third-level blueprint was sold in the mall for 200 points. Mu Zhong paid 160 points for it, but it was still expensive.
At this stage, there are not many challengers who can afford to consume silver items.
Someone in the chat room came across this drawing.
[A silver blueprint has been put up for auction. Did the boss just open a silver treasure chest? Jealousy has made me unrecognizable.]
[I know the silver treasure chest is not something I can covet, but I can't even see it. What should I do? ]
[Has everyone noticed that the boss has a huge number of treasure chests? Is there any trick? ]
[You're a necromancer, and you play a lot. Have you seen the videos online? When the boss explodes his troops, the rooftops, the ground, and the outer walls are all densely packed with undead. Holy shit! I was so shocked that I couldn't shut up for a year!]
[Excuse me, sir, what posture is required to awaken the Necromancer? ]
Watching the conversation between the challengers in the chat room, the undead exploration army sent by Wei Huan encountered another obstacle.
Five facehuggers died at once. Wei Huan could not feel the change in number, but the female facehuggers made a warning sound.
Wei Huan waited nervously for a while, but his summons didn't decrease any more. He thought for a moment and said, "There's a trap down there."
Mu nodded: "The underground palace is very dangerous."
After that, two more boxes exploded, as well as a pair of alien black bat wings, and then a ghost crow flew out, telling him that the underground palace had been explored.
They walked through all the forks in the road, opened all the boxes they could see, and even touched many traps.
It took a total of 11 minutes, and I got a silver treasure chest, two black iron treasure chests, and materials from two alien treasure chest monsters.
Exotic materials can be used to upgrade some special parts that cannot be purchased in the mall.
Mu Zhong asked Wei Huan curiously, "Do you want to go in and explore?"
Wei Huan nodded: "They can't distinguish valuable items. I have to go through them with my own eyes."
Mu Zhong also knew that one cannot get a tiger cub without learning from the tiger, so he just warned Wei Huan: "Be careful."
Wei Huan opened the car door and got out.
This was his second time getting off the car in the road challenge.
Last time he fought hard for the diamond chest, and this time he hopes there will be a surprise waiting for him.
Mu Zhong did not follow in this time.
Given his current physical condition, following Wei Huan would be a burden. Besides, there are a lot of things waiting for him in the auction house. Different people have different divisions of labor.
"Wei Huan." Mu Zhong poked his head out. "Pick a ground beast warrior and I'll buff him. It's faster and safer."
Wei Huan nodded, and soon, a relatively large earth beast warrior with a spider back width of about 1.5 meters came running out of the ruins with eight legs.
Mu Zhong gave this Earth Beast Warrior agility and strength buffs, but didn't buff its endurance because he didn't want it to grow bigger.
He also buffed ten facehuggers and two earthbeast guardians, saying, "They are your personal guards. Don't leave their protective circle."
They are armed to the teeth.
Wei Huan looked at the satisfied Mu and nodded.
Turning back, he stepped on the back of the Earth Beast Warrior, which was as steady and solid as a rock, without any shaking.
Then, under Wei Huan's command, the eight legs of the earth beast warrior moved one after another, and even on the soft gravel, it could still move forward steadily and quickly.
In the blink of an eye, we arrived at the ruins.
This ruin is obviously not a product of human civilization, but more like a nest of some creature.
The wind-dried clay stands tall in the wind and sand, and at the edge of the breach you can see plant roots drooping down, dancing in the wind.
Wei Huan's eyes fell on a semicircular object that resembled a broken eggshell, and he already had some ideas about this ruin.
In his previous life, he had stayed at the second level challenge for quite some time, so he had some understanding of the ruins at this stage.
Perhaps, that scaly snake is the owner of this ruin. After breaking out of its shell, it built its own nest underground.
When the challenge came, it and its home became a challenge point in this world.
Going underground, I found that it was indeed a cave built by snake-like creatures.
Wei Huan half-knelt down, and the Earth Beast Warrior carried him directly into the long passage. The light in his vision was gradually deprived, and everything in front of him was dark.
Wei Huan brought lighting props, but he didn't use them.
The army of undead lined up on one side of the passage every five meters, waiting for their master to arrive.
The green flames in their eyes were enough to illuminate a section of the cold and damp ground.
Wei Huan blinked and quickly adapted to the darkness.
As a dark-attribute professional, he has a strong adaptability to darkness.
But he didn't like the fishy smell coming from deep inside the underground cave.
He ordered his underground beast mount to speed up. He was very experienced in exploring this kind of nests, and he was still far from discovering anything mysterious.
Soon, they came to the depths of the earth, where three roads forked.
The ghost crows had been waiting here for a long time, croaking, telling him what was at the end of the three roads.
There is a silver treasure chest and a scaly snake in the middle.
On the left are two black iron treasure chests and a black bat.
There was a trap on the right, and several facehuggers were trapped there, sinking into the muddy, swamp-like sticky liquid and never coming out. Finally, a ghost crow flew over and confirmed that there was no way out.
The ghost crows' intelligence was not enough to fully describe the environment, but Wei Huan knew from experience that there was a cesspool on the right.
He would not go to the right. If there really was a treasure map there, he would accept it.
So……
Wei Huan looked at the fork in the road.
This is a place that must be explored.
The trail wasn't very deep and ended in three minutes.
The view suddenly opened up, and a huge cave appeared before my eyes.
The ground in the middle is smooth and has traces of lying down. I guess the scaly snake usually sleeps here.
But after being "captured" by Challenge World, it was put in a treasure chest and placed on its bed.
Waiting for a fight where it's either you or me.
After Wei Huan looked at the environment, he turned his gaze to the wall.
The undead summoned creatures behind him came in one after another, found a corner and began to face the wall. The green flames in their eye sockets became the best lighting.
Wei Huan stepped on the back of the Earth Beast Warrior and slowly searched along the wall for possible information.
After searching around, nothing was found.
Wei Huan did not give up.
His sight began to drop downwards, this time his target was the ground.
Soon, he reaped the rewards.
In the corner of the wall, he found a thick, triangular, basketball-sized stone rubbing board with some traces of lines engraved on it.
Isn’t it here?
The fragments of the treasure map, the final destination is a big treasure... maybe a golden treasure chest, maybe a special item, if you are lucky, you can even get legendary equipment.
Wei Huan and his team members had collected a few pieces before, but they had never collected them all, and it even led to a dangerous chase.
When faced with wealth, even when there is a common external enemy, some people still become greedy.
This time, Wei Huan plans to collect as much as possible and try to make his dream come true.
Of course, if exploring the treasure affects his speed, he can put it aside for now. There are also ruins in the road challenges on the left and right sides.
Treasure map fragments are special items and cannot be stored in the warehouse.
He recalled whether there were any elite units among the Ghost Crows, and finally confirmed with regret that he did not have any elite Ghost Crows.
Finally, he gathered all the ghost crows and asked them to remember the appearance of the stone slab.
What are the Undead Minions used for?
It's to run errands for him when he doesn't want to move.
It is not known whether the ghost crows remembered the stone slab, but Brother Anal Digger arched over again and made a "clicking" sound beside Wei Huan.
It invited Wei Huan to sit on its back.
Wei Huan looked at its 2-centimeter-long bone spurs and firmly refused.
The anus-digging brother scratched the ground with his front paws, seeming to be very sad.
Wei Huan pretended not to see it.
Everything went smoothly, and it only took Wei Huan about ten minutes to come out of the ruins.
Back in the car, the message [Obtained treasure map fragment x1] popped up on the screen.
It was Mu Zhong’s first time seeing the treasure map, so he took the stone slab.
His arm sank. "Tsk! Still a bit heavy?"
Wei Huan confirmed that it was time to give Mu Zhong two bottles of strength potion.
Mu Zhong took out the stone slab. Since he had no legs, he placed it directly on the seat and carefully stroked the lines on it with his fingers.
After a while, he said, "There's a very low chance of finding a treasure map when opening a chest. I think we could try to acquire it. How many points do you think would be appropriate?"
Wei Huan said, "Around 1,200."
Mu Zhong thought about it and said, "Okay, one fragment is equivalent to the value of a silver treasure chest, which is about right. Then I will try to collect it?"
"good."
Wei Huan restarted the car and drove out again.
Instead of returning to his original route, he decided to drive on this one, closer to the edge.
As expected, this route was quite dangerous, and he soon encountered quicksand.
The undead skeletons are too light to be easily swept into the quicksand when running on it.
But not vehicles.
After they got stuck, Xiaodian cried "babbling" and used his four front paws to carefully pull the car out of the quicksand.
The quicksand didn't pose much of a threat to them, but they couldn't travel in this area.
Mu Zhong suggested taking a detour.
Wei Huan said, "Let Xiaodian carry us in."
Open your mind.
That’s right, who says you have to drive to participate in road challenges?
Following the order, Xiaodian obediently lifted the car and placed it on the back shell.
The little dot that was upgraded to level two carried them easily, walking on the quicksand as if it were flat ground.
Soon, the action of going deep into the dangerous area took effect.
In this huge quicksand area, even the Ghost Crows could not explore the entire area, because they walked in the core and soon discovered another ruin.
Mu Zhong touched his chin and asked, "Are there so many ruins?"
Wei Huan thought: "Usually there will be high-level treasures in dangerous places."
"That's true."
Discovering ruins is equivalent to discovering a treasure chest, and the treasure chests in the ruins are very concentrated, and there are treasure map fragments to be taken.
It's very nice~
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