Chapter 28: Other Survivors' Harvest

The direction pointed by the compass needle coincided exactly with the direction from which the stream flowed, indicating that the silver treasure chest was likely on the path he had taken to get here.

"Could it be in the black bear cave?"

Xu Xin gazed at the compass, deep in thought. When he had come from his starting point, he had carefully observed his surroundings. Apart from a black bear cave along the way, there didn't seem to be anything particularly special.

Of course, the location of the treasure chest couldn't be considered using common sense. After all, who would have thought the copper chest would be inside a vine's tuber?

That location was extremely treacherous. If not for his ability, he might have already fallen into a trap by now. Even if he didn't die, he would certainly have been injured.

The location of this silver chest was likely to be just as unusual, so he would need to be cautious at every step.

"I'll go check the black bear cave first. I wonder if there are still any bears in there now."

The skin of the black bear Xu Xin had killed had now become the backpack on his back. He opened the map and looked at the black bear cave on it. At present, there was no red dot inside the cave.

"Perhaps that black bear really was the one from this cave," Xu Xin thought with some delight. If that was indeed the case, it would be for the best.

Last time, he had only managed to kill a wounded and defenseless black bear with the help of the tree house. If he were to face a black bear head-on with just cold weapons, he would end up as bear droppings. If the bear wasn't dead, he would have to rely on his wits.

At this moment, Coco was lying on the table, using its small paws to play with the compass needle.

The compass had entered its cooldown phase and couldn't be used for the next two hours, so the needle turned listlessly under Coco's touch, like a clock with a loose spring.

Xu Xin opened the regional channel. The number of people in the channel had now dropped below eight thousand, with only 7,987 remaining. He remembered glancing at it when he left in the morning, and at that time there were 8,140 people in the regional channel.

"150 people died so quickly?" Xu Xin was a bit shocked. These people were probably killed by the monsters guarding the treasure chests, and some might have encountered silver or gold chests on their first try, guarded by even more powerful monsters.

Now it seemed that the so-called elimination of the stragglers was just a means to get the survivors out of their tree houses. The real danger lay in the monsters guarding the treasure chests.

Xu Xin became more cautious. He didn't want to die from a monster's ambush.

As a careful person, if he didn't have abilities like the map that could warn him of danger in advance, he might have just stayed in his tree house after obtaining the copper chest.

And now, people in the regional channel were saying similar things.

"Is anyone there? Has anyone come back?"

"I'm back, I'm back. I got the copper chest! Damn, I had barely left when a snake as thick as a bowl coiled around me, nearly strangling me to death!"

"What? You encountered a snake? How did you survive?"

"Hehe, I got lucky. The wooden stick in my hand just happened to block its mouth. The snake was strange too, it crumbled away after a few seconds. If it had held on a bit longer, I might have been strangled to death. Fortunately, there was a copper chest in the hole it came out of, so it wasn't for nothing. Anyway, I'm not going out again. This is too damn dangerous. One copper chest is enough."

"That does sound really dangerous!"

"What about you? Did you get a copper chest?"

"Me? I haven't even left yet."

"? Aren't you afraid of dying?"

"A wild animal bit off one of my legs. I'm just waiting to die now. Going out would mean death anyway. Maybe not many people have found chests, and the bottom 50 might be randomly selected from all those who came back empty-handed."

"…You have a pretty good attitude." "My condolences, friend." "Let's wait for death together."

A few sporadic comments from others popped up in the regional channel.

"Will having a bad attitude prevent death? If I have to die, I might as well die happily. By the way, bro, what's in your copper chest? Can you tell me?"

"Nothing much, a bag of fertilizer and two packets of seeds."

Xu Xin silently observed their conversation.

It seemed that although some people hadn't died in the beast tide, they had suffered severe injuries and basically couldn't move. Otherwise, they wouldn't stay put and resign themselves to fate. This also served as a wake-up call for Xu Xin – sustaining serious injuries meant being eliminated in the next activity.

Moreover, from what the guy who got the chest said, it seemed that everyone encountered different dangers, but the contents of the copper chests were all similar. He wondered if the seeds in that chest were the same as his.

Xu Xin had originally wanted to gather more information from the channel, but since the locations of the treasure chests and the dangers encountered were different for each survivor, there wasn't much reference value.

To prevent himself from getting drowsy and making mistakes in the afternoon, Xu Xin ate an orange. He kept a few of the oranges he had picked in the morning in his backpack, left the rest in the tree house, and tossed one to Coco.

The little fellow ate it with great relish.

"Don't you dare drip orange juice on my shoulder."

"Eeng!"

Following the stream, Xu Xin walked towards the upstream direction. This was a path he had walked many times. The first time was before planting the tree house, the second time was to collect pebbles (green) from the stream, and he had also obtained stone blocks (green) from the black bear cave, making a round trip.

During these trips, Xu Xin hadn't actually noticed anything unusual about this path along the stream.

The silver chest was likely to appear suddenly, just like the copper chest.

Moreover, there might be special situations along this stream, like the previous weeds and bushes, hinting at the chest's location. So Xu Xin walked while paying attention to any small changes in his surroundings.

When he saw the black bear cave right before his eyes, Xu Xin realized he had been walking with intense focus for a long time and had already reached the cave. There was no red dot on the map, so at least for now, there was no bear in the cave.

Black bears can be active both day and night, so Xu Xin couldn't tell whether the bear hadn't returned to the cave yet or if it had already been turned into his backpack. But it's always better to be cautious.

Xu Xin kept his mind focused on the map and his eyes fixed on the interior of the cave as he slowly and lightly stepped into it.

That strange wind sound echoed in Xu Xin's ears once again.

There should be a large cave-like space underneath this cave, and the air flowing inside would produce this kind of sound. Perhaps this could be explored to get a glimpse of the underground world.

The idea was nice, but after thoroughly searching the entire cave, Xu Xin couldn't find even a small hole that could connect to another space.

The strange wind sound could be heard everywhere in the cave, but due to the echo, Xu Xin couldn't locate the source of the sound at all.

Perhaps there really wasn't any visible stone cave. Did he need to use a pick to knock out an opening?

But was this really where the silver chest was buried? This wind sound had been there since the first day he arrived, but based on his deduction about the copper chest's location, Xu Xin felt that the silver chest should be a new change to the surrounding environment, not this wind sound that had always been present.

Moreover, the little treasure panda Coco on his shoulder showed no reaction at all, and had even started snoring on his shoulder.

"This little fellow, such a sleepyhead!" Xu Xin shook his head helplessly.

He decided to keep the wind sound as a backup plan. He would continue searching along the river, and if he couldn't find anything, he would wait for the compass to cool down and confirm the direction again.

Xu Xin walked out of the black bear cave and continued upstream along the river. Soon, he triggered a prompt.

[Reminder: Do not stray more than three kilometers from your small tree house, or something you don't want to see will happen.]

He had reached the boundary again.