There's a big problem with dreams in this world.

"The difference between inside and outside the house is too obvious..." Lu Qing thought, looking at the scientist who had become very calm.

Perhaps this is related to a sense of security?

Because I feel safe and secure when I'm indoors, I can stay calm. But when I'm outdoors, I feel insecure and am often afraid, so I can't calm down.

Thinking this, Lu Qing pushed open the door of the house and found that there was a larger wooden house next to it. However, the wooden house looked a bit dilapidated, and many of the doors were damaged.

The three of them carefully searched the house and soon found the room where the gas stove was located. Lu Qing took the backpack off her back and peeled off the leather.

"Gah, I'm suffocating!" The moment he opened his backpack, Wayne flew out and shouted.

"Don't make a sound."

Ignoring Wayne's complaints, Lu Qing took a piece of parasitic wood from her backpack and stuffed it into the gas stove.

As the familiar safe gas slowly wafted out of the furnace, Lu Qing and the other two felt a sense of relief for no apparent reason.

Some of the scientists glanced curiously at Wayne, who was standing on Lu Qing's shoulder, but since it was someone else's business and Lu Qing had saved him, they didn't dare to ask.

However, Lu Qing saw through the scientist's thoughts and patted Wayne's head, saying, "His name is Wayne, he is my companion, you can think of him as a mutated crow from the Blackwater."

“I’m not a crow!” Wayne protested.

"This is truly amazing..." The scientist glanced at Wayne and couldn't help but exclaim.

After a pause, the scientist looked out through the broken window of the room and said, "No matter how mysterious this forest is, I don't want to study it anymore. I just want to get home as soon as possible and find my family."

"We will," Lu Qing comforted the scientist, seeing his somewhat sad expression.

"Yes, we will." Hearing Lu Qing's words, the scientist nodded firmly.

.........

After about two hours, the three of them finally managed to thoroughly search the house.

Aside from a large number of unremarkable building materials, only one notebook is worth noting.

This notebook appears to have been left by someone who previously worked here, and it contains records of the work done by that person, as well as information sent by the government.

To put it simply...

This place used to be a gas station. After the incident in the Dark Forest, because several frontal attacks ended in failure, the government sent a research team to transform the gas station into a research laboratory for experimental research.

In addition, they dug a tunnel into the forest and built a laboratory underground there.

Unfortunately, the underground laboratory eventually collapsed due to the presence of tree roots in the forest. After that, the government issued an order to evacuate, and the investigation team was ordered to leave. The place was then abandoned.

This notebook must have been left here; everything else that could be taken was taken, and nothing useful was left behind.

For Lu Qing and her two companions, the most important thing right now is not figuring out how to leave the dark forest, but rather how to get through the night.

The gas stove is already burning, so theoretically there shouldn't be any problems. However, many of the house doors are damaged, and most of the windows have been smashed by an unknown wild animal, so they need to be reinforced.

It's no wonder you can't get a peaceful rest in a house like that.

So after some discussion, everyone decided to repair the house first, and then figure out how to leave the forest.

Now that the goal was clear, the task at hand was simple: the scientist was responsible for building his laboratory, while Lu Qing and the old man worked on emergency repairs to nearby houses.

Lu Qing was responsible for handling the door issue, while the elderly man was in charge of reinforcing the windows.

As for wood, there's plenty in the forest; just cut down any tree.

However, there is something I should mention.

It's a bit far-fetched, but Lu Qing had previously found a chainsaw at a factory in the dark forest. This chainsaw was oil-powered, and since Lu Qing wasn't particularly short of oil, she didn't pay much attention to it.

When she tried to use the chainsaw to chop down the tree, she discovered that because the tree was so hard, the chainsaw broke after a while, and the chainsaw chain almost fell off.

Therefore, when it came to cutting down trees, Lu Qing could only rely on brute force. She had already broken countless axes that she had scavenged from the village.

She didn't bring her axe with her when she came here, so cutting down trees would be a bit of a hassle.

However, as the saying goes, as long as you don't give up, there are always more solutions than problems. Lu Qing only thought about it for a short while before she figured out how to cut down the tree.

[My appetite has been whetted!]

With her mouth wide open and empowered by the energy within her body, Lu Qing easily bit off a large piece of wood from the tree trunk in front of her. Using this method, in just one minute, she had bitten the tree in front of her in half!

------------

I'm experiencing writer's block and need to take a break.

I'm really stuck on this dream; I'm trying to figure out how to end it quickly.

I've been writing about this dream for so long that I'm not really keen on writing it down anymore.

But I've dug too many holes, and I haven't filled them all yet. I can't just rush to end it, or it will feel like this dream has been left unfinished.

My sense of responsibility wouldn't allow me to do that, but at the same time, I didn't want to write too much plot and keep rambling on.

So I'm working on a plot to end this dream within ten or a dozen chapters, while maintaining quality.

To be honest, it was very mind-bending. I had some ideas about the plot in the middle, but the ending just didn't feel right to me.

Give me some more time, and I will give everyone an answer.

I'm really sorry, I'll definitely write a complete outline next time.

------------

Chapter 382: Bonfire and Female Corpse

"Ahem, no one should have seen it..."

After some less-than-ladylike individuals bit off parts of the tree, Lu Qing carefully trimmed the bitten-off sections with her knife, making them look as if they had been chopped off.

This step won't take too much time. Although the wood in the dark forest is hard, it's not a problem to clean out the areas with obvious teeth marks.

After all, they are people who care about their reputation. Since it won't take too much time to deal with it, it's better to handle it.

The real trouble is actually the subsequent processing of the wood. Although I packed a lot of tools in my backpack when I came, it was still quite difficult to process the hard wood in the dark forest into usable planks.

However, what people need is not a smooth wooden board, but something that can be nailed to the window to reinforce it to a certain extent, so it shouldn't take too much time.

The house at the tunnel exit was very large and had many damaged parts. It was impossible to repair it completely in one day. So, after discussing it, the three decided to finish repairing one room today and sleep in the reinforced room tonight.

As for which room needs reinforcement...

Needless to say, the room with the gas stove should be reinforced.

A significant amount of time is spent processing the logs, turning some of them into barely usable planks, which are then nailed to the windows of the room.

In addition, the wooden door of the room also needs to be reinforced. Its surface is covered with wood from the dark forest, and a long and wide wooden strip is fixed to the door and the wall. The reinforcement work of the room is then completed.

Then came the long night, and the night watch could be left to the wolf spirit, since she didn't need to sleep anyway, and the wolf spirit had a very keen nose, so she could easily smell any uninvited guests at night.

That's true, but as it was their first night on the outskirts of the forest, both the scientist and the old man suffered from insomnia.

Come to think of it, I thought I could leave the forest like this, but I was told halfway there that the area ahead was also covered by the forest.

The old man was alright, but the scientist was the one who suffered the most. He had prepared for this for so long, and now it all seemed like a joke.

No, it can't be called a joke. After all, they've reached the outer area. On the bright side, they're already very close to the exit, aren't they?

Thinking this way, the scientist suddenly felt less uncomfortable. He mentally fed himself a few doses of motivational platitudes that he didn't quite believe in, and then forced himself to close his eyes and go to sleep.

Meanwhile, Lu Qing, on the other side, had already fallen asleep and was having a strange dream.

.........

In a pitch-black field, a young girl walks around with a blank expression.

She couldn't see her surroundings clearly, nor did she know why she had come here.

The situation only improved when she saw a campfire.

She couldn't resist going to the campfire and sitting on a rock next to it.

Feeling the warmth of the flames on her body, the girl gradually recalled something.

"I...I was asleep in my room, wasn't I?"

"That's right, you were asleep in the room."

A hoarse female voice came from beside her, and in the blink of an eye, a female corpse sitting in front of the campfire appeared in front of Lu Qing.

The female corpse sat on a rock in front of the campfire, her head bowed, her body covered in dust, looking as if she had been dead for a long time. However, if Lu Qing hadn't misheard, the voice came from the female corpse's mouth.

This made her think of someone... well, a person?

Lu Qing didn't know how to refer to the being she was thinking of, the corpse that had appeared in the dream each time and had provided her with a lot of help.

After thinking for a moment, she didn't directly ask about the other person's identity, but instead asked, "Where is this place, and why am I here?"

"Where this is doesn't matter, you'll be going back in a while anyway," the female corpse chuckled dryly, her tone sounding somewhat casual.

"And what about before I go back?" Lu Qing continued to ask after hearing the female corpse's words, "What do I need to do here before I go back?"

"Whatever you want to do, keep moving forward, or stay here and chat with me."

"Then I'll stay here and chat with you for a while," Lu Qing said, glancing at the burning campfire on the ground.

Before, when she was away from the campfire, her consciousness was in a daze. Who knows if she will be like that now that she is out, so it's better to stay by the campfire.

At least here there's someone to chat with and a warm campfire.

"........."

Silence fell; no one spoke. The only sound in the air was the crackling of the campfire. Lu Qing stared at the burning fire, feeling a strange sense of relaxation.

Thinking is no longer important; all she wants now is to clear her mind and give herself a good rest.

The female corpse kept her head down, seemingly lost in thought. Perhaps she, like Lu Qing, was staring blankly at something.

After an unknown amount of time, the female corpse slowly raised her head, looked at Lu Qing, and said, "You should go back now."

"Hey?"

The female corpse's words brought Lu Qing back from her half-asleep state. Once she came to her senses, the first thing that came to her mind was the absurd question, "How could I fall asleep in my dream?"

She then realized what the female corpse had said, but before she could ask the corpse a question, a dizzying sensation came over her, and she suddenly opened her eyes in reality.

You wake up from your sleep, and for some reason, you feel a strange sense of relaxation, as if something has been burned away, your mental burden has been swept away, and your overall state has improved significantly.

"Knock knock knock........"