Half an hour later, Qin Shi estimated they had reached the middle of the forest and asked Zhang Xiaoli to take out the small drone.
Zhang Xiaoli climbed a tall tree with the remote control, then launched the aircraft and flew it upwards through gaps in the trees.
After clearing the treetops, the drone flew a short distance along the tree canopy before ascending and taking several photos.
It was then preparing to fly west for a closer inspection.
"Swoosh!"
Just then, an eagle's cry sounded, and a Roc appeared in front of the camera.
The lens then went black, and the drone signal could no longer be received.
The Roc fired several golden orbs in the area where the drone disappeared, destroying more than ten giant trees before flying away.
After waiting for a while and not seeing the Roc reappear, Zhang Xiaoli climbed down from the tree.
She pulled out the photos and showed them to everyone, "That Commander Luo didn't lie to us; there are no good escape routes on any of the four sides of this forest."
To the east, where they had entered, the area outside the forest was fields, with some desolate hills in places. Those low trees could not obscure the sharp-eyed Roc at all.
To the south was a rapid river, with a large horde of zombies on the other side. In the photos, the Roc seemed to be attacking those zombies.
To the north, the small hills also had sparse trees, making it not a good escape route.
To the west was a stretch of fields, followed by continuous mountain ranges.
"According to Commander Luo, as soon as we leave this dense forest, we will be exposed to the Roc's sight and draw its attack. Now we have thoroughly angered it, and its surveillance of the surroundings will probably be even tighter," Qin Shilei said with a frown.
"Can we sneak out under the cover of darkness at night?" Zhang Qiang suggested.
"I'm afraid not; otherwise, Commander Luo and the others would have left long ago," Qin Shilei replied, shaking his head.
"We heard eagle cries at night too, indicating they are also monitoring at night," An Qian added.
"That largest Roc can't possibly monitor us twenty-four hours a day. If we could instantly kill a smaller Roc while it's on surveillance duty, we should be able to escape," Zhang Xiaoli said.
"Difficult. Those smaller Rocs fly very high, and it's impossible to kill them before they issue a signal," Qin Shilei said, helpless against the smaller Rocs outside of his effective range.
The group sat together, discussing how to avoid the Roc and escape.
Qin Shilei checked all his equipment and skills, looking to see if he could refresh an attribute that could deal with the current situation.
He first took out the Jinghong Sword, which already had a fixed attribute.
[Perform attribute refresh?]
[Refresh.]
Sharpness (Blue): Slightly increases the sharpness of the Jinghong Sword.
Nurturing (Red): Before drawing the Jinghong Sword, one can input vital energy for nurturing. As time increases, the power of the first strike after drawing the sword will continuously increase.
Invisible Sword (Red): After inputting a certain amount of vital energy, the sword body enters an invisible state for three minutes.
Nice!
Both were good attributes. Qin Shilei considered carefully and still chose Nurturing.
A flash of red light, and the fixed attribute was replaced by the new Nurturing attribute.
While inputting vital energy into the Jinghong Sword for nurturing, he took out enhancement stones to refresh them. Unfortunately, there were no pleasant surprises.
Then, for several subsequent items, no attributes better than green appeared.
Qin Shilei then refreshed himself.
The first refresh yielded three green attributes: Self-Healing (Green), Berserk (Green), Marksmanship Master (Green).
From the descriptions, Berserk would cause temporary loss of reason, so he discarded it.
Marksmanship Master did not match his weapon, so he also discarded it.
He had no choice but to temporarily choose Self-Healing.
Immediately, he felt a tingling sensation throughout his body, and his injuries rapidly healed.
Skills already learned could not be refreshed for attributes. The strongest attack Qin Shilei currently had left was the rocket launcher.
After one round of refreshing, no top-tier attributes appeared.
Qin Shilei had an idea and took out the last remaining rocket.
[Perform attribute refresh?]
[Refresh.]
Doubled Power (Green): The explosion power of the rocket is doubled.
Armor Piercing (Green): The rocket's armor-piercing ability is greatly enhanced.
Magic Piercing (Red): The rocket ignores magical interception and attacks.
Qin Shilei was somewhat helpless. Was he supposed to carry a rocket launcher while performing sword techniques?
He finally chose the Magic Piercing attribute.
Unwilling to give up, Qin Shilei refreshed himself again.
Jungle Envoy (Green): When the host is in a jungle, all attributes will be enhanced, and their observation of everything in the jungle will be acute.
Hunter (Green): Easier to learn hunting skills, traps set will have stronger power, and archery will also have a certain enhancement.
Sea King (Red): A born swimmer, favored by water, more adapted to life in water than fish, with a 50% bonus to water-attribute combat skills or abilities.
Looking at the Sea King attribute, and then at the rapid river to the south on the remote control, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind.
However, it could not be realized for the moment.
This was because he had used five out of six fixed attribute opportunities.
And it required consuming two fixed opportunities to overwrite an existing attribute.
He could only wait until after midnight to fix the Sea King attribute.
Just then, Commander Luo's group cautiously approached them.
Luo Hongyi walked up to Qin Shilei and said, "Mr. Qin, we have all decided to break through at dusk. Are you interested in joining us?"
Qin Shilei asked doubtfully, "Have you found a way to avoid that giant bird?"
Luo Hongyi shook his head, "Our food is running out. If we stay here, we will starve to death sooner or later. We will all break through simultaneously from the east, west, and north. As for which direction the giant bird will choose to pursue, it will be up to fate."
Qin Shilei frowned. This was simply gambling with their lives.
The east and west of the forest were about ten kilometers apart, and it was only a few kilometers to the north.
From this forest to the next suitable hiding spot was about three to four thousand meters.
If the Roc hunted the people to the north, the people in the other two directions could flee desperately and might reach the next hiding spot.
Once they left the Roc's surveillance range, they might have a chance to escape further away.
"We run quite fast; should we join them?" An Qian turned to Qin Shilei and asked.
"No, we will find another way," Qin Shilei shook his head and rejected Luo Hongyi's proposal.
Ma Yulian glanced at Qin Shilei and said coldly, "Commander Luo, don't bother with them. Let them starve to death here."
Luo Hongyi glared at Ma Yulian, this foolish woman, why was she speaking out of turn at this moment.
Such a plan required more people to escape together to increase their chances of survival.
Once the giant bird spent more time chasing others, it would mean more time for themselves to escape.
This was why Luo Hongyi had proactively brought this up with Qin Shilei.
Seeing that Qin Shilei and his group were resolute, they could only continue walking west.
Qin Shilei thought about it and decided to follow them at a distance, hoping to observe the Roc's attack method again.