Chapter 41 They Might Be Living Pretty Well

Originally, everyone thought that players without Mingmei's heightened intelligence must be having a miserable time.

Even if they weren't miserable, it must be a struggle. After all, they couldn't speak complete sentences and couldn't create very complex tools. Exposed to the elements, fighting wild beasts, and being chased by dinosaurs – how could life be good?

But when Mingmei and the others relocated and encountered the Zhen brothers in the nearby forest, they realized they might have been a bit narrow-minded.

Those guys might actually be having a great time.

Just seeing how the two brothers interacted with the monkey troop in the forest, swinging through the trees on vines without ever touching the ground, Mingmei felt like she might have worried for nothing.

Add to that their loud, signaling howls, and Mingmei even wondered if they'd pioneered a new path, evolving into another species.

In the end, though, the two brothers reluctantly said goodbye to the monkey troop that had sheltered them for several days and left with Mingmei.

The first thing that happened upon their return was that the Lu Gui took them to bathe, then they had their first hot meal.

Even though it wasn't delicious, Mingmei made it!

After eating, with the guidance of Lu Gui and the others, the brothers were able to speak human language again in about half a day.

"Ah—I thought I wouldn't be able to talk this whole game!"

Zhen Po couldn't help but exclaim after finally speaking a complete sentence.

"Right? Yesterday, I was grateful I could still shout," Zhen Hu chimed in, taking the bone knife Lu Gui handed him and scraping the stubble off his chin.

As he shaved, he began to recount their lives these past few days.

They were chased by wild beasts at the start, met players, but the beasts were too fierce, and they scattered before they could regroup. Finally, the two brothers were taken in by a primitive monkey troop thanks to their "amazing talent"…

Mingmei listened to them talk, glancing down at the records on the brothers' wristbands (12/1788). That score… had these two been penalized before?

"After you joined the monkey troop, didn't you try to find other players?"

By now, it was evening. The group sat in their newly found cave. Lu Xiaoyao secured the cave entrance with a thorny fence, covering it with dry grass and leaves to block the sudden gusts of wind as darkness fell, protecting their newly lit campfire.

"We did. One we found was snatched away by some kind of ancient behemoth, probably eliminated."

The interstellar players called dinosaurs dinosaurs. Mingmei had only realized this a few days ago when she overheard Lu Xiaoyao saying it.

Zhen Hu mentioned dinosaurs with lingering fear. This game was really daring. Two-meter-tall primitive men fighting behemoths of fifteen or twenty meters, was that really okay?

Thinking back to the end-of-world副本 (fùběn, instance/dungeon) game, even with abilities, it was difficult enough to fight those giant wolves. This time, there were no abilities, and they didn't even get their brains at the start. They had to rely on Mingmei to unlock them. It was truly hopeless!

"This place is very dangerous. The big brother who was separated from us at the beginning, I remember he was from the Fourth Imperial Military Academy, wow, his skills!

He was the one who inspired us brothers. You didn't see it, but he was being chased by a wild beast at the time, and he was so agile! Jumping up and down, he swung on a vine and flew a long way, leaving the beast to pounce at empty air.

He ran fast, his route was strange, and my brother and I couldn't keep up, of course, the beast didn't catch up either, so we were separated.

As for the others… we saw a lot of corpses, most of them incomplete, obviously eaten by wild beasts."

"No wonder the overall score is rising so slowly."

Hearing that many players had died, everyone realized that even though their own scores had been rising quickly these past few days, the overall score had only increased by a very limited amount.

They had been wondering why, even if every player who came in shouted a few times, it would add points, but the average score was still less than two points per person.

However, while talking with Mingmei, Zhen Hu and Zhen Po suddenly noticed their scores increasing.

"Heavens!"

The twins, who already knew Mingmei's special status, saw the two points they had gained over four or five days increase by six points in one night, and their gazes towards her became even more fervent, thanking Mingmei repeatedly.

"You gained six points tonight, but were your scores deducted before?"

When Mingmei asked this, Zhen Hu and Zhen Po scratched their heads awkwardly, finding it difficult to explain why they had been penalized. But Mu Chen and the others pressed on, hoping they could avoid the same pitfalls.

"Actually, with more people, you really don't step on as many mines. It's just that when there are fewer people, it's a little inconvenient to get some… emmmm… things, which is why we were penalized."

Zhen Hu carefully chose his words, trying to warn everyone.

"That's right! We were forced to!" Zhen Po nodded in agreement with his older brother's explanation. "There are either big bugs or fierce beasts on the ground, who has time to dig a hole for peeing or pooping?"

Everyone: What?

"Later, the monkeys all lived in the trees, so everyone relieved themselves up there, and we did as the locals do…"

Everyone: 0.0!

"Wait, is 'do as the locals do' used like that?!" Lu Xiaoyao was shocked by the reason for their deductions, and the others were also stunned.

"Anything else?" Mu Chen remembered that when they first met the Zhen brothers, although their language was leaning towards the monkeys, they should have gained points for that, and they were agile, and should have also scored points for fighting wild beasts.

Simply defecating (in trees) should only be a first-time offense.

They couldn't have lost just those points.

"We also lost points for catching lice for the monkeys… saying my behavior imitation was problematic, but isn't catching lice normal?!"

Zhen Po was even more unhappy when he mentioned this, feeling wronged. Hu Yue crossed her arms, frowned, and asked, "How did you catch them? Show us."

"Like this…"

As he spoke, Zhen Po stood behind his brother and pretended to groom him, then pulled out a louse, reached out, and held it in front of his brother's mouth.

"What the heck is that?"

Everyone was shocked by the "feeding lice" act!

"It's feeding…"

Speaking of this, Zhen Po and Zhen Hu seemed to recall unpleasant memories. Zhen Hu added quietly, "It was probably penalized because it was really unhygienic."

"Remove the 'probably,' it definitely was!"

After hearing about the Zhen brothers' "deduction career" in the monkey troop, everyone fell silent, thinking it was amazing that they hadn't been deducted to zero points and kicked out directly.

"Forget it, let's not talk about this. Let's think about how to gather everyone here. We can't run around everywhere; it's dangerous and a waste of time."

Finally, Lu Gui brought the topic back to the main issue.

"Yes, according to the current environment and climate in the game, it's still the hottest time of year. Walking around during the day can easily lead to heatstroke and dehydration. When the weather gets cooler, we'll have to store food and prepare clothing. Who knows if it will snow here, and how cold it will be? We also plan to build houses, these… all require people."

Everyone understood what Mu Chen was saying, but what could they do?

Although Mingmei was essentially still a lunchbox vendor, she had taken the player identity card. She couldn't even open the electronic map of player distribution in the game, so she didn't know where everyone was.

"Walking around is really too slow~" Lu Xiaoyao sighed in frustration. They couldn't deal with the flying creatures in the sky, and they couldn't confront the running ones on the ground. "There's not even a net here, so we can't even send messages to the group."

"Wait!"

Almost at the same time, Mu Chen and Lu Gui spoke up.

"Sending messages… isn't impossible." Mu Chen first affirmed the idea, and then Lu Gui suggested a more suitable method for the current situation – distributing leaflets/small advertisements.

"Who's going to distribute them for us?"

Lu Xiaoyao looked at her brother with curious eyes, and Mingmei told her how to distribute the leaflets.

"Birds and beasts can do it, even ancient behemoths…"

"Ah? Will they listen? Meimei, can you…"

"No, I can't." She interrupted Lu Xiaoyao's imagination, denying her thoughts.

"Just find some flimsy but durable leaves, wrap them up, and quietly hang them on some herbivorous, docile animals, then drive them away a little further to take the information we want to convey to distant places."