27: Chapter 27 The Raiders' Alliance

The temperature on the Gobi Desert had dropped to freezing in the dead of night.

Lin Zihao, wrapped in his sleeping bag, was sleeping soundly inside the tent.

Suddenly, the heavily modified motorcycle parked outside the tent erupted with a series of urgent electronic alarm sounds.

[Ding! Unauthorized personnel detected approaching the perimeter!]

[Ding! Target's mental value is critically low! Vital signs are rapidly declining!]

The piercing alarm instantly jolted Lin Zihao awake from his dreams.

He sprang up from his sleeping bag, grabbed the iron wrench he kept by his pillow, and scrambled out of the tent.

He glanced at the S-class hyper-sensory radar on his motorcycle.

At the edge of the screen, a white dot representing a neutral unit was flashing frantically, its light so faint it seemed on the verge of extinguishing at any moment.

Frowning, Lin Zihao followed the radar's direction, using his flashlight to walk into the wilderness beyond the road.

He hadn't gone far when, behind a sand dune, he discovered a small figure curled up on the ground.

It was a girl.

She was covered in blood, her clothes torn in several places by gravel, and she had fallen into a deep state of unconsciousness.

Her pale lips trembled slightly, and she murmured 'Mom' unconsciously.

"Holy crap, what's a living person doing collapsed out here in the middle of nowhere?"

Lin Zihao checked her breathing; it was shallow, and her body temperature was as cold as ice.

Being a naive university student, it didn't even cross his mind that this might be a trap.

Only one thought filled his mind: if he left her here, she'd meet the King of Hell within ten minutes at most.

He sighed, quickly bent down to pick up the girl, and hurried back to the camp.

Lin Zihao carefully placed the girl inside the tent, wrapping her tightly in his own thick sleeping bag.

A man and a woman alone together in a tent was clearly inappropriate.

He rubbed his frozen hands and turned to leave the tent.

Then, beside the tank's massive treads, he rekindled a campfire and spent the night huddled next to the flames.

The flickering firelight warmed the inside of the tent.

Yun Xiao, lost in her coma, felt a long-lost warmth, and a trace of color finally returned to her pale face.

Instinctively, like a startled kitten, she shrank deeper into the sleeping bag, her hands gripping its edges tightly, as if clutching her last lifeline.

...

Early the next morning.

The harsh sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tent, shining on Yun Xiao's face.

Her eyes snapped open, she sat up, and began gasping for air.

A night of peaceful sleep had allowed her mental value to recover slightly, and her mind was no longer so foggy.

She looked around in panic.

The soft sleeping bag, the windproof tent, and the crackling sound of burning firewood coming from outside.

Yun Xiao was stunned.

Her last memory was of stumbling toward a cluster of light deep in the wilderness before completely losing consciousness.

She hadn't died?

Carefully, Yun Xiao unzipped the tent and peeked out.

What met her eyes was a blood-red heavy tank that resembled a steel behemoth.

Its exaggerated caliber and menacing external armor exuded a suffocating sense of pressure in the morning light.

Yun Xiao's pupils contracted sharply, and she couldn't help but suck in a cold breath.

"Red Wolf's tank?!"

In the entire C-72 zone, who didn't know that the elusive top-tier player, who single-handedly boosted the entire zone's survival rate, drove a red heavy tank!

Hearing this exclamation, a young man with dark circles under his eyes, who was adding firewood to the campfire nearby, turned his head and offered a kind smile.

"Awake?"

"Don't be afraid. It's safe here."

"I found you passed out in the sand last night and brought you back."

Seeing his clear eyes and the warm campfire, Yun Xiao's taut nerves finally relaxed a little.

"Th... thank you for saving me."

Lin Zihao waved his hand dismissively and was about to speak when a heavy sound of metal grinding came from above.

*Clank.*

The top hatch of the Red Wolf Tank was pushed open.

Lu Yuan, wearing clean, casual clothes, emerged from the cockpit, stretching.

He glanced down at the unfamiliar girl by the campfire and raised an eyebrow slightly.

"Where'd you pick up this girl?"

Hearing Lu Yuan's voice, the ease instantly vanished from Lin Zihao's face.

He ran over to the base of the tank, his expression turning unprecedentedly grave.

"Brother Lu, I rescued this girl on the roadside last night."

"Something big has happened!"

Lin Zihao swallowed hard, his voice tinged with barely suppressed panic.

"I've been watching the zone chat channel all night."

"Last night, after we cleared the dungeon, the system rewarded the entire zone with full fuel tanks."

"Now, the four neighboring major zones have gone completely crazy. They've formed a raiding alliance."

"They're launching a full-scale hunt against us players in Zone C-72!"

Hearing Lin Zihao's words, Yun Xiao, standing to the side, felt as if struck by a bolt from the blue.

A reward of full fuel tanks for the entire zone?

A flash of lightning went through her mind; she remembered everything in an instant.

*Thud!*

Without warning, Yun Xiao's knees gave way, and she fell heavily onto the hard Gobi ground.

Tears poured out like a broken dam. She looked up, her eyes full of pleading, at Lu Yuan standing atop the tank.

"Red Wolf! Please, I beg you!"

"Please, save Uncle Shen!..."