“Do you believe there are ghosts in this world?” the other person asked again.
An Ling shook her head.
“Then this is the most scientific explanation. Do you want to hear it?”
“No, thank you.” An Ling refused decisively. She only cared about how to break out of this loop and had no interest in listening to this kind of sleep-inducing knowledge.
If the other’s explanation made sense, then the problem probably lay with herself.
Since the other person could walk in here, maybe following him could lead her out?
“I might need your help from now on. What’s your name?”
An Ling planned to travel with him and see if they could break this predicament.
“Chen Rui, Rui as in ‘auspicious’.” He answered.
“What did you say your name was?” An Ling was startled. Could it really be such a coincidence?
“Chen… Chen Rui…” The question made him lose confidence.
“Survivor 37?” An Ling preferred to believe it was just a case of identical names.
“Ah?! How… how do you know…” But Chen Rui soon realized, “You… you… you’re 520?”
“I’m An Ling. I also think it’s quite the coincidence.”
“Ah…” Chen Rui was momentarily speechless, unsure what to say next. He had always thought the other was male, and never expected not only a beauty but also to meet in such a strange way.
“That’s even better then. Let’s travel together.” An Ling relaxed and walked up to Chen Rui, patting his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
“Oh… okay.” Chen Rui hurriedly followed, though his cheeks were slightly flushed.
“What, are you shy talking to me?” An Ling burst out laughing, making Chen Rui stunned for a moment before he quickly turned his head away. “I’m just…”
“I know. You just don’t know how to talk to girls, right?”
An Ling interrupted him, causing Chen Rui to be stunned. To avoid further awkwardness, he quickly changed the topic, “Sis, why are we going back?”
An Ling obviously saw through him and stopped teasing. “Let’s head back first and see if we can still find that cabin.”
“Oh.” Chen Rui nodded silently and chose to follow without further questions.
“When talking to girls, it’s best not to just say ‘oh’.”
“Why?”
“Never mind.”
“Oh, oh.”
The dense fog had completely disappeared now, and the entire forest was filled with the fresh morning air. An Ling kept estimating the time as they walked, and half an hour later, they still didn’t see the cabin.
Could it really be her problem?
But she didn’t relax; instead, she chose to keep retracing her steps.
Nearly an hour passed, and neither of them saw the cabin again.
“Strange.”
An Ling stopped, deciding not to continue further, or she’d soon be back at that cave again.
“Sis, why stop walking?” Chen Rui asked in confusion.
“We’re going back.”
“Oh, oh.”
They began returning along the same path. Blindly exploring in this forest was foolish, and there were no supplies here anyway.
Soon, they were once again beside the cabin. Both were physically weak types, and this back-and-forth had exhausted them.
An Ling went forward to inspect, but this time even the previous markings ahead had disappeared, as if everything before was just her illusion.
Chen Rui was puzzled, but An Ling didn’t explain to him.
“Let’s rest in the cabin for a bit.”
An Ling suggested. It was almost noon now, and they needed to replenish their strength before moving on.
Chen Rui nodded and followed her inside.
“It really isn’t my problem.”
An Ling’s pupils constricted as she saw a long rectangular key had appeared on the simple wooden bed, seemingly out of nowhere.
She picked it up. The key was rectangular, about the length of her finger.
“What’s this?” Even Chen Rui was stunned. Before meeting An Ling, he had checked this cabin and found nothing.
He believed someone deliberately left it here.
“Maybe it’s the key to open some treasure chest,” An Ling joked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.
Then she started taking food out of her backpack to prepare her lunch.
Seeing Chen Rui still standing there, An Ling patted the wooden bed beside her. “Why are you just standing there? Sit.”
He hesitated but had no choice but to sit next to her. The bed was small, and An Ling didn’t sit close to the wooden edge, not wanting to dirty her clothes.
This left barely a fist’s distance between them. Chen Rui could even smell the faint scent from An Ling’s body.
His face turned even redder.
An Ling had no time to guess his thoughts; she was pondering the series of “supernatural events” she had encountered these past two days. Meanwhile, her food was running low.
At this rate, if they didn’t reach the island’s center within three days, almost all survivors would be starving.
But no one yet knew if there were supplies or food at the island’s center — this was the so-called beginner’s island according to The System.
Lunch was a pack of compressed biscuits, a bag of cream bread, and the half bottle of water she had left from the morning.
The food was quickly consumed. When she looked at Chen Rui again, he was still cautiously eating his own food — a bag of buttered toast, chewing slowly.
An Ling said nothing but looked through her tools to see if she could craft anything. Pulling out a gun in danger wasn’t always the best option.
She didn’t expect to actually find something. 【Antler Bow: Beautiful appearance, economical and practical. Requires materials: Deer Antler *2, Deer Hide *1, Deer Tendon *1. Gain 1 point.】
These were exactly the materials An Ling had gotten from disassembling the Plum Blossom Deer last time.
She was pleasantly surprised. Although she couldn’t shoot arrows, she was deadly accurate!
After crafting it, she held the bow in her hands. The entire bow was pieced together from Deer Antlers, wrapped with Deer Hide, including the midpoint of the bowstring, making it easier to draw.
Chen Rui was startled when An Ling suddenly pulled out a bow. “Sis, is this weapon from your survival backpack?”
“Mm.” An Ling nodded, letting him think so.
As for arrows, there were several options, but currently the Antler Bow only supported the most basic — wooden arrows.
But to make wooden arrows, feathers were needed. There wasn’t a single bird feather here.
An Ling could only use broken simple wooden forks as arrows for now.
She tried shooting, but it was hard to use, and the range was short — less than ten meters — because the wooden fork was too heavy.
Looks like she really needed to get bird feathers to make proper arrows.
An Ling put the Antler Bow back into her backpack. Seeing Chen Rui finish eating, she also stood up. “Let’s go.”