The 'Involution King' Second Female Lead Quits [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 61

Chapter 61: The Fourth World [7]

◎ Come to Mama’s Arms~ ◎

Because they were unable to go to the large island to kill wild boars, Li Jianwei and Shu Heng were still missing six pieces of leather to craft a full set of armor. In the end, they could only make Leather Helmet*2, Leather Armor*2, and Leather Boots*1.

Citing the fact that she was in a relatively safer position at the back, Shu Heng gave the leather boots to Li Jianwei. At the same time, she equipped the one and only backpack, acting as a support character during their exploration.

As dusk settled, the outline of their destination appeared in Li Jianwei and Shu Heng’s vision.

The island looked huge. A raptor even larger than a vulture circled in the sky. The entrance was between two large mountains, only wide enough for about two rafts. They had to go about five hundred meters in to reach the flat landing spot.

“It’s a settlement. There are signs of human activity here. We should be able to collect a lot of supplies,” Shu Heng said, looking through her binoculars, while also glancing up at the sky.

A storm was still brewing at sea, but as they ventured deeper into the settlement island, the wind suddenly disappeared, leaving only an overcast sky.

“It should be around two in the afternoon. Let’s go to the island first. If it’s dangerous, we’ll wait for the storm to stop before we continue exploring,” Li Jianwei said, putting the food and fruit they had prepared into her backpack.

“Okay.” Shu Heng put about a third of the metal arrows from the chest into her own backpack.

With the backpack’s expansion, Shu Heng now had twenty-five storage slots, ten more than before. The spare set of weapons and some gathering equipment, such as axes, shovels, launchers, and an insect net, were now under her care.

The shacks weren’t neatly arranged on flat ground. They were terraced along the mountain peaks. Most of the shacks were locked and couldn’t be opened.

The few shacks that could be opened only contained some basic supplies, which were more or less useless to them. The leftover soup they found could only restore a little hunger, so they finished it on the spot.

Caw—

A sharp, grating sound entered their ears. This sound was more piercing than the calls of seagulls or regular vultures, like fingernails scratching a blackboard. It was not only very uncomfortable, but after listening to it for a while, a feeling of irritability unconsciously ignited within them.

“It’s the raptor that was circling above the island,” Shu Heng said, looking out from the shack.

The unknown bird’s sensory range seemed very wide. Soon, a thudding sound came from the roof of the metal shack. The bird was clearly throwing rocks at them.

“It’s very similar to a vulture, it should be a mutated vulture,” Li Jianwei also peeked her head out and gave her answer. “There’s only one right now. Should we take care of this problem first?”

“Okay, the same as usual?” Shu Heng asked.

Li Jianwei nodded. “Yeah, you use stone arrows to attract its attention, and I’ll be responsible for the precise strikes.”

With her experience, Li Jianwei was more skilled at both archery and using other weapons. When they usually killed regular vultures on the big island, Shu Heng was in charge of luring the vulture’s attack, and Li Jianwei was responsible for attacking it with arrows.

A vulture’s attack wouldn’t be interrupted just because it was being attacked. However, after it completed one attack, it would choose a nearby spot to pick up more rocks with its claws.

This was a good opportunity for both Li Jianwei and Shu Heng to attack. Li Jianwei would shoot the first arrow, and Shu Heng would follow with the second to ensure the vulture’s aggro stayed on her.

The attack pattern of the mutated vulture was similar to a regular one, but the attack frequency was faster, and the time it took to pick up rocks in between was shorter.

After realizing that Shu Heng didn’t have time to follow up with a second arrow, Li Jianwei quickly adjusted their strategy. “One shot each. We don’t need to rush; this kind of monster won’t respawn.”

Shu Heng gave a knowing gesture from a distance. The bow in her hand also changed to a metal bow, and they entered a war of attrition.

When Li Jianwei was luring the mutated vulture’s attack, Shu Heng would shoot arrows, and then follow up with a shot when it was replenishing its ammo.

Conversely, when the mutated vulture was attacking Shu Heng, Li Jianwei would be the one shooting arrows. Shu Heng just needed to be careful of the vulture’s attack and use a nimble roll to dodge it.

This kind of war of attrition was bound to take more time, but the only advantage was that the margin for error was high enough. The two of them just needed to take a moment to replenish their stats and were in no danger of getting injured.

After each of them had broken one plastic bow, the mutated vulture finally fell from the sky, declaring its death.

The body didn’t disappear immediately. Li Jianwei quickly switched her weapon to a machete and went forward, ready to deliver a final blow at any moment.

“It’s lootable. The monster is confirmed dead.” Li Jianwei looked back, relaying the information to Shu Heng, who was still on guard with her bow.

[Obtained: Feather20, Mutated Meat10, Metal Ring*1.]

Li Jianwei took out the metal ring and examined it in her hand. “There’s a serial number on it. Could this have been artificially bred?”

Shu Heng put away her weapon and came closer. “Possibly. If we follow movie tropes, the mutated monsters might all have been cultivated, and maybe someone wanted to destroy the world.”

“It dropped mutated meat. I don’t think it’s meant for eating.” Li Jianwei traded all the collected items to Shu Heng. “When we get back, we can see if we can research it with the research table. It might be a very rare material.”

Shu Heng put the items into her backpack. “It’s getting dark soon. What’s the plan?”

Li Jianwei stroked her chin in thought. “We’re very close to the raft. My suggestion is to continue exploring. If it’s a moonless night, we’ll turn back. If it’s a moonlit night with good visibility, we’ll continue until our backpacks are full.”

Shu Heng didn’t object. “Okay. There are still many empty slots in my backpack. I’ll be in charge of storing basic supplies.”

The sky gradually darkened. As visibility decreased, their exploration speed also slowed down. Fortunately, they didn’t encounter any monsters during their exploration. The only living creature they saw was a clucking wild chicken.

The product of a wild chicken was eggs, and eggs could be used to cook many recipes.

After both of their backpacks were full, the wild chicken was captured by Shu Heng with the insect net. She then carried it back to the raft and placed it in the second-floor enclosure.

Li Jianwei found that the mutated meat couldn’t be researched. From its blue-purple appearance, it didn’t look like something that could be eaten either.

“Let’s just keep it for now. Maybe it will be useful later,” Li Jianwei said, storing the mutated meat separately in a small box, and then taking off her armor.

Shu Heng browsed the world channel, her beautiful eyebrows slightly furrowed. “Someone also found a note on the shipwreck, but the numbers they got are different from ours, and the radar points to a different destination.”

“If the mutated monsters are from a lab, maybe they have bases on many islands. Different notes lead to different islands,” Li Jianwei tried hard to remember.

In her previous life, she hadn’t allied with Shu Heng. Although she had successfully gotten the note and arrived at the shack island, she had stumbled and fallen before she could complete her exploration, so the information she had was very limited.

“That’s possible. The note has four digits. Even if each number leads to one destination, that’s less than ten thousand islands. As time passes, new guests will definitely arrive at our island.”

Shu Heng: “We need to act fast. I think the clues are limited. Especially on these special islands where monsters and resources don’t respawn.”

Li Jianwei agreed wholeheartedly, then splashed into the sea.

There were no waves at night. Instead of fishing for food, it was better to just kill a shark, not to mention that shark head was one of the ingredients for a barbecue.

Shu Heng was used to Li Jianwei’s actions. She took out a water bottle and started watering the crops in the dirt pots, while waiting for a seagull to be attracted by the birdhouse, so she could shoot it down with an arrow.

An hour later, Li Jianwei began grilling bird legs, and Shu Heng continued to make barbecue from the shark. The two of them were busy once again.

…

The next day, the god seemed to have momentarily shaken off its agitated mood, and the sea entered a rare period of calm. The sun rose on time in the east, illuminating the different-colored tin shacks, making them sparkle.

The sufficient sunlight also allowed Li Jianwei and Shu Heng to discover some details. A pipe was hidden under the surface of the sea, seeming to lead to an even deeper place.

“Let’s go check out the place we didn’t have time to go to yesterday first. If there’s nothing, we’ll go into the water,” Li Jianwei immediately decided.

Shu Heng nodded and followed Li Jianwei, keeping a distance of less than five meters between them.

Going up along the shacks, they encountered a relatively steep cliff face. After finding that they still couldn’t jump up after a running start, Li Jianwei directly squatted down, motioning for Shu Heng to stand on her shoulders.

Li Jianwei: “You weigh a little less than me. You go up first, then you can pull me up.”

Shu Heng nodded, steadily stepping on Li Jianwei’s shoulder. After raising her hand, she just managed to hook the edge of the cliff.

“Hold on tight,” Li Jianwei said. She pressed her forehead against the cliff and then with both hands, lifted Shu Heng’s hand up by more than ten centimeters, allowing Shu Heng to get a better grip.

Shu Heng successfully climbed to the top, then discovered a rope ladder and immediately lowered it down.

With the rope ladder to help, Li Jianwei climbed up in a few moves. She patted her hands to dust off non-existent dirt while looking around.

“There’s a suspension bridge, with a few missing planks in the middle. It looks like a path to another area,” Shu Heng said, tentatively stepping on it. The bridge swayed along with her.

“It doesn’t look very sturdy,” Li Jianwei commented, standing at the edge and looking down.

At the very bottom were bare rocks without a single blade of grass. If she fell, the death rate would be 99.99%.

Why not one hundred percent? Of course, because Li Jianwei hadn’t actually tried falling to see if she would lose her life, so she used a relatively more rigorous term.

“I’ll go first. I have a full set of armor on me,” Li Jianwei said, trading the relatively more precious materials in her bag to Shu Heng.

Shu Heng pursed her lips. She seemed to want to say something, but in the end, she swallowed all the words, just silently giving the silver seaweed back to her.

After a brief silence, Shu Heng spoke. “This is a necessary path. The suspension bridge shouldn’t be broken, so perhaps the danger will come from somewhere else. You need to be careful of what’s on the other side.”

“Like the mutated vulture from before. If we hadn’t killed it in advance, it might have given us trouble while we were crossing the bridge.”

Li Jianwei immediately gave her a thumbs up. “A very reasonable guess. Then I’ll take your word for it.”

With a brilliant smile at Shu Heng, Li Jianwei stepped onto the suspension bridge, using her agile skills to perfectly leap over the missing planks in the middle.

Good news: The suspension bridge was much sturdier than it looked. Even with Li Jianwei jumping and hopping on it, it didn’t break.

Bad news: As soon as Li Jianwei crossed the bridge, she found the danger.

It wasn’t a mutated vulture or a mutated dog, but a three-meter-tall brown bear, its eyes gleaming as it charged toward Li Jianwei.

Fortunately, Li Jianwei had always remembered Shu Heng’s warning and wasn’t caught off guard by the bear’s ambush. A nimble roll was enough to dodge the attack.

Li Jianwei wasn’t sure how much health she would lose from a bear’s attack, so she chose to create distance immediately and use her bow for a long-range attack.

Shu Heng’s heart was in her throat when she saw the bear charge at Li Jianwei from across the bridge.

Shu Heng didn’t care about whether the bridge was sturdy or not anymore. She sprinted toward Li Jianwei, easily leaping over the gap that she would have otherwise cautiously crossed.

Shu Heng arrived quickly, and her speed at drawing and shooting an arrow was just as fast. The cold, gleaming metal arrow accurately hit the bear’s head.

Roar—

Unfortunately, the bear in the game didn’t die from an arrow to the head. Instead, it was enraged, and its aggro instantly shifted to Shu Heng, lunging at her.

Then the bear was hit in the head with another arrow. It roared again, turning its head and lunging toward Li Jianwei.

In the end, the pitiful brown bear, with the combined efforts of Li Jianwei and Shu Heng, died with regret, turning into Meat*5, Leather*3, and Trophy Bear Head*1.

Li Jianwei had never worn a bear head hat before, so she immediately put the bear head on her head as soon as she picked it up.

“How do I look?” Li Jianwei asked, her eyes wide as she looked at Shu Heng.

Shu Heng’s fingers twitched, then, following an impulse, she reached up and stroked the fluffy bear head.

It was true. Whatever Li Jianwei put on her head seemed to become cuter.

“You look great. It looks very warm,” Shu Heng said, unable to resist pinching the fluffy ears.

If only those fluffy ears were really growing out of Li Jianwei’s head, the texture would be wonderful!

Li Jianwei shook her head in satisfaction. “There’s definitely more than one brown bear here. If you like it, we can kill another one. We need leather anyway.”

“Okay,” Shu Heng said, pinching again. She felt that Li Jianwei was even cuter now.

They had explored the shacks from the bottom up. Now, they were exploring the part of the island with the brown bears from the top down.

In the middle of their exploration, Li Jianwei also found a honeycomb. Seeing that it could be collected, she unhesitatingly put it into her backpack. Then Li Jianwei was attacked by bees. The most infuriating part was that neither the bow nor the machete could deal with them.

In the end, it was Shu Heng who came to the rescue, taking out the insect net and successfully catching the bees, then putting them into her backpack.

“Aren’t living animals not supposed to be able to be put in a backpack?” Li Jianwei was shocked.

“Maybe bees are both animals and materials?” Shu Heng didn’t know either. She had only brought the insect net because she had found a blueprint for it before, and decided to put it in her backpack just in case.

Li Jianwei touched her face. Thanks to her helmet and the bear head, she hadn’t been stung, which was very lucky.

Roar—

A deafening roar came. Seeing a brown bear that was much, much larger than the previous one, Li Jianwei immediately discarded her opinion of being lucky and took out her bow, preparing to attack.

However, what surprised Li Jianwei was that the large bear didn’t choose to attack her, who was closer. Instead, it chose to charge at Shu Heng, who was relatively farther away.

Even when Li Jianwei took out her metal bow to attack the large bear, its eyes flashed with surprise.

It seemed that wearing a monster headpiece could indeed confuse monsters of the same type. It was just that her luck had been too bad before, and it hadn’t worked once.

Looking at it from another perspective, did her luck get better after she allied with Shu Heng? Li Jianwei wondered to herself while quickly shooting out metal arrows.

The large bear was much harder to deal with than a regular brown bear. Even after all their metal arrows were used up and they switched to stone arrows, it remained aggressive, and its movements even seemed to be getting faster.

This was not a good sign. Not only was the number of arrows limited, but the durability of their plastic bows was also running low.

With the thought of going all in, Li Jianwei switched her weapon from a bow to a machete and then looked at Shu Heng.

“I’ll go close combat, you stay at range. We’ll cooperate like before, okay?” Li Jianwei remembered what Shu Heng had said, so she made sure to inform Shu Heng before changing their strategy.

But without waiting for Shu Heng’s answer, Li Jianwei seized the opportunity and struck the large brown bear. The warm bl00d of the animal immediately splashed onto her face.

Li Jianwei subconsciously stuck her tongue out and licked it. It was a little salty.

Good thing the large bear wasn’t a mutated animal, otherwise, that lick might have put her at risk of infection.

Shu Heng took a deep breath. She had many things she wanted to say, but the current situation didn’t allow her to say much. She could only focus on keeping the large bear’s aggro on her to create more opportunities for Li Jianwei.

Li Jianwei was actually handling it quite easily. She had managed to escape from three attacking mutated dogs, let alone one large brown bear.

And Li Jianwei noticed that every time the large bear tried to attack her, it would hesitate for a second. Its claws would be raised, but it wouldn’t swing them down.

Li Jianwei guessed that the bear head on her head was working. She then took advantage of that one second and unhesitatingly gave the large brown bear another strike.

Aow—

With a pitiful wail, the large brown bear fell heavily to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.

“I’m sorry. I was wrong. I acted on my own without waiting for your response. But the situation was quite dangerous this time, and I didn’t want to miss a good opportunity to attack the monster, so I just went for it,” Li Jianwei said, even before picking up the loot, with an incredibly smooth apology.

Shu Heng: …

Originally, Shu Heng was more worried than angry. After hearing Li Jianwei’s words, all her anger just dissipated.

Li Jianwei was telling the truth. Instead of waiting until they were both low on arrows and in danger, it was better to adjust their attack strategy in time, with one person at range and one in close combat.

“It’s my mistake. I didn’t prepare enough arrows, which caused a problem with our plan,” Shu Heng began to reflect. She thought the mutated vulture was the biggest danger on the shack island, and if there were any other monsters, they would be wild boars or something similar.

Wild boars had simple attack patterns. Even a mutated one could be easily taken down with a metal spear with their cooperation.

But they didn’t expect to encounter a much more terrifying brown bear, where the danger of close-range combat was far greater than long-range.

Li Jianwei stroked her fluffy head, surprised that Shu Heng had forgiven her so quickly. She simply traded all the stone arrows she had saved to Shu Heng, then went to pick up the loot.

[Obtained Meat7, Leather3, Trophy Mother Bear Head*1.]

“Two more pieces of meat, and the trophy is a mother bear’s head,” Li Jianwei said, a look of understanding flashing in her eyes. “The mother bear must have thought I was her child just now, which is why there was a one-second delay every time she attacked.”

“You wear this one. Maybe the regular brown bears will also see you as their mother and won’t attack you,” Li Jianwei continued, trading all the trophies to Shu Heng.

Shu Heng looked like she was about to say something, then stopped. She had been moved by the mother-daughter bond between the brown bears, but unfortunately, it lasted less than three seconds, and the faint sadness that was just about to well up was completely dispelled by Li Jianwei’s words.

“The durability of the plastic bow is only half left. Should we continue exploring? We don’t have enough long-range attack options anymore,” Shu Heng said.

“Since we’re already here, and I have a feeling that there’s only one big monster like the mother bear on this island. Besides, I’m already familiar with their attack patterns. I’m confident I can take down a regular brown bear with a machete and a metal spear.”

“Quick, put on the mother bear head. If we’re both treated as one of them, we won’t need to fight.” Li Jianwei urged.

Shu Heng had no choice but to do as Li Jianwei said, making herself an even fluffier creature.

Shu Heng was about five centimeters shorter than Li Jianwei, barely five feet seven. The mother bear’s head was clearly larger than a regular bear’s. Wearing it made Shu Heng look like a teddy bear that had taken off its clothes but forgotten to take off its headpiece.

“You should be in charge of close-range combat. I think you should wear the mother bear head, and I’ll wear the regular bear’s,” Shu Heng said with a serious face, taking off the bear head.

Li Jianwei stroked her fluffy chin. She had to admit that Shu Heng’s analysis made a lot of sense.

“Okay, then let’s switch headpieces,” Li Jianwei said, taking off the bear head from her equipment slot. After completing the trade, she quickly put on the mother bear’s head.

Seeing Shu Heng wearing the regular bear head, Li Jianwei chuckled and then opened her arms to give Shu Heng a hug.

“Is that my baby? Come on, let Mama give you a kiss~” Li Jianwei said, leaning in for a kiss.

A hint of helplessness flashed in Shu Heng’s eyes, but she decided to indulge her.

The second before Shu Heng was about to close her eyes, Li Jianwei suddenly stopped her kissing motion.

The bear head was a real bear head. As a trophy and an accessory, the bear’s facial features were completely preserved. So when the ‘mother bear’ hugged the ‘baby bear,’ the nose parts of their headpieces touched each other first, becoming an obstacle to their kiss.

“Pfft—”

Shu Heng couldn’t help but laugh, then pushed Li Jianwei away. “Alright, we have such good visibility. Let’s continue exploring down. Maybe there’s something good waiting for us.”

Li Jianwei made a slight sound of displeasure, but she didn’t argue with Shu Heng’s words. She crooked her finger and flicked the nose of the mother bear on her head, then continued her exploration downward.