Chapter 27: Copper treasure chest, underground world?

At this moment, Xu Xin's heart was still pounding. On the fourth day of arriving in this world, Xu Xin finally experienced the feeling of brushing past death for the first time, and it was not a pleasant sensation.

He sprang up from the ground as quickly as possible, grabbed the dazed Coco sitting on the ground, and swiftly moved ten meters away. Hiding behind a tree, he watched the vine that now formed an "n" shape in front of him. He took out a stone spear from his backpack while nervously paying close attention to the map.

He feared there might be more than just this one vine, worried that other plants might come to attack him.

After waiting for ten minutes, the intertwined vine that had attacked him remained motionless.

"Whimper~" Coco let out a weak cry in his arms.

Xu Xin swallowed hard, gripping the stone spear tightly in his hand.

Originally, because there were no red dots around, Xu Xin had thought he wouldn't need the stone spear. It was too long and cumbersome to carry, so he had put it in his backpack. He never expected to encounter such a situation.

Slowly approaching, the vine still remained motionless. Xu Xin constantly kept an eye on the map while extending the stone spear to poke at the vine.

"Crack!" To Xu Xin's surprise, the originally tough and strong vine seemed to have dried up, easily pierced through by the spear. Cracks slowly spread from the punctured area, and a small part of the vine directly crumbled and fell to the ground.

"What's going on?" Xu Xin was puzzled. How did the vine that seemed so tough just moments ago suddenly turn into onion rings?

At this time, he noticed the place where the vine had emerged from the ground, which was the root of the vine. Because the emerged part was so long, it seemed to have brought out a swollen root portion.

"Could it be…"

Xu Xin used the stone spear in his hand to poke at the bulbous root that resembled a sweet potato.

The outer surface of the vine's root cracked open, and a glint of brass color caught Xu Xin's eye.

"Calcium oxide, what a hellish location for this treasure chest!" Xu Xin couldn't help but curse again.

Indeed, inside the root of the vine was the brass treasure chest that Xu Xin had been searching for all along.

At this moment, from the fallen dried vine's bulbous root, a corner of the brass-colored treasure chest was exposed. The metallic texture of the copper appearing within a vine gave Xu Xin a very strong sense of incongruity.

Mustering his courage, he jabbed at the vine that had now become as crisp as an egg roll. Finding no further reaction, he began frantically stabbing like a flopping fish, turning the entire vine into debris on the ground, finally revealing the intact brass treasure chest.

Just as the mysterious voice had said before, the brass treasure chest had no keyhole and should be able to open directly.

But Xu Xin became cautious.

After being ambushed by the vine, his nerves had become sensitive. He now seriously suspected that there might be something dangerous inside the chest that would attack him as soon as he opened it.

On the map, the red dot representing the vine was gone, and there were no red dots around him either. But Xu Xin was still uneasy. After all, there had been no red dots around just before the vine appeared either. The red dot only slowly appeared when the vine was about to emerge from the ground.

Why did the red dot representing the vine appear slowly?

Could it be that this vine had burrowed up from deep underground?

Xu Xin suddenly remembered the giant anaconda in the lake beside his treehouse. That anaconda also gradually faded away and disappeared from the red light dots after diving into the lake.

What secrets were hidden underground?

Why did these seemingly unreasonable monsters all emerge from underground?

Xu Xin suddenly felt that even standing on the ground was unsafe. He wanted to return to his treehouse. The treehouse was ten meters high in the air, and his third floor was even sixteen or seventeen meters high. Only at that height could he feel somewhat safe.

Wait a minute!

On the first day of entering this world, that mysterious voice had told them, "Remember, never abandon your treehouse. The treehouse is your only support." It had emphasized this many times afterward.

Now Xu Xin had also sensed the danger underground.

Xu Xin felt he had discovered something, yet not completely.

Forget it, no need to think further. Opening the treasure chest was more urgent.

Like a startled bird, Xu Xin circled to the back of the treasure chest. He suspected something might jump out of the chest, and opening it from behind would give him some reaction time.

However, he was overthinking. There was nothing extra in the treasure chest.

After opening the chest and finding that nothing jumped out, Xu Xin finally looked inside.

On top inside the chest was a bag of something that looked like… fertilizer?

[Natural Organic Fertilizer (Green): Can transform barren land (White) into ordinary land (Green). When sprinkled on ordinary soil (Green), it can accelerate plant growth. 50 portions remaining.]

Fertilizer that could change the fertility of the land!

This was a lifesaver for those survivors who had planted their treehouses in very barren places. Xu Xin had previously discovered that soil couldn't be traded, so this fertilizer was probably their only way to change soil fertility for now.

It could accelerate plant growth on ordinary soil? It didn't seem very useful for him.

He casually put the bag of natural organic fertilizer into his backpack, revealing what was underneath in the treasure chest.

"Birch seeds? Pine seeds?" Xu Xin picked up two bags of seeds.

[Birch Seeds: Can harvest a birch tree in just 10 days. Cutting down a birch tree yields fine wood.]

[Pine Seeds: Can harvest a pine tree in just 10 days. Cutting down a pine tree yields round wood.]

New tree species, new types of wood, new resources!

Xu Xin felt somewhat fortunate to have found this treasure chest. The mysterious voice had also mentioned that the items in this chest were limited resources. If missed, he would lose the ability to obtain these resources and might only be able to purchase them from others.

Used in conjunction with the fertilizer, he could quickly obtain new materials.

This treasure chest was quite thoughtful; the resources all came as a set.

"Whimper!" Coco perched on the edge of the chest, its short paws pointing inside.

Beneath the two bags of seeds, there was also a silver compass and a silver key.

That key should be for the silver treasure chest, but what was this compass? Xu Xin picked up the compass.

[Silver Treasure Chest Compass (Green): Turn the pointer to determine the general direction of a silver treasure chest once. Usage interval: 2 hours.]

"Wow, that's a good item!"

Picking up the compass, Xu Xin was about to use it when he suddenly thought, if it only gave a general direction, wouldn't it be better to use it after returning to the treehouse? The treehouse was at the center of the entire area, which would maximize the narrowing down of the search range.

"Coco, let's go, back to the treehouse."

"Whimper!"

Back at the treehouse, the sun was now high in the sky.

Xu Xin had left the treehouse after nine o'clock, and it was now already one in the afternoon. Having found the first treasure chest in just four hours, Xu Xin was quite satisfied with his speed.

He had brought the brass treasure chest back with him. After all, it was a copper item, and who knew, maybe in the future, he'd be able to break it down into materials.

Sitting in his chair, Xu Xin immediately took out the silver compass, placed it on the table, and turned the pointer.

The pointer felt somewhat heavy to turn. Once moved, it didn't slowly come to a stop but instead spun faster and faster, then made a clear "ding" sound before gradually slowing down.

Finally, the pointer stopped, indicating a direction to the west of the treehouse.

"Huh, isn't that the direction I came from?"

The west was the direction of the stream.