Chapter 29: unexpected gain

Although Xu Xin had already reached the boundary, he was in no hurry to return.

Of course, he wouldn't risk his life by walking beyond the three-kilometer boundary, but he was still curious why they couldn't go beyond that range. Was it because the treehouse could only protect them within a three-kilometer radius?

On the map, within the three-kilometer range of the treehouse, except for the red dot in the center of the lake, there were no more beasts at this time. Was this also the work of the treehouse? Or was it deliberately caused by that mysterious voice?

At this moment, he already had a guess in his mind, but it was not mature.

Xu Xin cast a meaningful glance at the ground outside the boundary, which was the direction he had come from. He had previously walked through there unscathed, but now he couldn't go back.

Before, it was the newbie protection period that protected him, and now, it was the treehouse protecting him.

He decided not to think too much about it. Nearly two hours had passed now, so Xu Xin started walking back, returning to the location of the black bear cave.

Standing at the entrance of the black bear cave, Xu Xin used the compass for the second time.

Again, there was a crisp "ding" sound, and the compass needle gradually pointed in the opposite direction of the black bear cave, towards the other side of the creek.

It seemed the treasure chest was on the other side of the creek, and Xu Xin would have to cross it.

The creek wasn't difficult to cross, after all, it wasn't deep. Even though this was already the lower reaches of the creek and the water was quite wide, the deepest part of the entire creek was only thirty to forty centimeters deep.

Xu Xin was about to step into the creek when he suddenly stopped.

What if the monster wasn't on the other side of the creek, but in the creek itself?

If he stepped in, wouldn't he be walking to his death? After all, forty centimeters of water wasn't really deep, but it would significantly affect normal movement and could greatly slow down Xu Xin's speed.

"Coco, wake up!" Xu Xin violently rubbed the head of Coco, who was lying on his shoulder.

"…Yin yin!" Coco, violently awakened, was very dissatisfied and yin-yined at Xu Xin.

Xu Xin took Coco down from his shoulder, held it in his arms, facing the creek: "Can you sense if there's anything wrong in this creek?"

After all, last time Coco had found the treasure chest by following its scent. This might be its intuition, but it was indeed very useful.

"Yin?" Coco instinctively tilted its head, still in a daze from being just woken up, and was already being put to work.

It jumped down from Xu Xin's arms, came to the water's edge, dipped its little paw into the water, then turned to Xu Xin and shook its head: "Yin~"

"Not?" Xu Xin frowned, had he overthought it? Neither Coco nor the map showed any warning of danger, so maybe he really had thought wrong.

Relaxing his furrowed brow, Xu Xin picked Coco back onto his shoulder, took off his shoes, and prepared to cross the creek.

The creek's current was swift, and the water was very cold. As soon as Xu Xin stepped in, he felt the biting chill. After just a few steps, his entire foot was almost numb from the cold.

He wasn't sure why the mountain stream water was so cold, even though the current temperature was over 30 degrees.

After two steps, Xu Xin stopped.

For some reason, the further he walked, the more uneasy he felt. It was almost the same as the sudden sense of crisis he had felt earlier when the vines were about to emerge from the ground, only not as intense. It felt like something dangerous was getting closer and closer to him.

There was something in the water!

There really was something in the water!

Xu Xin chose to trust his instincts and took big strides to run back. He hadn't reached the deepest part in the middle of the creek yet, so going back was the quickest way to reach the shore!

Just as he turned to run back, there was suddenly a splashing sound behind him, as if something had emerged from the water!

"Yin!" Coco suddenly cried out on his shoulder,

The sound was completely different from its usual cute voice, instead it was a hoarse, sharp roar, as if warning the thing behind them.

Xu Xin turned his head slightly, catching a glimpse of the thing behind with his peripheral vision.

When that thing entered his pupils, Xu Xin's pupils instantly contracted, his face drained of color, and he frantically rushed towards the shore.

In the middle of the creek, a crocodile had surfaced, a crocodile much larger than normal ones. Its size reminded Xu Xin of a prehistoric creature from the late Cretaceous period, one of the largest crocodiles in history, the Deinosuchus!

No, even the Deinosuchus wasn't this big! This was a giant Deinosuchus!

The crocodile, nearly twenty meters long, had been lying at the bottom of the creek along the direction of the current. As it rose from the creek bottom, the water level of the entire creek dropped significantly.

And on the map that Xu Xin had been closely watching, no red dot had lit up!

"Damn it! This map can't show anything, huh? What kind of creator function is this, trying to get me killed!" Xu Xin's body was running ahead while his soul was chasing behind. He ran frantically towards the shore, crossing to land in just four or five steps.

However, what surprised him was that the crocodile didn't seem to have any intention of attacking him, otherwise Xu Xin would have had almost no chance of escaping just now.

Crocodiles can strike very quickly in water. If it had bitten him and done a death roll, he would have likely been turned into a pile of minced meat.

The crocodile was just looking at him, just like the giant anaconda in the lake center, just silently watching him.

Like the giant anaconda in the lake center, it had a huge, monster-like body, as if it wasn't a creature of this era.

The only difference was that the giant anaconda appeared as an extremely bright red dot on the map, while this crocodile, which seemed to be a Deinosuchus, didn't show up on the map at all.

The last thing that didn't show up was the little panda Coco on his shoulder.

He looked at Coco on his shoulder. At this moment, Coco was baring its teeth at the Deinosuchus, as if trying to intimidate it. However, it wasn't very effective; it was just too cute.

The Deinosuchus in the creek slowly opened its huge mouth. Just as Xu Xin's expression turned grim, ready to run for his life, he suddenly saw a flash of bright silver in the crocodile's mouth.

A silver treasure chest?

In this crocodile's mouth?!

"…Can we not play nice anymore?"

"Yin?"

The Deinosuchus tossed its head, flinging the silver chest to the shore where it landed with a loud "thump".

The chest landed right at Xu Xin's feet, while the giant Deinosuchus now closed its mouth and looked at Xu Xin with eyes that were very small compared to its body size. Then, under Xu Xin's wary and puzzled gaze, it slowly sank back into the water.

The clear water had now become murky with the sand and stones stirred up by the Deinosuchus, but Xu Xin could still see that the crocodile hadn't left, but had once again lain down at the bottom of the creek.

It had been at the bottom of this creek all along! Perhaps when Xu Xin first passed by here, a Deinosuchus was already lying here!

After all, this Deinosuchus was a special existence like Coco. Since Coco wasn't bound by the rules of this world, perhaps this crocodile wasn't either.

The more Xu Xin thought about it, the more scared he felt. Although this giant Deinosuchus didn't seem to have any ill intentions towards him, it was still a crocodile! Its demonic appearance and sharp teeth made Xu Xin's heart race.

Fortunately, it seemed that this crocodile meant him no harm for now.

Looking at the silver chest at his feet, Xu Xin felt like he was in a dream, inexplicably obtaining the silver chest.

"…This treasure chest location is way too creepy!!"