By the time they left, more than half the supermarket had been emptied—not because they were satisfied, but simply because their Storage Cards were full.
Bai Qiu sighed helplessly.
Not even a thought about gathering materials, huh…
Still, he didn't say anything more.
Their goal was to survive, while his was to grow stronger—their fundamental purposes were different.
As for forming a team, the process was simple: they only needed to press their Status Cards together, and the team would automatically form.
Then, a special interface would appear in front of them, allowing them to view and adjust team settings—such as assigning a leader, dividing experience points, and other functions.
Once everything was decided, they could close the interface.
A small inverted triangle icon would appear in the top-left corner of their vision, and focusing on it for three seconds would reopen the team menu.
After finishing their preparations, Bai Qiu and the others officially set out.
At first, the four of them were still timid and cautious, but once they saw Bai Qiu spear down several Dragonfang Soldiers in quick succession, their confidence began to rise.
As the notification of gained experience appeared on his Status Card, Bai Qiu further understood how the party system worked—the one who delivered the final blow automatically received 20% of the total experience.
So even if he gave all the remaining experience to the others, he would still gain 20% by default.
Even though it was just one-fifth, leveling up at low ranks was fast.
Before long, all four of them had reached Level 2.
"Big brother, can we take care of that one by ourselves? Of course, if we can't handle it, please help us," the youngest child said eagerly.
Bai Qiu nodded in response and stopped moving, watching as a lone Dragonfang Soldier hovered about thirty meters away.
He was curious to see how the Archer and Saber classes differed from his own Lancer class.
The child drew his Weapon Card, which transformed into a bow, and then conjured an arrow out of thin air.
He nocked, drew, and released in one smooth motion.
The arrow traced a faint arc through the air—
—and missed.
The middle-aged woman fired an arrow right after him, but that one also went wide.
It seemed that the Archer class did not provide any automatic bonus to accuracy.
Bai Qiu shook his head slightly—apparently, it was a class with a higher skill threshold.
Though their arrows missed, the Dragonfang Soldier had already noticed them.
Turning its head toward the four figures standing in the street, it let out a shriek and charged at them fearlessly.
The mother and son kept firing their arrows—but it was pointless.
If they couldn't even land a sneak attack, how could they possibly hit a fast-moving target?
The father and daughter each drew their swords next.
The blades were quite long, likely weighing no less than Bai Qiu's spear.
The middle-aged man seemed to manage fine, not struggling too much—but the thin-armed, thin-legged girl had a much harder time.
Even gripping the sword with both hands, she could barely lift it, let alone swing it properly.
Still, after a rather dishonorable four-on-one beating, the Dragonfang Soldier eventually died.
Throughout the entire fight, Bai Qiu's eyes never left them for a second.
To be honest, their performance was abysmal.
If it weren't for the middle-aged man brute-forcing the Dragonfang Soldier with sheer strength, the other three wouldn't have stood a chance against even one of them.
As the Dragonfang Soldier died unwillingly, it surprisingly dropped a card.
Bai Qiu raised an eyebrow but didn't pick it up.
Instead, he asked,
"Who landed the finishing blow just now?"
"Uh… it—it was me," the youngest boy said shyly, raising his hand.
Bai Qiu nodded, then asked again,
"What's your Luck stat?"
"D… D+, why? Is something wrong, big brother?"
Hearing that, Bai Qiu nearly choked on his own saliva.
He'd worked himself half to death just to raise two attributes by one tier each—yet this kid's base Luck was already two and a half tiers higher than his.
"I'm E+," Bai Qiu said.
"Ah, mine's E+ too," the middle-aged man added.
"I only have E-," said the woman.
Bai Qiu: "…"
Right. So his luck really was below average.
Dropping the subject, Bai Qiu bent down to check the dropped card's details.
[Precision Shot] (Rank E)
Effect: Increases shooting accuracy, +10% vision, and +5% attack speed.
"I've got no use for this. You two Archers can decide who gets it," Bai Qiu said, tossing the card to them.
"Me! Me!" The boy snatched it instantly.
Watching them hold their bows, Bai Qiu suddenly grew curious.
"Let me try your bow for a moment," he said, extending his hand.
The middle-aged woman hurriedly passed him her bow—and even offered him an arrow.
Bai Qiu gripped the bow, gave it a few test shakes, fiddled with both the bow and the arrow for a bit, and then drew the string to its full length.
Under the group's puzzled stares, he took aim at a Dragonfang Soldier easily a hundred meters away and released.
Whoosh!
"Whoa!" the boy and girl gasped in unison.
The arrow pierced straight through the Dragonfang Soldier's abdomen, killing it instantly—with a single shot.
"Looks like different classes can still use other weapons," Bai Qiu murmured, handing the bow back to the woman.
"They just can't benefit from the class bonuses."
He didn't even notice the two children staring up at him, eyes wide with admiration.
After the little boy used the Precision Shooting card, his accuracy indeed improved significantly.
At first, he still struggled with judging distances and often missed his shots, but later on, he could almost always hit any target within fifty meters.
Since the boy had the highest Luck attribute among them, Bai Qiu decided to let him land the finishing blows whenever possible.
As a result, their drop rate increased by several levels — basically, every four to five Dragonfang Soldiers killed would yield a card.
By the time they reached the Safe Zone, the boy had already reached Level 4, and more than a dozen cards had dropped through his efforts.
However, after carefully sorting through them, Bai Qiu only chose three enhancement cards.
During that time, they also collected dozens of Rare Dragonfangs, half of which Bai Qiu kept for himself.
The Safe Zone was located at the center of the plaza, shrouded in a golden barrier.
Upon stepping inside, they realized the interior was much larger than it appeared from the outside.
The space within was vast — if the original plaza could hold several thousand people, this one, even with an unknown black structure standing in the center, could likely accommodate over ten thousand.
They weren't the first group to arrive.
Once they entered, Bai Qiu's spear automatically reverted into a Weapon Card, and new details appeared under his attribute list.
Safe Zone Buffs Added:
Physical energy consumption reduced by 50%.
Gain 1 experience point every 10 minutes.
Unable to use class abilities or standard skills against other humans within the Safe Zone.
It seemed that the system, taking into account the potential for humans to kill one another, had greatly weakened everyone's offensive capabilities within this protected area.