Chapter 25: hidden meaning in rules

Xu Xin listened attentively to the words of that mysterious voice, more seriously than he would for a promotion match.

Who wouldn't care when it concerns their own life?

When he heard that the last 50 people would be eliminated, Xu Xin's eye twitched.

Cruel elimination at the end, he knew this mysterious voice wouldn't be so kind, even if it was a reward activity, 50 people in each region would still die, and who knows how many people would encounter dangers during the exploration process.

Although 50 people didn't seem like many compared to the over 8,000 remaining in their region, only accounting for 0.6%, this was the first activity after the newbie protection period ended. Who knows how many so-called "activities" would be waiting for them in the future.

Xu Xin began to analyze the rules stated by the mysterious voice.

Because of the key positions, the three treasure chests must be opened in the order of bronze chest, silver chest, and gold chest to open all three chests. Can the positions of the chests be moved? If so, putting the first found chest into the backpack would make this activity a bit easier.

Would there be beasts guarding the chests? The worst possibility was that there would be beasts around the chests that he simply couldn't match.

Were there any obvious markers around the chests? Xu Xin thought there should be.

A radius of three kilometers was definitely not a small area, about the size of a small city's urban area. In two days' time, if searched systematically, even with Xu Xin's night vision ability and not needing to sleep at night, it would be impossible to search such a large area just by walking.

If it was purely based on luck, that would be too meaningless.

As he was pondering, Li Wenxi sent him another video call, which Xu Xin answered.

The pretty girl's expression was more serious this time, and she spoke directly: "I want to exchange green wood with you, I don't have much green wood left, and there are still many tools I haven't made."

Xu Xin was also short on stone blocks (green), so he naturally agreed, and both parties quickly completed the transaction.

Li Wenxi on the other side suddenly smiled and said: "If I can survive this time, you must let me have a good look at your little panda."

Xu Xin patted the little one's head, feeling he should help this little rich girl he had just met two days ago. Before he found iron ore, she was his source of minerals. Moreover, he felt comfortable interacting with her.

He took out two oranges and placed them on the trading platform: "These two are for you. At night, depending on the situation, if it's dangerous, don't go out. If it's not dangerous, you can use these."

Blue-grade fruits were actually far less precious than blue-grade mineral rocks and wood resources. A single tree could bear hundreds of fruits, and the effect only lasted a few hours at most. They couldn't compare with mineral and wood resources that could directly enhance tool functions and efficiency. It was about the difference between potions and equipment of the same grade.

Giving her two oranges was like an investment for Xu Xin.

The pretty girl was about to refuse, but after seeing the effects of the oranges, she was stunned. She closed her mouth that had opened to refuse Xu Xin and obediently clicked the agree to trade button.

"I… I'll compensate you after this activity is over!" Li Wenxi knew she had gotten a great deal. The function of this fruit was perfect with red berries, basically allowing her to treat night as day. If she could better utilize the nighttime, her chances of becoming one of the last 50 would greatly decrease.

"Oh, by the way, you can gather some resources before searching for the treasure chests. The voice just now said 'the last 50 survivors in terms of resource value obtained', it didn't specify resources from the chests or limited resources. So even if you only get one blue resource, you probably won't be in the last 50, right? It's unlikely that almost everyone can get blue materials." Xu Xin told Li Wenxi what he had thought of.

Hearing Xu Xin's words, Li Wenxi's eyes gradually widened as she began to ponder: "What you say… seems to make sense? Is that what the voice said? I don't remember clearly…"

Originally, this end elimination had been making Li Wenxi uneasy,

She was very afraid of not finding the treasure chest and ending up at the bottom, but hearing Xu Xin's explanation, if it was really like this, it seemed she could relax about this activity, at least not worry about being one of the last to be eliminated.

"That's what was said, but it's just a guess. As a precautionary measure, what if the bronze chest is very easy to find, and the value of the resources inside exceeds that of blue-grade resources? Finding the treasure chests should still be the priority."

Of course, this possibility was very small. Now some people didn't even have green materials, if the value of a bronze chest exceeded blue materials, wouldn't the gold and silver chests be invincible?

So what he told Li Wenxi was also what he wanted to do. The oranges on that orange tree hadn't been fully picked yet, at least seventy or eighty were left. As long as he picked them all, he basically wouldn't be eliminated at the bottom, right?

The pretty girl on the other side nodded, feeling like she had found a big leg to hold onto: "I'll listen to you!"

"At seven o'clock in the evening, if you can come back, try to come back once to exchange information."

"Hehe, alright, just don't forget!" Xu Xin's method made the pretty girl feel at ease, and a smile returned to her face.

After hanging up the video, Xu Xin looked at the regional channel again, the entire channel had obviously become chaotic.

"Oh my god! The last 50 will die!"

"Isn't this a reward activity? Why would people die?"

"No good, I need to go down and find the treasure chests quickly, good luck to you all, friends!"

"Why! So many people just died last night, and it's starting again today…"

"Can the treasure chests be traded? Whoever gets a treasure chest, trade with me, I'll give them all my possessions when I get back!"

"My dad is XXX, can someone help me, there will be a big reward in the future!"

A group of men and women, none over 30 years old, had completely panicked. The entire regional channel was full of meaningless garbage talk, without any useful clues.

No one in the regional channel mentioned the method he had talked about. Ji Chaoyang, who often helped everyone in the regional channel before, didn't show up at all this time. After all, if this method was made public, it would basically lose its effectiveness. Everyone would do it, so what effect could it have?

There would always be 50 people at the bottom, but no one wanted it to be themselves. At the moment when the last 50 people were eliminated, what might rise in the hearts of other weak ones might not be sympathy, but relief.

Thankfully, it's not me.

This is the cruelty of the bottom elimination system to the weak.

Xu Xin took all his tools – stone axe, stone pickaxe, stone spear, put on his backpack, and officially set out.

The first thing to do was what he had mentioned earlier, to go and pick those oranges first. Whether it would be useful or not, at least it could put his mind at ease a bit.

After picking the oranges, Xu Xin casually tossed one to Coco on his shoulder. Coco peeled the orange like a human and ate it with relish, its little face still wearing that intoxicated expression.

After finishing picking the oranges, Xu Xin opened the map. He wanted to see if there were any red dots around. If there were beasts guarding the treasure chests, the red dots would definitely be very close to the chests.

However, to his disappointment, except for many red dots moving in the center of the lake, there wasn't even a single red dot in his resource area. More red dots were still concentrated in the northwestern area.

That was a hilly area. He could see the undulating hills in that direction from his treehouse, but that area was very far from his treehouse, definitely more than three kilometers away, so the treasure chests couldn't be in that location.

"So, where exactly could they be?" Xu Xin pondered.

"Nevermind, let's get moving first. Maybe my item identification ability can directly see them." Xu Xin wasn't in much of a hurry now. The orange tree's location was about one kilometer away from the treehouse. He planned to first look around the outer edge of this three-kilometer radius area.

The entire resource area was just a small area with a diameter of two kilometers. Xu Xin's treehouse was at the very edge of the resource area, which meant that the entire exploration area actually completely included the resource area, with a large part of the ordinary area left over.

"Let's go to places I haven't been to first and have a look."