Chapter 63: All of them have disappeared
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Speaking of survival instincts, Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were the two least pretentious people in the team other than Ren Xiaosu.
When Ren Xiaosu said that the substance extracted from the pine needles was drinkable, the two of them did not hesitate and climbed up the tree to search for suitable pine needles to extract. They even plucked a whole lot of pine cones as well.
In fact, only someone like Ren Xiaosu who had been surviving out in the wilderness would know that nature was generous. It doesn’t care who gains from it. So long as you put in the effort, you can depend on nature to survive.
Someone lamented, “It’s better off being an animal if I have to do this. How I wish that I can be reborn as an animal in my next life.”
Ren Xiaosu glanced at him. “Animals do not lead as carefree a life as you think. I’ve heard that giraffes, which are the tallest land animals around, can defend against their predators due to them being bigger in size. However, its mating process can get very complicated. That’s why the male giraffe needs to drink the urine of the female to determine whether she’s in heat before he starts courting her. If it doesn’t turn out as he expects, the male giraffe will have drunk the urine for nothing….”
The rest of the team suspected that Ren Xiaosu was deliberately trying to gross them out.
No, this refugee kid was definitely trying to gross them out!
At this moment, Ren Xiaosu’s confidence was boosted since he possessed a gun now. There were only 11 people and 7 guns within the entire group, with 3 of the guns already in the hands of Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin.
Moreover, Ren Xiaosu and Yang Xiaojin had the advanced firearms skill and perfect firearms skill respectively. Unless they clashed head-on with Xu Xianchu, their simple alliance would definitely ensure them a complete victory over whoever they came up against.
While waiting for everyone to pluck the pine needles and pine cones, Ren Xiaosu had nothing much to do. He then remembered his still unused Skill Duplication Scroll. He glanced at Yang Xiaojin and said decisively in his mind, “Use the Skill Duplication Scroll.”
“Randomly copied target’s advanced skill: Bomb making.”
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. He immediately learned the skill but was a little puzzled. What kind of training did Yang Xiaojin receive in the past? Why were all her skills so violent?
Besides, the combination of her firearms, bomb making, and jumping rope skills were so mismatched. Were these skills really from the same person?
Ren Xiaosu got curious. He asked in his mind, “Does the target have an assassination skill?”
“This information can be revealed if it’s for a former target you’ve attempted to learn from. She has an advanced assassination skill.”
Ren Xiaosu suddenly thought of something and asked, “Does the target have Nursery Rhymes Singing?”
“This information can be revealed if it’s for a former target you’ve attempted to learn from. She has Advanced Nursery Rhymes Singing.”
Ren Xiaosu was left speechless. What a bunch of messed up skills…
He felt like he must have been really crazy to ask those questions, but he never expected her to really have those skills, and they were even advanced skills too.
By this time, the whole lot of them had finally finished plucking pine cones and pine needles. Ren Xiaosu sighed and said, “Can’t y’all pluck them from different trees? By taking everything from the same tree, it’s nearly been stripped bare by y’all!”
When everyone heard this, they looked up. Sure enough, the tree was nearly stripped bare.
Ren Xiaosu thought for a while and said, “Shouldn’t y’all be thanking me for teaching you how to survive in the wilderness?”
The others were taken aback. Then several people thanked Ren Xiaosu. However, Ren Xiaosu discovered that only Xu Xianchu and Yang Xiaojin were sincere in thanking him.
With his gratitude tokens at 86, Ren Xiaosu became even more eager to unlock the weapon. So he shifted his attention to the others around him.
All of a sudden, Ren Xiaosu realized that Luo Xinyu’s hands were still empty. Even Liu Bu was holding several pine cones.
When Luo Xinyu realized that Ren Xiaosu was staring at her, she said in embarrassment, “I can’t climb up….”
Since when had Luo Xinyu, a celebrity from the stronghold, ever climbed a tall tree like that? Hence, she was the only one who was empty-handed. When does someone feel the loneliest? When everyone has something, but not you.
For example, everyone has money, but not you.
For example, everyone has pine cones, but not Luo Xinyu.
Luo Xinyu hesitated for a bit before saying to Ren Xiaosu, “I’ll pay you 10,000 yuan, so can you help me pluck some?”
Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. He immediately stuffed all of the pine cones and pine needles that he had wrapped in his clothes into Luo Xinyu’s arms. “You’re my bro from now on!”
Luo Xinyu was surprised. “Thank you.”
“Gratitude received from Luo Xinyu, +1!”
Ren Xiaosu had not sold his water earlier because bottled water was too precious. It was clean and convenient to carry around. But the pine cones and pine needles were different as they were readily available.
Furthermore, Luo Xinyu offered a lot of money! What could he do with 10,000 yuan? He could use it to live the good life in town for up to two years. There wouldn’t be a need to worry about food and clothing!
In fact, you would never know whether you would become Ren Xiaosu’s brother before giving money to him. This was also known as Schrödinger’s brother 1 !
Luo Xinyu took the pine cones and pine needles from him. However, she realized that Ren Xiaosu did not go and pluck any more. She asked curiously, “Aren’t you going to pluck some more pine cones? What are you going to eat at night?”
Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “I’ll eat the chocolate.”
Luo Xinyu was speechless.
Ren Xiaosu still had the chocolate with him that he had traded with Luo Xinyu for. It happened that the chocolate had melted a little while he was carrying it on his person for the past few days. Although it was late fall, his body still transmitted heat through his pockets.
At the beginning, he did not believe Yang Xiaojin when she said the chocolate would melt. After all, he had never eaten chocolate before. He had planned on bringing it back for Yan Liuyuan to try, but it seemed that he could not bring it back.
In an instant, Luo Xinyu’s gratitude vanished. That chocolate was the one he had scammed from her!
…
Before evening fell, Ren Xiaosu found a huge hollow that was suitable for setting up camp. A rock protruded out of a cliff, creating a huge overhang that formed a natural, semi-open shelter like a cave.
Ren Xiaosu noticed some cirrocumulus clouds in the sky when he passed through a clearing. Although he did not understand the principle behind it, he knew it was a sign of rain.
Now they could rest better as they found a cliff face that would shelter them from the wind and rain.
While they settled down beneath this rocky overhang, the rain began to pour. Xu Xianchu turned to Ren Xiaosu and asked, “Can we drink the rainwater?”
“No.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head. “Even though it’s not so acidic anymore, you can still die from drinking acid rain.”
Ren Xiaosu was still unsure of how acid rain formed and what criteria classified it as acid rain, so he could only use “acidity” to roughly describe the hazard level of acid rain.
Suddenly, some strange sounds came from the forest outside the hollow. But it traveled far away in an instant, not giving Ren Xiaosu and company time to react.
Right at this moment, the person deepest in the hollow said, “Look, someone etched some words over here.”
Ren Xiaosu and Xu Xianchu went to the wall and were surprised to see two lines of crooked writing etched by someone at the top of the hollow: “We saw some strange shadows moving in the forest. They’ve disappeared, all of them have disappeared.”