Forest Survival: Encountering the Acknowledged Proctologists

From outside, there was no longer any sign that this was a hollow tree.

After weaving the door, Feng Rumeng was soaked in cold sweat. By the dim light filtering through the gaps, she took a tent out of her space and changed clothes.

Just in case, she also tied a bell to the branches at the entrance.

Feng Rumeng lay down in the tent. Exhaustion swept over her, and she fell asleep as her eyelids fluttered. That night, no matter how loud the sounds in the forest grew, they failed to wake her.

When she opened her eyes again, a week had passed. Sunlight squeezed through the gaps at the entrance in shafts, and pleasant birdsong came from outside.

Feng Rumeng stared at the tent ceiling for quite a while, only coming back to her senses when hunger stirred in her stomach.

She sat up and took out food and water. Without moving from her spot, she began to eat. Once she was full, she took off her clothes to change the dressings on her wounds—and froze.

The scratches on her body were gone, and even her right leg was more than halfway healed.

Feng Rumeng blinked and pinched her thigh until tears sprang to her eyes. She really wasn't dreaming.

She said happily, "At this rate, she'll be completely recovered in less than a month."

She pulled the animal hide up and lay down again. In the days that followed, she barely opened her eyes except when she needed the toilet or was hungry.

On the twenty-eighth day, her leg could move again, though the bone still hurt a little. Her skin had turned yellow, and the blisters were completely gone. She looked at the last bottle of mineral water in her space. She would hold out for another five days, then leave.

On the night of the thirty-second day, a gale swept through the forest and blew away the woven door. She put away the tent and huddled in a corner of the hollow. The deep humming in the forest made her eardrums ache.

On the thirty-fifth day, Feng Rumeng drank the last drop of water and looked outside at the dead leaves whirling through the air and the enormous branches that occasionally fell from above. If she went out now, she would probably be smashed into a meat patty before reaching the water. She would hold out for another two days.

On the thirty-seventh day, Feng Rumeng stuffed the tent and animal hide into her space, put on a mask and windproof goggles, and extended her nanowire, preparing to descend.

The moment her toes left the floor of the hollow, the wind whipped her around and nearly slammed her into the trunk. Dagger in hand, she swung around several times before she could drive it into the wood, then made her way down bit by bit.

Her feet touched the ground, and she pulled out the dagger. Before she could catch her breath, the wind pushed her forward, and she couldn't stop. Branches falling from the trees nearly hit her several times.

Feng Rumeng didn't want to come out and risk her life, but if she didn't drink water soon, she wouldn't be far from death. She had started feeling nauseous the previous night and couldn't eat, and by that morning she was dizzy.

Perhaps because the wind was so strong, no wild beasts appeared along the way.

By the time Feng Rumeng was pushed to the lake, her legs no longer felt like her own.

She lay at the water's edge and drank in small sips. At that moment, she felt that water was the most wonderful thing in the world.

After drinking her fill, Feng Rumeng rolled over and lay on the shore for a while.

She took an empty mineral water bottle out of her space and filled it. Once it was full, she quickly put it back, took out her crutch, and set off along the lakeshore with the wind at her back.

Feng Rumeng had no wilderness experience at all. She wasn't sure whether following the lake would get her out of here or whether she would see any signs of people, but her survival instinct told her she couldn't stop.

That evening, Feng Rumeng rested against a rock by the lake. Turning her head, she saw an elk as big as an ox drinking water. As soon as she got up, it ran away.

With the sun not yet down, she hurried onward, afraid that there would be more fierce beasts wherever there were herbivores. The reason she hadn't run into any yet was probably still the gale.

Feng Rumeng didn't walk quickly, leaning on her crutch and staggering this way and that. Several times, the wind nearly swept her away.

When night had fully fallen, she used the nanowire to climb another tree. With the wind this strong, snakes probably wouldn't stay up in the trees, right?

Muttering to herself, she tied herself to the trunk with a rope to keep from being blown down.

She was exhausted and sleepy, but even with her eyes closed, she was too afraid to fall asleep. After agonizing over it for a long time, she set off again by moonlight.

She was on tenterhooks the whole way, afraid there might be sea monsters in the water or that a pack of wild wolves would suddenly rush out. She walked on, tense all the while, until she finally made it through to daybreak.

Feng Rumeng sat on a jutting rock to replenish her strength. She had only taken a few bites of luncheon meat when a giant black rabbit sprang out of the forest ahead. Its foot-long ears stood straight up, and its round blue eyes fixed on the food in her hand.

Feng Rumeng looked at the giant bunny without stopping eating. There wasn't much food left in her space either. If the rabbit made the first move, she would brush it with barbecue sauce and deliver it to the afterlife in her stomach, bringing its rabbit life to a perfect end.

The rabbit eyed the luncheon meat for a long time but made no further move.

When Feng Rumeng finished eating, she stood up with her crutch and pointed it at the rabbit. The rabbit's split upper lip twitched, and it bounded away.

Feng Rumeng didn't linger and continued along the lakeshore. By noon, she was too sleepy to bear it any longer, so she headed into the forest. Although there was still a good chance of encountering snakes in the trees, it was safer than staying on the ground.

She found a thick branch on a giant tree to lean against, one the wind wouldn't snap while she slept. The branches stretching overhead were also fairly thick, so she didn't have to worry about falling branches hitting her.

She took out the animal hide and wrapped herself in it, then closed her eyes with the dagger clutched in her hand. She soon fell asleep.

An hour later, the stench of a drop of mucus woke Feng Rumeng. On the branch above her, a six-eyed spider had already opened its mouthparts,

If she had woken a second later, Feng Rumeng's head would have been separated from her body.

Clutching the animal hide, Feng Rumeng jumped straight out of the tree and extended her nanowire, landing safely.

The spider refused to let up, spitting silk in an attempt to trap her.

Feng Rumeng dodged, but the spider seemed to have seen through her escape route, cutting her off with precision every time.

As she dodged desperately on the ground, she felt two pebbles. She seized the chance to take a slingshot out of her space and hit the spider's principal eye.

While the spider was reeling in pain, she ran toward the clearing by the lake.

"Crack." The sound of a dead branch snapping underfoot rang out.

Several enormous animals darted out from behind the trees and surrounded her. Foul-smelling saliva dripped from their fangs.

Feng Rumeng's brown eyes widened. Were these beasts, taller than she was, hyenas?

She took another careful look. They really were hyenas. Damn it, how had she run into these things?

Feng Rumeng's face turned pale. Hyenas were greedy, hunted in packs, and were the acknowledged proctologists.

If they hunted her down, her fate would be unimaginably miserable.

The hyena queen Moli, who led the pack, pulled back her lips, the flesh around her nose wrinkling to reveal a mouthful of gleaming white teeth. She let out a low growl: Look what I've found, a naughty little female.