“Oh right, what weapon did you get from the random draw?” An Ling seemed to have never paid attention to this kind of detail—what if everyone got a gun?
“Nunchaku…” Chen Rui answered honestly, “All I’ll manage to do with that thing is hit myself…”
“Pfft, don’t get discouraged, you can always craft other weapons in the future.” An Ling consoled him with obvious schadenfreude, her words perfunctory.
She felt this guy was scared out of his mind, so she had to do her best to lighten the mood for him. She really had no idea where he’d found the courage to head into the depths of the island.
Two hours later, the trees in the forest had grown even denser, and there was a constant risk of losing their way.
“Jie, I have a feeling… I think we’re almost out…” Chen Rui suddenly blurted out. An Ling nodded without saying a word.
Indeed, ever since she started traveling with Chen Rui, everything seemed to go much more smoothly. They hadn’t encountered any more strange occurrences either.
Sure enough, not even half an hour later, the two of them could see through the forest to the scenery outside—a stretch of grassland.
The terrain was completely flat, and the lush green grass made one want to just lie down and rest.
They quickened their pace, and before long, arrived at the edge of the forest.
“We finally made it out!”
An Ling couldn’t help but wonder if this kid was just especially lucky today.
But when they looked left and right along the forest’s edge, the boundary between forest and grassland was astonishingly neat, forming a perfect arc.
It looked as if the forest had perfectly surrounded the grassland ahead.
“Isn’t this supposed to be a deserted island? How could such a perfect border form naturally?” Chen Rui marveled at the wonder for the first time.
“Dummy, didn’t the introduction say people used to live here?” An Ling shot him a look.
“But the weeds on the ground are uneven, the forest floor is covered in fallen leaves, and we haven’t seen any signs of human life at all along the way. Even if it was man-made, after so long, it should have…”
“Alright, enough. Let’s just move on.” An Ling, unsure how to respond, simply headed out onto the grassland, navigating by the afternoon sun.
“Oh, oh…” Chen Rui hurried to catch up.
The grassland was so vast and flat, the end wasn’t in sight—it seemed to stretch on forever. By rights, after passing through the forest, they should now be deep within the island, but there was no sign of any manor at all.
“Jie, did we get tricked…?” Chen Rui meant that there was nothing here—just an empty island.
An Ling didn’t know how to answer. She furrowed her brow, equally lost.
“Let’s just keep walking.” Where were all those abundant supplies they’d been promised? Where was the manor at the center of the island?
“Jie… there’s a tree over there!”
“I see it.”
An Ling’s gaze landed on an ancient, towering tree that had somehow appeared out on the endless grassland. She couldn’t tell what species it was, but its drooping branches and leaves, weathered by time, hung low. From a distance, the whole thing looked like a giant green mushroom.
For now, it seemed their only choice was to head toward the ancient tree.
Though the tree appeared far away, it actually only took them a short time to reach it.
The tree was even larger than An Ling had imagined. Without exaggeration, the trunk alone covered more ground than the entire island she was currently on.
“It’s so huge—this is practically a world wonder!” Chen Rui seemed excited at having seen the largest tree of his life.
An Ling, expressionless, walked up to the base of the ancient tree, because she had noticed that at its base, a ring of treasure chests was neatly arranged.
Indeed, these treasure chests were the exact same color as the trunk, evenly spaced around the base to form a circle.
“Jie, there’s something written on the trunk!” Chen Rui called out, prompting An Ling to shift her gaze from the chests and walk over to the front.
[Open any one chest and enter the ancient tree to reach the heart of the island.]
An Ling crouched down to examine the treasure chests. They were about the same size as the wooden boxes she usually fished up, deep brown like the ancient tree, and level with the surrounding grass—which explained why she hadn’t noticed them until she got closer.
Each chest was secured with a strange, rectangular black lock. The keyhole on the right side matched exactly with the keys An Ling had picked up in the wooden cabin.
She tried to move one of the chests, but it didn’t budge an inch. She tried several others with the same result—it was as if they were rooted to the ground. That meant she couldn’t judge the contents by sound or weight.
Everything would depend on luck.
But An Ling didn’t rush to open a chest. Instead, she walked a full circle around the ancient tree.
“Jie… what are you doing?” Chen Rui asked, puzzled.
“Counting chests,” An Ling replied. They’d only arrived here at dusk on the second day, which meant they’d wasted nearly two full days.
Surely, luckier people must have arrived here ahead of them.
Sure enough, there were 50 chests in total, and 9 had already been opened. That meant at least 9 people—possibly more—had entered the heart of the island before them.
“Looks like there’s no shortage of lucky people,” An Ling murmured, returning to the front of the ancient tree.
Yes, wasn’t Chen Rui pretty lucky himself? At the very least, he hadn’t encountered the string of supernatural phenomena An Ling had faced.
As for picking a chest, An Ling didn’t hesitate—she simply chose one directly in front of her.
She inserted the key into the lock and turned it gently. With a click, the black lock sprang open.
She undid the latch and lifted the chest. Inside were exactly the supplies they most needed: food!
[Ready-to-eat ham sandwich10, bottled water10, Foundation Stone Card5, Enhancement Card2.]
[Physical Enhancement Card: Strength—grants the power of a bear; Speed—grants the speed of a cheetah. One-time use, lasts five minutes.]
“Blue Enhancement Cards… I didn’t expect you could use them to strengthen yourself,” An Ling muttered in surprise. She had assumed Enhancement Cards could only be used on equipment.
Chen Rui was even more curious—it was his first time seeing such cards. “Here.” An Ling handed him one of the Enhancement Cards.
“No… no, Jie, you should keep it. I wouldn’t know how to use it anyway…” Chen Rui declined repeatedly. He was well aware he was useless in a fight.
They divided the food equally. An Ling tried to give him two Foundation Stone Cards as well, but in the end, he only took one.
When she looked up at the ancient tree again, she noticed that at some point, a door-shaped outline had appeared directly in front of them. There was a handle on it—one gentle pull would surely open it to a mysterious, unknown world.
“Let’s go.” An Ling took the lead, pulling open the hidden wooden door on the trunk of the ancient tree.