Chapter 257: Strategies for Dealing

The combat power after the attribute doubled, Lin Yifan now already has a figure in his mind.

But even so, he's not sure how confident he can be in defending himself against the people of the Dark Night Temple and the Red Moon Temple.

Nevertheless, one cannot just wait to die!

That's not his way of doing things, and he doesn't want to.

If he doesn't fight, he will never be content.

Lin Yifan took a deep breath, closed the interface, and with a resolute gaze turned to Ruan Qingtan and Hong Shaoqiang, speaking in a low voice:

"No matter what, we can't just sit and wait to die; we have to give it a shot! Otherwise, even in death we'd be unsatisfied. Moreover, although each of us is weak alone, the number of Survivors who entered this mission plane is definitely large."

"If we can unite all Survivors, we aren't without a chance to fight, and besides, we have no escape; not fighting leaves only a dead end."

Hong Shaoqiang nodded: "After merging districts, the number of Survivors in our district should reach the above figure. Even if some ignore the advice and don't join, there will still be at least that many. Both sides can only send 300 people into this Instance space, so together it's at most 600."

"Even ants in large numbers can bite an elephant; moreover, we are intelligent, our numbers are ten times theirs, I believe even if they are stronger—!"

"But it's ultimately too dangerous," Ruan Qingtan frowned, "With our current strength, many will likely die. Do you think we have a way to end this competition task early?"

"If we can end it early, we can leave this Instance plane, and the crisis will be resolved!"

"If we truly can end it early, Aeriilia wouldn't abandon us," Lin Yifan shook his head, cut her off, and said in a low voice:

"Anyway, stop talking about the irrelevant now; you all quickly find a way to contact other Survivors, gather everyone as much as possible, and then locate the three altars."

"Also, explain everything to them, hide nothing. This is a matter of life and death, and many more will likely die later, so give them the choice themselves!"

Lin Yifan quickly opened the district chat channel, only to find it already in chaos.

【Resource War Main Channel (Members: 56,845)】

【Watermelon, Shattered Ice】: "Help! Our squad encountered a group of black‑robed people on the east side of the forest. They raised their hands and summoned black tentacles; Brother Li was dragged away, and I almost was too. Luckily I jumped into the water and saved my life!"

【Grandpa is Here】: "We ran into them too! Those red‑robed lunatics grab anyone they see and say 'Sacrificing for the Red Moon is an honor', forcing us to obediently sacrifice for the Red Moon. I'm like damn, it's a cult!"

【Xuanyuan Broken Blade】: "It seems everyone ran into those lunatics, but we found that their own strength isn't great; however, they can summon a bizarre tentacle, and we can confirm the tentacle fears water."

【Evening Snow】: "We also discovered this, and at the foot of the highest peak in the forest we found a large lake with a small island in the center. We have quite a few people here now; if anyone can't find a suitable hiding spot, they can come to our gathering!"

【A Little Yellow Fish】: "Has everyone found a safe gathering point? I'm also on this side of the forest, so I'll come find you. But if those people discover us, even if they can't summon tentacles, they seem quite powerful and can use magical skills!"

【Zhang Hanwen】: "Stop worrying about all that; many people mean strength. Let's gather first! Unfortunately I'm in a snowy mountain, but I saw red‑clad people at the foot earlier; luckily they didn't spot me. From here I can see a forest not far away, probably the one you mentioned, and I'm heading to find you."

【Lord of God】: "I'm not in the forest either, but I'm in the ruins of a town on the forest's edge, not far from the forest. I'm coming to meet up with you..."

……

Lin Yifan saw that person's message, his eyes lit up, and he exclaimed excitedly:

"Indeed, many people mean strength. Someone has already discovered that the tentacles fear water, so we can use water against them. They've also found a suitable gathering point; I checked the location, it should be at our teller window, so let's go meet them there!"

Ruan Qingtan and Hong Shaoqiang, who had been at a loss, heard this and their eyes instantly brightened; their dejected expressions instantly turned to excitement as they nodded repeatedly:

"Someone actually discovered that thing's weakness; it's truly heaven helping us!"

"And they've also found a suitable rendezvous point, urging everyone to gather; this saves us a lot of trouble."

At this point, Ruan Qingtan suddenly raised her head, her face excited, and said:

"I just recalled something: when we first discovered this altar, we saw a red line on the corpses connecting to a Crystal, and those fresh bodies quickly rotted into dry corpses."

"Do you think the Crystal on the altar needs to absorb the power of fresh bodies to activate the altar and bring the Red Moon?"

"It does seem possible," Hong Shaoqiang squinted, recalled, and nodded:

"Moreover, the people from the Dark Moon Temple needed to open the Abyss Gate, which also seemed to require energy absorption to activate; this altar is likely the same."

"The law of conservation of energy!" Lin Yifan instantly realized and exclaimed excitedly:

"Even if many things in this world exceed scientific understanding, the principle of energy conservation must still hold!"

"So we boldly speculate: if we Survivors aren't captured as sacrifices, perhaps the altar can't activate, and the so‑called Red Moon descent would just be a joke!"

"If that's truly the case, it becomes much easier!" Ruan Qingtan slapped her palm and said quickly:

"As long as we gather as many Survivors as possible and prevent those Red Moon Temple lunatics from capturing them, they won't be able to harvest energy, and our crisis will be resolved!"

"Alright, let's do that! I'll go inform them."

Lin Yifan's expression relaxed considerably; after thinking, he still entered three messages into the chat channel:

【Lin Yifan】: "Attention everyone! I am Lin Yifan. It has been confirmed that the Dark Night Temple and Red Moon Temple have formed an alliance; they are sacrificing lives at the altars to summon the Red Moon. If all altars aren't destroyed within 24 hours, all living beings in this Instance will be transformed into Maggot Human Bones!"

【Lin Yifan】: "We still don't know where their other two altars are, but one thing is certain: they capture people to use the corpses as altar nourishment to activate the altar for the Red Moon. So please stay alive, gather together as much as possible, avoid being alone, lest you be taken as altar nourishment!"

【Lin Yifan】: "The lake‑center island you mentioned earlier seems a great gathering spot. I'll head there quickly, and hope everyone can rush over too, so we can gather and face the upcoming crisis together."

When that message went out, the channel fell silent for two seconds, then erupted into even more heated discussion.

【Zhang Hanwen】 "Whoa! Is this real? What's this Red Moon descent, will it really turn us all into monsters?"

【Watermelon, Shattered Ice】 "If Lin the boss says it, how could it be false? I also saw an altar before, with many corpses arranged in strange patterns, each with a red line, welcoming a red Crystal. A bizarre energy flows from the bodies along the red line into the Crystal—terrifying!"

【Zhang Daji】 "And those Maggot Human Bones—we've encountered them before. They look human, but beneath the skin the flesh has turned into maggots; it's disgusting. I don't want to become that, and I trust Lin Yifan. I'm heading to the lake‑center island now!"

【Father of God】 "Ah! Since Lin the boss says so, everyone believing him can't be wrong!"

【Jiang Xiaobai】 "Father of God, why have you become Lin Yifan's Licking Dog? Before the districts merged you were always jumping to oppose him. How come you're now licking him!"

【Father of God】 "Stop spouting nonsense here. I was blinded by my own greed, thought I was great, wanted to make a name for myself. Now I'm sober, I won't overreach. Everyone has seen what Lin the boss has done for us; even I have offended him and he didn't hold a grudge. I know he's a good person, I don't believe it, does he still believe you?"

【Sexy Kitten】 "Alright, I get it. You're spineless, but one thing's true: Lin Yifan has indeed done a lot for everyone. Yet I believe people are selfish; he must have his own reasons, not pure altruism. Anyway, everyone should take it easy."

【Meteor Shower】 "I don't care about their motives; Lin Yifan helped me, that's a fact. I must repay that kindness. Since he told us to gather, I'll go gather; following him can't be wrong!"

……

In an instant, the comment section went off the rails, and most people started discussing Lin Yifan's achievements.

These people were mostly from the original district; some were grateful to Lin Yifan, while others remained skeptical.

Nevertheless, the accumulation over time has nonetheless earned Lin Yifan many people's hearts.

Although no one discussed the Red Moon cult, those who received the news are now gathering toward the lake‑center island.

But Lin Yifan at this moment had no mind to deal with that; he actually privately messaged that Watermelon, Shattered Ice:

Lin Yifan: "You earlier said you saw that altar, which direction is it in?"

Xigua, Suisuibing: "Wow! It's actually big brother Lin Yifan, hello big brother! The altar I'm talking about is in the forest; I can't describe the exact spot now, but from my observation there's a towering peak not far to my right, which should be the peak by the lake island that everyone mentioned. The altar is to the northwest of that peak; I can't say the exact distance, but it shouldn't exceed 50 kilometers."

Lin Yifan saw this message, quickly looked toward the direction, and then replied, "Got it."

He excitedly said to Ruan Qingtan and Hong Shaoqiang in front of him:

"We've found the second altar! It's in the northwest direction, about 50 kilometers away!"

"Found the second altar?" Ruan Qingtan instantly lifted his head in excitement:

"50 kilometers... although it's not near, it's also not too far. Then we should hurry to destroy this altar as well; we still don't know whether the number of altars will affect the Red Moon's arrival, but destroying one counts as one."

"You all don't go; I'll go alone!" Lin Yifan thought for a moment, then raised his head solemnly and said:

"Given the current situation, it's not very meaningful for you to follow me. If we don't encounter other races, I can destroy the altar by myself; if we do encounter them, your presence is useless, whereas I still have value to them—they wouldn't dare actually kill me."

"As long as we can see the resource war end, we can immediately return to the Initial Domain, and then the crisis can be resolved."

Ruan Qingtan was instantly a bit displeased, but Hong Shaoqiang decisively nodded and said:

"Alright, Captain, take care yourself. Hong Shaoqiang and Xiao Tan will wait for you at the lake island."

He then said to Ruan Qingtan: "Xiao Tan, I know you want to help, but what just happened should make us realize a reality: the two of us are too weak!"

"When danger arises, we can't help the Captain at all; we might even become a burden. Now, if we just rendezvous with everyone, our safety will have a few more guarantees, and the Captain won't have to worry about us."

"So we go to the lake island, help the Captain gather as many Survivors as possible, stall the time, and try to delay until this competition ends!"

Ruan Qingtan's face instantly filled with frustration, and he helplessly nodded:

"It seems we must get stronger quickly, otherwise we can't help the Leader or protect ourselves!"

Lin Yifan smiled, "Alright, stop musing here; time is tight, everyone split up and act!"

"Alright, see you later!" Hong Shaoqiang and Ruan Qingtan nodded, then immediately rushed toward the lake island.

But Lin Yifan didn't waste time; after roughly confirming the direction, he took out his magic hoverboard and flew quickly toward the northwest.

Indeed, he intends to destroy the second altar precisely because he has a magic hoverboard, allowing him to travel quickly.

Otherwise, covering 50 kilometers on foot, even at top speed, would take at least an hour or two; even if he wanted to destroy the altar, he'd be willing but powerless.

Now he still has an 8‑minute double attribute buff; he just needs to try it, and it's not without a chance!