The man with the curly hair stayed in the area with the dead shrubs to gather materials for a fire. The madam thought for a moment and, suggesting it was a bit dangerous for him to be alone, chose to stay behind and help him gather. The others agreed.
So, the remaining five walked through the grassy shrubland under the sunset's afterglow, eventually arriving at the edge of the forest.
"Fumi… Doctor?" Nijika almost used the wrong name but caught herself in time.
"Hm?" Fumiya Jin replied.
"Is there something in my hair?" Nijika asked, confused.
"No, I was just looking at the sky," Fumiya Jin shook his head, withdrawing his gaze, though a hint of gravity flashed in his eyes.
But that was something to worry about later. For now, they had to get the fire started.
He shook his head and looked toward the forest ahead.
Unlike the patch of dead shrubs, the trees before them were lush and verdant. The green of the leaves filled their vision. Just arriving at the edge of the forest, a few wisps of cool breeze blowing out from within felt refreshingly comfortable.
"Huh? There are fruits over there... Is that an apple tree?" the chubby guy walking off to the side suddenly exclaimed in delight, pointing to their front left.
Everyone followed his finger and saw... just a few meters away, right at the edge of the forest, stood a large, thriving tree with a trunk as thick as an ox, extending several sturdy branches upward. It was indeed bearing round, green fruits that looked quite a lot like unripe apples.
"Would there be... apple trees on a tropical island?" Nijika wondered quietly, but since she wasn't sure, she didn't dare say it loudly.
The fleshy-faced woman and the black man, however, both had looks of joy on their faces.
"Apples? Won't that fill our stomachs and give us water? With this, and a fire, we've basically cleared the instance, right?" The fleshy-faced woman turned to the black man. "You can climb trees, can't you? Go pick ten or so, and we'll have food for the next few days."
"Climb a tree? A piece of cake!" The black man was straightforward, rolling up his sleeves and walking toward the tree. The chubby guy also rubbed his hands together, ready to help.
"Don't pick them randomly. They're poisonous," Fumiya Jin said, waving his hand.
The black man and the other two paused and turned back.
"What do you mean?" the chubby guy asked, confused.
"Apple trees are temperate plants. How could they possibly grow on a tropical island like this?" Fumiya Jin rolled his eyes.
"This thing is called a manchineel tree, and its fruit is highly toxic... I don't know if eating one or two will kill you, but vomiting, diarrhea, and chemical burns in your digestive tract are guaranteed. There are no hospitals in this instance. If you'd like to experience a fate worse than death, you can pretend I said nothing."
"For real?" The black man was a bit skeptical. "You're not trying to trick us into not picking them just so you can come back and eat them yourself, are you?"
"If you don't believe me, you can try a bite. One bite probably won't kill you." Fumiya Jin spread his hands.
"I just don't want you to slow down our wood gathering. It's almost dark."
Hearing him say that, the black man felt a chill and, after glancing at the tree, didn't dare to take another step forward.
The fleshy-faced woman looked at Fumiya Jin and, seeing how certain he was, nodded. "The handsome young man has a point... Don't pick them. We won't starve from not eating for one night. Let's keep going further in and see if there are any other fruits."
...
The group continued deeper into the forest.
After walking less than ten meters, it already felt much cooler.
Everyone, who had been sweating profusely on the hot beach, breathed a sigh of relief.
The trees grew denser, and the weeds and shrubs became thicker.
Only...
"Can you guys hear that... It sounds like there's some noise? And... there seems to be a lot of it..." the chubby guy said as he walked, his expression turning strange.
Fumiya Jin furrowed his brow and listened carefully...
There were indeed some very small, subtle sounds coming from the bushes ahead. If one didn't hold their breath and listen intently, they would have missed it.
"Be careful," he warned.
"On an island like this, the probability of venomous snakes and insects is very high."
The black man chuckled. "What jungle doesn't have a few snakes and bugs? That stuff only scares softies like you."
As he spoke, he took the lead, pushed aside the bushes in front of them, and stepped through to take a look...
"FUCK!"
He immediately executed a backstep that seemed to defy the laws of physics! He had to twist his body at an angle impossible for an ordinary person to instantly spring back—this was clearly accomplished using some kind of special ability.
Then, he spun around abruptly. And sprinted frantically back the way they came!
Everyone was stunned.
What the hell was happening?
They looked past the bushes he had just entered...
And saw a long, black-and-white striped thing... slithering out...
Then another.
And another.
And then several more.
They even looked up at the trees... And realized there were several more of different colors dangling from the large tree ahead.
"Shit!"
The others finally understood.
They immediately turned and bolted out of the forest.
As Fumiya Jin turned to run, he noticed Nijika was frozen in fear, her slender legs trembling.
He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her along. "What are you spacing out for? Run!"
The group sprinted all the way back out of the forest and returned to the area of dead shrubs.
The man with the curly hair and The madam, who were still gathering dead branches, were completely bewildered to see the group, who had been in the forest for less than two minutes, suddenly come rushing back out.
"What's wrong?" the man with the curly hair asked.
"There are... *huff*... snakes! Lots of snakes!" the chubby guy said, bent over and panting, his face pale.
"Snakes?" The man with the curly hair scratched his head.
"But aren't a few snakes in a forest... pretty normal?"
"Were those a 'few' snakes, you son of a beach???" The dreadlocked black man had a crazed expression as if he'd just eaten shit.
"I pushed aside those bushes and looked... there were at least a dozen of them on the ground right behind it, all colorful... and who knows how many in the trees!"
"Huh?" The man with the curly hair and The madam were both shocked.
The madam thought for a moment and asked, "So... what kind of snakes were they? Were they venomous?"
"Yes! They were all brightly colored, looked venomous at a glance," the black man said, still shaken.
"They are venomous," Fumiya Jin added.
"I took a quick look and only recognized a few types—many-banded kraits, black-browed pit vipers... Not to mention the ones I don't recognize, but just these two alone are highly venomous. One bite, and without antivenom, a person would be gone very quickly."
"What???" Hearing this, everyone's face turned green.
No one had expected death to have just brushed past them so closely.
And the black man, the only one who had stepped directly into the bushes and almost trod on two of the venomous snakes, shivered violently. "Son of a bitch... is this forest even meant for humans?"
"Looks like our luck isn't great. This might be a snake island," Fumiya Jin said with a shrug.
"Judging by the density of venomous snakes we just saw... I estimate there are at least ten thousand of them in this entire forest."
"Ten thousand venomous snakes? My god..." The chubby guy began to tremble.
"How are we supposed to go into this forest? It's impossible, right?"
"You couldn't pay me to go back in there!" The dreadlocked black man's bravado was gone.
But Fumiya Jin shook his head. "No, we still have to go chop down trees. These small branches from the shrubs won't last us the whole night, let alone the three nights we have to survive..."
Everyone was shocked.
They all stared at him as if he were a monster.
"Still chopping trees? Do you have a death wish?"
Fumiya Jin calmly shook his head. "Snakes like heat, but they can't stand the scorching air on the sun-baked beach, so they definitely don't like to linger at the very edge of the forest near the beach. If we only cut down a few trees on the outermost edge, the risk should be relatively low. Even if we run into one or two, they won't be hard to deal with."
Hearing this, they thought about it and felt it made some sense, but...
"That's just speculation, isn't it?" the black man said, narrowing his eyes.
"Just because snakes don't like staying at the edge doesn't mean they'll never come over. If one comes and bites you, your life is over."
Fumiya Jin looked at the black man and said, "If we don't have enough firewood, we'll be gone tonight all the same."
"It's not like we're guaranteed to die when it gets dark," the black man retorted stubbornly.
"Besides... you keep talking about chopping down trees, but we don't even have a fucking axe. How are we supposed to cut them down?"
"Not necessarily," Fumiya Jin said, glancing at the sky. There wasn't much time left.
If possible, he didn't want to reveal his abilities so soon—just as everyone else was keeping quiet about their own. But now, there really wasn't enough time.
He sighed lightly and said, "I have a way to cut down the trees, but you all have to help me carry them."
"You?" The black man shot a sidelong glance at his arm.
"With those skinny arms and legs? You think you can chop a few small branches? And you need all of us to help carry them?"
____
Hello! Walnut here! Or... Miku Dayo in this case heheh...
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