On the north shore of the Baiyue Strait, in the northwestern part of Fries Harbor, a trench one step wide stood behind a three-meter-high earthen wall, while a barricade of sharpened wooden stakes stood in front of it.
Not far from the barricade, corpses lay scattered all over the grass.
Most had been left behind by mutants, though a few belonged to players who had been caught off guard.
Looking at the bodies on the ground and the mud nearly dyed red with blood, Yileina switched off her rifle's safety and suddenly spoke with a strange expression.
"I've always had this feeling."
Elf King Fugui, standing beside her, looked over at her.
"What kind of feeling?"
After glancing around at the dense rainforest and grassland ahead, Yileina pondered for a long while before speaking uncertainly.
"...It's like this land is alive."
Bloodstained tree shadows and grass rustled in the wind, painfully conspicuous beneath the glaring sunlight. The chirping insects drifting out of the shadows sounded like the whispers of a monster, while the dense rainforest was that monster's mouth...
This was not the first time she had felt that way.
She had felt it the first time she went out searching for water...
Time rewound to two hours earlier.
While the sky was still dim, more than twenty diligent Strength-type players logged in early, carrying axes and chainsaws into the forest northwest of the camp to clear the land.
"Come on, brothers! Let's try to make it to the top before dark!"
"Rahhh!"
Northwest of Fries Harbor was a relatively elevated hill. Not only did it provide an open view overlooking the entire harbor, it also offered a distant view of nearly ten kilometers of coastline.
What was more, the surrounding area had abundant freshwater resources and the wasteland's