NOVEL NEXT WORLD Chapter 175 - Training Exercise 23
The Phantom Team felt that they had bad luck. First, they were thrown into the hill region, and then, after finally making their way out, they ended up in the vast desert.
Moreover, encountering various beast attacks every day had caused their progress to fall far behind schedule, making it seem less and less likely that they would complete the mission. They were really struggling.
Little did they know, the Sunlight Team was the one truly suffering.
The Sunlight Team was initially dropped into the mountains.
Liva Star’s size was similar to that of Empire Capital Star, but the planet’s mass was likely a bit smaller, which meant that the mountains on Liva Star were much higher.
In the mountain range, there were plants, beasts, and water sources. From the very beginning, they had plenty of food and drinking water, and, of course, countless stones.
Ye Zhengyan also thought of using their combat suits to boil water for drinking, as well as using animal skins as water bags, pouring the boiled water into the skins to drink as usual.
However, they didn’t know how to treat the animal skins like Mai Dongzi did. They simply washed them clean with water and started using them right away. After the water bags soaked for a while, the taste of the water was, as expected, not very pleasant. In any case, they only drank from them when they were really thirsty.
But no matter what, it was still better than drinking untreated water. They absolutely refused to drink raw water; no matter how clean it seemed, you could never be sure it didn’t contain microorganisms.
The Phantom Team complained about climbing up and down the small hills, covering over two hundred kilometers, but the route map only showed about one hundred kilometers.
Meanwhile, they didn’t know that the Sunlight Team had climbed peak after peak of mountains, each over seven or eight thousand meters high. When they finally finished climbing the last peak and emerged from the mountain range, they realized that, in the past eight days, they had only traveled three hundred kilometers on their route map.
What was even worse was that, in front of them, there was a vast ocean.
The sea water was a bluish-red color, which made it uncomfortable to look at.
“Captain, how do we get across without a boat? Are we supposed to swim?” someone asked.
“Impossible. Not to mention whether we could even swim there, who knows what’s in that water,” Booker replied.
Without relevant information, they didn’t know how vast this ocean was, but at least they knew it wouldn’t be something they could cross in just a few days.
Ye Zhengyan listened to his teammates’ discussion, contemplating ways to cross the ocean.
The Sunlight Team didn’t know much about this planet, but Ye Zhengyan did. Because of his mother, he had learned a lot about this planet. Therefore, he had a clear idea of the ocean’s width.
Swimming was out of the question; the only option left was to build a boat themselves.
But how could they build one?
Ye Zhengyan turned to look at the last mountain peak they had just descended. On the other side of the mountain, there were tall trees and vines wrapped around them. After all the effort to climb down, now they had to climb back up.
Without proper tools, felling trees was extremely laborious, even though the Sunlight Team had two Level 6 warriors.
They first used the sharp edges of stones to strike a specific part of the tree trunk repeatedly, until they had almost cut through about a third of it, then they exerted all their strength to push the tree over.
Felling the hard tree trunks with stones relied entirely on their physical strength, but fortunately, they had plenty of that.
After the Sunlight Team had felled the trees, they used the same method to cut them into roughly equal lengths, then stored them in their spatial storage devices. This entire task took them two full days.
After finally gathering enough wood, they returned to the beach, laid out all the materials, and used vines to bind the logs into a raft.
They chose the thickest and oldest vines, which were so tough and strong that even the two Level 5 warriors could not move them when pulling from either end. Therefore, using them as ropes to secure the raft was a reliable choice.
Entering an unknown ocean on a strange planet with only the most basic equipment was a very dangerous move.
However, for the Sunlight Team, according to the map, it was absolutely impossible to avoid the ocean and reach their destination within the required time frame.
If they didn’t take the risk of sailing across the ocean, they would certainly be eliminated.
Therefore, it was better to take a chance and enter the ocean, as there was still a possibility of victory.
Moreover, with the training they had received, giving up in the face of danger was simply not their style. Moving forward with determination was their belief.
The Sunlight Team carefully pushed the raft into the sea. After observing it for a while and confirming that the raft and water were stable, they gradually boarded the raft.
Except for the two team members who were rowing, the rest of the Sunlight Team held long wooden spears—about three meters long—standing at various positions around the raft.
Although the raft was initially drifting against the current, for them, going against the current was not difficult.
On the contrary, since they didn’t need to walk in the water and there were no immediate threats around, everyone felt they had some free time.
“I wonder how the Phantom Team and Starlight Team are doing. They probably aren’t as unlucky as us,” Booker said, recalling their opponents.
“It’s hard to say. This planet is already semi-desolate, with deserts covering half of it. If they end up in the desert and can’t find any water… the result…” Ye Zhengyan said.
He didn’t finish his sentence, as there was no need to. Everyone in the Sunlight Team knew all too well what the result would be if they couldn’t find water in the desert.
In comparison, their situation was still better than any team that ended up in the desert.
Although they had a tough journey ahead, at least when they were enjoying their easier moments, they had enough food and water. The hard climbs up the mountains didn’t leave them worrying about basic needs.
“The Starlight Team consists of players above Level 5, and their captain is a Level 6 warrior. They’re unlikely to be eliminated easily. But the Phantom Team only has two Level 5 warriors; the other five members are Level 4. Even if Mai Dongzi is strong, she can’t protect so many people,” Booker analyzed.
Ye Zhengyan nodded. In terms of personal strength, he knew he was no match for Mai Dongzi. However, in a team competition, only the Starlight Team could be considered their Sunlight Team’s true rival.
Ye Zhengyan and Booker stood at opposite ends of the raft—one at the front and one at the back—so their conversation was not low.
Though they appeared to be unconcerned with their surroundings, before anyone else had noticed anything, Ye Zhengyan’s wooden spear suddenly shot out like lightning, swift and precise. He thrust it through one of the holes in the raft.
When they were building the raft, they had left a hole about 20 centimeters wide every meter apart.
If any creature attacked the raft from beneath, they could directly strike at it through the holes in the raft.
When everyone saw how hard Ye Zhengyan was pushing, they immediately realized that his spear must have struck something, and it was likely something heavy.
Sure enough, when Ye Zhengyan pulled the spear back with force, everyone saw that the tip of the spear, which was about a meter long, was covered in blood. The seawater below the raft also turned red…