ATFBETIBM Chapter 600

An aerial map appeared in Bai Lixin’s mind, with five small red dots marked on it.

Each red dot had a small question mark above it.

Wild Cave.

Research Team Relocation Point.

Indigenous Historical Site.

Glacier Graveyard.

Deep Ice Spring.

Among them, the Deep Ice Spring was the farthest from the safe house.

The green down jacket, who played a leadership role, was the first to speak, “There are a total of five locations. We should distribute the number of people reasonably, with each location receiving a portion of the team. The resource information will be shared. Does everyone agree?”

It seemed there was no better method than this.

The green down jacket waited for a moment and, seeing no objections, continued, “The Research Team Relocation Point is the closest location. Who wants to go there? Raise your hand if you do.”

Most people raised their hands.

From the literal meanings of the locations, it was clear that the Research Team Relocation Point and the Indigenous Historical Site would be the two most attractive places for players.

The green down jacket scanned the surroundings, “Let’s set this aside for now. Is anyone interested in the Deep Ice Spring?”

No one raised their hand.

The Deep Ice Spring was the farthest from the safe house, with an estimated one-way journey of five hours, making a round trip ten hours.

It was now six in the morning, and the sun would set at seventeen o’clock on Goose Feather Mountain. The margin for error was too low for going to the Deep Ice Spring, and the distance was too great. The name of the place didn’t seem to have much appeal, and the players were not interested.

The green down jacket pondered for a moment, “Someone needs to go to the Deep Ice Spring, but it is not a place that just any player can reach. It requires both strong endurance and fast speed. For safety reasons, we need at least nine people, including me. Is anyone else volunteering?”

There was a rustling in the crowd.

“Add me.”

A clear voice cut through the noise, reaching green down jacket’s ears. The green down jacket looked up and saw a player wearing a down jacket with a panda in the back of the crowd raising his hand.

Next to him, a player in a bright yellow down jacket also raised an arm: “Me too!”

The green down jacket raised his voice and asked, “Are you confident in your stamina, strength, and speed?”

“Of course,” Xia Chi, who was wearing the bright yellow down jacket, replied, “I will never fall behind.”

After receiving a positive answer, the green down jacket nodded with satisfaction: “Now the Deep Ice Spring Expedition Team has three people, and is still short of six. Does anyone else want to join?”

“We three also want to participate.”

A charming voice rang out, and Xia Chi shuddered instinctively.

Through his goggles, he looked at the pink down jacket not far away and unconsciously moved closer behind Bai Lixin.

“Brother,” Xia Chi said in a low voice, “the one in the pink down jacket is the pink-haired guy from the safe house. He actually came out.”

“The two people with him are the one with black-framed glasses and another player who stayed behind.”

Bai Lixin looked towards the pink down jacket, and at this moment, the player in the pink down jacket turned his neck, his goggles facing this way. Bai Lixin immediately felt a probing gaze.

Green down jacket: “That’s six people, there are still three spots left.”

More people gradually raised their hands until finally, the team was complete with eight members.

With enough people, they could easily arrange the exploration of the furthest Ice Spring.

The other four locations were spread around the safe house, and their straight line distances to the same house were almost the same.

Based on the principle of resource sharing, and thanks to the excellent organizational skills of the green down jacket the previous day, the players readily accepted the green down jacket’s arrangements.

The green down jacket was efficient, and he quickly gathered the right number of people for each location.

He didn’t assign everyone to explore these five spots but formed six teams.

Five teams went to the exploration points, and the last team formed a guerrilla unit responsible for patrolling the surroundings to see if there were any resources not mentioned by the system.

Time was tight, and the players quickly set off after receiving their assignments.

Bai Lixin and the rest had discussed that with six people and five places, it would be best if one person could go to each location.

Bai Lixin and Xia Chi headed to the farthest Deep Ice Spring, while the other four each went to different places each.

They created a discussion group to report what they saw in real-time.

Bai Lixin walked neither at the front nor the back of the group, observing the situation of this temporary nine-person team.

Leading the group was the green down jacket, followed closely by the three players who joined later.

He and Xia Chi walked in the middle.

The pink down jacket and his two companions walked at the back.

Xia Chi stayed close to Bai Lixin, his neck slightly tilted backward, obviously concerned about the people behind.

“Brother, why do you keep looking at me? You’re making me embarrassed,” the voice from the pink down jacket had a hint of coyness, “I didn’t expect us to meet again so soon. We are really destined.”

Xia Chi was like a cat that had encountered a cobra, bristling all over, “Haha, what a coincidence.”

‘Who wants to be destined with you!

Stay away from me!’

“Hey Brother,” Pink Hair quickened his pace and came to Bai Lixin’s other side in a familiar manner, “Hello, nice to meet you. Please take care of me.”

Bai Lixin looked at Pink Hair through his goggles, and a pair of bright eyes could be vaguely seen through the gray lenses.

“Okay…” Bai Lixin replied with a smile in his voice, “Brother.”

Pink Hair paused, then quickly and intimately wrapped his hand around Bai Lixin’s.

Through the down jacket, Bai Lixin could feel Pink Hair’s fingers apply a slight pressure.

“Wow, Brother,” Pink Hair exclaimed, “your arm is so strong. How do you usually train? I’m so envious. Your muscles are so well proportioned.”

Bai Lixin’s voice became even gentler as he lightly squeezed Pink Hair’s arm back, “How could that be? Your arm is also very strong, there’s no need to envy me. Instead, I, the big brother, are somewhat envious of the little brother.”

Pink Hair tilted his head, “Why are you envious of me?”

Bai Lixin jerked his chin backward, “I envy you for having two such excellent partners. You can tell at a glance that they are very reliable.”

Pink Hair glanced at Xia Chi, “Your partner isn’t bad either. I like him a lot.”

Xia Chi: ???

‘Please, don’t be interested in me!’

Pink Hair’s voice carried a laugh, and his words both serious and joking, “Brother, how about we switch?”

Bai Lixin raised an eyebrow, “How to switch?”

Pink Hair: “I’ll give you my two partners, and you give me yours.”

Xia Chi grasped Bai Lixin’s arm tightly.

“Haha,” Bai Lixin said, “that’s not possible. I cherish my partner and don’t want to give him to anyone else.”

He paused, glancing at the two people silently following behind, “I guess your two partners don’t want to leave you either, right? Won’t they be sad if you say that?”

“Haha,” Pink Hair giggled, “I was just joking. How could you take it seriously? My two partners are my treasures too. How could I bear to give them away? If I wanted your partner…”

He stopped mid-sentence.

Bai Lixin: “What would you do if you wanted my partner?”

“Hehe,” Pink Hair let go of Bai Lixin’s hand and skipped back to the back, “I won’t tell you.”

A gaze shot over from behind, and Xia Chi’s heart skipped a beat. For a moment, he felt like prey being eyed by a hunter.

“You all seem to have plenty of energy,” the green down jacket’s cold voice floated over from the front, “you can still chat so much. If you have this much energy, why not speed up? We need to reach the Deep Ice Spring within four hours.”

“Since you say so, brother, of course,” Pink Hair maintained his cute and innocent tone. As soon as he finished speaking, Bai Lixin saw three figures swiftly pass by him and quickly move to the front.

Bai Lixin silently observed Pink Hair from behind.

His steps were light, and the thick snow under his feet seemed to turn into a weightless cloud, making his steps light and effortless.

———————————

In the live broadcast room.

[Fight, fight, hurry up and fight, I love to watch it!]

[You really enjoy watching the chaos, brother.]

[Don’t call me brother, call me sister, dear bestie.]

[No, you’re not a bestie, you’re a frenemy.]

[Brothers, does anyone know anything about that pink player?]

[I’ve never seen this person before.]

[Neither have I.]

[It shouldn’t be so mysterious.]

[All I can think about is that corpse from last night, my soul is still out of my body.]

[Indeed, and we don’t know where the body went.]

[We don’t know where the body went, how it died, or even who it was. Everyone is wearing thick down jackets, so we have no idea what their faces look like underneath.]

[Exactly, and this live broadcast room is different from before. Previously, each participating player had their own live broadcast room. This time, this copy has a shared broadcast room. No player names, no personal broadcast rooms, just one main broadcast room.]

[Actually, this is more immersive. If we had personal broadcast rooms, we would immediately know who the suspicious person is from our god’s perspective. Even though we have a shared broadcast room, it’s still user-friendly. We can switch the camera to the scenes we want to see.]

[If Xia Chi hadn’t entered the safe house, I wouldn’t have known he was in the copy. And if he hadn’t searched each room, I wouldn’t have known Song Yuantian and the others were here too.]

[Friendly reminder, this copy has a new gameplay, which is “Guess Who I Am.”]

[No, this copy is clearly the “Sand Sea Guild Gathering Copy.”]

[Haha, at first, I thought only Lin Jue and God Xin entered. I recognized Lin Jue because of his fire ability, and God Xin because of his banter with Lin Jue. But it turns out that three leaders from the Sand Sea Guild have entered.]

[The Sand Sea Guild leaders’ meeting indeed.]

——————————

As the sun rose, the temperature in the upper right corner of the system gradually increased.

-55 degrees.

-50 degrees.

-48 degrees.

-45 degrees.

By the time they reached the deep Ice Spring, it was already 10:30 a.m.

Just as the name suggested, they saw an ice spring.

This ice spring was located in a flat glacier, surrounded by white snow and transparent ice crystals. Despite the temperature of more than -40 degrees, the ice spring had not frozen.

There were a few pieces of floating ice on the spring.

The surroundings were desolate and empty, with no useful resources in sight.

“What a big loss,” the player in the purple down jacket slapped his forehead regretfully, “We’ve walked so long, and there’s nothing here.”

“Don’t jump to conclusions so quickly, we haven’t searched yet. Maybe we’ll find something rare,” Xia Chi quickly replied without thinking after the player in the purple down jacket finished speaking.

“How do we search?” Black-framed Glasses asked, “Look around, besides this ice spring, there’s nothing in sight. Smart boy, maybe we should break the ice and see what’s inside?”

“You’re noisy,” the green down jacket said coldly, “Since we’re here, let’s look around.”

Since they were here, they couldn’t just go back empty-handed, right?

Of course not.

Even if there seemed to be nothing at a glance, they had to try searching.

The group started searching for supplies in a radiating pattern from the ice spring.

But the more they searched, the colder their hearts became.

From 10:30 to 11:30, a whole hour passed, and there was nothing.

In the private chat group of six, those who went to other places had already made various discoveries.

Lin Jue: [We found two giant black bears in a wild cave. We killed them together. These black bears have thick fur on the outside. If we gut them and remove their internal organs, we can make two natural windproof bags.]

Xia Chi: [Wow, that’s awesome!]

Song Yuantian: [We found some research results left behind at the relocation point of the scientific expedition team. They seemed to be studying the cause of the harsh climate on Goose Feather Mountain. We also found some iron plates. We could assemble them and block some of the strong winds.]

Xia Chi: [Wow, that’s crucial!]

Emil: [Look at this, we found some strange totems at the indigenous historical site, with bizarre patterns on them.]

Xia Chi: [What kind of strange patterns?]

Emil: [It looks like an apocalypse scene. Flames, panicked fleeing people, and dense fog representing something unknown.]

Bai Lixin: [Describe it in more detail, Emil.]

Emil: [Hold on, let me see if I can take a picture.]

A few seconds later, a photo popped up in the group chat.

On a gray stone slab with broken edges, ancient patterns were carved.

As Emil described, it depicted flames.

The flames burned fiercely, with thick smoke rising.

The fire occupied the center of the slab, dividing it into two sections.

On one side were people fleeing in terror.

The totem on the stone slab was exquisitely crafted, vividly depicting the fearful expressions of the people.

Running steps, panicked gestures.

There were elderly people with canes, adults holding children, and children no taller than an adult’s waist.

With the flames raging towards them, they had no choice but to flee in despair.

On the other side of the flames was a dense mass of something.

Half of the wall was covered in black, resembling the scorch marks left by fire, or like someone had randomly scribbled with a black marker, creating a chaotic tangle of black lines.

For some reason, these seemingly random scribbles seemed to have a deeper meaning, giving off an indescribable sense of urgency.

Lin Jue: [Flames? The ruins have flames, which means there must have been a fire here before, right? Could it be that a fire broke out here before, burned people alive, and the resentment of those people’s dead souls entangled and cursed Goose Feather Mountain, making it impossible to use fire?]

Song Yuantian: [It’s not impossible.]

Emil: [@Samael, what have you discovered over there?]

Samael: [We found a lot of coal buried under the snow.]

Xia Chi: [Great! With coal, we can light a fire and keep warm.]

Lin Jue: [You’re too naive, it’s useless. You can’t light a fire on Goose Feather Mountain.]

Samael: [Lin Jue is right, the coal is useless. We’ve already tried lighting it on the spot, using kindling and drilling to make a fire, but every time the coal starts to smoke, it extinguishes by itself.]

Emil: [So this coal is just for show? What’s the use of it then?]

Xia Chi suddenly had an idea: [Just like how ancient people would look at plums to quench their thirst, now we can look at coal to keep warm?]

Song Yuantian: […Give me a break. By the way, what did you two find at the Deep Ice Spring?]

Xia Chi suddenly felt guilty: [We found nothing.]

Lin Jue: [Nothing at all? How is that possible? Stop joking.]

Xia Chi: [It’s true. We spent four and a half hours to get here, only to see a flat area with an ice spring. We searched the surroundings for an hour, almost turning the place upside down, but found nothing.]

Song Yuantian: [Did you search everywhere? In the snow, under the glacier?]

Xia Chi: [Yes, we searched everywhere.]

Bai Lixin turned his heel in another direction: [No, there’s one place we haven’t searched yet.]

Xia Chi looked in the direction Bai Lixin was facing and felt like his brother had gone mad, [It can’t be what I’m thinking, right, brother?]

Lifting his feet, Bai Lixin strode forward, [It seems it is what you’re thinking.]

Song Yuantian: [Where?]

Bai Lixin stopped walking, [Inside the Ice Spring.]

Lin Jue: [Are you crazy, Bai Lixin?]

Emil: […]

Samael: [Haha, still as crazy as ever!]

Song Yuantian: [Good luck to you guys.]

Xia Chi’s pupils trembled slightly: [?]

‘You…guys?

Including me?’

As soon as Bai Lixin stopped, another person appeared beside him.

He turned his head slightly and saw with the corner of his eye that it was the green down jacket.

The green down jacket stood straight, looking very tense.

Bai Lixin lowered his eyes slightly and found that the fist hidden inside the sleeve of the green down jacket was clenched tightly. Despite the thick gloves, he could even see the outline of the man’s finger bones.

Another person appeared on Bai Lixin’s right side.

He turned his head and saw it was Pink Hair.

Pink Hair squatted by the ice spring, holding his cheeks with his hands, and said in a frustrated voice: “Damn, it seems like the only place left to search is inside the ice spring.”

“It looks like we have to go into the water, but what do we do? The ice spring looks so cold, I don’t want to get myself wet.”

The green down jacket spoke in a deep voice: “Indeed, this is the only place left to search.”

Bai Lixin could hear the restraint and trembling hidden in the man’s steady voice.

Pink Hair jumped up from the snow and ran to the green down jacket with light steps, “Brother, are you afraid?”

The green down jacket replied in a low voice: “Afraid of what? No.”

“But, but.” Pink Hair placed his hands behind his back, grinding his toe into the snow, “I heard your trembling voice. Brother, you don’t have to be afraid, trust me, you’ll be fine. If you really don’t want to go down, then don’t. Look at the white mist above the ice spring, that’s all cold air. Going inside is really dangerous. The down jacket will soak up the water and become extremely heavy, we won’t be able to bear the weight and will sink. We’ll really die.”

“Even if we’re lucky enough not to die, the wet down jacket will soon freeze in the cold air. There’s still a long way to the safe house, and we have to hurry back. Can we really make it back before dark with the heavy down jackets?”

“Brother, you should think carefully.”

Bai Lixin’s gaze fell on the green down jacket’s hand.

The person’s fists tightened even more, and were trembling visibly.

“Indeed.” Finally, the green down jacket took a deep breath and released his tightly clenched hand, “You’re right, going down there is a life-threatening risk. Even if there’s an opportunity below, it’s not worth it if we can’t enjoy it. Let’s go back.”

Having made the final decision, the green down jacket seemed to let go of a heavy burden, and his tone became a bit lighter.

He turned around, no longer looking at the ice-cold spring behind him, and prepared to leave.

Just after taking two steps, he suddenly heard something fall into the snow behind him.

Pink Hair was the first to turn around, freezing in place as he saw whatever it was.

The green down jacket was puzzled, and he slowly turned around too.

Then he was also stunned.

In the snow next to the ice spring lay a heavy black and white down jacket.

A tall, slender young man was methodically removing his equipment, starting with his goggles, then his gloves, and finally his snow boots and down pants.

The green down jacket’s pupils trembled violently behind his goggles.

In the cold winter, amidst the vast white snow, a young man in a thin shirt suddenly appeared in their view.

The young man was extremely handsome. In this pure white land that seemed forgotten by God, his beautiful face was like a drop of vermilion, instantly making the world lose its color.

He stood between heaven and earth, the corners of his shirt flapping wildly, and his soft hair gently swaying in the breeze.

The green down jacket was momentarily stunned.

Due to the cold, the young man’s cheeks were slightly flushed.

But this redness was not the kind of red from frostbite; it was the tender red of an apple just ripening.

The light pink color made the young man’s features even more striking.

The young man gave them a faint smile, “Since that’s the case, I’ll go down and take a look. Please take care of my down jacket; I’ll need it when I come back up.”

Realizing what the young man was about to do, the green down jacket instinctively reached out a hand.

But it was too late. Just as he raised his hand, he saw the young man leap into the ice spring.

Yay, we finally reached the 600s 🎉🎉