Chapter 796: Escaping the Forest

796. Escaping the Forest

It wasn't until the next morning that Lin Ye finally set down the light tube in his hand.

A massive pile of bug corpses lay piled in the corner of the basement, and the humanoid creatures outside had already disappeared.

"What do we do now? The fuel should be running low by now, right?"

Eura squinted, asking with a weary tone.

Because they had to stay alert for bugs and the things outside, they barely got any rest last night.

"I'll take a look from the rooftop. Maybe I can spot the forest's exit from up high. You two be careful."

Lin Ye quickly walked out of the basement and climbed toward the building's highest floor.

It took him over an hour to reach the top floor. The intermediate floors were completely empty, and the top level had a skylight leading to the rooftop.

A ladder sat beneath the skylight. Lin Ye stepped onto it, pushed open the skylight, and climbed onto the roof.

The wind on the rooftop was fierce, and it was nothing but a bare platform with no protective railing at the edges.

Lin Ye approached the edge. Below stretched an endless black forest, dotted with a few buildings of varying heights nearby.

"There's no way out of this..."

Even if they sprinted at full speed, they couldn't escape the forest before nightfall.

Plus, their stamina wouldn't last much longer.

Lin Ye carefully studied the surrounding terrain. Maybe he could find fuel inside one of the nearby buildings.

Just as Lin Ye was pondering his next move, a silhouette appeared out of thin air behind him.

Lin Ye hurled the kitchen knife backward, sensing the movement behind him.

The knife sank cleanly into the enemy's body. Lin Ye pulled a hammer from his pocket and smashed it toward the figure's head with a Heavy Strike.

When he turned around, he realized the figure behind him was one of the witches who had surrounded the Alienated Body earlier.

She clearly had no idea what was going on and seemed ready to use her contract ability against Lin Ye.

Lin Ye's movements didn't pause for a moment. He crushed the witch's skull with the hammer.

Vines crept up onto the rooftop, their target being the witch's corpse.

More precisely, they were after the blue gem in her hand.

Lin Ye grabbed the blue gem first and stuffed it into his mouth. Maybe because the ground was far below, the vines weren't moving very fast.

'So what exactly is the point of these gems?'

Lin Ye dragged the witch's corpse back inside the building. By the time the vines caught up, the gem was almost completely digested.

The vines retreated back onto the rooftop. Lin Ye searched the witch's body—like him, she carried nothing except the gem and the clothes on her back.

Lin Ye dropped the corpse and returned to the first floor of the building.

"I'm going to look for fuel in the nearby buildings. Are you two coming with me, or staying here to rest?"

Eura and Little Guardian were sorting through their supplies. All three of them were in rough shape mentally, and Lin Ye felt it would be more efficient for him to search for fuel alone.

"What if there's no fuel in those buildings? Can we make it through tonight?"

Eura didn't want Lin Ye to act alone. If something happened to him, they'd be doomed.

"Maybe we could try to leave this forest."

Little Guardian also felt they shouldn't pin their hopes on fuel that might not even exist.

"I agree we should try to get out, but the problem is this forest is way bigger than you think. Even standing over a hundred meters up, I couldn't see the forest's edge."

Lin Ye knew that searching for fuel was just buying time, but he had no idea how to escape this place.

"We could go in the opposite direction—the direction you wanted to go earlier."

Little Guardian sensed there might be some kind of clue there.

"But there aren't even any buildings over there. If we can't escape the forest before dark, we'll have to spend the night in the woods."

Lin Ye felt that outcome was highly likely.

"That's still better than waiting here to die."

Eura desperately hoped they could hold out until Doomsday itself, but that wasn't something she could decide. If they ultimately couldn't make it out of this forest, she could accept that ending.

"Alright, majority rules. Time to move."

Lin Ye stuffed whatever tools he could use into a bag he'd found in the basement.

Eura and Little Guardian carried the remaining food and water. The three of them left the building and moved away from the cluster of structures.

Lin Ye took the lead, occasionally reaching down to pull up some weeds and shove them into his mouth.

He wasn't hungry yet, but the Gluttony ability was constantly active. By the time he actually got hungry, there might not be anything to eat.

"Shouldn't we leave some markers? Everywhere here looks the same."

After just ten minutes of walking, Eura was already a little lost.

"No need. As long as the terrain doesn't change, I won't lose my way."

Lin Ye just believed they couldn't escape the forest before nightfall—not that he couldn't find the exit.

Following that same instinct, Lin Ye led the way, yanking up wild vegetables as he went.

"Wait, I think there's someone up ahead!"

Little Guardian, walking behind Lin Ye, suddenly spoke up.

Lin Ye drew his kitchen knife, ready for battle. But he didn't sense anyone ahead, which left him puzzled.

A moment later, a group of men in black robes emerged from the trees. They were decked out with all sorts of weapons and equipment of varying sizes.

The moment they saw Lin Ye, they charged at him like madmen, drawing their weapons mid-sprint.

A few of them carried something resembling flintlock firearms, but thankfully they didn't bother aiming at Lin Ye when they fired—like total newbies who had never touched a gun before.

Lin Ye backed away while hurling tools from his bag at them. The last thing he wanted was to get into close-quarters combat with these people. Given their mental state, it wouldn't be strange if they were rigged with bombs.

The black-robed figures made no effort to dodge the tools Lin Ye threw. Before long, the ground was littered with their corpses.

"They look like those cultists from the Doomsday Gathering."

Little Guardian didn't understand why they had come in to attack them.

"Probably those witches' doing. They're too scared to come in themselves, so they sent these idiots in to die."

Lin Ye didn't think these people had been randomly teleported here. Their enemies definitely had a way to track them.

"Don't go over there."

Lin Ye scanned his surroundings. Sending these wastes in must have been to achieve some goal, not just for them to die pointlessly.

That meant there was likely a witch nearby overseeing the situation.

When nothing stirred, Lin Ye led the two around the corpses without bothering to collect any loot.

Even though he was quite interested in those firearms.