Unbelievable.
Inconceivable.
Every viewer following the live stream was staring in shock.
They had set out at around seven in the morning, and now it was almost noon.
More than five hours had passed.
Xu Fan and Holo, one man and one wolf, had pressed on without a single break, stopping only once along the way to replenish their fresh water.
The rest of the time, they had kept up a marathon pace.
The most frightening part was...
Xu Fan's breathing had remained steady from start to finish.
It was as if a long trek like this were just part of his daily routine.
The Female Snow Wolf, on the other hand, had occasionally slowed down along the way.
"Xu Fan's stamina is terrifying! How is he even doing this? Is he still human?"
"I'll say this: if Xu Fan entered a full marathon, he'd definitely win. He might even break the all-time record!"
"It probably has something to do with the reward from the Treasure Chest. The description said Wrist Strength Enhancement, not wrist enhancement, so Xu Fan's leg strength should have been enhanced too."
While still reeling from the shock, the viewers scrambled to find a rational explanation for Xu Fan's performance.
Because no matter what, they simply couldn't believe a human could have such monstrous stamina!
And from what they could see, Xu Fan didn't look tired at all.
That meant he could keep going at his current pace.
So the question was...
What was Xu Fan's limit?
Six hours?
Eight hours?
Or ten?
No one knew.
Of course...
The more Xu Fan surpassed the limits of human ability, the happier the Yan Kingdom's viewers became.
After all, Xu Fan represented the Yan Kingdom.
Any resources he discovered in the Forbidden Land would materialize within Yan Kingdom's borders!
They had a shared interest!
What's more, the people of Yan Kingdom had always felt one of the strongest senses of national belonging on Blue Star!
By contrast, the viewers from other countries who flooded into the Live Stream Room...
They took every opportunity to mock Xu Fan.
They were practically green with envy.
But there was nothing to be done about that.
Xu Fan might not have been the first contestant to obtain resources from the Forbidden Land, but he had obtained more than anyone else.
He was also the first contestant to tame a Forbidden Land beast.
And it was a D-Rank Beast!
Without comparison, there could be no hurt.
What wilderness survival experts?
What special forces soldiers?
They couldn't hold a candle to him.
But...
Just as everyone watched Xu Fan's every move with rapt attention...
The Female Snow Wolf, who had been following close behind him, suddenly stopped.
What's more, the fur along its body stood on end. Sharp fangs showed at the corners of its mouth, and now and then it let out a warning growl.
The Female Snow Wolf...
Had bristled!
"What's going on?" Xiao Ying, the host, couldn't help freezing. A sense of foreboding welled up in her heart.
"That's a stress response," Brother Qiang immediately explained.
"It's a nonspecific reaction triggered by a stressful stimulus."
"It's an animal's instinctive self-defense mechanism."
"Although I don't know why the Female Snow Wolf suddenly reacted this way, I'm certain there's some danger lurking in this seemingly peaceful Snow Forest!"
Brother Qiang's face turned ashen.
Many contestants from other countries still hadn't encountered any danger at all.
But their own contestant, Xu Fan...
Although he really was lucky, he had also faced danger more often than anyone else.
The worst part was...
The Female Snow Wolf was a D-Rank Beast.
Even if it couldn't match the Snow Wolf King, its combat strength couldn't have been far off.
E-Rank and E+-Rank Beasts couldn't pose any threat to it.
Let alone trigger a stress response.
That alone was enough to tell them that whatever danger was hidden nearby was no small matter!
"I wonder whether Xu Fan can get out of danger this time..." Yuan Yuan swallowed and murmured under her breath.
The hundreds of millions of viewers in the Live Stream Room were all holding their breath for Xu Fan, too.
Inside the Forbidden Land...
Xu Fan quickly noticed the Female Snow Wolf's strange reaction.
"Hm?"
Xu Fan furrowed his brow and looked in the direction the Female Snow Wolf was warily facing.
"Observation Haki!"
Xu Fan gave a silent shout, instantly spreading his Observation Haki over an area several hundred meters in every direction.
It wasn't just the Female Snow Wolf behaving strangely.
Every other creature in the Snow Forest was frightened, too.
Sika deer raced through the woods.
Birds of every kind beat their wings frantically, rushing to escape the forest.
And some of the smaller creatures...
Rabbits and the like curled up, their eyes vacant.
It looked like doomsday on the eve of a volcanic eruption.
Whatever had triggered the Female Snow Wolf wasn't a beast!
"Could it be..."
In a flash, a possibility occurred to Xu Fan.
A natural disaster!
Only the forces of nature could terrify every living creature like this!
"Holo, let's—"
But before Xu Fan could even say the word "go"...
The ground began to shake violently.
Cracks appeared beneath Xu Fan and the Female Snow Wolf, visible to the naked eye.
And they kept widening.
A nearby mountainside began to give way. Countless boulders and uprooted trees came tumbling down.
Even the D-Rank Beast Female Snow Wolf couldn't stop its limbs from trembling.
It had never experienced anything like this in the Forbidden Land.
Seeing this, Xu Fan could only step forward, spread the fingers of his right hand, and grab hold.
He clamped firmly onto the back of the Female Snow Wolf's neck.
Then...
The muscles in Xu Fan's arm surged with strength. As if he were lifting a kitten, he picked the hundred-pound Female Snow Wolf right up off the ground.
But what happened next was beyond belief...
Xu Fan didn't turn and run.
Instead, he faced forward and stood his ground with absolute confidence.
He didn't know why the forest had suddenly changed like this, but no one could outrun a natural disaster of this magnitude.
So...
Xu Fan took a deep breath and unleashed the power of the Tremor-Tremor Fruit.
The air around him compressed rapidly.
In an instant, the compressed air gathered beneath Xu Fan's feet.
Crack, crack...
Amid the sound of air shattering, the force surged straight into the earth.
The ground beneath him collided head-on with the trembling forest.
In a split second, two of the most primal, most ferocious forces reached a delicate balance.
What's more, under the influence of Xu Fan's power, every boulder and tree tumbling down the mountainside veered around him.
For a moment, the spot where Xu Fan stood was the only safe haven.
The viewers in the Live Stream Room were all dumbfounded, too.
They stared at Xu Fan, unable to make sense of what they were seeing.
"Why isn't Xu Fan running? Run!"
"Ahhh! Why is Xu Fan just standing there? Get out of there!"
"What are you waiting for? If you don't run now, it'll be too late!"
The Yan Kingdom's viewers, unaware of what was happening, hammered at their keyboards, hoping Xu Fan would hurry up and move.
Some viewers from abroad seized the opportunity to sneer at him, too.
"Your contestant's probably already scared senseless. He can't even move his feet."
"That Xu Fan guy is probably done for this time."
Before you continue