Chapter 187: Public Announcement

Chen Sisi scooted backward. Shi Zhile, annoyed, stomped on her leg. The axe fell, and a head went rolling.

[+1000.]

Chen Yan’s pupils shrank, and she took half a step back. “She was just telling the tru—”

Shi Zhile picked up Chen Sisi’s head and threw it at Chen Yan.

A scream ripped through the air, and for a moment, even the raindrops seemed to pause.

Pan Ming stepped in front of Chen Yan, his wary expression shifting to one of disgust. “You’ve already killed one. Must you be so aggressive? Do you have to wipe them all out?”

“Besides, Chen Yan didn’t even say anything.”

Shi Zhile looked at him. “She felt it was an injustice for the person I killed. That means she has a problem with me. If she has a problem with me, she might retaliate. I won’t kill her. You take your people and get lost.”

Pan Ming gave Tang Yan a nod, then pulled Chen Yan and turned to leave.

The moment they turned, Tang Yan raised his Crossbow and fired three bolts at once. One struck Chen Yan square in the heart, while Pan Ming dodged the other two.

“You!”

Shi Zhile’s weapon changed again. She nocked an arrow and fired.

Again, Pan Ming dodged it.

He glanced at the thoroughly dead Chen Yan beside him, then grit his teeth, yanked up her body to use as a shield, and charged toward the two of them.

‘I know I can’t escape,’ he thought. ‘But if I risk it all, I might just live.’

Shi Zhile sidestepped the charge, her axe appearing silently in her hand as she swung it out in a wide arc.

At the same time, Tang Yan dodged to the other side. His Crossbow vanished, and a dagger spun around his fingertips before he gripped it in a reverse hold and met the charge.

Pan Ming had just blocked the axe with the corpse when he was viciously attacked from behind. Caught off guard, he was stabbed with the dagger and collapsed, going limp on the ground.

“We’re both from Huaxia Base. Why are you siding with an outsider?”

Tang Yan retorted, “An outsider? Most of the dry rations at the base came from her. You didn’t call her an outsider when you were eating them, but now suddenly she is? That’s not how this works.”

“You… You’re Shi Zhile?”

‘Isn’t it obvious?’

Shi Zhile didn’t bother responding to him.

She had personally brought all the players to the secret base; she refused to believe he didn’t recognize her.

The only reason he was speaking up now was that he was on death’s door and didn’t want to die.

Shi Zhile looked at Tang Yan. “You kill him! A head is worth a thousand points. Don’t let it go to waste.”

Tang Yan stepped forward, plunged the dagger into the man’s heart, then slit his throat in another clean, efficient motion.

As usual, Shi Zhile took out the Corpse Dissolving Water. A moment later, the bodies had vanished.

The rain lessened, showing faint signs of stopping. The two of them stopped taking shelter, extinguished their fire, and headed into the grasslands.

With no tall trees, there was no place to hide.

She couldn’t launch a surprise attack, but neither could anyone else.

From a distance, they could only see a large patch of black dots moving.

Shi Zhile pulled out a pair of binoculars. One look, and she broke into a grin.

“It’s black cattle. And that looks like… a sika deer?”

Tang Yan chuckled. “That’s a springbok, a type of antelope. And those aren’t black cattle, they’re black yaks.”

“Come on, let’s go catch a couple.”

Tang Yan shifted, a phantom ache reminding him of being headbutted by a goat:

“Whether it’s the black yaks or the springboks, they’re all ridiculously fast. Forget catching them; they’ll probably scatter before we even get close. We could try shooting them, though.”

Shi Zhile said, “They’re out of range.”

Her bow and arrows were excellent, but unfortunately, their Level was too low. At full draw, she could only shoot about 150 meters at most.

Tang Yan’s Crossbow had a longer range, but its accuracy wasn’t the best.

Tang Yan analyzed the situation. “Let’s give it a shot. With no cover, we’ll have to rely on luck.”

Shi Zhile nodded. The two of them crept a little closer. When they closed the distance to three hundred meters, a few of the springboks spotted them.

However, the animals only glanced at them for a moment before lowering their heads to continue grazing.

They continued to approach. An arrow and a bolt were fired at the same time, but unfortunately, only the bolt from the Crossbow hit a springbok.

As the springbok cried out in pain, all the animals scattered in a frenzy.

Shi Zhile immediately summoned an off-road vehicle. Once they were both seated securely, it sped off in hot pursuit.

The vehicle chased them closely. Whenever they got near, Shi Zhile would use her will to pull an animal into her Breeding Space. Unfortunately, just after she collected two yaks, the vehicle ran out of gas.

Meanwhile, Tang Yan had shot and killed a springbok.

Once the animals had disappeared from sight, the two of them got out of the vehicle to deal with the springbok.

The surroundings were empty. The sky grew dark, and a light drizzle began to fall again.

They set up a canopy by the vehicle, started a fire, and began roasting a goat leg and a springbok leg.

XiaoQing, the little Green Snake, was coiled up alone on a deck chair, chomping down on its own leg of lamb.

Tang Yan watched in fascination, occasionally slicing off a small, roasted piece of meat for it. XiaoQing would eat it all without hesitation.

Shi Zhile was scoring the leg meat and sprinkling it with salt when a series of messages from her friends popped up, causing her hand to jerk and dump a large pile of salt onto the meat.

Tang Yan took the meat from her, tipped the excess salt onto another piece, and then rubbed the two pieces together to spread the salt evenly.

Shi Zhile opened the messages.

Shi Zhiyi: “Lele, don’t stay in one place. Your coordinates have been exposed. Be careful, I think I just saw Jiang Yuxing. I’m too far away from you, but Wen Bai is heading your way.”

Jiang Jing: “Check the group messages. Watch your back. I’m with Shi Zhiyi, so you don’t have to worry about her.”

Sun Ci: “Shi Zhile, your coordinates are exposed. Wei Hui and his group’s coordinates are very close to yours. You and Tang Yan be careful. Wen Bai and I are on our way.”

Wen Bai: “Wait where you are! Be careful, I’ll be there soon!”

Shi Zhile immediately opened the chat channel.

Three minutes ago, the system had pinned a message.

[Survival Tip: Player “Contentment Brings Happiness” has taken the top spot on both the Resource and Point Rankings. The system will now provide this player’s coordinate information.]

[Killing the player who tops both rankings will award you all of their items, plus a bonus of 10,000 points.]

[Current Exquisite Items owned by this player: Planting Space x1, Breeding Space x1, Healing Spring x1, Space Spring x1, Teleportation Gate x3, Level Five Weapon x1.]

Shi Zhile laughed with rage. ‘This son of a bitch really is a sore loser.’

‘When its covert methods don’t work, it resorts to open scheming.’

‘Exposing her items was one thing, but it just had to add the words “Exquisite Items.” It’s as if it’s afraid people *won’t* come after me.’

She glanced at the other players’ messages. As far as she could see, they were all about people teaming up to kill her.

There were too many to even count.

She took stock of the items in her possession and realized she didn’t really have any high-powered weapons.

‘It’s raining now, so I can’t use the lava. But I could just hide in my space and not come out.’

She tentatively tried to enter her space, only to find it sealed again. She couldn’t help but laugh in fury.

Tang Yan looked over. “What is it? That laugh is kind of terrifying.”

Shi Zhile had him read the messages while she just watched him.

Tang Yan felt a bit awkward under her gaze. He skimmed through the messages, then quickly started packing things up and putting out the fire.

“We can’t stay here. People from nearby will be coming to kill us soon. We have to go, now.”

Shi Zhile stroked the Green Snake’s head, pulling out a small Water Gun with her other hand. “I think it’s a little late for that. I can already hear footsteps.”

XiaoQing obediently coiled around her wrist. A red light flashed in its eyes as its tongue flicked in and out incessantly.

Shi Zhile just smiled, unhurriedly putting away the deck chair and the vehicle.

The chaotic sound of footsteps grew closer and closer, eventually breaking into a run.