Chapter Seventy-Three: Negotiation and Return

When Qin Fei awoke again, the steadily rising seawater had already started to soak his sleeping bag. It was early morning. In truth, Qin Fei hadn’t slept enough, but as the water continued to rise nearby, the big-nosed creature at his side noticed he was about to be submerged and used its nose to rouse him from his dreams.

The water level was increasing at an alarming rate. In just a single night, the surrounding sea had risen by more than ten meters. This place would soon be flooded and could not be lingered in any longer. Qin Fei began to make his way toward the summit of the volcano. The sooner he reached the top, the earlier he could secure the advantageous high ground. He might even have time to set some traps to ambush other survivors.

The volcano’s path was rugged, and as Qin Fei climbed, he occasionally ran into carnivorous animals blocking his way. The roads on the volcano were so narrow that any predators standing in the way were not especially large—mostly saber-toothed tigers, giant scorpions, and raptors, all medium or small-sized. As long as he didn’t encounter a tyrannosaurus, with his shotgun in hand, Qin Fei had nothing to fear.

This was an active volcano. Even before he reached the summit, Qin Fei could already feel waves of scorching heat halfway up the slope. The closer he got to the top, the higher the surrounding temperature became. At the same time, obsidian became more and more common on the mountain. Obsidian is a natural mineral formed when volcanic lava cools and solidifies. Figuring it might come in handy later, Qin Fei collected a few pieces as he climbed.

The summit formed a sunken basin. In the center of this basin, a volcanic lake brimmed with molten lava. Not far from this fiery lake, two survivors were standing and seemed to be deep in conversation.

One was plump, the other slender. By the plump man’s side lay a wolf with snow-white fur. Qin Fei guessed this must be the direwolf that dwelled in the northern reaches of the Ark. In truth, direwolves weren’t much larger than their modern counterparts—about a meter tall and generally less than two meters long. Their size was only a little greater than the polar gray wolves from The Long Dark. Thus, that direwolf posed little real threat to Qin Fei.

The other survivor had a gigantic frog crouched beside him, over half a meter long and tall. Judging by its size, it must be the Beelzebufo, the devil frog that dwells in swamps—the largest of all frogs.

Qin Fei frowned. Facing both men together would be difficult for him alone. But then he noticed they were standing a fair distance apart, each holding a gun and appearing wary of the other. Qin Fei breathed a sigh of relief—they likely weren’t allies.

After some time negotiating, the two survivors seemed to reach an agreement. They slowly lowered their guns and sat down on the ground.

Damn. Qin Fei frowned.

Had they just formed an alliance? Their peaceful coexistence was not good news for Qin Fei. Seeing this, he abandoned any thought of approaching them directly. First, he donned his armor and strapped on his glider. Then, he took out the “Cloud in a Bottle” item acquired from the five-man team and hung it on his belt with a cord.

Once fully equipped, Qin Fei gathered stones from the summit and piled them up. Using his “Stone Construction Mastery” skill, he quickly built a simple stone fortification on the spot. Regardless of whether the two over there would eventually turn on each other, it was safest for him to hunker down first.

Peering through a gap in the makeshift fort, he observed the pair across the basin. The direwolf’s senses were razor-sharp. Although Qin Fei had tried to make as little noise as possible while building the fort, he still managed to alert the distant animal. It barked in Qin Fei’s direction. Thanks to its warning, the two survivors soon discovered his fort.

They began to walk toward his position, each holding up a wooden shield. As they moved, they kept themselves hidden behind the shields, giving Qin Fei no opportunity to fire.

“Hey, don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” When they were about a hundred meters away, the plump survivor called out. He glanced at Qin Fei, then at his companion. Making sure neither of them was up to anything suspicious, he crouched behind his shield at a good angle and shouted to Qin Fei’s fort, “We could team up, you know. There’s no need to fight.”

Qin Fei considered this. Even though the current mission was PVP, alliances between survivors were allowed. The maximum team size was three. In other words, up to three survivors could clear the mission together.

So the plump man was right. Once teamed up, it was essentially PVE within the team; they couldn’t harm each other directly. But that didn’t mean it was completely safe—if someone was malicious enough, there were plenty of ways to get a teammate killed indirectly. For this reason, Qin Fei had never formed an alliance with anyone in Ark, wary of trusting other survivors.

But given the current situation, an alliance was the best option. Qin Fei wasn’t one to seek direct confrontation; he valued his life. If the three of them could resolve this peacefully through an alliance, all the better—there were no real conflicts of interest between them.

There were two possible outcomes after teaming up. If there were only three survivors left, they could win outright and be transmitted home. If there were more survivors, Qin Fei’s trio could easily take out the rest. Either way, he had nothing to lose.

With this in mind, Qin Fei replied, “All right, let’s team up.”

“Who’s going to be team leader?” the slender one with the devil frog asked.

“I don’t mind,” replied the plump one.

To join someone else’s team meant merging into their group. Remembering that his own team still included Xie Nai Nai, Qin Fei invited both men to join his group, so his team would not be disbanded. Thus, Qin Fei became the leader among the three.

Once the team was confirmed, a system dialogue box appeared before Qin Fei’s eyes.

[Remaining number of teams: 1]
[You have completed the mission: Survive on the Ark Island and eliminate all other teams.]
[Mission reward 1: Substitute Doll x1.]
[Mission reward 2: Your Survivor Sample Implant has been upgraded! Backpack capacity increased… Current carry weight: sixty kilograms.]
[Victory in Ark PVP mode! Permission granted to unlock the Hidden World!]
[You have unlocked the Main Mission World—Ark: Survival Evolved!]
[Mission complete. Preparing for return. Teleportation countdown begins…]

A string of rewards appeared, and it took Qin Fei a moment to process them all. As with previous missions, once the system’s return prompts appeared, everything around Qin Fei dissolved into white light.

He was going back…

“We’ll be counting on you in the next world!” the plump man suddenly called out before they returned.

“Huh?” What did that mean? Qin Fei was momentarily stunned. Did that mean they would meet again next time?

The plump man explained, and only then did Qin Fei understand. After teaming up, survivors would be transferred together into the same game world during their next crossing. Of course, exceptions existed for strictly single-player worlds like The Long Dark.

Qin Fei hadn’t encountered Xie Nai Nai in this world because Ark was a PVP scenario. For fairness, survivors in PVP worlds were randomly assigned—this prevented teams from starting out together and ganging up on others. But if you managed to persuade strangers to team up during the mission, that was a different matter.

From the information the system had just given Qin Fei, Ark: Survival Evolved was considered a main mission world. The diamond-shaped crystal implanted in each survivor’s wrist—the so-called sample implant—originated from the lore of Ark itself. Qin Fei speculated that the mysterious system enabling survivors to traverse various worlds was closely tied to the world of Ark: Survival Evolved…

(End of Ark: Survival of the Fittest arc)