"Bai Ye, how are you feeling?"
Hearing Jin Sha's voice, Bai Ye snapped back to reality. He stopped thinking about the distress signal device and grinned, baring his teeth. "You try getting hit, and then you'll know how I feel!"
Bai Ye grumbled, then threw a talismans to release warm mist and heal his injuries.
"It's okay, it's okay, I have something good for healing," Jin Sha quickly produced a greenish-blue fruit with spots. "Eat this and you'll be fine."
Bai Ye, wary, used his optical screen to check the fruit's information. It was indeed for healing injuries, a fruit called a Big Tree Fruit, capable of restoring half of any wound.
What a treasure!
Bai Ye looked at Jin Sha as if she were the Virgin Mary, so incredibly kind. Bai Ye felt like a villain, judging a noble person with a petty mind. Though, if such a situation arose again, Bai Ye would still check the information with his optical screen first.
With that thought, Bai Ye bit into the fruit, finishing it in a few mouthfuls.
And it was quite sweet, too!
With the healing effect of the warm mist and the Big Tree Fruit, Bai Ye felt significantly better. A warmth spread through his body, and the pain clearly receded.
After resting on the ground for a short while, Bai Ye gritted his teeth and stood up. "Let's go, we need to leave here immediately."
The end of the forbidden zone didn't mean the end of the danger.
In fact, every time a forbidden zone ended, it was often accompanied by impending danger.
Some "people with ulterior motives" would immediately begin hunting, looking for those whose combat power had been greatly reduced due to injuries, and then killing them.
The reason, of course, was simple: to obtain fragments of God Stones.
Of course, at present, not many people had formed this concept, and likewise, few people had the concept of evacuating immediately after a forbidden zone ended.
However, for Bai Ye, this habit had been ingrained from his previous life.
Jin Sha nodded, helped Bai Ye up, and then the two of them began to trek through the snowfield.
Bai Ye's original intention was to return to the supernatural area along the snowfield. It was only a two or three-day journey. But what Bai Ye didn't expect was that around dawn on the second day, a regional boundary appeared before them.
Looking at the regional boundary before him, Bai Ye couldn't help but ask Jin Sha, "Do you know which area this is?"
Jin Sha shook her head. "I'm not too sure. When I came to the glacier, I came from the west, and it was much further."
Bai Ye nodded.
Getting lost in the glacial snowfield was normal, as there were no landmarks. However, although the result was slightly beyond expectations, it wasn't bad.
After Bai Ye and Jin Sha crossed the regional boundary, a vast forest appeared before them.
"Huh?" Bai Ye looked around. "Fantasy Zone?"
It was a forest that looked quite magical.
Bai Ye saw trees no larger than his thumb, mushrooms as tall as five or six meters, like small houses. The branches of one tree were spiraled, forming a huge disc at the top. Another tree was covered in a mirror-like sheen, shimmering with a tricolored, flowing iridescence.
The fantastical colors made Bai Ye feel as if he had stepped into a fantasy zone the moment he saw it.
Jin Sha asked, "What do we do now? Continue moving forward?"
"No need. It's enough to leave the glacier area," Bai Ye replied. "We'll explore the surroundings, assess the safety of the environment, find a place not too far from the regional boundary but sufficiently hidden, and with a view of the boundary. Then we'll rest for three to five days to recover from my injuries."
Bai Ye actually still had chocolate energy bars that could instantly restore all injuries.
However, his body, modified by the T-virus, gave Bai Ye strong regenerative abilities. So, even though the blow from the Alien Queen had injured him significantly, three to five days, combined with the continuous healing from the warm mist, would allow him to recover to a state where he could fight normally, even if not fully healed.
Therefore, since it wasn't a fatal injury, nor a difficult one to heal, Bai Ye decided not to waste the chocolate energy bars.
Jin Sha nodded beside him. "I'll let my beast explore."
Jin Sha threw out a mouse-shaped beast the size of a head. "Little Rattata, explore the surroundings and see if there's any danger."
Beasts could be quite useful sometimes, helping with many tasks.
After about fifteen minutes, Little Rattata returned, reporting no danger. It also helped them find a giant, non-toxic mushroom to serve as a temporary resting place. The ground was dry, and the mushroom cap provided shelter from the wind and rain. It was quite decent.
Bai Ye sat down on the ground and said to Jin Sha, "You can leave first. I can handle it from here."
Jin Sha thought for a moment. "I don't know where to go for now anyway. I'll stay with you for two days until your injuries heal."
Bai Ye nodded, then took out a shrinking Poké Ball. After a moment's thought, he reluctantly switched it for his Zangetsu, and threw it to Jin Sha.
Jin Sha fumbled to catch the Zangetsu and asked, "What's this for?"
Bai Ye said, "It's yours, to repay your fruit."
"Ah?" Jin Sha blinked, then quickly waved her hands. "No, no."
"I'm not being polite, I just don't like owing favors," Bai Ye grinned. "That way, if the day comes when I need to kill you, I won't hold back."
Jin Sha blinked again, then said, "Don't joke like that."
"Do you think I'm joking?" Bai Ye took out a cigarette pack from his pocket, put a cigarette in his mouth, and then said, "Take my advice, put away that so-called kindness. In the World Battlefield, such things are useless. Here, it's either you kill others, or others kill you. There are no companions. The moment you step into the World Battlefield, you have no companions."
Bai Ye recalled some past events. In his previous life, he had also been naive, believing that they could work together to leave this damned place.
And then…
They died. Bai Ye lived.
Bai Ye killed them!
Jin Sha was silent for a while. "I know."
Bai Ye smiled. "I can see that."
Jin Sha wasn't stupid. Bai Ye could tell from some details. While she had a kind side, her actions showed wariness.
When they rode the snowmobile together, Jin Sha hid a dagger up her sleeve. When they walked together towards the research team's base, Jin Sha only got closer when she released her beasts. Otherwise, she maintained a distance that allowed her to escape or counterattack. Even when supporting the injured Bai Ye,多多冰 (Duo Duo Bing) always floated between them.
Actually, Bai Ye could understand Jin Sha's state of mind, because Bai Ye had gone through a similar period in his previous life.
She understood what kind of place the World Battlefield was, but hadn't yet shed the kindness in her heart, existing in a state of relative conflict and struggle.
However, as long as one lived, one would eventually become cruel.
...