Intense Competition, Narrowing Gap

[Please note that monsters in advanced areas will become more powerful. Survivors should choose carefully when exploring.]

"More advanced areas?"

Han Xing looked around and noticed that there were indeed many more clouds in the distant sky, of varying sizes.

There were far more clouds than in his current area.

"So, I've been in the newbie zone all along. Only by defeating the most powerful monster in this area can I go to the advanced maps."

Han Xing seemed to understand some of the game's mechanics, shaking his head, "Forget it, that area is still far from here. At my current speed, it will take at least four or five hours. I'll deal with it tomorrow."

With that thought, Han Xing decided to deal with the spoils at hand first.

He walked to the Graystone Giant Wolf's corpse and directly disassembled it.

[Successfully disassembled Graystone Giant Wolf corpse, recovered Fine Iron Arrows*13, obtained One-Star Quality Hide*1, obtained Thick Wolf Meat 104kg, obtained Beast Heart*1, obtained Strong Blood*5...]

"Quality Hide?"

Han Xing looked at the thick fur on the ground, "I remember it can be used to make blue leather armor, good stuff!"

As for the other Beast Heart and Strong Blood, he hadn't figured out their uses yet, so he put them all away for now.

There wasn't anything good in this Graystone Giant Wolf's territory, but when Han Xing merged the Sky Island, he discovered some unexpected surprises.

In the moonlight, at the edge of the giant wolf's territory, several patches of rocky terrain shimmered with silver light.

"Treasure!" Han Xing's eyes lit up.

He walked over and squatted down to observe.

Han Xing said somewhat uncertainly, "There should be some kind of ore in here."

"Should I dig it up?"

With that thought, Han Xing took out an iron pickaxe from his backpack and began to strike vigorously.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sound of metal hitting stone echoed continuously.

When Han Xing knocked off the surface stones of these ores, finally revealing the silver-speckled ore inside, a system prompt appeared at the same time.

[Mithril Ore, needs to be smelted to extract the Mithril inside.]

"Smelting?"

Han Xing wondered, "I don't have the equipment, do I need to build a smelting workshop?"

Mithril is a good thing, and it's also the main material for making other blue equipment.

But it seems that at the current stage of the survivors, it is impossible to extract this metal.

Unless the version is updated later and the territory construction function is opened.

At that time, survivors will be able to build various facilities in their territories, such as smelting workshops, weapon research institutes, defensive fortifications, and even taverns.

Currently, Mithril can only be opened in treasure chests with a small probability.

Han Xing was able to receive more than 20 Mithril ingots before, thanks to the efforts of those lucky players. Of course, this probability is very small.

Since he couldn't extract Mithril for the time being, Han Xing stuffed all the Mithril ore into the storage box.

Then, he looked at the points leaderboard.

First place: Xinghe, territory points 184.

Second place: Whisperer, territory points 162.

Third place: Black Hawk, territory points 123.

Fourth place: Papaya Star Spirit, territory points 115.

Fifth place...

"Hmm? That Whisperer is catching up? Black Hawk has also surpassed Papaya Star Spirit and taken third place?"

Seeing the points leaderboard, Han Xing was a little surprised.

The gap between him and the Whisperer was gradually narrowing, and the other was also working hard to catch up.

But thinking about it, even though he is now equipped with almost a full set of green equipment, the attribute gap between him and other survivors is not actually that big.

As survivors continue to explore outwards, they will also discover various equipment, skill books, and so on in other territories.

Even if they are not for their own use, they can be taken to the trading channel for exchange.

The strength of the survivors is steadily increasing, especially the top few, who are improving rapidly.

Of course, there is also a corresponding price behind this.

Han Xing saw that the 10,000 survivors in District 107 had become 9,632 people.

This means that in the past three days, more than three hundred people have lost their lives just in their area!

According to this ratio, the number of human survivor deaths is likely to have reached a terrifying figure.

Although most of these people died in accidents, as the difficulty of survival increases later and the monsters encountered become stronger, this number will continue to soar.

Just then, Cheng Jianyong said in the discussion group, "Xing, that Whisperer is something else, he's almost caught up to you!"

Ever since he learned that Han Xing was Xinghe, Cheng Jianyong had been paying close attention to the leaderboard.

Han Xing replied, "Yeah, he's really strong. If I'm not mistaken, he should be a Mage."

"A Mage?"

"Yes."

Han Xing affirmed, "Four out of the Mage's first five skills are offensive. As the leader of a team, the Whisperer has probably gathered them all with the help of his teammates. Add in the equipment buffs, and the Mage's exploration speed is indeed much faster than other classes."

"I see." Cheng Jianyong suddenly understood, and then continued to ask, "Xing, how do you know all this?"

"Read the game introduction more often, and you'll know too."

Han Xing paused and continued, "By the way, what are your current rankings?"

"Huh?" Cheng Jianyong seemed a little puzzled. "Xing, haven't you looked at the leaderboard? Yun and I are both on the list!"

"You didn't say your virtual names, how would I know what you're called?"

"You didn't ask."

Han Xing: "..."

"Stop messing around, tell me your names."

Cheng Jianyong laughed. "Alright, my name is 'Lonely Hero', and Yun's name is 'Yun Tianming'."

"..."

Han Xing: "Those are some pretty cringey names..."

"Right? I also think Yun Tianming is a pretty cringey name."

"I was talking about you."

Cheng Jianyong: "???"

At this time, Shen Yun was still grinding for territory points overnight and didn't see the conversation between the two in the discussion group. Otherwise, he would have argued with Cheng Jianyong for half an hour at least.

Han Xing opened the leaderboard and saw that the name 'Lonely Hero' was already ranked 65th, with 33 points.

And 'Yun Tianming', who was Shen Yun, had actually rushed into the top forty, occupying 37th place with a score of 57 points.

Han Xing was a little surprised, but after thinking about it, it was within expectations.

After all, he had given them almost a full set of high-quality green equipment, so many skill books, and a large amount of Spirit Spring Water, allowing them to explore boldly without much concern.

It was only natural that they would be climbing the charts so quickly.

After closing the chat, Han Xing continued to approach other clouds.

After leveling up to level 3, the Sky Island's speed became 8 meters per second, which was equivalent to 28.8 kilometers per hour, which was already quite fast.

While the Sky Island was moving, Han Xing also took the time to glance at the chat channel.

After a whole day of fighting and exploring, the survivors were sharing their experiences.

"Damn, I had really bad luck today. I ran into an elite Jungle Tiger while exploring the territory and was almost bitten to death. If I didn't know the ancestral skill of sliding tackle, I would have been done for."

"Upstairs, that's nothing. I ran into a huge bear today, and it broke more than a dozen of my ribs with one slap. Luckily, I'm an athlete, and I carried it for more than ten kilometers until the bear was exhausted and let me go."

"You guys are awesome. Compared to you, getting bitten by a five-step snake doesn't seem like much."

"Brother, you can still talk after being bitten by a five-step snake?"

"Oh, because I pulled out its fangs. It's okay to bite, it's actually quite comfortable. I'm planning to keep it as a pet."

"..."

"..."

"Dude, you're a pervert..."

A series of speechless symbols appeared in the chat channel.

At this time, someone said, "Stop joking around, everyone. Papaya Star Spirit has released another guide."

"The great one has released another guide? I read his posts before and avoided several clouds with monsters based on the tips."

"Me too. Thanks to Papaya Star Spirit's guide, I easily opened a Bronze Treasure Chest."

"Let's see what it is this time?"

Everyone clicked on it and saw that it was a guide posted by Papaya Star Spirit, and it had already received hundreds of replies in a short period of time.

But the title of the post was different from before, and it revealed a serious tone.

Warning! Dark Elf Squad!