Chapter 249 The Last Hope Is a Coffin

Global Announcement: Dragon Nation contestant No. 99, Fang Ming, has died.

Current Ranking: 163/163

Dragon Nation Supreme Command Center

General Pei, his hair now completely white, gripped the armrest so tightly that his knuckles turned pale. His eyes were bloodshot.

"Are we going to be the next nation eliminated? Is this broken game targeting Dragon Nation? Why are all our contestants old, weak, sick, or disabled?"

"Damn it! Obviously, people from other countries are sabotaging us. But this is a survival battle. We can’t exactly blame them for playing by the rules, can we?"

"Damn it!"

"Capture that big guy upstairs alive!"

"Report it!"

"Ah, forget it. The dead are beyond our concern. Anyway, my entire family is moving to Kangaroo Nation tomorrow."

"Damn it! We’re all going to die anyway. I might as well take a few of them down with me!"

At that moment, every screen broadcasting Dragon Nation’s live feed—including the massive display in the command center—suddenly went black.

"What happened?"

"Signal lost!"

"Could it be... our last contestant?"

Terrible possibilities flooded everyone’s minds, dragging their spirits into the depths of despair.

If this final chance was lost as well, Dragon Nation would suffer the same fate as the more than thirty nations that had already been eliminated.

Fortunately, a few seconds later, the screens flickered back to life.

Global Announcement: Dragon Nation contestant No. 100, Shen Yu. Live broadcast commencing.

The scene on the screen was an endless blue ocean. Gentle waves rose and fell, carrying a thin wooden coffin that bobbed helplessly on the water.

Some viewers rubbed their eyes.

A coffin?

An old-fashioned wooden coffin, no less.

Its edges had darkened from prolonged exposure to seawater. The wood looked so fragile that the slightest impact might shatter it.

Inside the coffin lay a young man in his twenties.

He was handsome, with a pale face and tightly closed eyes. His body rested peacefully, almost as if he were asleep.

If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, he could easily have been mistaken for a corpse awaiting burial.

Inside the command center, General Pei had only just begun to feel a glimmer of hope.

Now, he staggered backward, nearly collapsing. A nearby guard hurriedly caught him.

"This... What kind of starting point is this?"

The general’s voice was hoarse.

In the live chat, three seconds of stunned silence passed before the messages erupted—this time, with a despair a hundred times greater than before.

[A coffin?]

[I’m not seeing this wrong, am I?]

[Damn it! Other nations get rafts and fishing boats, while our contestant starts in a coffin!]

[This is a burial at sea!]

[Has the game gone insane? Is this some kind of punishment mode?]

Viewers from other countries watching Dragon Nation’s broadcast laughed at its misfortune.

"Hahaha! Their era is over!"

In Dragon Nation’s command center, military strategist Zhang Guangwei’s face was as dark as iron.

Beside him, Professor Li Shu, an expert in ocean ecology, also looked pale.

"Director Zhang... Is there still hope?"

Zhang Guangwei let out a deep sigh.

"We have to believe."

Although he said those words, he understood the situation clearly.

Judging by the material of the coffin, the ordinary wood had been soaked in seawater for so long that it was already reaching its limit.

Forget a storm. Even a collision with a large sea creature could cause it to fall apart.

This young man might not even get the chance to wake up.

Just as the global audience believed that Dragon Nation’s final contestant’s failure was merely a matter of ten minutes sooner or later, a sharp screech suddenly pierced the silence.

A gigantic seagull with a wingspan exceeding two meters appeared above the ocean.

Unlike the seagulls of Blue Star, this creature had gray-black feathers, a sharp beak that gleamed with a metallic sheen, and blood-red eyes.

Its gaze locked onto the young man inside the coffin.

To the creature, the coffin was nothing more than a convenient lunchbox.

"A mutant seagull!" Professor Li Shu cried out.

"Its beak can pierce two millimeters of iron. It’s over!"

No further explanation was necessary.

Just looking at the creature’s enormous size and vicious expression made it clear that this was no ordinary seabird.

Sure enough, the giant bird circled once above the coffin, screeched again, then folded its wings and plunged toward Shen Yu.

Its target was unmistakable.

The young man’s head.

The mutant seagull’s speed was terrifying. It descended from high above, its beak glinting with cold light beneath the sun.

Inside Dragon Nation’s livestream, countless viewers instinctively shut their eyes or covered their screens with their hands.

"No! Don’t!"

"This useless fool! It’s already come to this, and he’s still lying there!"

"Get up, damn it!"

"Even a dog would be better than you!"

The cries and curses merged into a single wave of anguish. Many had already imagined the horrific scene of the young man’s head being pierced by the giant bird’s beak.

At the command center, General Pei’s face was drained of color.

"It’s too late..."

In a completely unguarded state of sleep, the human nervous system had a limit to how quickly it could react.

Professor Li Shu, her face as pale as paper, murmured in despair.

"Its target is the eyeball. That’s a common trait among predators. The eyes are one of the most vulnerable parts of the body..."

The entire world focused on this moment.

In Beautiful Nation’s livestream, the host spoke in an exaggerated tone.

"Oh, look! The Grim Reaper descending from the sky! This poor Dragon Nation contestant’s survival journey hasn’t even begun, and it’s already about to end in such a dramatic fashion."

"Let’s observe a three-second moment of silence for him."

The mutant seagull’s dive produced a piercing whistle as it rushed toward Shen Yu’s eye socket.

But just before its cold, gleaming beak could touch his skin—

Without even opening his eyes, Shen Yu’s left hand rose with uncanny precision and blocked his face.