Chapter 101

Chapter 101

Xia Zeqin climbed up from the rock, still clutching his fried chicken.

The rustling sound grew louder and louder.

Jian Fan took the lead in helping Qi Shuping up from the rock, moving toward Qin Weiyi and Lu Jing.

They didn’t know what it was, but for now, Lu Jing’s side was clearly the safest place to be.

Jian Fan wasn’t the only one who thought so; everyone present shared the same sentiment. Before long, everyone except Xia Zeqin had gathered around Lu Jing and Qin Weiyi.

Lu Jing now held his Sniper Rifle in hand. He stepped forward proactively, scanning the surroundings with a combat-ready posture.

The rustling drew closer, sounding as if it were right beside them, yet they still hadn’t detected anything unusual.

The Green Bubbles remained exactly as they had been, showing no abnormalities.

Just then-

“Holy crap!”

Yellow Hair’s startled cry shattered the facade of peace.

Countless tiny, black insects suddenly crawled out from the crevices of the rocks. They looked like ants, but were much larger.

They were a species none of them had ever seen before.

And right now, this swarm of creatures was surging toward Xia Zeqin.

On the rock, Lu Jing and the others were huddled in a group. Only Xia Zeqin stood a short distance away from them, and at this moment, the dense mass of unknown creatures was swarming toward him.

It was a terrifying sight to behold.

“Brother Xia!” Qian Xing’s face paled. He shouted out and even took a few steps forward, wanting to help.

Xia Zeqin frowned, looking like he was in a rather foul mood, but his face didn’t show much panic. He tossed the fried chicken in his hand a short distance away. Immediately, the unknown creatures that had been heading for him pivoted and swarmed toward the fried chicken instead.

Their target wasn’t Xia Zeqin; it was the fried chicken.

The current situation proved as much.

Xia Zeqin didn’t seem surprised. After throwing the fried chicken, he walked over to join the group. They watched together as the unknown creatures instantly engulfed the fried chicken.

The piece of fried chicken was completely covered by the black, unknown organisms.

Though the fried chicken wasn’t small, it was devoured clean by the creatures in the blink of an eye.

Once they finished eating, the creatures quickly retreated back into the crevices of the rocks.

“What the hell were those things?” Yellow Hair rubbed his arms; the sight of that dense swarm had triggered his trypophobia.

The unknown creatures had disappeared, but Jian Fan was still staring at the crevices in the rocks.

“They aren’t afraid of the Green Bubbles,” Qin Weiyi noted.

For these things to get here, they had to pass through the Green Bubbles. Their ability to come and go as they pleased proved they were immune to them.

“Could this be our way out?” Orange Hair suggested.

Qi Shuping shook her head. “Impossible.”

Orange Hair looked at Qi Shuping, asking humbly, “Big Shot, why do you say that?”

“They are carnivores,” Qi Shuping said.

Orange Hair was puzzled. “We all saw that. Is there a problem?”

Qi Shuping looked up, meeting Orange Hair’s gaze. “In their eyes, is there any difference between us and fried chicken?”

“N-no way, right?” Orange Hair began to stutter.

“If we were the same as fried chicken to them, those things probably wouldn’t have retreated so quickly,” Qin Nan said.

Qi Shuping nodded. “Therefore, I conclude that these creatures have no eyesight. They rely on their sense of smell to find food.”

They had smelled the aroma of the fried chicken, so they swarmed out. If the humans emitted a similar scent, those creatures would treat them as food as well.
And that smell…

“Blood,” Jian Fan answered.

Qi Shuping nodded, agreeing with Jian Fan’s assessment. “We need to be careful. We can’t let ourselves get injured. Otherwise, our fate won’t be any different from that fried chicken.”

Orange Hair listened, feeling his skin crawl.

Yet, alongside the fear, he felt a surge of adrenaline.

They were all Old Players, but there was clearly a gap between them. Clues that might have taken them a long time to find-or might have even cost a companion’s life to discover-were solved by these Big Shots in the blink of an eye.

However, admiration was one thing-

“They ate that Chicken Dinner, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll eat us, right?” Lin Junruo asked tentatively. She believed Qi Shuping’s words, of course, but she wanted to know how the connection between Chicken Dinner and eating them was made-and with such certainty.

She needed to learn.

It wasn’t just Lin Junruo who was confused; Yellow Hair and Orange Hair couldn’t figure it out either.

“They need to survive,” Qi Shuping said.

Lin Junruo looked blank. So?

Mu Xin saw her expression and gave a helpless laugh, offering a more detailed explanation. “To survive, they need food. How could there possibly be cooked food like fried chicken on this Deserted Island?”

Lin Junruo understood then.

There was no fried chicken, but they still needed to eat. So what did they eat? Most likely raw food. The banana trees and the like were still intact, and there were very few other living animals on the island. So the most likely option was raw meat.

However-

“But there’s one thing,” Mu Xin added, her tone carrying a hint of doubt. “We ate meat last night too, and it didn’t draw these things out. So these creatures showing up should be linked to these Green Bubbles?”

“To be more precise, they might actually be the Green Bubbles we’re seeing,” Qi Shuping replied.

“Huh?” Yellow Hair and the others stared in stunned silence.

These creatures hadn’t appeared last night, which suggested their existence was closely tied to the Green Bubbles. No matter where they came from, they would have to pass through those Green Bubbles. If they didn’t come from the surface, then they could only be beneath the Green Bubbles-able to move through them…

The two might be symbiotic, but it wasn’t impossible that they were actually the same thing.

But that raised a new question.

Lin Junruo continued, “If these creatures only appeared after the Green Bubbles showed up, doesn’t that mean they weren’t here before? If they weren’t here before, then there wouldn’t have been any survival issue at all, right?”

Wouldn’t that directly overturn the earlier theory?

If they hadn’t existed here in the past, they wouldn’t have needed to survive here. Then using that to infer what they used to eat wouldn’t hold up.

“Did the Green Bubbles only appear after we arrived?” Qi Shuping asked.

Lin Junruo blinked. Wasn’t that the case?

“We just happened to run into the time they appear,” Qi Shuping answered plainly.

Yellow Hair and the others exchanged looks.

They had to admit Qi Shuping’s theory was possible, but could she really be that certain?

“We can’t leave,” Qi Shuping said, sounding very sure. “After a set amount of time, these Green Bubbles should recede. They’re most likely here to burn through our supplies and force us to spend our Points. Xu Tian knew that. She knew we wouldn’t be trapped here forever, which is why she dared to gamble on this.”

Was that really it?

Yellow Hair and the others kept trading glances, still doubtful about the answer.