You want me to play the Foehn wind? Are you kidding me?

Lu Feng suddenly smiled to himself.

Lu Feng quickened his pace.

The grayish-white soil underfoot became increasingly hard, with almost no humus remaining. Instead, it was replaced by fine particles similar to bone meal, which crunched underfoot, as if stepping on something's bone.

Lu Feng frowned.

"What is it?"

……

"Let's go, it's been so long."

"it is good."

Fang Xing and Han Ya followed Lu Feng into the forest, but instead of going in the same direction, they chose to walk diagonally into the forest.

Fang Xing pushed aside the last gray branch blocking his way.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the tree canopy, casting dappled shadows on his face.

He had been walking in this damned forest for more than half an hour. The humus under his feet went from soft to hard, and then back to soft again. The scenery around him was so monotonous that it looked like someone was repeatedly copying and pasting the same tree.

"etc."

Han Ya's voice came from behind.

Fang Xing stopped and turned his head to the side.

Han Ya was squatting on the ground, pressing her fingers against the soil beneath her feet.

"What's wrong?"

"Look at this."

Han Ya used her fingers to brush away the layer of gray, fine particles on the ground, revealing the soil underneath.

The soil was dark red, not the red of iron oxide, but the red that looked like it had been soaked in blood many times.

Fang Xing frowned.

He has been walking around this world for almost an hour.

Starting from the teleportation point, we crossed the desert and entered this eerie forest, encountering no living creatures along the way.

That's not right.

The game "National Fortune" will not provide them with a safe area to wander around.

Those creatures must be somewhere, they just haven't reached that "somewhere" yet.

Fang Xing straightened up, about to speak, when he suddenly heard a voice.

Very light, very far.

It looked like it was being blown in from a certain direction by the wind.

"……Help……"

Fang Xing's hand instantly pressed against the holster at his waist.

Han Ya also stood up from the ground, and tiny ice crystals began to form on her fingertips.

The two exchanged a glance.

That direction...

It wasn't the direction Lu Feng left in, but rather a direction that formed a roughly ninety-degree angle with the route they took, passing through a denser patch of tree trunks.

"...Is anyone...helping me...?"

The sound is clearer now.

It was a man's voice, hoarse and weak, as if he had been shouting for a long time and his vocal cords were about to tear.

"It's a person."

Han Ya said in a low voice.

Fang Xing did not answer immediately.

He is making a judgment.

In this world where everything is unknown, a human suddenly appears crying for help...

Are they true survivors, or a trap?

"Let's go take a look."

He made a decision.

The two adjusted their direction and walked quickly toward the direction from which the sound came.

The gray tree trunks grew denser, and the gray particles on the ground became thicker. The sound of stepping on them changed from a "crunch" to a "rustle," like stepping on dried ashes.

The rotten, sweet, and fishy smell in the air began to intensify again, mixed with another odor.

The smell of blood, fresh blood, not yet completely masked by the stench of decay.

Fang Xing quickened his pace.

As he walked through a patch of low, gray bushes, the sight before him made him abruptly stop in his tracks.

A person was lying on the ground.

No, it's not "lying down," it's "lying prone."

A man, about forty years old, was wearing a rough linen shirt, which was covered in mud and dark red stains.

His left leg was turned outward at an abnormal angle, and there was a deep wound on his calf, with blood flowing all over the ground.

He heard footsteps and struggled to lift his head.

Fang Xing saw a...

Withered and haggard, with sunken eyes and cracked lips that bled.

But his eyes are different.

There was still light in those eyes, a light that refused to go out, a light that burned with all its might.

"Please..."

His voice was very soft, as if he had used up his last bit of strength.

"Help us..."

Fang Xing took a few steps to his side, squatted down, and examined his wounds.

The injury on my calf wasn't from a fall; it was from being cut by something.

The wound had clean edges, but it didn't look like it was made by a metal knife; it looked more like some kind of extremely sharp bone blade.

"Who are you?"

Fang Xing took out first aid bandages from his tactical backpack while asking quickly.

"What happened here?"

The man grabbed Fang Xing's arm; his fingers were thin and dry like bird claws, but his strength was astonishing.

His eyes were fixed on Fang Xing, his pupils filled with fear and urgency.

"They...they are not human..."

His voice was trembling.

"They'll turn into wolves... They've captured us all... My wife, my daughter... They've taken them all..."

Fang Xing and Han Ya exchanged a glance.

"What wolf? Explain yourself."

Fang Xing's voice was deep.

The man swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

His gaze swept over Fang Xing and Han Ya's faces, as if to confirm whether they were trustworthy people.

"The person who leaves..."

When he uttered those three words, a hint of almost instinctive fear flashed in his pupils, as if just hearing the name was enough to send chills down his spine.

"They call themselves the Buli people. Long ago, they came from outer space, traveling in a kind of breathing spaceship."

The person's voice was intermittent, as if they were desperately trying to remember something, or as if they were desperately trying to forget something.

"When they first arrived on this planet, they could talk and negotiate."

They said they were a race chosen by God, and that they would lead us to eternal life.

A bitter smile tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"We believed...we thought they were messengers of God, we offered them food and shelter. And then..."

His voice lowered.

"Then they revealed their true nature... They weren't human at all... They would turn into wolves, over two meters tall, covered in black mane, with mouths that could stretch to their ears, and teeth like knives. In front of everyone, they tore the village chief in half. Then they said..."

His voice began to tremble.

"They say it's a gift of 'abundance'... that it's an honor for us lower beings to be enslaved by them."

Fang Xing frowned. What is abundance?

He raised his hand and pointed in the direction deep in the forest.

"They built a 'pen' in our settlement, locking us all inside and taking us out to work every day, building their dens and mining the ore they needed."

When they can't work anymore, they're killed, their meat fed to their hunting dogs, and their bones ground into powder and scattered on the ground... right here, under your feet.

Fang Xing lowered his head and looked at the gray, fine particles at his feet.

bone meal.

He just stepped on bone meal.

Human bone meal.