Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 89: Chapter 89: Large Testing Ground?

”Wait, what’s this?” Xu Xin picked up the last two cards.

It was the [Mutant Beast Contract (Green)]. There were actually two Mutant Beast Contracts in the backpack.

Perhaps he had looted them from here and put them in his backpack, only to die here for some unknown reason, leaving such items in the backpack.

Xu Xin didn’t think much of it and directly placed the two contracts into his backpack. Now he had five contracts, which perfectly matched the number the ring could hold.

After packing the other items back into this blue-level backpack, he slung the backpack over his shoulder.

The backpack was actually very small. Although carrying two was a bit awkward, it wasn’t a big issue.

The only heavy items in the backpack were round logs and fine sticks, but the blue-level backpack reduced the weight to one-tenth. Combined with his now much stronger strength than before, he felt no pressure.

As for the tattered blue-level leather armor, Xu Xin decided to take it. He remembered that the weapon and armor crafting station had a repair function. Although he wasn’t sure how much material it would consume, it would certainly cost less than crafting anew.

”With these round logs and fine sticks, I can completely renovate the inside and outside of the treehouse once I get back.” Xu Xin was quite pleased, but he only enjoyed the moment for an instant before calming down. After all, talking about going back to remodel the treehouse in this dangerous underground dungeon was still too early.

Xu Xin exited the room and gently closed the door.

Looking deeper into the corridor, he still couldn’t see the end. But there were only a few rooms left. Only three doors remained unexplored, and as for the corridor further in, there were no doors on either side. It was unclear where such a long corridor led.

Xu Xin approached the first remaining door. The door wasn’t locked, and just as he was about to push it open, Keke on his shoulder suddenly reacted.

”Meep!” Keke made a noise.

Danger! Xu Xin squinted his eyes, and the hand that was about to push the door paused in mid-air.

This was Keke’s first warning of danger since they entered this corridor.

Based on Xu Xin’s judgment, there’s likely a mutant beast confined in this room. He took out a broom, holding it in his left hand while his right hand tightly gripped the sword, and pushed the door open a crack.

The decaying wooden door emitted a creaking, unpleasant noise, and a rotten smell wafted through the gap.

It wasn’t the ever-present damp and decaying odor since they entered, but a putrid, rotting scent.

Indeed, the smell of decaying corpses.

Xu Xin had never smelled decaying corpses, but he had experienced the stench of spoiled meat, and that’s what this odor was.

Through the small opening, Xu Xin peered into the room.

This room was very large, much larger than any room Xu Xin had entered before, akin to a hotel’s conference hall.

The hall was filled with towering, rust-laden iron cages. The densely packed cage bars made Xu Xin feel like he had entered a prison.

In every cage, there was a beast roughly the size of a wolf, either lying still or completely motionless. On each beast’s fur, there was a faint blood-red pattern.

”Is this... a mutant beast? Are they... already dead?”

Xu Xin opened the door and quietly stepped inside this massive room. Compared to the small stone chambers he had entered before, this room was much larger, with a height of seven or eight meters and at least a thousand square meters in area.

In such a vast space, only a few narrow paths about a meter wide were left between the cages, with the rest occupied by these rusted iron cages.

Xu Xin reached out and pinched the bars of a nearby cage, and the long-term erosion had made the bars extremely fragile. With just a gentle squeeze, they deformed.

The mutant beasts inside the cages didn’t move, but they didn’t look like dead animals. Although the air was saturated with a putrid stench, these beasts seemed normal, showing no signs of decay.

”Alive?” Xu Xin became more vigilant.

If these beasts were indeed alive, these flimsy cages would be utterly incapable of restraining their movements.

Xu Xin further lightened his steps.

Tiptoeing around this room, he found nothing apart from the group of mutant beasts.

”There are so many mutant beasts here; were they specifically bred?” Xu Xin pondered, ”I wonder if the contracts I just obtained could control these mutant beasts.”

The cages contained a wide variety of beasts, including carnivores like wild wolves and wild cats, omnivores like wild boars and bears, and even herbivores like deer and rabbits.

After some thought, Xu Xin decided to temporarily refrain from testing it. There were still two rooms he hadn’t explored, and if using the contracts inadvertently awakened all these beasts, these rusted cages wouldn’t even hold ordinary animals, let alone mutant ones.

He retreated from the room.

The next door was directly opposite this one. Xu Xin walked to the door and reached out to push it.

”Meep!” Keke suddenly called out again, tugging at Xu Xin’s clothes. This time its reaction was much more intense than in the previous room, pulling at Xu Xin’s collar as if it absolutely didn’t want him to enter.

Xu Xin gently pushed open a crack and peeked inside.

The scene through the door’s gap made Xu Xin’s pupils contract sharply, and he covered his mouth to stifle a gasp.

”What is... that monster?”

On the room’s floor, there lay a dozen human bodies, each in different postures, as if someone had simply tossed them there.

If they were merely dead, Xu Xin would not have been so frightened. Since arriving in this world, over four thousand people in their area had died. Though Xu Xin had never seen their corpses, he no longer held fear toward the dead.

But the things lying in this room probably couldn’t be considered humans anymore.

Most of them wore not a scrap of clothing, yet their bodies were covered with dense red and white striped fur. The fur was short, about the length of a short-haired cat’s, and the red fur formed a pattern very familiar to Xu Xin.

Among them, a few still wore very tattered leather armor or even newbie sets, while others he could only identify through their hands, feet, and worn accessories, suggesting they might once have been human.

”What is this? Mutant... humans? And they were survivors too?!”

Xu Xin recalled the words engraved on the stone table when he entered.

”They are all demons, kill me I just want to die, none of you will die a good death...” The more Xu Xin thought about it, the more he felt short of breath, ”Not only are they breeding mutant beasts here, but they’re even experimenting on survivors?”

He suddenly turned, looking back towards where he came. The corridor remained pitch dark, except for the dim firelight flickering in the stone chamber at the end of the corridor where he had come from.

The doors he had opened were still as they were when he closed them, showing no signs of monsters emerging.

”Meep.” Keke softly called out, tugging Xu Xin’s clothing backwards, clearly indicating it didn’t want him to enter this room.

”Are the things with fur on the ground alive?” Xu Xin whispered to Keke.

”Meep.” Keke nodded its little head.

Taking a deep breath, Xu Xin slowly closed the door again.

There was still one last room unexplored; it was best to get a clear understanding of the situation first.

The door closing produced a grating ”creak” sound, and Xu Xin hesitated at the doorway for a moment, not relaxing until there were no sounds from within. He then turned his gaze to the final door.

The last door was actually made of metal, and although it looked somewhat old, it surprisingly had no signs of rust, remaining spotless.

Xu Xin tentatively turned the handle and found that this uniquely metal door was actually unlocked and easily opened.

Keke on his shoulder didn’t react, indicating it hadn’t sensed any danger inside.

Xu Xin gently pushed the door open.