“Clang! Clang! Clang!”
The man in silver armor approached from afar, each of his steps striking the ground with a force that sent shockwaves through Ning Xingxue’s heart.
Just like the confidence she had always carried herself with, the man before her exuded an even greater sense of mystery — and an overwhelming pressure.
“Hello, I’m Bai Qiu. You must be Ning Xingxue, right?” Bai Qiu said as he walked closer.
After she nodded in confirmation, he turned his gaze toward the two people beside her and asked again,
“And they are?”
Although the two hadn’t concealed their personal information, Bai Qiu hadn’t bothered to check anything about them besides their levels.
Through Ning Xingxue’s introduction, Bai Qiu learned that the two were among the three key figures of the Safe Zone.
The tall, thin man was named Huang Qi — a lover of alcohol and an openhearted man, admired by many young survivors for his bold and carefree nature.
The burly man was Zhao Daqiang, a former armed police officer before the Catastrophe struck.
Though now retired, he continued to maintain order within Safe Zone No. 2243.
Most of the weaker survivors were able to live stable lives thanks to his help.
He was also the only one who both led groups to hunt monsters for experience and ventured outside to search for other survivors.
In times like these, calling him a “great benefactor” would not be an exaggeration.
His reputation was unmatched, and he was deeply respected and loved by all survivors.
As for Ning Xingxue, aside from her natural talent and diligence, she also maintained a wide network of connections.
She had recruited a number of promising individuals under her command, though her standards were rather high — in total, her team had just over twenty members.
Bai Qiu’s profile, on the other hand, was very simple — a solo player who liked fighting monsters and leveling up.
Nothing more.
He spoke up, “Since everyone’s here with sincerity, I’ll be direct. I came here with a purpose, so I have a few conditions. If you all agree, we can head straight into the dungeon.”
“Go ahead,” Ning Xingxue replied, while the others adopted serious expressions.
When it came to matters of loot distribution, everyone was cautious about revealing their bottom line — especially since the man before them far out-leveled them all.
“First, I request that we hide all personal information after forming the party. I don’t care who takes the position of team leader.”
Everyone nodded.
That was a modest request.
Given his level, he could easily have demanded to be the leader outright, and none of them could have objected.
“Second, regarding distribution — experience points will be evenly shared. Loot from monsters and gathering will go to whoever collects them. As for boss fights, we’ll split the rewards evenly. As for treasure chests…”
The group looked at him in surprise.
For someone of his level, these terms were surprisingly fair — even generous.
After all, higher levels meant he would have to shoulder most of the fighting burden, especially during boss battles.
The fact that he was willing to share rewards equally left them all a little stunned.
And from the way he spoke, it was clear Bai Qiu had experience with dungeon instances before.
“The third and final condition: all elite monsters in the dungeon must be killed by me. It’s related to my personal quest — and the main reason I’m here.”
…
The three readily agreed and even nominated Bai Qiu as the team leader, then asked him about the dungeon’s details.
After all, they weren’t fools.
Who knew how many monsters an E-rank dungeon might contain — or how strong they might be?
Even if they were all E-rank, facing hundreds at once would still be disastrous.
Once the team was formed and all the settings confirmed, Ning Xingxue handed the dungeon card to Bai Qiu, letting him activate it.
“Ding! Activating E-rank dungeon: Fertile Prairie. Players: 4/5. Countdown begins…”
Four beams of light enveloped the four of them, and under the glowing billboard, they vanished simultaneously.
A flash of blinding light — and when they opened their eyes again, they were standing in an entirely unfamiliar landscape.
Rustle… rustle…
The grass beneath their feet stirred with a faint rustling, as though something was hiding within.
Ning Xingxue and the others immediately tensed up, turning their wary gazes toward the source of the sound.
Bai Qiu, however, didn’t pay it any mind.
His Fivefold Arcane Crystallized Eyes had been active the entire time, and his enhanced vision combined with his sensitivity to mana particles told him that the sound just now was nothing more than the wind.
Scanning his surroundings, he noticed that the grass varied in height — some barely reached his ankles, while others rose past his knees.
Still, there was no denying one thing: the grass resources here were extremely abundant.
With his heightened perception, Bai Qiu quickly gathered basic information about the area, including details on several special plants.
Purplethorn Fruit (E-Rank)
Description: Sweet and tangy in flavor, rich in nutrients. Consuming large quantities can strengthen muscles and restore stamina — but beware of its thorns.
The Purplethorn Fruit Tree was a herbaceous plant about half a meter tall.
Its stems, branches, and leaves were all covered in backward-facing thorns.
The fruit itself was small, about the size of a pinky fingernail, round, and deep purple in color.
Each plant bore around twenty fruits.
As for the wildlife, there were several species — buffalo, hyenas, lions, and cheetahs — most around Level 10 or below.
So far, no elite monsters had been sighted.
Bai Qiu frowned slightly.
Though the dungeon appeared to be an endless grassland, his Fivefold Arcane Crystallized Eyes revealed the truth — the entire area was only about the size of ten football fields combined.
Straight ahead, a few hundred meters away, there was a faintly visible transparent wall blocking the way.
When he looked upward, he saw the same kind of barrier roughly thirty meters above.
It was as if a section of the African savannah had been sliced out and turned into a dungeon instance.
“This dungeon’s area is roughly one million square meters — about a kilometer in both length and width,” Bai Qiu explained.
“There’s an air wall a thousand meters out, and another one thirty meters overhead. The strongest creatures here are buffalo. Hyenas move in packs, usually ten or more, with the weakest around Level 7.”
“Lion prides generally have five or fewer members — one male and several females. There are only a few cheetahs total. Special plants include Zijing Fruit, sunflowers, and violet trumpet orchids. No elite monsters detected so far.”
As he spoke, Bai Qiu took screenshots of the information and sent them to the party chat.
Huang Qi exclaimed, “Holy crap, brother, that’s insane! You’ve already mapped out the whole dungeon this fast? You must have some kind of special scouting skill, right?”
The other two were just as stunned.
They hadn’t expected that in less than a minute of entering, this high-level player had already managed to assess everything so thoroughly.
Bai Qiu nodded.
Pulling out the dungeon map, he glanced over it and said, “No elite monsters detected — odd. As for treasure chests, I’ll check later where the grass looks the thickest.”
According to the map, there were three treasure chests and four elite monsters, but no boss.
The main difficulty of this dungeon lay in dealing with large herds of beasts.
Although these monsters didn’t have the kind of special strengthening skills that the Crimson Feather Chicken had, their physical stats were impressive — some, like the buffalo, naturally possessed D-rank attributes, far surpassing ordinary humans in raw strength.
Putting the map away, Bai Qiu drew his Darksteel Longbow and said calmly,
“Everyone, mind if I run a little experiment first?”
— The end of the Chapter–
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