Volume 1, Chapter 29: Calculations.

A murderer? Someone is looking for me?

Li Chuan silently activated his "Jungle Stealth" skill and leaned against a thick, dead tree. Two minutes later, his figure slowly merged with the surrounding scenery. On the south side of the deadwood forest, five furtive figures crept closer.

"Xiaonian, didn't you say he was over here? How have we walked so far without seeing him?" Zheng Dekai asked in a low voice.

The scrawny teenager frowned, puzzled. "President, I definitely saw that Cold-Blooded One heading this way earlier. Logically, he should be right around here."

Zheng Dekai suddenly reached out to stop the four behind him. "Wait! Stop, retreat!" He felt a sudden, heart-palpitating sense of dread.

Li Chuan silently watched the five men. They were Xu Fengyun’s companions and subordinates. Were they truly here to hunt me down?

The five men dared not be careless and quickly retreated from the unnerving area.

"It's a good thing President Zheng has such keen senses; I didn't feel a thing just now."

"Exactly, exactly."

Zheng Dekai’s lips curled upward; clearly, the flattery of the others was very satisfying to him.

"This place is dangerous. Since we can't find that Cold-Blooded One, there's no need to take risks here. Let's find a safer place to look for keys."

"That Cold-Blooded One is skilled at moving through this deadwood forest; he’s likely long gone by now. Whether we can force him to submit depends on whether the President and the others can subdue his Plant Spirit."

"With the Great President’s strength, I imagine..."

After the five had walked away, Li Chuan’s figure slowly materialized.

*So, this Xu Fengyun has finally turned his schemes toward me. Are they attacking Xiao Lv right now?*

After thinking for a moment, Li Chuan felt a flicker of concern and immediately hurried back. He wasn't worried about Xiao Lv's strength; ten players attacking at once wouldn't be enough to deal with it. However, Xiao Lv was still a juvenile Plant Spirit and didn't understand the treachery of humans. If Xu Fengyun had some bizarre method specifically targeting Plant Spirits, Li Chuan would have nowhere to turn.

***

Game time: 5:40 PM. Li Chuan returned silently from the other side of the deadwood forest. His first instinct was to check on his Plant Spirit.

Xiao Lv was fine, but a large crowd was surrounding the area just outside its attack range. Li Chuan squinted to get a better look.

"Are those... the stragglers?"

Around Li Chuan’s tent, more than thirty stragglers had gathered. These freaks, their bodies already twisted and strange, were holding weapons and surrounding the tent in a circle. Some held long knives, some held wooden clubs, and others simply held tree branches.

Xiao Lv had extended its flower bud from the tent; though it had no eyes, it felt as if it were glaring at the creatures daring to offend it. Li Chuan’s order was to annihilate any player that entered its attack range. Since these people were on the verge of crossing that threshold, Xiao Lv was preparing to strike.

"Just this group of stragglers?" Li Chuan narrowed his eyes, looking at Xu Fengyun, who was staring in the direction of his tent.

*I see. It must be that silver-tongued devil who used food to incite these stragglers to besiege my Plant Spirit.*

But he had overestimated the courage of these stragglers. If any of them had a shred of bravery, they would have cleared the game or died trying long ago. Why would they remain in this hellhole, waiting for death in such a half-human, half-ghost state?

Every five days, a new batch of players arrived. The stragglers begged for food; those who got some lived, those who didn't starved. After three days, the players would leave, and the stragglers would endure hunger and thirst for two days until the next batch arrived. It was a cycle.

Unable to leave, unable to escape—every day was pain and despair. And every evening, they had to endure the onslaught of the Tavari moisture-absorbing powder. Li Chuan could not fathom what the point of their existence was.

Li Chuan couldn't handle thirty-plus stragglers alone, but he wasn't worried; it wouldn't be long before they had to retreat.

Time ticked by. The thirty-odd stragglers remained in a standoff with Xiao Lv until after six o'clock, when they began to drift away one by one. It wasn't that they didn't want to harass Xiao Lv anymore; it was because the daily evening onslaught of the Forbidden Land’s unique dry powder was approaching.

This toxic powder would adhere to the surface of all objects, draining them of moisture. Once or twice was fine, but repeated exposure caused human skin to wither and bodies to become thin as skeletons. For the stragglers, who had no Plant Spirits and instead grew seeds within their own bodies, it was even more severe—so severe that they would lose their sanity and attack any creature that contained moisture.

This was why the players and their Plant Spirits were attacked when they first entered the Forbidden Land yesterday. There were no monsters here; if there were, they were the stragglers.

When the stragglers had mostly dispersed, leaving fewer than ten, Li Chuan stood up and swaggered back to Xiao Lv. He didn't have the confidence to face thirty, but seven or eight? He wasn't afraid at all.

Those still lingering around Xiao Lv were so delirious from hunger that they didn't even react when Li Chuan walked right up to his plant.

In their current state, they would likely turn into mindless monsters in the white fog. Looking at these stragglers with their dilated pupils, Li Chuan pulled a box of bread and a gallon of pure water from his backpack.

"Whoever can get me a single branch from that person's Plant Spirit! I will give them a box of bread and a gallon of water!"

Attracted by the bread in Li Chuan’s hands, the stragglers regained a shred of spirit. Unable to distinguish truth from lie, they surged like mad toward the person Li Chuan pointed at: the Three Heroes Alliance—Xu Fengyun!

"Food, bread, I want bread. It's just a branch."

"Yeah, a branch is easy, so easy. I'm hungry, I'm so hungry."

...

At that moment, it was as if someone had torn open a giant bag of flour. Huge clouds of toxic powder surged from the deadwood forest, making it impossible to see anything. Before the toxic powder completely enveloped the area, Li Chuan rushed back into the tent with Xiao Lv’s flower bud and sealed all the vents as quickly as possible.

"Whew... perfect!"

Forbidden Land Area Chat Channel.

Current surviving players: 163/1000

Zhao Gao Pointing at a Deer: "Damn, the monsters from yesterday were just the stragglers? I thought it was something else."

Liu Haizhu: "Obviously. You just realized? The stragglers were talking about this last night."

Yang Liu’s Slim Waist: "What? Did your girlfriend suddenly lose her mind and bite your butt?"

Zhao Gao Pointing at a Deer: "@Yang Liu’s Slim Waist, none of your business, you fat hag!"

Bee Doesn't Collect Honey: "What's going on? Why are all these insane stragglers rushing toward our side?" (This was one of the three schemers, named Hua Mingze.)

Only Picking Flowers, Not Touching Grass (Cold-Blooded One): "Why don't you know? Don't you understand that those who do evil bring about their own destruction?"

Lock Picking Master: "@Only Picking Flowers, Not Touching Grass, what do you mean by that?" (This was Zheng Dekai, the one who had been searching for him in the forest.)

Only Picking Flowers, Not Touching Grass (Cold-Blooded One): "You should know what I mean, right? When you were looking for me in the deadwood forest earlier, I was right behind you! You haven't forgotten what you said, have you?"

Li Chuan was no saint. Since these bastards tried to scheme against him, he wasn't about to let it slide.

Wind and Clouds Rise: "So it was you who made these stragglers attack our area? With life-and-death enemies right in front of us, you actually do such evil things. You really are a despicable, sinister murderer."