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Little Old Me was absolutely furious with these useless teammates. Ever since he decided to strike first, he’d planned to wrap this up quickly.

One reason is that he fears delays will lead to complications; he wants his life, and this has often been the case with the other. Secondly, it’s almost the end of the month, and the second round of rankings will soon be tallied.

With another round of resource replenishment, he’ll be even harder to kill.

On top of that, there’s the Ice and Snow Boss to consider. A top player has personally confirmed that the magic sled can fly. Once players switch to this item—not to mention anything else—their chances of surviving and escaping will increase significantly.

So, the sooner we act, the better.

Of course, before making a move, he had also privately contacted a player in the ‘My Fate’ mini-group, getting them to instigate ‘My Fate Is Mine, Not the Heaven’s’.

That player’s name is Sweet-and-Sour Fried Egg—he was also one of those who had been egging people on in the region chat at the time and was casually blacklisted by Qiyu. He rarely speaks in the region chat, so many players don’t even know who he is.

When news about the resource zone broke yesterday, he brought up the topic in the group chat, and he, true to form, immediately said he wouldn’t be going.

His view was the same as most people’s: going to the resource zone doesn’t guarantee good loot, but if you lose a day, the rewards from the Ice and Snow boss might actually yield fewer rewards.

Rewards you can actually get your hands on are still more appealing.

Plus, his last trip to the resource zone—with all those native warriors—had left him quite traumatized. Not long after, Sweet and Sour Fried Egg sent me a private message:

【Sweet and Sour Fried Egg: Boss, I just heard some news—I Love Survival Game is heading to the resource zone. What do you think?  Should we take this opportunity to raid his shelter?】

This was actually arranged by Little Old Me—he still couldn’t resist using someone else’s hand to do his dirty work.

If you don’t have to do it yourself and don’t have to take any risks, that’s obviously the best option. But “My Fate” clearly wasn’t that naive.

【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens: Are you an idiot? Just because he’s gone to the resource zone doesn’t mean he can’t come back halfway through. He’s been out exploring so many times—he’s definitely got a teleportation scroll on him.】

【My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens: Plus, he’s a mage—and the first player in the entire server to upgrade to a Level 3 Shelter. There’s no way his territory isn’t protected.】

He flatly refused.

When the message came back, Little Old Me was deeply disappointed: What a shame—how did this idiot suddenly get a brain? Since he can’t use a pawn, he’ll just have to do it himself.

Come to think of it, even the heavens were on their side.

Someone in the small group “shared” their location, and as luck would have it, Sweet and Sour Fried Egg was the closest to My Fate.

He immediately launched into a long string of flattering remarks like “climbing the ladder,” “being under the big shot’s wing,” “I have such a strong connection with my boss,” and “I’m so honored to be in such close proximity.”

My Fate was so flattered he immediately said that if Sweet and Sour Fried Egg wasn’t afraid of wasting time, he could come find him, and he’d take him to fight monsters. The message came back—it went so smoothly it was almost unbelievable.

Even Little Old Me was speechless: he’d actually managed to get the coordinates to My Fate’s shelter that fast.

After checking carefully with an item, his expression turned rather peculiar: if I wasn’t mistaken, he—I Am Domineering, My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens, Sweet and Sour Fried Egg, Hundred Demons Retrograde…

Most of the players in the small group were actually concentrated in an adjacent area.

Little Old Me couldn’t help but recall something someone had mentioned in the zone chat: “In this survival game, do birds of a feather really flock together?”

While I admit I’m no saint, I’m at least not a fool, am I? What’s the point of being stuck with a bunch of idiots like this?

At the same time, his murderous intent grew even stronger: Since we’re this close, I’d better make my move quickly. Otherwise, by the time “My Fate” realizes this, I’ll be the one in danger.

“I Am Domineering” clearly had the same idea. The two of them hit it off immediately.

Yesterday at noon, they each used our own methods—with the help of location-tracking items—to gather and storm into “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens’” territory. As luck would have it, “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens” wasn’t in the shelter; he was outside fighting the Ice and Snow Boss.

That made things even easier.

“……”

When a player in the top ten of the leaderboard goes gray, there’s no hiding it. Barely two minutes after he died, it was already all over the zone chat. At that moment, Little Old Me was in the middle of an argument.

That’s right—the moment they took him out, this little group started arguing.

The reason for the argument was simple: by killing him, everyone present had wasted at least a few powerful items.

They’d originally had it all figured out: He had so many good items, and once they killed him, everyone could split up his loot—maybe they’d even turn a profit.

However, what they didn’t expect was that when he died, his corpse—just like a slain mutant—instantly turned into a white light right before their eyes. A player’s items are all stored in their backpack, but when a player dies, the backpack doesn’t drop.

Nothing at all.

They pinned their hopes on the shelter, but when they went to investigate, the territory—which had once been quite sizable—had long since vanished; only a vast expanse of white snow remained in its place.

The person known as “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens,” along with his vast territory, had vanished completely from this world, as if he had never existed.

“……”

The group exchanged bewildered glances. I Am Domineering was the first to speak up, quite bossily, accusing Hundred Demons Retrograde of slacking off during the battle and claiming his item consumption was too high.

“My Role Is Support,” Hundred Demons Retrograde retorted, insisting he’d done everything within his duties and that he was making baseless accusations.

If it weren’t for “My Fate’s” “disappearance”—which personally confirmed that killing players in a survival game yields no rewards—Little Old Me has no doubt that this newly formed little group would immediately fall apart.

It’s even quite possible that a few more flashes of white light would appear here.

But since they knew killing other players wouldn’t drop any loot, nobody wanted to waste items on a futile effort—they were just standing there arguing. With profanities flying left and right, Little Old Me just walked away.

By then, the zone chat was already buzzing with speculation about what exactly had happened to me. Was it an accident?

Or a player-on-player vendetta?

Little Old Me had Sweet and Sour Fried Egg post in the zone chat:

【Sweet-and-Sour Fried Egg: That bastard killed so many people in the zone channel before—he deserved it! Serves him right?!】

【Sweet-and-Sour Fried Egg: Could it be that some big shot in the channel took the law into their own hands and took him out?】

The wording was simple.

But it was very effective.

Because, to be honest, even though his ranking had dropped and his reputation was in the gutter, he was still a top-tier player on the leaderboard. Most people really couldn’t do a thing to him.

As soon as Sweet and Sour Fried Egg spoke up, quite a few people followed his line of reasoning and started speculating.

Every top-ranked ID on the combat power list was brought up—and, of course, the one mentioned most frequently was “I Love Survival Game.”

First of all, the gaming big shot has the absolute strength to take on “My Fate.”

To be honest, he has plenty of reasons: the two of them are completely at odds, and “My Fate” has even used a lethal item against the gaming big shot before.

More importantly, the Gaming Pro had stated outright in the region chat that if he ever got the chance, he would definitely not let “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens” off the hook. Just as everyone was engrossed in their speculations, Civil Engineering Brother stepped in

【Civil Engineering Brother: The gaming pro has been in the resource zone for a while now—no need to message him.】

【Liver Emperor: The top player went to the resource zone? That’s awesome.】

Since it overlapped with the Ice and Snow Boss event, probably not many players in the zone chose to enter the resource zone this time. No one would think that the top player went to the resource zone because he considered it more important than the Ice and Snow Boss event.

They all realized one thing: if the top player on the leaderboard dared to do this, it clearly showed his confidence—even if he missed a day, he’d still be able to collect enough frost gems to redeem all the rewards.

【Tranquility Yields Transcendence: Yeah, I don’t think “My Fate” chose to enter the resource zone. Even though some people are so despicable that everyone wants to take them down, don’t go around labeling people with blame.】

Little Old Me never expected Qiyu to actually enter the resource zone—the words he’d previously instructed Sweet-and-Sour Scrambled Eggs to say were purely meant to trick others.

Of course, what shocked him even more was that his teammate had made an appearance.

【I Am Domineering: Stop guessing—it’s me.】

【Hundred Demons Retrograde: And me, too.】

【I Am Domineering: That cancerous phrase, “My Fate is Determined By Me, Not The Heavens,” has killed so many people. By eliminating it this time, I’m also avenging those compatriots who died in vain.】

【Hundred Demons Retrograde: Even though it cost me quite a few items, it was worth it to eliminate this villain.】

【Hundred Demons Retrograde: I really did cut ties with this person a long time ago. I hope the gaming pro will give me a chance and remove me from their silent blacklist.】

Little Old Me: “……” They’re so awesome.

He immediately sent private messages to those few, with the only request being that they not reveal his identity. I Am Domineering mocked him ruthlessly for being as timid as a mouse.

Hundred Demons Retrograde was only too happy to have one less person “stealing his credit.”

But Little Old Me was celebrating too soon. As they say, birds of a feather flock together—what good could possibly come from this bunch? Civil Engineering Brother spent a few gold coins and pretty much pieced together the whole story.

If he could buy that information with gold coins, other players could naturally buy it too.

Not only did Little Old Me fail to achieve the desired effect, but he actually made people wary of him even more than “I am Domineering” and the others. Knowing that Qiyu had gone to the resource zone, Civil Engineering Brother went out of his way to explain the situation in as much detail as possible.

The only thing left unknown was probably exactly how those few people had managed to kill me in such a sneaky way. But as for that sort of thing, no one really wanted to know the details anyway.

【Dare Not Open My Eyes: Aside from the fact that a dog-eat-dog fight finally took down a heavily poisoned player, the major benefit of this incident is that everyone now knows players can’t inherit each other’s estates after death.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Yes! I’m so relieved to hear this news! With this rule in place, even if players can communicate directly with each other, the likelihood of them turning on each other will be greatly reduced.】

【Need A Little Money To Save Me: Survival Game, I really have to give you a shout-out today!】

Qiyu agreed wholeheartedly:

【I Love Survival Game: Survival Game has always been great.】

After catching up on the gossip, he had no intention of resting. Just as he was about to pull out his magic sled to go outside and search for the ice and snow boss, a message popped up:

【God Has No Form: That flower has turned into a treasure.】

【God Has No Form: (pic) (pic)】

The first image showed a small green vial, no bigger than the palm of a hand.

The second image showed the bottle open, with a tiny milky-white pill resting in Dan Xingyu’s palm.

【God Has No Form: Information · Elven Elixir (Purple).】

【Elven Elixir (Purple): An elixir refined primarily from thousand-year-old Linglong Jade Fruits. Consuming it tempers the body and has a chance to enhance one’s innate physical constitution.】

Linglong Jade Fruit?

Qiyu immediately recalled the many neatly arranged boxes of Linglong Jade Fruit juice in his ring.