At this moment, a rather shrewd-looking man in a light gray T-shirt and a buzz cut saw Long Ming turn and leave alone. His eyes instantly lit up, and he spoke to a few players he had just met.

"Bro, see that guy who just left?"

"Yeah, I see him. What’s up, Gu Yi?"

"Anyone who dares to leave alone at a critical time like this is usually an expert. Let’s follow him!"

Gu Yi shared his thoughts.

"Makes sense. Let’s go!"

The other players readily agreed with Gu Yi’s analysis.

They immediately started following Long Ming.

Seeing Gu Yi’s group follow Long Ming, many other players at the scene quickly said to the people next to them,

"Look, someone’s leading a group away! Let’s hurry and follow!"

"Okay!"

In a flash, a large number of players began to follow Long Ming, caught up in the herd mentality.

Of course, not all the players followed Long Ming. Only about a hundred people left in that direction.

Qin Yan watched Long Ming’s departing figure, a thoughtful expression on his face.

Just then, a muscular man with dark skin and stubble lowered his voice and asked Qin Yan,

"Should we follow them?"

"No. Xie Shan, we’ll go the other way!"

Qin Yan then left with his companion.

When Lin Yue saw Qin Yan and his group leave, she quickly followed behind them.

Seeing this, many of the female players on site also followed suit.

The remaining players split into two groups and left in different directions.

....

A short while later, at the edge of the ruins, Long Ming glanced back with a hint of confusion on his face. ’He didn’t quite understand why so many people were following him.’

Of course, he didn’t dwell on it. After all, there were advantages to having a large group. ’If danger strikes, all I need to do is outrun them.’

However, the moment Long Ming walked out of the ruins, he looked into the distance and frowned.

Rolling yellow sand stretched to the horizon with no end in sight.

Under the baking sun, the dry air shimmered and rolled like a heat wave.

For a moment, Long Ming didn’t know which way he should go.

Gu Yi and the others also stopped. They watched Long Ming, who wasn’t moving, and felt a little uneasy, but they didn’t dare go up and ask.

But Long Ming quickly made a decision. Since he didn’t know where to go, he might as well check out the nearest evacuation point and see what it was like.

He raised his wristband to look at the map, confirmed the general direction of the nearest green dot, and started walking toward the evacuation point.

Long Ming stepped onto the scorching sand, each step feeling a little strenuous.

Still, he patiently pushed forward, one step at a time.

Seeing this, Gu Yi and the others quickly followed.

Dozens of minutes later, the players following Long Ming started murmuring amongst themselves.

"Damn, where the hell is this guy going?"

"No idea."

"Don’t tell me he doesn’t know the way and is just leading us on a wild goose chase?"

"Why don’t you go ask him?"

"I’m not going."

...

Long Ming naturally heard the players chattering behind him, but he paid them no mind and simply kept walking forward.

Just as everyone’s patience was about to reach its limit, a circular mechanical platform appeared in the unchanging desert ahead.

The entire mechanical platform looked completely out of place in its surroundings.

Gu Yi and the others immediately realized what it was, speaking out in surprise.

"It’s an evacuation point!"

"Damn, after all that, he just led us to an evacuation point."

"And here I was wondering where we were going."

...

The other players were speechless when they saw the evacuation platform.

"Well, since we’re here, I’ll go give it a try!"

Just then, an excited male player ran onto the mechanical platform.

The moment he stepped on it, the intricate patterns on the platform’s base lit up with a faint halo of light. Then, the player’s wristband vibrated and a prompt popped up.

"Evacuate?"

"Evacuate."

The player tapped the button without a second thought.

HUM~

The mechanical platform activated, and the player began to float upwards, bit by bit. He shouted, dumbfounded,

"Whoa, whoa, I’m flying!"

The next second, he vanished in a flash of white light.

Seeing this, the many players on site shook their heads and cursed.

"Idiot. What a waste of a ticket."

...

Long Ming was also a bit speechless. ’He hadn’t expected someone to give him a live demonstration.’

But it was for the best. Now he knew exactly how to evacuate.

’The path ahead, however, would not be easy.’

Long Ming gazed at the surrounding desert. Visually, every direction looked the same. Without the minimap on his wristband, it would be easy to get lost.

Of course, Long Ming didn’t care about getting lost. He had no particular destination in mind anyway. So, he continued walking forward.

Seeing Long Ming continue onward, Gu Yi and the others could only grit their teeth and follow.

Time ticked by, second by second.

Long Ming was drenched in sweat, his mouth was dry, and his pace had slowed without him realizing it.

He glanced at his status on his wristband and found several new negative status alerts.

"Alert: You are mildly dehydrated. Please replenish your fresh water supply as soon as possible."

"Alert: Stamina decreasing."

...

By now, many of the players following him couldn’t take it anymore. Several of them collapsed onto the ground.

"I’m not walking anymore! I can’t move!"

...

Long Ming looked into the distance at the endless dunes and decided to stop and rest.

At this point, Gu Yi couldn’t hold back any longer. He walked up to Long Ming and asked,

"Bro, where on earth are you going?"

"I don’t know. I’m just walking."

Long Ming replied nonchalantly.

Gu Yi’s eyes went wide when he heard Long Ming’s words. Just as he was about to say something,

a sudden cry of surprise rang out.

"Whoa!"

Long Ming and the others turned to look. They saw a player who wasn’t very tall and had some acne on his face, excitedly walking towards a dune to the left with two companions.

On that dune lay a Red-Spotted Giant Lizard. It was over three meters long, its gray skin covered in red bumps. It was sleeping with its eyes closed, looking quite horrifying.

"Zhao Wei, is this really okay?"

The two companions next to Zhao Wei asked nervously.

"What’s there to be afraid of? Aren’t games all about killing monsters and leveling up? Charge!"

Heedless, Zhao Wei pulled a rock from his backpack, rushed excitedly toward the Red-Spotted Giant Lizard, and slammed the rock onto its head.

THUD!

With a dull thud, the Red-Spotted Giant Lizard recoiled in pain. It slowly opened its eyes, stood up, and then opened its cavernous maw, letting out an enraged roar.

ROAR~

The realistic scene terrified Zhao Wei. Trembling, he turned to run.

But the Red-Spotted Giant Lizard instantly powered its limbs, leaped forward in a single bound, and lunged, sinking its teeth into Zhao Wei’s waist.

"Ah, it hurts! Help me!"

Zhao Wei let out a blood-curdling scream, instinctively crying for help.

His two companions didn’t dare go forward. They turned and fled in terror.

Long Ming’s expression also changed slightly. He watched the Red-Spotted Giant Lizard warily, showing no intention of helping.

CRUNCH!

The Red-Spotted Giant Lizard viciously bit Zhao Wei’s body in two. Blood and chunks of flesh flew everywhere.

Immediately after, Zhao Wei’s shattered body began to dissolve into motes of light, and the backpack he was wearing dropped to the ground.

"Run!"

Gu Yi and the others were terrified and ran for their lives.