Chapter 11 Halting the Advance

After leaping down from the Dreadleaf, the players headed north (though to them, any direction was the same; only creatures native to this universe could discern directions on the island).

The farther they moved from the Silkworm Mother's nest, the wider the crystal paths became, and the fewer the forks in the road.

After a brisk half-hour walk, the four arrived at a relatively spacious area.

It was then that they stopped and officially took a break...

"Ugh..." Jibu collapsed onto the ground again. "I'm not moving another step, even if you beat me to death. Let me lie here for at least two hours."

"Couldn't agree more," Pegasus followed, also lying down as he spoke.

On the other side, Honghu sat down, leaning against the wall, and muttered, "I think I've got blisters... but I can't take off my shoes, and I don't see anything unusual in the status bar."

"Heh... well, suck it up," Feng Bujue chuckled.

Honghu sighed. "Yeah... this reminds me, next time I buy fashion items, I should probably choose sneakers (he was currently wearing cloth boots)."

"Um..." Little Ma panted for a few breaths on the ground before adding, "Are you guys hungry? I think I'm getting hungry again..."

"Ah, I'm about the same," Feng Bujue replied thoughtfully. "It's only been less than three hours since our last meal, so theoretically... the hunger shouldn't be this noticeable. Looks like the hunger effect in this scenario is faster than in reality..."

"Maybe it's because we're exerting ourselves more," Jibu suggested. "And... we didn't really eat our fill before..."

"Impossible," Feng Bujue immediately refuted. "I'm not like you guys, resisting food because of psychological aversion..." He said with great pride, "I stopped when I was ninety percent full."

"What are you trying to say..." Jibu squinted. "That you're a freak who eats people and doesn't spit out the bones?"

"No, Brother Feng is referring to the rhythm of eating..." Honghu interjected.

Feng Bujue snapped his fingers and continued, "Exactly, as you can see, I, who ate ninety percent full, and you, who only ate sixty or seventy percent... are experiencing renewed hunger at about the same time." As he spoke, he took something out of his knapsack.

The expressions of his teammates changed when they saw what he had taken out.

"Whoa, whoa! Is that really necessary?" Jibu was the first to exclaim. "Don't we already have mutton? Why are you taking out Volker's corpse chunks?"

"First of all, these aren't corpse chunks, but reserve rations that I cooked and preserved," Feng Bujue calmly replied. "Secondly, don't worry... I'm not taking them out to eat. Even if I were, I wouldn't force you to eat them." He held up the chunk of meat, placing it on his palm. "I'm taking this piece of meat out to make a point."

"Okay..." Jibu replied helplessly. He knew that even if he objected, he wouldn't be able to stop this madman's actions...

"This piece was cut from Volker's back, specifically the tenderloin," Feng Bujue continued. "According to my estimate..." He actually weighed it in his hand before continuing, "It's probably between five hundred forty and five hundred seventy grams."

"Can you get to the point... stop doing this..." Even Little Ma covered his face in exasperation.

"Stop doing what?" Brother Jue asked, shrugging.

"Stop doing such horrifying things so casually..." Honghu added. "Maybe it's nothing to you, but you need to be considerate of the feelings of normal people. You're holding a piece of meat cut from a humanoid creature, calmly talking about the cut and weight like a professional butcher, it's scary..."

"Okay~ okay~" Feng Bujue accepted the criticism humbly, but he showed no intention of changing his behavior. "Anyway, let's just say this piece of meat is five hundred fifty grams." He gestured at the meat with his finger and said, "In the sacrificial hall, the portion I ate was about five hundred grams, while each of you only ate less than three hundred fifty grams." He paused. "But right now, we're all feeling hungry at almost the same time..."

At this point, Feng Bujue looked up at his teammates. "Notice the problem?"

"Your stomach is thirty percent bigger than ours?" Little Ma cleverly answered, using his elementary school math skills.

His answer was so outrageous that Feng Bujue didn't even bother to refute it...

"I get it..." Honghu seemed to have reached a conclusion. "Eating ninety percent full and sixty percent full is essentially the same..."

"Correct." Feng Bujue nodded in agreement. "We should have realized it sooner... this game doesn't have any settings for excretion, so the process of digesting food... definitely can't be completely realistic." He continued, "Clearly, in this scenario, 'eating' is just a way to alleviate hunger; it has absolutely nothing to do with 'absorbing nutrients, or metabolism'." He put the piece of meat back into his knapsack. "In a sense... we're a lot like zombies, we eat purely to satisfy hunger."

"So... it doesn't really matter how much we eat?" Jibu asked.

"Not exactly," Feng Bujue replied. "I estimate... to temporarily eliminate the negative effects of hunger, we need to eat at least half full... once we reach that point, the hunger basically disappears, and eating more is just for the sake of feeling 'full'." He stroked his chin. "Therefore, I suggest... that from now on, we only eat until we're about half full each time."

"I agree," Honghu quickly responded. "That way, we can last longer with the same amount of food."

"Whatever, half full is fine, let's get the roast mutton going!" Pegasus said, using his core muscles to sit up from the ground.

"Alright..." As Feng Bujue spoke, he had already taken out a branch from the Tree of Mockery, ready to start a fire. "I doubt you'd be willing to eat Volker's meat again..."

...

At the same time, above the Dreadleaf.

"Should I just roll it up like this?" Bill stood on a vein, shouting down to Billy below.

At some point, many bloody and mangled corpses had appeared in the crystal paths nearby. Most of them were beasts that had come from elsewhere, some attracted by the scent of blood, some attracted by the aura of death, and some... preparing to take over the Silkworm Mother's dominant position.

However, without exception, they had all been killed by Bill. These creatures were, after all, just creatures of the Reverse Island. Even the most powerful of them, the Silkworm Mother, was no match for the island's "prisoners"...

Even Lesende, whom the players had encountered first, could rival the Silkworm Mother in strength. Not to mention the hidden boss at the level of Fuling. If Fuling was in a sealed state... he could easily drown the Silkworm Mother in shit...

"How can you roll it up?" Billy replied from below. "Do you think it's a natto roll? If you do that, the pieces will leak out from both ends."

"Then what should I do?" Bill retorted.

"Wrap it like a zongzi," Billy replied.

"Uh..." Bill thought for a few seconds, a puzzled expression appearing on his display screen face. "But there's no string to tie the zongzi with?"

"Just use the vine monster you killed earlier to tie it up," Billy added.

"Eh? That's right." A "xd" emoticon appeared on Bill's face. "Haha! Use what's on hand."

"Sigh..." Billy shook his head. "Still so unreliable and doesn't like to use his brain..." He pondered. "Hopefully, spending some time with Zhuanjiezun will help him grow..."

Bill, who was high up, didn't hear his brother's mumbling. He was now cutting the Dreadleaf's petals with his fingers.

The Dreadleaf was naturally not just any ordinary large leaf, or the Silkworm Mother wouldn't have chosen it as her nest. In terms of hardness, the Dreadleaf was indeed not as hard as the surrounding crystals, but its "toughness" was exceptionally amazing. No matter how much damage it sustained, the Dreadleaf could repair itself in a short amount of time... For the Silkworm Mother, when she couldn't catch prey, this leaf was her breakfast, lunch, and dinner... and she would never finish eating it.

At this moment, Bill was preparing to use this characteristic of the Dreadleaf to cut off and lift out a piece of the leaf to pack up the Silkworm Mother's corpse and take it away.

Zzzzzz...

Accompanied by a sound like metal scraping against leather, the cutting began.

Bill's fingers could deform to a certain extent. If he wanted, each of his five fingers could turn into five small chainsaws (small relatively speaking, the width of one of Bill's fingers was close to the size of a human hand), or five hammers, five screwdrivers, and so on... These small tricks were nothing to him.

He sawed as he walked, lifting as he went... slowly working around the Silkworm Mother's corpse.

As the Dreadleaf was damaged, it began to heal itself. As soon as a layer of leaf flesh was peeled away, new plant fibers began to grow out of the cut. So there was no need to worry that the piece of leaf in the middle would fall.

Before long, Bill had finished the preparations. He used the layer of leaf flesh he had cut out to wrap the corpse... in no time at all, he had wrapped all the pieces of the Silkworm Mother's corpse into a triangular leaf zongzi.

Billy, who was watching from below, saw that his brother's two hands were a little too busy, so he helped out with his psychokinesis. With a wave of his finger, the vine monster's corpse was immediately pulled into neat, long strips and flew up to the Dreadleaf on its own to complete the binding.

"Okay, done." Bill stood next to the "giant corpse zongzi" and patted the thing next to him with a sense of accomplishment...

"Pick it up and follow me," Billy said at this moment.

"Ah?" Bill was stunned. "Aren't we leaving this island yet?"

"Yes," Billy looked down at his watch again. "I still have to visit someone... and then we'll leave..."

...

"I say... is it getting dark?" Pegasus asked, looking at the crystals around them that were gradually dimming.

At this time, the players had finished eating and had rested in place for an hour and a half.

For the first ten minutes, they were a little apprehensive, fearing that the system would issue a negative game judgment. As it turned out... half an hour passed and there was still no movement, so everyone breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that in this scenario, the system recognized the "rest" action.

"Who knows..." Feng Bujue replied. "There aren't any suns, moons, or stars in the sky..." He imagined. "Maybe there isn't even a concept of 'sky' here. Who knows what we're looking up at? Who knows what the flow of time is like here? Maybe one night here lasts thirty hours; maybe that reflection in the sky is the real Island of Chewing Demons, and we're in a mirror image; or maybe... the creatures here transform at night..."

"We can't even tell the directions, we're really helpless," Honghu added.

"Well... okay..." Pegasus said, with his hands behind his head. "Whatever, even if all these crystals stop shining completely, we still have the fire, and other lighting equipment."

"The problem is..." Feng Bujue's eyes changed slightly, and he continued, "If the entire crystal labyrinth goes completely dark, is it really a good idea for us to stay near the light source..."

"That's right... it'll attract monsters, won't it?" Jibu added.

Honghu also said, "Yes... if there really is a so-called 'night' here, then there must be 'nocturnal creatures'. If that's the case... staying near such an obvious light source would be quite inappropriate."

"Then... how well have your stamina values recovered, everyone?" Feng Bujue suddenly asked.

"Much better than I expected, about sixty percent," Honghu replied.

"Me too," Jibu added.

Pegasus also said, "About the same."

"Okay, then let's get ready to go," Feng Bujue said, standing up and dusting off the crystal dust from his body.

"Huh?" Jibu asked strangely. "Hey... it's getting darker and darker around us."

"That's why we need to leave..." Feng Bujue replied. "Human eyes aren't suitable for darkness. We need light to see, no matter what. Whether we stay in place or keep moving, it's impossible for us to put out the fire or turn off the lights... Since that's the case, we might as well use our flashlights to explore."

"Mm." Pegasus also stood up and stretched his limbs. "We've been here long enough, it's time to move."

"Staying in place or leaving... which is more dangerous..." Honghu said, "I reserve my opinion..." He looked at Jibu. "Jibu, what do you think?"

Jibu was stunned. He had suddenly become the decision-maker, which was really rare.

"I..." Jibu hesitated again and again, but still said, "I think... let's go... we have to do the mission."

In fact, he hadn't thought too much, he was just instinctively leaning towards Feng Bujue's side. In this kind of situation, following your feelings is not as good as following Brother Jue's plan...

So, under the principle of the minority obeying the majority, Honghu also accepted the proposal to move, and the four set off again.

What they didn't know was... the most terrifying crisis in the entire scenario was quietly approaching...