Chapter 21: Riot ends

Xu Xin scrolled up through the regional channel and found the messages Ji Chaoyang had posted earlier. His messages had been reposted by many others in the regional channel, so they were easy to find.

"Everyone, don't panic. I've discovered that the treehouses have a scent-masking function.

As long as you don't make any noise, you won't be discovered by beasts. Whatever you do, don't shout or yell.

Also, don't go near the windows out of curiosity to look outside. The windows of low treehouses are too close to the ground and lack cover. Human shadows moving at the windows will attract the attention of fierce beasts and birds of prey.

It's best to hide in a place that can't be seen from the windows."

"The treehouses have a scent-masking function? How does he know that?" Xu Xin rubbed his chin. "This Ji Chaoyang person is indeed an expert. I should get to know him if I have the chance. He must have quite a few high-level resources."

So far, Xu Xin hadn't seen any resources above blue grade on the trading platform. After all, without his abilities, others could only rely on luck and needed to bring items back to their treehouses to determine their grade.

Unless they were incredibly lucky like Li Wenxi, with resources concentrated in one mine – a rich heiress who could casually bring home blue-grade resources just by mining a few rocks – it was nearly impossible for others to obtain blue-grade resources. Even Xu Xin had to travel for two days from his starting point to find his first blue resource.

As for the windows, they weren't an issue for him since his treehouse had dense foliage that completely obscured the interior from the outside.

The low treehouses were only about three meters tall. At this height, they were mere decorations to feline predators that could easily jump up. With the animals in this world being so strong, the treehouses would offer no chance of escape if discovered by fierce beasts. No wonder so many people had died.

Xu Xin looked at the channel's population count. The remaining number had stabilized at 8,140. The beast horde had now retreated. As long as people didn't foolishly go down, the few remaining scattered beasts wouldn't pose a threat.

Just a few hours after the end of the newbie protection period, nearly two thousand people had permanently left this world.

[The beast rampage has ended. Congratulations to the survivors who made it through the initial night of beast attacks. You have become true treehouse explorers. Keep up the good work, everyone!]

[The death rate for this event was 32.76%. Some survivors have permanently left us. Let us bid farewell to their souls. May there be no beasts in the afterlife.]

[Please don't let your guard down. The beasts have only temporarily retreated and could rampage again at any time. Arm yourselves. We hope you can survive the next outbreak.]

[To reward the survivors of this event, the Jungle Exploration activity will officially begin today at 9:00. Survivors, please look forward to it.]

32.76%?! That high? Based on the number of people in their Jungle 188 regional channel, the death rate was less than 20%. Were there so many deaths in other regions?

And what did this Jungle Exploration activity mean? They just gave a name – would the rules only be explained at 9:00? If it was a reward activity, did that mean there would be no danger?

However, Xu Xin felt that this mysterious voice wasn't so benevolent.

Xu Xin looked at the regional channel.

"It's finally over!"

"Waaah, Mom, I'm still alive!"

"The expert is awesome! Keeping our region's death rate so low!"

"Jungle 188 is unbeatable!"

"I'm exhausted, tired and sleepy. Going to bed."

"Sleep time. There's an activity in the morning. The reward activity must have good stuff."

Having eaten the (blue) orange, Xu Xin's energy was fully restored even though the effect had worn off. With the boost from the dining table, it was equivalent to having slept for an hour and a half. He was now energetic and not very sleepy.

He glanced at the map again. The red dots around his treehouse had completely disappeared. Now, most of the red dots were concentrated in the northwest of his treehouse's location.

That area was pitch black, belonging to unexplored territory. It was clearly a beast gathering place and an extremely dangerous area. Unless absolutely necessary, Xu Xin would definitely not go in that direction.

He sent the attributes of the patched backpack to Li Wenxi: "White-grade backpack, want it?"

She didn't reply, but Xu Xin wasn't too worried about her. After all, she didn't have the lowest-grade treehouse. Like Xu Xin himself, as long as she didn't do anything foolish, there was basically no chance of problems.

Seeing no reply from her, Xu Xin ate another orange and a large red berry, preparing to go out and pick up some trash. Others might be afraid to go out at this time, fearing remaining beasts, but Xu Xin with his map wasn't afraid. He knew there were no beasts around him now.

Carried down to the base of the treehouse by the banyan tree roots, the first thing he saw was the (blue) apple tree he had planted next to his treehouse. In just one day, the apple tree had grown to the thickness of two fingers. The fence around it had served its purpose well before meeting its demise, either tilted or broken from impacts.

Fortunately, the apple tree hadn't suffered any damage.

It was a mess. The ground was covered in blood stains and fur left behind after the beasts' slaughter, and there were even fallen feathers from birds of prey, emitting a faint green glow.

Xu Xin walked over and picked up one of the feathers.

[Owl Feather (Green): A feather that fell from an owl during its struggle, still faintly stained with blood.]

This was one of the materials for stone arrows. Xu Xin casually put the feather in his backpack.

Making a bow and arrow required animal tendons, but he hadn't obtained this material from dissecting the bear or wolf.

Was it that these two animals couldn't provide this material, and it could only be obtained from specific animals? Or was there only a certain probability of obtaining it, and his luck was bad? Or was his technique flawed, accidentally breaking the tendons so he couldn't obtain them?

Lacking a means of ranged attack, Xu Xin felt something was missing.

However, to his surprise, there were no beast carcasses in the forest. Not even gnawed bones remained. Only the messy undergrowth and blood stains on the ground could prove what kind of melee had just taken place here.

As expected, it was impossible for survivors to exploit such a loophole. Giving survivors a free newbie gift package of beast carcasses wasn't this world's style.

After searching for a while, Xu Xin only managed to pick up 4 fallen owl feathers from the ground.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from a nearby bush.

Xu Xin immediately tensed up, pointing his stone spear towards the source of the sound, the map appearing in his mind. But to his surprise, there were no red dots around him on the map.

"What's going on? Is something wrong with my map?" Xu Xin became nervous.

If the map couldn't mark all beasts, its effectiveness against them would be greatly reduced. After all, some fierce beasts, especially large felines at the top of the food chain, relied on sudden bursts of speed to hunt.

Just as Xu Xin was fully alert and on guard, suddenly, a small brown head poked out from the bushes, its white ears twitching back and forth.

This scene seemed familiar.

"Oh, it's you." Xu Xin relaxed a bit when he saw that little face.

It was the small red panda he had seen before.

This little fellow was special. It could move freely even before the newbie protection period had ended, so it was normal that the map couldn't detect it. It meant no harm to him, so there was no need to be too wary.

Although he couldn't rule out the possibility of aggressive beasts having the same ability as this small red panda, if he really encountered such a "cheating" beast, Xu Xin could only accept his bad luck.

The red panda emerged from the messy bushes and once again performed the same action as last time, grabbing onto Xu Xin's shorts leg and making soft cries. Its fluffy tail swayed behind it, sweeping the fallen leaves on the ground.

Xu Xin understood what it wanted and took out a large red berry from his backpack. "You want to eat this?"

The red panda immediately nodded with soft cries.

"You can understand what I'm saying?" Xu Xin was surprised.