Chapter 329 - 188: Racing Against Time to Hunt! Rainy Season Team Deployment! The Bee Swarm Has Gone Mad?

Chapter 329: Chapter 188: Racing Against Time to Hunt! Rainy Season Team Deployment! The Bee Swarm Has Gone Mad?

The sky was overcast, and a fine, dense rain was falling.

The ground of the Primitive Jungle was dotted with puddles of varying depths. The leaves of the grass and trees glistened with rainwater.

Sodden with rain, the moss was a lush, vibrant green, but it had also become treacherously slick. It was like a minefield of traps spread throughout the jungle; a misstep could mean anything from soaked pants to a hard fall.

The incessant DRIP-DROP of rain striking the leaves echoed everywhere, as if heralding the arrival of the rainy season...

A small team of seven made their way through the jungle.

They carried an assortment of wooden clubs and iron weapons. Backpacks of various sizes were slung over their shoulders, and they were draped in simple raincoats made from plastic sheets.

The mood was somber in the rain. It wasn’t just the difficulty of walking on the moss-covered ground; the weather had also made their already elusive prey even harder to catch...

"What’s with the weather these past two days? It just keeps raining. Every time we go hunting, we get soaked, and it takes forever to clean up when we get back."

"Exactly. At least it’s not hot anymore, but there’s way less game in the jungle. I finally spotted a wild rabbit, but I couldn’t get any traction on the soggy ground. All I could do was watch it get away!"

"You got off easy. I completely wiped out, and my ass still hurts."

"Speaking of which, there are definitely fewer small animals around. But for some reason, I feel like I’ve been seeing more medium and large ones. They just take off the second they spot us from a distance. Aren’t most animals supposed to stay hidden when it rains? Why is this happening?"

"I might have a clue about that..."

Everyone turned to look at the girl who had spoken, their eyes filled with a mix of confusion and curiosity.

"Apparently, the rainy season is about to start. These light showers are just a prelude. After this, we probably won’t see any more clear skies, just non-stop downpours. The animals in the jungle have sensed it, so they’re trying to eat as much as possible and store up energy before the storms hit so they can survive the season."

"How do you know that?" a guy in glasses from the team demanded.

The girl answered casually, "A friend told me. His team traded ten bottles of yogurt and two live otters for this information at the information exchange station."

As soon as she said this, many of them frowned, their expressions turning grim.

"The information exchange station? You mean the one run by the Fishing Club, but founded by that Transcendent, Chen Chong?"

"The rainy season... I used to watch a lot of nature documentaries. This is not good news. They usually last at least a week, and the long ones can go on for dozens of days, even months!"

"Shit, you’ve got to be kidding me. Hunting in this jungle is already hard enough. It took us over half a month just to scrape together a decent amount of supplies. We just learned how to make traps for wild rabbits from someone else, and we were finally about to start catching them. If the rainy season comes now, was all that for nothing?"

"It’s definitely possible. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but when we came out the back gate this morning, the river’s water level was clearly a lot higher than yesterday."

"Probably a coincidence. It’s not like we have weather forecasts out here. How would they know the rainy season is coming? I think the info might be fake."

"You never know. A Transcendent is practically a different species compared to a normal person. It wouldn’t be surprising if they had some way to predict the weather or get intel."

"We’ve never been to that so-called information exchange station, but from what I hear, their intel is very reliable. At least, I’ve never heard of any team buying information and then causing trouble because it was fake."

"Xiaozhi, is this friend of yours reliable? You sure he didn’t just make something up to mess with you?"

The girl called Xiaozhi shook her head. "No way. He wouldn’t lie to me!"

Someone else in the group chimed in, "Don’t be so sure. Deceit and betrayal are common, especially in an environment like this where you have to fight for every resource. I mean, since the transmigration, how many lovey-dovey couples from our school have broken up over a bit of food? We’ve all seen them get into brawls in the plaza."

Xiaozhi immediately grew anxious.

"He wouldn’t! He wouldn’t lie to me! Because... because... we grew up together, and he’s always looked out for me. Even after we were brought here, he gave me his food several times when he was starving. If his team wasn’t already full, I probably would have joined them..."

"Oh, so it was your childhood sweetheart who told you..."

The team members glanced at each other, their expressions growing more serious.

"If Xiaozhi’s saying that, then the information is most likely true."

"If the rainy season really is about to start—no, if it’s already started—we need to hurry and find as much as we can before the downpours begin. It’ll be much harder to find food later."

"Right. There are plenty of reptiles in the jungle that like wet, rainy weather, so we won’t be completely without food, but it’s definitely going to be a lot harder than before."

"Let’s not waste any more time. Let’s go! We’ll find whatever we can today—wild fruits, vegetables, any small game we can eat. Even if we’re not sure if something’s edible, grab it and bring it back. We’ll figure it out later!"

"And we need to remember to collect the traps we set up. Don’t let them get ruined by the rain..."

The small team sprang into action without another moment’s delay, their hurried footsteps quickly disappearing from sight.

Similar scenes were playing out both inside and outside the school, and all across the Primitive Jungle.

Many teams had purchased the intel about the rainy season, but even more had only heard it through the grapevine, as rumors from others.