Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1156: Chapter 395: Changing Strategies—Displaying Goodwill and Pride

Xiao Hen understands very well how he came to be the team leader.

This exploration competition has over four hundred participants, divided into more than 20 teams, with team leaders selected purely based on strength, so naturally, older individuals have an advantage.

That’s how he became the team leader.

It’s quite frustrating, whether it’s a coincidence or something his father Xiao Kangcheng intended, but not one of the members in his team is easy to deal with.

Luo An, Lu Dong, Zou Ping, Luo Cheng, Liu Peng, Hong Ye, Zhao Yuanwu, Zhao Yuanshan, Zhao Yuankang, Qin Feng, Liu Ming, Zhu Shen, plus himself, and Xiao Lin, Xiao Jing, Xiao Yan from his own family, making a total of 16 members in the team.

Anyone who’s lived in Xia City for a few days would recognize these names immediately, knowing that each of them is a famous presence in the Inner City.

Their reputation is not only due to their prominent family backgrounds but also closely tied to their talent and cultivation. After all, several of them have set breakthrough records in the Martial Arts Pavilion.

It’s actually understandable; a prominent family background means ample resource supply. Given Great Xia’s current ability to provide cultivation resources, unless one’s talent is exceptionally poor, they are bound to make a name for themselves.

Xiao Hen himself lives in the Inner City, and he’s part of this circle. He has heard of Luo An and the others before and understands their backgrounds, but they haven’t intersected much due to age differences.

It wasn’t until this encounter that he realized just how difficult these people could be.

The exploration competition began in early August, and they’ve been together for almost forty days. Xiao Hen has mostly understood the temperaments of these twelve individuals.

Due to their high talent, good family backgrounds, and growing up in the Inner City, they are more knowledgeable than most, inevitably possessing some arrogance. Though it hasn’t reached the point of being dismissive of others, they are generally rebellious, and getting them to listen is particularly challenging.

Though Xiao Hen is the team leader with greater strength than them, it’s largely due to his age advantage, and these individuals are outwardly respectful but not genuinely convinced.

Like tonight, with the Rock Armor Bear, Xiao Hen knew that everyone could easily defeat it head-on, but for safety’s sake, he chose to adopt conventional hunting methods to minimize injury, which would benefit the subsequent exploration.

Even though opposed by so many people, Xiao Hen doesn’t believe his decision was wrong. The issue is that his role as team leader holds little weight in the eyes of Luo An and the others; otherwise, they wouldn’t unite in opposing him.

"Do you want to start your own Hunting Team? Do you think because there are over ten thousand hunting teams in the camp now, leading one would be easy? You should understand the situation in the Xiao Mountain Team before even considering starting a team!"

Recalling previous years when he didn’t want to stay in the Xiao Mountain Team, wishing to establish his own Hunting Team independently, his father Xiao Kangcheng’s response didn’t mean much to him at the time.

Now that he’s leading a team himself, he realizes the amount of information his father’s words contained.

Leading a team is indeed not easy!

Leaving other matters aside, as a team leader, getting everyone to follow orders is incredibly difficult.

Luo An and the others’ rebellious nature is part of the issue, but hunting exploration itself is already a risky endeavor, and it’s normal for team members to have their own ideas. It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to be puppets, following orders blindly; if a real crisis arose, that could lead to even bigger problems.

Ultimately, it’s because as a team leader, he hasn’t demonstrated enough strength and capabilities, causing team members to be unconvinced and naturally not follow him.

Faced with many objections, Xiao Hen doesn’t respond immediately but leads the three juniors from the Xiao Family to clean up the game on the ground first.

Although Luo An and the others were not convinced, they wouldn’t shirk the task at hand. Seeing Xiao Hen take the lead, they immediately joined in cleaning up the game.

The Rock Armor Bear is an Intermediate Cold Beast; its Beast Blood, Beast Skin, Beast Bone are all very valuable. The group quickly drained the Beast Blood and hid the bear in a tree with a specific mark for later retrieval.

It’s only the first half of the night, and they need to continue exploring deeper. The Rock Armor Bear can be collected when they return to the base.

"Are you truly unafraid of danger?"

After the argument, as soon as the game was cleaned up, the atmosphere among everyone became somewhat silent. With everyone’s eyes focused on him, Xiao Hen couldn’t help but ask softly.

Luo An and the others clearly wanted to speed up the exploration process, hoping to catch up with other teams and earn a ranking in the competition.

Since team members have actively voiced their opinions, as a team leader, Xiao Hen can’t ignore them, or else the problems and conflicts will only intensify later.

"Of course, the reason we came to He Yin is to compete, right?"

"The rewards for this competition—just the Dan Medicine itself—is worth 300,000 Contribution Value, along with other resources, totaling at least over a million points. Your father... Lord Xiao has mentioned that only the top three teams will be considered. From what I know, we’re not even in the top five currently. If we don’t accelerate, aiming for the top three is definitely out of reach."