I Was Just Asking-You Really Know?

Lin Yi and Red Fox stared at each other for a full dozen breaths.

Those amber fox eyes gleamed as light flowed through them, and the corners of its mouth seemed to carry a faint, almost imperceptible curve.

The longer Lin Yi looked, the more familiar that expression seemed. It was exactly like the subtle smile his teammates used to wear when they watched his gameplays so awful they ruined the appetite—Is that all?

"Damn it, he's laughing at me."

Lin Yi ground his teeth inwardly.

Though he really was in a sorry state right now—completely naked, having just passed out on the ground with his ass in the air for who knew how long, looking like some unlucky bastard that had been gored by a wild boar and tossed aside.

Still, being mocked to his face by a fox—even if this fox was far from ordinary-looking—filled him with an indescribable irritation on top of his embarrassment.

"But that's not a reason for you to laugh at me."

Lin Yi glared at Red Fox, and Red Fox tilted its head and glared right back.

A hint of lazy innocence actually flashed through those eyes, as if it were saying, I didn't do anything. You're the one being oversensitive.

Lin Yi drew a deep breath and forced down that bit of displeasure. Getting worked up over a fox—what kind of promise was that?

He pushed himself to his feet, his bare feet stepping onto wet moss and rotting leaves. The icy, rough sensation shot up from his soles.

Lin Yi lowered his head to look at his naked body, then raised his eyes and swept his gaze over the primeval forest towering all around him. His mind weighed the matter at high speed for three seconds.

"Can't stay naked forever. I'll make a grass skirt first."

His brain might have been sharp, but there was one problem—he had never learned any kind of weaving.

Forget a grass skirt. Even braiding hair, he only knew the simplest three-strand method, something he had accidentally memorized as a child while watching his mother comb his sister's hair.

Now, with his brain running at full speed, he could theoretically break down the structural principles of a grass skirt: stems for warp threads, flexible vine bark for weft threads, layered over one another to provide coverage.

But theory was theory. Hands were another matter.

The first branch snapped with a crack when he had barely bent it halfway.

The second attempt did not break, but the thing he wove came out loose and floppy. After two shakes, it fell apart into a pile of leaves.

Beside him, Red Fox sat perched on a rock the entire time, its head turning back and forth with Lin Yi's hand movements as it watched with great interest.

It looked exactly like an audience member in the front row watching a monkey show, only missing a handful of sunflower seeds.

Lin Yi gritted his teeth. A third time. A fourth time.

At this moment, his Super Brain finally displayed its true purpose—after every failure, he could precisely review which step had gone wrong, whether the wrapping angle had drifted or the point of force had not been held down, then quickly correct it on the next attempt.

This kind of nearly real-time iterative learning efficiency would have been sheer fantasy before.

His fifth attempt.

Lin Yi staggered a bundle of broad, palm-like leaves in layers, threaded strips of peeled flexible bark through them to secure them, then wrapped two more loops around his waist and tightened them. Calling it "primitive charm" would be putting it nicely; putting it bluntly, it was just a heap of green leaves barely hanging around his waist and hips. But at least—everything that needed covering was covered.

Lin Yi patted the bizarre grass skirt on his body and let out a long breath.

"All right. Good enough to survive."

Red Fox had been sitting there watching him fuss about for so long that it seemed to have developed aesthetic fatigue. Even its tail was too lazy to wag.

But the moment Lin Yi finally put on the grass skirt, stood up, and patted the leaves around his waist, the fox's eyes suddenly lit up.

It hopped down from the rock and began circling Lin Yi.

One circle, two circles, three circles.

Its fluffy crimson tail brushed back and forth against Lin Yi's bare calves, carrying the warm scent of fur.

Lin Yi looked down at the fox wandering around him and inexplicably felt as if he were some exhibit being appraised.

"...Have you seen enough?"

Red Fox stopped and looked up at him. There seemed to be a trace more approval in its amber eyes.

That look roughly translated to: Mm. You finally look somewhat human.

Lin Yi did not know whether to laugh or cry.

He steadied himself and sorted through his current situation in his mind. He had transmigrated, was naked, had become smarter, and there was a very abnormal fox beside him.

His most urgent need now was not to figure out why he had come here, but to find out where this was, whether there were people around, and whether he could survive.

He cautiously crouched down and spoke to Red Fox. "Little fox, have you seen anyone similar to me? Uh... or should I say, any animal?"

The moment he finished asking, even Lin Yi felt stupid. A fox, no matter how intelligent it was, could not possibly understand human speech, could it?

But Red Fox's reaction left him frozen on the spot.

The fox tilted its head at him, its two pointed ears twitching slightly. Its gaze rested on Lin Yi's face for several breaths, as though it were trying hard to understand the meaning of those human syllables.

Then it suddenly turned around and walked seven or eight steps forward, stopped, and looked back.

Lin Yi remained where he was.

Seeing this, Red Fox actually raised one forepaw and tapped it toward him twice.

The movement was extremely humanlike—it was clearly saying: Follow me.

"..." Lin Yi's mind could barely process it. "I was just asking—you really know?"

Red Fox tapped its paw twice more, raised its tail high, and turned to keep walking. Its pace was neither hurried nor slow, carrying an assured composure, as if it were certain Lin Yi would follow.

Lin Yi hesitated for less than two seconds.

Stay here—naked, without food, without direction, and wait for death in this bottomless primeval forest.

Follow an obviously extraordinary fox that was voluntarily leading the way. At least that gave him one more path than waiting here to die.

"All right, lead the way." Lin Yi stepped forward and followed.

Red Fox did not walk quickly, but every step chose relatively easy ground, detouring around thorny bushes and avoiding slick patches of moss. Occasionally, it even stopped to wait for Lin Yi to catch up.

The farther Lin Yi followed, the more alarmed he became.

What fox walked like this? This was clearly an experienced guide leading the way. Its familiarity with the terrain was practically an instinct carved into its bones.

After twist after turn.

Lin Yi followed Red Fox through a patch of low shrubs, and the ground beneath his feet began climbing noticeably upward.

His breathing sped up, but he did not experience the expected feeling of gasping for air.

After climbing the slope for a while, Lin Yi only then belatedly realized a problem he had overlooked before—his stamina seemed far better than it used to be.

Back then, he had stayed up late playing games, lived off takeout, and never exercised. Climbing to the fifth floor would have required him to stop twice while gripping the railing.

But now, following Red Fox as they leaped and scrambled along steep forest slopes for so long, he was only breathing slightly harder. His legs remained steady, and he did not even wobble when stepping on loose stones and tree roots.

Had his body been strengthened along with his awakened brain?

Lin Yi's heart stirred.

That cool spiritual energy that had poured into his brain before he fainted seemed not only to have transformed his head, but also to have washed through this modern shut-in's body, oiling the rusted parts anew.

If not for that, with the half-crippled body he once had, he might not have been able to keep up with this swift little fox at all.

They walked for another quarter of an hour or so.

Red Fox stopped at the crest of a gentle slope, sitting on a protruding rock with its tail gathered at its side as it looked back at Lin Yi.

Lin Yi climbed the last few steps and stood beside the fox, following its gaze forward.

Then his entire body froze.

In the relatively flat heart of the valley in the distance stood buildings large and small, scattered in uneven clusters.

Those buildings bore no trace of modernity. Rough gray stones had been piled into low walls, logs formed triangular roofs, and thick layers of thatch and animal hides covered the tops.

Wisps of blue smoke curled up from different places and drifted into the clear afternoon sky.

Through the gaps between those buildings, vague human figures could be seen moving about, dressed in coarse linen or animal hide clothing, their bodies sturdy and strong.

It looked like a tribe.

A true settlement in the style of a primitive tribe.

Lin Yi's heart abruptly sank, then abruptly lifted again.

All the lingering hope he had harbored until now was ground to dust by the sight before him.

This was not a prank, not a variety show, not some midnight stunt where someone had dragged him into the wilderness for a prank livestream. A cluster of buildings on this scale, built with such an ancient air, possessed a weathered naturalness no artificial set could ever replicate.

He really had transmigrated.

He had transmigrated to an unfamiliar, completely unknown world where primitive tribes existed.

Lin Yi's throat went dry, and his fingertips turned faintly cold.

He stood there, watching the cooking smoke rise from the distant tribe and the slowly moving figures within it. All kinds of thoughts churned through his mind, yet he could not say a single word.

Red Fox sat by his feet and looked up at him.

Lin Yi lowered his head and met those amber fox eyes.

There was no mockery in them, no teasing. They were calm as a deep pool, quietly watching him.

Then Red Fox stood, stepped forward, and continued down the gentle slope. After taking a few steps, it looked back once more and tapped its paw at him.

Follow me.

Lin Yi fell silent for a moment.

Something in the distant tribe flashed beneath the sunlight, like metal reflecting light.

In that instant, his Super Brain caught the anomaly—that glint came from the top of an upright wooden post in the middle of the tribe, where something hung.

It was too far away to see the details clearly, but Lin Yi could feel that the thing was facing in his direction.

Like an eye.

Red Fox tapped its paw once more, its urging more obvious now.

Lin Yi slowly withdrew his gaze and looked at the small path leading down to the tribe, then glanced at the fox waiting quietly for him.

A vague, indescribable intuition suddenly rose within him: this fox had not led him here simply because it happened to be passing by.

But he was already here.

Lin Yi took a step forward. The leaves of his grass skirt brushed against his thighs with a soft, rustling sound.

Seeing him move, Red Fox turned and continued leading the way, its fluffy tail swaying in the wind.

The valley wind surged up from below and poured into Lin Yi's mouth and nose.

That fresh spiritual energy washed through his brain once more, bringing a faint tingling sensation.

And in his mind, that flash of reflected light from the center of the tribe replayed again and again.