Now that everyone had received their black boxes, the time that followed seemed like it should be spent by each team holding a private meeting to discuss how best to proceed — most importantly, how to assign the animal roles.

But Bai Youwei had no such intention whatsoever.

She sat in her wheelchair, swept an expressionless gaze across her surroundings, and then spoke: “Two people per group. Get familiar with the terrain and environment first. If you find a trap or a safe house, contact the group via wristband.”

She spoke at a normal volume, making no attempt to keep the other side from hearing, so that every word reached Ye Chong’s people with perfect clarity.

Ye Chong’s team members all fixed their eyes on him, waiting for their King to give orders.

“Search for your safe houses individually, and scout the environment while you’re at it.” Ye Chong said.

The arrangements from the two Kings were not all that different.

The battle game hadn’t officially started yet, so the tension wasn’t too high. The sixteen players gradually dispersed, their figures quickly swallowed by the dense forest.

Bai Youwei naturally paired with Shen Mo.

The place was truly enormous. The terrain wasn’t limited to forest either — there were also open grasslands, hillsides, thickets, sand dunes, and more, as though all of nature had been condensed into one space.

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo located a safe house — but it wasn’t theirs. It belonged to the other side.

Since it wasn’t their own safe house, they couldn’t enter.

Viewed only from the outside, the safe house resembled an igloo built by the Inuit — hemispherical, entirely white, but the material was not snow. It was a kind of white steel, extremely sturdy and solid.

If one hid inside there, they would have nothing to fear from any animal, naturally.

Bai Youwei and Shen Mo continued onward and successively discovered the safe houses for the Wolf and the Leopard, each with an animal icon marked on the door — easy to identify.

Two short beeps sounded from the wristband, followed by Ashalina’s voice:

“Southeast direction — found safe houses for the Mouse and the Fox.”

Yu Chaohui’s voice came through as well:

“Found a trap…”

Shen Mo glanced at the teammates’ positions on his wristband and asked Bai Youwei: “It looks like the northern side is Ye Chong’s territory, and the south is ours. Do you want to head back and take a look?”

Bai Youwei gave a gentle shake of her head. “Let’s finish exploring first… while it’s still early, I want to get a better look at the environment.”

Shen Mo gave a slight nod, and pushed her deeper into the area.

…

The Wildlife Park was truly vast. By the time Bai Youwei and Shen Mo had gone through it all, nearly two hours had passed.

This was merely a single pass through the park — it could hardly be called familiar. To have a clear mental picture of every part of the environment, to be able to rapidly choose the optimal routes for attack and retreat, she would need to go through it at least a few more times.

Ye Chong’s people were carrying out the same work.

Whoever could become more familiar with the environment first would gain the advantage in battle.

The sun gradually slanted toward the west… Without anyone quite noticing, dusk settled in, the setting sun red as blood. The arriving-but-not-yet-arrived darkness gave the entire forest an indescribable sense of oppression.

Yu Chaohui found an open patch of ground and lit a campfire.

The sky still held a trace of light. Everyone gathered around the campfire, eating the food from their black boxes in silence.

Tan Xiao could never hold his tongue for long. He asked Bai Youwei: “Weiwei, what roles are you thinking of assigning us?”

Bai Youwei was drinking milk.

She hadn’t had fresh milk like this in a long time. A pity there was only 150ml — if there were just a bit more… say, about 150 liters… she could give her legs a milk bath.

Realizing that her companions were all watching her, Bai Youwei slowly raised her head and looked at everyone across the campfire light:

“No need to rush… Actually, before assigning animal roles, we should first think about how the other side will arrange theirs. Mouse, Cat, Fox, Wolf, Leopard, Lion, Bear, Elephant — the most critical animals are the Mouse and the Elephant. If we can figure out who the other side’s Mouse and Elephant are first, then planning our own arrangement will have much more value.”

Tan Xiao scratched his head: “How are we supposed to guess that…”

—