After receiving the message, An Xiaomei's first reaction wasn't to count her supplies — she immediately used her Sub-Island Token.
After all, she didn't know how long the upcoming team battle would last. If she missed the best discount period for binding, she'd probably cry herself to death.
[Ding!]
Ms. An Xiaomei, are you sure you wish to consume 100 Energy Stones to bind Resource Island No. — ? Once the transaction is completed, it cannot be undone. Please confirm your choice.
An Xiaomei couldn't help but snort.
This game was really serious — even its prompts sounded as stiff and formal as a government contract.
Without hesitation, she tapped "Confirm" on her wrist device.
A blinding flash of gold light passed by.
Her previously barren icy island now had a silver vortex portal — swirling faintly, deep and shadowy, with no end in sight.
When An Xiaomei checked the game's description of this spatial portal, her brows arched with visible delight.
[Sub-Island Teleportation Portal]: When the island owner faces danger, she can escape to safety through this portal at any time.
However, it can only be activated directly from the main island. If elsewhere, a Space Scroll is required.
Usable once every 24 hours.
[Congratulations, Adventurer An Xiaomei.]
You are the first contestant to bind a sub-island.
You are rewarded with one High-Grade Resource Chest.
Would you like to make this achievement public?
If you choose to announce it globally, you will receive an additional Mid-Grade Resource Chest.
"No, I won't make it public."
What a joke.
She was already under too much attention — if foreign adventurers learned that she now owned a resource island, they'd definitely target her in the upcoming competition.
An Xiaomei thought it through clearly: with a resource island as her backup base, there was no need to show off.
The extra chest from the announcement was like a sesame seed compared to the avalanche of risks that would follow.
Meanwhile, viewers in her live broadcast room were buzzing with curiosity about the mysterious silver portal.
Unfortunately, without in-game descriptions, all they could do was wildly guess.
[That's gotta be something good! Ms. An's luck is insane again!]
[Keeping it secret is smart. We don't need foreign players scheming against her.]
[I get why she's doing it… but not knowing is killing me!]
After finishing the island binding, An Xiaomei finally felt at ease.
She turned her attention to the High-Grade Resource Chest she just received.
[Ding!]
You have opened a High-Grade Resource Chest.
Rewards: Substitute Doll ×1, Energy Stones ×10, Silver-Iron Armor ×1.
[Substitute Doll]: Automatically takes a fatal blow for the user. Activates upon binding. Single-use only.
[Silver-Iron Armor]: Increases Attack Power by 30% when equipped. Usable for 1 hour every 24 hours.
Seeing these item descriptions, An Xiaomei couldn't help smiling brightly.
Two perfect tools — as if wings had been added to a tiger.
For the next half hour, she busied herself organizing her inventory, preparing for the upcoming battle.
[Preparation Time Ended!]
Now announcing the rules of the competition:
50 adventurers from each nation will be divided into 2 teams of 25.
Each team will be randomly matched against a team from another country in a Red vs. Blue Battle.
Red Team: Defend the flag for 48 hours.
Blue Team: Capture and hold the Red Team's flag for 3 consecutive minutes to win.
Battlefields will be randomly generated.
Accidental kills are permitted — protect yourselves.
The 10 fastest-winning Blue Teams and all surviving Red Teams will earn Resource Materialization Rewards for their nations.
Just as the rules finished playing, An Xiaomei's entire body was engulfed in a flash of white light.
When her vision cleared, she was standing in the ruins of a modern, war-torn city — silent, lifeless, surrounded by shattered concrete and collapsed walls.
Red vs. Blue?
She frowned.
Where were her teammates?
[Adventurer An Xiaomei,]
You are a member of the Blue Team.
Your mission is to capture the flag held by the Red Team.
Both teams' members have been randomly scattered within a 50 km radius of this ruined city.
The flag's location will light up on your map every 5 minutes.
Reading the message, An Xiaomei tightened her grip on her weapon and carefully scanned her surroundings.
Then she stopped moving — she'd wait for the map's first light signal.
Running around blindly would only waste stamina.
Outside the game, the new cross-national competition immediately caused a global uproar.
With killing allowed, everyone knew — this would be a bloodbath.
[My god, this round is way too brutal!]
[There are 800 teams in total, but our Dragon Country can only fight for 10 Blue Team reward slots! That's insane odds.]
[Technically, the Red Team has an advantage, but only a handful will survive — because their opponents will cling to them till the bitter end.]
[At least now other countries won't be able to unite against us. This setup practically guarantees chaos.]
Five minutes later, An Xiaomei's wrist map lit up — a red marker appeared, ten kilometers to the east-by-west of her current position.
In reality, that probably meant over twenty kilometers of travel. Her face darkened slightly at the thought.
Still, there was no choice. She started heading in that direction cautiously.
When she turned a corner near a crumbling storefront, a tall, lanky man suddenly lunged from behind the ruins, sword raised — straight for her back.
He was a Red Team adventurer, equipped with a detection tool that revealed the names and nationalities of players within a one-kilometer radius.
He had thought the item was useless — until it revealed An Xiaomei's name.
Finding such a "fat sheep" to rob, he had long since forgotten about the actual team objectives.
All he could think about was seizing An Xiaomei's abundant resources.
But An Xiaomei had long since activated her psychic detection ability.
The ambush didn't surprise her in the slightest.
With a sharp flash of sword light, she turned and struck —
The man dropped to the ground with a thud, barely lifting his head before she spun and stabbed again, finishing him off cleanly.
Her ruthlessly efficient movements — cold, precise, almost demonic — made a girl watching from afar through binoculars tremble.
The item in her hand slipped and rolled across the dusty ground with a dull clatter.