The Black Marsh Wilderness, inside a mountain in the northeast.

Gao Yuan, the leader of the Wildfire Bandit Gang, huddled in a room with a stove, wrapped tightly in a fur coat, roasting sweet potatoes on top of the coals.

"This goddamn winter!" He shook his leg, expressing his strong dissatisfaction with the weather.

With the resources he possessed, he could actually enjoy the comfort of air conditioning and warm air, but he felt that given the conditions on the mountain, it wasn't as comfortable as a coal stove.

The cold wind seeping into the room made Gao Yuan unusually alert, and he couldn't help but recall his experience in the cities of the major powers in previous years—the uppermost group of people lived in places that were as warm as early summer in winter, only needing to wear a single layer of clothing.

Gao Yuan had inquired about it at the time, and was dizzy with a series of terms, only knowing that the heat came from hot water boiled in large boilers, which flowed through different areas of the room through pipes, bringing a paradise-like warmth.

After returning to the place he called Copper Mountain, he tried to renovate his residence, but unfortunately failed miserably, and he could only plan to kidnap a few people who knew how to do it from a certain city in the future.

At the same time, he was also thinking that when he got older and was no longer suitable to be a bandit, he would take the accumulated resources, a few children, and beautiful female slaves to settle down in a major power.

That would be comfortable and stable.

Just as Gao Yuan was roasting the sweet potatoes, his deputy, Chi Qingliu, banged loudly on his door.

"Boss, Boss!" Chi Qingliu shouted as he knocked.

Gao Yuan stood up, adjusted his posture, and asked with a majestic air:

"What is it?"

He was becoming less and less like a bandit leader, and more like those city lords and governors.

The Wildfire Bandit Gang only went out to rob a few times a year, mainly to plunder people to fill the ranks of the miners, focusing entirely on Copper Mountain.

There were rich copper mines here!

If this place wasn't so remote, the environment so harsh, and had enough distance from the major powers, Gao Yuan didn't think that a bandit gang like him could occupy the mountain as king, and almost develop into a small force.

Of course, he himself was an Awakened, and the bandit gang later recruited several Awakened, which was also a very important reason, otherwise, even if they didn't worry about the major powers expanding over, they would also encounter infighting with other bandit gangs.

Every year when the "Rootless" drove over to transport the copper ore, Gao Yuan was both happy and scared.

He was happy that the copper ore was exchanged for a lot of resources, and scared that some strongman or a not-so-small force suddenly became greedy, or learned about the situation on Copper Mountain and had ideas.

Chi Qingliu, who considered himself a strategist, responded loudly to Gao Yuan's question:

"The guys found something good!"

"Come in." Gao Yuan looked at Chi Qingliu who entered the door, and asked in a deep voice, "What is it?"

Chi Qingliu was a man in his early thirties, an Awakened who was recruited by the Wildfire Bandit Gang after discovering the copper mine. He had an ordinary appearance, with a deliberately left tuft of beard under his chin.

Hearing the boss's question, Chi Qingliu waved to the outside of the door:

"Bring it in."

Several bandits brought in an item with a hunting net.

It was a small blue-bottomed, black-faced speaker.

"That's it?" Gao Yuan raised his eyebrows.

Chi Qingliu hurriedly explained:

"This should be a prop involving 'Mind Corridor' Awakened.

"After those few touched it, they cried and laughed, sang and danced, just like crazy people. Fortunately, the people next to them woke them up in time, so they didn't freeze to death in the snow."

A prop involving "Mind Corridor" Awakened... Gao Yuan became serious.

This was a good thing!

If he hadn't been to the cities of the major powers before and come into contact with some nobles and merchants, he wouldn't even know what the "Mind Corridor" was, or what a prop was.

"Where did you find it?" Gao Yuan asked.

One of the bandits squeezed out a smile:

"Boss, there's nothing to do in this winter, except eat, sleep with women, and gamble, it's boring.

"We left the mining area today and planned to go to the nearby river to chisel open the ice and fish. As a result, someone slipped down the hillside on the way and found this thing in a village ruin.

"We couldn't control ourselves as soon as we touched it. Thinking of what you said, we thought this should be a good thing."

Gao Yuan nodded:

"Put things down, you guys go out first."

He thought for a while and added:

"Don't worry, if it's really useful, you won't be short of rewards."

Only then did the bandits happily leave Gao Yuan's room, leaving the small speaker wrapped in the net.

After they left, Chi Qingliu looked at the prop on the ground and muttered curiously:

"What abilities will this thing have..."

"You have to try it to know." Gao Yuan recalled the knowledge he had heard, "Its price should be to put anyone who touches it into a state of madness. With me watching, you won't have any problems."

What do you mean I won't have any problems? Chi Qingliu was stunned before he understood that the boss meant letting himself test what abilities the item had, after all, ordinary people couldn't use props.

He secretly took a breath, cursed in his stomach, and squeezed out a smile:

"Okay."

Seeing him step towards the small blue-bottomed, black-faced speaker, Gao Yuan's heart moved:

"Wait a moment."

"Hmm?" Chi Qingliu turned his gaze to the boss.

Gao Yuan walked towards him, passed him, and moved away from him.

Seeing that the boss had left the room and kept a distance of twenty or thirty meters from himself, shivering in the cold wind, Chi Qingliu asked blankly:

"So far?"

"It's better to be careful!" Gao Yuan responded loudly, "Don't worry, entering a state of madness won't kill you, I'll have time to wake you up!"

Chi Qingliu gritted his teeth, did some psychological construction, and slowly squatted down.

He stretched his hand towards the small blue-bottomed, black-faced speaker, followed his understanding of old world electronic products and the boss's method of using props, spread his own aura over it, and pressed the switch.

With a bang, the sound, already at its loudest, erupted:

"Come on, be happy, anyway, there's plenty of time
"Come on, love, anyway, there's plenty of desire..."

The singing spread throughout half of the mining area, and every bandit who heard it unconsciously showed a smile, twisted their bodies, and became happy.

They turned their eyes to their women or companions, their eyes filled with longing for love and burning desire.

"Come on, wander, anyway, there's plenty of direction
"Come on, act up, anyway, there's plenty of scenery..."

Gao Yuan suddenly had an impulse, turned around, and ran out of the mining area.

He wanted to wander.

He wanted to act up.

A large number of bandits followed their boss and left the mining area, preparing to wander far away.

The place suddenly became empty, leaving only Chi Qingliu dancing there to the music.

Bang!

With a gunshot, Chi Qingliu fell down.

Bai Chen, wearing a military exoskeleton device, put away his "Orange" rifle and followed Jiang Baimian, Shang Jianyao, and Long Yuehong into the Copper Mountain mining area.

The four of them were wearing earplugs to block out the singing.

After turning off the small speaker and cleaning up the scene, Jiang Baimian took off her earplugs and looked at Shang Jianyao:

"Why make things so complicated and design so many steps?

"With our strength, we can completely 'visit' openly."

Shang Jianyao smiled and pointed to the small speaker:

"As a member of our team, it's its turn to contribute this time!"

After exploring the depths of the "Mind Corridor," he used his own aura to transform his beloved small speaker, making it a prop.

Jiang Baimian was speechless.

Long Yuehong looked around and then asked the team leader:

"Why do we have to deal with this gang of bandits?"

"To save the miners here!" Shang Jianyao answered first.

Jiang Baimian exhaled:

"To get some supplies."

"Our supplies are enough to get back to the company, we just have to calculate the amount of high-performance batteries to use." Bai Chen responded.

Jiang Baimian laughed:

"Not enough, not enough, we're not in a hurry to go back to the company yet."

"Ah?" Long Yuehong's first reaction was that the team leader was going to defect.

However, Shang Jianyao's words were baseless, and he believed that Jiang Baimian would not be so impulsive.

Jiang Baimian pointed to the south:

"I plan to go to the Marsh No. 1 Ruins before returning to the company to confirm whether it is really Dajiang City and whether it is the last Buddhist holy site.

"The written materials Wang Beicheng and the others collected before did not clearly indicate what the ruins were called in the old world. We can only find it ourselves."

Moreover, she suspected that the company might have concealed information about this aspect, so after listening to Shang Jianyao's words, she decisively decided to take advantage of this training to explore the Marsh No. 1 Ruins again.

"But we didn't bring much equipment this time." Long Yuehong said hesitantly.

Because it was just a training exercise, focusing on wilderness survival, the Old Task Force only applied for one set of military exoskeleton device and one set of Black Marsh Iron Serpent bionic intelligent armor, and Long Yuehong had to admit that he was suffering from equipment shortage phobia.

Jiang Baimian smiled:

"It's enough, one set for each of you, Wei and I don't need it for the time being."

"Okay." Bai Chen nodded.

At this time, Shang Jianyao yearned for something:

"Maybe Xiao Chong has hid back there again."

Note 1: From "Itch" by Huang Ling