"If we do that, our chances of safely surviving until the stage with one hundred thousand people left will increase dramatically."

"That’s right!"

Nissan set aside his usual carefree demeanor and said in a solemn voice, "If we can’t find each other, then every one of us has to keep a low profile. We need to stay hidden and avoid actively starting trouble.

"After all, like we said before, this so-called ’Official Match’ is really just an incredibly brutal qualifier.

"Only those who make it into the final hundred thousand will be qualified to truly step into the Starry Sky Cup arena."

"And besides,"

A sharp glint flashed in Nissan’s eyes. "This rule has another meaning for us.

"It’s not that we’re afraid to fight. It’s about avoiding pointless exhaustion.

"Just think about it. What if we fight a grueling battle against a strong opponent and we’re both seriously injured, only for a few people to pop out of nowhere and ’pick us off’? That would be absolutely sickening."

He grinned, revealing a set of white teeth. "Of course, on the flip side, we... can also be the ones who ’pick off’ others."

"And those resource packs... they’re a huge temptation, but they’ll also attract endless fighting. As soon as you grab one, you get marked."

...

"Tactics are ultimately just something we need to focus on when our Hard Power is insufficient."

Dragon Jade, who had been listening quietly with a smile, finally spoke up.

He patted Nissan’s shoulder and spoke with a tone full of confidence.

"If you want to secure a spot in the top one hundred thousand in this battle of billions, the most reliable thing is your own strength."

His gaze shifted to Qin Feng, his eyes filled with a mix of appreciation and conviction.

"If you want to survive to the end, you need a life force index of at least 18,000—the ’First Great Limit’—and you must have cultivated a Fourth-level Killing Technique to the realm of Perfection.

"Once you can demonstrate that level of strength in a fight, I guarantee that ninety-nine percent of the contestants will actively avoid you. No reckless fool would dare to provoke you."

"So,"

Dragon Jade smiled at Qin Feng. "Qin Feng, these complicated tactics aren’t really that important for you."

"Understood."

Qin Feng nodded.

Dragon Jade was speaking the truth.

...

The one-hour countdown slowly ticked away as countless people waited anxiously.

The moment the last second hit zero, the entire vast, boundless plain was suddenly bathed in a soft, shimmering glow, like moonlight.

That majestic electronic voice sounded one last time.

"Countdown complete."

"All contestants, please immediately accept the Subspace Teleportation invitation issued by the system.

"Upon acceptance, you will be immediately teleported to a random area within the arena. Refusal will be considered an automatic forfeiture of your qualification to compete."

"To ensure fairness during the initial phase, there will be no other Martial Artists within a ten-thousand-meter radius of any contestant’s teleportation point."

"And now..."

"The Official Match begins!"

Almost the instant the voice faded, a translucent confirmation box appeared before Qin Feng and the other three. It read, "Accept teleportation?"

Without a moment’s hesitation, all four of them chose "Yes."

In the next instant, the shimmering light that enveloped the entire plain suddenly intensified!

Qin Feng felt an irresistible, gentle spatial energy envelop him. The scene before his eyes tore and stretched in an instant, dissolving into countless bizarre, kaleidoscopic bands of color.

The feeling lasted for less than a second.

When the light faded and his vision cleared, he had already left the suffocatingly crowded plain.

Qin Feng found himself in a dim, tranquil, primeval forest.

He was surrounded by towering ancient trees, each hundreds of meters tall and so thick it would take more than a dozen people to link hands around its trunk.

A damp smell hung in the air, a mixture of soil and decaying vegetation.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

In the dim forest, Qin Feng didn’t move immediately.

Like the most seasoned Hunter, he immediately concealed his presence, his figure melting into the deep shadow of a towering ancient tree until he was one with his surroundings.

With a thought, he called up the official arena map provided by the competition.

A massive, translucent, three-dimensional holographic map instantly unfurled across his retina.

The map was meticulously detailed, marking the mountains, rivers, forests, swamps, and other complex terrain features of his current region.

In various corners of the map, countless red dots of different sizes blinked.

The vast majority of these dots were stationary, but a few were moving at incredible speeds.

’Resource packs...’

Qin Feng’s gaze fell on those red dots, and he immediately understood their meaning.

These red dots represented the "resource packs" airdropped by the event organizers into various corners of the battlefield.

And the moving ones, he presumed, were packs that had already been claimed by other contestants and were now being carried.

The red dots on the map also varied in size.

Some were as fine as dust, scattered densely across the entire map.

Others were the size of rice grains and were comparatively rare.

In some of the map’s core areas, there were even a few large, brilliant red dots marked, each the size of a soybean.

Clearly, the size of the dots indicated the tier and value of the resource packs.