Ling Cage: I am a spiritual master, devouring source matter to become a god.

Teamwork is different from going it alone. Jingyuan needs teammates. As Penny said, the other candidates have more experience and connections than Jingyuan. When it comes time to choose teammates, Jingyuan can only invite a few newcomers.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. You've helped me several times already, so it's my turn to help you this time."

The two walked back to the Shangmin residential area.

Jingyuan's residence was just ahead. As they approached, Jingyuan politely asked, "Would you like to come and sit at my place for a while?"

"No."

"How about I take you back first?"

“No,” Penny said. “Let’s not cross the line too much.”

"clear."

……

The mission details were released the following day.

The command center confirmed five punctuation marks for the selection task.

Five punctuation marks were randomly selected.

Teams can be formed freely.

As Penny said, the other candidates are more experienced and have wider connections. They have many options for assembling a team.

There aren't many people left for Jingyuan.

Jingyuan originally wanted to ask Erica for help, but Erica had already agreed to help Mocheng.

Mo Cheng is also one of the candidates this time. Erica, Fei Xue, Jeff and others are all in Mo Cheng's team.

Apart from Penny, Jingyuan couldn't invite any of the veteran team members. He only had five people on his team: Mo Dong, Chu Feng, Neil, De Hai, and Lin Ge.

The five final candidates were Jingyuan, Mocheng, Gaoge, Kunjie, and Luka.

Mexico City is Mark's best friend, that goes without saying.

Gao Ge and Kun Jie are elderly people who have stayed since the Hong Kou era.

All three of them were from Mark's faction.

This Luca is a bit strange; he wasn't on the previous list, but then he reappeared on the candidate list.

More importantly, he received support from the city's garrison.

The city defense forces lent him two gravity bodies for this selection.

Jingyuan learned of this and also began to think about creating a gravity body.

Originally, all gravity entities had pilots. If a pilot is in your team, then your team will have gravity entities.

For example, the Mexican team includes Erica, Flying Snow, Jeff, and Corey.

That would be equivalent to having four gravity bodies.

In Jingyuan's team, only he himself possessed a gravity body; the rest did not, meaning there was only one gravity body.

The distribution of gravity bodies is also a difficult problem.

Seeing that Luca had the support of the city defense forces, Jingyuan guessed that he was probably someone the city defense forces wanted to support.

So Jingyuan sought help from Charles, and the boy's reply was quite intriguing.

"You don't need to rely on gravity; you're guaranteed to win this selection mission."

Jingyuan knew that Charles would use some methods, but he didn't know what those methods would be.

This caused him to remain unsettled.

In the end, Mark couldn't stand it anymore and lent Corey's gravity body to Jing Yuan, who then piloted it.

Mo Cheng had no objection to this. He was more interested in participating anyway, so it was fine whether he could be the vice-captain or not.

On the day the selection competition began, an opening ceremony was also held at the lighthouse.

In addition to the people mentioned earlier, Jingyuan's team also included four laborers from the commoner class.

Subsequently, five armored vehicles were deployed to the ground and each proceeded toward its designated point.

Inside the armored vehicle, Mo Dong drove while Penny sat in the passenger seat reviewing mission details.

"Our mission location this time is an old world survival base. Based on the high-altitude reconnaissance, there may be Devouring Beasts present. The internal situation is unknown."

"A survival base?" This was the first time Jing Yuan had ever heard anyone mention it.

Penny explained to him, "After the disaster, the surviving humans on the surface built many underground survival bases. But as the number of Devouring Beasts increased, these survival bases were breached one by one. Fortunately, the Devouring Beasts only absorb human life essence and do not destroy resources, so a large amount of resources stored in these survival bases were preserved. When the Hunters were on their mission, they obtained a large amount of resources from one of these survival bases."

After listening, Jing Yuan laughed and said, "Then I'm pretty lucky. I was selected as a survival base, so my supplies are guaranteed."

"It's just ahead!"

Chapter 43 Exploring the Survival Base

Mo Dong stopped the car, and a group of people packed up their equipment and prepared to get off.

After getting out of the car, Penny first observed her surroundings.

After arranging for the laborers from the dust people to prepare the gravity bodies, Jingyuan also came to Penny's side.

Penny said to Jingyuan, "Something feels strange!"

"what happened?"

"The report said there were traces of Devouring Beasts in the vicinity, but I did not see any signs of Devouring Beast activity on the ground."

"Perhaps it was buried by the yellow sand."

Penny shook her head and said, "Probably not. The investigation information was only updated two days ago. Two days isn't enough time to completely erase the traces."

Jing Yuan was also puzzled, but wasn't it a good thing that there were no Devouring Beasts?

Penny looked back at the group and said, "Arrange for two people to come with us into the base. One person will keep watch from a high point, and the rest will stay put."

“Okay.” Jingyuan agreed immediately, then turned to Penny and asked, “Actually, you can arrange it yourself.”

Penny laughed and said, "You are the captain of this team."

“Okay!” Jing Yuan smiled, understanding Penny’s intention.

He made the arrangements as Penny had instructed, and Mo Dong and Ling Ge followed them into the base, along with two dustman laborers.

The survival base occupies a very small area, with the upper level concealed and decorated, making it resemble the entrance to a cave dwelling.

Because the space inside was cramped, Jingyuan didn't wear any gravity suits.

The group of six descended into the base via an elevator shaft. Initially, the passageways were all narrow, but they soon entered a more spacious area.

“There’s no sign of any ecosystem here,” Penny said, looking around.

The survival base contained a lot of fleshy soil, clearly indicating that it had been invaded by Devouring Beasts.

However, there were also many skeletons on the ground, so this part was obviously not the work of the Devouring Beast.

What happened inside this survival base, they have no idea.

Ultimately, this human settlement perished as a result.

Thinking about this, Jingyuan felt a pang of emotion. It was truly remarkable that the lighthouse had survived to this day.

Despite all the flaws of the lighthouse, the fact that it has allowed so many people to survive is already remarkable.

"Oh!"

A sudden loud bang startled everyone, and they immediately drew their guns and aimed.

Looking back, there was nothing there, just a dusty person who had knocked over a shelf while trying to get something.

Jing Yuan looked at it and angrily said, "3855, what are you doing?"

“I…” The commoner was terrified.

Jingyuan looked at the game console in 3855's hand and instantly understood.

This kid is just as dishonest as that guy 4068.

Jingyuan walked over, picked up the game console from 3855's hand, threw it aside, and said, "Remember, don't do it again!"

"Yes!" As a commoner, Dust Citizen 3855 knew his status clearly. If he acted recklessly here and was killed by Jing Yuan, no one would care.

"Remember this, all of you. I don't object if you want to take a few things back! But you need to be mindful of the situation! Once we've thoroughly investigated this place and confirmed it's safe, you can take whatever you want! But if you act recklessly before we've confirmed it's safe, what if a Devouring Beast appears? Do you want to lose your lives for such a small thing?" Jing Yuan looked at 3855 and asked again, "Do you want to?"

3855 immediately shook his head.

"I've got it all!" Jing Yuan said, then led the team again.

Penny smiled and reminded her from the side, "Bringing things in without permission is against the rules."

Jing Yuan didn't care. "Going down to the ground is so dangerous, what's wrong with bringing some things? There's no need to be so formal."

Jingyuan then said to those behind him, "If you find anything and want to take it back, give it to me first. I'll give it to you after we get back to the lighthouse and pass through the checkpoint."

By saying this, Jingyuan was essentially providing them with a blatant cover-up.