[Regional Channel 666 (Abandoned Forest) 9,983/10,000]
In just one morning, seventeen people had died.
No one knew how, but one thing was certain: this forest was far more dangerous than Lan Qingyou had imagined.
It also served as a fresh warning — she needed to be even more careful when venturing out.
"So hungry. Has anyone found a Supply Box? Can someone spare a bite?"
"Supply Boxes are everywhere if you just step outside and look around. You clearly never left your Shelter, you useless freeloader. Drop dead."
"Internet beggars have really followed us all the way to Karim, huh?"
"Help! My Shelter's in a tree, at least thirty meters off the ground! Someone save me!"
'Can't save you. You'd better find some vines nearby and climb down yourself.'
"There are wolf packs in the forest. Be careful when you go out to gather."
'So those things staring at me last night were wolves. And here I thought they were some kind of monster I'd never seen before.'
"Everyone, whatever you do, do NOT drink the stream water. I took one sip and felt awful — still can't stop running to the bathroom."
'Hm?'
'Can't drink the stream water?'
'But why? It looks perfectly clear.'
Seeing this message, Lan Qingyou instinctively sat up straighter.
She hadn't planned on drinking it, but she had been considering using the stream to bathe and wash her clothes.
If there was something wrong with the water, her dream of finally getting clean would be ruined.
Lan Qingyou quickly scrolled down for more.
"Running to the bathroom? Your Shelter has a toilet?"
"I found a Supply Box!"
"What?! You found a Box? Tell us what's inside, big shot!"
"Just a 500-gram loaf of bread, a bottle of water, and a box of tissues."
"You already found water — why did you drink from the stream?"
"I drank it before I found the Box."
"Want to sell the bread? Two basic units."
"Get lost. Want a chest that's been turned into a toilet instead?"
"But why do you think it's the stream water, man? It looks clear enough, no pollution or anything."
"Hmph. Scaremongering. I drank it too and I feel fine."
"I didn't realize something was off until I was carrying the chest home. Checked my Personal Info and it says the mana concentration in my body is too high."
"Mana concentration too high? So the water has a lot of mana in it, and the human body can't handle it?"
"How should I know? Scram, all of you scram! Stop bothering me while I'm on the throne!"
"'On the throne'? More like on the chest."
"Ahahahaha..."
For a moment, the chat channel was filled with merry laughter.
'Mana concentration too high, huh?'
That was certainly a novel way to put it.
But thinking back to the World Will's announcement when they'd first arrived — about even the air being saturated with mana — it made sense that the stream water would have high mana concentration too.
Honestly, the fact that they could even breathe mana-laced air without being poisoned was already a blessing.
'No wonder the Supply Boxes only contain Blue Star products. Is the World Will giving them a buffer period?'
Lan Qingyou furrowed her brow as she speculated.
Just then, someone burst into the channel spewing a torrent of profanity — foul language of the highest order, target unclear.
Judging from his avatar, the man had a large beard and a cloth wrapped around his head — a distinctly South Asian look.
After ranting for a while, the crowd finally pressed him until he revealed what had happened.
"Damn it! Everyone watch out — the guy named James Bellboman is a scammer! That dog Yesterday told me he wanted to swap for my Pickaxe, and after he took it, he never gave me his Axe!"
'Well, that explains that.'
Lan Qingyou still remembered the exchange from last night's chat. So the poor guy got scammed.
'Trusting someone you've never met face to face in a completely unfamiliar environment.'
Lan Qingyou's only reaction: serves him right.
"Scammer? You're one to talk, Asang Singh. Don't think I don't know you were locked up two years ago for fraud. And you have the nerve to call someone else a scammer."
James hadn't even spoken yet when someone jumped in and started going at Asang Singh.
After that, things went completely sideways.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Na Lin. What happened — quit smuggling and became the morality police?"
"Heh. I was wondering who was barking. If it isn't Wu Gang — the illegal logger who nearly got beaten to death."
"Hahahaha! Didn't notice last night, but looking today — there's quite a few familiar faces!"
"Shut it, Bi Hu! You still owe me money from last time. Just wait. Let me find where your Shelter is and I'll end you."
"Ha! Capone, you still think you're some kind of Godfather? We're in another world now. Let's be a little realistic, shall we?"
"What the hell kind of Villain Valley is this? So many criminals."
"Impressive. The Karim World Will puts this many criminals together — is this some kind of gu-raising experiment?"
"What the hell did I do to deserve being stuck in the same district as this pack of animals?"
"Not bad, not bad. I'm looking forward to seeing what new chaos you Abandoned Forest folks cook up."
"Hehe. Dogs biting dogs — my favorite kind of entertainment."
"Good. I've memorized your faces. Watch yourselves when you step outside, because if I run into you, you won't like what happens next."
"Oh my, I'm so scared! My little heart is going pitter-patter! If you're so tough, why don't you crawl through the Magic Desk's network cable and come get me!"
"Fuck!"
"Damn terrorists! Blue Star's been unified for how many years now and you people still aren't extinct?!"
...
Reading through all of this, even Lan Qingyou couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose.
'Good grief.'
After scrolling through the whole thing, it was clear that at least half — if not more — of the ten thousand people in the Abandoned Forest were criminals.
Robbery, theft, murder, fraud, corruption, poisoning, espionage, arson, drunk driving, smuggling, poaching, kidnapping, extortion, intimidation, counterfeiting, forging documents...
Whatever crime you could think of, District 666's channel could produce a matching "talent."
It had everything.
And anyone who wasn't a criminal was there for the memes.
Lan Qingyou had even spotted the avatars of the tall, sleazy man and the short, scar-faced man who'd snuck into her room last night.
To borrow someone's words from earlier:
What "Abandoned Forest"? This place made Villain Valley look tame by comparison.
Still, as long as she was careful and stayed away from all of them, the impact on her would be minimal.
After finishing a coconut bread and an apple, Lan Qingyou tidied up her trash, went out to use the Gathering Skill once more to strip another batch of vines from the tree trunk, then brought them back to the Shelter.
[Vine +20]
'Hm? Still 20?'
Recalling this morning's vine count, Lan Qingyou frowned slightly. She flew out again and used Gathering Skill on a tree.
Possibly because the tree was so massive, one cast of Gathering Skill was about as effective as giving it a light scratch. Chunks of wood fell to the ground below.
Lan Qingyou counted carefully while picking them up. Still exactly twenty.
She tried Stone afterward. Twenty again.
'So the base yield of Gathering Skill is always 20?'
If that was the case, it conveniently matched the mana cost per usage.
With her 80 Mana Points and a recovery rate of 1 per minute, she could gather 80 basic units in one hour and twenty minutes.
Three thousand-plus basic units of material would take roughly forty-five hours — two or three days of gathering.
If she could swing a weapon to chop trees instead, the time would shrink even further.
Unfortunately, unlike everyone else, she couldn't just switch to manual labor when her mana ran out.
She needed to rest for over an hour to fully recharge.
That was also why she'd brought the alchemy notebook back with her.
Just lying around doing nothing, unable to do anything — that was truly agonizing.
Even though she now had the Magic Desk to browse the chat, she couldn't just stare at that mindless chatter forever.
She didn't know what alchemy looked like in this world, but at the very least, it could serve as a pastime.
As for the E-rank Monster Crystal Cores — those were almost certainly found inside whatever had been eyeing her last night.
Which meant she'd have to fight monsters...
And that was a problem.
Because she had no means of attack whatsoever.
'Oh well. Time to regenerate mana first. Future problems are for the future.'