Zhang Heng's face was ashen.
No one thought that there would be such a reversal at the last moment. Four competitors had been eliminated, and the top three teams were in, but to everyone's surprise, the original Apollo 11 astronauts, Armstrong and Collins, were able to return to the team at the last moment.
This was undoubtedly great news for NASA.
Unlike Zhang Heng and the rest of the newcomers, both of them were experienced astronauts who had undergone years of systematic training. Before Apollo 11, Armstrong had piloted the Gemini 8 into Earth's orbit in 1965 to complete a docking, and Collins had also flown the Gemini 10 mission.
Their return was like a shot in the arm for NASA's top brass, but for the three players, it was a completely different feeling.
Speaking of which, the introduction of the main mission did not mention how many people would be allowed to clear the mission in the end. The idea of three people clearing the mission was first proposed by high school students. Based on the number of official members of the Apollo 11 mission team in history, this idea was accepted by all players.
The captain's words at the beginning of the quest convinced more people that NASA had no more astronauts available. All they needed to do was to keep an eye on the three people who returned from Apollo 10 and see how well they were recovering. In this regard, the quest was very generous.
Just like the astronauts who were infected with the mysterious disease, the three people on Apollo 10 were unable to recover.
This further proved that the main mission this time was for three players to land on the moon. For this, Zhang Heng even spared Bruno's life, afraid that he would not be able to make up the final number of people needed to complete the mission.
However, it was as if fate had played a cruel joke on them.
Some people might think that there was not much difference between knowing this sooner or later. The difficulty had been reduced from seven to one, and now it was only three to one.
However, that was not the case. For a single-player quest, strategy was sometimes more important than tactics. If they knew from the beginning that only one person could clear the main mission this time, Zhang Heng, as the one with the best training results, would be under the most pressure. With Armstrong and Collins around, there was no need to worry about who would pilot the spacecraft. The other players would definitely make Zhang Heng their first target. Other than Bruno, who ranked second, who wanted to kill Zhang Heng, everyone else wanted him to be their teammate.
For a period of time, Zhang Heng was almost detached from the world.
Of course, if he had known that only one person could board Apollo 11, he might not have been willing to come in first place. At the very least, he wouldn't have ended up like this.
Bruno was undoubtedly the most dejected of them all. He was the weakest of the three, and after the previous incident, he thought he was doomed. He did not expect Jia Lai to choose him over Zhen Xiong, allowing him to clear the dungeon. His sadness turned to joy.
Unfortunately, good times didn't last long. Now, the three of them had to compete for the only spot to clear the stage, and he had already lost all of his game items. This meant that he was already one step behind the others before he even started.
But after a moment of hesitation, Bruno moved closer to Fatty.
Zhang Heng wasn't surprised by Armstrong's choice. He didn't know if Armstrong still remembered what happened fourteen years ago, but it wouldn't affect his final decision.
Zhang Heng's training results were the best among all the players. Even without any personal feelings, from a professional point of view, Armstrong would definitely choose him as the last member of the team.
Therefore, whether it was Jia Lai or Bruno, they had to find a way to eliminate Zhang Heng from the game if they wanted to complete the main mission. For Bruno, forming an alliance with Fatty was the only option. Of course, the best outcome would be for Fatty and Zhang Heng to perish together, or for Bruno to survive after killing Zhang Heng. With his results, he could surpass Fatty and board Apollo 11.
As for Jia Lai, after his initial disappointment and anger, he quickly regained his composure. A passing rate of one in seven was the lowest among all the single-player competitive dungeons he had ever participated in, far exceeding the average passing rate of a single-player competitive dungeon. But now that things had come to this, there was no point in complaining.
He knew better than Bruno.
Now, there were actually two paths in front of him. He could either kill Zhang Heng and Bruno, becoming the only player left, and complete the main mission. There was another option.
That was to try to reverse the situation and get rid of Armstrong and Collins to free up two more spots.
Both plans had their pros and cons. In terms of the success rate of landing on the moon, having Armstrong and Collins as companions was undoubtedly better than having other players as companions. In theory, it would be easier to kill Armstrong and Collins when they were caught off guard. However, there was still a big problem with this plan.
After Armstrong and Collins met with an accident, would other astronauts return? Jia Lai had to consider this risk. Other than that, it was also doubtful whether Zhang Heng and Bruno would cooperate with him to kill Armstrong and Collins. For Zhang Heng, killing Armstrong and Collins wouldn't do him any good.
And there was not much time left for Jia Lai.
Apollo 11's launch was less than ten days away, and the first thing he had to do now was the upcoming wilderness survival training.
In the end, Fatty made up his mind. He didn't want to pin his hopes on the training, nor did he want to gamble on whether other astronauts would return to the team.
He decided to firmly grasp his fate in his own hands. At times like this, he was the only one who could be trusted.
Jia Lai believed that the other two had the same thought. So this time, he didn't even bother to release a smoke screen, pretending to discuss the possibility of killing Armstrong and Collins with Zhang Heng. Zhang Heng would never let his guard down. During the previous training, his performance was terrible, but that wasn't his true strength. It was just a show to lower other players' vigilance.
And this time, he didn't intend to hold back.
…
None of the three people on the plane spoke. Only the captain was still explaining the skills they needed to train for this field survival training. A few hours later, the plane arrived at the landing site in the Nevada desert, where the crew was already waiting for them.
(Erratum. The previous chapter was typed incorrectly. It should be the Nevada desert. There are no deserts in Florida. (Introspection)
Little Dumbo said.
Also, thank you to LebronKings, Splitter Hurricane, and other students for their tips.
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