Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Chapter 542: Chapter 368: Snow Mountain Shortcut

”You’ve found a shortcut to climb the snow mountain?” Xu Xin’s pupils shrank.

If a shortcut is truly found, enabling ordinary survivors to easily climb the snow mountain, they could not only connect various regions of Area 188 through the Snow Mountain Array but also end this cursed severe winter early!

”I’m currently at the edge of the giant pit of the Transmission Array. I can’t explain clearly over the voice call. You’re done with your tasks, right? Come over here; I’m waiting for you.”

”Alright, I’ll head over now.”

Without even having time to rest, Xu Xin stood up and twisted his shoulders.

Lou Fei’Er’s shoulder massage skills are quite good; just a few minutes of pressing and the whole shoulder feels much lighter.

Her skills are pretty comprehensive.

Just then, Keke ran up from downstairs, and the giant egg jumped up step by step along the treehouse stairs.

Looks like these two little fellows are already tired from playing.

The Silver King was the last to come up. Compared to the two little ones, he seemed a bit unsatisfied.

”Ying!” Seeing Xu Xin appearing like he’s heading out again, Keke climbed onto his shoulder and lay down.

At this moment, Mimi and the Silver King came over too.

”Awooo!” The Silver King howled, while Mimi pushed Xu Xin’s right hand with the bracelet away with her paw.

Xu Xin understood the meaning of the two beasts; they wanted him to take them with him, but didn’t want to be stored in the bracelet.

They wanted to run through the jungle together as they used to, not just be released when needing to fight.

Xu Xin patted the big heads of the two beasts with both hands: ”The outside temperature has risen too, the snow layer will probably melt in three days, just bear with it a few more days, then you can run through the jungle again.”

”Awooo!”

The Silver King is a wolf, a canine, with extremely abundant energy.

Even domesticated dogs need to be walked daily; otherwise, they might wreck the house, not to mention the wild former Wolf King.

For him to behave without tearing the house apart shows great self-control.

Mimi let out a dissatisfied noise and then returned to lying by the fireplace.

Without taking them along, Xu Xin took Keke down the treehouse.

Afu was hanging upside down on the canopy outside. As he came out, it let out a subtle call.

Oh boy, as soon as the weather warmed, it didn’t want to stay inside the treehouse anymore.

Standing on the ground, looking around.

In the jungle, the originally three-meter-thick snow layer melted and reduced by several tens of centimeters after hours of sun exposure!

The now much-lowered snow surface was wet, with some pits and bumps.

This melting speed is honestly fast enough!

Of course, it’s due to the direct sunlight and high temperature during the day.

When the sun sets, the melting speed will greatly slow down.

But even so, calculating at this speed, in one day, the snow layer can melt over a meter!

By the latest, the day after tomorrow, the snow layer can melt to the extent of running!

Not bad.

Pulling out the skateboard, he glided toward the direction of the purple-black light column.

Keke’s little head, originally resting on his shoulder, tilted towards the direction of the lake.

”...Ying?”

In the air, the purple-black column of light continued connecting to the other side of the region, forming a gigantic and conspicuous purple-black arch bridge in the bright sky.

Two minutes later, he arrived at the edge of the giant pit.

Ji Chaoyang was standing at the edge, looking at the stone statues in attack positions but unable to move, pondering something.

Hearing the sound, he turned to see Xu Xin, nodding at him: ”Follow me, it’s nearby.”

Around the giant pit was a twenty-meter snowless zone.

Following Ji Chaoyang, Xu Xin walked to the edge of the snow layer, slightly away from the giant pit.

”What exactly did you discover?” Xu Xin asked, puzzled.

”Ying!” Keke seemed to have noticed something, suddenly jumped down from Xu Xin’s shoulder, ran forward for ten meters along the snow layer edge, and stopped at a spot.

”Ying!” It called out to Xu Xin, clawing at the ground.

Is that it?

Ji Chaoyang stopped beside Keke: ”Didn’t expect this little one to find it too. It’s right here, use your discernment ability to take a look.”

Xu Xin looked at where Keke was positioned.

”Huh, this is...” He widened his eyes slightly.

There was a slightly concave circular shallow pit about one centimeter into the ground, the size of a manhole cover.

Since the soil surface was inherently rugged, if merely glancing, this shallow circular pit would be hard to notice.

He immediately crouched, lifting Keke from the shallow pit onto his shoulder.

Within the circular shallow pit, faint lines were visible.

The pattern style instantly reminded him of the circular Teleportation Array Pattern.

Very similar! Perhaps related to teleportation!

He reached out to touch the lines.

[Snow Mountain Internal Climbing Entrance (Closed): A teleportation entrance into the interior of the snow mountain, opened to summit passage for the first climber who ascended a certain snow mountain peak. Survivors can enter the interior of the snow mountain from here, climbing to the summit without any environmental temperature changes via stairway.

Around each snow mountain, there are two hidden internal climbing passage entrances, which can greatly reduce the difficulty of climbing the snow mountain. One entrance only allows one survivor to enter, and upon entry, the entrance will be directly sealed. The inside of the snow mountain is equivalent to a dungeon, with certain dangers despite the absence of extreme environments.

Since the Snow Mountain Array has been activated, this entrance has been completely sealed.

This series of introductions made Xu Xin feel increasingly astonished.

”How is it? What did you see?” Ji Chaoyang stood up and asked, ”I can only see that this is the entrance to the inside of the snow mountain, which allows internal climbing to the peak. Other than that, there’s no other information.”

Ji Chaoyang also reached out with him to touch the shallow pit, depressed by one centimeter, and the information he got was only the first sentence of what Xu Xin obtained.

Suppressing the slight surprise and excitement in his heart, Xu Xin told Ji Chaoyang all the information he saw.

”Two entrances, dungeon...” Ji Chaoyang murmured, pondering something.

Xu Xin also fell into thought.

There are indeed shortcuts around the snow mountain! Entering the snow mountain, climbing the mountain through stairs like exploring a dungeon!

Although it is still climbing a snow mountain, this internal passage is equivalent to a dungeon and comes with certain risks.

But compared to rock climbing on a steep cliff for 1,800 meters, experiencing extreme environmental changes and having to finish within 12 hours, it is much simpler and indeed qualifies as a shortcut!

Moreover, the current survivors have all survived dungeon exploration activities and are distinguished survivors. There won’t be any weak ones. They’re no strangers to dungeons, and it’s not a big problem to conquer one.

However...

The nature of this entrance is somewhat different from what Xu Xin imagined.

He initially thought that as long as they found a shortcut entrance, they could quickly climb with three people and activate the array.

But he didn’t expect that one person actually needs to climb to the peak to activate it!

Each snow mountain still requires one person to climb from the outside.

So this shortcut doesn’t completely solve the problem.

However, even so, it greatly increases the possibility of activating the Snow Mountain Array.

Currently, the reason only region 188 has activated the Snow Mountain Array, and other regions are struggling, is primarily because the strong survivors in region 188 are more concentrated.

For the two snow mountains where they activated the array, each had three formidable climbers.

But the powerful figures of the outer regions are not as concentrated as those in region 188.

The whole area is unbelievably huge, and the leaders of the outer regions are scattered throughout, with vast distances between them.

Lou Fei’Er can lure people from region 187 over because half of region 187 shared region 188’s rewards, the dangerous area temporarily became safe, and the temperature was suitable, allowing for such gathering.

Other regions’ leaders don’t have such conditions.

Even if they are not far apart, they simply cannot gather and cannot climb a snow mountain together.

But with this shortcut, things are different!

The leaders can first climb and activate the shortcut, then find two relatively reliable neighbors to easily climb the snow mountain from the inside!

This reduces the difficulty of activating the array by two-thirds!

Of course, the premise is that they can find the shortcut entrance that appears.

That is not an easy task.

”This entrance is not easy to find.” Ji Chaoyang’s eyebrows were already slightly furrowed as he thought of this problem, ”The snow within twenty meters around has melted, which is how we could see this entrance. I only found it thanks to my prophecy; the traces are too shallow.”

Indeed, it’s very difficult.

The snow in other regions is already four meters deep!

Trying to find an entrance buried under the snow near the snow mountain is as hard as reaching the sky!

Does that mean clearing all the snow around it?

Four meters of snow, within a large circle of a two-hundred-meter-diameter stone pillar peak, it’s impossible to manage!

”Let’s first try to find another entrance to see if there’s any pattern in their placement.” Xu Xin stood up and spoke to Keke on his shoulder, ”Keke, can you find another entrance nearby?”

”Ying!” Keke immediately jumped off his shoulder again and started running through the barren forest.

The two quickly followed behind Keke, and soon enough, after circling halfway around the giant pit, they found the second entrance.

”...It seems that the position of these entrances is really random,” Ji Chaoyang sighed.

Indeed.

The previous entrance was located twenty meters from the edge of the snow layer by the giant pit, while this one was next to a tree about ten meters from the pit. The only pattern might be their proximity to the giant pit or the snow mountain, possibly within twenty meters.

Presumably, the way Shi Wanyun from region 1 helped Dong Erbao climb the mountain was by using this method.

Though it’s unknown how she found the first entrance, she presumably hasn’t found a second entrance yet.

Therefore, the array for her snow mountain remains unactivated to this day.

”...However, in this case, our region 188 has a huge advantage,” Xu Xin said, ”In two more days, the snow layer in our area will be completely melted. By then, our survivors can easily find this entrance.”

”Indeed, I thought of that too,” Ji Chaoyang nodded, ”But the premise is that the first person must be able to climb the snow peak.”

The two discussed it for a while and finally decided to inform people from other regions of this news.

It requires activating 30 Snow Mountain Arrays to end this winter challenge, so help from other regions is needed.

Relying only on their region 188 is too difficult. Even with shortcuts, climbers are still needed.

After all, this event is called the Snow Mountain Climbing Event!

Xu Xin hoped they could find the shortcut entrance quickly, because he also wanted to end this winter challenge as soon as possible.

Although their region currently seems unlikely to be buried by snow, it doesn’t mean the danger is over.

Recently, Keke has been sensing something elusive, and it seems that danger might soon come, so they must end this winter challenge quickly!