Chapter 18: Rainforest Island Dungeon Opens

Chapter 18: Chapter 18: Rainforest Island Dungeon Opens

Shi Zhile looked them over one by one, and the sight grew more depressing by the second.

Three men and one woman, every single one of them ridiculously handsome or beautiful.

’Would it kill the world to have one more beauty in it?’

Brother Volcano made the introductions. "The first one is Brother Nan, Jiang Yuxing. The second is Chuyi, and the third is Chuyi’s girlfriend, Jiang Yu. My name is Wang Peng, but you can just call me Brother Peng."

Shi Zhile nodded, her gaze falling on Jiang Yu.

’Is this ice queen the one I scammed the blueprints from?’

"My name is Shi Zhile."

Jiang Yu, who was sitting by the workbench, nodded upon hearing her name. "I’m Jiang Yu. The sucker you scammed out of two blueprints for eight pieces of iron."

Shi Zhile: "..."

’So it really was her!’

Jiang Yuxing was lounging on a deck chair, a pair of black sunglasses covering most of his face. He casually lifted his fishing rod, revealing a long string of sea shrimp.

"Jiang Yuxing. The bigger sucker you scammed out of twenty pieces of iron for two blueprints."

Shi Zhile: "..."

’Actually, it was more than that. With the triple bonus, I got 60 pieces!’

Chuyi let out a "PFFT" and broke into a smile that revealed two sharp canines. "Hi, I’m Chuyi. Nice to meet you. I look forward to working together."

’Now *this* is a normal way to say hello!’

"Hello!"

Wang Peng interrupted the beaming Chuyi.

"Sister Zhile, don’t let his appearance fool you. The brighter his smile, the darker his heart. He once scammed me out of my big rock using a mini seawater filter."

"Hey now, I got scammed on that filter by Brother Nan in the first place. Old Wang, we’re all brothers here. Be good now~ It’s not nice to call each other out."

Wang Peng: "What’s not nice about..."

"So you used the mini filter to scam me out of my rock?" Shi Zhile cut in.

"PFFT~"

Jiang Yuxing and Chuyi burst out laughing at the same time. A smile tugged at the corner of Jiang Yu’s lips. Everyone turned to look at Wang Peng.

Wang Peng cleared his throat twice. "Ahem, anyway, why don’t we get down to business? The player ranked third, ’Something-Yi,’ seems to have a real problem with you. Do you know her, sis?"

"I haven’t seen them, so I wouldn’t know."

Jiang Yuxing spoke up. "My passive skill is Precognition. Shi Zhile, what’s yours?"

"Item Upgrade."

’It’s only a 0.01% chance, but every little bit counts.’

Without any hesitation, Jiang Yuxing sent over a rusty axe, followed by a piece of iron.

"Thanks!"

’It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he wants.’

Shi Zhile held up two fingers. "Two pieces."

"You crook!"

"Three pieces!"

"..."

He stopped talking and sent the iron pieces over directly.

The other three looked at each other, then all sized up Jiang Yuxing.

Jiang Yuxing reeled in another line of sea shrimp. "I’m logging off. Going to bed."

The sailboat arrived at Stone Island. Shi Zhile hopped off and, as before, stored the sailboat in her backpack.

Night fell. Shi Zhile stared at the axe, which had reached Level Two after she finished sharpening it, and fell into deep thought.

’What’s going on? Did my passive skill actually trigger?’

Unconvinced, she tried to upgrade her own axe again. It failed!

After dinner, she divided her supplies in two. One portion went into the sailboat, which she then stored in her backpack, while the other portion of food went directly into her backpack slots.

With that, only three unlimited-capacity slots remained in her backpack.

At 12:00 AM, a vortex suddenly appeared inside the shelter. It gradually expanded, looking as if it might swallow the entire shelter.

The system notification sound played again.

[Novice Period Notification: The Rainforest Island instance has been opened.

Mission: Survive

Duration: Seven days]

There was too little information, and the mission was far too vague.

After a dizzying whirl, the air around her became damp.

A RUSTLING sound came from all directions. It was so dark she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face. The next moment, a chill began to coil its way up from her ankle.

Shi Zhile didn’t dare to move recklessly. Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she looked down at the thing on her leg.

It was a small snake, about as thick as a thumb. If she hadn’t tied her pant legs tight beforehand, it would have already slithered inside.

The snake’s body was wrapped tightly around her calf. Before it could coil any tighter, she seized the opportunity, grabbed it by its vital spot, and forcefully yanked it off her leg.

She took the torch made of burning underwear out of her backpack. At the sight of the flame, the rustling sounds from the surroundings instantly receded.

Only then did Shi Zhile get a good look at the small snake in her hand.

Its entire body was a brilliant green, with a round head and black eyes. The torchlight seemed to shimmer on its scales.

[Snake: A non-venomous and harmless Cuiqing Snake. The biggest sucker in the snake world, both cowardly and dumb.]

The Cuiqing Snake looks very similar to a Bamboo Pit Viper, but one is venomous and the other is not.

There’s an old saying: "It’s a sin not to kill a snake on sight, but a greater sin to strike and not kill it."

That’s why back in her rural hometown, people would kill any snake they came across. Snakes that resembled Bamboo Pit Vipers, in particular, were killed on sight, one and all.

"You really are a sucker."

She placed the snake on the ground, but it just snuggled up against her leg again.

"Get down. I can’t afford to keep you."

Grabbing its vital spot, she wrapped it around a tree branch a couple of times.

The undergrowth was thick and the light from her torch was faint. There was a small path at her feet, and Shi Zhile followed it uphill.

If she wasn’t mistaken, this was the same path she had taken up the mountain earlier today.

Further ahead was the halfway point of the mountain, which was also where "Big Plane" had built his shelter.

As expected, after the path, a flat, open platform with a wide view came into sight.

She wasn’t the only one on the platform. A dozen or so men and women were split into three groups, each gathered around their own fire.

When they saw someone arrive, they glanced over, but upon seeing it was just a skinny girl, they paid her no mind.

Shi Zhile chose a corner far away from everyone else and skillfully pulled some branches from her backpack to start a fire.

"This is all Contentment Brings Happiness’s fault. If it weren’t for her, this instance wouldn’t have opened."

"Tell me about it. Who knows what she did on Rainforest Island to piss off the game developers."

A short-haired girl from another group spoke up. "Idiots. Instead of thanking her, you’re blaming her. At least we won’t die during the novice protection period now that we’re in this instance."

The guy who’d been insulted instantly shot to his feet. "You said it yourself, we won’t die *during* the novice protection period. But won’t we die just the same after it’s over?"

The short-haired girl tossed some dry wood into the fire and continued her rebuttal. "Can you guarantee the instance would never have opened? Compared to other servers, having her on Server 1 puts us at least one step ahead and gives us an extra life."

"If you can’t handle it, you can just go die now and you’ll leave the instance. Some people want the benefits of the instance but refuse to admit they’ve received a favor. It’s pathetic."

"Heh, you’re not Contentment Brings Happiness, are you? Why else would you be defending her at every turn?"

"Do you think someone who can land on other people’s islands is completely powerless? If I were Contentment Brings Happiness, you’d already be dead."

’Actually, I really am completely powerless.’

There were five people in total with the short-haired girl—three guys and two girls. Vaguely, she heard another girl call the short-haired girl "sister," and the others "brother."

’They couldn’t be actual siblings, could they?’

’Probably not. A survival game couldn’t have dragged every single human being into it.’

She sat there all alone, poking the fire with a stick. Hearing someone else call out "sister" made her miss her own sister.

She had a "green tea" sister. When her sister was around, she had never suffered the slightest grievance.

A RUSTLING sound came from behind her. Shi Zhile raised her torch and turned to find the source of the noise.