Chapter 314 - 206: Mysterious Black Shadow (Part 2)

Chapter 314: Chapter 206: Mysterious Black Shadow (Part 2)

Huu... huu...

The sound of steady breathing reached her ears.

Somehow, listening to this sound, the exhaustion that had built up throughout the day gradually began to surface.

She felt her eyelids growing heavy.

She glanced at the time. It was still early.

’Maybe... I’ll just close my eyes for a bit?’

The thought had barely formed before her eyes shut completely. A moment later, her head was resting against Lin Chen’s.

...

"Phew~"

"Finally, the repairs are done!"

Andre wiped the sweat from his forehead. Looking at his completely renewed shelter, a huge weight was lifted from his heart.

The morning’s storm had been even more ferocious than he’d expected, completely wrecking his shelter and leaving it in a heap.

If he hadn’t followed Lin Chen’s example and dug a hole into the mountainside for a storage room, he’d probably be done for by now.

Although he’d spent several hours rebuilding the collapsed shelter, he still felt a lingering sense of unease.

"Tomorrow, I’ll have to go up the mountain and look for some strong vines. A shelter without rope is really not sturdy. If another storm like that hits, it could collapse again."

After relaxing, he opened two coconuts to replenish his water and electrolytes. As he sat at the cave entrance, Lin Chen’s face inexplicably appeared in his mind.

’I wonder how that kid’s doing. His bamboo hut probably wasn’t secured with anything either. Don’t tell me it fell apart too?’

’Judging by how Erica ran through the rain this morning to bring him fish, they must both be stuck over at the bamboo hut.’

’The weather’s been clear for a while now. They’ll need to get food, so they should be heading back to the cave shelter together.’

At this thought, he stood up and started walking toward the Mangrove Forest, deciding to check on his two neighbors.

He didn’t really care if Erica made it to the end, but he definitely hoped Lin Chen would be there to compete with him for the final championship.

Following the edge of the Mangrove Forest, he soon spotted the group of American Crocodiles that had come out to sunbathe.

These five-to-six-meter-long behemoths lay motionless on the mudflats like dead logs, their eyes lazily shut.

He had taken the time to observe them before. As long as the sun was up, they could maintain the same position all day without moving.

Normally, American Crocodiles only sunbathe for about one to two hours, as prolonged exposure would cause their body temperature to get too high.

But in Panama, the average ambient temperature was just over twenty degrees Celsius. The Mangrove Forest provided its own shade, and the damp mudflats and seawater helped cool them down. These factors balanced each other out, creating the perfect conditions for them to sunbathe all day long.

The period from sunset to sunrise was when they expended the energy they had stored up all day.

For this reason, he almost never entered the Mangrove Forest at night, at least not the part near his camp.

If he had to go in, he would detour to the central area and then search in Lin Chen’s direction, which was relatively safer.

For instance, it was in the central area that he had run into Erica the night before last.

The Mangrove Forest was rich with diverse species, providing the perfect breeding ground for the young of many marine creatures.

With such an abundance of food, the American Crocodiles didn’t need to roam far and wide to hunt.

He had only reached this conclusion after careful observation, combining theoretical knowledge with his own field study. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to enter the Mangrove Forest at night.

As he followed the edge of the Mangrove Forest, entered the woods on the other side, and arrived beneath the giant mango trees, he saw two figures in the distance, leaning against the earthen wall at the shelter’s entrance, fast asleep.

"Looks like they’re exhausted."

It was broad daylight, and he had never seen Lin Chen sleep during the day. This alone showed how much energy the two of them had expended to withstand the storm.

Especially with Erica there, it would have been more tiring than being alone.

He didn’t want to rashly approach and disturb their sleep, so he turned his attention to the layer of fallen leaves at his feet.

In Panama, mangoes, like bananas and plantains, ripened year-round. Every so often, ripe ones would fall from the branches.

After this morning’s storm, not only the ripe mangoes but even the unripe ones had likely been blown to the ground by the fierce winds.

A quick scan confirmed it. The ground was strewn with large, golden-yellow and yellowish-green mangoes.

Even with a rough glance, he could see there were at least a hundred of them.

"Don’t mind if I do."

These kingly mango trees were so laden with fruit that even if you added him, Lin Chen, Erica, and all the nearby monkeys, birds, and raccoons, they probably couldn’t make a dent in the sheer number of mangoes in a short time.

Therefore, he felt no guilt about gathering some mangoes to take back, nor did he feel like he was stealing Lin Chen’s supplies.

After all, any uneaten mangoes left on the ground would just rot anyway. Better for them to rot in his stomach.

After gathering the mangoes, he decided to make the most of the trip and turned toward the beach, planning to collect some seafood and shells for dinner.

"The waterspout must have swept a ton of seafood from the deep sea floor into the air and scattered it everywhere. The beach and the nearby sea surface should be full of things waiting for me to pick up."

He had only walked a dozen meters or so when his ears twitched. He thought he heard a sound.

At first, he thought he’d misheard it. He stopped, closed his eyes, and listened for a moment. But instead of fading, the sound grew clearer.

’What is it?’

Puzzled, he turned his head toward the source of the sound.

His gaze swept across the hillside above where Lin Chen and Erica were, and he was quickly drawn to a black dot moving at high speed.

’It’s moving so fast. An animal?’

He squinted, racking his brain, but he couldn’t think of any animal in Panama that was black and that large.

"Even from this distance, judging by the height of the trees around it, its body must be over a meter long."

"Over a meter long, runs pretty fast, dark fur... what on earth could it be?"

In his experience, an animal of that size should be classified as a medium-sized creature, and in the Panama Forest, the only animal that fit that description was a deer.

’Huh?’

’Wait a second.’

’A deer?!’

It was true! There were white-tailed deer and other deer species in the Panama Forest!

This burst of excitement lasted only for a few breaths before it slowly dissipated.

Andre shook his head with a wry smile. "Really, what’s there to get excited about? Hunting is forbidden in Panama. What good does seeing it do? I’d better just go look for seafood."

The unidentified creature sprinted several hundred meters up the hillside at an incredible speed before it finally stopped, turning its head to look back the way it came as if wary of something.

After a few glances, it turned back around. Its gaze paused on the forest on the slope beside it, then shifted to the dense woods below and the multitude of yellow fruits scattered across the fallen leaves.

"Hey! Stop!!"

Suddenly, an exasperated man’s shout echoed from the forest on the hillside above.

Hearing the voice, the black deer bolted, disappearing in a flash into the sparse woods behind it.

"Damn it, don’t let me catch you!"

Halfway up the mountain, the man bent over, hands on his knees, panting heavily.

He glanced ahead instinctively, and his eyes were immediately captivated by the dense clusters of fruit hanging from the branches of the towering trees.

"My God, are those mango trees really that tall?"

"No, no, this is no time for mangoes! Damn you, stop! You’d better hope I don’t catch you!"

The furious shouts carried down from above. Andre, who had already walked a few meters away, stopped in his tracks again and spun around.

"A new contestant?"

Unfortunately, there was no sign of the person in the direction the voice had come from. Andre figured he must have gone after his prey.

’Prey that can be chased... could it be one of the species introduced by the production team?’

At this thought, his interest was suddenly piqued.