Cheng Tingyu also believed that the instance wouldn't refresh all traces; otherwise, there wouldn't just happen to be a gap suitable for observation on the north bedroom door.
Since a one-click refresh was impossible, dealing with the corpses became a necessary task.
She had long noticed that there was an open space around the cabin, and the farming tools placed behind the house showed signs of use.
Cheng Tingyu thought, perhaps the bodies of those people were buried right beneath her feet at this moment.
The soil is a natural barrier, silently separating the deceased third person from the living third person.
The blank pages grew increasingly scarce, and all the characters left the small wooden house. Xiao Jia and Xiao Yi followed behind Cheng Tingyu obediently, walking neither too fast nor too slow.
The farther they got from the cabin, the more violently their hearts pounded.
Xiao Yi kept silently calculating the length of the journey. He felt that he had reached the place where Xiao Bing had disappeared, and then he subconsciously slowed down half a step.
Almost at the same moment he made the delaying move, the young man glanced in his direction.
The other person did not turn their head, their face still facing forward, only their black pupils shifted over.
With just a single glance, Xiao Yi felt a chill run through his entire body, as if he had suddenly been thrown into a freezer.
He immediately dared not hesitate any longer and even slightly quickened his pace.
Xiao Yi didn't dare to look back, but he could feel that the young man had withdrawn his gaze.
Although the other party no longer paid attention to him, the chill on Xiao Yi's body still lingered for a long time.
The three of them walked in silence for a long time.
"We have already passed the place where Xiao Bing disappeared."
Xiao Jia spoke, and it was only then that she realized her palms were covered in cold sweat.
Cheng Tingyu's deduction was correct; the fragrance in the wind was indeed a clue left by the storybook for the participants.
The morning sunlight was warm and bright, gently shining on the golden yellow grass
The three of them passed through, the fluffy grass parted to the sides, and after they left, the grass closed up again, leaving no trace behind.
Xiao Jia walked forward, occasionally glancing back in the direction from which he had come.
The outline of the wooden cabin gradually blurred until it completely disappeared from her sight.
The previous activity area was completely out of sight, and the once familiar dungeon had become strange. At this moment, both Xiao Jia and Xiao Yi were very grateful for the existence of the sun. At least from the angle of the sun's shift, they could confirm that time was slowly passing.
The young man walking at the front started to laugh, seemingly delighted by the closeness to nature: "The scent of flowers is becoming more distinct."
She was right.
During the time they were trapped in the game, A and B had only regarded the fragrance as an insignificant background detail. Now, the scent of the flowers had become so vivid that it could no longer be ignored. They could not only sense the fragrance of the blossoms but also imagine the glistening dew on the petals and the vibrant green leaves surrounding them.
Cheng Tingyu closed his eyes, briefly sensed the direction, and then quickened his pace.
"..."
A forest appeared before the three of them.
A forest that looked exceptionally beautiful, standing out against the golden yellow grass.
The gnarled roots of the trees protruded above the soil, and the branches adorned with emerald leaves spread out. The wind blew from the edge of the plain, rustling through the treetops. A dewdrop fell from the tip of a leaf, landing precisely in the center of a rose.
Little Jia and Little Yi stood still together, looking at the new scene before them with incredulous eyes.
The forest appeared very abruptly. They did not directly see the outline of the forest; it was only when they felt they were about to reach it that the new map suddenly manifested before them without any warning.
Cheng Tingyu raised his head.
She now realized with utmost clarity that she was inside a storybook.
Real life is continuous, but stories are different.
Cheng Tingyu thought with great interest that when a creator needed to add a new scene to the story, the scene would appear. The sense of disconnection she was experiencing at that moment would not be noticed by those outside the story.
In the story, a forest appears, so naturally, the characters must enter the forest.
At the moment he approached the boundary between the grass and the forest, Xiao Yi suddenly felt an indescribable fear.
This is not the same as the previous fear of death; this is a fear of the unknown.
He and Xiao Jia were veteran participants, while that young man possessed formidable combat skills, most likely a flesh-and-blood type player.
When it was impossible for the newcomers to be sent out as cannon fodder, the probability of him and Xiao Jia becoming cannon fodder was much higher.
Although they were unclear about the outline the story's creator had arranged, the three of them did not wander around aimlessly like headless flies—there was a path right at the entrance of the forest.
Cheng Tingyu observed briefly, then walked up briskly.
Little Jia and Little Yi didn't dare not to follow.
They were not too slow-witted. Since they knew that there was a plot element within the copy, it was evident that with the appearance of the new map, the plot had already progressed to the point where the characters entered the forest. If they wanted to escape back to the cabin, they might end up like Xiao Bing back then, completely disappearing within the story.
The primary color of the previous map was golden yellow, while the new map's main hues are lush green interspersed with vibrant red.
Roses of varying distances grew among the shrubs, their blossoms melting into the endless greenery. Cheng Tingyu specifically parted the flower stems to look and found that the soil below was as clean as before.
The author of the storybook did not describe the state of the soil in detail, so naturally, the soil did not present related details such as stones and insects.
In the forest, there was only a single path, and the three of them walked quietly along it.
Xiao Jia felt that the stiffness of becoming a story character after breakfast had disappeared with the appearance of the forest. She had completely regained her ability to act autonomously. However, along with this came an increasingly noticeable hunger and fatigue in her body.
Yesterday, we used the excuse of "having walked a long way" to undermine the new young man's condition, and today we encountered the same situation ourselves.
In the forest, the trees grew exceptionally lush, like one giant green umbrella after another. The dense leaves stretched above their heads, blocking out the sunlight, with only occasional spots of golden light leaking through.
The narrow forest path was just wide enough for one person to pass through. Every so often, Xiao Jia would use a dinner knife to carve marks into the tree trunks along the way.
The number she was carving now was "two hundred and forty-nine."
Xiao Yi asked, "How long have we... been walking?"
The forest was as silent as a grave, the only sound they could perceive was the faint noise of their footsteps. When Xiao Yi spoke just now, he was startled by his own voice.
Cheng Tingyu: "Less than six hours."
Xiao Jia and Xiao Yi: "..."
Xiao Yi: "We can take a break for a while."
Cheng Tingyu stopped walking and smiled, "Alright then."
Little Jia sat down, leaning against the tree.
The excitement of discovering a new map had been completely worn away by the long journey.
Xiao Yi suddenly suggested, "Since we've walked such a long way, shouldn't we eat something?"
As the only character carrying food, Cheng Tingyu immediately understood his intention and tossed over a bag of dry bread.
As a character in the story, the act of eating not only replenishes energy but can also be seen as a plot point.
Xiao Yi wanted to see if, after completing a plot point, the unchanging surroundings would undergo any changes.
After he got the bread, he didn't rush to eat it all in one go; instead, he set aside a portion for Xiao Jia.
Only when everyone indicated that they had finished eating could the dining scene be considered over.
Little Jia swallowed the bread in his mouth: "I'm done eating."
Her voice was quickly swallowed by the dense thicket.
Xiao Yi quickly made the same move, and Cheng Tingyu naturally cooperated with their attempt.
However, nothing happened.
The plot is at a standstill.
As they sat down, the three characters in the story seemed even smaller against the backdrop of the surrounding trees. Xiao Jia had a vague feeling that he was trapped in a gigantic, deep green cage.
She had been lost in the story for so long that she had almost forgotten what real life was like.
Xiao Jia muttered to himself, "…Why not?"
The new young man glanced at her and offered an explanation: "When there are necessary elements missing in the story, the copy will automatically fill them in. That's why I got involved. However, the food in the cabin only appears at mealtime. If 'eating in the forest' is an essential part of advancing the plot, there will definitely be portable food in the cabin."
Xiao Yi whispered, "Shall we continue on our journey?"
Cheng Tingyu: "No rush."
She tilted her head back, looking up at the canopy above, and said slowly, "I'll climb up first and take a look."
Cheng Tingyu thought that her life after transmigrating should be very exciting. After all, in her memory, she had no experience in climbing, yet the muscle memory of her body allowed her to easily reach the treetop.
The sunlight above was bright and radiant, outlining the leaves with a rim of light. Compared to the position of the tree roots, it was almost like two different worlds.
Cheng Tingyu glanced at the position of the sun.
Sure enough, compared to when they entered the forest, the position of the sun had only shifted a little.
The timeline froze once again. The plot of "Entering the Forest" had already concluded, but the next segment of the story had yet to be triggered.
After coming down from the treetop, Cheng Tingyu told the news to Xiao Jia and Xiao Yi, and their expressions were not good.
Xiao Jia: "What else can we do now?"
The forest's emerald green, the roses' vivid red, and nothing else.
Xiao Jia tried to look into the distance, but her view was obstructed by the trees, and she could barely make out a fleeting glimpse of a red rose.
If the log cabin allowed for some activities related to daily life, the current forest map offered no other options but to keep moving forward.
Along the way, besides carving marks on tree trunks, Xiao Jia also picked a few flowers, but did not gain any clues related to the new plot.
Xiao Yi took deep breaths repeatedly, then shook his head dejectedly.
——The scents from all four directions were indistinguishable; previous experiences could not be applied again.
That young man, however, did not seem anxious at all.
Cheng Tingyu: "The character has stayed in the forest long enough. If they are well-rested, it's time to set out again."
"The forest is a new map. Since we came in, we haven't explored any areas other than the path."