Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

The shadows of the branches fell in all directions.

Southward, northward, eastward, westward—different branches on the same tree cast shadows in different directions.

"this……"

Chen Hao's pupils dilated in shock, and his voice trembled instantly, "This is not scientific—"

But he quickly realized what he had said.

Science is worthless in forbidden territory!

"Science is worthless in forbidden territory."

Ou Yun placed his hand on the sword hilt and directly voiced Chen Hao's innermost thoughts, also subtly hinting at the topic.

"We might have triggered something. From now on, don't look back, just follow me."

"Trigger... what...?"

Chen Hao's anxiety had reached its peak at this moment—to be honest, he was worried that he would not be able to keep up with his older brother's pace and that something would go wrong when he was with Ou Yun.

After all, he's not like Captain Leng, the standard elite soldier!

Fortunately, there didn't seem to be any major crises along the way. At most, the eldest brother would be a bit reckless—that's good, that's what an eldest brother should be like.

He had been feeling relieved that nothing much had gone wrong along the way—

Now, damn it, things have really gone wrong! Ugh!

But his older brother had no idea how he felt.

The older brother was even quite cheerful, saying, "It's exactly what you thought before."

"W-what?"

"Brother Chen, did your computer crash?"

"Die? Die what?"

"...It's alright, just follow me."

The older brother's voice sounded warm and caring.

Chen Hao followed Ou Yun, his body stiff as a board.

The two quickened their pace and hurried back along the route they had marked earlier.

However, after less than five minutes, the European train stopped again.

"Brother Chen, look at that tree over there."

"..."

Chen Hao looked up.

Ten meters ahead, there was a crooked old tree—a very familiar old tree, the one they had passed on their way here.

Because the tree was so crooked, it left a particularly deep impression on the two of them, so they simply carved their mark on the tree—a large cross.

But now.

The tree is covered with cross marks of all sizes, densely packed together.

"Did we...carve all those marks before?"

Chen Hao's voice sounded trembling even more violently.

"It's engraved."

However, the eldest brother's voice sounded somewhat indifferent, "But it doesn't have this cross engraved on it."

He walked up to the tree and shone his flashlight on it.

The markings were very neat, without a single sawdust or splinter. They looked as if they weren't carved at all, as if the tree had naturally grown all those marks.

"Big brother, can you smell something?"

Chen Hao wasn't sure if he was being too sensitive, but he suddenly sniffed. "It smells a bit like...flowers?"

"Um?"

Ou Yong sniffed hard and smelled it too.

It was a very faint, sweet fragrance, somewhat like the one they smelled in the purple flower field, but not quite the same—

The fragrance of the flower field is similar to a light, sweet scent, like a 3.6-cent glass of 50% sweetened lemonade.

The aroma carries a slightly fishy smell that is hard to describe, and the taste is quite strong, like sugar mixed with spoiled fish.

—Now everyone could smell that something was off.

Ou Yun immediately took out two filter masks from his spatial ring and tossed one to Chen Hao.

Chen Hao snapped the buttons shut, his voice muffled: "What do we do now? Keep going forward or take a detour?"

"Let's keep moving forward."

Ou Yun had already drawn his longsword, and the dark red patterns on the blade flashed briefly in the dim light.

"I suspect this place has been targeted by something. Taking a detour might only lead to getting stuck in even more unfavorable terrain... It's better to just charge straight through."

"..."

What's watching us?

What was it?

Upon hearing this, Chen Hao almost immediately glanced around.

The grass was still the same grass, the plants were still the same plants, even the small, cute flowers and grasses he had complained about during the day were still there—

But in Chen Hao's view, these things might suddenly mutate at any moment—the beasts have already mutated, so the plants will definitely mutate too!

The two of them practically jogged forward.

The fern leaves on the ground crackled underfoot, and the surrounding trees sped past in the beam of the flashlight.

But as he ran, Chen Hao suddenly realized something that sent chills down his spine—

The trees seemed to be moving with them.

It wasn't an obvious movement—every time he turned his head to look, the trees remained perfectly still in place.

But he always felt that the tree trunks in his peripheral vision were a little closer than before, and the branches were a little lower, as if they were secretly moving closer to them.

Who the hell can keep this up?

How did something perfectly fine turn into a rule-based fantasy?!

Chen Hao was so flustered he could barely utter a complete sentence: "B-Big Brother—"

"I know."

Ou Yun didn't turn around, his voice low, "Don't look at them, don't run too fast. These things are waiting for you to run."

"Wait? Wait for what?"

"Let's wait until we cause trouble."

From Europe's perspective—

Although it's a bit creepy that these weird things suddenly appear late at night.

But for some reason, he didn't feel anything was wrong—

I've seen plenty of weird things, this is what you call class.

Besides, something was already amiss in the forbidden area!

With eagles that can generate electricity and roc birds that can spray water, why would I be afraid of a tree that can move?

Besides, we don't even know if these plants have mutated yet!

Hearing his older brother's unusually firm tone, Chen Hao said he felt comforted.

He composed himself and asked Ou Yun, "So, are we on the right track now?"

The older brother answered readily, "I don't know."

"..."

"But I have a way."

Then, with a snap, Ou Yun pulled out the sound transmission stone from his spatial ring. Very quickly!

"Drip—drip—drip—"

After the connection was established, the communication stone emitted three long beeps as usual.

But this time was different—after the beeping, a piercing noise came from inside, like the creaking sound of an old tape recorder turning on automatically, as if it had been interfered with by something.

Leng Ruolan's voice inside was also intermittent:

"...Big brother?...What...signal...buzz—"

"...?"

Ou Yun thought to himself, "Wow, even without a signal, the signal is this bad?"

"Hey, Captain Leng? We've run into a bit of trouble here!"

The European Games are shouting here.

"Something's wrong with the trees in the woods, can you hear me?"

"...to...you...where...zzzzzz—"

After a sharp whistling sound, the communication stone completely lost its signal.

"..."

"..."

The two stared at the fading light on the communication stone in silence.

"Brother Chen."

"Um?"

"When I count to three, you run to the river. Don't worry about me, just run to the river."

"..."