Having a powerful lord as a father figure, what's wrong with just wanting to draw cards?

If possible, they wouldn't want the girl to be eliminated like this; keeping her in the team as a "baby" (a derogatory term for someone who is sexually exploited) would be a good option.

It's a pity, they've already suffered enough themselves, who has the energy to care about their physical well-being?

And so, the group of grown men huddled together and barely managed to get through the bitterly cold night.

As the sun rose again the following day, the scorching heat swept in like a tidal wave from afar, plunging the entire desert into a furnace.

It was unbearably hot during the day and freezing cold at night. The damned soldiers in Xisha forced them to keep running around, and they also had to constantly worry about being backstabbed by other 'players'. It has to be said that this level was indeed quite torturous.

Even Domi, unusually, sometimes lingered in bed in the morning, struggling for a while before reluctantly getting up.

As soon as he stepped out of the tent, good heavens, the sun was blazing down on him.

The sudden change from hot to cold is something that only someone with a strong constitution could handle.

The group of guys on the other side are the best example; several of them have already developed severe and potentially fatal symptoms such as fever and dehydration.

His face was deathly pale, his lips were dry, and his throat was hoarse; his voice was almost indistinguishable from that of the soldiers in the Xisha Islands.

Even temperatures around 50 degrees Celsius couldn't dispel the chill that had seeped into the body.

Charles was frantic, pacing back and forth, muttering, "What to do... what to do..."

The only mage who knew healing magic was the one they watched die; his body was still warm from being exposed to the sun.

With nowhere else to turn, Charles once again sought help from Domi.

"Healing magic? I know it."

"That……"

"You'll have to pay a price, because the effectiveness of my treatment depends mainly on how much you pay."

"I can only offer 100 gold dragons at most, please save my teammate!"

"Are your teammates only worth 100 gold dragons? You'd better think this through. If they all die now, there won't be anyone to fight for you later!"

Charles clenched his teeth so hard that he practically squeezed each word out:

"Just 100 golden dragons, please lend a hand. Whether they survive or not depends entirely on their own willpower!"

"Okay~"

Domi took the hundred gleaming gold round coins from Charles's hand. Seeing his hometown's currency in a foreign land made him quite nostalgic.

Since you've taken someone else's money, you still have to do what you're supposed to do; Domi calls this professional ethics.

He approached the patients lying in a row and gathered light-attribute magic in his hands to cast a healing spell.

When the healing light fell on them, the pain on their faces visibly subsided, but it stopped almost immediately, and they put on their masks of pain again.

"Keep going! You clearly have the ability to save them!"

Seeing that his teammates were showing signs of recovery, Charles, as if his brain had been fried, ordered Domi to go.

"I've already said, I'll put in as much effort as you're paid for."

"That's a hundred gold dragons! You think you can just pretend and call it a day? Even the donkeys in the production team aren't as lazy as you!"

"If it were just one person, I could definitely save them, but you have three teammates who have fallen, so I can only spread my limited abilities evenly."

"Hey!" another of Charles's teammates shouted angrily, "Have you no humanity at all?! You could have saved several lives, but you're only satisfied when you watch them die in agony?!"

"Hey, hey, don't just slap such a big label on me all at once. If you want to ask, you should ask your captain."

When asked why he only spent 100 gold dragons to save his teammate's life, he looked at his wallet and estimated he still had 200 gold dragons left. "100 gold dragons equals one life, so 3 white gold dragons equals three lives."

"Captain...?" Seeing Charles's troubled expression after being called out, his companion said in disbelief, "Why...you weren't like this before..."

"You promised to share both joy and sorrow?! Now you don't even want to save me?"

"team leader!"

"Enough!" Charles shouted sharply, startling the middle-aged reserve officer.

"Kid, if they can't be saved, that's their fate. Besides, they won't really die. Why waste three hundred golden dragons to save them?"

"What a joke! We probably wouldn't even earn three hundred gold dragons if we went out here, right? Use your pig brain to think about whether it's really worth it?"

"I'm the team leader. If the team runs out of money for future activities, are you going to lay eggs for me?!"

The other person was so bombarded with criticism that they shut up, seemingly unable to come up with a better reason to refute this reality.

The atmosphere at the scene was tense and frozen for a time.

Pa~pa~pa~

Just then, an untimely round of applause suddenly broke out.

Domi clicked his tongue in amazement: "Poverty-stricken couples face a hundred sorrows; this saying is indeed true."

"Thank you, Charles, and that unknown person, for giving me such a heart-wrenching performance in your final moments."

"What do you mean by that? What do you mean by the final moments of one's life?"

Charles seemed to sense something was wrong and quickly drew his sword, pointing it at Domi, and moved closer to his companion.

Domi glanced at his sword and said calmly, "Don't you know perfectly well?"

"Why don't you take a look at the numbers above my head?"

As he spoke, he removed the hiding of the number, revealing a large 2, which meant that Domi had already lost twenty or more 'players'.

Players who haven't killed anyone and are currently at this level will only have a zero.

"Twenty...twenty...you've already killed twenty people, aren't you satisfied yet?!"

This was the first time Charles had ever seen such a killing machine, and he was so frightened that he could barely hold his sword.

"If I take you all down, I'll be past twenty-five by then~"

Oh, by the way, before that girl died, I stuck a needle in her neck, so her death is also counted as mine.

"Since you're having such a hard time deciding whether to save them or not, why don't I take you outside to reunite? Wouldn't that be wonderful?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Domi moved with lightning speed, severing the neck of another companion with a single stroke.

His companion's blood sprayed onto Charles's face as if it were free, scaring him so much that he dropped his armor and fell to the ground, retreating repeatedly, but the masked god of death pressed closer and closer.

"How about this, tell me what you need that money for, and maybe I'll let you off the hook."

In order to stay in the ruins and obtain more rewards, Charles would desperately grab any straw he saw, so he blurted out without hesitation:

"Run away! I can easily end my life as an adventurer who lives on the edge of a knife. Actually, my real interest is in doing business. With this money, I'll have start-up capital, and I might even have extra money to support a concubine!"

Domi nodded repeatedly, "Yes, yes! This is the true reflection of human nature!"

"I am very satisfied."

"That's fine..."

Before Charles could finish speaking, Domi's dagger pierced his heart.

"You... cough! You're breaking your promise!"

"so what?"

He collapsed to the ground, dying with resentment in his heart.

Then Domi casually killed the other patients as well, and the number above his head would soon increase again.

Seeing this scene, Afu felt it was a bit too cruel.

"Captain... is doing this really the right thing to do?"

Domi simply continued to loot their corpses.

"There's no such thing as right or wrong. As long as I don't regret it, then it's absolutely right."

There's a trend indicator on the 17th; I'll pay off the debt over three days, and there will be a big update.

Chapter 136, Section 135: The Great Powers Gather

After hearing this, Afu thought it made sense. She wasn't a saint, and there was no reason for her to plead for these guys. She just felt it was a bit of a torment.

If she were to come, she would probably give Charles and his group a quick death; after all, words are words.

After quickly disposing of the body and packing their belongings, the group set off again, leaving the church and continuing their journey towards the center of the desert, where a palace was said to exist.

It's already unbelievable that a palace would exist in a barren and harsh desert. Its sudden existence in this checkpoint clearly indicates that something fishy is going on.

Moreover, all these things here, such as mummies, Xisha soldiers, and a statue that is probably a Xisha Sun King, point to the western part of the mainland, to that once-prosperous but long-lost civilization.

If the palace can be found, perhaps more useful clues can be discovered.

"If Shia could come, she would be so happy," Domi murmured to himself.

"What are you muttering about, kid?"

"the weather is nice today."

"..."

However, a small accident occurred halfway through.

They seem to have deviated from their intended direction and gone astray.

It took them quite a bit of time to readjust their directions and walk back, so much so that they had to spend another night on the sand where there were no buildings.

Having learned from last night's experience, they are now smarter. Starting in the afternoon, they set up camp, taking turns sleeping and keeping watch, to recharge for their escape that night.

Soon, the pitch-black night, devoid of any stars, descended once more, and hordes of Xisha soldiers rose from the ground.

"Hiss..." Domi looked at the sand dune behind him, did a rough calculation, and came to a not-so-friendly conclusion, "It seems that there are more Xisha soldiers who have appeared this time than last night."

"Illusion?"

Afu also recalled, "There was already a lot last night, any more would be too outrageous."

"Yeah, kid, do you think these mummies' little brothers are still usable? Speaking of which, are there any soldiers among these who don't have penises...?"

"No, right? No, right?"

Imagining that kind of cringeworthy scene, Domi shuddered: "Alright, let's leave this topic at that. It would be impolite to talk about it any further."