Chapter 552 - The Final Challenge

Yu Hanjiang woke up and found there was an endless desert around him. A fierce wind blew and gravel struck his face like knives. Yu Hanjiang immediately covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve.

He looked around and saw that his other teammates were all around him. This time, the 12 of them weren’t broken up. Due to that, they were about to face the most difficult crisis ever.

Xiao Lou was lying on the ground next to him. Xiao Lou’s forehead was recovered and no injuries could be seen. It was just that sand was blowing all over his body and half his face was buried in the sand.

Yu Hanjiang hurriedly walked over to help Xiao Lou up. He wiped the sand off Xiao Lou’s face and whispered, “Xiao Lou, wake up.”

Xiao Lou opened his eyes and looked at the endless desert around him. He couldn’t help being stunned. “Is it a survival mode?”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “It is likely a survival in the desert challenge.”

Just then, their other teammates woke up.

Ye Qi was about to open his mouth to speak when a gust of wind and sand struck. His mouth was filled with sand and Ye Qi’s eyes widened. He spat out the sand and complained. “We are actually teleported to the desert? This is the so-called… final challenge?”

Tang Ci calmly patted the sand off his body. “As expected.”

Ye Qi looked back at him. “Mr Tang, did you already guess it was a desert instance?”

Tang Ci explained, “Everyone has come all the way to the present and experienced all types of harsh environments. However, we have never seen a desert. This time, the arrangement of the endless desert echoes the nature of the keepers who like to torture people.”

Lu Jiuchuan folded his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. “The two jokers are really annoying. We completed the relay mission and have to come to the desert as a team to survive. Before, I had to survive on a desert island with Hanjiang. That wasn’t Spades’ doing?”

Xiao Lou finally understood where the blood on Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan’s bodies came from. He looked at Yu Hanjiang, who told him calmly, “The deserted island survival was at most A level according to the difficulty. The desert survival that all the members are participating in this time is the real SS level.”

Old Mo looked around and sighed. “In this vast desert, it is easy to get lost. We don’t have a compass and we aren’t familiar with the surrounding environment. Will we be able to leave?”

Liu Qiao wondered, “Uncle Mo, you can’t tell the direction here?”

Old Mo smiled bitterly. “I need a reference to distinguish the direction. Here, the front, back, left and right are all sand. The sun is hanging overhead and I can’t tell the difference between east, west, north and south. We can’t just stay still and wait for the sun to set before finding a direction, right?”

Xiao Lou stared thoughtfully into the distance.

It was a desert with no end in sight. It was vast, desolate and barren and stretched out between the vast heavens and earth. It was as if only 12 of them were left in the world. Such a strange scene gave people a great shock to the soul. It was also the most spectacular scenery that Xiao Lou had ever seen in his life.

Unfortunately, they weren’t here to travel. They were here to survive.

The scorching sun heated up the ground. They had been standing in the desert for less than two minutes before they felt that their feet were going to be burned by the scalding sand. This was simply the legendary desert where ‘eggs are steamed quickly when placed on the ground’!

The heat under their feet was making everyone sweat. How could they walk in such an environment?

They were short of food, had no water, no compass, no directions and no means of transportation… wasn’t it a dead end to drop unprepared 12 people in the middle of the desert?

Everyone realized the danger of the situation when they saw Xiao Lou’s serious look.

Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan had the most experience surviving in the wilderness. Xiao Lou looked at the two of them and asked in a low voice, “Hanjiang, Brother Jiu, do you have any good ideas?”

Yu Hanjiang replied, “Enter the Peach Blossom Spring and then discuss it. Otherwise, we will get heat stroke standing under this sun before we get any results.”

Xiao Lou’s sweat was about to soak the shirt on his body so he hurriedly tried to summon Tao Yuanming.

The moment he was about to use the skill, a notification popped up in his floating box.

[Welcome to the final level of the two jokers secret room: Desert Survival Game.]

[Clearance requirement: Survive in the desert for three days.]

[Special note: All card skills have been refreshed and all cards have become limited cards. They will be damaged immediately after one use.]

[P.S: In any case, you don’t want to stay in the Card World. You can’t take these cards away with you. Using one is scraping it. It is up to you.]

Xiao Lou, “……”

He almost laughed at the series of notifications.

The cards could only be used once. This rule simply made things worse for everyone. Originally, Tao Yuanming’s Peach Blossom Spring could be used once a day and they could be teleported many times or Ye Qi’s instrument cards and control skills refreshed in just 10 seconds. Now all cards had become limited cards. Using one was having one less card.

If they used too many cards at the beginning and got into trouble later on, they would just be lambs heading to the slaughter.

Xiao Lou helplessly put away Tao Yuanming. He didn’t want a crucial skill like the Peach Blossom Spring to be removed just to ensure everyone was ‘cool’.

Yu Hanjiang frowned. “It is very sunny. Let’s endure it first.”

Then he took out the double tent, a reward card issued from a World Weekly room in the beginning. Almost everyone had one and there was no need to be distressed when it was used up. After the tent was taken out, Yu Hanjiang and Lu Jiuchuan quickly dismantled it and turned the tent into a huge ‘umbrella’ to block the scorching sun overhead.

The high temperature of the desert couldn’t be blocked by the umbrella but at least the sunlight was blocked. Their skin was no longer directly exposed to the hot sun and everyone felt much better. It was estimated that everyone would be blistered and peeled if they continued to get a sunburn like this.

Yu Hanjiang walked over to the ‘umbrella’ and spoke in a low voice, “Let’s take stock of the food resources.”

The group gathered together and took out all their cards to count it.

Lu Jiuchuan frowned. “Each person has one materials supply card that allows us to get a bottle of milk, a piece of chocolate, a bottle of mineral water and a pack of instant noodles. If it is a forest, deserted island or other environments, it is barely enough to survive. After all, we can eat fruit or hunt wild game. However, this desert environment…”

Everyone looked at each other and silence fell.

They couldn’t eat sand, could they?

Yu Hanjiang told them, “Moreover, the sun is up for a long time in the desert and the temperature is too high. The water resources are extremely scarce. Once dehydrated, it will be more difficult to handle.”

Lu Jiuchuan pondered on it for a moment. “Looking at this situation, we might not be able to find an oasis. If we have to survive in a desert environment for three days from beginning to end… people can survive for three days without eating or drinking. The usual mode of survival will be at least seven days. This time, we are only required to survive for three days. Why do I have a bad feeling?”

Tang Ci said, “Your hunches have always been accurate. The shorter the survival time requirement, the greater the survival pressure.”

Yu Hanjiang nodded. “Yes, the crises will be condensed in three days and it isn’t only a matter of food shortages. It is also possible there will be attacks from strange beasts in the desert or hunters.”

The more the group listened, the more frightened they became.

Surviving in the desert for three days sounded short but who knew what would happen in three days?

Xiao Lou looked at everyone helplessly. “Don’t be too discouraged. We have survived so many difficulties and only the last step is left. We just have to hang in there.”

Yu Hanjiang suggested, “We don’t have a means of transportation so we shouldn’t move blindly for the moment. My idea is that we will rest during the day and move at night. First, the temperature at night is relatively low. There is no scorching sun and everyone will be able to act much easier. Secondly, there will be stars in the night sky. We can rely on the North Star to distinguish the direction and not get lost.”

Old Mo nodded. “That’s right. The stars in the desert are much brighter than the city without the light pollution and we can’t go wrong if we rely on the North Star to distinguish the direction. In ancient times, many caravans that went to the western region relied on the stars to recognize the way.”

Gui Yuanzhang suddenly interjected, “In addition to the beasts and hunters, everyone has overlooked one thing.”

The group looked at him.

Gui Yuanzhang calmly told them, “There is also malice from nature—for example, a sandstorm.”

Everyone felt cold when they heard this.

How could they forget this?

A sandstorm referred to a disastrous weather phenomenon in which strong winds lifted up large amounts of sand and soil particles from the ground, making the air turbid and greatly reducing visibility.

It must be known that in the cities of the great northwest, the occasional sandstorm was enough to give people headaches. There were strong winds, flying dust and visibility was greatly reduced. The plastic bags, newspapers and debris in the garbage cans on the streets could be lifted into the air and fly everywhere. It was like the end of the world.

Once a sandstorm blew in the desert, it wasn’t just ‘the end of the world’.

It was a natural disaster that could destroy everything.

The terrible wind and sand would sweep over and overwhelm the sky and earth. Don’t talk about people. A sandstorm in the desert could flood a building in an instant.

Chu Huaying heard this and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow. “Old Gui, can you stop your crow’s mouth?”

Gui Yuanzhang calmly said, “I’m just giving you a wake-up call. Don’t ignore this possibility and take precautions in advance. It is better than being in a rush at that time.”

Xiao Lou agreed. “Senior Gui is right. This mission requires us to survive for three days. The time is so short and it will definitely be full of crises. We can’t let down our vigilance for a moment. In case there is a real sandstorm…”

Yu Hanjiang had a calm expression. “There is no ‘just in case’. Look over there.”

The group followed his gaze.

In the distance, a row of wild sand that was tens of meters high rushed toward them like thousands of galloping horses!

The sand and dust raised by the fierce wind covered the sky. The entire desert seemed to be uprooted and turned upside down. The yellow sand rushed wildly and almost engulfed everything in the world!

The team members were so shocked by the horror that they couldn’t speak.

Ye Qi’s voice trembled. “A-A sandstorm is really coming…”

Lu Jiuchuan couldn’t help cursing. “F*k, this is the meeting gift the two jokers gave us?”