Guided by Observation Haki, Lin Xiaoran and Issho headed toward the city center, also visiting the lairs of fierce beasts that roamed fixed areas along the way.
"Gravity Blade! Hell's Journey!"
Under Issho's powerful Press-Press Fruit ability, a ferocious E-rank beast was crushed straight into the depths of the earth.
As Lin Xiaoran watched from the side, she also carefully studied the details of how Issho attacked and used his abilities, comparing them one by one with the ability she had drawn and gaining insights.
If the livestream hadn't been running the whole time, she would have wanted to take action herself.
"Uncle Issho, thanks for your hard work!" Lin Xiaoran applauded enthusiastically.
"It's only what I ought to do."
Although a mere Hell's Journey was only one of Issho's basic abilities and hardly deserved any praise, the one praising him was his Master, and a beautiful young girl at that!
So Issho enjoyed it immensely!
After the two dealt with the beast, sure enough, they found an E-rank treasure chest inside the abandoned building, at the center of its lair.
E-rank quality might not seem very high, but out of the 200 challengers, fewer than twenty Masters had been able to summon powerful Heroic Spirits!
The vast majority of the rest might all be cannon fodder who had never won a single victory!
In Lin Xiaoran's memories, although Sky Blue Star was very similar to Blue Star from her previous life, Sky Blue Star was actually around two or three times larger, so a year ago, it had over 400 independent countries of various sizes.
But after the National Fortune Game appeared, only 200 remained as of today, a year later.
Clearly, the other countries had long since been eliminated because of their failures in the National Fortune Survival Game, their territories no longer existing.
Whether through natural disasters or fierce beasts, they had been wiped out by forces they could not possibly resist, serving as a warning to all the remaining countries and humans, and explicitly telling everyone that the National Fortune Game was no laughing matter!
Therefore, if they wanted their countries to endure and grow ever stronger, they had to strive to win the game!
But the reality facing humanity was that many countries might not have long histories or sufficient populations, so the Heroic Spirits they summoned were truly weak.
If they had possessed substantial national strength to begin with, like Country L, E Country, and the U.S., losing a few times would not have mattered, but they did not.
They were already so weak that they could not even kill the lowest-ranked F-rank beasts.
Worse, if they were unlucky enough to encounter an F-rank beast and then get killed, the national fortune penalty would return it ten-thousandfold, releasing ten thousand F-rank beasts into reality and further weakening their national strength.
So an E-rank treasure chest was truly extremely valuable!
[Congratulations to challenger Lin Xiaoran for opening an E-rank treasure chest and obtaining one bottle of E-rank life water!] [E-rank life water: increases resistance by 5 points upon consumption. Restores 10 health points when consumed by someone suffering from illness.] [Ten-thousandfold supply return: ten thousand portions of E-rank life water have been randomly distributed among all residents of Country L!]
[Another treasure chest! And it's E-rank!]
[Pretty please! I want to win!]
[Yeah! I want some too! I've been bedridden for half a year! I want to be healthy again!]
[Increased resistance is great news! There was an infectious disease outbreak in another country before, and so many people died!]
[Thank you, Student Lin! Thank you, Uncle Issho!]
[Haha! I won!]
[I won too!]
Country R: [Hmph! It's just a bottle of life water. What's there to get excited about!]
E Country: [Exactly! Our great hero just hasn't encountered any beasts yet!]
The U.S.: [You've never seen the world!]
Country L: [Heh, we have beast meat and life water. What do you have?]
Country L: [You Americans, weren't you the ones who had a plague outbreak last time? Are you jealous now that you see our resistance improving?]
Country L: [That great hero from E Country, has he really not encountered a single beast after all this time in the game?]
Viewers from the U.S. and E Country: [...]
[Come to think of it, why is Student Lin so likely to encounter beasts?]
[Yeah! This is already the third wave! The other challengers haven't encountered even one yet!]
[Could Student Lin have rotten luck?!]
Country L's viewers also noticed something was wrong. Lin Xiaoran was encountering beasts far too frequently, and if this continued, it would not be good news.
Because it was only the first day of the game, the beasts were all low-ranked, but the closer they got to the finish line, the higher the ranks of the beasts along the way would become.
If Lin Xiaoran really had bad luck, what would she do if she encountered an A-rank beast later? Could the Heroic Spirit Issho beat it?!
At the thought of this possibility, the viewers' hearts rose into their throats.
They had finally managed to summon a powerful Heroic Spirit. If he died in a beast's jaws, it would be such a waste! Lin Xiaoran had a chance of becoming the ultimate victor!
At the National Fortune Bureau.
Jiang Jiayou turned to the heads of the analysis and intelligence departments. "What do you think?"
Che Yisi adjusted his glasses and looked at the tablet in his hands. "I think Student Lin is doing this deliberately."
Jiang Jiayou said, "Deliberately?"
Han Wenju also spoke up. "That's right. We focused on analyzing and studying the conversations between Student Lin and Issho, and discovered an important piece of information: Lin Xiaoran and Issho may possess perception abilities!"
Che Yisi nodded. "Exactly! Especially the second time. We saw that the beasts weren't within Student Lin's field of vision, but Issho attacked anyway! He even asked Student Lin a question! Afterward, we saw that Issho had killed ten beasts!"
Looking thoughtful, Jiang Jiayou asked in confusion, "Issho is a Heroic Spirit, so it's not strange for him to have perception abilities, but Student Lin is just an ordinary person, isn't she? Can she sense the beasts' locations too?"
Han Wenju said hesitantly, "Perhaps, just as Student Lin said herself, she has a very keen intuition for danger?"
Che Yisi also said, "So there's no need for us to worry too much. If she encounters a powerful beast, Student Lin will definitely avoid it in advance. After all, the ultimate victory is what matters most!"
Inside the game instance.
"Master, there's another crate here. Is it a treasure chest too?"
While Lin Xiaoran was opening the treasure chest, Issho discovered another crate beneath a nearby rock.
"Oh?" Lin Xiaoran walked over, took a look, and said, "That's not a treasure chest. It's a supply crate."
"A supply crate?"
"Yes, a supply crate to help us survive these five days."
Every challenger had entered empty-handed. Taking this into account, the survival game had randomly placed many ordinary supply crates throughout the instance, containing water, food, daily necessities, and so on, so the challengers would not starve to death inside the game.
Notably, supply crates would not trigger the ten-thousandfold return mechanism.
As Lin Xiaoran explained, she opened it.
[Congratulations to challenger Lin Xiaoran for opening a supply crate and obtaining 5 bottles of mineral water, 5 tubs of instant noodles, and 5 ham sausages.]