Chapter 42: Tree

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

In the dark and cold silent forest, Zhou Chen and the ponytail girl walked forward at a moderate pace. Every time they walked a distance, they would use their weapons to leave marks on the tree trunks.

The road conditions in this strange forest were better than they had expected. The ground was mostly flat, and there were not many weeds and shrubs on the ground. There was good spacing between the trees, so it was not too difficult for them to walk.

“This place is so strange, I can’t even hear any bird cries…”

After walking for a while, the ponytail girl with the glaive looked around with her bright eyes and muttered.

“They might all be hiding or migrating.”

Zhou Chen used his machete to mark a tree as he replied.

“Perhaps the system did not even put small animals here. With its personality, it prefers to let monsters in.”

The girl thought for a moment and said.

“Hehe, who cares. I want to quickly encounter some monsters and see what the special drops are.”

Zhou Chen remembered that the system introduction for this Survival mission had mentioned that there would be special drops when killing monsters. He was a little curious about this.

“Me too, but from the looks of it, there doesn’t seem to be any monsters hiding here.”

While speaking, the ponytail girl’s bright eyes were paying close attention to her surroundings.

The two of them had walked for about half an hour, but they found that the scene around them had not changed much. There were tall trees all around them, but they did not see a river, nor did they see high slopes or low valleys.

“I’ll take a look from the treetop.”

Zhou Chen felt that he could not continue walking blindly. He was going to climb to the top of a tree to look at the surroundings.

“The treetop? The branches are quite far away and there are many leaves. It won’t be easy to climb up.”

The girl felt that it was a little difficult to put this thought into practice.

“I have to try even if it’s not easy, while I still have enough energy.”

Zhou Chen knew that he might not gain anything from this, but he had to give it a try.

He used both his hands and legs to quickly climb up from the bottom of a tree with his powerful strength.

The branches were more than ten meters away from the bottom of the tree trunk. Every tree was thicker than humans, so it was quite difficult to climb at the beginning.

After spending some effort, Zhou Chen climbed near a tree branch. He reached out and pulled the thick branch, preparing to climb up.

However, at this moment, he realized that the branch he was pulling suddenly came to life. The front of the branch bent like a human hand and wrapped around his arm.

Zhou Chen immediately tightened his legs around the tree trunk. A machete appeared in his other hand and cut the tree branch off.

However, his attack did not completely solve the problem. Instead, it made the other branches on the tree move. They bent down and lashed at him.

Zhou Chen was unable to deal with the attacks of so many tree branches. In a moment of desperation, he relaxed his legs and quickly slid down from the tree.

When he reached the bottom, the tree’s branches still did not let him off. Its long branches bent close to the ground and continued to attack him.

Zhou Chen could only quickly leave the tree’s attack range.

“So these trees are monsters!”

The ponytail girl appeared from behind a tree beside him and said in surprise.

“It might not be completely the case. When I didn’t climb up, it did not attack me.”

Zhou Chen felt that these trees might not necessarily be their enemies. If they were, the situation would really be bad.

“Strange, when I was carving marks on these trees, they did not move.”

The girl was puzzled.

“Maybe it’s because their trunks are not sensitive, and our marks on them might as well be scratches to them.”

Zhou Chen guessed.

“Maybe…”

The girl looked up at the tree.

“Should we try to cut it? Let’s see what we can gain.”

She raised the glaive.

“Forget it.”

Zhou Chen shook his head.

“It would be okay if it was only this tree, but we are surrounded by its kind. When I was attacking it earlier, I realized that the two trees around it were also moving. If we continue to attack it, we might be attacked by the whole group.”

Zhou Chen had just observed that these trees seemed to be able to spur the surrounding trees to attack together, so he did not want to challenge this tree monster in the current environment.

“Then let’s retreat quickly. I feel that something will go wrong if we stay in this forest for too long.”

The ponytail girl realized that she could not act rashly after hearing Zhou Chen’s words.

“The problem will definitely arise sooner or later. I hope we can find an area without trees.”

Zhou Chen also felt the pressure after realizing that the trees in the forest were like monsters. He subconsciously wanted to leave.

However, he remembered that the name of this Survival mission was Silent Forest. Could they really find an area without trees?

The two of them walked in the forest for about half an hour more until it was time for them to gather.

“There are only trees in this direction. We didn’t find anything of value. Let’s go back and check on others.”

Zhou Chen felt that he might not gain much from continuing, and wanted to see if the other Survivors had made any good discoveries.

“If only we could use the friend function here…”

The ponytail girl hated having to return to gather, but she had no choice. They had realized that they could not use the system’s friend function here. Otherwise, it would be much easier for them to communicate.

They turned around and followed the marks they had made.

After walking for about fifteen minutes, they realized a serious problem. The marks on the tree trunk were gone, and the footprints on the ground had disappeared.

“What’s going on? The marks I made in this area have completely disappeared!”

The girl held her glaive and looked at the dozens of trees around her. She could not find any marks on the trees that she had left tens of minutes ago.

“The marks I left here are gone as well. The ones in front are all intact.”

Zhou Chen stepped on the seemingly unchanged ground and guessed the reason.

“Maybe these tree monsters moved their positions. Let’s continue looking.”

He then continued ahead, hoping that only some marks were removed.

After walking for a while more with the girl, he did not find the marks he had left. Instead, the girl saw the mark she had left on a tree dozens of meters away.

“My mark is over here… Did we go in the wrong direction?”

She was not sure.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s difficult for us to communicate with others in the current situation. Let’s continue exploring by ourselves.”

Zhou Chen realized that in the current situation, he could only rely on luck to meet with other Survivors, so he immediately gave up on this idea.

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