Chapter 9 Survival of the Brave

Rong Yi lowered his eyes and thought quickly, then slowly raised his eyes, his gaze calm.

An eerie silence fell over the surroundings. Suddenly, she crouched down and leaped forward, and something whizzed towards her from behind.

Before turning back, Rong Yi pondered a series of questions: Human weapon? Or animal weapon?

After landing and rolling, he first saw a crystal-clear thread slowly falling from above. Rong Yi lit the thread with his torch, and it quickly ignited.

Behind where she was standing, a spider the size of a basketball was hanging upside down.

Eight black, bead-like eyes reflected the firelight, long legs on both sides brushed against the fat belly, and with a flick of the spinneret, white spider silk sprayed towards Rong Yi's location.

She reacted quickly to dodge, picked up a short twig and threw it. The spider was pierced through the head and thorax by the twig, and after struggling for a few moments, it stopped moving.

But the crisis was not over. More spiders slid down the spider silk from above, clearly surrounding her.

Rong Yi pursed his lips, sensing something was wrong.

She got up, held the torch, and walked around. Some spiders immediately climbed up the silk thread; they were afraid of fire.

But Rong Yi's actions also angered them. Soon, the first spider's spinneret started moving, and a clump of silk shot out, then a second clump, a third clump...

Rong Yi raised his hand to block the spider silk spraying towards his face. His gloves were sticky with the stuff, and after a few movements, they were completely stuck to his face.

She wasn't afraid of fire even through the gloves; the gloves, which had been covered in spider silk, were burned away after being passed through the fire.

She was surrounded by countless spiders; one torch was simply not enough.

Rong Yi knew that if she continued, she would eventually be stuck in the spider silk and unable to move, and then she would be dragged back by these spiders.

While his arm was still mobile, he took out the remaining special alcohol, scattered it around, and then threw the torch on it.

The fire spread rapidly, its momentum so strong that it shot several meters into the air. Some spiders that were too close to the ground had their silk burned off and fell to the ground. The long-legged spiders hurriedly ran around with their plump bodies. One of them ran to Rong Yi's feet and was stomped on by her without hesitation.

Seeing that there was still a thin layer of the special alcohol left, Rong Yi decided to keep it for now.

Of course, she didn't want to perish together with these spiders. The clothes she was wearing were not only waterproof but also fireproof. Now she could only trust the functionality and quality of the system's products.

The once-fierce swarm of spiders retreated back to the trees as the fire spread, leaving dozens of spiders on the ground. Fearing the flames, they couldn't escape the fire circle and were dealt with one by one by Rong Yi. The spider that was crushed was also collected into his storage backpack.

Unfortunately, I don't know if these spiders have any special properties, so I can only try my best to preserve their bodies intact, hoping to sell them for points to supplement my family's income.

Rong Yi felt aggrieved and shouted, "What are you doing up there? If you've got the guts, come down and hit me again!"

After a while, she walked out of the fire and held up a torch again. The spider silk on her body was burned off. Although her clothes were fireproof, they were still very hot through the fabric, so she could not stay there for long.

It's likely that the fire was too big and scared the spiders away; they haven't reappeared since.

·

After walking a few steps, I discovered a spider's nest. Unfortunately, I wasn't very lucky. As I walked towards the nest, the trees were covered with spider silk, and the ground was covered with spider silk from three chimney-like structures.

Thinking that there was still a fire burning behind him, Rong Yi simply kicked down the entrance to the nest, used his dagger to stir up the spider silk stuck to the sole of his shoe, and then burned it off. There were three holes in the ground large enough for a person to go down into.

Logically, she should have just taken a look and left, but a thought in her mind told her: Go down and take a look. Taking a risk is worthwhile. Often, risk and reward are proportional.

Rong Yi felt that was her true thought, and gripped the dagger tightly as he entered one of the holes.

The tunnel was slanted, and Rong Yi slid down the slope. He reached the bottom in less than two meters. Looking up at the tunnel entrance, he knew that going down was easy and climbing back up would be just as simple, so he wasn't worried.

There are spider webs everywhere, but they are not very sticky and can be easily broken with a slight pull, as if they have been there for a very long time.

The nests appear to be interconnected, with three entrances scattered around, two of which correspond to the direction of the ground entrance.

Holding the torch, I looked around and found not a single spider. Are these creatures so timid? Even if the fire spread here, it shouldn't have burned down the entire cave.

What Rong Yi didn't know was that the spiders weren't very intelligent, were naturally afraid of fire, and were so close to their nest that they simply took whatever they could and ran away.

The cave she entered was empty. She chose the leftmost entrance and went in. The temperature inside was noticeably higher than outside.

The walls inside the cave were covered with sticky clumps of spider silk, each about half a meter long and shaped like a teardrop.

It seems that a lot of it was taken away, and sections of silk rope still remain on the wall.

Rong Yi took off his backpack, took out all his belongings, opened the bag to its maximum, and looked closely. He noticed that there seemed to be small white things inside the spider silk clump. Since the spider silk was also white, they were not very noticeable.

Could they be spider eggs?

Since spider silk is not fire resistant, Rong Yi did not use a torch, but instead cut it with a dagger and gently put it into his bag. There were thirteen such spider silk clumps in the cave.

After finishing that, she went to the second cave, which was quite interesting. The walls were covered with cocoons, some of which were still moving, and she had no idea what was inside.

Rong Yi treated it like a blind box of cocoons, putting them all into his bag regardless of their size. When he saw a cocoon shaped like two human figures, he stepped on it and found that it didn't move, so he busied himself with collecting the other cocoons.

A total of thirty-two cocoons were collected. Rong Yi slung his bag over his shoulder, used his dagger to cut open the human-shaped cocoon, and found that the person inside was already dead. He then peeled off the outer cocoon, and two corpses fell to the ground.

Rong Yi found a wound about the thickness of a chopstick on the back of their necks, which he estimated was the fatal wound. Moreover, the two corpses were too soft, and after they fell to the ground, they broke somewhere and emitted an extremely disgusting smell.

She held her breath, removed the backpacks from the two corpses, and left the cave without bothering to check what was inside.

The third cave was the last one, and it was also empty. Rong Yi looked around and prepared to leave, since the gains from the first two caves should have been decent.

After taking only two steps, a flash of light appeared in Rong Yi's eyes. Following the light, he discovered something embedded in the wall on the right. Upon closer inspection, it looked like a diamond, but why did it make his mouth water?

Could it be a food with a unique shape?

The dagger pried the object out, and a transparent, hard object about half the size of a palm fell off. It looked more like an unpolished diamond.

Rong Yi had a subtle craving for this thing, and out of caution, she used her dagger to pick it up and toss it into her backpack.

Finally, six more hard objects were dug out from the wall, all roughly the same size. He didn't know if there were any more inside, but Rong Yi's intuition told him it was time to leave.

Returning to the entrance of the cave by the same route, and climbing up the slope, the fire, which was only a few steps away, was now completely extinguished in about ten minutes.

I reckon the spiders will come back once the flames die down, so I should leave quickly.

She hurried off with the torch, hoping that the spiders, having learned their lesson from the fire, would stop bothering her.

As I wrote, I started to doubt myself, wondering what I was even writing. Then, after a while, it seemed readable. This cycle of back and forth filled my writing time. Now, I've made up my mind: no matter how good or bad it is, I will finish writing it according to plan. Thank you to all my darlings who have been following my new book, keeping me from feeling like I'm playing a solo game.

(End of this chapter)