"Bai Ye, how are you feeling?"
Hearing Jin Sha's voice, Bai Ye snapped back to attention, abandoning thoughts of the distress signal device. He bared his teeth and retorted, "Try getting hit by it yourself and see how you feel!"
Bai Ye grumbled, then tossed a Dao Talisman to release a warm mist, healing his injuries.
"It's okay, it's okay, I have something good for healing," Jin Sha quickly produced a green fruit with spots and said, "This will make you feel better."
Bai Ye, highly vigilant, used his light screen to check the fruit's information. It was indeed for healing, a fruit called a Great Tree Fruit, capable of restoring half of any injury.
What a treasure!
Bai Ye looked at Jin Sha as if she were the Virgin Mary, so incredibly kind. He felt like a villain with a small mind, suspecting a noble heart. Though, if faced with a similar situation again, Bai Ye would still check the information with his light screen first.
Lost in thought, Bai Ye bit into the fruit and finished it in a few mouthfuls.
It was surprisingly sweet!
With the healing effect of the warm mist and the Great Tree Fruit, Bai Ye felt significantly better. A warmth spread through him, and the pain noticeably subsided.
After resting on the ground for a short while, Bai Ye gritted his teeth and stood up, "Let's go, we need to leave here immediately."
The end of the restricted zone did not mean the end of the danger.
In fact, the end of a restricted zone was often accompanied by the arrival of danger.
Some "scheming individuals" would immediately begin hunting, searching for those whose combat power was greatly reduced due to injuries, and then killing them.
The reason, of course, was simple: to obtain fragments of God Stones.
Of course, not many people had formed this concept yet, and similarly, few had the concept of immediately evacuating after the end of a restricted zone.
However, for Bai Ye, this habit had been ingrained from his previous life.
Jin Sha nodded, helped Bai Ye up, and then the two began to trek through the snowfield.
Bai Ye's original intention was to return to the spiritual anomaly zone along the snowfield, a journey of only two to three days. However, to Bai Ye's surprise, around the morning of the second day, a boundary line appeared before them.
Looking at the boundary line, Bai Ye couldn't help but ask Jin Sha, "Do you know which area this is?"
Jin Sha shook her head, "I'm not too sure. When I came to the glacier, I came from the west, and it was much further."
Bai Ye nodded.
Losing one's way in a glacial snowfield was very normal, as there were no landmarks. But although the result was slightly beyond his expectations, it wasn't bad.
After Bai Ye and Jin Sha crossed the boundary line, a vast forest appeared before them.
"Hmm?" Bai Ye looked around and said, "Fantasy Zone?"
This was a forest that looked quite magical.
Bai Ye saw trees no bigger than his thumb, and mushrooms five to six meters tall, like small houses. The branches of one large tree were spiraled, forming a massive disc at the top. Another tree was covered in a mirror-like sheen, shimmering with tri-colored flowing light.
The extremely fantastical colors made Bai Ye immediately feel as if he had entered a fantasy zone.
Jin Sha asked, "What do we do now? Continue forward?"
"No need. It's enough to leave the glacier area," Bai Ye said. "Let's explore the surroundings, check if the environment is safe, find a place not too far from the boundary line but sufficiently hidden, and overlooking the boundary line. Then, we'll rest for three to five days to let my injuries heal."
Bai Ye actually still had chocolate energy bars that could instantly restore all injuries.
However, his body, modified by the T-virus, gave Bai Ye strong self-healing abilities. So, despite the serious injury from the Alien Queen's collision, with three to five days and the continuous healing from the warm mist, even if not fully recovered, he would be able to fight normally.
Therefore, since it wasn't a fatal injury or one that was difficult to heal, Bai Ye felt it was best not to waste the chocolate energy bars.
Jin Sha nodded from the side, "I'll let my beast explore."
Jin Sha tossed out a beast the size of a head, shaped like a rat, and said, "Little Rattata, go explore the surroundings and see if there's any danger."
Beasts could be quite useful sometimes, helping with many tasks.
After about fifteen minutes, Little Rattata returned, reporting that its exploration had found no danger. It also helped them find a non-toxic giant mushroom to serve as a temporary resting place. The ground was dry, and the mushroom cap provided shelter from wind and rain, which was quite decent.
Bai Ye sat on the ground and said to Jin Sha, "You can leave first. I can handle things from here on."
Jin Sha thought for a moment, "I don't know where else to go for now. I'll stay with you for two days until your injuries heal."
Bai Ye nodded, then took out a retractable net ball. After a moment's thought, he reluctantly switched to the Zanpakuto and tossed it to Jin Sha.
Jin Sha fumbled to catch the Zanpakuto and then asked, "What's this for?"
Bai Ye said, "It's for you, to repay you for that fruit."
"Ah?" Jin Sha was stunned, then quickly waved her hands, "No, no, you don't have to."
"I'm not being polite, but I don't like owing favors," Bai Ye grinned. "That way, if I ever need to kill you, I won't hold back."
Jin Sha was taken aback again, then said, "Don't joke around."
"Do you think I'm joking?" Bai Ye took out a cigarette pack from his pocket, put a cigarette in his mouth, and then said, "Take my advice, put away that so-called kindness. In the world battlefield, such things are useless. Here, either you kill others, or others kill you. There are no companions. The moment you stepped into the world battlefield, you had no companions."
Bai Ye recalled some past events. In his previous life, he had also been naive, believing that by working together, they could leave this damned place.
And then…
They died. Bai Ye lived.
Bai Ye killed them!
Jin Sha was silent for a moment, "I know."
Bai Ye smiled, "I can tell."
Jin Sha wasn't foolish. Bai Ye could tell from certain details that although she had a kind side, she showed caution in her actions.
When they got on the snowmobile together, Jin Sha had a dagger hidden in her sleeve. When they walked together towards the research team's base, Jin Sha only got closer when she released her beast. Otherwise, she maintained a distance from Bai Ye that allowed for escape or counterattack. Even when helping the injured Bai Ye,多多冰 (Duō Duō Bīng) always floated between them.
Actually, Bai Ye could understand Jin Sha's mindset, because Bai Ye had gone through a similar phase in his previous life.
She understood what kind of place the world battlefield was, but hadn't yet let go of the kindness in her heart, existing in a state of conflicted struggle.
However, as long as one survived, one would eventually become cruel.
...