At that moment, a rather shrewd-looking man in a light-gray T-shirt with a buzz cut saw Long Ming turn and leave on his own. His eyes lit up at once, and he said to several players he had just gotten acquainted with beside him,
“Brothers, see that guy leaving?”
“Yeah. What about him, Gu Yi?”
“Anyone who dares to leave alone at a time like this is usually an expert. Let’s follow him!”
Gu Yi voiced his thoughts.
“Makes sense. Let’s go!”
The players agreed with Gu Yi’s analysis.
They immediately followed after Long Ming.
At this moment, quite a few players at the scene saw Gu Yi and the others following Long Ming away and hurriedly said to the people beside them,
“Look, someone’s leading a group out. Let’s hurry and follow!”
“Okay!”
For a time, a large number of players left after Long Ming because of the herd effect.
Of course, not all the players followed Long Ming. Only about a hundred or so left.
Qin Yan looked in the direction Long Ming had departed, a thoughtful expression appearing on his face.
At this moment, a dark-skinned man covered in muscle and sporting stubble lowered his voice and asked Qin Yan,
“Should we follow them?”
“No. Xie Shan, we’ll go another way!”
Qin Yan then led his companions away.
When Lin Yue saw Qin Yan and the others leave, she hurriedly followed behind them.
Quite a few female players at the scene saw this and followed as well.
The remaining players split into two groups and left in different directions.
Not long after, at the edge of the ruins, Long Ming glanced back, a trace of confusion appearing on his face. He didn’t quite understand why so many people were following him.
Of course, he didn’t dwell on it too much. After all, having more people had its benefits. If they ran into danger, all he had to do was make sure he could outrun them.
However, the instant Long Ming walked out of the ruins and looked into the distance, his brows furrowed.
Billowing yellow sand stretched all the way to the horizon, with no end in sight.
Under the blazing sun, the dry air churned like waves of heat.
For a moment, Long Ming didn’t know which way he should go.
Gu Yi and the others also stopped behind him. Looking at Long Ming, who wasn’t moving, they felt somewhat uncertain, but it wasn’t convenient to go up and ask.
However, Long Ming quickly made a decision. Since he didn’t know where to go, he might as well first head to the nearest evacuation point and see what it looked like.
He raised his wristband and glanced at the map. After confirming the approximate direction of the nearest green dot, he headed toward the evacuation point.
Long Ming stepped on the scorching yellow sand, and every step felt somewhat strenuous.
Even so, he remained patient and walked forward step by step.
Seeing this, Gu Yi and the others hurriedly followed.
Dozens of minutes later, the players following behind Long Ming began discussing among themselves.
“Damn, where exactly is this guy going?”
“No idea.”
“He can’t be leading us around blindly because he doesn’t know the way, can he?”
“Why don’t you go ask?”
“I’m not going.”
Long Ming naturally heard the players behind him talking, but he didn’t take it to heart at all and simply kept walking forward.
Just as everyone’s patience was about to reach its limit, a circular mechanical platform appeared in the otherwise unchanging desert ahead.
The entire mechanical platform looked completely out of place in its surroundings.
At this moment, Gu Yi and the others immediately reacted and exclaimed in surprise,
“This is an evacuation point!”
“Damn, after all that, he brought us to an evacuation point.”
“And here I thought we were going somewhere.”
The other players were all somewhat speechless when they saw the evacuation platform.
“Well, since we’re here, I’ll give it a try!”
At this moment, a male player ran excitedly onto the mechanical platform.
The instant he stepped onto it, the complex patterns at the bottom of the mechanical platform lit up with a faint glow. Immediately afterward, the player’s wristband vibrated, and a prompt popped up.
“Evacuate?”
“Evacuate.”
The player tapped it without even thinking.
Buzz—
The mechanical platform was activated. The player slowly began to float upward, and he shouted in bewilderment,
“Whoa, whoa, I’m flying!”
The next second, he turned into a streak of white light and departed.
Seeing this, the many players present shook their heads and cursed,
“Idiot. What a waste of a ticket.”
Long Ming was also somewhat speechless. He hadn’t expected someone to actually give him a personal demonstration.
But this was fine too. Now he knew exactly how evacuation worked.
It was just that the road ahead would be hard to travel.
Long Ming gazed around at the surrounding desert. Judging by sight alone, every direction looked the same. Without the mini-map on the wristband, it would be very easy to lose one’s way.
Of course, Long Ming didn’t care whether he got lost or not. He had no particular goal to begin with, so he continued walking forward.
Seeing Long Ming continue onward, Gu Yi and the others could only brace themselves and follow.
Time passed second by second.
Long Ming walked until his head was covered in sweat and his mouth was parched. Unknowingly, his speed slowed.
He glanced at his status on the wristband, only to find that several negative prompts had appeared for him.
“Prompt: You are mildly dehydrated. Please replenish fresh water as soon as possible.”
“Prompt: Stamina declining.”
At this moment, many of the players following him could no longer take it either. Several of them simply collapsed onto the ground.
“I’m not walking anymore. I can’t move.”
Long Ming gazed into the distance. All he could see were endless sand dunes, so he stopped to rest for a while.
At this moment, Gu Yi finally couldn’t hold back and stepped forward to ask Long Ming,
“Brother, where exactly are you going?”
“I don’t know. I’ll just go wherever I end up.”
Long Ming replied calmly.
When Gu Yi heard Long Ming’s words, his eyes widened. Just as he was about to say something,
a cry of surprise suddenly rang out.
“Whoa!”
Long Ming and the others all turned to look. They saw a short player with a somewhat pimply face leading two companions excitedly toward a sand dune on the left.
On that sand dune lay a red-spotted monitor lizard more than three meters long. Its gray skin was covered in red bumps, its eyes were closed in sleep, and it looked extremely horrifying.
“Zhao Wei, is this really okay?”
The two companions following beside Zhao Wei spoke nervously.
“What are you afraid of? Aren’t games all about killing monsters and leveling up? Charge!”
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhao Wei pulled a rock from his backpack and rushed excitedly toward the red-spotted monitor lizard, smashing the rock hard onto its head.
Bang!
With a dull sound, the red-spotted monitor lizard immediately felt a burst of pain. It slowly opened its eyes and stood up, then opened its bloody maw and let out an enraged roar.
Roar—
Zhao Wei was also frightened by the lifelike scene. Trembling, he turned and tried to run.
At that moment, the red-spotted monitor lizard’s four limbs exerted force in an instant. With a swift bound, it pounced fiercely and bit down on Zhao Wei’s waist.
“Ah, it hurts! Help me!”
Zhao Wei immediately let out a heart-rending scream and instinctively cried for help.
But how could Zhao Wei’s two companions dare to go up? Terrified, they turned and fled.
Long Ming’s expression also changed slightly. He watched the red-spotted monitor lizard warily, with not the slightest intention of going up to help.
Crack!
The red-spotted monitor lizard suddenly bit Zhao Wei’s body into two pieces, and blood and chunks of flesh flew everywhere.
Immediately afterward, Zhao Wei’s shattered body began turning into motes of light, and the backpack on him dropped to the ground.
“Run!”
Gu Yi and the others were instantly frightened out of their wits and fled forward in terror.