Chapter 1368: Chapter 1369: Every Path

Dai Song no longer had that hostility towards Xu Huo, although his attitude hadn’t changed much. He replied, “The other three are already dead. We didn’t run into Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin.”

Xu Huo was silent; if Qiu Ming and Cao Qinglin hadn’t gone to look for other Dr. Duor, they should have already reached the Secondary City. If not, an accident might have happened.

Even if the two have reached the Secondary City, they probably wouldn’t go to the New District Government.

After asking, he put the matter aside. According to the previous agreement, he wouldn’t ask how many people would follow to protect Dr. Duor; the Twin Cities would make their own arrangements.

Not many people came from the Twin Cities, just Dai Song and those two players. The three followed him to find the Burned Face Player’s group, were mistaken as new members, and were left without much questioning.

The Alien species ran rampant in Zone 023; taking shortcuts wasn’t easy. The safest way is to travel through the passage established between cities, but that’s only relatively safe. The path is not well-protected; some might sprinkle a bit of Alien repelling potion at intervals, while those without the means just have a dirt road crushed out by use. However, with many people traveling it, it’s slightly safer than other places.

Thus, the good man and the Burned Face Player and others agreed on a route connecting a dozen cities. With suitable transportation tools and rotation of rest, the fastest they could reach the city housing the New District Government is within twenty days.

Compared to the time needed to detour or not detour between the Twin Cities, traversing the entire High Temperature Zone in twenty days is not long, of course, provided there’s no other accidents and using ordinary transportation tools.

There wasn’t a mandatory need to travel together, so most players still preferred props, agreeing on a time or location to meet would suffice. Once there, those arriving first could scout the situation for information.

“Twenty days is enough for another instance.” Burned Face said, “Set a time, those who haven’t reached the Government City within ten days need not join the action later. After all, those who can’t even afford teleportation or acceleration props likely aren’t very strong.”

The words were harsh, but true. Upon reaching Rank-C, many dungeon venues are quite large; without long-distance teleportation props, it’s truly inconvenient. However, flawless props are not only expensive but scarce; most players use teleportation props with conditions.

Even with restrictions, they’re still much faster than ordinary transportation tools.

After clearing things up, players started leaving the city one after another.

Xu Huo had two teleportation props at hand, one was the “Open Air Window System,” which could teleport once within a specific space outside of the instance state. Each space could be used only once. Used for escape, it had a fifty-fifty chance of good or bad outcome; the teleportation location was unpredictable.

The other was “Towards the Destination,” which could transport one person up to a thousand meters, usage unlimited.

Zone 023 is too vast; “Open Air Window System” had a fifty-fifty chance of adverse effects, not considering it for now. While “Towards the Destination” was decent, it was inconvenient to use.

However, players from Dongfeng Laboratory proactively said, “We have a prop that can transport people between cities, but it needs at least a six-hour cooldown between uses.”

“Any other restrictions?” Seeing them hesitant to continue, Xu Huo asked.

“Just can’t choose the city ourselves,” that player said. “I can mark a city on the map, but if there are other cities between the two, the prop will prioritize teleporting to the nearest city.”

“Do any small towns or abandoned cities in between count?” Xu Huo quickly understood the player’s meaning.

The person nodded, “And it can only teleport from city to city. If we travel to the wilderness during the six-hour waiting, this prop cannot be used.”

That is to say, the location must be a city recognized by the government, either formerly or currently, to use the prop.

Xu Huo re-examined the map, “Are you guys clear on how many small cities exist between the current cities?”

“We don’t have such detailed maps,” Dai Song said at this time. “Even the players from Zone 023 exploring the wilderness won’t go far. Now most cities use updated maps; those abandoned cities or destroyed small towns usually don’t appear on maps.”

Small cities lack the capacity to update maps; generally, it’s led by large cities. Regardless of the reason for removing these abandoned cities, other city players likely won’t bother completing them. So Twin Cities only know of a few nearby small towns, places further away are beyond reach.

Though the teleportation prop has many startup conditions, it’s rather convenient with a map.

Players from Zone 023 live in cities, while Ya Clan people live in the wild.

Xu Huo used the contact method Bai Jing left before, opened the communicator, and dialed.

Upon hearing his request, Bai Jing was silent for a second, then asked, “Why are you so confident I will definitely lend you the map?”

“Never mind then.” Xu Huo said and was about to hang up, but the other side stopped him and mentioned a reward method via the game panel, saying, “I only have part of the map, can lend you.”

After hanging up, Xu Huo opened his personal panel and paid for the map.

The other side was considerate, giving him a part of the map from a starting point towards the New District Government. The range isn’t large, but the starting segment of the route planned by the good man and others is just within it.

“There’s a mountain forest here, it should be an area active with Aliens.” Xu Huo, comparing both maps, selected a straight path, “Are there any towns in this area?”

Dai Song and the three were also uncertain.

According to usual reasoning, indeed there shouldn’t be any cities nearby. Even before evolution, such a large forest should be a nature reserve, and the terrain was not convenient for habitation… but sometimes unexpected situations occur.

“Once I tried to cross the snowfield, thinking I could directly reach the next city, but unexpectedly there’s a post station midway, just a small log cabin for resting, recognized and recorded by the local government, considered a city even if just one house,” said the player owning the prop, helplessly, “That time, surrounded by Aliens in the snow, I almost froze to death by the ice lake.”

“Cheap things are never good.” Burned Face listened for a while, laughed and came over, “Looks like my prop is better, but can’t carry people. Old Four, let’s meet outside the New District Government.”

Xu Huo waved his hand, then turned back to Dai Song and the three, “Places counting villages or hunting lodges as cities are rare, if there’s no such place in between, going in this direction can directly cross a third of the distance, worth trying.”