As the members decreased, it stood to reason that they would travel slower and it would be harder to fight. But in reality, they were not negatively affected by the decrease in manpower, and they were even moving faster than before.
At a corner of the street, Ji Ling Feng managed to block six monsters by himself. From how he looked, he seemed to still have spare power.
The close combat players surrounded him, waiting for opportunities to attack.
The archers kept on shooting, and the mages cast madly.
After a while, the monsters fell to the ground.
“Continue.” Ji Ling Feng strode forward at the very front.
“Purple armor, purple belt, purple shield, is he the legendary lucky star?” Yun Ling thought.
She and Guard A had killed many monsters together in the last few days. She had given all the dropped equipment to Guard A. Those that could not be worn were in the warehouse, waiting for Guards B and C in the future.
She wanted to upgrade her equipment and change out her weapon, but all the drops were white, not even one blue. She could not exchange them.
“As expected of a team, they work well,” You Qing Wen murmured. “The ones to take damage take damage, the ones to output damage do so, they do not fight each other, and have clear division of labor.”
“They should have trained,” Zheng Ming Yue guessed. “It is hard to have such cooperation unless they have experienced dozens of battles.”
Hearing this, You Qing Wen sighed heavily. “Since the start of the game, we were stuck together with our teammates, Why did we not develop such cooperation?”
Zheng Ming Yue lowered his voice. “Different foundations. Look closely. The close combat clearly are trained, their fighting postures are different.”
You Qing Wen observed and found this was true. The close combat players were clean and attacked the weak points directly like professionals.
No wonder they could withstand the attacks of the monsters during the night and return to camp.
No wonder they dared to organize people to return to the Hypermarket.
No wonder none of them left the team just now.
You Qing Wen suddenly realized.
**
Ten minutes passed by in a flash, and it was then time for Yun Ling and the others to open the way.
Because this was a temporary team, and there was no cooperation to speak of at all, everyone decided to go free. No matter what they did, killing monsters was a good thing.
It was silent on the way.
After about two minutes, there was a loud boom from up ahead.
Wei Qing unconsciously tightened his grip on his blade.
He looked and saw a shop fall into ruin. Many wild beasts flicked their tails as they chewed through the reinforced concrete.
Attacking first was better than being attacked.
Wei Qing was planning when he heard Lu Chuan say, “Ignore them, let’s go.”
“Why?” Ah Xiang frowned. “The monsters have keen senses of smell, and will sense us. If they attack first, it will be harder to fight.”
“They are ground-burrowing beasts, they aren’t interested in people. Even if you stand in front of them, they will ignore you,” Lu Chuan said.
“How do you know?” Wei Qing asked with a wooden expression.
Lu Chuan swept Wei Qing with a glance and did not speak.
“Never mind, don’t say.”
Wei Qing thought the answer would be “saw it before” or “other people are ignorant,” and he did not want to listen to that.
Skipping the questions, they went to the next topic —
“For safety, it is best if someone tries. Who is willing?”
Bai Chu Fan looked at the enormous beasts and felt a hint of fear.
If the team moved together, he would not have any objections. He would not go up alone, separate from the team!
But if a tank did not do this, could other people be counted on?
“How about Ah Xiang and I go together…” Bai Chu Fan wanted to say that two tanks could go together to test the way but in the next second, he saw Yun Ling leave the team, and safely pass by the multiple beasts.
Just like Lu Chuan said, the ground-burrowing beasts focused on feeding and did not care about the outside world.
“Let’s go.”
Certain that the ground-burrowing beasts would not attack of their own accord, the players sped up and moved away.
**
They stopped along the way, and traveled slowly. At 9:35, the team reached the Hypermarket.
Because everyone was in a good condition, they did not rest and entered directly.
Before departure, Yu Hui had told everyone, “Right now, the Hypermarket is taken over by a swarm of praying mantises. They are about half the height of a man, their forearms like blades. They are very quick in moving, and are like ghosts. If you are not paying attention, the blades will cut through your carotid arteries.”
“What weaknesses do they have?” Wei Qing said directly.
“High attack, low defense, average HP,” Yu Hui had a solemn expression. “Remember, once you are attacked, do not be in a hurry to flee, you have to fight back instantly. After killing the monster, you will be safe.”
After warning repeatedly, making sure everybody remembered, the thirty people held their breath, their nerves tense as they carefully moved forward.
The Hypermarket was so quiet it was frightening.
Other than the thirty players, there seemed to be nothing else alive in the surroundings.
Entering from the entrance, the shelves they passed were full of goods. Biscuits, cakes, bread, milk, chocolate, water, instant noodles, all kinds of supplies.
Fang De Lin’s throat tightened. He could not stop himself, tearing apart a bag of ham and taking large bites.
The surroundings were frighteningly quiet, and the sounds of chewing were exceptionally loud.
Many players heard the sound and could not avoid watching.
His older brother Fang De Yang was very embarrassed. He pulled his younger brother’s arm, motioning for the other to restrain himself.
“We risked our lives to reach the Hypermarket, wasn’t it just to get something to eat?” Fang De Lin did not care. “With so much supplies in front of us, what are you waiting for? Box them up, move them, get moving.”
“Maintain the team shape! Be on guard!” Seeing members of the team swayed, Yu Hui shouted.
“We can first clean out the monsters, but call them out.” Fang De Lin looked around, and did not see even one praying mantis. He thought that the monsters had left long ago, so he dared to eat openly like this.
Yu Hui pressed his lips together, and did not speak.
In reality, the two were not speaking quietly. Based on his past experience, the monsters would give chase when they heard noise. But now? There was no movement at all. Had the praying mantises that took over the Hypermarket left?
Without knowing it, a minute passed.
Yu Hui’s expression changed, and he could not make a choice.
“It has been so long without a sound. It appears the monsters have left,” Ji Ling Feng said coolly. “Ten people to a team, split and gather supplies. Pay attention, do not get too far, and call for help if something happens.”
“Ling Feng!” Yu Hui said lowly, his expression disapproving.
“Uncle Yu, there are no monsters in the Hypermarket right now,” Ji Ling Feng said calmly. “While I do not know what happened, the chance is rare. We have to hurry up and move the supplies back to camp.”
Yu Hui thought this was right, so he sighed and did not persist.
Seeing Ji Ling Feng agree with his viewpoint, Fang De Lin was overjoyed. “What are we waiting for? Get the carts and fill them with supplies!”
Hearing this, the players seemed to wake up from their dream and started to take action.
Then, everyone demonstrated what it meant to “sweep goods.”
They would push the cart from one end of the shelf to another, pushing gently with their hands. In the blink of an eye, all the goods would fall into the cart.
After one shelf, there was the next.
Yun Ling ordered Guard A to push the cart, and take the canned meat, chocolate, candy, biscuits, and other foods that were small and light but had long shelf lives. She ran to the grain area, and filled up with the rice.
Originally, staples and drinking water were the most in demand, but as the game changed, the river water became clear and sweet so it could be used as drinking water. Because of this, Yun Ling gave up on moving water, and put staples in all four slots in her linen backpack.
After packing up everything, she just filled three slots, 191 bags of rice. The others were either open, or had damaged packaging, or were from different brands.
Yun Ling took several circles around the food area, and decided to put corn in the last slot.
It was a sweet corn, ten to a box, and vacuum packed with a long shelf life.
She looked, and at a glance, the boxes were piled up, more than fifty of them.
It would be best if she had 99 boxes. Yun Ling thought. Then that would be called using the storage of the backpack fully.
Pity that there were just 65 boxes in the end.
Not bad. Yun Ling comforted herself. The corn was filling, and 65 boxes were enough to eat for a long type.
Because of her fruitful gains, she was in a good mood, and her steps were light.
When she came back to the shelves, there were only three people left in the ten person team, Guard A, Wei Qing and Fang De Yang.
Yun Ling was puzzled. “Where is everyone else?”
Wei Qing answered with a dark expression, “They sneaked away just like how you left.”
There was endless sadness in his words.
In Wei Qing’s view, no matter what the present situation was like, the ten people should be together, and act together.
But when he turned around, half of the members had left. When he looked back again, there were only a few.
Where had the other people gone? Wei Qing also wanted to know.
Yun Ling said, unconcerned. “They are all adults, they will not get lost.”
Wei Qing, “… …”
He had a stomach ache.
He did not want to team up with these people again!