Chapter 24: The Strange Town

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: The Strange Town

Jiang Yuxing: "...So half-hearted!"

He stood up and surveyed his surroundings. "Where are we?"

"I just woke up, too."

Shi Zhile summoned her panel and opened the Rainforest Island map. Their location was marked right in the middle of a small town deep in the forest.

’Could we have been rescued by other players passing by?’

"Let’s go take a look outside."

Jiang Yuxing was the first to open the door. A crescent moon hung high in the night sky. Under its light, the rows of red-walled, tile-roofed houses looked especially sinister.

Looking around, they could faintly see a thin layer of fog in the woods. In the darkness, the forest looked like the gaping maw of a monster.

They both opened their panels to check the time.

Shi Zhile frowned. "It’s 3:42 AM. We set out at nine, and we ran into the giant python around eleven."

"There wasn’t any fog in the forest at the time. That means the fog lasts from 3:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon."

Jiang Yuxing stepped out of the room and opened the door to the one across from it.

The room was spotless. There was nothing inside except for a bottle of water in the corner.

"The fog will be here soon. Let’s split up to search for supplies, then leave immediately. And be careful—watch out for other players in the rooms."

"Right!"

Shi Zhile turned and entered the nearest house.

There was a row of ten houses, and they finished searching all of them in less than ten minutes.

Shi Zhile found two bottles of purified water and five packs of realgar powder.

The realgar powder reminded Shi Zhile of her Green Snake. She glanced at her wrist, and her face fell.

"My snake is gone! Which son of a bitch stole my snake?!"

That wasn’t just any ordinary snake. Without it, how was she supposed to strut fearlessly through a den of snakes?

Jiang Yuxing knew how useful the Green Snake was, but the town was too strange. Not knowing if the fog would creep into the town, they couldn’t just stay there and wait.

Besides, he was worried about Chuyi and the others.

"We can look for the Green Snake later. The fog is getting thicker; we need to head back first."

As they left the town, small snakes occasionally darted out from the grass. Just as they’d expected, without the Green Snake around, the snakes started trying to coil around them.

Shi Zhile sprinkled the realgar powder on herself, opened her map, and took the lead.

The fog grew thicker, and visibility dropped. Snakes and insects scurried underfoot.

Fearing they’d run into danger, they quickened their pace. But gradually, they realized the path seemed to be stretching on forever.

To be precise, they were lost, even though they had been heading in the right direction the whole time.

It was exactly like the supernatural maze they’d encountered before. No matter which way they turned, they always ended up back under the same tree.

The fog grew denser still. This time, Jiang Yuxing took the lead.

The torch flame flickered. Shi Zhile heard him say, "Close your eyes and just follow the map’s direction. If we can’t get out by sunrise, we’ll be lost in here forever."

"How do you know that?"

He was silent for a moment. "My skill is premonition."

A rooster’s crow echoed across the island. When they opened their eyes again, they were standing at the edge of the woods.

In the beach house, the other three were waiting anxiously. They hadn’t been able to sit still since hearing the world announcement.

’They ran into the giant python again. The price for killing it must have been steep.’

It wasn’t that they were concerned about the loot; they were afraid Shi Zhile and Jiang Yuxing had died from their injuries.

When Shi Zhile and Jiang Yuxing emerged from the forest, the eyes of the other three lit up, and they all rushed downstairs.

Inside the sea-view room, Shi Zhile took a large stone from her inventory to block the door before slowly sitting down.

She gulped down half a bottle of water, gasping for breath. "There was something in the fog. I don’t know if it was just my imagination, but I kept feeling like something was following me."

Jiang Yuxing took out some water and drank a few gulps.

"We ended up in a town. The important thing is, we don’t know how we got there. There were no other players, and the supplies were untouched, which proves no one had looted it."

Chuyi stroked his chin. "Was it a ghost? The game has monsters, so does that mean it has ghosts, too?"

Wang Peng shuddered and squeezed himself between Chuyi and Jiang Yuxing. "Can you not be so creepy? There are ladies present, you know."

Chuyi glanced out the window at the ghastly white moonlight. A grin revealed his canine teeth. "Babe, Shi Zhile, are you two afraid of ghosts?"

’In this godforsaken world, you can’t afford to be afraid of anything. The moment you feel fear, you’re one step closer to death.’

Knowing he was just trying to mess with them, they both answered at once.

Shi Zhile: "Nope!"

Jiang Yu: "Yes!"

They glanced at each other.

Shi Zhile: "Yes!"

Jiang Yu: "Nope!"

The silence was deafening.

Wang Peng: "...Damn, that chemistry is unreal! Chuyi, don’t you feel like you’re just a third wheel? Those two should be the couple here."

Chuyi gripped his shoulder. "Are you trying to get Shi Zhile to steal my girl?"

Leaning against the wall, Jiang Yuxing cut them off. "Let’s get back to business. Did anything else unusual happen after we left?"

Wang Peng swiped his panel open. "Around twelve o’clock, the number of players in the world chat changed."

"More than thirty thousand people died yesterday, so logically, the player count for Server 1 should be around one hundred thousand. But after the world announcement for you killing the python, the count shot up to one hundred fifty thousand."

Shi Zhile thought for a moment before speaking. "I suspect the time in this Rainforest Island instance isn’t synced with our own. Could it be that there are native islanders here?"

The other four nodded silently.

Jiang Yuxing summoned his panel, his eyes landing on the world announcement.

"We can’t rule out that possibility. If there are, it’s highly likely they were the ones who saved us last night."

Shi Zhile was getting drowsy, her eyes drooping, when a system notification suddenly chimed.

[Hello, Player Contentment Brings Happiness. Your inventory is full. Please claim your rewards as soon as possible. Items will be held in the system’s temporary storage for 12 hours. 8 hours remain before they are automatically destroyed.]

She was wide awake in an instant.

’Right, there has to be a reward for killing the giant python.’

She chose to claim the rewards, and in an instant, a pile of items dropped onto the floor.

[Reward: golden sore medicine x5, Snake Poison x2, Snake Venom Antiserum x10, Diving Equipment x5, Rare Blueprint x5, Sunken Ship Ruins Location x1.]

[Obtained: Python Meat x100, Python Scale x1000, Snake Gallbladder x1, Snake Poison x10.]

The modest-sized room was now almost completely filled.

Jiang Yu, Chuyi, and Wang Peng all gasped. "This much loot?"

It wasn’t the rewards that took up so much space, but the Python Meat.

The stuff was cut into chunks, and it did not look appetizing.

Jiang Yuxing looked at Shi Zhile. "You killed the python. You decide."

Shi Zhile replied, "We only killed the python because it was already badly injured. Everyone pitched in, so it should be considered team supplies. You’re the captain, you do the dividing."

’When survival supplies were on the line, no one could afford to be indifferent.’

’The team worked together to get this. If the loot wasn’t divided fairly, it would easily breed resentment. It was better to leave a test of character like this to Jiang Yuxing.’

’Jiang Yuxing is a sharp guy; this would also be a good opportunity to see everyone’s true colors.’

’If he showed favoritism and was unfair, she would never team up with them for the next instance.’

"Fine, I’ll divide it. If anyone has an objection, speak up."

"But before we divide the loot, according to our previous agreement, Shi Zhile gets to pick one item she wants first."