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After a night’s rest, everyone woke up the next day feeling refreshed, with their clothes dry and their feet no longer aching.

As soon as Gu Xiaoxi opened her eyes, she heard two "plop" sounds.

The first to fall from the tree was Baili Tao, who perhaps was still in a daze. It took him quite a while to remember the painful experiences of the past two days.

Following him was Zhuang Xiaomeng, who seemed to never learn his lesson from before.

"Zhuang Xiaomeng, are you trying to kill yourself or what? You’re crushing me," Baili Tao glared at the man on top of him, the buffoon who fell right onto him.

"You two, there’s a female soldier in our team. If you’re going to openly play the CP game, think about the influence," Fu Xi said with a laugh as he stood on a tree branch watching them.

"Even if I were the ’receiver,’ I couldn’t fancy a brute with muscles for brains. Get off me, and if you call me ’xiaomeng’ again, pal, I’m going to lose it with you."

"Who are you calling simple-minded! And ’xiaomeng,’ that’s disgusting."

"..."

At this moment, the sky was just revealing a hint of dawn’s light, and their voices sounded especially clear in the dense forest.

Gu Xiaoxi and Yun Xiao had already jumped down from the tree, taking out fresh meat to feed the military dog. There was a challenging stretch of road ahead that would test not only human endurance but also that of the military dogs.

"Bright and early I see everyone’s in high spirits!" Yun Xiao said with a smile.

Gu Xiaoxi nodded and chuckled lightly, "It’s good to have energy! If you start the day already tired, how will you manage the road ahead?"

"Captain, you need to manage Zhuang Xiaomeng. If you don’t, I’m going to start throwing punches. Dammit, I’m losing hair over this," Baili Tao said in a deep voice, like an angry lion.

"What hair are you losing, just strike a flint and start a fire! Early in the morning, you should be calm and preserve your health," Zhuang Xiaomeng retorted, showing no signs of backing down from his tussle with Baili Tao.

Turning to see the two of them fighting fiercely, Gu Xiaoxi said with a forehead full of black lines, "You have two minutes to feed the military dog and one minute to pack up. We’re moving out in three minutes."

This made the two of them panic, they stopped fighting, quickly fed the military dogs, and then hurriedly got their gear in order.

"Everyone, load live rounds. If we encounter attacks from lions, tigers, or other ferocious animals, kill them directly. If they don’t harm us, we coexist peacefully," Gu Xiaoxi said as she shouldered her backpack, leading Xiao Xiao and looked ahead at the mountain.

Getting through the thorny forest was not going to be easy.

Armed with bayonets, they all made their way through the forest, cutting a path as they went.

"Can you find a way to avoid animal attacks?" Gu Xiaoxi whispered to Yun Xiao when nobody else was paying attention.

"No, many animals are naturally vicious. They see anything that’s not their own kind as an enemy, and they don’t even spare their own kind," Yun Xiao answered.

Animals, like humans, have their friendly ones as well as their extremely violent ones.

They attack other species uncontrollably and bully their own kind.

She had lived in the mountains for over a decade, witnessing firsthand the slaughter among animals. The wars between species were no less brutal than human territorial conflicts.

So in the eyes of the animals, we outsiders were even more the natural enemy.

"Then there’s no choice. If we’re attacked, we have to fight back!" Gu Xiaoxi narrowed her eyes, her tone cold. In the face of brutality, there was no yielding, no mercy. It was a kill-or-be-killed world order.

"Woof woof woof!" Just then, the sound of barking dogs erupted.

Gu Xiaoxi let Xiao Xiao lead the way toward their destination.

Not far in the woods, they stumbled upon a minefield. On the other side of the minefield were hostages.

The implication was clear: neutralize the mines first, then find the handkerchiefs.

"We move forward together and clear all the mines within the area!" Gu Xiaoxi stated decisively. This was a team battle, after all—they would face it together.

Twenty minutes later, they successfully cleared the mines, and Gu Xiaoxi found the fourth handkerchief. Everyone else did the same, each finding a handkerchief of their own.

Just as they were about to move on, Xiao Xiao suddenly barked furiously and broke free from Gu Xiaoxi’s hand, running into the deep woods nearby.

Gu Xiaoxi followed close behind, with the rest of the team catching up.

Soon, chasing after Xiao Xiao, Gu Xiaoxi discovered a small mound hidden beneath some leaves.

Gu Xiaoxi approached, removed the branches, and excavated the mound, finding inside a large package of drugs.

Gu Xiaoxi twitched the corner of her mouth, "Could this be another bonus question?"

At that moment, an examiner walked out and said to Gu Xiaoxi, "Congratulations, you get a bonus of ten points."

Could this be an unexpected bonus?

Gu Xiaoxi handed over the items to the examiner, then asked seriously, "Does this mean there will be many more bonus questions in the future?"

"Of course, the one with the highest score will receive a reward. The top twelve will be admitted to the worldwide competition, and if you don’t make it into the twelve, you’re eliminated," the examiner said with a serious face.

Hearing this, everyone frowned. This wasn’t necessarily good news!

So did that mean that others might earn more bonus points and then surpass them?

Xiao Xiao started barking again, and then Xiao Xiao, along with other military dogs, joined in.

They split up again, heading in three different directions.

Unexpectedly, there were similar small mounds.

Gu Xiaoxi had already scored ten points and left the remaining opportunities to everyone else.

Soon, everyone obtained points and then they continued on.

By noon, they had crossed two mountains and each earned twenty points.

Everyone was resting under a big tree.

"Xiao Xi, don’t you think we got our points too easily? Counting from the start until now, each of us has earned at least fifty points," Yun Xiao said, alert in his heart.

"So everyone needs to be careful. There must be a trick coming! We need to keep our points at the same level," Gu Xiaoxi said.

After resting at noon, they finally didn’t have to scale another mountain in the afternoon because they encountered a gorge between two mountains. All they needed to do was to cross through the gorge.

But the base of the gorge was filled with standing water and silt, making it difficult to traverse.

They looked out for each other, stepping on stones and climbing along the rock walls to move forward.

"Help!"

Just then, they heard a loud shout.

All heads turned toward the source of the voice and saw a male soldier trapped in a quagmire.

There were duckweeds floating on the quagmire with nothing to grab onto around it, so he sank to his waist, holding his military dog tightly in his arms.

Seeing them approach, he shouted excitedly.

Gu Xiaoxi led everyone forward and discovered that beside the quagmire, on a large rock, stood two other male soldiers. However, they were not enemies or contestants but there to rescue the young man in the quagmire.

But, if they rescued him, he would be eliminated.

So, even though the young man kept sinking, he didn’t call for help.

At this moment, he was extremely lucky to have encountered Gu Xiaoxi and others.

With nothing to grasp, it was difficult to get close to him, so Zhuang Xiaomeng enthusiastically cut a stick and used it to pull him ashore.

The young man was very delicate-looking, about the same age as Gu Xiaoxi, and even covered in mud, his inherent shyness and bashfulness couldn’t be hidden.

Especially that face still bearing traces of youth, his round cheeks, and his large eyes which were astonishingly blue. On closer inspection, one would miraculously find his blue pupils flickering with brown, green, and amber lights.

The strange glimmers were fleeting, and his eyes returned to blue, appearing unreal, but Gu Xiaoxi was certain there was something odd about those eyes.

This guy must be a Special Ability User!

Such a young age to participate in the World Competition and having made it this far, he certainly had some extraordinary qualities.

"What’s your name? How tall are you? Do you have any special skills? Can you fight?..." Zhuang Xiaomeng circled the young man, almost starting to take a census.

The young man smiled shyly and innocently, "My name is Jing Haoran, and I thank you brothers and sisters for saving my life."

"Thanks are not necessary, just answer my questions. How many points do you have now, do you need an alliance? Our team leader Gu Xiaoxi, undefeated in battle. Joining her in an alliance, you’re sure to win the competition.

.. How tall are you? Tell me quickly, are you shorter than me?

I knew it at a glance, you must be shorter than me! "

Jing Haoran squinted his eyes and looked at Zhuang Xiaomeng with a face as bashful as a blooming flower, "I’m 180cm tall, and Mom says I can still grow."

Damn!

Zhuang Xiaomeng plonked down on the ground, as the ship of friendship capsized in an instant.

180cm and still growing, how is he, who is 178cm and fully grown, supposed to live?

"What’s wrong, big brother? If you’re unhappy because I’m taller than you, then I’ll go back and change my height on my resume.

I can protect everyone, too! If you need someone for an alliance, then count me in.

Big brother, I seem stronger than you. When we encounter bad guys, you can hide behind me," the young man said.

Zhuang Xiaomeng felt like he took a ten-thousand-point critical hit. Doubting what kind of person he had saved, better looking than him, taller than him, and even able to inflict pure-hearted harm that made it unbearable to hit him back.

"Hahaha!" At this point, everyone couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Even Gu Xiaoxi was amused by Jing Haoran’s innocently hurtful expression. It was a deep wound and one could understand why Zhuang Xiaomeng’s heart was in tatters.

"Jing Haoran, let’s change our names, shall we? I think my name suits you better," Zhuang Xiaomeng suggested with a sneaky thought. Haoran sounded so poignant and masculine.

The name Xiaomeng seemed tailor-made for Jing Haoran. Oh heavens, you really didn’t have to be so playful and get things mixed up.