Chapter 1 Unexpected Gains

Feng Bujue was somewhat surprised by what he'd managed to obtain upon returning to the castle. A minute after he knocked, Ivan answered the door. After Feng Bujue went inside, he chatted with the general for a few more sentences, trying to borrow something like a torch for illumination. Unexpectedly, the other party very generously gave him a dagger and a flashlight, and even advised him not to waste any more time trying to escape...

Actually, in this script, players only need to ask, and the Boss will give them these two items for free. One is to facilitate travel in the jungle, and the other is for illumination.

As levels increase, these kinds of tools will become easier and easier to obtain, because items of this ordinary quality won't have much value at higher levels; their nature becomes similar to consumables. Around level twenty, players will have at least one or two Fine-quality pieces of equipment. Even if you can't find them in the script, you can definitely buy them with the game coins and skill points earned by leveling to twenty. After all, there are many ways to acquire equipment in Thriller Paradise.

After getting the flashlight and knife, Feng Bujue began his jungle escape.

He surmised that there wouldn't be any wild beasts in the bushes around the castle. Since animals act according to their instincts, they should know very well that the area near the castle is the territory of the king of beasts. Of course, here I am referring to General Zaroff, not classmate Qin Ze.

Therefore, Feng Bujue had no scruples after entering the jungle, and he moved very quickly. He cut through the thorns, without stopping for a moment, wading through weeds more than a meter high, jumping over muddy pitfalls, and detouring around steep stone walls. Apart from stepping on a large pile of what was suspected to be coyote droppings, everything went relatively smoothly.

[Please note, Zaroff has departed from the castle]

When this system prompt sounded, Feng Bujue looked at the quest bar, which showed: [Time until sunrise: 240 minutes]

It was around this time that Feng Bujue truly drilled himself into the belly of a beast called "jungle."

Without knowing when, several leeches had covered the back of his neck. When he noticed his survival value decreasing, Feng Bujue discovered their presence. He lost a bit more health when he scraped these bloodsucking mollusks off the back of his neck with the knife. Fortunately, the game instructions mentioned that in similar situations, parasites won't burrow into clothing, but will only attack exposed skin. Otherwise, Feng Bujue would definitely have had to strip naked and carefully check himself to feel safe.

At this moment, he finally realized the price of moving quickly before. The effects of the tropical humid climate began to appear, and his stamina value was decreasing at a very bad rate. The Jazz Dance was clearly limited in this rugged jungle terrain, and the clothing he wore made him feel hot and uncomfortable. However, the lesson of the leeches made him not even dare to roll up his sleeves.

Another half hour passed, and the jungle in the black night revealed its ferocious face, with heavy shadows of trees, and shade like a curtain. As the surrounding trees became denser and denser, Feng Bujue had to often climb to the top of the trees to look at the sky, otherwise he would gradually lose his way.

The farther he went into the jungle's depths, the more obvious the difficulties brought by the environment became. Some areas had three to five layers of vegetation, from top to bottom, like a tent, making the moonlight useless. The flashlight became Feng Bujue's only reliance.

"When I watched *Man vs. Wild*, I thought they were just putting on a show. Now that I've entered the forest myself, I'm as wretched as a grandson... Sure enough, watching others work isn't tiring... The actual difficulty of crossing the jungle is far from what the camera can convey." Feng Bujue thought with emotion. He couldn't help but think of a set of classic Discovery Channel replays he had watched before. The host of that program gave him a feeling that "surviving in the wilderness doesn't seem too difficult." But he understood at this moment that this behavior of trying to trek long distances in the remote mountains and wilderness with just a small knife was definitely not something ordinary people could do.

Suddenly, from the darkness to Feng Bujue's right, came two animal calls, like heavy breathing, interspersed with a wee--wee-- sound, which should be a wild boar.

Feng Bujue's first reaction was to climb a tree. He didn't want to struggle with a four-legged creature in a pitch-black environment.

The call was approaching, accompanied by the sound of the wild boar trampling the ground and its body brushing against trees.

Feng Bujue quickly climbed the tree and aimed the flashlight's beam in the direction of the noise.

"That's not right... there seems to be another sound..." Feng Bujue vaguely heard another animal's sound, and he quickly understood why a wild boar would be rushing around in the middle of the night.

A dozen seconds later, the wild boar appeared in Feng Bujue's sight. Its limbs were short and thick, its body was strong, and it had sparse, coarse black bristles on its body. Its forward charge was extremely powerful, just like a small black tank. At this moment, the tuft of bristles around the wild boar's neck had stood up, and it was constantly calling out. These signs indicated that it was quite agitated, and it seemed to have encountered some very powerful predator.

The wild boar had just appeared, and the hunter chasing it appeared close behind. It was a giant python. Although it wasn't as exaggerated as the behemoth in the northwest corner of the island, this one wasn't small either.

In fact, most people find it hard to imagine just how big of prey a python can swallow. Let's put it this way, a five-meter-long python is enough to swallow a two-meter-long crocodile, while an eight-meter-long python can swallow an entire zebra.

The one in front of Feng Bujue was eight meters long...

Perhaps the wild boar was running for its life and chose the wrong path, or perhaps the system wanted to arrange for the players to witness what was about to happen next... In short, within the range of the flashlight's illumination, a very classic scene was immediately staged—the pig ran into a tree.

But the snake didn't run into the pig. It advanced windingly, unfolding its body horizontally, forming a semicircular encirclement, trapping the wild boar next to the tree trunk. The tree was very thick, estimated to be unable to be hugged by two adults, and it had now become a wall to prevent the wild boar from escaping.

The giant python arched its body and raised its head, looking down at its prey. The wild boar probably knew it was doomed, and launched a final counterattack, aiming its upturned tusks at the snake's body, exerting force under its hooves, and charging straight ahead.

Before it could hit the snake's body, the snake's head fell at high speed, biting the wild boar in one bite, swinging it half a circle in the air, then slamming it heavily on the ground, immediately releasing its bite, and biting again. The speed was so fast that it was dazzling, as if someone had reached into a pot of hot oil with two fingers and picked up a piece of soap.

The wild boar was officially swallowed, and the giant python immediately began to "eat." This animal's way of eating is just one word: "swallow." This process depends on the size of the prey and sometimes takes several hours.

Feng Bujue had managed to block some of the flashlight's light to avoid disturbing the other party's meal, and then tiptoed down the tree. He didn't have time to wait for the giant python to slowly stuff the entire wild boar into its mouth. He could only pray that the other party would focus on eating and not bother with him.

After successfully descending the tree, he didn't immediately sprint southeast, but chose to leave this place first and put some distance between himself and this monster.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Feng Bujue heard another animal's sound, an even more deadly threat.