"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
Tan Zhiming looked carefully but didn't notice anything unusual.
Wu Chengxin, however, exclaimed in surprise, "There are numbers on that obelisk too."
"Numbers?"
Tan Zhiming and the others were stunned and hurriedly took a closer look.
Indeed, on the massive obelisk, there was a large number '97'.
"What's the significance of these numbers...?" Tan Zhiming asked confusedly.
Wu Chengxin said, puzzled, "I've seen photos from other ancient ruins before, and in two of them, they also had numbers like these."
"And then? Is there any connection between them?"
Tan Zhiming asked, as he hadn't paid attention to this detail before.
Wu Chengxin said, "I was among the first to awaken, and when I first saw these numbers, they were '100', and now it's '97'. Haven't you thought of anything?"
Tan Zhiming was astonished, "We've just been in this world for exactly three years, and the number has decreased by three? It must be a coincidence. We humans from Earth have nothing to do with the ancient ruins of this world..."
"You really are blind, claiming there's no connection when the text in these ancient ruins is in Chinese?" Zhang Peng said, speechless.
"You think you're so smart. What if only this ruin has a number '97', while the previous ones still have '100'?"
Tan Zhiming snorted, "I think this number is probably some sort of sequence, perhaps indicating this is the ninety-seventh city or something."
"It's not impossible."
Wu Chengxin nodded, then frowned, "Do you feel like the temperature in this safe zone is rising?"
"Eh? Is it?"
"I didn't notice; I feel it's quite cool inside the safe zone, although it's nothing compared to the big shots' area."
"I didn't really notice either."
Tan Zhiming and the others shook their heads.
...
"How did it go? Did you manage to lower the price?"
Jia Weixin eagerly asked when he saw Chen Xianzhi again.
"Not yet, but he mentioned something—if we accomplish it, the price might come down..."
Chen Xianzhi immediately relayed what Yang Yuan had said earlier, without embellishment.
Jia Weixin frowned slightly after listening, "That Li Qingshan, is he now also part of the safe zone?"
Chen Xianzhi nodded, "On the way back, I had someone look into it. He's now in the excavation team, just an ordinary person. Commander, we're out of time, should we..."
Jia Weixin didn't respond directly but frowned and said, "Yang Yuan is just in a cooperative relationship with us now, while Li Qingshan is one of our own. In this era of disaster, right and wrong are hard to distinguish; it's just about survival..."
"Has he contributed to the safe zone?"
Suddenly, a majestic voice sounded beside them.
Jia Weixin and Chen Xianzhi both changed their expressions slightly and quickly turned around to see an imposing old man who had appeared without them noticing.
"Leader!"
"Hello, Leader!"
The two quickly saluted.
The old man nodded slightly and looked at Jia Weixin, "In such situations, treat everyone equally. Yang Yuan is part of the thirteenth team and hasn't declared independence, so theoretically, he belongs to the safe zone and is naturally one of us."
Jia Weixin twitched his mouth, "...You're right."
"The leader speaks wisely," Chen Xianzhi complimented.
The old man continued, "In this era of disaster, there's no distinction between good and bad. We can't cover everything; we only need to handle what we can see. Li Qingshan is ungrateful and almost caused the death of a highly potential talent; his crime is unforgivable. In times of chaos, heavy penalties are used. To prevent his possible rise from putting us in a dilemma, just sentence him to death at once."
Seeing Jia Weixin hesitate, the old man admonished, "We have no time left. Do you want to drag thousands of people down with such an ungrateful ordinary person? Remember your position. Know how to make choices when necessary. Personal interests must always give way to collective interests! When choosing between someone who can make significant contributions to everyone and someone useless who might stab you in the back at a crucial moment, do I need to teach you?"
Jia Weixin sighed, "I know what to do."
"You better know it for real. Yang Yuan only mentioned Li Qingshan's name, clearly indicating Li Qingshan as the ringleader. Dealing with the main culprit will sufficiently account for it. We don't know when we can meet with other teams, and population is now a critical resource."
After saying this, the old man vanished into thin air.
The invisible pressure disappeared.
Chen Xianzhi breathed a sigh of relief and suddenly asked worriedly, "Commander, you seem to be at odds more and more. Are you going to fight each other?"
"Talk less."
Jia Weixin glanced at his aide, expressionless, "Handle this matter. Although Li Qingshan deserves to die, to avoid causing panic among ordinary people, don't leave any evidence."
He sighed, thinking he was ultimately a soldier, not a politician. He couldn't see the long-term big picture in issues.
His duty should be to lead soldiers in battle, not to plot strategies here.
He sometimes truly admired people with good brains.
Although, that person with a good brain really gave him a headache at times too.
...
A corner of the safe zone.
The massive drilling machinery had stopped working and was being dismantled to be packed away to clear the area.
The person in charge had received the message that there was no need to continue drilling.
At this moment, Li Qingshan and others were helping to transport dismantled parts of the drilling machinery.
"Li Qingshan, Yang Yuan has also come to the safe zone, and his status seems to be quite high. He might make things difficult for us in the future. What should we do?"
Someone beside him whispered.
"You ask me, who should I ask?" Li Qingshan replied coldly.
The person next to him was immediately disgruntled, "You and Liang Gao were the ones who urged us back then. You should take responsibility..."
"We urged you? What a joke. Without our urging, would you willingly wait with him to die?"
Li Qingshan said, internally resentful. How could an ordinary person back then become a valued guest of the safe zone so quickly?
Why wasn't it him?
"Yang Yuan, why didn't you just die on the road? Why must you oppose me? I just want to live well!"
Li Qingshan thought bitterly.
Perhaps because he was too emotionally agitated, he carelessly slipped and fell forward.
At the same time, the heavy metal part he was carrying clanged against the half-dismantled drilling machine.
"Clang clang..."
In the next moment, several heavy metal parts from the half-dismantled drilling machine fell precisely onto him, crushing his body.
"How... could it be..."
Li Qingshan couldn't believe his death would come this way, and then he expired.
Everyone around turned pale at the sight.
"Something terrible happened, someone died!!"
...
"What's that sound?"
Yang Yuan heard the sound, quickly scanning the source with the radar on the Power Armor, and simultaneously used the Firepower Flying Disc's camera. He discovered the accident at the construction site a few hundred meters away.
Although outside, the Flying Disc's radar couldn't scan the safe zone, inside, except for some private areas, other places could be scanned.
"Why does the deceased look so familiar? Wait, that's Li Qingshan?"
He felt a chill, narrowing his eyes slightly, "Well, the efficiency sure is high. This can't be a coincidence, right?"
It seems there are strong individuals within this thirteenth team, capable of pulling off something so stealthily.
Is this a small warning for him?
Yang Yuan felt alerted but also relieved; it seemed that Jia Weixin and the others valued him sufficiently. Next time, when he proposes to eliminate the Drought Fiend, he shouldn't be ignored.
Simultaneously, because of this event, he realized that only truly useful people wouldn't be abandoned.
Otherwise, when necessary, personal interests must 'yield' to collective interests!
He knew what attitude to take towards the military now.
He was assembling the 3D Printer according to an engineer's guidance, which soldiers had transported over.
Speaking of which, this idea was inspired when Chen Xianzhi mentioned a Conceptual Superpower User before.
Since the 3D Printer was newly made and was transported as parts by his request, it was convenient to assemble now.
Especially with the engineer's personal guidance, it didn't take long to successfully assemble.
[3D Printer Lv.1: 0/40 (Basic 3D Printer, can print objects with material hardness not exceeding 3; upgrade unavailable)]