novelraw Chapter 538 - 366: Completely Connected!
Chapter 538 - 366: Completely Connected!
The two of them headed west.
"There used to be a river here," Zhao Xiaochuan pointed to the ground, "but now it’s frozen and buried under the snow."
"Hmm..." Keke poked her head out from Xu Xin’s embrace, observing the surroundings.
Zhao Xiaochuan had indeed said before that if they walked along the river from his treehouse, they’d find Qin Yunlong’s treehouse.
"My treehouse is actually quite far from Qin Yunlong’s," Zhao Xiaochuan said somewhat sheepishly, "about forty kilometers. That’s why it took a long time to find it initially."
Forty kilometers...
Even with a powered snowboard, it would take roughly an hour.
"Let’s speed up then," Xu Xin lightly tapped the powered snowboard, and with a "buzz," the speed was maxed out.
He hadn’t used the maximum speed before because there were many trees in the jungle, and he lacked the skills to dodge them.
But now, after sliding for so long, he was very proficient and didn’t need to be so cautious anymore.
However, even at the fastest speed, it would still take at least close to an hour to reach.
As he focused, the map appeared in his mind.
The area has been explored extensively, from Wen Guixin’s treehouse to Qin Yunlong’s treehouse, and then to Qin Yunhu’s treehouse; the route and surroundings are clearly visible on the map.
Although they hadn’t encountered any danger or mutant creature groups along the way, there were still sporadic red spots around.
The places where those red spots aggregated weren’t on their route, which saved them a lot of trouble.
After sliding for about half an hour, his watch vibrated—Li Wenxi was calling with a voice message.
"Xu Xin, how’s it going? Have the coordinates been activated?"
The voice was on speaker, and Zhao Xiaochuan heard it too, quickly making faces at him.
"Still a way to go, at least an hour," Xu Xin glanced at Zhao Xiaochuan and looked ahead.
The canopy of Zhao Xiaochuan’s treehouse wasn’t visible yet—everything in sight was a blanket of white.
"That slow? I thought you’d be back soon," Li Wenxi’s voice carried the sound of footsteps and sitting on a sofa, "I’ve pretty much finished up here. It’s been half an hour since anyone messaged. They probably won’t come, so now it’s just waiting."
"How many people in total?" Xu Xin asked.
"I didn’t count... Ji Chaoyang might’ve posted in the group. Let me see, um, 132 people? Wow, that’s a lot!"
"132 people?" Zhao Xiaochuan also began checking the explorers, very surprised, "Then we each get to manage... 15 people? That’s quite a lot..."
"Are you worried about not being able to sustain them?" Xu Xin looked at him, laughing.
"No way, we can definitely sustain them, but..." Zhao Xiaochuan sounded concerned, "With so many people, wouldn’t the disaster be more severe too?"
"Our strength is also greater!" Li Wenxi’s voice chimed in, "Plus, with the portals, it’ll be easy for us to help each other, so no fear of attacks!"
Indeed, Xu Xin wouldn’t have dared to recruit so many people before when the portals weren’t connected, but now...
The combination of support abilities and combat abilities is far from a simple one-plus-one.
The team’s combat power greatly improves qualitatively.
Just pure defense wouldn’t have any issues at all.
"Have we used up over a hundred blue-level iron blocks?" Xu Xin asked.
The consumption isn’t insignificant. These hundred-plus blue-level iron blocks could be smelted into steel blocks, yet she...
"Ugh, mentioning it makes my heart ache!" Li Wenxi’s tone turned a bit pained, "My inventory is almost wiped out! Ugh... no more talk, I’m going mining with everyone! My inventory is too low; I’m nervous about it, have to replenish!"
"Wait, Wenxi, I plan to give each of the nine members of our team a set of purple-grade steel armor—is there enough material?" Xu Xin asked.
"...Each a set of purple-grade steel armor?! You, you, you..." Li Wenxi was stunned for a moment hearing Xu Xin’s words.
After a few seconds, she spoke again: "Let me calculate, a set of steel armor requires four purple-grade steel blocks and twelve blue-grade steel blocks; for eight sets... um... kill me now!"
"Hmm?" Keke tilted her head in Xu Xin’s embrace.
"Oh dear..." Xu Xin awkwardly rubbed his nose, "The purple-grade steel blocks will be provided by those with upgraded treehouse cores, and there’ll be a batch of people coming this time; so we’ll be stocked on purple-grade steel blocks. Just provide enough blue-grade steel blocks."
"Hmm, that sounds manageable but still not enough," Li Wenxi explained, "all the blue-grade steel blocks were used for making coordinates; the blue-grade iron blocks are nearly exhausted too. Right now, I’m practically out of anything above blue grade, so we’ll see what I gather today."
Zhao Xiaochuan slid alongside, chuckling at their conversation: "Haha, if that’s the case, we seem to have used up quite a lot of materials. Why not focus on weapons first? Weapons need fewer steel blocks, and we have the purple-grade wood ourselves. Blue-level armor should suffice for now."