The Strongest Brain in the Interstellar

So, what kind of situation is Xierman in right now, having been mentioned by Jiang Hui?

Unbeknownst to them, nearly seven star hours have passed since the game point, so let’s rewind a bit to before Jiang Hui and Zhou Xiuwen successfully stirred things up.

As the chaotic battle area gradually dispersed, the surviving newcomers began to scatter throughout the forest, starting a true game of chase and evasion.

As time went on, the supplies distributed at the start of the orienteering competition were quickly being used up.

Unless they picked up resources from eliminated players, there was no other way to acquire more supplies. This was especially true for the most crucial and scarce resources in this competition—firearms and ammunition; every shot counted, and losing a weapon could mean disaster.

Some participants had plenty of one type of resource but were pitifully lacking in another.

As a result, many began to form teams, aiming to consolidate resources or gather manpower to seize items from other teams.

However, resources continued to be consumed at an unimaginable rate, leaving none to spare.

Some competitors and their teams were now facing a situation of nearly running out of ammunition and supplies.

They had no idea where to find resources, nor did they know if the school would replenish them. Until they found a way to secure supplies, the best strategy was to defeat others or teams and take their resources. This had become their primary focus since entering the arena.

Consequently, more and more people formed teams. As teams became the norm in the training ground, individuals fighting alone naturally fell at a disadvantage.

Once a team had the advantage of sharing “lives,” they became much harder to deal with; taking down any team required considerable effort. In contrast, solo targets were easier to handle—taking down just one person could yield some resources.

Thus, some teams targeted individual fighters rather than clashing with other teams.

Xierman was one of those individuals, but he faced a more insidious kind of attention—not being directly pursued, but rather being “targeted” in a more sinister sense.

He was truly unlucky.

At first, his situation was quite favorable. Like Jiang Hui, he had landed in a remote corner that was hidden and quiet, giving him enough time to sort through his resources and thoughts.

His initial supplies were decent; he started with several firearms as backups, including a handgun that Jiang Hui had wandered around so long without encountering. The nano combat pack he acquired was also the largest size, more than enough to carry his gear—he lacked nothing.

However, given his personality, he wouldn’t just sit in a corner waiting for prey. After waiting a while without seeing any targets, Xierman decided to move on.

Along the way, he relied on his impressive shooting skills and high mental acuity to evade numerous dangers, scoring points and acquiring plenty of resources. By all appearances, he was a strong contender.

His good luck, however, was about to run out.

During one of his risky ventures into the battle zone, Xierman encountered a classmate with whom he had a decent relationship. The classmate invited him to join a team.

Xierman didn’t think much of it. After all, joining a team meant either finding familiar faces or reliable, skilled teammates. The latter wasn’t easy to come by, and even if he found someone, they might not want to team up. So it made sense to go with someone he knew; everyone had to start somewhere.

He readily accepted the invitation to join this four-person team, which was just one member short of being complete.

In the team, aside from the inviting classmate, there was another classmate from his class whom he wasn’t very familiar with—just a quick greeting and that was it. The other two were complete strangers, and it seemed his familiar classmate had no intention of making introductions, so he didn’t ask.

After that… things took a turn for the worse.

Xierman thought this classmate was coming to his aid. After all, the four-person team hadn’t found the member they needed, and his arrival was just perfect. Little did he know… they hadn’t been searching for the fifth member; they had been looking for something else entirely.

None of these four were pushovers; they were all seasoned solo operatives.

Over the past few hours, they had been racking up points in the competition, each relying on their own skills to stay competitive. Even without an official team, they had managed to hold out for several hours in the training ground and had even scored quite a few points.

However, they were all struggling with dwindling resources, especially the shortage of ammunition, which made their situation increasingly difficult.

They gradually realized that going solo wasn’t a sustainable strategy, but they were reluctant to team up with others to share resources or even prey. After all, if they truly wanted to work together, they wouldn’t have waited until now.

However, with more and more teams forming, it was still quite difficult for one person to take resources from an entire group. So they found themselves struggling with the current situation.

The group had met by chance under certain circumstances. The details of that encounter aren’t particularly pleasant, so I’ll skip over them. After a brief ceasefire, they temporarily formed a small team to mitigate the risk of infighting among the four of them.

They knew, however, that this was only a stopgap measure. With less than a quarter of the competition completed, they were hesitant to become too tightly bound to each other.

So why did they temporarily team up? Naturally, it was for a common goal—resources.

While they felt they worked well together, they were still unwilling to bring in a fifth member to form a proper team. In their minds, as soon as they acquired enough resources, they would part ways or even turn against each other. For now, this was merely a transitional cooperation, and there was no need for a fifth member.

When would they accept a fifth member? Only when they had sharpened their knives.

The fifth position was deliberately left vacant for sacrificial purposes; anyone who joined would become their offering.

Unfortunately for Xierman, he became that unfortunate victim. His classmate had no hesitation in luring him in with the intention of taking him out and stealing his resources. After all, dissolving a team wasn’t impossible—generally, if four members agreed to disband, the fifth would simply be eliminated. This played right into their not-so-sophisticated scheme.

Before this, they had successfully used this method on several people, which was how they managed to deceive Xierman.

So when the incident occurred, Xierman was completely caught off guard. Although he quickly reacted, he was no match for the four attackers.

In order to save his life and have a chance for revenge, he could only abandon the stolen resources and flee in a desperate scramble.

His situation took a sharp turn for the worse from there.