Chapter 702

Finally, he found the uncle.

Ning Chen pulled the tent open a slit and reached straight inside. The uncle wasn't sleeping deeply; the moment Ning Chen entered, he opened his eyes.

When he unexpectedly locked eyes with a face lit by a flashlight, the uncle was startled, even losing the ability to speak for an instant.

Ning Chen tossed the flashlight toward the uncle's hand and said, "Thanks for the flashlight."

Having finished speaking, he was about to pull the tent open and go out when the uncle, as if finally coming to his senses, quickly spoke up: "Wait."

Ning Chen stopped, turned his head, and looked at the uncle's face.

"... What did you see in the forest?" the uncle asked him.

Looking at the uncle's face, Ning Chen felt the other man actually wanted to ask, "You actually came out alive," so he smiled: "I didn't see anything; the wind was just quite loud."

The uncle narrowed his eyes; he didn't quite understand Ning Chen's words, so he repeated the question: "What exactly did you see?"

Only then did Ning Chen wipe the smile from his face and say seriously: "I only heard some strange sounds; besides that, there was nothing."

"What sounds?"

Hearing him press for details, Ning Chen said: "Sounds similar to a human's, very low-pitched... they must have been made by a person."

The uncle frowned, staring at Ning Chen's face.

Ning Chen said: "Ah... anyway, that's how it is. I didn't go too deep inside; seeing enough, I came out, otherwise I couldn't sleep tonight."

Only then did the uncle look at him and ask: "Did you bring a tent or anything like that?"

"No."

Ning Chen said it as a matter of course; he hadn't expected to meet anyone here either. Originally, he planned to just find some place to sleep, but who knew the wind would be so strong tonight, and compared to daytime, the temperature had dropped a lot.

Although Ning Chen didn't say it explicitly, the meaning he conveyed was clear to them both; the uncle looked at Ning Chen's face, as if weighing something.

Ning Chen made no sound, quietly staring at the uncle's face.

After a long while, the uncle said: "Alright, come squeeze in here for the night; it's not like we can't sleep."

Ning Chen had been waiting for this sentence; hearing it, he breathed a sigh of relief and smiled: "Then thank you."

As soon as the words ended, he didn't stand on ceremony, bent down, and crawled into the tent.

The temperature inside the tent was obviously higher than outside; once inside, it started to feel stuffy. Two people squeezed into such a small tent made things somewhat cramped.

Ning Chen's back pressed against one side of the tent; a certain distance was kept between the two. For some reason tonight, Ning Chen suddenly found it hard to fall asleep.

The uncle beside him hadn't fallen asleep either; Ning Chen could sense it.

The uncle had far more things on his mind than Ning Chen. Ning Chen's brain held only one thought: when could he go back? But the uncle was the leader of a team; he had to lead the entire team, so he needed to consider repeatedly before making a decision.

Half an hour later, Ning Chen fell into light sleep, while the other person in the tent still tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Just as dawn broke the next day, Ning Chen woke up.

In his sleep, he sensed the uncle had woken; correspondingly, everyone in the entire camp had woken, probably preparing to set off at this moment.

Ning Chen hadn't originally intended to wake up so early, but he had to follow the main force inside, so he had to open his eyes. After crawling out of the tent, he saw the team led by the uncle was already fully equipped, ready to depart at any moment.

But the instant the team members saw Ning Chen, their expressions turned to extreme shock; it seemed none had expected Ning Chen to come out alive from inside.

Ning Chen didn't take their stares to heart; rubbing the back of his neck, he said: "Let's go. I still have some impression of that forest; following me might help us find people."

The night before, Ning Chen had given the uncle some hints. Among this group, the uncle understood Ning Chen best. After hearing his words, he said nothing, simply nodded, and then let Ning Chen lead the way ahead.

Seeing this made the group of team members behind him somewhat surprised, especially the sunglasses man. He walked a few steps to the uncle's side and asked: "Why do you listen to that kid so much? How many of his words have been right?"

The uncle looked at him indifferently: "At the very least, he came back alive last night."

The sunglasses man choked, unable to say a word; finally, his eyes held a trace of resentment as he stared at Ning Chen.

Ning Chen truly didn't know where he had offended him; the sunglasses man had been at odds with him from the start. Hearing this, he merely said: "Suit yourself; follow or don't, as you like."

He still had to follow; after all, if the whole team followed Ning Chen and he alone made an exception, he would be left alone.

So Ning Chen finally saw the sunglasses man following at the very back with a face full of unwillingness, but he still followed.

The other teams had all set off as well; it wasn't the case that only one team had entered yesterday. Ning Chen counted; there were probably dozens of people here, but the people hiding deep in the forest were probably even more numerous.

Ning Chen walked back along yesterday's path; he remembered the landmarks around clearly. Meanwhile, other teams nearby seemed to be following Ning Chen's group, faintly but surely; they all knew Ning Chen had come out from inside late last night.

Ning Chen didn't mind this too much; concentrating people was best; otherwise, when the crowd scattered, it would be difficult to find the people hidden in the forest without backup support once Ning Chen located them.

Although Ning Chen didn't actually need anyone's support, he didn't want to reveal his true strength in front of such a group of strangers; for him, this was a secret.

Even as a guide, it might not reach the place where yesterday's sound came from in a short time; moreover, halfway through Ning Chen's walk, that sound disappeared, replaced by the wind, which extremely affected judgment.

This forest covered such a vast area; if they really wanted to find something, they would probably have to dig up the ground three feet deep.

Ning Chen didn't tell these words to everyone; traveling took such a long time, and these people weren't obligated to search for people; back and forth, by the time people were needed, they might not be found.

Not finding people meant Ning Chen would have to expose himself actively, but the consequences of exposure were too severe; Ning Chen couldn't ensure he could withstand them.

While the people were still relatively concentrated, Ning Chen turned and said to the uncle: "We should try to gather and not separate; at this time, we can only advance with the main force. If any team wants to go forward alone, we must make them return."

The uncle's thoughts actually coincided with Ning Chen's; the uncle nodded: "Mm, I was thinking the same. But those people don't speak our language; I can only communicate with a small portion of them. Getting them all to listen to me is difficult."

Ning Chen turned his head to glance at the people of the other teams; language barriers were the biggest obstacle currently, but for Ning Chen, these were all minor problems; all could be solved with the system's help.

Ning Chen spoke to the system in his mind: "Help me a favor; I can't communicate with those people due to language barriers, so I can't complete the mission—do you understand what I want you to help with?"

The system fell silent for a moment, agreeing somewhat reluctantly: "I can only let you master all foreign languages proficiently for a short time."

"Okay," Ning Chen replied.

The system briefly granting him this skill was enough for Ning Chen; he didn't need a skill that couldn't protect himself.

The next second, Ning Chen frowned; he could feel his head heavy, as if something had inexplicably been added.

It must be that the system had granted him the skill; Ning Chen raised his eyebrows and glanced sideways toward the other teams.

At this time, the troops were still relatively concentrated; no team had fallen behind, so Ning Chen didn't need to negotiate, which also saved time and effort.

Seeing Ning Chen suddenly fall silent, the uncle thought something had happened; the instant he turned and locked eyes with Ning Chen, he clearly saw the determination in Ning Chen's eyes.

The uncle's heart skipped a beat rapidly; he suddenly had a bad premonition.

Ning Chen led them step by step into the forest, while everyone followed behind him, letting him guide the way; with people gathered here and no signal inside the forest, should anything truly happen, they might not be able to contact the outside world in time.

Could this young and impetuous Mao Touxiao truly shoulder such a heavy responsibility, bearing the lives and deaths of so many, and lead them to their destination?

Uncle was one of those with the best relationship with Ning Chen and the deepest contact, yet he too did not know whether Ning Chen could bear this responsibility.

So Uncle looked at Ning Chen's back, a hint of contemplation entering his eyes.

Since the place Ning Chen had stepped into this time was excessively dangerous, the heat in the live stream had never dropped, and even more people kept entering the live stream.

Most people treated Ning Chen's check-in at the Fantasy Forest as a suicide mission, and quite a few mocked him, but Ning Chen had never cared much; those people, having sought their own embarrassment, gradually stopped talking about it.

Several teams had walked for about an hour yet still saw nothing, while Ning Chen's expression remained calm, as if everything was under his control.

In fact, their traveling speed was not slow, but it was far from comparable to Ning Chen's speed last night; this meant they had not yet reached the final spot Ning Chen had marked last night after an hour, and all the teams were dragging their feet.

Ning Chen was not in a hurry; he walked at the front at a leisurely pace, with Uncle's team following closely behind. The other teams always kept some distance from Ning Chen's team yet would secretly catch up; at least for now, all teams were heading in the same direction.

But as they followed Ning Chen for over an hour without any discovery, some commanders among these teams, who were restless and impatient, saw this scene and wanted to take their teams off on their own, thinking that following Ning Chen might not be reliable.

In fact, Ning Chen was watching everyone's every move; if any team harbored thoughts of going off on their own, Ning Chen would speak up to advise them, at least ensuring everyone gathered together, otherwise it would be very difficult to handle such situations later.

For example, to the right of the team Ning Chen was leading, one team was becoming somewhat restless.

The reason Ning Chen could tell was that the captain of that team kept turning back to say something to his teammates and tried to pull people toward another direction.

Only his teammates did not listen to his orders; he pulled four or five people, yet not a single one was willing to follow him toward another direction.

Seeing this scene, Ning Chen walked over; the members of that team, upon seeing Ning Chen arrive, were all somewhat surprised, and everyone looked at Ning Chen, waiting for him to speak.

Ning Chen also looked at those teammates; since he could not identify which country they were from by their faces, he could only choose to communicate first using an international language.

Once he confirmed their nationality, Ning Chen could communicate with them smoothly and without obstruction.

When Ning Chen opened his mouth and spoke a sentence that others could not understand at all and found somewhat strange, all members of that team instantly wore an expression of disbelief.

They came from a small country, extremely insignificant on the world map and unknown to fame; one could say that except for people from their own country, basically no one would actively learn that country's language.

Yet they had unexpectedly encountered a Chinese person who could speak their country's language in a foreign land?

"You seem very surprised?" Ning Chen said with a smile. "It's fine; I'm here to remind you to try to follow us together. This forest is vast after all; walking alone makes it very easy to encounter danger."

That team's captain paused for a moment, looked at Ning Chen, and unconsciously nodded.

Besides that team, others who knew something about this could not help but show surprise on their faces; they then scrutinized Ning Chen with their eyes and inwardly sighed that the younger generation was formidable.

Especially Uncle, who knew a bit about that country's culture; he never expected Ning Chen could communicate with them without any barrier.

After Ning Chen finished speaking those words, he stood in place and waited for the other side to reply.

Those few people quickly reacted, turned their heads again, and whispered a few words to their teammates, as if discussing something.

Ning Chen listened to their conversation; his facial expression did not change, but his Yu Guang glanced toward the young man standing at the tail of the team.

This was the captain of their team; the one who had urged the teammates to go in another direction was him.

That man locked eyes with Ning Chen and let out a dissatisfied snort; Ning Chen clearly understood his meaning, perhaps feeling that Ning Chen had ruined his good plans.