Marvelous Mecha

Chapter 148 Wilderness Survival 8_1


"There are some," Xia Xinru answered with constraint. Of course, there were many pursuing her, but she was naturally modest.

Damn, she was so popular, Elvis curiously asked: "Little Xia, you must have high standards, do you have someone you like?"

"Yes, yes there is," Xia Xinru replied hesitatingly while biting her cherry lips.

"Who is it? Don't worry, we won't leak any secrets."

Generally, a woman won't answer such a question, but Xia Xinru was different. The fact that she was pushed into answering was one thing, but more because she knew Elvis and Feng Yi were close and took this chance to speak out boldly. This might even attract that person's attention who knows.

"It... it's the instructor," she said, burying her head as low as she could, repeating the word "is" several times as if she was hasty to explain something, then added quickly: "And... and... I'm not the only one who likes the instructor, you know. There are four or five other girls that I know of."

The two of them were thunderstruck by this. Although Feng Yi was known to be talented, charming, and often humorous in front of the logistics personnel, Elvis knew what kind of person Feng Yi truly was - simple and carefree, yet elusive. The humorous side that everyone saw was just the side Feng Yi chose to show to blend in better with the group.

He was the soul of this group, serving as the centre around which everyone revolved, sharing jokes and laughter. But deep down, everyone genuinely admired and respected him.

Perhaps these reasons alone would not invoke feelings of admiration among the girls, but given that Feng Yi was about the same age as everyone else, it was first extraordinary young man to be favored by one or two girls was not surprising. But to this extent? Damn, these were indeed the times that valued appearances.

Elvis revealed a meaningful smile, "Little Xia, would you like me to help to... uhm? Hehehe, you know what I mean."

"No, no, no, never mind." Xia Xinru refused immediately. Even though she was very happy, or more precisely, looking forward to it, she somehow felt shy to say it out loud.

"What...?" Xia Xinru was taken aback, realizing her slip of tongue. She wondered what was going on in her muddled head, for mistakenly rejecting this proposal.

But facing such a great opportunity, Elvis had to keep talking, no matter how much she refused.

The misty early morning, with fresh air and a hint of chilliness, gradually woke everyone up from their dreams. Last night, everyone didn't sleep well, disturbed by continuous overnight rain falling through the eaves. Thankfully, their tents were waterproof, and rain had stopped by morning.

As dawn approached, the three-person group packed hurriedly and set off promptly at 5 AM. An hour later, they crossed the marsh, their trousers stained with mud.

Four hours later, they climbed over Mountain A, named as such because they didn't know the actual name of this isolated mountain. They only knew that this mountain was one of the three coordinates points. Being not too far from the lake, they estimated that they could reach the designated point in another hour. Even though the chances of locating the secret camp were only one in three, or even lower, they were fairly confident in their choice.

All of a sudden, they spotted another team in the distance... another group! Elvis originally thought their team had taken a huge lead, but just as they climbed over the mountain, they spotted another team.

"Mate, let's hurry down the mountain now."

"No rush."

Elvis signaled the others to wait for a bit. There might be more than one team here. He quickly devised a plan. The three of them separated and observed different directions, regrouping at the starting point after 20 minutes to tally the number of teams. If the number of teams exceeded their estimate, he wouldn't hesitate to abandon this point and target the next coordinate instead.

The other two had no objections. They would either not compete at all or aim for the top. After a brief discussion, they rushed off. The short 24 minutes passed in the blink of an eye, with the three of them panting heavily when they regrouped at the splitting point.

The final tally appeared pretty quickly. Elvis spotted 10 teams, Wes saw 8, and Xia Xinru saw 5. In other words, a total of 23 teams considered this point as their primary target. Excluding the missed and upcoming teams, about 30% of competitors had gathered here. At this point, it made no sense to abandon this coordinate. They had to find the camp before the other teams.

Damn it! Elvis thought they had tried their best. Even though Wes and Xia Xinru were not as physically fit, with their determination, they managed to cover over a hundred kilometers in a day, despite carrying substantial weights. In a complex and challenging tropical rainforest terrain like this, covering this distance was not an easy task. Yet, the speed of the other teams was in no way slowing down.

Everyone was already out of strength. They lacked food, and water was nearly used up. Yet, they had no choice but to spend their valuable time searching for food on locating the camp, considering that they could rely on the miniscule canned food to temporarily satiate their hunger. With this thought, Xia Xinru and Wes, almost dragging, descended from Mountain A at a brisk pace. Elvis took on some of their load.

The team leader, Elvis, was already exhausted. They rejected at first, but ultimately had to compromise for the collective honor of the team.

As they walked on wobbly legs, Xia Xinru kept adjusting the accurate coordinates on the electronic map, constantly muttering "there's a mountain, there's water, there's sky". Her quick-thinking brain had recorded the surrounding scenery and accurately locked the destination to a dense patch of forest.

That circular empty area in the forest seemed to have been created just to reinforce the instructor's clue - sky. A few hundred meters away, Xia Xinru quickly communicated her supposition to the others.

That clearing in the dense forest ahead could provide a clear view of the sky. Indeed, places where one could view the sky unhindered were rare in a tropical rainforest. And now, they had a mountain behind them, water ahead, which meant that the place they were frantically searching for, the final checkpoint, was probably here.

Xia Xinru's face had turned extremely pale, and her frail body seemed on the brink of collapse, a gust of wind could probably do it. This alarmed the other two. They were so close to the destination, but this had to happen now.

"We're almost there, can you hold on?" As Elvis spoke, he handed his portion of canned food to Xia Xinru, "Eat this as you walk."

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