Chapter 157: Besieged in the Forest

The crossbow was a military-grade weapon, and the bolt was a long one with an alloy tip and a wooden shaft. A military crossbow with heavy bolts is the standard configuration for massive destructive power. Therefore, the impact of this shot would be substantial—if it hit a human body, it would undoubtedly pierce straight through with deadly force.

However, Liu Chang did not dodge as the crossbow bolt came flying toward him. Based on the world as perceived by his eyes, the moment the bolt left the bowstring, its trajectory was captured by him. Instantly, his formidable computational power—rivaling that of Li Qingshu—derived a set of data: the initial muzzle velocity of the crossbow bolt was 213 meters per second; 0.13 seconds later, it would approach his body, but it would miss him by thirty-six centimeters to his left. It would not hit him.

Having calculated these figures, Liu Chang naturally saw no need to evade. Yet, this shot served as a wake-up call. Within that single second, he recalled the fundamental rule of encountering strangers in the apocalypse—the basic rules of communication that his dozen or so days of inhumane survival had caused him to forget.

"Hey brothers, don't get excited, don't get excited! I mean no harm!" Liu Chang stopped his run amidst the thick fog and stood his ground.

"Over there, who are you?" Several people raising their guns aimed uncertainly in the direction from which the voice had come. Given their eyesight, they naturally could not see Liu Chang through the mist, so their previous shot and current aim were entirely based on sound localization.

"Don't get excited, I'm from Henan," Liu Chang shouted loudly. "I want to cross this Hide-and-Seek Forest and head over to Hebei. May I ask where you folks are from?"

"From Henan?" Upon hearing Liu Chang's words, a note of disbelief colored their tones. One of them immediately shouted back in a Henan accent, "Where in Henan are you from?"

"Kaifeng, coming from Zhengzhou," Liu Chang dropped Mandarin and shouted back in the Henan dialect.

"Are you trying to trick us?" Hearing his shout, the group remained wary, yet they slowly lowered the barrels of their guns. "How could anyone from Henan possibly make it all the way here?"

"Where is this?" Liu Chang continued to shout.

"Xingtai!" someone from the other side called out. "You don't know?"

"We've reached Xingtai already?" Liu Chang asked in astonishment upon hearing their words. "We've actually passed Handan and arrived in Xingtai?"

"Yeah, this is Xingtai. Are you really from Henan?" The group still found it hard to believe.

"Really," Liu Chang said, following the sound of their voices as he slowly walked forward. "Don't worry, it's just me. I'm not dangerous, and I have no malicious intent."

As he spoke, Liu Chang walked into the field of vision of the group. Seeing that he was alone, they lowered their weapons completely. As the distance closed, they could clearly see his appearance: his beard and hair were matted together, his head and body were covered in dirt and leaves, and his clothes were tattered and riddled with holes. If not for the backpack on his back and the firearm in his hand, anyone would have taken him for a primitive caveman.

"Crap, you really are from Henan?" Seeing Liu Chang's outfit, they believed him by three parts.

"I really am. It's so good to see you guys." After a dozen days of isolated survival, finally seeing another living person gave Liu Chang a strong sense of belonging, as if he were returning to "the organization." "I haven't seen a soul in over ten days. I got lost in the jungle!"

"To think you could survive in the Prison Forest for over ten days and walk all the way here from the Henan border... you're really..." The group looked at the tattered holes in Liu Chang's clothes and exclaimed, "You're really lucky!"

"Yeah, my luck has been exceptionally good..." Recalling the moments when he was torn apart by lizards yet miraculously brought back to life, and thinking of the daily dangers and hardships he had faced, Liu Chang sighed with genuine sincerity, "I really made it all the way here on pure luck. It's just wonderful to see living people again."

"Well, let me introduce myself to you guys first," Liu Chang said, gesturing with the firearm in his hand. "My name is Liu Chang, I'm from Henan, and I'm twenty-two years old."

"Oh, we're all from Xingtai," the leading man said as he introduced himself while keeping a wary eye on the strange, "oversized" firearms in Liu Chang's hands. Finally, he couldn't help asking, "What kind of guns are those?"

"Oh, custom-made back in Zhengzhou, large-caliber rifles," Liu Chang brushed the question off casually. "Can I ask what the situation is like here? Now that I've reached Xingtai, have I walked out of this jungle?"

"Walked out of this forest?" Upon hearing this, the leader let out a sigh. "We'd love to walk out of this forest ourselves!"

"What? Xingtai isn't outside the woods?" Liu Chang asked in surprise. "The woods completely enclose the city?"

"Yeah, talking about getting out of the woods is a long shot!" The group collectively let out a sigh at his words. "A few years ago, when this forest first formed, we did hear about someone managing to run all the way to Shijiazhuang, but now... sigh..."

"We haven't heard of a single person making it out since."

"Heh, maybe some did make it out, but they never came back," said the only woman in the squad. "Anyway, we don't get a single piece of news from the outside world here. I figure we're still a long way from the outside!"

"Is that so?" Liu Chang nodded upon hearing their explanation.

"By the way, buddy, sorry about earlier!" The woman added after a brief pause, "That arrow just now wasn't intentional..."

"I know. I was charging too fiercely, so it was my fault," Liu Chang waved his hand dismissively upon hearing her words. "I really should thank you guys for helping me out this much! The whole world is filled with hardship right now, and nobody wants to deal with strangers. Running into you guys is my lucky break."

"It's nothing," the leader glanced at Liu Chang's firearms once more and asked, "It's precisely because things are so hard that we have to help each other out. Besides, we're just chatting, nothing major. But I do want to ask, with such a huge gear-load on your back, where were you actually planning to go?"

"Uh," Liu Chang furrowed his stiff brow unconsciously at the question. "I originally planned to go to Handan, but unfortunately I've already passed it and ended up right here instead. I suppose that place is probably surrounded by this forest too, though. Sadly, I got separated from my friends, and we had arranged to meet up there. Now it looks like I won't be able to go back. I plan to rest and regroup here—first, to wait for my friends, and second, to see if there are any opportunities to get out."

Liu Chang offered a half-true, half-false explanation of his origins.

"Oh," the group leader nodded after hearing a reasonably plausible explanation, then glanced at Liu Chang's sunken bridge of the nose and asked again, "Was that caused by a gunshot wound? Got into a conflict?"

"Yeah, got it during a clash with someone," Liu Chang touched the bridge of his nose, where dull aches still lingered.

"Ouch, that needs medical treatment!" the leader said. "Look, since meeting like this is a matter of fate, and we're heading back to Xingtai anyway, why don't you come with us into the city?"

"I'd really appreciate that!" Liu Chang felt a genuine surge of relief upon hearing this.

"Alright, no need for lengthy introductions; my name is Li Feng!" The leader introduced himself and gave Liu Chang's shoulder a firm pat. "Come on, follow along. The urban area isn't far now."

"Yeah."

Following the group ahead, Liu Chang put away his weapons and composed his state of mind. After walking a few kilometers, he indeed caught sight of the scenery on the outskirts of the city. The fringes of the urban area were actually quite similar to a rural village; clusters of farm courtyards and rustic architecture gave Liu Chang a slight sense of returning to human society.

"This place used to be called Dongguocun Township, right by the city. It was a pretty big area with a lot of people, but now, take a look..." Li Feng acted as the guide, pointing out a small, self-built courtyard along the way. "Nobody's here anymore. Ever since four years ago, anyone who managed to survive fled to the city center, leaving all these houses empty. Dongguocun Township used to be much bigger than this, but after people left, the forest closed in and encroached upon a huge chunk of this land. The remote outskirts have all turned into woods."

"The township government used to nag us every day about afforestation and greening the environment; I guess they finally got their thorough afforestation this time. How ironic!"

"This isn't greening, it's reddening," interjected the member with the Henan accent. "For four years, I haven't seen a single blade of green grass."

"The trees here are all red?" Liu Chang asked, perplexed by the remark.

"Completely red. Aren't they red outside?" The Henan-accented person continued, "Aren't the trees in Henan red?"

"No, they're still green. There are some red ones, but very few," Liu Chang explained.

"Oh, I thought every tree in the world had turned red!" the man continued. "Some scientists inside the city were saying the trees turned red because of the staining properties of this red fog. Now that you say the trees outside are still green, I know those experts are full of crap again!"

Liu Chang nodded at his fellow countryman's complaints while feeling deeply moved inside. The Hide-and-Seek Forest was like a colossal cage, locking the trapped people away as if they had been shut inside a pitch-black room—so cut off that they didn't even know what color the outside world was.

"Haven't you guys thought about contacting the outside world?"

"Contact them my ass! Those bunch of blockhead scientists have been researching for four years without figuring out a damn thing!" Mentioning communication tools suddenly agitated the group. "A bunch of idiots—we can't get out, and we can't contact the outside. Some capable folks tried to walk out, but most of those who left the city never sent back any news; they probably died. Nobody wants to risk their life as a joke, so we're just trapped here."

"In four years, no one else has come in?" Liu Chang asked in amazement. "That's impossible, right? Not a single person?"