Chapter 232

Chapter 232

This was a long-abandoned, lost city.

As dusk approached, an orange-red star hung heavily at the end of the leaden road, drooping like the half-closed eye of a giant. Tall buildings rose on both sides, standing in staggered clusters, utterly devoid of life. It resembled a post-apocalyptic cityscape from a video game, everything shrouded in a gray haze. The air carried a faint, parched scent of dust.

After everyone had landed safely, a notification finally popped up on their wristwatches, announcing the official start of the competition:

"Dear Contestants,

First, we extend our heartfelt congratulations that no one was eliminated during the unexpected airdrop just now. Second, as you read this message, the final, additional league event will simultaneously begin its countdown.

As you can see, this is a city where reality and illusion intertwine. For the next five days, you will spend a brief period here with your companions and enemies. The outcome of the match will be determined by points. You can earn points directly by hunting insectoids, or by discovering 'Civilization Points.'

Over a thousand years ago, before the Great Cosmic Era even began, this city was already a famous historical capital of the Old Era. You might find it hard to imagine how a city could remain prosperous for at least three millennia—after all, humanity has only entered the Great Cosmic Era for less than a millennium. But facts prove that the longevity and immortality of civilization far exceed our expectations. In this ancient city, a total of 108 specially designated 'Civilization Points' contain various artifacts from the Old Era. Some may be useful for your survival in these five days of extreme conditions, while others may not. Each time you discover a Civilization Point, organize and photograph the resources inside, and upload them to the system, you will also receive generous point rewards.

The awakening of the insectoids is an impending tide; we cannot avoid the destined conflict. You contestants are the finest young talents of the Empire and the Alliance. Perhaps your schools have taught you how to pilot mechas, how to command armies, how to hold onto hope in desperate situations, and how to gather strength to climb back up even from a temporary low. But some things are more important than combat and victory—how to reclaim our civilization after the war, how to unite and sustain the survival of our race... These are equally important issues. And the impending crisis dictates that you must learn to handle these problems that we often habitually overlook.

Points can determine victory or defeat, but please remember, victory is not the most important thing in this match. No one will stop you from plundering or fighting each other during the competition, but also remember that from this moment on, the live broadcast is simultaneously being streamed equally to every corner of the Star Network.

May you find this journey worthwhile.

Note: The 24-hour automatic water filter is not an Old Era artifact; it is competition supplies. It does not yield points and should not be uploaded to the system."

Along with this notification, prompts for functions like communication, maps, and score statistics for both sides were also activated on the wristwatches. Communication was divided into group chats and private messages. The organizing committee had already set up communication groups for each faction. Additionally, people within the same group could freely engage in one-on-one communication.

The map covered the entire area of this lost city, which was extremely vast. It only showed their own location; they couldn't even see the positions of people in the same faction. However, with communication and the riverbeds and bridges marked on the map, coordination shouldn’t be too difficult.

As for the score statistics, there wasn’t much to say—both sides currently had a round, fat zero.

Although it was unclear why the organizing committee had suddenly changed its tune and adopted a conciliatory approach, faced with such an unusually earnest notice, the students present—still young and at an age of heightened sensitivity—found half their fervor dampened by reality. Boastful declarations of certain victory suddenly felt inappropriate to utter.

Yan Ning poked her watch face, sounding bored. "Why did the organizing committee suddenly decide to say something like this... Can't we just win fair and square? Adding moral weight to this kind of competition is really awkward."

"After all, it's a league match between two interstellar superpowers; it needs to set a positive example. And what they said isn't wrong," Luo Wenqing said, her expression unusually grave. "The committee actually made sense for once. In reality, because post-war reconnaissance missions require high cultural knowledge from the executors, and because areas just after conflict aren't as safe as they seem, even the Imperial Military is sorely lacking in personnel who can properly handle such tasks. As for the Alliance—" She shrugged. "Life and death are fated, wealth depends on signal strength. Their situation is special, but guiding attention towards post-war cleanup through the competition is indeed important. The committee put some thought into it."

"Even so, solving the immediate problem is more important. From the notice, it seems there are two main ways to earn points: hunting insectoids and discovering Civilization Points. Besides earning points, we also need to solve survival issues ourselves. Finding food on a deserted planet is another problem," Zhou Huixue interjected coolly, finally speaking up for the first time since arriving at the competition. Probably because she observed that First Empire Academy wasn't acting arrogantly due to their numerical advantage as she had expected, and even Yan Ning was still her usual self, she spoke more casually.

Considering First Empire Academy's advantage, Zhou Huixue thought for a moment and turned to Eve. "With so many tasks, we'll definitely need to split into groups. What are your thoughts on this?"

"Seven groups. Two groups will be responsible for finding survival resources like food and water. The other five groups will focus on earning points," Eve said. With over thirty people, she had been thinking about how to divide them reasonably while she was silent earlier. "Food can only be obtained through hunting. Exotic plant beasts and parts of insectoids are edible, but we need professionals to oversee that. Fortunately, our school's Medical Department Chief Lu Qing and Vice Chief Luo Lin are both here. I suggest they each lead a team. The remaining five teams will be led by me, Senior Isabella, Senior Ning Yibei, Chairman Yang Haibo, and you. You can lead your own school's team. The four of us will assign members based on needs. How does that sound?"

Zhou Huixue was more than happy to be grouped with her own school and immediately nodded in agreement. "My team is fine with that."

Besides her, Isabella also had no objections. Coincidentally, there were four from the Cavendish family line in First Empire Academy: Isabella, Bailey, Anthony, and Mu Huanzhu, plus a healing support specialist, Cecil—just enough to form a well-equipped team.

But after some internal discussion among them, Mu Huanzhu unexpectedly stepped out and stood before Luo Lin, her expression calm. "I'll go with you, to balance the combat strength between the groups."

"Thank you," Luo Lin said, readily accepting the offer of a Melee Department Vice Chief.

"I don't have a problem leading a team," Ning Yibei said after a moment's thought, "but there are probably people here more suitable than me, like Junior Alice, Junior Murphy, and Junior Yan Ning. As academy chairpersons, they are fully capable of leading teams, right? May I ask why you chose me as a team leader?"

"I actually have leadership skills... Haha," Murphy chuckled dryly, suddenly being named. "To be honest, I prefer going with the flow. You overestimate me, Senior."

Yan Ning was similar—a pure lone wolf. She was fine with fighting, but when it came to leading a team, before she could even speak, Zao Jian Chun Sha, who had suffered from her style before, directly refused on her behalf.

As for Alice, after a moment of surprise, she smiled gently. "I won't lead a team. I'll just follow Chief Lu's team. Alchemists have weak combat power; they definitely need extra protection."

Just as the Empire intended to target Lin Cuimei, in this environment, as long as the Alliance members weren't fools, they would also prioritize targeting the Empire's alchemists once they realized it. This was precisely why Isabella had earlier suggested Mu Huanzhu go with Luo Lin.

When it came to personal assignments, the group finally became more engaged. After further discussion, the final team arrangement was to merge the two alchemist teams responsible for finding food and water into one, concentrating manpower to improve safety. Besides the members from First Empire Academy, the Melee Department Chiefs from Capital People's University, Imperial University of Science and Technology, and Blue Star Comprehensive also joined this team.

As for the combat and exploration teams, they would still be led by Eve, Isabella, Ning Yibei, Zhou Huixue, and Yang Haibo. Zhou Huixue's team remained solely from Imperial Arts and Sciences; their school's internal distribution was reasonable and didn't need changes. The other four teams, considering the possible knowledge requirements in the competition, were each assigned members who function as knowledge resources.

Eve's team had herself plus Lorca. Isabella's team had Luo Wenqing. Ning Yibei's team had Tachibana Maki. Yang Haibo himself was a Three-Star alchemist with high expertise, so Yan Ning generously let her assistant Zao Jian Chun Sha join their team as a fighter, while she herself, using the excuse of only joining teams with people she knew, squeezed into Eve's team. Additionally, since Jessica was assigned to the alchemist team, Eve took the slightly less capable Liz with her. The Investigation Department Chief from Blue Star Comprehensive was also assigned to her team to balance combat strength.

"Let's split up and scout the area first," Eve said, her fingers lightly brushing the hilt of the Tang sword at her waist, the several titanium rings clinking softly. She looked up at the setting sun. "It's getting late, and we still need to find a campsite and food for today. Priority is to find Civilization Points and see if there's anything useful."

"Alright."

"No objections here."

"Then we'll go this way," Isabella pointed westward. "Let's tentatively set today's campsite around here, for easier regrouping."

After quick discussions, the groups assigned their tasks. Eve led her team eastward. Because the buildings along the street were densely packed, they didn't summon mechas to replace manpower but proceeded along the sidewalk.

There was almost no color here; everything seemed filtered through a frosted lens. Withered exotic plant corpses clung to the lampposts. Out of curiosity, Yan Ning cut a long gash in a still-plump leaf with her short knife. Thick, pus-like sap immediately oozed from the cut, along with dense black egg sacs, dripping onto the ground. Tiny, sesame-sized undeveloped larvae squirmed within the translucent membranes, a thoroughly disgusting sight.

"Yuck," she yelped, jumping back several steps as if electrocuted, her face full of disgust. "That's disgusting."

"If you think it's disgusting, don't touch it. That's thick mustard grass. Because it has strong purification abilities, it's often chosen by low-level insectoids as the best egg-laying site," Eve said irritably. "The stem is dried up, but the leaf is still so plump—a sure sign it's been hollowed out by bugs."

However, judging by the state of the exotic plant, it hadn't died long ago. Since there were still life forms present, it suggested there must be a water source or other survival resources nearby.

There was a residential compound nearby. The black iron railings were rusted through. Eve broke the lock and similarly forced open the security room door. Inside was covered in a thick layer of dust. As they entered, their shoes kicked up yellow dust, revealing the originally white tiles beneath.

Like a typical security room, it had an outer and inner room. The outer room had large tempered glass windows on three walls. The inner room was a narrow bedroom. It was unclear what had happened on this planet, but judging from the disheveled bedding on the bed, the person living here had been leading a normal life—as if all vitality had vanished from the planet in an instant.

Yan Ning, unable to keep her hands to herself, opened an enamel mug on the table. This time, no surprise insect eggs, just dried green mold, clumps of dirty green that looked disgusting. Sinclair, the Investigation Department Chief from Blue Star Comprehensive next to her, couldn't help but say, "...Can you please stop touching everything?"

Sinclair muttered under her breath, "Does she have to open everything just to find disgusting things?"

Liz and Lorca were checking the outer room. Soon, they found what they needed. Lorca called Eve over. "Little Fu, come look at this."

"Hmm?"

A yellowed, wide-page logbook was spread open on the table. Aside from the dense rows of visitor registrations and work notes, this residential area, named "North Garden Residential Area Phase 2," had a total of 54 residential buildings, plus an uncounted number of other types of buildings.

"This place can only count as one Civilization Point at most, or maybe not even one. But we can't search through such a large compound completely," Lorca rubbed his temples, finally getting a clue why the committee had been uncharacteristically nice with their words. "This city must have hundreds of compounds like this, plus countless shopping malls, parks, schools, libraries, and other places that are even harder to count. And we still don't know what exactly counts as a Civilization Point."

"At least that broken teacup doesn't count," Yan Ning said. She had already secretly photographed it and uploaded it, and the system gave her zero points.

To prove her point, Yan Ning raised her wrist to show the others. With one glance, Eve's eyelid twitched. "Why is your watch battery already down to 90%?"

"Really? It's fine, I'll just go out and get some sun. Aren't these things supposed to charge with solar power?"

"With this hazy, polluted weather, where are you going to find sunlight?" Eve suddenly felt the committee's malicious intent and said wearily, "Whether it's a Civilization Point or not, we have to enter this compound—and find batteries for this darn watch."

Food is fuel for the body, but without power, the watch is useless.

After realizing this trap, even Lorca's expression went blank for a moment... Layer upon layer of tricks. Was the person who designed this smoothly linked, diabolical competition format even human?