Survival at Sea: I Became Number One by Growing Mushrooms

However, before Xu Jiawei could even kill one of the vines, vines in the distance heard the commotion and began to gather around, more and more of them approaching Xu Jiawei's location.

As Xu Jiawei floated in the air, she could clearly see that the sand below resembled surging waves, creating ripples.

The swirling sand obscured Xu Jiawei's vision, making it impossible for her to see what was below. The flying yellow sand completely buried what lay below.

Even when the vines were only 3 meters away from Xu Jiawei, she didn't see the attacking vines clearly.

It became even more difficult for her to dodge, and she couldn't even attack. She was completely helpless and could only fly higher, heading in the direction of the compass needle.

The vines chased after her like a giant sandstorm, their force seemingly intent on completely engulfing Xu Jiawei.

The vines around her piled up more and more, and even a roadblock appeared in front of her, directly blocking Xu Jiawei's escape route.

Xu Jiawei now not only has to guard against attacks from behind, but also has to dodge attacks from the front.

Her spores of light kept flying downwards, but the number of vines didn't decrease, which was practically driving her to her death.

Xu Jiawei had no choice but to take it one step at a time. No matter how high she flew, these vines would always manage to attack her.

Her recovery ability was so rapid that she had no way to fight back and could only run away cursing.

"Damn it, this thing is cheating! I'm going to complain! Why is there something like this in the desert? System, you're trying to kill me! Not only did you leave me here all alone, but you also created something so dangerous. Are you trying to kill me?!"

[Ding, the system has received feedback from the player and is now providing an explanation. First, only the player meets the purification conditions for this island; the others cannot survive here. Therefore, the island is occupied only by the player. Second, the Death Vine is not common. According to the system's calculations, you have a 90% chance of not encountering this creature. You're just very unlucky.]

Xu Jiawei dodged another vine and continued, "You said there's a 90% chance you won't encounter it, so that means there's a 10% chance. With such a high probability, how dare you say that? What if I die? The thing below can even extinguish my flames, how could I possibly handle it?"

She could handle one, two, or even three vines, but now there were hundreds of them, and the number was still increasing. One vine was equivalent to a level 70 priest, and now there were hundreds of level 70 priests—no, enhanced versions, priests who were not afraid of the Light Fire and had high HP.

It was practically driving her to her death. No matter how many life-saving skills Xu Jiawei had, she wouldn't survive if she got caught by these vines.

If all else fails, let Rainbow escape with the spores regenerated from her mycelium, while she stays behind to cover the retreat.

However, given the current number of vines, the rainbow might not be able to escape.

But this was the only way. Xu Jiawei took off all her equipment and threw it into Rainbow's mouth, along with the mycelium spores and the pet backpack.

"Rainbow, my life is in your hands." After saying that, she picked up the shrunken rainbow and threw it in a distance, just breaking through the encirclement of vines.

Rainbow quickly grew larger and started running. The vines didn't pay attention to this strange creature. Xu Jiawei breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that she was the target. She had to hold on a little longer to buy time for Rainbow.

Without her equipment, Xu Jiawei's attack power was significantly reduced, making it much harder to fight the vines. There was nothing she could do but try her best to attack.

Her wounds were multiplying. Although her regenerative abilities allowed her to hold on, the increasing number of vines left her feeling powerless. She was no longer dodging the vines' attacks and then counterattacking; now, she was simply struggling to prevent the vines from grabbing her.

Xu Jiawei was also reluctant to use the self-destruct skill, since she didn't know what lay ahead.

The more time she has to endure, the safer she will be.

Now is not the time to risk everything.

While Xu Jiawei's attention was focused on a vine, the vine suddenly attacked from behind, hitting her on the back. Her body swayed in mid-air, and in that moment of distraction, a vine took the opportunity to wrap around one of her legs.

Xu Jiawei reacted quickly and immediately attacked the vines. The vines endured the pain and refused to let go, pulling Xu Jiawei's ankle downwards.

Xu Jiawei attacked even faster. Just when it seemed that the vine was about to give way, several other vines took its place.

Xu Jiawei was pulled by the first vine and had no way to escape the entanglement of the other vines. Before she could even react, she was pulled underground, buried by yellow sand, and lost consciousness.

The desert returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.

When Xu Jiawei woke up again, she found herself in darkness. Xu Jiawei thought she had been resurrected inside Rainbow's belly, but the surrounding environment was very narrow. She felt as if she was trapped in a cocoon. She poked it, and it was hard.

Less than 10 minutes had passed in the system time, and Rainbow did not respond when she called her name. She felt a connection with Rainbow, but it seemed to be very far away from her. So, was Rainbow still alive?

Xu Jiawei immediately unleashed her skill to attack the shell. As Xu Jiawei attacked, the hard shell immediately began to shrink, seemingly trying to crush Xu Jiawei to death.

Seeing this, Xu Jiawei released her skills even more frequently. Dozens of Light Spores floated on the shell, causing it to wither rapidly. She immediately used Photon Meteor to blast a hole in the shell and escaped.

As soon as she squeezed out the shell, Xu Jiawei felt like she had stepped into thin air and was falling.

She immediately used levitation to float up. After stepping out of the cocoon, it was still pitch black outside, and she couldn't see anything.

Xu Jiawei rummaged in her pockets but found nothing. It seemed she would have to ask for help.

[AAA Mushroom Fairy: Do you guys have a flashlight? Can I borrow one?]

[The lucky one is here: Sis, what's wrong? Where's Little Pink? Isn't she with you?]

[AAA Mushroom Fairy: No, I let them leave first.]

[The lucky one is here: Sis, I happen to have an extra flashlight here, you can have it.]

[AAA Mushroom Fairy: Thanks.]

Having obtained the newly made flashlight, Xu Jiawei fumbled for the switch in the dark. When she turned it on, the blinding white light made her squint. After her eyes adjusted to the light, she began to observe her surroundings.

The situation before her eyes was beyond Xu Jiawei's expectations and even broadened her horizons.

There stood a tree, so thick that it would take 30 people to encircle it, rooted beside a river. The river water was black and shrouded in a thick black mist.

The bark of this giant tree is very rough. Looking up, there are cocoon-like things hanging on the branches, and a mushroom is growing on one of the cocoons. This should be the place where Xu Jiawei escaped.

The cocoon was slowly healing. Xu Jiawei used her skill to cut open another cocoon, and an animal skeleton fell out of it.

The skeleton was wrapped in something resembling tree vines and roots, which tightly bound the bones. After the vines were cut off, the skeleton fell to the ground and turned to ash with a thud.