Chapter 91

Chapter 91

“Not necessarily,” Lu Jing said, feeling that the situation wasn’t quite as dire as it seemed.

Everyone turned to look at him.

“We have something to drink now. As for food, when the tide comes in later, it might wash up some seafood or something similar. We can make do for now. Besides, we’re still on the outermost ring. Once we’ve rested and recovered, we can head further inland tomorrow. We might find something new then,” Lu Jing explained.

“Then where are we going to stay?” Qin Nan asked.

“If there really aren’t any materials, we’ll just stack stones,” Lu Jing said casually. Everyone present looked at him with expressions of utter disbelief.

Lu Jing didn’t care what they thought. He glanced at the Players present and immediately began assigning tasks. “Alright, Qin Nan, lead me to those coconut trees. We’ll harvest as many as we can and grab some fronds to cover ourselves with tonight. The rest of you, go find some large stones nearby and bring them back. Scrape together some grass from the area too. If anyone finishes early and has some free time, walk along the beach and see if you can find anything else.”

Although Lu Jing’s plan sounded a bit far-fetched, they had no better options at the moment, so they chose to follow along. If things truly became impossible, they could always use their Points to exchange for items later.

The group split up and got to work.

Lu Jing followed Qin Nan to the coconut trees, with Jian Fan and Qin Weiyi coming along as well.

Lu Jing took one look at the trees and then nimbly scaled one in a few quick movements. One second Qin Nan was talking to someone, and the next, he saw Lu Jing zip right up the trunk.

“…”

A professional was indeed a professional.

There were twelve Players in total. To be safe, they wanted one coconut per person plus three extras. Lu Jing picked fifteen coconuts and then tore off a large number of fronds, tossing everything down in a heap. Qin Nan and the other two were responsible for gathering the items below.

Once Lu Jing had cleared enough, he jumped straight down from the tree and landed steadily on his feet.

This scene left Qin Nan dazed. It brought back memories of his own miserable journey down from a tree-no, he didn’t want to think about that at all.

After Lu Jing landed, he scanned the surroundings again and remarked, “It would be great if there were banana trees. That would solve our food problem, and banana leaves are much larger.”

“Why don’t you go look for some then?” Qin Nan suggested.

Lu Jing didn’t answer but instead looked at Qin Weiyi.

Qin Weiyi said, “It’s up to you. If you think there’s enough time, go ahead and take a look. We’ll finish up here and pull up some useful grass nearby.”

Being with Jian Fan and Qin Nan, Qin Weiyi felt he was safe enough for now. He had survived before he had Lu Jing by his side, so he wasn’t truly that dependent on him yet.

Seeing that Qin Weiyi had given his approval, Lu Jing nodded immediately.

As soon as Lu Jing left, the three followed through with what Qin Weiyi had said and began pulling up grass in the vicinity. Carrying stones back was too heavy, but grass was manageable.

While the three were busy pulling grass, Lu Jing scouted the area at an incredible speed.

On his own, Lu Jing’s pace increased significantly. In no time, he had climbed halfway up the mountain and conducted a general sweep of the surrounding area.

To his surprise, Lu Jing actually discovered quite a few things.

Qin Nan and the others stopped once they felt they had enough materials, considering they might not be able to carry much more.

Not long after they stopped to rest, Lu Jing returned with both hands full of items.

Seeing Lu Jing’s hands overflowing, the three were quite surprised.
“That’s a lot,” Qin Weiyi remarked. After a moment’s thought, he added, “How far did you go?”

“Not far, just halfway up the mountain,” Lu Jing replied casually. “I wanted to keep exploring further up, but I found some little treats. Since tonight’s dinner was sorted, I decided to head back first.”

Qin Nan looked at what Lu Jing was carrying.

He had large bundles of banana leaves clutched in both hands.

“You actually found bananas?” Qin Nan asked, pleasantly surprised.

Lu Jing gave a grunt of affirmation. “But I wasn’t talking about the bananas. We’re in luck; on our first day, we won’t have to rely solely on fruit to fill our stomachs.” As he spoke, he dropped his haul onto the ground.

Wrapped inside the banana leaves were several bunches of bananas, but there were other things as well.

Two snakes and a pigeon.

Qin Nan blinked, then finally gave Lu Jing a thumbs-up. Beyond that, he didn’t know how else to express his feelings.

Lu Jing didn’t think much of it. In fact, he felt it was too little-hardly enough to feed twelve people. Unfortunately, resources here were simply too scarce.

He glanced at the results of Qin Nan’s group’s labor and said, “If you’re done here, let’s head back.”

The four of them returned to the beach.

Xia Zeqin and the others had already hauled over a fair number of stones, though it was clearly still not enough. On the other hand, Lin Junruo, Qi Shuping, and Mu Xin had gathered quite a bit of grass. Lu Jing estimated it was probably sufficient, so he told the three women to go check the shoreline for any other finds. Meanwhile, he took Jian Fan and the others to help move more stones.

With Lu Jing’s help, the pace quickened significantly, yet they still lacked enough stones.

After surveying the surroundings, Lu Jing eventually dragged over several thick tree roots from the nearby woods.

He placed the roots and stones together, cordoning off two low-walled areas that only reached about knee-height.

They were a bit low, but for people lying down, the height of the stones and roots was more than enough.

“Resources are really limited, so we’ll have to make do with this. Layer the grass thick on top, and then everyone can share the banana leaves to lay over it as a windbreak. I’ll light several campfires around the perimeter later. We just need to get through tonight first,” Lu Jing sighed.

The others looked at one another, no one speaking for a moment.

“If you don’t think this is good enough, you can go buy your own tents later,” Qin Weiyi cut in, his voice cold.

Hearing this, Qin Nan quickly stepped in with a smile to smooth things over. “I think this is great. We need to save our Points for when we really need them, right? Lu Jing, the girls can handle spreading the grass. Is there anything else we can do to help?”

Lu Jing didn’t sense any tension and replied, “In that case, go gather some stones-smaller than these-and set up a few pits nearby.”

Qin Nan nodded. “For the campfires, right? Got it, I’m on it.”

Lu Jing gave a hum of acknowledgment and went back to his work.

He was the only one who knew anything about wilderness survival, and he had plenty to do. Using the materials at hand, he fashioned a crude bow drill out of branches and bark, then used the contraption to start a fire by friction.

Lu Jing was clearly an old hand at this.

When Qin Nan and the others returned with their first load of stones, they happened to see a spark of fire flickering on the wood in Lu Jing’s hands.

“The man’s a legend!” Qin Nan exclaimed in awe.