Community Traversal: I Have a Daily Rescue Kit

30: Arrow

A piercing scream shattered the thick darkness and reached Su Chen's ears, causing the leaves on the withered tree beside him to tremble.

Suddenly, the sound of rustling leaves and continuous wailing filled the silent forest!

The sound was like someone was undergoing extreme torture, so painful that all that could be left was groaning.

"Don't come any closer...don't come any closer!"

Upon hearing the voice, Su Chen was taken aback for a moment.

The name sounded familiar, like he'd heard it somewhere before. He quickly searched his memory, finally settling on that day—a group of people driving off-road vehicles, saying they were going hunting.

Did they run into something in the woods?

Su Chen stopped and looked at the few crooked, withered trees in front of him and the narrow path that seemed to be inviting him. He was already having second thoughts.

But after hesitating for a few seconds, he gripped the cold shaft of the red-tasseled spear with his right hand and placed his left hand on the holster of the pistol at his waist.

He quickly calculated in his mind:

"I'm wearing a bulletproof vest, and I have three spare magazines in my pistol. With my current physical condition, I can run away anytime I want."

As he thought about it, his gaze gradually hardened. He looked towards the path and thought:

"Yes, you can go."

The wailing sounds continued to drift over intermittently, not far away, just deep in the woods ahead.

Having made his decision, Su Chen acted decisively, picking up his gun and carefully walking towards the direction from which the sound came.

This is a great opportunity to find out the secrets of the Black Forest!

For him, what monsters lurked in this dark forest? What traps were there? Only by figuring these things out could he safely venture in and out in the future.

Now is the best opportunity.

Someone has triggered the danger in the Black Forest, and he must take this opportunity to see the situation clearly!

As for saving people? Su Chen twitched the corner of his mouth. His membership in the Communist Youth League had expired long ago and hadn't been renewed. In this world, being able to control oneself from harming others was already considered very kind.

He followed the sound and walked into the path hidden by trees. After he completely disappeared into the road, the trees mysteriously began to move, completely obscuring the path in the middle.

……

……

The forest at night resembles a crouching giant beast, its canopy layered upon layer, blocking out even a sliver of moonlight.

The air was filled with the smell of damp, rotting leaves, mixed with a strange, sweet floral fragrance.

Thick vines, about the size of a bowl, climbed all around my feet, with palm-sized green leaves growing on them, their tips adorned with glistening dewdrops. But as soon as those dewdrops fell to the ground, they hissed and corroded small pits into the ground.

Occasionally, a few eerie green lights would flash through the woods; they were fist-sized flying insects, their wings flapping and making a soft buzzing sound.

After Su Chen entered the path, he found that the path widened and the number of animals in the forest gradually increased.

As he was walking, he suddenly heard a noise beside him. He turned his head and saw a furry little animal perched on a tree branch, its round eyes like black gems. When it saw Su Chen passing by, it simply tilted its head and let out a soft cry:

"Aww!"

This little thing, whose exact nature was unknown, looked a bit like a rabbit, with gray fur and black eyes. It stared at Su Chen and blinked, as if very curious about what he was doing.

Su Chen's heart skipped a beat, but he quickly suppressed the thought and continued walking forward.

Normally, he might have tried to catch it.

But now—

The wailing sounds were growing weaker and weaker, intermittent, like a candle flame in the wind, ready to go out at any moment.

There was simply no time to hunt.

He held his breath, pushed aside the branches blocking his way, and crept toward the increasingly faint wails.

That sound was truly pitiful; I wonder what kind of suffering it had caused.

Did we encounter a strange plant? Or a monster?

Or perhaps... Su Chen remembered that the information in the rescue package mentioned that it might be poisoned by eating those pretty-looking wild fruits?

Various speculations swirled in his mind; he even considered the possibility of cannibals existing in the neighborhood.

"It could also be infighting among their own people..."

Thinking of this, Su Chen became more cautious and slowed down his pace.

Soon, the scene before him made him stop abruptly—and at the same time, the wailing completely ceased!

The surroundings suddenly became eerily quiet.

He reached out and brushed aside the last broad leaf blocking his view. Once he saw it clearly, his brows immediately furrowed.

Before them lay an open space, splattered with dark red blood. Scattered on the ground were bits of flesh and several tattered pieces of clothing.

There was no corpse.

Su Chen's expression immediately turned serious.

The absence of corpses means that these people were either dragged away by something or... eaten so badly that not even bones were left.

"Was it done by some intelligent creature from the Black Forest? Or did they die at the hands of their own people...?"

Could he really have died at the hands of the "cannibals"? Su Chen frowned even more, but reason told him: it's unlikely, humanity won't break down that quickly!

Unless there are already perverts in the neighborhood.

The only thing that can be confirmed now is that ordinary monsters couldn't create such a scene.

He crouched down, his gaze sweeping over the bloodstains on the ground, finally settling on the few pieces of cloth.

My gaze shifted and landed on several ripped backpacks not far away. The backpack fabric was now frayed and tattered, and the insides were empty; all the supplies were gone.

"They even took the supplies..."

Su Chen muttered to himself, his gaze growing even more intense.

Ordinary wild animals don't do this; they only hunt for food and don't specifically scavenge for resources.

He stood there for a while, carefully observing his surroundings for any danger.

There was only the rustling of leaves in the wind and the chirping of insects; nothing else.

I waited for quite a long time.

Once he was certain it was temporarily safe, he gripped his red-tasseled spear tightly and moved step by step to the middle of the open space, bowing his head to examine the marks on the ground.

The scraps of fabric were ordinary, like polyester fiber.

Finally, he spotted a white metal plate, flicked it with his toe, and flipped it over—it was a smartphone with a shattered screen.

Now it's completely confirmed: this is the scene where the resident of the community was murdered.

Su Chen was half-squatting, staring at his phone, frowning in thought—

"Whoosh!"

A sharp whistling sound suddenly rang out from the shadows beside him!

Su Chen's body had been enhanced, giving him hearing far superior to that of an ordinary person. The moment the sound rang out, the hairs on his body stood on end, and before his brain could even process it, his head had already turned around.

Even with his quick reflexes, when he turned around, he only had time to catch a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye—

An arrow, whistling through the air, was flying towards him! It was incredibly fast; he watched helplessly as the arrowhead rapidly enlarged and drew closer before his eyes.