Chapter 38: Moving Out~ (Fifth Update)
With enough food and fresh water for two days, Su Xiao began considering other issues.
Within these two days, his stamina could remain at its peak. As for recovery supplies, as long as he didn’t engage in prolonged combat, there was no problem. Bubu Wang was an amateur healer, and the Ice Goddess’s Halo could substitute for some recovery supplies.
With the three essentials for survival resolved, Su Xiao wasn’t satisfied with the current situation. Surviving five days was only the prerequisite. If the other six contractors also survived five days, they would then have to compete for game points.
How many game points Su Xiao had, he himself wasn’t sure. The number should be considerable. During his earlier aura release, he had killed quite a few Star-Cling Crabs. Even if Alice held a grudge against Su Xiao, she wouldn’t dare recklessly alter the game rules.
It was still unknown whether the remaining six had encountered any lucky breaks. If Su Xiao were eliminated due to insufficient game points, that would be ridiculous.
Moreover, food and fresh water only lasted two days. To maintain peak condition, Su Xiao would have to seize more resources.
“Bubu, I have a good plan.”
After Su Xiao explained the plan to Bubu Wang, the dog’s face twisted in awkwardness.
“If it succeeds, supplies for the remaining three days will be no problem. Not only that, but game points won’t be a concern either.”
Bubu Wang thought it over for a moment, then nodded in agreement. The man and dog began setting up the plan—more precisely, setting up bait. They were going to “fish.”
……
Two days later.
Deep within the Forest of the Strong, several ragged, burly men trudged forward. They looked similar, all bald and powerfully built. Though their general appearance resembled humans, they had two extra eyes on their foreheads.
These four-eyed beings were “guests.” They were Alice’s reserve prisoners, unworthy of residing on the first floor, and could only earn freedom on the fourth floor.
They had two goals: first, to survive; second, to find and kill the game participants.
“Chief, I think I smell food.”
A bald four-eyed man sniffed the air.
“I smell it too.”
“Chief, we haven’t eaten in two days. If this continues…”
Several four-eyed men gathered around their chief. The chief’s pupils were cyan, with double irises.
“There’s a smell of blood.”
The four-eyed chief wasn’t tempted by the food.
“Then…”
The other four-eyed men swallowed hard. The rich aroma of roasted meat accelerated their gastric acid secretion, their stomachs burning as if on fire. This was their bodies signaling an urgent need for food.
The four-eyed chief was also starving. After hesitating for a moment, he led his six tribesmen toward the source of the meaty scent.
As they drew closer, the enticing aroma grew stronger. The starving four-eyed men greedily inhaled the smell, as if it could alleviate their hunger.
Passing through the dense forest, a small clearing appeared ahead.
In the clearing was a campfire. A canine creature sat before the fire, holding a skewer of roasted meat. The meat had been roasted so many times that its surface was slightly charred.
A dog… roasting meat!
The four-eyed men were stunned.
“Run!”
The four-eyed chief roared, because he spotted a large pit a dozen meters away. Dozens of corpses lay inside, covered with strongly scented leaves to mask the blood smell.
“No food carried.”
A voice came from above. The four-eyed chief looked up and saw a man sitting on a tree branch.
“We mean no harm. We were just starving, lured here by the smell of food.”
The four-eyed chief slowly backed away. He had a feeling that if the man in the tree wanted to kill them, none of them would survive.
“No harm?”
Su Xiao crouched on a thick branch. Moments earlier, Reincarnation Paradise had given him a prompt: his Mind Blade had resisted some kind of mind-control ability. The other party had already made a move, only to find it ineffective, so they lowered their stance.
“Yes, no harm. We’ll leave immediately.”
Zzzt~
Pale cyan metal threads emerged, forming a cage using the surrounding trees.
“Death Gla…”
The four-eyed chief’s eyes emitted a faint glow. The next moment, he felt the soil beneath his feet rise, and an impact surged from below.
Boom!
Flames erupted as the alchemy bomb exploded.
The flames dissipated, but the smoke didn’t clear. Su Xiao stood up, drew the Dragon-Slaying Flash at his waist, took a deep breath, and leaped into the smoke below.
The smoke was gray and hazy, visibility less than half a meter. Su Xiao activated his instinct ability to the fullest and immediately sensed the positions of the four-eyed men within the smoke.
The sounds of slashing and screams merged into one. Moments later, the forest fell silent.
Su Xiao wiped the blood off the Dragon-Slaying Flash, sheathed the blade, and began cleaning up the blood and corpses. He threw the bodies into the nearby pit. As for the blood, lighting a campfire would suffice.
In the Forest of the Strong, there were no “victims.” The game participants and “guests” were in a competitive relationship.
If the game participants could survive five days, all “guests” would be purged. Therefore, the “guests” in the forest would relentlessly hunt the game participants.
Su Xiao approached a tree hollow. Inside were several barrels of fresh water, large amounts of dried meat, nuts, fresh fruit, and a few plant roots.
All this food came from Su Xiao and Bubu Wang’s “fishing.” Bubu Wang was responsible for roasting meat to lure the “guests,” while Su Xiao handled eliminating them. Over two days, the pair had repeated this process many times. After catching two or three groups of guests, they would immediately change locations.
“The food and fresh water reserves are enough to last five days.”
The reason Su Xiao chose to risk “fishing” was to quickly gather food and earn game points. Once both were sufficient, he would immediately find a place to hide.
Su Xiao wouldn’t engage in a tough fight with overly strong guests. It wasn’t that he feared their strength, but that he was guarding against one person—Alice’s clone.
If Su Xiao fell into a bitter struggle with the “guests,” Alice’s clone would likely show up. At that point, caught between two fronts, his chances of defeat and death would be high.
Thus, Su Xiao chose to quickly gather food and fresh water, then immediately hide, giving Alice’s clone no opportunity.
Su Xiao and Bubu Wang headed toward a pre-selected hiding spot. Ten minutes later, they arrived beside a towering ancient tree several hundred meters tall.
Midway up the tree was a hollow, discovered by Bubu Wang. Heaven knows how he found it. When Su Xiao asked, Bubu Wang said he found it while looking for a place to pee. Deciding the hollow was suitable for hiding, he didn’t urinate inside.
Su Xiao found this puzzling. Wasn’t it just peeing? Why climb so high up the tree?
Bubu Wang had developed a shadow from being electrocuted by the throne in the Dusk Palace. If the environment wasn’t safe enough, he simply couldn’t pee.
The man and dog climbed into the hollow, 200 meters above the ground. With ample food and water, Su Xiao leaned back in the hollow and took out a tablet to play games.
Alice’s clone had restricted his movements, so this was the most correct choice. As for game points, Su Xiao felt he was at least in the top three, if not first. He had killed countless Star-Cling Crabs earlier. After the cooldown for aura release ended, he went back to harass those crabs again—releasing the aura, then immediately riding Bubu Wang to escape, leaving alchemy bombs behind as cover. He did this four times in total.
When Su Xiao went to find the Star-Cling Crabs for the fifth time, he was stunned to discover that the Star-Cling Crabs had moved out~
PS: (Sixth update in twenty minutes)