The beast tide on the island was quickly cleared back from the coastline, and the front line was pushed into the forest, where the constant roar of falling trees could be heard.
Captain Zhou Lin said, "The forest is very dangerous. There are some relatively strong monsters inside."
"The Undead army is in front. They don't fear loss. The warriors will find suitable positions to fight from."
Hearing Wei Huan's words, Zhou Lin smiled: "That's right. Who in the world doesn't know that Colonel Wei is an army in one man? The Undead army is as terrifying as a natural disaster. Seeing it firsthand today, I feel the gap between you and us."
Wei Huan was uninterested in the flattery, his expression remaining neutral, and he asked, "What happened here?" Throughout his journey, the vehicles and monsters had been relatively peaceful, and he believed the monsters wouldn't go mad without a reason.
"A treasure chest spawned on the island, and I rushed in and took it out. The treasure chest monster triggered the monster riot. Before you arrived, I was trying to kill that treasure chest monster. Once it's gone, the monsters on the island will calm down again."
"And now?"
"It died the moment your Undead army came out. It couldn't last even three minutes. In your eyes, it's probably about the same as an ordinary monster, right?"
Wei Huan truly didn't have a strong impression. Treasure chest monsters below Silver-tier were indeed similar in strength to these wild, wandering monsters.
With that thought, Wei Huan watched the battlefield ahead, remaining silent for a long time, clearly signaling the end of the conversation. Since he wasn't speaking, Captain Zhou Lin didn't dare to speak rashly, only observing Wei Huan closely, lost in thought.
When she snapped out of it, her eyes widened suddenly. The red dots on the island—had they just decreased by one-fifth in five minutes? Such battle achievements in just one quarter of an hour? Truly worthy of the rumors that Wei Huan was the actual number one powerhouse of humanity.
She had always admired Captain Fang William, but she didn't dislike the young powerhouse from her own legion. Now, she felt genuine joy from the bottom of her heart. With one more powerhouse to serve as humanity's advancing "spear," humanity was sure to achieve final victory!
Zhou Lin saw that Wei Huan did not stop the advancing steps of the Undead army and naturally did not call a halt. At some point, her gaze shifted from Wei Huan to the large areas of blank territory that appeared as the red dots were slowly cleared and vanished. It was incredibly stress-relieving and satisfying. Not only did the crisis she had to face diminish, but the road ahead seemed to become smoother as well.
"Captain Zhou Lin, goodbye."
"Colonel Wei, the garrison vehicle on the next island is heading back for resupply after I leave here. You might not see anyone there. Beyond that is the No Man's Land. Please be extremely careful."
"Thank you."
The vehicle continued forward, and as expected, the next island they saw was uninhabited. Wei Huan, whose compulsive tendencies were triggered by the dense red dots on the island, landed and began clearing the monsters. Meanwhile, the melee fighters, whose bodies hadn't fully warmed up, charged out again with excited shouts.
This time, Wei Huan allowed the ranged units to follow as well. Attacking from the vehicle, a total of five Tier 5 vehicles, with 20 output positions in total, was enough for the ranged units to take turns dealing damage and killing to their heart's content.
Wei Huan's vehicle was growing stronger. He now had a total of 8 Tier 5 vehicles and 11 Sequence 5 Challengers. Some of these were materials he obtained in the assessment world, and others were supplies allocated to him by Commander Mu after he arrived here. Cultivating the leader's and main combat vehicles was not favoritism; the Legion had always had this rule for material distribution. Although Wei Huan's rise was turbulent, humanity and the Azure Dragon Legion gained more from it. The resources he was due were certainly not withheld.
As a result, even excluding Wei Huan's own combat power, the combined strength of these Tier 5 vehicles and Sequence 5 Challengers put his vehicle at the forefront of the overall combat power within the Azure Dragon Pioneer Corps. It was certainly much stronger than the island garrisons.
Wei Huan sent his entire army out, and only after completely clearing this island did he notify the vehicle Captain who was supposed to be stationed here but was back for resupply. He also asked, "I found a Silver Ruin on the island. I'm exploring it directly. I'll give you any unnecessary materials."
The Captain on the other side this time was a young male, appearing not much older than Wei Huan. He said, "The Pioneer Corps operates under unified command. Even if I obtained the Silver Ruin materials, I would have to hand them all over. You just complete your mission, there's no need to specially inform me. You are the superior."
Wei Huan felt the tone was slightly off and even connected with Mu Zhong to ask about the rules for rewards and punishments regarding garrisons and ruins. He then realized that the person simply wasn't very articulate. Or perhaps, because the Captains he had met previously were older and spoke with more tact and subtlety, their words were more pleasing to the ear.
In the Challenger World, there are young people and old people. The youngest are now 20, and the oldest are 67. In the past, 20-year-olds were still children, studying, with their futures unplanned. 67-year-olds were retired, traveling the world on their pensions, enjoying old age with their children and grandchildren. But now, they all had to fight in the Challenger World, facing an environment where tomorrow was uncertain, perhaps to achieve a dream, perhaps to protect someone, striving for Blue Star and for all of humanity.
After leaving this island, they entered the so-called "No Man's Land."
"No Man's Land" is not truly uninhabited. If one had to describe it, it was more like the international waters of Blue Star. Resources here were on a first-come, first-served basis, which often led to conflicts with the Pioneer vehicles of other countries, and certainly included acts of opportunism. In short, after leaving the relatively safe zones, one needed to be vigilant here. The most dangerous factor when opening a treasure chest is definitely not the treasure chest monster. Human nature in extreme conditions can be very complex.
The moment Wei Huan stepped into the No Man's Land, he felt a release from constraint. Two Teleportation Gates appeared on either side of the vehicle. The Ghost Crows, who had been waiting for a long time, flew out and instantly reached the 7-kilometer "fake summon" distance. The spreading image of the Ghost Crows was like wings attached to Wei Huan's back, and his entire being seemed to relax.
"Butler."
"Captain, I'm here."
"Depart."
"Received, departing."
Perfect. First-come, first-served depends on who has the longer reach and the faster hand. He was truly itching to start plowing the land after days of inactivity.
Inside the vehicle, the warriors who had just finished their warm-up were resting. On some balconies or indoor projection screens, the moment Wei Huan released his Ghost Crows was visible. Immediately, everyone knew that it was time to make big money! Plowing the land and opening treasure chests! Who else had this skill? Who else had the ability to slaughter groups? That's why this vehicle was so powerful—a little stronger here, a little stronger there, and it all adds up to a billion times stronger!
However, above the excited combat personnel, several older individuals were drinking tea. They were originally supposed to stay at the supply point, avoiding this arduous journey, but they all refused. Firstly, the miraculous spatial laws meant they didn't experience any travel fatigue; they were as comfortable in the vehicle as they were at home. Secondly, in their view, there was likely no safer place in the Challenger World than on Wei Huan's vehicle.
The few elderly people, currently at ease, drank tea and watched the moving scenery outside, noting the sun's gradual angle. One of them observed for a moment and stated precisely: "The vehicle's speed is only 1400. It's been cut in half. Is there a reason?"
"Our Captain Wei has finally admitted defeat this time."
"How so?"
"At 1400 speed, the Ghost Crows can easily travel back and forth and report any anomalies with the treasure chests. Before, opening a Gold Treasure Chest in the assessment world nearly affected the morale on the car. Now that we have officially entered the Tier 5 world, opening a Gold Treasure Chest is fine, but what if he accidentally opens a Platinum Treasure Chest..."
"Hahaha, when you put it that way, it's funny, yet respectable. Now that our Captain Wei's strength is close to the ceiling of this world, the progress of humanity's pioneering efforts will surely increase greatly because of him."
"Just let him tinker around for a while. Maybe he'll figure something out."
"Exactly. We old folks will just watch. The world now belongs to the young people, the Challengers."
The elderly people were drinking tea and chatting on the roof, the young warriors were laughing downstairs, and Wei Huan was feeling a bit glum in the driver's seat, watching the radar where no resources had appeared for a long time.
But this was normal. After all, countless vehicles passed in and out of the areas closer to the teleportation point every day, so it was expected that the treasure chests along the way had all been opened. Even the more difficult Silver Ruins were hardly left until the next day. The moment one was discovered, reinforcements would be notified, and the ruin would disappear in less than half a day. Humanity had, after all, been in the Tier 5 world for over half a year, and developing Silver Ruins was a very mature process.
Wei Huan traveled like this for three hours without opening a single treasure chest and sighed, "Hmm..."
At this time, he was connected via video to Mu Zhong, who smiled on the other end: "Expedition teams often have to travel for a day or two before entering the true No Man's Land. Why don't you put the Ghost Crows away?"
"It's fine, the consumption is very low."
"Alright. How many days are you planning for this round trip?"
Wei Huan wanted to keep searching until he found the Five-Star Island and then return, but seeing Mu Zhong's expectant gaze, he conceded: "About a week."
"You can go a little further." Mu Zhong, however, saw through everything. "I know you want to go farther. The current limit of exploration is maintained by our Daxia, a round trip of about 20 days. Places that have already been explored offer limited improvement for us. You might as well go farther."
Wei Huan hesitated to speak.
Mu Zhong added, "We can return to Blue Star before the Modifi assessment begins."
Wei Huan nodded. Mu Zhong had considered everything for him to the extreme. He genuinely couldn't refuse, and he had urgent things he wanted to do. However, a Five-Star Island that hadn't been found in 20 days? Could it be that it wasn't within Daxia's exploration range at all? It shouldn't take this long.
Thinking of this, Wei Huan ordered the Butler to bring up the Sea Map. Through AI sharing, the areas explored by Daxia were marked on the sea map. They had indeed explored very far. However, the farther the exploration went, the wider the area of the sea that needed to be covered, like a spreading fan. There were still large blank areas on the sea map.
"Captain," the AI Butler spoke.
"Mhm." Wei Huan was focused on the sea map.
"I can obtain the sea maps of other countries and integrate them."
Wei Huan looked up at a camera directly in front of him, his expression relaxing: "Good, try it. The more complete, the better."
Sea maps were certainly state secrets. Unless countries were strategic allies, they were unlikely to share them. Countries, especially Aosam, would definitely not share their sea maps with Daxia, their competitor.
Another capability of the Super AI was revealed. However, the AI Champion then said, "But to obtain their sea maps, I need you to connect with their vehicles. I can briefly invade their systems."
"..." Wei Huan, who disliked speaking to strangers the most, was silent for two seconds. He then looked at a figure who was rapidly balding and spoke with a hint of an unfamiliar nervousness in his tone: "Mu Han, I have something I need to trouble you with."
Collecting the sea maps was not troublesome. The person actively contacting them was Wei Huan, the hero renowned throughout humanity. Although most of the Captains who were suddenly "knocked" couldn't figure out why Wei Huan was suddenly contacting them, out of respect for the hero or curiosity about the powerhouse, every single one chose to accept the video call.
Then, the person who appeared before them was a balding man with dark circles under his eyes.
"You're not Colonel/Captain Wei!?"
Their first reaction was that they had been tricked, leading to immediate fury.
But every time, the Captains' AI Butler would state the same thing: "Identity verified, confirmed to be Wei Huan's vehicle. The person on video with you is Wei Huan's Logistics member, Master Mu Han."
So, even without Wei Huan showing his face, Cousin Mu successfully completed the task. By around 9 PM that evening, Cousin Mu had collected almost all the sea maps, including the large, explored area held by Aosam.
When Wei Huan got the sea map, he suddenly understood why the Five-Star Island belonged to Aosam in his previous life. It was simply because, fatefully, it was located along Aosam's main exploration direction and was not far from their starting point—only about a 5-day journey at full speed. Aosam had already explored this area long ago. In order to possess this island, they had continuously expanded and built island outposts around its perimeter, clearly staking their claim.
Wei Huan asked himself: Was he willing to let this island go to Aosam?
Of course, he was unwilling.
But the most critical point that compelled Wei Huan to intervene was that Aosam would cooperate with the War Race of this world to develop the island, which ultimately caused humanity to trust those cunning monsters and suffer a huge setback in the Tier 6 world. At that time, humanity was already far behind the Dark Beasts, but under immense pressure, the countries of Blue Star had united as never before and were catching up significantly. If they were lucky, even if the Dark Beasts entered the Tier 7 world first, humanity, though slower, could barely catch up. But at this crucial moment, the seeds of disaster sown in the Tier 5 world erupted in the Tier 6 world. Humanity suffered a devastating blow, making a comeback impossible.
Wei Huan wanted the Five-Star Island, but more importantly, he wanted to show people that the monsters of the Challenger World were heartless and untrustworthy.
The plan to venture farther out was suspended. The Five-Star Island was now Wei Huan's primary mission, at least until he collected enough intelligence before deciding on a course of action.
Wei Huan changed his destination and set off overnight, heading directly towards the Five-Star Island. The distance was still considerable. He crossed the two areas of the Black Tortoise Legion and the Vermilion Bird Legion from the Azure Dragon Legion's direction, then entered the two lines of the Great Bear Nation, and finally arrived at a Joint Development Zone.
"Joint Development Zone?" Wei Huan pointed to the map, slightly confused.
The Butler explained, "Led by the Hedgehog Nation and the Tula Nation, a joint Pioneer Corps of seven nations decided to seize resources together, as they entered the Tier 5 world later than Daxia and Aosam, so they made an alliance."
"They grabbed two lines?"
"Yes, two lines."
Wei Huan nodded. There wasn't much to discuss here. Lagging behind means falling further behind. This time they needed to unite just to get a foothold; next time, they might not even have a place to stand. It seemed that humanity only truly united when facing a crisis—this Joint Pioneer Army was proof of that.
After the Joint Pioneer Army came Aosam. Aosam, along with three other nations, the Haisang Nation and the Stick Nation, had managed to claim three lines. And luckily, they claimed the line with the island most suitable for building a city.
The journey took Wei Huan a full day. He arrived at the destination island, again under the cover of darkness. After leaving Daxia's territory, to avoid unnecessary trouble, Wei Huan activated the Stealth Layer. At the same time, utilizing the Super AI's advantage of a longer detection range, he bypassed all the islands and vehicles. Before being seen by human eyes, they slipped into the island like a ghost.
A defensive chain had been built around the island, consisting of smaller Dark Attribute islands. Clearly, Aosam didn't mind and had even established supply points on these small islands. Supply points require urbanization and are intended for long-term existence, eventually housing lower-Sequence Challengers, who may stay there for extended periods.
Wei Huan didn't know if Aosam had found a way to reverse the Dark Energy of the islands. He only knew that the majestically standing island, with its pure atmosphere under the cover of night, was the one he had seen in the news in his previous life. It was huge, twice the size of Australia on Blue Star, almost equivalent to a continent.
The island featured peaks, valleys, plains, and grasslands. Traveling around the island at the speed of a Tier 5 vehicle would take two hours. Land of this scale was the dream soil for human city construction. Yet, Aosam had concealed it until now.
Circling the island, the vehicle also roughly scanned the situation around the perimeter. Aosam was indeed sending people to develop it, but the development progress was very slow. One kilometer from the coast, various monsters of world-level strength were spread everywhere. Furthermore, an island this large obviously had rich resources. Even without penetrating the core, the Super AI scanned a Gold Treasure Chest and a ruin that was likely Gold-tier along the perimeter. Gold-tier resources were right along the coastline. It was hard to imagine the abundant resources that lay in the center of this continent-sized island, the core area. It likely contained Royal-tier beast groups that could drop Tier 5-to-6 core materials.
"There's also a Gold Treasure Chest." Wei Huan connected with Mu Zhong again and sent the information he had gathered. Thanks to the Super AI's map integration capability, his action of searching for the Five-Star Island no longer seemed sudden. So, even though he had rushed straight to it, the people back home thought it was completely normal. In fact, they were even more furious and anxious than he was.
"What? A continent in Aosam's direction? Damn it! Not only did they never mention it, but they also contested the island with the Vermilion Bird Legion—this was a feint! It was to divert our attention from that landmass! No wonder the legion sent to the Vermilion Bird area was always stingy with resources..."
Mu Dehao was enraged. He and Mu Zhong stayed in front of the system, seeing the message from Wei Huan immediately. Mu Dehao said sarcastically, "Look at this rich continent, with all these circled resources and treasures! They aren't even rushing to open the Gold Treasure Chests. They completely regard it as their own property, huh?"
Wei Huan heard this, but his mind was on something else. Were these Gold Treasure Chests and Gold Ruins where the War Race of the Tier 5 world emerged? When the actions of one War Race member are untrustworthy, two or three might not convince people, but seven or eight would certainly make them think. When facing these cunning monsters, one moment of softness, one moment of hesitation, sealed humanity's tragedy. Furthermore, the War Race had indeed helped Aosam claim this island, even helping build the first major city on it, which Aosam was willing to name "Atlantis City."
Since he knew the problem lay here, should he go and open these Gold Treasure Chests? As long as he didn't give them a chance to contact those War Race members, humanity wouldn't be deceived. Besides, Gold Treasure Chests wouldn't depreciate anywhere.
"Wei Huan, do you want to open the treasure chests?" Mu Zhong suddenly asked.
Wei Huan nodded, but still confirmed: "Will it affect your plan?"
Mu Zhong said, "We don't have a plan yet, but if you want to open them, go ahead. However, you should wait for the ruin until your ability recovers."
The mention of his unrecovered ability immediately brought Wei Huan back to his senses. He thought for a moment and said, "You guys think about the plan first, and I'll make a decision later."
Mu Zhong smiled, and after a couple more words, right before disconnecting the video, he threw a flying kiss at Wei Huan, right under Commander Mu's nose.
With the journey over and the intelligence sent back, Wei Huan had nothing to do for the moment, so he immediately entered the Profession Temple to cultivate in his seat. When he opened his eyes again, it was a video call from Mu Zhong. Checking the time, only 20 minutes had passed. Did they have a plan so quickly?
"Wei Huan, our plan is to announce the existence of this island," Mu Zhong said. "Firstly, it is too far from our Daxia's route. It will be difficult for us to legitimately compete for that island."
Wei Huan nodded. He knew it would be troublesome, but he believed Daxia wouldn't give up so easily.
As expected, Mu Zhong continued: "It's a continent. It's large enough for all countries to build cities on it. No one can monopolize it. Aosam is not qualified enough. Aosam knew all along that they couldn't hold onto this island before the situation was finalized, which is why they hid it. To deal with the enemy, you have to do what they fear the most."
Wei Huan understood. It seemed monopoly was indeed out of the question. Primarily, his luck was poor. If he had come to the Tier 5 world with the first batch of Pioneer Corps six months ago, he would definitely have chosen to develop in the direction of the Five-Star Island, and absolutely no one would have been able to take it away. An island the size of a continent, plus the 20-kilometer radius around it—how many resources would spawn there daily? This treasure had fallen into Aosam's hands in the previous life and brought humanity the final fatal blow.
"So, Wei Huan, wait a few more days. Once you recover a little more, I will come over, and we will sweep up all the resources on this island and then spread the news of its existence."
Mu Zhong's eyes were bright when he said this, like a child planning mischief, and Wei Huan cherished that expression.
"Alright," Wei Huan nodded.