The Interstellar Queen of Scavengers

Chapter 1307: Harsh Environment

Everyone immediately fell silent, froze in place, held their breath, and focused on sensing the surroundings.

The next second.

They all heard a string of slightly strange notes come out of Ji You’s mouth. It sounded kind of like the cooing of a Drilling Bird, but... not exactly...

"Goo-oo~"

"Goo-oo~"

"Goo-oo~"

...

Everyone stared wide-eyed, ears pricked, listening in total confusion.

Ji You covered her mouth and did her best to make that sound. No one dared make a peep to interrupt her at a time like this, afraid they’d ruin everything. Even the perpetually unreliable Cheng Haoyue was listening with intense focus right now, not daring to move a muscle.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

...

Just when everyone was starting to think this method was useless, suddenly, a very faint "coo... coo..." drifted over from far away. It sounded like a Drilling Bird in the distance responding to Ji You.

Huh?

Everyone heard it and couldn’t help giving a collective shiver!

It actually worked!

Ji You tilted her head to listen, carefully trying to sense the direction of the Drilling Bird’s call, then finally confirmed, "It’s the road on the left. Left is south!"

He Nu immediately relaxed, breaking into a grin. "Then our direction is the left as well."

South was sheltered from the wind, relatively warmer than the north. Given the Drilling Bird’s habits, of course it would choose a warmer place to get through the long, dark night. Plus, their own Commander Camp was over there too.

Ji You narrowed her eyes. "Move."

She gave the order, and the team got ready to set out again. They hadn’t even lifted a foot when Cheng Haoyue behind her cleared his throat and asked, "Ahem... uh, I wanna ask, what exactly was that sound you just made?"

The girl behind He Nu curled her lip and抢答ed, "Do you even have to ask? Obviously it was birdsong. And clearly the distress call of a lost baby bird."

"...Cough!" Cheng Haoyue pressed his lips together. "Of course I know it was birdsong. My question is, how does she know everything? She even knows the call of a baby Drilling Bird? Is she even human?"

Cheng Haoyue thought that line would definitely get him roasted by the others, but to his surprise, he got a bunch of agreement instead:

"Cough cough! Yep, she’s not human."

"Cough cough... She’s obviously not human. She’s a bird!"

"Somebody who can do bird calls, frog calls, bug calls... all of it? No way she’s human, okay?"

"She’s livestock!"

Livestock, yeah!

In one sentence: she’s livestock!

"You all have a lot of free time, huh?" Up front, hearing the complaints behind her, Ji You deliberately pulled a stern face. "If you’ve got that much energy, put it into swinging those Military Shovels. Since we got a favor from the little birds, let’s do something for them—widen the tunnel, make it smoother."

Everyone fell quiet at that and, a bit embarrassed, all sped up and dug harder.

Clang, clang~

The sound of Military Shovels striking echoed all around.

"Goo~"

Right then, maybe because it hadn’t heard the baby’s voice again for a long time, the Drilling Bird in the nest far to the south suddenly let out a series of urgent calls.

Hearing that sound, Ji You took a deep breath. "Coo, coo..."

The moment she called back, the agitated Drilling Bird instantly calmed down.

The team quieted again.

Cheng Haoyue yanked at his hair. "I still wanna know why you can do bird calls."

Ji You stopped making the sound, turned her head to look at him. "What’s so strange about that? I just did a bit more homework than you guys before the competition, that’s all."

Cheng Haoyue: "???"

Ji You raised a hand and rubbed her forehead. "The arena is on Nami Star. Its local customs and culture, natural geography, flora and fauna, environmental changes, the most representative stuff—of course I went through all of it carefully. After digging through a ton of data, I understood the habits of Drilling Birds. What’s weird about that?"

Cheng Haoyue: "..."

His hands trembled. "Even if you know its habits, how does that translate into you speaking bird? And more importantly, your bird call can actually fool a bird."

Ji You replied casually, "What’s weird about that? It’s because I’m a genius."

Cheng Haoyue: "..."

He was so mad he flung his hands out, ready to quit on the spot.

Ji You turned back and continued leading the way. She certainly wasn’t going to tell Cheng Haoyue and the others that she hadn’t just casually picked up birdsong. To be prepared, she’d practiced for ages beforehand, to the point her throat was almost shredded before she finally got it down.

Not only could she mimic the call of Drilling Birds, she also knew the calls of several other bird and insect species unique to Nami Star.

Cough, cough...

That part she definitely wasn’t telling Cheng Haoyue and the others, in case they got so crushed they went and headbutted a wall to death.

Ji You kept a straight face, secretly scheming to herself.

The team moved forward steadily.

On the other side.

The wind howled. Gu Peiyuan was already shivering all over from the cold, completely unable to maintain the poise of "coolest guy in the whole arena." And anyway, even the coolest guy in the whole arena can be afraid of the cold.

He comforted himself with that thought, then went to sit inside the stone hut of the watchtower, pulled on the straw coat that the arena had so kindly provided, and curled himself into a tight ball, trembling...

The two guards personally chosen by Gu Peiyuan were also shaking from head to toe.

The girl’s lips had gone white. She practically squeezed the words out through her teeth. "Um... what’s the temperature outside right now?"

The boy next to her spoke with a stiff face. "Maybe... minus thirty... degrees?"

The girl: "That fast? N-no way..."

Hearing that, Gu Peiyuan jumped up in fright. "Only minus thirty? Why does it feel like it’s already minus one hundred to me?"

The two guards ignored their Commander’s blatantly brain-dead comment. The boy forced himself to stand, pulled out his competition wristband, and checked it. "It’s minus fifteen right now."

Gu Peiyuan: "!!!"

The girl bared her teeth. "Only minus fifteen?"

The boy said, "If you don’t believe me, check it yourselves." The competition wristbands couldn’t be used for communication and could only receive official system notifications—they were useless for anything else—but they could display the time and temperature.

Gu Peiyuan refused to accept it, so he took his out for a look. After he saw the number, his whole face changed.

"What the fuck!"

"So cold." Gu Peiyuan shuddered and hugged his straw coat tighter around himself.

The two guards also clutched their straw coats for dear life. The three of them looked at each other, and especially Gu Peiyuan, who could no longer hold on to his "coolest guy in the whole arena" image. He scooted over to his two not-at-all-handsome guards so they could huddle together for warmth.

Then—

The boy suddenly muttered, "In this kind of cold, nobody would be crazy enough to launch a night raid, right? Do we actually have to keep miserably guarding this watchtower?"

As soon as he said that, the girl couldn’t help adding, "Once it goes below minus thirty, that’s beyond what the human body can withstand. If you really stayed outside, you’d freeze to death. M-maybe no one will come to attack us tonight?"

After speaking, both of them looked toward Gu Peiyuan.