Night Raid and New Rules

“The strength of the mutant poison flower was higher than I expected.”

Late at night, in a poplar wood house, Huang Xiu lay on a mattress made of leaves and vines.

With her hands behind her head, she silently reviewed the day’s battle in her mind.

Her easy victory over Bai Bai Bai and her team today was entirely thanks to the mutant poison flower.

“As long as I control the toxicity, the mutant poison flower will become a foolproof move for me from now on.”

At this thought, a surge of pride welled up in her heart. Too lazy to continue the review, she rolled over and went to sleep.

If she stayed awake any longer, she might lose her drowsiness. Insomnia would be disastrous.

As Huang Xiu slowly drifted off, the wooden house was filled only with the steady breathing of the six occupants.

Until around three in the morning, a sudden buzzing vibration shattered the silence.

“What the hell?”

Huang Xiu opened her sleepy eyes, half-awake.

Lifting her arm, her moist pupils contracted from the harsh light of her watch.

[Insomnia City – No Closing Eyes: If eyes remain closed for more than one second, immediate elimination. Countdown: 10, 9, 8…]

[It seemed the organizers were worried that if the rules switched in the dead of night, participants wouldn’t receive and confirm them in time, leading to elimination.

This time, the countdown lasted a full ten seconds!

Huang Xiu couldn’t help but admit, Old Guang was really thoughtful this time.

…

Like hell he was!

No matter what anyone said, she would never believe this wasn’t a rule specifically chosen by Old Guang!

In an instant, all drowsiness vanished. She leaped up like a jumping carp, rolling to her feet.

Then she grabbed Wen Zhan, who was still half-asleep beside her, and shook her vigorously:

“Wake up, wake up! If you keep sleeping, you’ll be eliminated!”

As she spoke, she used her foot to push Zhong Zishu, who was still clinging tightly to Jiang Qingqing and babbling in her sleep.

Only after everyone had woken up and read the rule did Huang Xiu breathe a sigh of relief. She slumped to the ground, gritting her teeth:

“Old Guang, if you won’t let me sleep, I’ll never forgive you!”

Naturally, Huang Xiu’s group wasn’t the only one affected by the rule.

All over the competition grounds, elegant curses erupted simultaneously.

The rule started at three in the morning and wouldn’t end until eight, by which time it would already be dawn.

Even two hours would be a long time.

Clearly, there would be no sleep tonight.

Fortunately, mutants generally had abundant energy, so missing a night’s sleep wasn’t a big deal.

And since sleep was impossible, they might as well get busy.

So Huang Xiu’s 606 squad decided to use the time to map the area in the dark.

From a little past three until ten in the morning, roughly seven hours.

The six of them registered eight landmarks in succession.

They finally completed mapping the surrounding area.

Unfortunately, they didn’t encounter any other squads along the way.

After all, most squads lacked Huang Xiu’s reconnaissance abilities and dared not travel in the dead of night.

Looking at the dense clusters of landmarks and connecting lines on the tablet, Huang Xiu decisively began the final task of “connecting dots to form areas.”

About half an hour later.

Her watch vibrated once, and a notification popped up.

[Score: 50→ 63 out of 10]

Huang Xiu nodded.

Her 606 squad had marked a total of 13 landmarks, earning 13 points. The calculation was correct.

As for the extra 10 points, they came from eliminating Mercury Void creatures along the way.

One point per creature—low, but still acceptable, much more stable than the close call of being eliminated in a minute.

After all, it was an unexpected bonus.

“Huang Xiu set down the tablet and turned to the others. “Let’s take a short rest, then switch zones and start hunting!”

Switching zones—where to go? That was a crucial decision.

Huang Xiu and the others thought for a while and finally decided to move forward toward the boundary of their current area.

Yes, after completing the map of the surrounding area, the regional boundaries appeared on the tablet.

Clearly, this was a hint from the organizers to the trainees.

Without Void Energy concentration to determine direction, they could now use the boundaries to locate the center.

So Huang Xiu and her group headed toward the center, mapping as they went.

And so they walked for an entire day.

Thanks to the mutant plants acting as scouts nearby,

Huang Xiu wasn’t ambushed along the way. Instead, she managed to eliminate several squads from other institutions.

And she encountered two squads from Tiandu University.

Among them were people she knew.

Given Huang Xiu’s fame among the university students, having acquaintances or not didn’t really matter anyway.

Practically everyone recognized her.

By relying on her name alone, Huang Xiu easily convinced them to join forces.

Of course, they experienced two new rules in the middle of that:

[Height Prohibition Here: Relative height above ground must not exceed one meter.]

[Chatterbox: Maximum interval between each person’s speech is ten seconds, and each utterance must be at least two characters long.]

The first rule wasn’t too bad—just had to sit or crawl to stay under one meter.

But the second rule was outrageous.

Every ten seconds, you had to say at least a two-word sentence.

Five hours—three hundred minutes, eighteen thousand seconds—meant speaking eighteen hundred times…

Thankfully, it only required two words each time, or Huang Xiu feared her voice would go hoarse.

“Okay.”

She repeated that phrase for five hours. By the end, she had even forgotten its original pronunciation…

Late at night, in the forest, a bonfire blazed, shadows dancing with the flames.

“We’ve gathered ten Beacon Users, but still no sign of Gu Yushu.”

Jiao Le shook his head and sighed.

Beside him stood over sixty elites from the Special High Court and the Jurisdiction Bureau.

Each Beacon User represented not just themselves, but their entire squad.

“But we’ve also lost eight Beacon Users in just one day.”

“Clearly, this is the work of an S-class.” Jiao Le said.

“She must have guessed our plan and is acting in parallel.”

He turned to the captain of the Special High Court squad.

“We can’t delay any longer. If we haven’t found Gu Yushu by tomorrow, we’ll attack directly.”

“Is it that urgent?” The Special High Court captain frowned.

“Even if we act together, we have more people and a faster gathering speed. We have the advantage.”

“Advantage?” Jiao Le shook his head. “You’re mistaken. If the S-class really gathers her forces, who among us can eliminate her with so many Tiandu University protectors?”

“Are you scared? Even Gu Yushu probably couldn’t do it.”

The Special High Court members were silent.

Even if they had confidence in Gu Yushu, it wasn’t blind faith.

On the third day, Huang Xiu kept their direction unchanged.

But this time, they switched from an arrow formation to a horizontal plow formation.

After all, though they said they’d move together, such a large group couldn’t actually stay bunched up.

That would draw too much attention and be too big a target, and it would hinder each squad’s mapping.

Since Huang Xiu could track everyone’s movements through her mutant plants, the three squads simply spread out, moving ahead parallel to each other with a hundred meters between them.

[I’m starting to feel like this simulation game is just a field trip for our squad.]

Chi Xue ate a slice of watermelon as she walked.

[Meat and fruit every meal, no fear of being surrounded on the road, and we get a house to sleep in at night—tsk, tsk.]

“And you still won’t thank Senior Sister?” Huang Xiu laughed.

As the Tiandu University contingent grew larger, the chance of danger decreased.

With nothing to worry about on the road, she had mutated some watermelons for them to eat.

“Here, send these watermelons to the other squads.” Huang Xiu patted the head of the mutant potato.

This mutant potato looked like a small dog, but with grooves on its back for carrying things.

She had specifically mutated it for transport.

Once the grooves were filled with watermelons, the mutant potato darted into the forest.

“When we’ve gathered a few more people, we’ll head back and see if we can deal with that Gold-rank Void creature.” Huang Xiu said.

“Sister Ji, Sister Rou…”

“No need.” Huang Xiu waved her hand. “It might be tough—that pangolin’s scales are too thick. We need a superpower user with high enough attack power to break through its defense.”

“Maybe we don’t have to break its defense directly. I want to try using my mutant poison flowers to poison it.” Huang Xiu smiled.

She hadn’t yet tested the full strength of her poison flowers’ toxins, so she still harbored some illusions.

“That’s unlikely. If it were a Void poison flower, maybe.” Rou Rou wasn’t trying to dampen spirits; she was just stating facts, as was her nature.

Huang Xiu knew that, so she just smiled and said no more.

She casually tossed her watermelon rind to the ground and wiped her mouth.

Then she suddenly sensed an urgent alert from the mutant plant on guard nearby.

A large group of people was heading their way from directly ahead.

Huang Xiu frowned and quickly closed her eyes. Through [Senluo], she swiftly commanded the mutant plants stationed with the other squads to send out warnings.

In the Tiandu University Male 102 Squad, the mutant eggplant that had been silently following suddenly raised its head and hugged the squad leader’s leg.

The squad leader, a well-built man with a habit of working out, asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

The mutant eggplant pointed forward and raised a thumb.

It was a universal hand signal used by Special Mutant squads, learned during evening training.

It meant danger ahead.

The burly man understood instantly and said quietly, “Everyone, on alert! Prepare for contact!”

On the reverse slope of the plain, Jiao Le and his teammates were trudging along, still searching for traces of Gu Yushu.

Having spent half a day on the third day without finding him,

Jiao Le had actually given up on finding him and was thinking about how to come clean with the Special High Court.

But just then, a gloomy-looking boy walking beside him pointed at the grass on the slope and shouted loudly:

“Brother Jiao, something’s wrong! Someone’s watching us!”

!!!

Jiao Le knew this person’s ability—he could sense any gaze directed at him.

A countermeasure against S-class reconnaissance abilities.

So without any doubt, he followed the boy’s point.

His pupils contracted and focused, and soon he vaguely saw a green figure in the grass.

Swish!

A black shadow flashed before Jiao Le’s eyes—a male student from the Special High Court crouched…