Chapter 138 - 105: First Exploration
Chapter 138: Chapter 105: First Exploration
The others also clicked their tongues in amazement.
After all, they all lived within the World Tree’s territory and had never experienced a snowy day.
Although the temperature was very low, thanks to their full sets of gear, no one felt the cold.
Before long, everyone was happily playing in the snow.
"Hey, guys, shouldn’t we be starting the mission?" Lin Kong called out, a bit exasperated.
Everyone but him had already started playing wildly in the snow.
"What’s the rush? We need to acclimate first, don’t we?" Yuan Xiaobo said as he started a snowball fight with the others.
"But..."
SPLAT~
Lin Kong was about to say something else when a snowball hit him square in the face.
"Hey, why’d you hit me?"
"Friendly fire, friendly fire!"
SPLAT~ Another snowball landed squarely on Lin Kong’s head.
"Damn it! I’m going to have to show you the power of the King of Snowball Fights!!"
Lin Kong wasted no more time on words. He packed a few snowballs and started chucking them at the others.
Joyful laughter echoed through the small ice pit—small, at least, compared to the vast snowy plain—bringing a sliver of warmth to the frozen world.
Once their initial excitement had waned, the group gathered to eat lunch.
"Captain Yuan, what’s the plan for exploring from here?"
"Should we split up? This snowy plain looks huge. We’d probably be more efficient if we spread out."
During the meal, Lin Kong asked Yuan Xiaobo about the arrangements.
"No splitting up. We stick together. After lunch, we’ll leave this valley..."
"Ice pit!"
"Oh, right. We’ll climb out of this ice pit onto the snowy plain above, then pick a direction and explore together. Let’s plan on exploring for ten days to start."
"Wouldn’t that be inefficient?" Lin Kong asked.
The others nearby nodded in agreement, sharing his doubt.
"If high-efficiency exploration was the goal, why didn’t the Lord just send in more teams?" Yuan Xiaobo countered.
"Because our team is incredibly strong, of course!!"
Lin Kong said proudly. If you averaged out the team’s combat power, even he would count as half a legendary-grade hero.
"Right. And it’s precisely because we’re strong that we shouldn’t split up."
"The Lord probably suspects there are unknown risks here. That’s why he needs our team to do an initial survey. The main force will only move in after we’ve eliminated any potential dangers."
"So, we can’t split up."
Lin Kong and the others agreed with Yuan Xiaobo’s assessment. Of course, as Lin Yu’s clone, Lin Kong knew the real Lin Yu hadn’t actually thought things through that deeply. He was surprised Yuan Xiaobo had managed to extrapolate so much. ’But he’s right,’ Lin Kong thought. ’A world that has the World Tree’s attention can’t possibly be barren. There has to be something here.’
After lunch, the group climbed up the icy slope and emerged onto the snowy plain.
Yuan Xiaobo scanned their surroundings. By now, the sky was bright. The light from the sun, however, did nothing to raise the temperature. It was as if its rays had turned cold.
The towering, dark silhouettes in the distance revealed their true nature: they were, in fact, massive ice mountains. The other direction was nothing but a vast, snowy plain, with no other features in sight.
Down in the ice pit, they had already used their instruments to scan the area. Within a ten-kilometer radius, there were no signs of life, nor any minerals worth investigating.
So, for a moment, nobody knew which way to go.
"Let’s go that way," Lin Kong said, pointing toward the snowy plain.
"Why?"
"We have sleds. We’ll move faster on the plain. If we try to climb those mountains, our progress will be too slow."
"Good point!"
The group took their sleds from their packs. Once everyone was geared up and roped together, they set off, sliding into the vast, endless expanse of the snowy plain.
-----------------
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The team had already traveled several thousand kilometers across the snowy plain.
They encountered danger a few times along the way, such as accidentally falling into ice crevasses.
Thankfully, they were well-prepared. Plus, being Extraordinary People with unique skills, they managed to get through it all with a few scares but no real harm.
"Man, this place is completely deserted! There’s absolutely nothing here!!"
Niu Armor stopped, looking at the unchanging scenery all around as he vented his frustration.
The snowy landscape had been breathtaking at first, but after three days of seeing nothing else, it had become tiresome.
"Well, why else do you think they sent us to scout ahead?"
Nearby, Lin Yan had activated his ore vein detector and was waiting for the results to appear.
They had been stopping periodically along their route to scan the area with various detectors. So far, they hadn’t picked up any energy signatures or life signs. They had detected some minerals, but only common deposits like iron, copper, and coal—nothing particularly useful. They simply marked the locations and moved on.
"If valuable things were easy to find, they wouldn’t have needed to send us on a special expedition, would they?"
"Hahaha, that’s true," Niu Armor laughed loudly. The remark was easy on the ears and made him feel needed. "Still, it’s impossible to grow fond of a landscape that never changes."
"Aha, we’ve got a reading!!!"
At that moment, Lin Kong suddenly cried out in delight.
He was the one responsible for the Energy Detector, a device used to scan for ambient energy.
The Energy Detector hadn’t registered anything for three straight days, making Lin Kong suspect it was broken. But now, it was finally showing a reading.
"Whoa! Let’s go check it out!!" Everyone was thrilled. It seemed their days of hard work were finally about to pay off.