However, complaining is useless. If the Smiley City copy is not disgusting, how can it still be called the Smiley City copy? The group could only start to distribute the work with great difficulty.
It was almost six o'clock, and it was summer in the dungeon, so they probably had more than an hour before dark.
Deng Kai asked, "So, shall we go down in pairs to search the mountain?"
He put on his backpack - they had just turned over, and everyone's backpack was filled with flashlights, ropes, bandages and other tools. It was not heavy and not a burden to carry. But the gun was not something that everyone could use.
Song Yang learned how to use a gun by chance, and he was quite skilled in it.
He wiped it briefly and found that this gun was a little different from the real one, somewhere between a real gun and a toy gun, with little recoil and very easy to use. Perhaps the copy had made adjustments for the players.
In this way, he spent a few minutes teaching and most people learned it.
At this moment, hearing Deng Kai's question, Chai Feng tilted his head and asked Song Yang politely, "What do you think?"
Song Yang glanced at him.
Xia Jing looked at the two of them with interest.
Song Yang said calmly, "We don't have any clues right now. It's too dangerous to work in pairs. We don't have much time left before dark, so let's just do a rough search. It would be best to split into three groups, two to search the mountain, and one to stay inside the UFO to look for clues."
"Yes," Zhao Mingjing, the mother, nodded in agreement after hearing this. "We can't ignore the UFO either."
Then how to group them becomes a problem.
Several people's eyes rolled around, and everyone obviously had some ideas.
At this moment, Chai Feng finally expressed his opinion. He said, "Although the UFO doesn't seem to be dangerous at the moment, we still need to leave someone to take charge. Song Yang, how about you stay here?"
Then he looked at Tang Yi and said with a smile, "Little friend, why don't you stay and help Brother Song?"
Unexpectedly, Tang Yi said seriously: "I will search the mountain. I can't always let you adults take care of me. Everyone is the same in the dungeon."
Everyone was a little surprised when they heard this, and they looked at the child differently.
Chai Feng respected Tang Yi's wishes and said to Zhao's mother and daughter, "Well, since it's inconvenient for you two to separate, why don't you stay and help Song Yang? Is that okay?"
Zhang Yan moved his lips in dissatisfaction. Chai Feng said, "If the remaining seven of us are divided into two groups, that would be one group of four and one group of three. We'll need two team leaders."
When Zhang Yan heard this, his eyes moved slightly.
Although the UFO side seems safe, it only seems so for now. If you can join a group of four people, there is always strength in numbers and it is safer.
When Chai Feng said this, he looked at the remaining people and his gaze suddenly fixed on Xia Jing.
This time, Song Yang frowned.
Chai Feng smiled and said, "Jing Qiu, how about you and I each lead a group?"
A hint of interest flashed across Xia Jing's eyes.
He certainly didn't mind being the team leader, but why was he chosen?
——Is it because Song Yang had been talking to him on the way up the mountain?
This middle-aged man seems to be leading everyone in the front, but in fact he has been paying attention to those at the back?
Xia Jing felt that things were becoming more interesting.
He smiled with his eyes curved, and said, "Okay."
On the other hand, the tall and arrogant man Shen Bai was dissatisfied: "Why should he be the leader? What's so great about him?"
He looked Xia Jing up and down, looking down on his thin appearance.
Upon hearing this, Chai Feng politely asked Shen Bai, "Mr. Shen, do you volunteer to be the team leader...?"
As a team leader, you have to be responsible. It is never a good look to run away in the face of danger. If you really encounter danger, the first person to die may be the team leader.
So when Shen Bai heard this, he froze and said coldly: "...I didn't say that, but I won't be in the same group with him!"
Chai Feng was very easygoing: "No problem, then you can join me in the group. Does Xiao Deng want to join me in the group as well?"
Deng Kai was completely stunned. When he heard that he had been assigned a task, he nodded obediently and said, "Oh, okay."
This way, Chai Feng's group now had three people. Zhang Yan saw the opportunity and immediately said, "Then I'll join you guys!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the atmosphere suddenly became subtle.
This is an obvious grouping.
The remaining Tang Yi and Pei Guang had no choice but to be in the same group with Xia Jing. If they were to compete to exchange spots with the members of Chai Feng's group, it would only make the situation more awkward.
Fortunately, these two people didn't have that many thoughts.
Pei Guang looked at the scene and said to Xia Jing with a smile, "Team Leader, shall we get ready to set off?"
He even hooked his finger at Tang Yi and said, "Come here, little brat, and follow your brother and uncle closely."
But a skinny young man, a slovenly beggar, and a child, this combination looks dangerous no matter how you look at it.
At this moment, Shen Bai looked at them with a bit of gloating in his eyes, as if he was waiting for them to be sacrificed to the monster so that they could look for their corpses to get clues.
Even her mother, Zhao Mingjing, was worried. "Is Xiaojing okay? How about you stay here, kid? Xiaojing and I will go search the mountain together?"
Tang Yi whispered, "It's really okay, Auntie. I will take good care of myself."
"Oh, you're so well-behaved." Zhang Yan mocked indifferently from the side.
No one said anything more.
When we first went up the mountain, the atmosphere in the car was quite harmonious, but now it was just awkward.
Before they split up, Song Yang deliberately pulled Xia Jing aside.
He was not worried about Xia Jing's ability at all, which was why he was confident in letting Tang Yi go with Xia Jing.
He just said, "Don't get too close to Chai Feng and his group. Remember to be careful of him."
"Is there a grudge between you two?" Xia Jing asked with interest.
"No, I have never met him in a dungeon before, but I have heard of him." Song Yang turned his head and glanced at Chai Feng from a distance.
Coincidentally, the man was also looking back at them.
Noticing Song Yang's gaze, he just smiled, turned around and led the team away, heading towards the north slope of the mountain.
Song Yang said slowly: "I heard that the dungeons he passed always had high kill scores."
Xia Jing seemed to be lost in thought.
If the head score is high, it means that there are enough players who died in the dungeon.
"He must be targeting you because of me. He probably wants to test your abilities, but he can't make it too obvious if he puts you in his group."
So he simply nominated Xia Jing as the team leader.
Looking at the final search results of their team, one can also judge Xia Jing's ability as a player.
Chai Feng is a cautious person with many little thoughts. He can pretend to be a very gentleman.
In terms of the general action strategy, he knew that Song Yang and he must have the same idea, so he dared to throw the first question to Song Yang and step back.
When the really important issues arose, he would quietly seize the right to speak and unknowingly act as the organizer.
Not too prominent, but not too invisible either.
He maintained his position at just the right level.
Song Yang really disliked this style of behavior.
But after all, it was just the beginning of a dungeon, and no principles had been crossed. Song Yang was too lazy to waste time and fight with others over such things.
He warned Xia Jing: "Be careful on the road."
Xia Jing nodded.
Before leaving, he glanced at Song Yang holding the gun and said abruptly, "You look pretty good like this."
Song Yang paused and turned to look at him.
After saying this, the young man curled his lips and turned away.
Song Yang: "..."
He looked at the gun in his hand, coughed lightly, and raised the corners of his lips slightly.
*
Chai Feng and his friends went to the North Mountain, while Xia Jing and his friends chose the West Mountain.
The lower half of the mountain is a winding road. When they were climbing up the mountain, they had actually looked at the entire lower half of the mountain. Since they didn't find anything unusual at that time, the focus of their copy this time would naturally be on the upper half of the mountain.
The forest is dense, there are no people, and fallen leaves are everywhere.
Pei Guangren seems unreliable, but in reality he has been taking care of Tang Yi. In order to ease the tense atmosphere, he has been finding things to talk to the two of them.
The kid Tang Yi was relatively calm and collected. He observed his surroundings while chatting endlessly with Pei Guang.
As the two chatted, they somehow ended up talking about Song Yang and that post.
Pei Guang had actually seen that post before. He said, "Everyone is wondering if Song Yang is looking for some special item in the one-star dungeon."
Tang Yi tilted his head, pondering, "But if there really is a special item in the one-star dungeon, then how come Brother Song is the only one who knows about it? Could it be that he's not looking for the item, but something else?"
Tang Yi suddenly thought of something: "Oh, isn't it said that safe houses are most likely to be found in one-star dungeons?"
Xia Jing, who was walking in front, raised his eyebrows.
After Tang Yi said this, Pei Guang felt that this answer was much more reliable than any special props, and he couldn't help but look at Tang Yi differently.
Although Tang Yi is young, he seems to be more reliable than many adults. No wonder he dares to enter the three-star copy.
Pei Guang nodded and said, "It's possible. I'll ask him when I get a chance."
Tang Yi sighed, "I want to get into the safe house too! I've saved up some monster parts and I really hope to exchange them for some items. I also heard that the store manager is very pretty and I really want to meet her. Brother Song must be so crazy about the beautiful store manager!"
Pei Guang coughed: "No, kid, the safe house manager is a man!"
Tang Yi stuck out his tongue and chuckled: "But Brother Song is so powerful, he should not be short of monster props."
Pei Guang's mouth twitched, and he knocked his head with amusement: "So he's in need of beautiful women? What on earth are you thinking about all day, little brat?"
Tang Yi touched his head: "Love knows no gender, Uncle Pei, you can't be prejudiced..."
Just then, a rustling sound came from their right, as if something was moving quickly on fallen leaves.
Xia Jing suddenly stopped, Pei Guang immediately stopped talking, stepped forward, stood in front of Tang Yi and raised his gun!
There's something over there!
...The next second, a wild cat came out from the bushes in front, gave them a look and ran away.
Pei Guang and Tang Yi: "..."
Pei Guang touched his nose, feeling a little embarrassed.
He was about to tell them to keep going, but Xia Jing thought for a moment, turned around, and walked in the direction where the wild cat came out.
Pei Guang and Tang Yi hurried to follow.
There was a mess of grass, and behind the grass was a huge rock.
The stone blocked their view. Looking at Xia Jing's calm appearance, Pei Guang and Tang Yi looked at each other.
They walked around the grass and came to the back of the stone.
It was empty, nothing there.
Pei Guang finally couldn't help asking, "Jing Qiu, did you find anything?"
This atmosphere is really creepy.
Xia Jing looked around, thought for a while, and suddenly his eyes fixed on one place.
He took a step to the left, half-crouched, and gently brushed away the fallen leaves with his hands.
In the soil under the fallen leaves, there were several small round holes scattered randomly, each of which was about five millimeters in diameter.
Pei Guang and Tang Yi were stunned.
What left this trace?
Pei Guang squatted down and observed the area. He whispered, "Each hole is about two centimeters deep...Are they marks left by branches?"
Xia Jing gently stroked the holes.
He said slowly, "The distribution of these holes has a pattern."
Pei Guang was stunned for a moment, then looked again.
This time, he stretched out his hand and gestured, only to find that although these pits were messy, most of them were formed in two rows, and the left and right rows were arranged in an interlaced manner.
Xia Jing stood up and said, "This looks like a set of 'footprints'."
Pei Guang swallowed and goosebumps appeared on his skin.
They swept away more fallen leaves and found that only this place had footprints, as if a creature had been wandering here for a long time and suddenly disappeared out of thin air.
And a footprint with such a small cross-section...what would the creature that left the footprint look like?
*
Beishan.
Chai Feng took four people to search in the mountains and forests.
Deng Kai was a chatterbox, chatting about this and that along the way, but unfortunately, except for Chai Feng, Shen Bai and Zhang Yan were too lazy to pay attention to him.
After a while, Deng Kai realized that it was boring and shut up.
They searched there quietly. The sound of the wind in the mountains and the sound of grass rubbing against each other made Zhang Yan and Shen Bai nervous.
Suddenly, Zhang Yan stepped on something, twisted her ankle, screamed and bumped into Shen Bai.
Shen Bai was watching the other side warily when he was suddenly startled by Zhang Yan. He scolded her, "Can you stop being so neurotic? You screamed like that just because you stepped on a stone. Are you crazy?"
Zhang Yan's face flushed red, and she said sharply, "I didn't mean to do that. I was scared too!"
Chai Feng, who was at the front, stopped and Deng Kai hurried over to stop the fight: "Stop arguing, stop arguing, calm down, brother and sister!"
Shen Bai rolled his eyes, strode forward, and muttered softly, "What bad luck! What kind of people are in this dungeon?"
Zhang Yan was clearly someone who refused to be humiliated. She glared at him and chased after him, mocking him, "If you're so capable, why don't you be the team leader yourself? Didn't I just give you the choice?"
Shen Bai froze and sneered, "Oh, you are a woman, I won't mess with you."
Zhang Yan said sarcastically, "Hey, you can't answer and you're acting like a macho now?"
Shen Bai warned: "If you keep pushing me, I won't be able to pretend I didn't hear you."
Zhang Yan said coldly: "Why, do you have the guts to come and hit me? I want to see how many points the system will deduct from you. How many points can you deduct?"
Shen Bai immediately became furious and reached out to Zhang Yan——
His original intention was to bring Zhang Yan over.
Due to the rules of Smile City, he certainly didn't dare to attack Zhang Yan, but he could still grab him and intimidate him.
But Zhang Yan dodged backwards, and this time he stepped on something again, and fell backwards.
And in this place, there happened to be a slope behind her.
Zhang Yan's face changed, and he fell down the slope, over a few tufts of grass, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Deng Kai was shocked. Even Chai Feng didn't expect that such an accident would happen while the two were arguing, so he ran over immediately.
Shen Bai panicked and immediately tried to distance himself from the matter: "I didn't push her, she fell down by herself!"
But no one paid any attention to him at this time. Chai Feng shouted, "Zhang Yan! Zhang Yan, can you hear me?"
His shouts echoed in the empty mountains and forests.
The bushes blocked their view, and they couldn't see what was below. They could only hear Zhang Yan's low moans.
Deng Kai made a prompt decision, put down his backpack and said, "I'll go down and help Sister Zhang up."
After saying this, he pressed down his baseball cap, climbed down the slope, parted the grass, and slid down carefully.
Chai Feng and Shen Bai were waiting upstairs.
After waiting for several minutes, they still didn't come back. Chai Feng couldn't wait any longer, feeling a little uneasy. He frowned and called out again, "Deng Kai, how's it going next?"
A gust of wind blew by, and no one answered him.
The entire forest was eerily quiet.
Chai Feng paused, narrowed his eyes, and immediately picked up his gun.
Seeing Chai Feng's reaction, Shen Bai's alarm bells rang in his head and he quickly tightened his grip on his gun.
But the next second, Deng Kai's shout came from below.
"Sister Zhang is fine, but Brother Chai, you'd better come down and take a look. We found something strange here!"