You can evolve by surviving in the Ark

The sunset was like a red fallen leaf falling to the ground covered with yellow dust, and the mangroves under the setting sun turned dark purple.

A giant ground sloth sat on the thatched grass base, staring blankly at the darkening sky.

If it were normal, the giant ground sloth that went out to look for food would have come back long ago. It's almost time to rest, and they should cuddle up together, share each other's body heat, and fall asleep.

Its brother didn't come back.

The giant ground sloth that lives in the mangroves has no apparent natural enemies, but since it lives in a dangerous craft world, occasionally the giant ground sloth fails to come back. But with almost half of the giant ground sloths missing, nothing like this has ever happened.

There was movement outside the wooden wall. He poked his head out and saw the eight missing ground sloths walking in. His younger brother was among them. But their state is a bit strange, they are too quiet, and their bodies are clearly burning with red arrogance.

Cracking bugs again?

Then, it heard a whistle, and these late-coming ground sloths roared and rushed toward them. It was a little stunned, watching as its brother raised his huge paw and slapped it on the chest, leaving a bloody wound.

Roar!

The giant ground sloth also roared and bumped back with his body. It kept roaring to wake up its younger brother, but what it saw were tears in his eyes.

And the heavy claws struck mercilessly in the next blow, tearing its skin and flesh apart again.

Even if these tamed giant ground sloths enter a violent state, they still maintain the last trace of consciousness under the compulsion of the biochip. They faithfully follow their master's instructions and unleash the power of destruction on their relatives.

In the sky, Qiao Liang watched all this while riding a Pteranodon.

He did not forget his goals in coming to the mangroves, one of which was the fur on the giant ground sloth.

There is no option in the game to cut the fur from a tamed giant ground sloth, but Qiao Liang tried it and found that this method is actually feasible.

But the body hair on the giant ground sloth is not like that of a sheep. Once it is cut, it can grow again. These rough and thick furs themselves form part of the giant ground sloth's biological defense.

Let's get it from the corpse of a wild ground sloth.

After a few minutes, the sound gradually calmed down, and the blood of the giant beast once again soaked the red land, and finally a wild giant ground sloth died.

……

Night had completely fallen, and the burning bonfire lit up a small area of ​​the world in the darkness.

While Qiao Liang was roasting the meat, he used the metal ax in his hand to peel off the fur from the dead giant ground sloth as completely as possible bit by bit.

Opposite the bonfire, Li Hongying was doing the same thing. The firelight illuminated her beautiful face, outlining her expression full of worries.

She finally put down what she was doing and looked at Qiao Liang's focused look, but hesitated to speak.

"what happened?"

Realizing that Li Hongying wanted to talk, Qiao Liang also put down what he was doing.

"I'm thinking..." Li Hongying seemed to be still struggling with the words, "Is what we did really right?"

Qiao Liang looked at her but said nothing, waiting for the next step.

"I know that everything we did was to go home." Li Hongying said slowly, "But many people died... many people in that tribe did nothing wrong. Maybe they were tortured and Humiliation, life is not good, but maybe they are willing to live like that."

"They died because of our arrival after all. I'm not saying that I think we were wrong. In that case, our life and death were on a thin line, and there was no better way."

She seemed to be thinking of Lu Qian again, and was silent for a while before continuing.

"Junior Brother Lu... Qiao Liang, in fact, we have encountered many life and death dangers along the way. You also said that compared to the south of the island where we are, there are more dangers in the north. If we continue like this, maybe one day, it will be me, you, or Tuotuo..."

After all, she couldn't say those words.

"I can see that you are not sure about going back or where you are going. You are just taking the path you know to get out of here."

"Actually, we can already live well in this world."

Li Hongying looked directly into Qiao Liang's eyes.

"Is it possible that we can stay away from those dangers and live a good life on Crescent Island?"

She watched Qiao Liang fall into silence before adding the last sentence.

"I don't want to lose you."

The bloody battle in the mangrove forest made her think about something. It would be great if all three of them were alive. All other entanglements were insignificant in comparison.

The two were speechless for a moment, leaving only the crackling sound of the campfire.

"No, Hongying, it can't be done."

Qiao Liang shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"As I said, this isolated island is a test. The monitors are always observing everything in this world. If one day, everyone is content with the status quo and no one works hard for ascension, the world will be judged by the monitors as unobservable. value, it will destroy the world.

It could be manipulating the biota to hunt down all humans, or it could be triggering natural disasters at targeted locations, such as earthquakes, storms, tsunamis, etc..."

"Until everyone is extinct, He will continue to release new survivors, and everything will enter the next reincarnation."

Qiao Liang paused and looked at Li Hongying's reaction before continuing.

"We seek ascension just to survive. Indeed, I don't know what the situation of our Aquamarine Star is now. But I still hope to live with you."

Li Hongying nodded, picked up the metal ax and the half-peeled fur, and continued. However, she still asked worriedly:

"As you said, the Supervisor can destroy this world at will, and the way we want to ascend is to defeat him... Do we have a chance of winning?"

"Yes." Qiao Liang recalled the process of ascension and nodded. All he can believe is his own experience playing the game.

Li Hongying said "hmm" and stopped talking. She seemed to have completely focused on the work at hand.

but……

Qiao Liang thought of what Lu Qian said, the undead in the north. Who is he? Is it a player? If so, they are not the only ones on this island who are striving to ascend. Maybe they can really lie down.

Qiao Liang thought this, but didn't say it out loud.

Because the firelight made Li Hongying's face rosy and bright, Qiao Liang just looked at her profile and felt that he could no longer look away. The atmosphere gradually changed in a certain direction in silence, and it seemed suitable to say something.

His heartbeat accelerated slightly, he swallowed and slowly opened his mouth.

"Hongying, actually I..."

"Qiao Liang! Sister Hongying! Come quickly!!!"

A rumbling sound came from outside. Qiao Liang and Li Hongying were suddenly shocked. After all, they had just discussed the danger of life and death, and they immediately rushed out with the giant ground sloth.

It was pitch black outside, and Tuo Tuo was chasing a dark shadow by the stream. She held a torch in one hand and meat in the other. The little beast she was chasing was not afraid of people and did not run away directly. It just seemed to be a little annoyed by the idiot chasing it and wanted to stay away from her.

Its body is long and slender, and its brown-black fur shows a shiny luster under the light of the torch. It also makes "嘤嘤嘤嘤" sounds from time to time while jumping around.

Qiao Liang recognized it at a glance. It was the cutest little girl on the island, Otter.

There is not much difference in appearance between the otters of Craftworld and modern otters. There may be traces of them in the streams and river valleys of isolated islands, but these weak creatures do not have strong fighting capabilities. Therefore, they are the hunting targets of many carnivorous dinosaurs.

However, they have also inherited the nocturnal habit of modern wild otters. They will only come out to fish in the water when most predators have returned to their nests to rest. This can be regarded as a kind of survival wisdom in a cruel world like Ark.

"I want to tame this! Ah, how can I tame this? It's so cute! Why doesn't it eat meat? Is it going to knock it out? It's so cute that I can't do it!"

Tuo Tuo yelled and changed positions from time to time to block the road the otter wanted to leave. But when the otter saw that there were more people coming, he nimbly seized an opportunity and got into the stream with a squeak. He flew away amidst the sound of water and left behind in the moonlight. A vague shadow.

Tuotuo wanted to catch up, but Qiao Liang held him down. The difference between rushing directly into the dark mangrove forest and dying is not very big.

"That's an otter. To tame it, you need to catch fish and feed it." Qiao Liang glanced at Tuotuo, who was still looking at the direction where the otter disappeared. He couldn't help but smile, touched her head and said, "Be obedient. It’s too dark now, so even if you want to fish, it’s inconvenient. We can’t fish in the dark and chase it everywhere. Next time, we’ll prepare it in advance and we’ll help you tame it next time we encounter it.”

"I understand, I will definitely do it next time."

Tuotuo raised his head that was being caressed by Qiao Liang and rolled his eyes.

Her waist-length blond hair had been cut to shoulder length. Perhaps she wanted to care about Li Hongying's mood, or she felt that it was difficult to move with long hair. But anyway, she used her own hair as insect repellent and also experienced the act of stealing honey.

During this day, the two touched almost all the giant beehives they found. Because of this, they collected enough honey to tame eight giant ground sloths. There were also bees that rushed at them with repellent, but before their sharp tail needles penetrated the armor, they were quickly dealt with by the escorting pterosaurs. The whole process was considered a near miss.

"Come here quickly and help. There's still a giant ground sloth that hasn't been skinned yet."

"I'm sleepy……"

"You were not tired chasing the otter just now."

“It’s so cute!!!”

Li Hongying silently watched the two people arguing. She subconsciously wanted to lift her hair, but failed, and then realized that her hair was short. She remembered what Qiao Liang had just said again, and a long-lost faint smile appeared on her face.