He decided not to dwell on who might be targeting him, as it was pointless if he couldn't figure it out.
The immediate priority was to deal with the current predicament.
In this icy wasteland, it was no wonder Shanhai had faltered and needed him to take over.
With a thought, the resplendent symbiote he had just obtained formed a thin barrier over his inner wear, warding off all the biting wind.
Nice. It proved useful the moment he got it.
No matter who was after him, they were surely watching from somewhere above, and Lin Feng couldn't employ overtly obvious methods.
He was confident that a Grade One Boss wouldn't be able to detect this symbiote.
And indeed, this was the case.
In the unfathomable darkness, a pair of eyes showed confusion as they watched Lin Feng's body suddenly stop trembling.
However, after a thorough check, the inhibitor was intact, and Lin Feng showed no signs of any rule-breaking actions.
Those eyes turned even more somber and more puzzled...
After manipulating the symbiote and digesting all the memories, Lin Feng finally felt in the mood to look at Ophelia beside him.
They were now walking together in this snow-covered world.
Snowflakes drifted down, and the north wind howled.
The two were wrapped in layer upon layer of clothing, as thick as bears lumbering through the snow.
They were moving against the wind, which seemed intent on pushing them backward, making them take two steps forward and one step back.
"Hiss... it's so cold!" Ophelia shivered as she walked, reaching out to tug at Lin Feng's clothes, completely unaware that Shanhai had been replaced by Lin Feng.
"Ophelia, do you know why the second stage restricts our strength?"
Lin Feng's tone was noticeably lighter than before, and his body, which had been hunched against the wind, straightened.
However, it was still difficult to walk in this snowy terrain.
The inhibitor had temporarily limited Lin Feng's strength to the level of an ordinary person.
Lin Feng could destroy or ignore it, but doing so would also mean forfeiting his eligibility for the selection.
The accumulated snow, reaching halfway up their calves, required considerable effort with every step.
"The second stage wasn't like this before. It seems like they changed it temporarily this time..."
Ophelia responded haltingly, shivering.
The day before, everything had been fine. But when the selection began, a Grade One big shot suddenly appeared, announcing that both the rules and the mission worlds had been changed.
Of course, Shanhai, being of the same temperament as Lin Feng, hadn't paid attention to this announcement.
The information had been relayed to Ophelia by Aglaia.
Moreover, the change of world had rendered the pile of items Ophelia had redeemed useless.
This was because Ophelia suffered from a fear of insufficient firepower. Using Lin Feng's first-place reward, she had redeemed several super-powerful weapons.
But here, with their strength suppressed by the inhibitor, she couldn't even retrieve these items from her personal terminal.
After saying this, Ophelia paused, only then realizing that Lin Feng's condition was remarkably better than before.
She looked up, her pupils constricting.
"Le, Le..."
Lin Feng smiled and patted her.
"Ah, I'm back!"
Hiss...
Ophelia suddenly felt an urge to cry.
Lin Feng was back, and for some reason, an unprecedented sense of security washed over her.
Perhaps it was a lingering impression from Lin Feng's actions in the first stage.
But with Lin Feng's appearance, Ophelia immediately felt more confident about the second stage.
Without further hesitation, she leaned closer to Lin Feng, tucking herself behind him to let him shield her from the biting wind.
She hadn't dared to do this when facing Shanhai, knowing that Shanhai wasn't Lin Feng.
Though she didn't quite understand the difference, Shanhai hadn't given her a sense of peace.
Seeing Ophelia's action, Lin Feng felt a bit speechless but didn't stop her.
"Tell me, what about the intel you redeemed? Are you sure there's a settlement in this direction?"
If the memories of his clone were not mistaken, they had been walking for a day and a night.
And ahead, there was still nothing but a vast expanse of white, with no signs of human habitation.
Although Ophelia's redeemed items were useless, fortunately, at the start, she had exchanged her original intel for information relevant to the current world.
"Yes, yes, this is the intel Aglaia gave me, it's absolutely correct."
"She wouldn't lie to me, would she?!"
Lin Feng let out a cold laugh.
How much credibility could Aglaia have?
Perhaps Aglaia had swapped or altered the intel when she redeemed it, and Ophelia wouldn't even know.
However, Lin Feng didn't expose it.
This little girl still trusted Aglaia quite a bit.
Some things had to wait until the truth was revealed, and Ophelia saw the reality for herself, before her illusions would be shattered.
But soon, Lin Feng began to wonder if he had been wrong.
After walking for about another hour, a wisp of grayish-white smoke slowly rose in the distance across the snow.
If not for Lin Feng's eyesight, he likely wouldn't have spotted it.
Lin Feng stopped walking, and Ophelia, who had been walking with her head down behind him, bumped into him.
"What's wrong?" Ophelia asked curiously.
Lin Feng pointed to the thin wisp of smoke in the distance.
"Look!"
Ophelia followed the direction of his finger and soon became excited.
Smoke! What did that signify? It meant there were people around!
"Let's go, let's go!" Ophelia excitedly prepared to run.
Good heavens, she could already imagine hot water and hot coffee waiting for her ahead.
But Lin Feng grabbed her arm.
"What now?"
Lin Feng glanced at her helplessly.
"What kind of world is this?" Lin Feng reminded her.
"A post-apocalyptic wasteland..." Ophelia replied suspiciously. Hadn't she told him this was a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Was Lin Feng frozen silly and forgotten?
Seeing the foolish girl not grasping the point, Lin Feng smacked his forehead and couldn't help but remind her again.
"What are humans like in a post-apocalyptic wasteland? Don't tell me you don't know!"
Zombies? Mutated humans? Mutated animals? Or heartless, inhuman survivors?
Upon hearing this, Ophelia's eyes gradually showed a look of caution.
Oh my, she had almost forgotten.
Anyone who could survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland was no easy prey.
It seemed Lin Feng wasn't the one whose brain had frozen silly, but herself...
Seeing Ophelia looking dazed, Lin Feng knew she had finally understood.
"Come on, let's look at the mission and the intel."
"I hope the intel you redeemed is actually useful..."
A post-apocalyptic wasteland, and an icy, snowy world at that. In such extreme conditions, and still having to use the strength of an ordinary person.
No matter what the mission was, it wouldn't be easy.
Lin Feng's only hope now was that Ophelia could prove useful and that the intel she had redeemed would come in handy.