"Is this some kind of magic trick, Old Du?" Xiao Zhize asked incredulously. The combination of fire and bug to create a torch, it all seemed too magical, like a trick.
"No," Old Du shook his head. "I suggest you adapt quickly, or surviving in this bizarre world will be difficult."
Surviving, not escaping. Even Old Du, who projected the aura of a strong survivor, was just hoping to live longer?
Yu Liang noted the subtle implications in his words and felt a chill seeping into his heart.
"So… is there no way out?" Xiao Zhize asked, shell-shocked.
"Ha, of course, there is," Old Du laughed coldly. He pointed to the sky. "Borders have been locked. Keys are needed to unlock them. It's easy to find metals as the key – in 'key', there are metal elements. But, where is the moon? Ha, it's in the sky."
His words jogged Yu Liang's memory—these were the exact phrases inscribed under his bedroom plank.
Indeed, the one who left those inscriptions must have experienced this eerie world as a player. >
Xiao Zhize's face was ashen; he was struggling to accept this reality.
Old Du continued, "Like me, you also have the 'Ability' to examine objects. You probably didn't realize it before, but you should be able to now."
He held a piece of flint in his left hand and the torch in his right. "Look, examine them and see the difference."
It was as if a light bulb flashed in Yu Liang's head. He recognized the so-called "Ability" to 'examine.' When he focused his gaze on the flint and the torch, he saw characters appear next to them in his vision.
——
Flint
Description: A tool for starting a fire.
——
Torch
Name: Candle
Material: Fire
"The flint doesn't have a name or material." Yu Liang looked at Old Du.
"Correct, that's the second point I wanted to make." Old Du nodded. "Once an object is used, it can't be combined with another object for a month, it needs time to refresh."
He continued, "In addition to crafting such items, you can also merge 'verb' characters, like this."
As Old Du raised his hand, a golden "break" character appeared. "A piece of rock and a piece of skin can be combined to form this. Isn't that amazing? But, remember, it has to be animal skin, not a gourd skin or a dumpling skin. There are plenty of animals in this zoo to source skins from. Just be sure to skin them skillfully; if there's too much flesh left on it, it won't be recognized as 'skin.'"
"Huh."
"The verb characters can cause unnatural changes on any selected target within a certain range. The approximate range is around five steps. 'Break' would mean destruction." Old Du's voice was cold, and his choice of the character 'break' as an example was very telling.
He was experienced and had resources at his disposal beyond Yu Liang's imagination. if he wanted to, he could easily kill them with anything he had, a subtle warning for them not to nurse any ill thoughts.
"Of course, some words function as verbs and nouns. During synthesis, you will be given options." Old Du added, "In addition to the universal language rule in this eerie world, each branch world has its own unique rules. For example, the zoo has its own regulations. Try to memorize and comply with these rules. I'll show you later."
"Each branch world?" Yu Liang repeated his words, looking at Old Du in confusion.
Old Du seemed taken aback for a moment, then laughed heartily. "Yes, I've been through one branch world. This is the second one."
"I see." Yu Liang nodded in understanding. Then, the words \"Task Completed\" appeared before his eyes.
[You have completed the novice task - Recognize the World; the attached reward has been issued to your item bar.]
At the bottom of his vision, an item bar appeared with ten slots, one of them displaying an image of a chess piece.
Yu Liang's expression remained unchanged, his hands casually tucked into his pockets.
[Mainline eerie task triggered: Changhong Zoo]
[Note: There have been a series of strange events happening at the zoo. You can flee, or… find "it" and then flee.]
At this point, Old Du seemed to notice something, his eyes sparkling. "Oh, my task to guide newcomers has been completed. It seems you two have accepted these rules."
As he finished speaking, a golden character and a long knife suddenly appeared in his hand. He sheathed the knife at his waist, and the character disappeared on his arm. It all happened so fast that Yu Liang couldn't discern which character it was.
"Alright, you should have received your novice rewards by now." Old Du continued. "It should be in your item bar. You can take it out and have a look. I can give you some suggestions."
"Alright," Xiao Zhize nodded, pulling a worn-out small knife out of his item bar.
"A metal knife, not bad. It's made of metal, so the 'metal' element on the side can be used to combine many characters. Of course, I wouldn't recommend using it for synthesis. It's better to use it as a common knife, the zoo does not sell regulated knives." As Old Du delivered his critique, he turned towards Yu Liang, who had been leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.
"Alright, let me check, is this how you extract it?" Yu Liang pulled a hand out of his pocket, palm upwards, a wooden chess piece materialized. "What is this for?"
The chess piece, only the size of a thumb, had a "knight" character engraved on it.
——
Chess piece
Name: Horse
Material: Wood
"A wooden chess piece can be used to form characters with the radical '木' (wood). As for 'horse'... I can't think of anything yet," Old Du glanced and said casually.
Yu Liang nodded and put this chess piece back into his inventory along with the other chess pieces in his pocket.
He knew that Old Du would ask about their newbie rewards, so he preemptively put the rewards in his pocket. Then he placed a chess piece into his inventory and retrieved it in front of Old Du.
The reason for this was pretty simple, he was guarding against Old Du.
A full set of chess pieces allows many possibilities. Yu Liang didn't want to reveal everything in front of Old Du.
Luckily these chess pieces weren't big, so taking them out and putting them in his pocket didn't draw Old Du's attention.
As a newcomer, he only had ten slots in his inventory, so when he received his newbie rewards, the rewards went straight into his inventory. Meanwhile, Old Du's rewards went directly to his hands as his inventory was already full. Coupled with large travel bags...
Clearly, this guy had huge resources.
"Alright, come with me. Let's see if we can get any bargains." Having finished his task, Old Du thought of something else. "Those women just went to the prairie section ahead, right?"
"Um. Wait, what are you planning to do to them?" Xiao Zhize nodded at first, then suddenly felt something was off and his face changed.
Old Du laughed out loud: "Me? Haha, those three women are not good news. The rookie who was with you... is probably dead by now. I'm just going to check out what they're up to."
"They want to kill Huang Yijia? They said they would help each other..." Xiao Zhize was shocked. He was still trapped in the moral and legal concept of human society.
"Perhaps, that's why I'm going to check it out." Old Du neither denied nor confirmed, took his machete and walked ahead. The indifference in his voice made it clear that he had seen such things too often before. "I'm not interested in your newbie rewards, but others might not feel the same. Sometimes there are good items in those newbie rewards."
Seemingly having a bad premonition, Xiao Zhize tensed up and followed Old Du closely. Each of the three men had their own thoughts and moved quickly.
The bus had parked near the herbivorous animal area, and the three men soon arrived at the area. They passed the section's sign and quickly entered the viewing area.
The main part of the viewing area was a large grassland replicated from nature. Different species were separated by reinforced glass with visitors walking on a glass bridge above them for an overhead view of the animals.
They elegantly handled the transitions between distinct animal exhibits. Carnivorous animals and herbivores could not see each other and could only sense each other's presence. This helped to keep the carnivorous animals active.
However, Yu Liang was surprised to see that the glass bridge had no guardrails. If a visitor accidentally fell into the area with carnivorous animals, it might endanger his life.
Was the protection for tourists even less than for herbivorous animals?
Yu Liang frowned lightly. Then he noticed that there were three women standing on the glass bridge in the northwest, whispering something as they looked at the animal area under the bridge.
Their conversation was low, but the sound was getting louder and was carried to Yu Liang's ears by the wind.
"Indeed, we have to rely on the python. Using the hippopotamus failed previously."
"What else? The mouth of the hippopotamus is large, but it chews rather than swallows. A chewed-up human can't be used to for character forming."
"Fortunately, she's neither tall nor heavy, just under 1.6 meters. This snake has been starving for many days and it was a bit of a stretch for her to swallow."
From their high vantage point, the three could see what was under the glass bridge.
Within the sparse grass, a lethargic Python lay as long as four or five meters. Once slender, it now bore a resemblance to an overstuffed sausage with green patterns.
"Let's kill it together, take the character and leave," ordered the woman in charge. One of her companions took out a set of grappling hooks, hung them on the bridge, and slid down with a fire axe in her hand.
"Chop—" The axe struck the snake's head, mashing it into a bloody pulp in just a few blows. The python seemed to struggle, but having just swallowed a human, it had the will but not the strength. After a brief struggle, it stopped moving completely.
On its' carcass, a golden character— '囚' (prisoner) slowly appeared.
The woman quickly absorbed the character into her body, glanced at the other pythons who seemed eager to move, pulled on the grappling hook, and quickly returned to the bridge.
"The character for 'Prisoner' is derived from the human in the mouth... There really is such a method," Old Du murmured as he put down his machete. There was a glint in his eyes, but eventually, he murmured and gave up. "They have one more character now and it's harder to deal with."
Yu Liang remained calm on the surface but was hit hard internally.
Witnessing a fellow human being devoured by a snake at close range and getting beheaded by an axe, a chilling cold filled him causing discomfort.
"..."
Indeed, in this distorted tale world, "Humans" were also a commodity.
After all, the Chinese character set includes many characters involving "Humans".
(Note: Please refer to the author's note)