Chapter 26: Island Survival 7
With darkness setting in, they needed to build a temporary shelter for the night.
The bottom of the cliff was completely free of tangled brambles and thickets, consisting instead of relatively smooth stones. There couldn’t be a more perfect place for a shelter, so the group decided to spend the night right here.
As previously agreed, because Chu Yun had rescued Skinny Monkey and Fatty, the supply pack belonged entirely to her. Neither of them had any objections, though they desperately wanted to see what was inside. Even if they couldn’t keep it, just looking at it would satisfy their curiosity about a supply pack.
Seeing the eager looks on their faces, Chu Yun retrieved the supply pack from her storage ring.
This particular supply pack was a large cardboard box. Chu Yun opened it much like unboxing a delivery package, revealing its contents.
Inside were food, water, protective gear, and an item card.
The food consisted of ten pork floss breads, ten packs of compressed biscuits, and five 500ml bottles of water. The protective gear included a flashlight, a set of rubbing alcohol and ointment for scrapes, and five medical bandages. Their last medical bandage had been used up days ago, so this new supply was a true godsend.
Chu Yun distributed the food and water evenly based on the headcount. Each person received two pieces of bread, two packs of biscuits, and a bottle of water. Skinny Monkey and Fatty happily took their shares, carefully tucking them into their deflated backpacks. These supplies would last them for two days. The protective gear and the item card, however, went entirely to Chu Yun’s squad.
The item card was a Land Item Card, exactly like the matching system reward she had received back in the Highway instance. It covered an area of one mu, and collecting five would allow one to unlock and operate their own instance.
When Skinny Monkey and Fatty saw the card, the temporary surge of excitement in their eyes instantly dimmed. On the surface, this item card looked grand, but it wasn’t very practical.
Plants had long growth cycles, and players struggling to survive in the game didn’t have enough time to care for crops. While owning an instance sounded impressive, collecting five cards was incredibly difficult. Even if one managed to collect them all, it would bring about a whole host of problems—a lack of infrastructure, management, operations, and being targeted by rivals. For penniless, incapable players like them, just thinking about it gave them a headache.
Skinny Monkey muttered, “This item card is so useless!”
Fatty nodded in agreement. He was from the same community as Skinny Monkey, and they were still worrying about day-to-day survival; how could they have time to care about such trivial things?
Chu Yun: “…”
This was far from useless. An item card would only maximize its value in the hands of the right person. She didn’t tell these two that she possessed seeds, nor did she mention the zombie crystal nuclei that could accelerate the growth cycles of flora and fauna.
Suppressing her inner excitement, she decided to wait until she collected all five Land Item Cards and brought her personal instance into reality. Everyone would find out naturally then.
Xu Dongdong and Yu Wenhao already knew that Chu Yun possessed seeds and item cards. Although they didn’t have a formal division of labor, Chu Yun was their boss. When the boss’s business thrived, the subordinates naturally reaped the benefits.
Five item cards in total. The instance had deployed ten supply packs in this round, but the system wouldn’t display how many were left; everything had to be deduced. Since the game had set up a system where collecting five could summon a dragon, an opportunity to get them would definitely present itself. She would wait and see.
After planning their itinerary for the next day, the group built a bonfire, ate dinner, and prepared to rest. Now that there were five people, they excluded Chu Yun from the night watch rotation. Their reasoning was that Chu Yun was the boss and their strongest combat asset; ensuring she was well-rested would be highly beneficial to the team. Chu Yun couldn’t outargue them, so she complied.
Day 16 on the island.
The group continued their upward climb along the route they had planned yesterday. Having descended the cliff, they naturally weren’t going to climb back up to take their old path, so the five searched for a new entry point at the base of the cliff.
The base of the cliff was vast. Stepping off the smooth, pebbled ground, they were met with vegetation resembling a temperate monsoon climate zone—even though they had just traveled through a tropical rainforest zone yesterday.
The areas below and above the cliff were like the yin and yang sides of a mountain, presenting completely different natural landscapes that left them in awe.
“Come quick! Come look, there are fruit trees over there!” Xu Dongdong shrieked with excitement. The group followed his line of sight, and sure enough, there was a small tree bearing brown fruit, hidden behind a large-leafed tree. The fruit tree was very short; one couldn’t see it clearly without a close look.
They hadn’t eaten fruit in a very long time. Hearing the word “fruit” now made saliva involuntarily secrete in their mouths.
“Look, there are watermelons on the ground too!” Skinny Monkey, with his 20/20 vision, shrieked next. It seemed the base of the cliff was truly a treasure trove. Following Chu Yun on this trip was definitely the right choice.
The tree bearing brown fruit was a wild kiwi vine. Though it was short, it bore dozens of fruits. The game didn’t allow plants to be uprooted, so Chu Yun snapped off a few branches and stored them in her storage ring.
The kiwis were distributed based on headcount. Each person received five, and the remaining four went to Chu Yun. There was only one watermelon, but it was massive—perfectly sufficient for the five of them to eat several times. Chu Yun sliced the watermelon into four quadrants, putting three into her space and splitting the remaining quadrant equally into five pieces.
“Wow, this is so sweet!” Xu Dongdong took a massive bite, narrowing his eyes in pure bliss.
“Yeah, we probably haven’t eaten fruit in a month, right?” Skinny Monkey mumbled indistinctly, his mouth stuffed and tears welling in his eyes.
Chu Yun ignored the dramatic display of these two, merely instructing them to save the watermelon seeds for her after eating. She had just obtained another Land Item Card, and they all knew her intentions.
“Boss, you’ll definitely be able to grow watermelons. I wonder if we’ll get to eat the watermelons you grow in the future?” Fatty said, growing a bit somber as he spoke.
You can. You definitely can, Chu Yun thought to herself. She had a strong premonition that she would soon have her own instance. Just a little more effort!
After eating, they continued on their way. Aside from the fruit, they didn’t harvest any other supplies today, but the long-lost taste of fruit left everyone feeling noticeably more optimistic. This was a sign that things were taking a turn for the better.
Day 17 on the island.
They found a path leading out of the cliff base amidst a jumble of jagged rocks, but they still didn’t discover any supply packs today.
Day 18 on the island.
They continued climbing upward in the direction of the compass. Likely due to the impact of the mountain terrain and altitude on the temperature, the vegetation gradually shifted from dense, tall broad-leafed trees to stunted coniferous trees.
By another stroke of luck, Xu Dongdong stumbled upon a small patch of sweet potatoes. Everyone was apportioned three sweet potatoes each, and Chu Yun again kept a dozen sweet potato vines. Sweet potatoes were plants propagated by cuttings; taking them back to try might yield a successful harvest.
Day 19 on the island.
They dealt with a pack of Glutton Hounds that launched a sneak attack in the dead of night.
Yu Wenhao was on watch at the time, and it was highly fortunate that he was. Bold yet attentive, he discovered traces of the encroaching Glutton Hounds ahead of time and promptly woke the sleeping group.
There were roughly a dozen hounds. With five people on their team now, including two who had undergone professional training—and with their boss Chu Yun possessing exceptionally ferocious combat prowess—the battle wasn’t very taxing.
Throughout the entire encounter, Xu Dongdong, Skinny Monkey, and Fatty merely held their weapons and stood at a standoff with the hounds. Before they even had a chance to show their worth, Chu Yun and Yu Wenhao had swiftly concluded the battle.
Chu Yun still relied on her bow and arrows, her synergy with them growing increasingly seamless—one arrow for each little critter. Yu Wenhao wielded his large machete, looking even more savage; the blade was razor-sharp, and hacking into the emaciated legs of the hounds left bare bone exposed.
Xu Dongdong and the others watched blankly as these two ferocious individuals dominated the battlefield. The hounds’ full health bars quickly dropped to zero, and they lay on the ground, breathing their last with immense reluctance. As expected, living under the shelter of big shots was wonderful; they could just coast along without expending any effort.
Glutton Hounds loved to eat carrion, so their meat inherently omitted a foul odor. Moreover, these hounds were so emaciated they looked even thinner than Skinny Monkey. With barely any meat on them, the group didn’t give this source of food a second thought.
The scene after the attack was highly chaotic, littered with carcasses and drenched in blood, resembling a massive murder scene.
The heavy stench of blood here could easily attract a secondary attack from other wild beasts. Without a moment’s hesitation, Chu Yun and the others simply packed up and hit the road in the middle of the night. Fortuitously, the supply pack they had obtained a few days ago contained a flashlight that was solar-powered, which came in handy for traveling at night.
The moisture in the air was too heavy in the dead of night, and because the altitude on the mountain was growing increasingly high, the temperature plummeted severely. The constant movement along the way failed to warm their bodies.
Chu Yun had bought a thick sweater when she encountered freezing weather during the Highway instance, so she could perfectly utilize it now. But the others weren’t so fortunate. Skinny Monkey, Fatty, and the rest didn’t have extra warm clothing; the gold coins they earned were meager and had all been used to buy food, leaving them with no spare thoughts for anything else.
Her storage ring held a supply of hot water, so Chu Yun poured a cup for them from time to time. Downing a cup of hot water in this gloomy, freezing weather truly made things a lot better. Staring at the hot water in their hands, Skinny Monkey and Fatty were filled with a mix of complex emotions, their hearts swelling with gratitude and admiration for Chu Yun.
Day 20 on the island. They finally reached the mountain summit.
This was Chu Yun’s twentieth day on the island, as she had arrived three days ahead of schedule.
It was Day 17 for Yu Wenhao, Skinny Monkey, and the others, meaning they only needed to hold out for three more days to clear the instance.
The summit resembled a plateau landscape, with flat and open terrain. Looking out into the distance, one could spot several distinct ecosystems, including grasslands, shrublands, marshes, and lakes.
This kind of terrain had both advantages and disadvantages; the advantage was that everything was clear at a glance, and the disadvantage was also that everything was clear at a glance.
Chu Yun and the others spotted a supply pack trapped in a marsh not far away. It sat grandly out in the open, highly conspicuous, and she believed other teams had spotted it as well.
Why did she mention other teams? Because she had already discovered traces of people walking along the edge of the marsh. Although the footprints had been clumsily concealed, Chu Yun discovered clues from the trampled wild grass and the mud splatters on the vegetation.
There was a supply pack but no one had claimed it, and they had specifically gone to the trouble of erasing their tracks. It was highly likely that a team of players was hiding in the shadows, planning to reap the spoils without lifting a finger.
Chu Yun scanned her surroundings, pausing her gaze for a few extra seconds on a turning ridge of the mountain over a hundred meters away before immediately shifting her eyes. Yu Wenhao and Xu Dongdong, having partnered with her for many days, caught her meaning in a flash. Though Skinny Monkey and Fatty were a bit slow, they deduced a fair amount from the group’s sudden change in atmosphere.
“Are we taking it?” Yu Wenhao inquired.
“Yes, of course we are,” Chu Yun replied coldly. Although someone was planning to play the mantis stalking the cicada, they would have to see if they possessed the strength to back it up.
Reaching the edge of the marsh, Chu Yun stopped the group from advancing further.
The surface of the marsh was covered in low-growing moisture-loving vegetation. The base of the plants was choked with moss and ferns, obscuring the view of what lay beneath. A foul, rotting stench permeated the entire marsh, like a mix of mire and the deathly odor of various unknown animal carcasses.
“Boss, why did they stop moving?” the bald man hiding behind the ridge asked the bearded man beside him. A total of ten male players had gathered on their side, all forced into hard labor by the bearded man.
“Wait a bit longer. That supply pack isn’t that easy to secure. Once they get it, we’ll go over and rob them. If they fail…” The bearded man’s voice was icy as he made a throat-slitting motion.
The players following closely behind in trembling suspense couldn’t help but shiver at the bearded man’s sinister expression. Rumor had it that he was an escaped convict from prison who had killed quite a few people during armed robberies.
They had personally witnessed the bearded man’s brutality; any sign of disobedience would result in his torture.
In this game, a player would only truly die if their heart was attacked. This demon, driven purely by the thrill of killing, had actually brutally slaughtered a helpless player. They had no choice but to swallow their grievances, burning with rage but not daring to speak out.
Gazing at Chu Yun and her handful of vulnerable-looking players, they sighed silently. Another squad of unlucky bastards was about to meet a terrible fate.
