Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 53: Chapter 53 Jungle Hunting Activity

The next day, Xu Xin woke up early because he had slept too much the night before.

”Yawn~” Keke stretched its furry body beside him.

After enjoying breakfast, Xu Xin began preparing the things he would need for the day.

He packed all his previous tools into a blue-grade ”Exquisite Backpack,” slung the quiver for his crossbow over his back, held the crossbow in his hand, and donned iron armor, fully armed.

”Attention, survivors, today’s event is about to begin!”

”Next, we will introduce the event content, please listen carefully, survivors.”

”The beasts will truly return to the jungle. Starting today, the jungle will be teeming with beasts. We believe you survivors have already gained the ability to hunt beasts and protect yourselves, so enjoy the hunt!”

”This event is the Jungle Hunting Event. Over the next two days, go hunt beasts and earn points! The points vary based on the types of beasts you hunt. Points can be used to exchange for limited supplies after the event ends.”

”Friendly reminder: Do not explore areas outside the treehouse’s protection range, or terrifying things will happen.”

”This reward event will last from today 8:00 until tomorrow 18:00.”

”Make sure not to slack off— the last 50 survivors to gain points in each area during the event will permanently leave this beautiful world.”

”We look forward to seeing survivors standing on the corpses of beasts, becoming the kings of this jungle!”

”The Jungle Hunting Event begins now!”

The beasts are returning to the jungle?

Xu Xin immediately opened the map. Sure enough, a plethora of red dots had already swarmed into the three-kilometer radius around his treehouse. Although it wasn’t as overwhelming as the first day’s beast invasion, the numbers were still staggering.

Beasts continued to pour in from the beast gathering area to the northwest, quickly reaching a balance between the two locations.

Looking out from the treehouse window, Xu Xin could already see various small animals in the vicinity of his treehouse. There were even a few monkeys playing on the poplar treetops not far from his treehouse.

Fortunately, he didn’t activate the automatic attack of the heavy crossbow; otherwise, it would have been amusing to shoot at monkeys. More importantly, monkeys are so agile and mobile that the heavy crossbow might not even hit them.

Xu Xin decided to stay put for now and wait in the treehouse until more beasts gathered around, planning to use the treehouse to kill some beasts and then venture out once the immediate threats had been dealt with.

At this moment, Keke had already jumped up to the window, leaning out to watch the beasts outside, seemingly unimpressed.

Reflecting on it, perhaps the current situation was the jungle’s original state before their group of survivors arrived.

”Be careful, don’t fall out,” Xu Xin cautioned.

”Yawn!” Keke replied, continuing to lie by the window. After all, it often slept on tree branches and had never fallen before.

Suddenly, a giant vulture screeched as it flew past the treetop of the treehouse, its massive wingspan nearly reaching five meters, which startled Keke into a jump at the window ledge.

”Yelp yelp yelp!”

”I told you to be careful!”

Worried that Keke might fall, Xu Xin hastily picked it up from the window.

The vulture just now was indeed enormous. Xu Xin was quite amazed. Vultures are the largest birds of prey, with a wingspan that can reach up to five meters, and that one had nearly reached the largest on Earth.

”The beasts here are excessively large; shooting it down would surely yield a lot of feathers, wouldn’t it?”

But Xu Xin was just entertaining the thought. Given the speed of the vulture, the crossbow bolt would probably miss it unless he could catch it during feeding.

He wondered if automatic shooting could hit a moving target.

Fondling Keke’s furry head in his arms, Xu Xin looked towards the direction of the lake’s heart. That’s where his greatest concern lay, the Lake Giant Python.

During the last beast invasion, the giant python appeared with its rock-like head and abyssal eyes, leaving a formidable impression on Xu Xin.

Thankfully, this time the giant python seemed absent, without even its red dot appearing on the map, leaving only the piranhas swimming in the lake’s heart.

As long as the giant python didn’t show up, the other beasts posed little danger to him. Even if he couldn’t best them, these beasts could do little against his well-fortified treehouse.

Xu Xin descended to the first floor by the heavy crossbow.

He had already heard several wolf howls and some unknown beast roars.

”More wolves, please, so I can choose a mount,” Xu Xin murmured to himself, gazing outside.

The area outside the treehouse was gradually bustling, and even a grass-eating deer appeared under Xu Xin’s tree.

Perhaps because his treehouse was built on the tallest tree in the area, even its canopy was being frolicked on by monkeys.

Xu Xin ignored them, focusing intently on observing the surrounding situation.

A silver-gray wolf emerged from the forest not far away.

”Here they come!”

Following the lead wolf, over twenty silver-gray wolves emerged, forming a pack.

”...That’s quite a lot; how am I supposed to deal with this?” Xu Xin felt a bit troubled. His heavy crossbow had only five shots, and even with the crossbow, confronting the wolf pack might be futile since they would retreat, leaving him with perhaps one or two hits, only for them to vanish.

He even wished to pick one as his mount!

Examining the wolf pack, Xu Xin eventually fixed his gaze on the one with the shiniest fur and largest build.

This wolf stood out prominently in the pack, being almost an entire circle larger in stature than the other wolves, likely weighing as much as a black bear, and clearly the core around which the pack revolved.

”Is this the Wolf King of the pack? It looks stunning,” Xu Xin marveled at the grand and majestic silver-white Wolf King, unable to avert his gaze.

Perhaps there’s a chance to make it his mount!

The pack of wolves was converging beneath his treehouse, seemingly targeting the deer underneath.

Deer generally run faster than wolves, with most wolf packs opting to chase until the prey is exhausted or collapses, becoming a meal.

However, this wolf pack appeared smarter, having learned to encircle; about twenty wolves had gradually formed a circle around the treehouse, trapping the deer inside.

It seemed the deer would meet its end here.

Xu Xin didn’t hurry to act; he planned to surprise the wolves once they began to feast, particularly giving the Wolf King a shock!

His ”Intermediate Mount Contract” had a property allowing it to heal all pre-contract injuries to the mount, meaning as long as he didn’t kill this Wolf King, there wasn’t much of a problem.

The deer that had been grazing beneath the treehouse had stopped, raising its head, becoming uneasy as it sensed the surrounding danger. However, it was too late; a group of silver-gray wolves emerged from behind the trees.

Panicked, the deer began to flee aimlessly. With a howl from the Wolf King, all surrounding wolves leapt out, charging at the escaping deer!

The deer’s cries of despair echoed throughout the resource area, startling a flock of birds from the surrounding jungle.

As expected, the deer was bitten to death on the spot, its blood staining the ground beneath Xu Xin’s treehouse.

The wolf pack, with strict hierarchy, stood around the fallen deer, not rushing to feast, awaiting the Wolf King to first enjoy the meal.

The Wolf King approached and began its feast while the other wolves remained vigilant and on guard.

”Now’s the chance!” Xu Xin’s hand swiftly reached for the heavy crossbow crank.