The jaguar's roar grew closer. Beads of sweat dripped from Fatty's forehead, though it was hard to tell if it was sweat or rain.

"Damn it, forget it..."

Fatty raised his whistle, ready to blow—

But a rough hand pressed it down. Fatty looked up, surprised to see Derrick stopping him.

Derrick was covered in water stains, mud, and blood. Fatty knew at once that Derrick and the other team member must have run into trouble.

"Shhh, don't make a sound. Follow me."

Derrick quietly told everyone in the squad.

Derrick led them, crouching low, for a long distance until the jaguar's roar gradually faded away. Only then did Derrick stop.

Everyone gasped for breath, nervously wiping the mixture of rain and sweat from their faces.

Once they were temporarily safe, they noticed that only Derrick had returned. The other mercenary who had gone with him was missing, and even the water bottle they had taken was gone.

Derrick quickly explained what had happened by the river.

…

In the rainforest, clouds often drifted by, making the weather unpredictable. One moment it could be sunny, the next it would be raining.

Derrick hadn't checked the weather when he left. When he took the other team member to the river to get water, it suddenly started raining, and he realized the situation was bad.

There was an iron rule in the rainforest: don't go near the water before or after it rains, because that's when crocodiles take the opportunity to swim from the water to the shore.

Derrick immediately moved away from the water. He frantically shouted at the other team member to leave the water, but it was too late.

A crocodile in the water had been watching this team member for a long time. Taking advantage of his distraction while drawing water, it suddenly burst out of the water and bit his head with lightning speed.

This crocodile was unusually large. After biting the team member's head, it began to drag him into the water. Seeing the situation was bad, Derrick immediately ran to the team member's side, grabbed his struggling legs, and tried to keep him from being dragged into the water.

The crocodile's bite was extremely powerful. Seeing something was competing with it for "food", the crocodile twisted its body violently and bit down hard, tearing the person's head and shoulders clean off. The team member's blood flowed from the crocodile's mouth into the water, and the large amount of blood spread out, attracting more crocodiles to compete for "food."

The crocodile's bite had instantly extinguished the team member's life.

Rescue was hopeless, and Derrick was frustrated. Just then, Derrick faintly heard the roar of a jaguar in the distance, coming from the direction of Dodge's squad.

Derrick realized the situation was bad and hurried back to Dodge's squad.

…

Dodge's squad had only been in the rainforest for a little over an hour, and already one team member had died. This team member was hand-picked by Dodge from the mercenaries, selected for his jungle survival experience.

Derrick told Dodge and Fatty, "This rainforest is completely different from other rainforests. The beasts here are more alert and ferocious. When they lock onto prey, they silently lurk nearby and then launch a sudden attack from unexpected locations. If a predator hasn't found prey nearby, blowing a whistle could expose your location and attract more predators to attack."

Fatty was shaken. He thought that if he had rashly blown the whistle, he would have attracted the jaguar that was close by, and they all might have become lunch for the jaguar.

Having experienced the life-and-death crisis just now, Dodge was no longer impatient with the precautions Derrick had mentioned. He listened intently, afraid of missing any details.

…

The rain in the rainforest came and went quickly. Before long, the rain stopped, but dark clouds still hung over the rainforest, making it dark and damp. Animals liked to come out after the rain to forage and mate, and all kinds of strange animal calls rose and fell.

Earlier, to avoid the jaguar, Derrick had led them in a direction slightly off from the marked path, so Derrick led them in a roundabout way through the rainforest to get back on the right track.

Just after the rain, water droplets dripped continuously from the leaves of the towering trees, hitting the moss and mud, making it extremely slippery. The squad, which was already moving slowly, now had an even harder time moving forward.

It took Dodge's squad over an hour to find the location of the third marker left by the advance team.

Derrick contacted the advance team, saying that the squad had encountered trouble and lost a member.

At this time, the advance team had already reached the depths of the dense forest. The advance team asked Derrick if they needed to return to support Dodge's squad. After discussing it with Dodge, Derrick felt that their situation was still manageable and had not reached the point where they needed support, so he refused the advance team's request to return.

But if the two teams continued to maintain this difference in speed, the two squads would only grow further apart, making it increasingly difficult to reunite. So Dodge, through Derrick, ordered the advance team to slow down and wait for Dodge's squad to catch up and reunite.

Dodge's squad finally stumbled upon the fifth marker before dark, which was also the most suitable high ground for them to camp. The terrain here was high, with a wide field of vision. If they encountered danger, such as approaching wild animals, they could counterattack from a high position. Derrick told everyone that camping in a high place in the rainforest also had the advantage that they would not be flooded if it rained or the river rose.

When setting up camp and pitching tents at night, the Z organization gave Fatty and Ruoyi certain preferential treatment. The squad pitched two tents of roughly the same size, one of which was specially set up for Fatty and them. Derrick and Dodge were forced to squeeze into one tent, while Fatty, Ruoyi, and Jennifer could enjoy another separate tent.

Dodge's squad carried military rations, which could be eaten after boiling water, but because Derrick and the other one had encountered a crocodile attack, the water bottle was lost, so they did not successfully replenish their water supply. Before cooking, they had to find a water source again.

Currently, there were a large number of crocodiles waiting to hunt prey by the river, and going there would undoubtedly be suicidal.

However, because it had just rained, water flowed like a waterfall from the leaves of a tree, and Derrick took the opportunity to collect half a kettle.

Half a kettle of water was definitely not enough. Derrick took two more people and found a very strange tree. After cutting open the bark, a milky white liquid flowed out. Derrick said that this was a milk tree, unique to the rainforest. This white liquid could be used to replenish water, and then Derrick and the other two each took a kettle full of it and returned.