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Chapter 1308: Leaving the Cave
The current outdoor temperature has already reached minus 15 degrees Celsius, and the temperature is dropping very rapidly. It won’t take much time to reach minus 30 degrees. At this rate, if Ji You stays outside, he might freeze to death.
Seriously.
Freezing to death is no joke.
Among the people living on the Main Star — Nami Star, there’s a saying: never let a drunk stay outside in the dark, or they might turn into an ice sculpture by morning.
This means if the temperature really drops to minus 30, or even below 40, it’s certainly not suitable to stay outside. Moreover, the committee has stipulated that students entering the competition field are not allowed to wear warm Constant Temperature Clothing, which means no student is in a condition to stay outside for a long time.
Given this, the temperature acts as a perfect line of defense, which means there’s no need to deploy defensive personnel outside the camp.
After speaking, Gu Peiyuan’s two guards, a man and a woman, looked towards him, waiting for him to make a decision.
Gu Peiyuan pondered for a while.
Then.
Shivering his shoulders and legs, tightly wrapping himself with the straw coat, Gu Peiyuan thought for a moment and said, "We can’t withdraw now."
Girl: "But?"
The boy was also a bit surprised: "If our defensive personnel stay outside all the time, they might be reduced in number."
Inside the competition field, freezing to death, starving to death, or being killed by the enemy... all are judged as being eliminated. That is to say, even if you are not killed by the enemy, if you are frostbitten, and the severity is judged by the system as ’death,’ the system will immediately disqualify you from participating.
If teammates deployed outside the base don’t return inside, it’s very likely they will freeze to death.
Both guards are a bit worried. Losing even one member would be a significant loss to their side, and they mustn’t allow teammates to sacrifice themselves at this time. Therefore, the boy couldn’t help but stand up and said, "Commander, I think we should first bring back some people to the base to rest, and replace them after they are rested. We can’t deploy all personnel outside."
Gu Peiyuan said: "What you said makes sense, and that’s my plan as well, but not now. At least wait until the temperature drops to 20 degrees before bringing them back to rest."
degrees is still within the range the human body can endure. As long as you grit your teeth, you can hold on for a while longer. The purpose? Of course, it’s to prevent negligence. Because the more critical the moment is, the more likely mistakes and oversights occur, and the outcome might be determined at this point.
What if the enemy happens to have persisted until now, and just when external conditions are harsh and our vigilance decreases, they attack swiftly and catch us off guard?
Gu Peiyuan considers himself quite narcissistic, but he has always felt he wasn’t arrogant. Even though he knows there won’t be any enemies coming to sneak in now, necessary precautions are still indispensable.
Therefore, he decided to let his personnel endure a while longer.
An hour?
Or two hours?
If the temperature drops very quickly, at least, at least they should hold on for 30 minutes, or 20 minutes.
Gu Peiyuan, his teeth chattering, shared his thoughts and considerations with the two guards. After listening, the guards did not raise further objections. Although the Commander isn’t very charismatic, his strength and abilities are convincing to everyone.
Thus, the girl said, "I’ll arrange for someone to notify them immediately."
She lifted her foot and was about to leave but suddenly turned back and said to Gu Peiyuan, "Commander, now that it’s chilling cold outside, we can’t observe the situation outside from the lookout tower. Why don’t you go back indoors?"
Though there’s a rest room at the lookout tower, it’s ventilated, unable to keep warm, and also cannot accommodate a campfire for warmth. The girl didn’t recommend Gu Peiyuan stay here. She thought the vain, self-adoring Gu Peiyuan would definitely agree after hearing this, but unexpectedly, Gu Peiyuan shook his head and refused, saying, "No, I’m staying here. Staying here, in case any anomaly is detected, I would be the first to know."
The advantage of the lookout tower is its broad view, allowing observation within a 20-mile radius. At the slightest indication of external movements, the lookout tower has the absolute advantage to notice.
Upon hearing this, the girl didn’t try to persuade further.
Time ticked by, second by second.
Click~click~click~
After passing the Commander’s orders to various teams, the girl quickly returned to the lookout tower, where Gu Peiyuan and the boy were already crammed together for warmth, wearing straw coats, paying little attention to their appearance.
Seeing this scene, the girl shivered, stomped her foot hard, shaking off the chill from her body, then felt a bit warmer and said, "Commander, it’s all been notified."
Gu Peiyuan responded with a somewhat lackluster "Mm".
The girl said, "The temperature outside has already reached 16 degrees; it’s soon to reach 17 degrees."
Cold.
It’s really cold.
Meanwhile—
Moving at a tortoise’s pace, taking one step at a time, digging one step at a time in the cave, Ji You and others were about to reach the exit. Outside, it’s a snowy landscape, with a biting cold breeze turning breath into ice...
But!
The cave inside was quite warm. Although occasionally experiencing a chill on the skin, Ji You and the others didn’t feel they were about to turn into sand sculptures. Plus, always exerting efforts using military shovels to dig the cave, they were sweating and not really feeling that cold.
When they were about 100 meters away from the exit, Ji You suddenly stopped and said, "Everyone stop, wait for me here for 5 minutes."
Cheng Haoyue said, "Are you going out alone?"
Ji You said, "Yes."
Cheng Haoyue said, "I’ll go with you."
Ji You shook his head: "You can’t; your physique is such that taking you along means I’d have to slow down to dig, so that doesn’t work."
Cheng Haoyue: "..."
As a man with a standard stature, a burly build, Cheng Haoyue felt discriminated against regarding height for the first time. He was a bit helpless and said, "Alright, this kind of work is more suitable for you shorties."
Ji You ignored his seemingly self-pitying, actually mocking comments about her height, turned around, and left.
Heading in a direction protected from the wind, slightly warmer than the entrance they passed earlier, after walking for a while, Ji You suddenly sensed something unusual. She looked up and met a pair of golden, glowing eyes.
Ji You: "..."
If she didn’t know she had entered a materialistic science society, Ji You would nearly think she had seen a ghost.
Then—
Ji You opened her mouth and softly said, "Coo coo~"
The owner of the golden eyes, hearing this sound, suddenly flapped its wings.
Swish~
Ji You felt a sense of relief, knowing she had gambled correctly. This was indeed the Drilling Bird. The next second, this Drilling Bird surprisingly walked towards Ji You, its head suddenly burrowing into Ji You’s arms: "Coo coo~"
Ji You: "..."
It doesn’t seem very smart.
Then.
Ji You raised her hand and directly knocked it unconscious.