They began their return journey at 11:30 in the morning. Picking their way carefully through the stony ground, the trio made it back to the original woods—dubbed Su-0 Forest by Su Su—only two hours away from their camp.
Following the trail markers Su Su had left behind, the three moved through the woods. Su Su kept up a low, steady chatter, talking about the forest, the animals, and the mammoths.
Ding Shi was the first to realize something was off.
"Hold on," Ding Shi said. "Su Su, how many minutes has it been since we passed the last marker?"
"Five minutes," Su Su said. Then her eyes widened. "Wait, that's not right. Every two minutes, I jabbed a stick into the ground to mark the trail."
Wang Meng asked, "Have either of you noticed how different Su-0 Forest is from the woods around our camp?"
"Different how?" Ding Shi asked.
"No predators," Wang Meng answered. "Not even small critters. And take a look at the trees around here."
Once Wang Meng pointed it out, Ding Shi noticed it too. The woods held a variety of trees, but one particular type was unusually common here. Ordinary trees grew with a single trunk rising from the dirt, but these had multiple slender trunks springing from the ground. They resembled octopuses plunging their tentacles deep into the soil.
Su Su tapped Ding Shi and pointed at an octopus-like tree before them. The trunk swayed and slowly pivoted around. The entire process took five minutes, but it had undoubtedly turned.
"What the hell?" Wang Meng muttered.
"Ignorance really is terrifying," Ding Shi said. Having had friends reckless enough to court death in the Amazon rainforest, the sight of such a bizarre tree immediately brought to mind something one of them had mentioned. He couldn't recall the exact name, but its peculiar trait had left a deep impression.
Ding Shi said, "It's called a walking tree. They can move slowly. These are probably a prehistoric variety, so they move faster."
"First time I've ever heard of a tree with such an ugly name," Wang Meng said.
"Never mind the name," Ding Shi said. "Worry about the tree itself."
"Fine. That leaves us with two problems," Wang Meng said. "First, the walking trees moved, so we lost our way. How do we fix that? Second, where are all the small animals?"
As the three stood talking, roots suddenly burst from the ground and clamped around Ding Shi's left leg. They were buried shallowly, and they immediately began dragging him toward the walking tree.
All three of them were completely dumbfounded. For a tree, moving at all was already absurd—moving this fast was entirely beyond imagination. As he drew near the walking tree, multiple roots broke through the soil, wrapping tightly around Ding Shi's limbs like ropes and pinning him against the trunk about a meter off the ground.
Wang Meng frowned. "What's it doing?"
"Is it trying to nourish the soil with animal carcasses?" Su Su wondered.
Pinned against the trunk, Ding Shi's pupils contracted and his eyes went wide. "You're still chatting?" he snapped. "Save me!"
Only then did the two spring into action, one hacking with a stone axe and the other slashing with a stone knife. It proved remarkably simple, and Ding Shi was freed with minimal effort.
Checking himself over, Ding Shi found scrapes where he had been bound, along with tiny, fine root fibers clinging to his skin. He couldn't feel much where they touched, leading him to suspect the roots possessed some kind of numbing agent.
Ding Shi rolled the fibers and grime into a ball of dirt and flicked it away. "Without outside help, I probably couldn't have broken free. That's no walking tree—that's a tree monster!"
Wang Meng bent down, picked up a severed root, and yanked it apart with a sharp tug. "My apologies. I used outside help."
Ding Shi was left speechless, his pride thoroughly stung. "Let's move."
Wang Meng asked, "Do you even know the way?"
"Head toward where the tree monsters are sparse," Ding Shi said.
Su Su said, "If prehistoric plants are this bizarre, do you think prehistoric animals will be even weirder?"
Ding Shi replied, "Dozens of rhinos attacked the camp last night. Wasn't that weird enough?"
"I mean, we can understand rhinos attacking a camp," Su Su said, "but a walking tree ambushing people makes no sense. The instance can't just abruptly change genres from realistic survival to high fantasy, can it?"
Ding Shi countered, "Can you make sense of tardigrades? Before laying eyes on a walking tree, who would've believed trees could move? Think about it—Earth has all sorts of bizarre flora and fauna that defy comprehension until you see them for yourself. For example, could you ever imagine a bird as malicious as the cuckoo? It lays its eggs in another bird's nest, forcing them to hatch and raise its brood, and it even destroys the host's eggs so its own chick gets better care."
Su Su pondered that for a moment, then asked, "Is that really so malicious? Isn't that pretty common in society? There are plenty of men raising someone else's kids, especially in Europe—it's everywhere."
Ding Shi was speechless. "Little girl, not every thought needs to leave your mouth."
Su Su disagreed. "It's a common social phenomenon. Why can't I talk about it?"
"Quit arguing, both of you. You're giving me a headache," Wang Meng said. "Focus on finding the trail." Couldn't they just shut up for a few minutes? Every single word was pure nonsense.
Though they had lost one marker, they hadn't been off track for long. Using the sun to navigate, the three fanned out to search, and within half an hour they picked up the trail again.
By the time they returned to camp, it was already two in the afternoon. The campsite had been tidied up; everyone had helped dig a large pit to bury their fallen companions together.
Listening to Captain Su Su's report, Yu Yuan fell into deep thought. Should they stay another night? The stench of blood hung heavy over the camp, and god only knew what might visit them tonight. Yet if they set out for the new campsite now, they still hadn't figured out the rope problem, and they wouldn't reach the cliffside waterfall until after dark.
Yu Yuan said, "We have to stay one more night."
Wang Meng said, "If the rhinos come, they'll put out the fire, and without fire we can't fend off the wolves."
Yu Yuan said, "Cut branches to block the cave entrance so the firelight won't leak out. Gather extra firewood to prepare for the wolves."
Xiao Long spoke up. "We could sleep up in the trees. We wouldn't have to fear the rhinos or the wolves."
Everyone exchanged glances. It sounded reasonable enough, but their instincts said otherwise. Unfortunately, the seasoned survival experts had all perished the night before, leaving only arm-chair novices behind.
Ding Shi raised a hand. "Knowing the system's lovely temperament, we probably won't get any beasts tonight. It's about time for the weather to start messing with us."
Yu Yuan asked, "A temperature drop tonight?"
Ding Shi said, "My guess is a torrential downpour. Heavy rain will knock down unpicked fruit, trapping us inside the cave. We'll be short on fuel, short on food, and short on materials for crafting tools. We'll have to work in the rain, people will start getting sick, and our efficiency will plummet."
Yu Yuan asked, "Does anyone know how to make rope?" If Ding Shi's jinx proved accurate, they would have to take a gamble and relocate to the new camp today.
Aunt Zhang said, "I know how to weave a vine ladder, but a hundred and twenty meters is simply too high. It would take several days to finish."
Su Su suggested, "We could move to Su-0 Forest. There are walking trees there, and their roots attack animals. You can't even spot small critters in that area."
Wang Meng countered, "I say we move to Su-1 Forest. Giant apes live there, and we could use them for protection."
Ding Shi asked, "Is there any chance the giant apes and the wolves team up to wipe us out?"
Wang Meng said, "If they just see us as prey, the two predators will definitely fight each other first. And if it really pours, neither the wolves nor the giant apes will leave their shelters. We could put together some lean-tos or treehouses."
Each suggestion had some merit, but none seemed particularly feasible. They had to battle harsh weather while guarding against beasts and wolf packs, not to mention venomous snakes, poisonous insects, sickness, the cold, and the need for food and fire.
The main quest required keeping the fire seed alive for five days. Although the rhino raid had extinguished the campfire, they still had the twenty-four-hour Xiao Pu fire seed. At best, they had only survived a single day.
Starved of tools, starved of weapons, and with their class skills currently amounting to little more than a joke, where could they possibly turn?
Chapter 77