Comic strip: Survival on a deserted island, surrounded by heroines

Aoyama turned around and glanced at Kasumigaoka Utaha's fair thighs: "Are you alright?"

"I won't die." Kasumigaoka Utaha snorted softly, but her steps clearly hesitated for a beat.

She glanced at the layers upon layers of green all around her, where everything was slowly breathing, growing, and decaying, with thousands of insects rustling in unseen corners.

“…”

She pursed her lips, quickened her pace, and got a little closer to the green hills.

The air is getting increasingly stuffy.

Sweat dripped from Qingshan's forehead, getting into his eyes and stinging.

"It'll be troublesome if we can't find water soon."

He licked his lips, which were so dry they were almost cracked; he hadn't had a drop of water for over four hours since he woke up.

The little moisture I had on me was almost completely used up during the walk.

He was in better physical condition than Kasumigaoka Utaha, but he knew very well that if he didn't replenish his fresh water, dehydration would soon come knocking.

Kasumigaoka Utaha isn't much better off.

Her lips were dry and chapped, her walking pace had slowed considerably, her breathing was much heavier, and a small patch of her shirt was soaked with sweat.

"Do you... want some water?" Aoyama's voice was as dry and hoarse as sandpaper.

Kasumigaoka Utaha rolled her eyes at him: "Is it funny to joke around at a time like this?"

Qingshan didn't speak, his gaze passing over a dense clump of fern shoots and landing on a low tree a dozen meters ahead.

The branches are laden with fist-sized fruits with an unhealthy yellowish-green skin. They are somewhat like unripe mangoes, but have fine white fuzz on their surface.

"Fruit!" His eyes lit up.

The tree was about three meters tall, with sparse fruit hanging from its branches. A few had fallen to the ground, their holes already gnawed out by ants.

Aoyama observed carefully for a while and found no bite marks. However, in this kind of place, one cannot use whether or not an animal has eaten the food as a criterion for judgment.

After all, some poisonous fruits come in all sorts of strange and unusual forms.

"It's no use..."

Despite waves of hunger and thirst, he still reached out and picked one.

The fruit has some weight to it and feels hard when you squeeze it, but you can soften it a little if you press it with a little force.

He carefully used the tip of the steel bar to cut open the fruit skin, revealing the pale green flesh inside, which was very juicy and emitted a fragrance with a slight grassy scent.

Kasumigaoka Utaha walked over, looked at the fruit in his hand, and licked her lips: "Are you sure you can eat this?"

"Not sure." Aoyama Tanzan said, then used his fingernail to pick out a small piece of fruit and put it in his mouth.

The bitter taste exploded on the tip of the tongue, but then a hint of sweetness followed, relieving the dryness in the mouth for a moment.

He waited for about two minutes and did not feel any stinging, burning, or numbness.

“It should be fine.” He picked off a few of the larger ones, wiped the fluff off with his clothes, and handed them to Kasumigaoka.

Kasumigaoka Utaha took it, hesitated for a second, and then, imitating Aoyama, picked out a little bit of the fruit and put it in her mouth.

Her expression twisted briefly, then her brows gradually relaxed: "...It's bitter, but it really quenches thirst."

The two of them leaned against that tree and ate a few fruits.

The juice spread through his mouth, and Aoyama could feel his parched throat being moistened to some extent.

He picked five or six more and put them in his backpack, carefully wrapping them with the pages of his notebook to prevent them from getting crushed.

"This amount of water is far from enough."

Aoyama knew very well that in the sweltering primeval forest, an adult male needed at least two to three liters of water a day.

The moisture content of those few fruits is barely a fraction of what it should be.

They must find the real water source!

Chapter 2: It really is reliable, even at a time like this.

Qingshan used a steel bar to push aside a dense patch of ferns in front of him, sweat dripping down his chin and falling onto the humus-covered soil.

“Aoyama-kun, you’ve slowed down.” Kasumigaoka Utaha’s voice was slightly hoarse, but her tone remained steady. “Are you running out of energy? If so, I can reluctantly let you support my shoulder.”

Qingshan didn't turn around: "I'm observing the ground."

“There are signs of animal activity near these plants. If I’m not mistaken, the flowing water is not far from us.”

"Oh?" Kasumigaoka Utaha pushed aside a drooping vine, revealing her sweat-drenched profile.

"It's amazing that you can still maintain such keen observation skills at a time like this. It's hard to know whether to praise you or be wary of you."

"Be wary of what?"

"Be wary of whether you're actually a hidden killer. After all, it's suspicious enough for a normal person to remain this calm after seeing a bus full of classmates' corpses, right?" Kasumigaoka Utaha tilted her head, a hint of inquiry flashing in her red pupils.

"But as a novelist, I can understand."

"An excessively rich imagination often needs to be checked by corresponding rationality, otherwise it would have gone mad long ago."

Qingshan finally stopped and turned around.

His 1.88-meter height made him appear exceptionally tall and slender in the dense forest. His black hair was stuck to his forehead with sweat, but his eyes remained clear.

“Kasumigaoka-kun.” His voice was calm.

"Your mouth is probably just as dry as mine right now, so it would be wiser for you to conserve some water when you speak."

Kasumigaoka Utaha lightly licked her chapped lips, a gesture that carried a strange sensuality in the dim light: "Oops, we've been spotted."

"But Aoyama-kun, how much fruit do you have left in your backpack?"

Aoyama weighed his backpack: "There are four left."

“We’ve been walking for almost three hours. At the rate that a normal adult loses water, if we don’t find a water source soon, we’ll show obvious signs of dehydration tonight.”

"What are the symptoms of dehydration? Dizziness? Hallucinations?" Kasumigaoka Utaha followed behind him.

"By the way, I have an unfinished novel outline on my phone, but unfortunately the phone broke."

"If I were to die in this forest, this novel would never be published."

"Thinking about it, it's really frustrating."

"You won't die." Aoyama pushed aside the bushes in front of him, his tone resolute.

...

Kasumigaoka Utaha followed behind him, and the two walked through the dense forest for about forty minutes before the terrain began to slope gently downwards.

"Listen!" Qingshan suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"what?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha almost bumped into his back, then she quieted down and listened intently.

"Whoosh~!"

The faint sound of flowing water could be heard in the distance, like a celestial melody in the silence of the dense forest.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's eyes lit up for a moment, then she quickly regained her lazy expression: "Looks like your survival knowledge isn't just for show, you Aoyama Adventurer!"

The two quickened their pace.

After passing through the last dense thicket of bushes, the view suddenly opened up.

A stream about three meters wide meanders through the valley, its water crystal clear, and the pebbles at the bottom of the stream shimmering softly in the sunlight.

"Great!"

Kasumigaoka Utaha almost instinctively took two steps forward, then forcibly steadied herself and turned to look at Aoyama.

"Aoyama-kun, should we test the water quality first? Or should we drink it directly?"

Qingshan had already squatted down by the stream. He didn't rush to drink the water, but first used the steel bar to probe into the water and observe the reaction on the surface of the steel bar for a while.

"The water is flowing, odorless, and clear, with aquatic plants growing at the bottom."

He concluded: "It can be basically confirmed that this is relatively safe spring water!"

After saying that, he immediately scooped up the water and drank it in big gulps.

The cool liquid slid down my throat into my esophagus, like parched, cracked earth finally receiving a refreshing rain.

Seeing this, Kasumigaoka Utaha no longer held back and, following Aoyama's example, knelt by the stream and scooped up water to drink.

They drank four or five handfuls of water before they recovered.

Aoyama wiped the water droplets from his face and took out the thermos and the box of condoms from his backpack.

He tore one open, carefully placed the opening towards the stream, let the water flow in, and then tied the opening tightly.

A simple water bag is complete.

He tore open a second one and filled it with water as well.

Kasumigaoka watched him deftly pound away, and after a moment of silence, said, "...It really came in handy."

"I said, in the wild, condoms are more useful than you might think."

Aoyama carefully placed the thermos filled with water and the two 'water bags' into his backpack, using his clothes to separate them so they wouldn't shake too much.

Kasumigaoka Utaha's lips twitched, as if she wanted to say something, but in the end she just hummed.

"What's next?"

"Finding a water source is only the first step, isn't it?"

Kasumigaoka Utaha sat on a flat rock by the stream, her school uniform skirt slightly damp from the water, but she didn't seem to care.

Qingshan paced and observed by the stream: "We need to do three things before the sun goes down: find a safe campsite, start a fire, and get food."

"As for the camp, what's the surrounding area like?" Kasumigaoka Utaha looked around. "There's a water source, and the terrain is relatively flat."

Aoyama shook his head: "It's too spacious."

“Wild animals will come to drink at night, and if we stay here, it’s like putting ourselves in their dining hall.”

“And look over there.” He pointed to a spot downstream.

"There are traces of large animals trampling here, possibly wild boar or deer. It's not safe here at night."

The two continued walking upstream along the stream for about two hundred meters and found an excellent spot.

A huge rock juts out from the hillside, forming a natural stone eave. Below it is dry, flat ground, backed by a mountain wall, with shrubs providing shade on the side, and a wide view in front for observation.

"This is it." Aoyama put down his backpack.

"Kasumigaoka, could you please collect some dry branches and fallen leaves around here, both coarse and fine?"

"I'll go find some larger pieces of wood, and maybe I can get some food while I'm at it."

Kasumigaoka Utaha stood up and patted the grass clippings off her skirt: "Understood."

"But Aoyama-kun, is it alright for me to be alone in this area?"

Qingshan thought for a moment, then took out the lighter from his pocket and handed it to her: "Take this to start a fire; it will keep out some snakes, insects, and beasts."

Kasumigaoka Utaha took the lighter, her slender fingers rubbing the metal surface briefly: "...Be careful."

Aoyama nodded: "If you need anything, just shout for me. I'm nearby and I can hear you."

After saying that, he picked up the steel bar, turned around, and disappeared into the dense forest.

Kasumigaoka Utaha watched his departing figure and snorted softly, "He really is reliable, even at a time like this."

She looked down at the lighter in her hand, remained silent for a moment, and then bent down to start collecting nearby dry branches.

Chapter 3: Ant Hercules, What Does It Eat to Replenish Its Own?

Green hills parted a clump of damp ferns, and my gaze fell on a fallen, dead tree not far away.

The trunk was mostly rotten, covered with dark green moss-like foliage, with buds peeking out from the branches.

Just as he was about to walk around the rotten log and continue searching for suitable firewood deeper inside, he suddenly caught a glimpse of an unusual bulge at the base of the trunk.