Looking at the time, it was already 8 PM. Tonight happened to be a moonless night, with the starry sky exceptionally clear and bright. A dazzling river of stars hung in the sky, a sight Xu Xin, who had grown up in the city, had never seen before.
"I remember the moonlight was very bright last night, it seemed to be a full moon, right? Yet today it's already the new moon. This world is really strange."
Xu Xin sighed, but didn't pay much attention to it. After all, it was another world, and couldn't be measured by Earth's rules.
He armed himself fully again and set off towards the northwest of the treehouse.
The northwest of the treehouse was the lake, and Xu Xin wanted to go there, but first he had to go around the lake.
Of course, he had considered the possibility that the golden treasure chest might be in this lake.
But if it really was in the lake, he had no way of retrieving it at the moment.
This lake was dangerous.
Although the giant anaconda was no longer in the lake's center, this lake was still the only place within a three-kilometer radius of his treehouse that had red dots on the map. The red dots concentrated in the lake's center weren't very bright, much dimmer than the wolves killed by the black bear earlier, but there were many of them. A dense patch kept moving around, likely a school of piranhas or something similar.
With his current abilities, trying to compete with piranhas for a treasure chest in the water would be pure suicide.
Xu Xin swung his arm and threw a stone into the center of the lake.
"Ying?" Coco on his shoulder was affected by Xu Xin's movement, almost falling off while clutching his clothes. It used all four limbs to climb back onto his shoulder.
The stone hit the lake center, splashing up a huge spray of water. The lake instantly began to boil. Because the lake water was very clear and the center was deep enough not to stir up silt, Xu Xin could vaguely see countless fish frantically swimming about under the surface, with several jumping out of the water in succession.
It was a kind of blood-red fish, looking only slightly larger than his palm, but those sharp teeth like saw blades made Xu Xin's heart cold with fear.
They were indeed piranhas. These piranhas seemed to only wander around the center of the lake and wouldn't come to the shore, so the fish and shrimp in the diving area by the shore hadn't fallen victim.
At this moment, due to Xu Xin's stone throw, a huge grass carp, startled, mistakenly entered the central area of the lake.
In that instant, the lake water violently boiled again, with water splashing higher than when Xu Xin had thrown the stone. A faint blood color spread from where the grass carp had been, quickly diluted and disappearing in the lake water.
My goodness, can't mess with that, can't mess with that. Better look elsewhere first.
Walking along the lakeshore, it didn't take long for Xu Xin to reach the other side of the lake.
Xu Xin wasn't very familiar with this northwest direction. He had only casually glanced at this area during his initial exploration, and finding no blue resources, he hadn't come back here since. So this area's map was all black.
Xu Xin advanced straight in the direction the golden treasure chest compass had pointed earlier. With the map, he didn't have to worry about walking in circles in the jungle like others might. The compass could naturally exert its maximum effect in his hands.
The resource area extended eastward from the lake, so after walking a few hundred meters northwest, he had already left the resource area and once again entered an ocean of white light.
But Xu Xin didn't feel anything was amiss. The locations of the bronze and silver treasure chests weren't inside the resource area either, but in places relatively far from the treehouse, with no high-level resources around. Following this pattern, the golden treasure chest might not be inside the resource area either.
Xu Xin continued walking forward clueless, occasionally petting Coco on his shoulder. But Coco wasn't leading the way like when they were looking for the bronze chest. Instead, it just lay on Xu Xin's shoulder, looking somewhat listless.
It made sense. Coco had been busy with Xu Xin all day, and now it was evening, time for the little one to sleep.
"Coco, do the red berries and oranges I gave you to eat have any special effects on you?" Xu Xin had given Coco several oranges today. If the oranges' effects worked on it too, it shouldn't be sleepy, right?
"Ying?" Coco tilted its head to look at him, its eyes barely open and filled with confusion.
It seemed the special effects of blue resources didn't work for them. Xu Xin shook his head, hugged Coco in his arms, stroked its fluffy tail, and said, "Sleep for a while. I'll wake you up if anything happens. You'd better be energetic then."
"Ying." Coco responded with a sound, then curled up in Xu Xin's arms and fell asleep.
The jungle was very quiet at night, without even the sound of insects. There was only the rustle of leaves and the sound of his feet stepping on the grass.
Without Coco moving around on his shoulder and sweeping his neck with its tail, Xu Xin felt a bit unaccustomed.
Although there were no red dots representing hostile units on the map at this time, Xu Xin still remained highly focused, constantly sensing the surrounding movements and changes on the map.
It was still the same monotonous jungle, a forest of white poplars. After walking for so long, Xu Xin didn't feel even the slightest bit of oddness in the surroundings.
[Reminder: Do not leave the small treehouse for more than three kilometers, or something you don't want to see will happen.]
He had reached the boundary again.
Standing at the boundary, Xu Xin frowned.
This time he was really at a loss. Following the compass's direction all the way here, he hadn't noticed even the slightest anomaly. Could that golden treasure chest really be in the lake?
This was troublesome.
Xu Xin raised his head and looked at the hills right before his eyes.
A large group of dense red dots was on the other side of the hills, less than a kilometer away from him. He couldn't go out, but those beasts didn't seem to want to enter his territory either.
It was still safe for now.
Looking at the hills before him, a sudden idea arose in Xu Xin's mind.
"What would happen if I stepped outside this boundary? What terrible things could occur?"
This idea sprouted in Xu Xin's mind. For some reason, the desire to go out swelled in his heart, growing stronger. Xu Xin stared intently at the hills before him. They seemed like a deadly temptation, unconsciously making him take a step forward.
This time, that mysterious voice didn't warn him again.
Driven by the desire in his heart, Xu Xin took another step forward, already half a foot outside the boundary.
Just as he was about to continue forward, Coco moved in his arms.
"Ying…" Seeming not to sleep comfortably, Coco twisted its body a little in Xu Xin's arms.
This movement suddenly woke Xu Xin up, but he had already taken his third step.
A strong sense of crisis suddenly erupted in his heart. Xu Xin quickly retracted his foot.
The moment he pulled back, the spot where his third step was about to land suddenly cracked open. In an instant, a sharp vine shot out, straight up into the air to a height of four or five meters!
The deep green vine had a few strands of blood-red threads, like blood vessels, making one feel chilled.
Xu Xin hurriedly stepped back, tensing all his muscles to prepare to dodge. But the vine didn't rush over like the one from the bronze treasure chest earlier. Instead, it hovered in the air for a while, then slowly retracted underground.
On the map, the red dot representing the vine slowly faded away, completely disappearing after a few dozen seconds.
"Just now, how could I do such a rash thing!" Xu Xin recalled his recent actions with shock and doubt. As a cautious person, he would absolutely not engage in such life-threatening behavior, yet he had done just that.
If Coco hadn't moved in his arms, he would have at least had his foot pierced by the vine shooting up from the ground by now.
Thinking back now, the Xu Xin who had walked outward driven purely by desire without considering the consequences seemed unlike himself.
"Did I fall under some kind of spell?"