After a brief conversation, and especially after getting some clean food and water into them, the three finally recovered a little strength. Their minds seemed to be clearing too.
"We came here to hike. The plan was three days and two nights, a short loop. But after that rain, we woke up the next morning and the trail was gone."
The bearded man turned his head to indicate their surroundings, still chewing as he spoke. "It had all turned into this. We kept circling around, couldn't find a way out, and went deeper and deeper. Eventually, we couldn't even tell which direction we were going."
"What about navigation?" Old Li asked.
"No signal."
The woman spoke up. Her voice was still hoarse, but at least it sounded better than before. "We had it at first. Maybe something in the device broke, because later it disappeared completely."
"We wanted to retrace our steps, but we couldn't find the old trail either. It's all grass and trees here. Everything looks the same."
As she spoke, her voice began to tremble. Looking at the dense greenery around them, she seemed on the verge of a full-blown panic attack.
She didn't look like she was acting.
Maybe they were just a few unlucky hikers. Or maybe they had lied and had deliberately come exploring in search of Meteorite Fragments.
Either way, they posed little threat.
The group quickly reached that unspoken consensus. Even Old Li quietly lowered the machete he had been holding behind his back with an air of casual ease.
Li Yun shifted his gaze from their faces to the mushrooms.
"Have you been wearing those clothes the whole time?"
The scruffy man froze. Following Li Yun's gaze, he craned his neck and struggled to look down at himself, as though only