Chapter 21: Team Pact

Chapter 21: Chapter 21: Team Pact

Chuyi’s back was covered in blood. He remained on guard, struggling to shield them. "You two girls, run first. It’s definitely going to keep chasing us. The three of us are injured and can’t run; we’ll just slow you down."

Jiang Yuxing’s face was pale, and he looked as if he was at death’s door. "We really can’t run. We’ll stay behind to feed the giant python. You two just need to survive and erect a gravestone for us."

Wang Peng nodded, but he was a terrible actor. His expression clearly said, ’This is all an act, I’m just pretending, you can’t really leave me behind.’

The team had only just been formed, and it was already a test of character.

Whether it was a probe or a genuine test, it didn’t matter. After all, Jiang Yuxing and Chuyi, both top-three players, were very strong.

Shi Zhile had no intention of breaking away from the main group, so she didn’t care either way.

As for their professed self-sacrifice, it was a complete fabrication. After all, dying in an instance during the novice protection period didn’t mean you’d actually die.

Besides, they surely had medicine on them to restore their Life Value.

Shi Zhile and Jiang Yu exchanged a look of perfect understanding. In unison, they let go of the men they were supporting and took two steps back.

Jiang Yu said with a placid expression, "Alright! When you’re being eaten, remember to struggle. Give us more time to get away."

Shi Zhile slowly nodded. "Right. Don’t let the giant python swallow you in one gulp.

Jiang Yu, maybe we should take them with us. If the python attacks again, we can drop one off as bait every so often."

Jiang Yu considered this seriously. "They’ll just slow us down if they’re alive. Should we kill them and put their bodies in our backpacks?"

"That’s not a bad idea. Go ahead and die!"

The two women looked at the men in unison again.

Jiang Yuxing, Chuyi, and Wang Peng: "..."

’A woman’s heart is the most venomous of all!’

The three men exchanged a glance, then supported one another as they headed down the path leading furthest away from the giant python.

’A miserable life is better than a noble death!’

They had just entered the instance; there was no need to die just yet.

They followed the small path upward as the sky grew progressively brighter. Just before sunrise, the five of them reached a second gentle slope.

Colorful shipping containers were stacked here. At the far edge stood two, two-story houses with balconies and an ocean view.

The clashing red and white color scheme looked increasingly familiar.

Wang Peng clutched his chest and blurted, "Holy shit, is this a real-life version of PUBG? Are there sniper rifles in the containers?"

Supported by Jiang Yu, Chuyi had already gone into one of the rooms.

"No sniper rifles. You want some medicine?"

"Yes!"

They were too gravely injured. If they didn’t rest and tend to their wounds, they were going to die for real.

Finding a clean room, the three men sat on the floor and took out medicine and water from their backpacks.

Jiang Yuxing and Chuyi’s top rankings weren’t just for show; the sheer amount of supplies they casually pulled out made Shi Zhile’s hands itch with the urge to rob them.

She found a clean room on the second floor, took out her wooden bed, and sat on it to clean her wounds.

The scab on her left hand had fallen off completely, revealing new, reddish flesh. It stung, but the skin hadn’t broken.

Her right hand, however, was covered in blood from cuts made by gravel and wood splinters. A piece of gravel was even embedded in a freshly formed scab in her palm, the pain causing her to break out in a cold sweat.

She poured some spring water over the wound, which eased the pain. She gently picked the scab open with her fingers to wash out the gravel inside.

’Ever since this game started, I’m either injured or on my way to getting injured.’

’But I have to admit, my stamina has improved. My physical condition is so much better than it was before I was paralyzed.’

She poured some golden sore medicine on the wound. As she was bandaging it, there was a knock on the door.

"Shi Zhile?"

"I’m here. Come in!"

The visitor was Jiang Yuxing. Seeing that Shi Zhile was bandaging her wound, he took over and tied the ends into a neat bow.

"I thought you’d gone out to look for supplies. Why are you hiding in here treating your wounds all by yourself?"

Shi Zhile looked at him. "I have a wound on my leg. I can’t exactly take my pants off to treat it in front of all of you, can I?"

She didn’t actually have a wound on her leg; she just didn’t particularly like dealing with living people face-to-face.

Even after going through life-and-death situations together, she still disliked it and couldn’t get used to it.

Jiang Yuxing: ...*Cough, cough!*

"Are you healed?"

Jiang Yuxing shook his head. "My Life Value is back up, but my wounds haven’t been treated. Would you mind helping me apply some medicine?"

His injuries were on his back, so he couldn’t reach them himself.

"Sure."

He immediately took off his shirt, so casually it was as if he didn’t even register that she was a woman.

Shi Zhile: "..."

The sculpted lines of his abs came into view. Shi Zhile took a look. Then she took another. And then she kept looking.

’Can’t deny it,’ she thought, ’he’s in great shape.’

After she finished treating his wounds, the other three from downstairs came up.

Chuyi and Wang Peng kept staring at Jiang Yuxing, but his expression remained unchanged.

"We only have a half-baked understanding of Rainforest Island," Jiang Yuxing said. "Our top priorities right now are to recover from our injuries and to get our hands on a map of the island."

Shi Zhile remembered she had a map of Rainforest Island. She opened her panel to check her maps and, sure enough, there it was.

"I have a map of Rainforest Island."

Jiang Yuxing paused. "What do you want for it?"

"Talking about supplies would hurt our relationship. Since we’re teammates..." She fully intended to extort them.

Jiang Yuxing: "Iron blocks, seeds, medicine, or fish and shrimp?"

Shi Zhile didn’t hold back. "I want it all!"

Jiang Yuxing: "..."

’Curse my big mouth! That’s what I get for showing off!’

He looked at the other three.

"The map is Shi Zhile’s. There will definitely be other instances in the future, and it wouldn’t be right to offer nothing in return. While our team is still small, we can establish some ground rules.

In any future instance, whoever provides the map gets first pick of one item from the team’s acquired loot, regardless of its type or value."

Wang Peng nodded. "I’m fine with that."

Chuyi and Jiang Yu both nodded in agreement.

A team doesn’t exist for camaraderie; it exists because its members’ interests are intertwined.

Likewise, only when everyone benefits can they truly cooperate for mutual success.

’If I kept the map to myself, I don’t know how far I’d get, and I couldn’t be sure I wouldn’t get backstabbed by another player.’

’But if the team needs my map, then I become the one they have to protect.’

’As for whether the team will even find any loot, or how much it matters... well, as long as the leader is easy to swindle, I’ll be fine.’

Shi Zhile said, "I agree."

The map enlarged, hovering in mid-air and spreading out before the five of them.

Zoomed in, the map of Rainforest Island looked remarkably similar to a map from PUBG.

Deep within the rainforest lay a small town and some ruins, with a port on the outskirts. The entire island was larger than they could have imagined.

The three men sat on the floor while Shi Zhile pulled Jiang Yu over to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I landed on the island here yesterday," she said, pointing. "Following this path up leads to the first mountainside. I don’t know if there was fog in the forest this morning, but it was foggy from the afternoon until three-thirty."

Leaning against Jiang Yu’s legs, Chuyi pointed a finger at a spot deeper in the forest. "At midnight, there was no fog here. But around three in the morning, it started to spread out from within. When the fog rolled in, I heard a strange noise in the woods, but I’m not sure what it was."

Wang Peng added, "The fog at the foot of the mountain also appeared around three. Are we sure it’s dangerous in the fog?"

No one knew the answer.

No one knew what lay waiting in a place so dark you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.

People are naturally afraid of unknown and unexplored places.

Jiang Yuxing pointed to the edge of the island on the map. "This island is different from the ones we were on. Did your islands have any other creatures?"

Everyone shook their heads.

He continued, "Do you remember the special instructions the system gave at the beginning of the game?"