64: Tiger Plain

The second round began.

This time, the drawing mode was a very common escort mode—the TigersquatPlain Escort Mission.

The mission time limit was within five days.

Escorting was one of the most frequent tasks for ability users, besides hunting mutated beasts.

Lin Ye's club had quite a bit of relevant training for this.

Due to the unique nature of the Star Realm, which was vast and sparsely populated with rampant mutated beasts, many people were needed for escort when exploring and developing.

Moreover, although bases could connect and even transport supplies from Blue Star through the Star Gate, the cost was substantial.

The Star Gate absorbed energy on its own, but it was very slow, completely unable to meet the demand for multiple material transfers; even transporting people required artificial energy replenishment to meet the demand.

Therefore, using the Star Gate once was very expensive, and transporting materials was simply not cost-effective.

So, it was necessary to dispatch people for escort to facilitate material exchange between two locations.

Lin Ye had never actively entered the Star Realm; his few times entering were basically free.

But he knew it wasn't cheap; it was said that transporting one person cost around a million, and a certain residency tax would also be charged based on the development and resource richness of the destination.

Getting back to the main topic, this escort mission primarily involved transporting a large amount of materials through TigersquatPlain.

The winner would be determined by the integrity of the materials and the time taken.

Prosperity felt as steady as an old dog; Lin Ye's personal Space Control could reduce a lot of trouble.

Putting those materials into his space meant the integrity was unquestionable, and the travel speed could also be greatly increased.

Other teams couldn't use this method; there were many runic pieces of equipment that could store materials, but they were all Gold-grade or even higher, which couldn't be used in professional competitions; they could only use Silver-grade equipment.

Moreover, the space in Gold-grade equipment was very small, only one cubic meter, completely unlike Lin Ye's personal Space Control, which was so large; his Transcendent-grade Space Control, combined with his Fourth-Order strength, allowed him to open a space of a full hundred cubic meters.

Undoubtedly, Prosperity had a small advantage.

Entering the Star Gate, 16 Fifth-Order Earth Lizards, carrying huge packages, stood ready.

Earth Lizards were considered relatively successfully domesticated mounts by humans; they were two meters tall and eight meters long, possessing astonishing strength and capable of transporting a lot of materials.

The staff gave a few instructions, then distributed materials and life-saving devices.

Lin Ye and his team received their lizards, quickly untied the materials, and sent them into Lin Ye's space.

The Earth Lizards were a bit stunned, wondering what was going on with these two-legged beasts?

Other teams were full of envy; Lin Ye's personal Space Control had contributed a lot, which they naturally knew, but Space-type abilities were too rare and difficult to train, so they didn't have such a setup.

Since it was an escort mission, no killing was allowed, so everyone naturally didn't attack each other and set off one after another.

The staff also released monitoring equipment.

This was a plain called TigersquatPlain, though it was unclear how tigers and plains became associated with each other.

Initially, they couldn't pull ahead, only Lin Ye's team, with their light-load advantage, was far in the lead.

But later, they encountered a few beast packs, and the escort team completely scattered.

On the plain, there was no problem of paths; they just had to find the right direction and charge.

Each team went their separate ways.

Lin Ye and Chen Ou ran, while their team's backline rode on the lizards.

Bai Ziqing occasionally cast Light Body spells to increase their speed.

Since they had avoided the recent waves of beast packs, they hadn't encountered any for a long time, so it was quite peaceful.

He and Chen Ou both had excellent stamina, and the Earth Lizards, as specially domesticated mounts, were naturally not to be underestimated.

So, they hadn't rested yet.

After traveling for half a day, they still encountered a beast pack they couldn't avoid.

These were a group of Blackhoof Beasts, with the limbs and horns of herbivores but sharp fangs and claws, entirely black, and three meters long.

Lin Ye thought they looked very much like a combination of a cow and a leopard.

They liked to live in groups, were skilled at hunting, and were cruel, bloodthirsty, and fearless of death.

They were considered the 'honey badgers' of the mutated beast world.

There were a full twenty-four of them, each with extraordinary strength; the lowest were Fifth-Order, and there were seven Sixth-Order, with the leader being a Seventh-Order.

Trouble, too much trouble.

The strength of this beast pack undoubtedly surpassed theirs.

Although Blackhoof Beasts were not particularly powerful mutated beasts, their excellent coordination meant they couldn't be judged by their raw stats.

Fight while retreating.

They quickly drove the Earth Lizards to escape.

Lin Ye and Chen Ou followed behind.

The Blackhoof Beasts clearly didn't want to give up; although Lin Ye and his team had little meat, the lizards had plenty.

Several Sixth-Order Blackhoof Beasts quickly closed in.

A few were repelled by the combined spellcasting of the Wind and Fire Dual Mages on the lizard's back.

The remaining three were blocked by Lin Ye and Chen Ou.

They only prevented them from getting close to the lizards, making no other moves, focusing solely on escaping.

Their mission was to escort, not to hunt.

The Seventh-Order leader, seeing his subordinates were not effective, charged forward with a few flashes.

"You go first; Lin Ye and I will cover the rear." Chen Ou decisively stopped running and fully blocked the Seventh-Order Blackhoof Beast.

Everyone understood his meaning; Lin Ye had group teleportation, so it would be no problem for the two of them to cover the rear.

While Chen Ou blocked the Blackhoof Beast, Lin Ye teleported to its side and unleashed a full-power Cannon Fist at the beast's waist.

The Blackhoof Beast was caught off guard, its most vulnerable waist hit, and it was instantly sent flying.

"Run quickly."

He pulled Chen Ou and used group teleportation to escape the Blackhoof Beasts' encirclement.

Chen Ou also let out a War Roar before leaving, controlling the surrounding Blackhoof Beasts.

After two consecutive teleports, they finally shook off the Blackhoof Beasts.

The Blackhoof Beast leader was somewhat unwilling, but with its waist injured and speed greatly reduced, it could only give up the pursuit.

Lin Ye and Chen Ou both breathed a sigh of relief; they had been afraid the beast's stubborn temper would flare up, making it relentless.

Thankfully, thankfully.

The first day was also a close call.

By nightfall, it was inconvenient to march, and after a day of fatigue, they needed to rest.

Everyone found a place to rest.

"It's a good thing that group of Blackhoof Beasts gave up the chase; otherwise, being pinned down by a group of Blackhoof Beasts would have been really troublesome." Wang Mengmeng patted her flat chest, still a bit scared.

"It was also good luck; they didn't intend to pursue, perhaps Lin Ye injured the leader's waist weakness, which is why they gave up," Chen Ou explained.

Lin Ye shook his head, "That leader shouldn't be seriously injured; the force of my punch was completely dispersed."

After hitting, he felt that the Blackhoof Beast leader must have used a life-saving skill, dispersing seventy to eighty percent of his punch's force.

"Regardless, we've survived a tribulation, Wenlong, how's your food heating up?" Bai Zhiqing asked.

Although Zhao Wenlong's cooking was terrible, his flame control was quite good; heating food was no problem.

"It's ready, it's ready, everyone eat."

After eating, they left the Wind and Fire Dual Mages to stand guard, then everyone went to sleep.

Ability users didn't require much sleep; once every day or two was enough.

But at this time, they couldn't march, so they naturally tried to replenish their energy as much as possible.

After all, they still had a lot of running to do.