“Very high score, but I think it’s necessary to remind you that having too high an inspiration is not a good sign. It’s similar to how art can easily drive people mad,” KP cautioned.
He supported the staff, and on his face without features, a curved gap appeared as he grinned, “Please roll the dice.”
Shen Lin flicked the dice in front of him. The two dice, black and white, spun rapidly, and finally stopped, showing a 00 and a 3.
“3 points,” Shen Lin was also surprised. “Critical success.”
KP played with the staff, bowed very gentlemanly towards Shen Lin, “Very lucky. Now—”
The thick fog in front gradually dissipated, and the dense forest came into clear view. The trees, with their heights varying, were covered with moss at the roots, and the sounds of unknown insects chirping in the air were exceptionally clear.
The sky had darkened, and they unknowingly explored this forest for nearly five hours.
By the remaining daylight, Shen Lin clearly saw a wooden house in the distance.
The wooden house wasn’t large, and its structure was simple; however, in the moment of day-night division, with the thin fog not completely dissipated, it appeared particularly distorted and eerie.
It seemed like a place one shouldn’t casually enter.
At that moment, the pocket watch made a soft sound, a “click.” Shen Lin opened the watch cover, and the black hands on the white dial pointed to four o’clock in the afternoon. Estimating the time to return, he closed the alarm, put the pocket watch back into his pants pocket, and said to Yan Xiu, “Let’s go back, exchange today’s clues with everyone.”
Yan Xiu nodded, and together with Shen Lin, marked the location of the wooden house for future exploration. This way, they could easily find it the next day.
Following the marks, the two quickly returned to the camp. It was close to seven o’clock, and the group from the thicket had returned, trying to light a bonfire.
Freud waved directly at them, holding a deformed iron basin, running over excitedly, and said, “We found a small puddle on the island with freshwater! It should be collected rainwater. With water, we can survive!”
Shen Lin, upon hearing this, also smiled happily. He raised the iron basin Freud brought from rushing to the shore and took a sip of water. The dry feeling in his mouth and throat instantly dissipated, and he couldn’t help but exclaim how good it was to be alive.
Yan Xiu took a sip after Shen Lin, and he lowered the hem of his tucked-up shirt, revealing a pile of wild fruits. He said to them, “These are from the forest, not sure if they’re edible. That thing—suggests a bit of biology.”
The thing called KP: “…”
Shen Lin said, “Neither Yan Xiu nor I have high scores. Did any of you study biology?”
“I did. Most of my points are in knowledge,” Freud, who was hungry and anxious, said eagerly, “I’ll do a biology check.”
65/55, success.
KP: “These fruits are ordinary wild fruits, nothing special. They can be eaten.”
Hearing KP’s words, everyone sighed in relief. Eating something was better than starving. Yan Xiu divided the fruits among them.
Shen Lin ate one, and his facial features twisted. He had never eaten anything like this, and it was so bad that he couldn’t find a suitable adjective.
—Would rather starve.
The soul of the big young master made a sound.
However, a few seconds later, he suppressed all his discontent and swallowed the handful of wild fruits he was given.
He needed enough energy.
Taking advantage of the fact that it wasn’t completely dark yet, they tried to set up their camp as safely as possible. No one knew what might happen when night fell.
At seven in the evening, Yan Xiu lit a bonfire, and Freud, gnawing on the sour wild fruits, worriedly asked, “Why haven’t Nana and the others returned? This side of the coastline should be the first to come back.”
The sound of the tide in the night was always clearer than during the day. The horizon extended infinitely, and the sky and earth became blurry. The warm orange glow became increasingly dim, and the stars were about to rise, the land about to sleep. In this dusk with blurred boundaries, it was easy to let one’s thoughts wander.
“I’ll go find them.” Yan Xiu separated a torch from the bonfire, stood up first, but he quickly stopped, looking up not far away.
Two figures were pushed forward by the almost extinguished twilight, heading towards them. Floy exclaimed softly, “They’re back!”
“We found something! Delayed us for a while.” Bai’er panted and collapsed by the bonfire. Shen Lin handed him two wild fruits, and Bai’er, without thinking, directly stuffed them into his mouth, his features twisting in sourness.
Shen Lin laughed heartily.
Bai’er showed a helpless expression, then thought of something and said, “I spent some time trying to figure out what it was but failed.”
“Who asked you to interpret it on the spot and drag me into it,” Nana complained, sitting beside them. She took out a sheepskin scroll and spread it out in front of everyone. “It’s this. There are incomprehensible patterns and text on it. KP says we need to pass a difficult occult check. Do any of us have a high occult score?”
Everyone’s gaze fell on Freud’s face, and Freud shrugged, regretfully saying, “I only have 20 points in occult.”
“I also have 20 points.”
“What’s a difficult check?”
“Attributes halved before the check.”
“So it’s 10.”
“Rolling a number below 10 is too difficult, and the critical failure threshold has been widened. Any roll above 80 is considered a critical failure.”
Silence fell among the group.
After this afternoon’s exploration, they all understood the rules of this game and had to take the role of these scores seriously.
“We all failed,” Bai’er said dejectedly, head hanging low. “The cost of failure is that we have to spend five hours interpreting this stuff, and it’s all in vain.”
“Yes, we spent the whole afternoon staring at this sheepskin scroll,” Nana glared at Bai’er again. “But even so, I didn’t remember a single word. It’s more difficult to understand than the medical cases written by doctors.”
“Your analogy is very apt. Medicine knows no borders, that’s true,” everyone laughed in unison.
“Where did you find it?” The sky was completely dark now, and Shen Lin could only check the content on the sheepskin scroll by the light of the bonfire.
There were very mysterious characters on it. Although he couldn’t understand them, he could feel their ancient and mystical nature in every stroke. Tiny characters almost formed a long band, surrounding a giant egg. At the top, there were three words slightly larger than the rest. Shen Lin wasn’t sure if these were three words or three separate characters.
He had no idea which language this was.
“We’re supposed to be university students, right?” Bai’er said expressionlessly. “KP is right. Character settings are related to life experiences, reflecting my university life of skipping classes, sleeping, and playing in internet cafes.”
“No romantic relationships?”
“With whom? My roommate?”
The gaze of the others towards Bai’er became very subtle in an instant.
Bai’er cleared his throat and said, “Back to the point. We found this sheepskin scroll on the beach behind the island, probably lost by its owner. Its corners were hooked on the edge of the thicket. Besides that, we found bloodstains on a rock. Someone had done temporary bandaging there, and there were fabric fragments left. We made a successful check and found that this fabric was woven from superfine wool, mixed with lapis lazuli powder, which is a very expensive material in this world! Even in the nobility, it’s rare for someone to afford it.”
“It must be Dorena!” Nana said confidently. “He’s wearing this fabric!”
“He’s still alive!” Freud said excitedly, but quickly calmed down. “But where can he go?”
Shen Lin asked, “Can we track him based on the bloodstains at the scene? Or describe in detail the amount of bleeding and the shape of the bloodstains on the beach? Maybe we can judge the severity of his injuries and find where he might be hiding.” He paused and added, “If we want to survive here, we can’t go too far from the beach.”
“I can’t do it. I can’t pass the medical check,” Nana said.
So, the rest of them turned their eyes to the medical student, Xiu Wen.
Xiu Wen hadn’t said a word from the beginning to the end. He always seemed out of place and appeared to believe his identity was “noble.” Even though he had entered a life-threatening game, he thought he shouldn’t blend in with these underage, internet-addicted youths, bookworms, housewives, and the silent and dangerous criminals.
He had been thinking about how to get out of this absurd game without blending in with this group of “dangerous” people. Even now, he was unwilling to believe that he had encountered such a bizarre thing.
Shen Lin didn’t fail to understand him. His parents were also the kind of people who believed they had a complete worldview and were very stubborn about what they believed in. Unless their naive world collapsed, their indomitable awareness of the world wouldn’t be shaken, and only then might a small, insignificant piece of the wall crumble.
This tendency was especially deeply ingrained in the so-called elite crowd.
And Shen Lin had long been accustomed to dealing with such people.
In silence, Shen Lin said, “Tonight, everyone takes turns on guard duty. Tomorrow we’ll investigate further. Felton and I plan to check the cabin in the woods. Xiu Wen and Floy, with your high medical and knowledge scores, team up and try to track Dorena’s whereabouts near the beach and the rocks. Nana and Bai’er, explore the west side of the beach. There are more rocks there. See if you can find more remnants of the cruise ship. We need to find a way to get some food and supplies. Wild fruits can’t sustain us for long, and we need enough energy.”
His instructions were clear and reasonable. Everyone nodded. Xiu Wen stood up, left the team, and walked alone towards the rocks at the beach.
He drew a big SOS on the sand and raised his clothes, smeared with brightly colored jam, as a rescue flag.
In his consciousness, they had been brought over by an extremely boring group of “dangerous elements” to play some macabre game without realizing it. There must be someone using a drone to capture footage of their panicked and frightened scenes, pleasing themselves. He hoped a just plane or ship would pass by and rescue them.
“Xiu Wen,” Shen Lin called him. “This game gives each of us different abilities. We have our own strengths, emphasizing teamwork. As someone proficient in medicine, you are an indispensable part of the team. Understand this fact; I understood it when I was ten.”
Xiu Wen roared angrily, “I don’t need your nonsense.”
“Tsk,” Bai’er clicked his tongue unhappily.
Shen Lin was indifferent to Xiu Wen’s arrogant attitude. Understanding this fact wasn’t taught by others; it was accepted slowly through the cruel whipping of reality.
Nobody is anyone’s life mentor; survival is.
“Okay,” Shen Lin lightly clapped his hands, drawing everyone’s attention. “Let’s make a schedule for tonight’s watch duty. Try to ensure that someone stays awake every minute. No one can say for sure if the camp will be flooded by the waves while we’re asleep.”
