Chapter Sixty-Two: The Magic Wand and the Dodo

“Ah...!”
Qin Fei had barely crouched down for a minute when a scream echoed from outside the artifact chamber, swiftly followed by a burst of gunfire. Moments later, the shots faded, and silence settled over the area, broken only by the faint hissing of the ancient millipede.

Did those two men die?

Cautiously, Qin Fei crept near the exit and peeked outside. On the ground lay an unmoving ancient millipede, surrounded by a pool of pale yellow blood—it appeared to have been shot dead. Beside it were the bodies of two men. Another millipede, still alive, was crouched atop their corpses, tearing at them with greedy bites.

It seemed the two men and the millipedes had battled to mutual destruction, ending in a costly exchange: two lives for one. Though they had firearms, being ambushed by two millipedes without warning made their deaths unsurprising.

While the surviving millipede feasted on the bodies, Qin Fei slowly raised his shotgun and fired at it.

Bang.

Already wounded, the millipede convulsed a few times under Qin Fei’s shot before falling still.

Qin Fei didn’t rush forward. For safety, he took out his handgun and, with cold precision, delivered a final shot to each man's head.

Now it should be safe.

After ensuring the threat was gone, Qin Fei retrieved the hunter’s artifact at his side and approached the fallen men. Scattered around their corpses was a jumble of items.

Seeing this, Qin Fei’s eyes sparkled with wild joy.

He had never expected this: when survivors died, their backpack contents actually dropped to the ground!

He’d struck it rich!

Without hesitation, Qin Fei scooped up all the items and stuffed them into his backpack, then mounted Big Nose and rode away. He didn’t plan to check the newly acquired supplies here; after all, there was no guarantee that another millipede wouldn't crawl out to ambush him. If he got careless and was killed by one of these poisonous creatures in the midst of his triumph, it would be a bitter loss.

Without using a backpack expansion card, every survivor’s pack had a weight limit of thirty kilograms. This was hardly enough for those who needed to carry weapons and essential supplies.

So, most survivors’ backpacks were typically packed to capacity.

Two packs should total sixty kilograms. Yet the items dropped from these two only amounted to about thirty kilograms—just half.

Qin Fei surmised that when a survivor dies in PVP mode, only half their pack’s contents are dropped, while the other half remains for them upon resurrection.

Even so, the loss was severe. Besides losing supplies, the most critical blow was wasting a “Death Substitute Doll.”

The loss was considerable.

With these two as cautionary examples, Qin Fei resolved to be even more careful in his actions from now on.

At the cave entrance, Qin Fei observed his surroundings for a while, checking if any companions of the two men were nearby.

Once he confirmed the coast was clear, he began to inventory the spoils he had acquired from their bodies.

Among them were a compound crossbow with arrows, a bronze sword, two pistols, and a white plastic medicine bottle.

Inside the bottle was a green, semi-solid substance.

[Tranquilizer: Made from black berries and rotten meat found on the island. Highly potent, capable of knocking out even a dinosaur.]

Judging by the packaging, the bottle had originally contained cough syrup, but the syrup had been emptied to store the tranquilizer.

The tranquilizer had many uses.

Both pistols used nine-millimeter rounds, and Qin Fei extracted nearly twenty bullets from their magazines.

Aside from these weapons, he found a magic wand among the items.

[Teleportation Wand: Randomly teleports the target within a one-kilometer radius. Uses remaining: 5/5. Restrictions: Cannot be used in caves, in the air, or on the ocean.]

Teleportation Wand?

Qin Fei’s expression became peculiar.

Wasn’t this a magical item from the “Don’t Starve” world? He hadn’t expected the two men to have visited that world, let alone acquired such a rare artifact.

This was a highly practical life-saving tool. When faced with an enemy he couldn’t handle, using the wand to teleport himself—or the enemy—would instantly remove him from danger.

Qin Fei carefully stowed it away, intending to save it for a critical moment.

Among the remaining spoils, there was nothing else remarkable—mostly food, materials, and clothing.

Mindful of his weight limit, Qin Fei discarded the less useful items, keeping only what was valuable to him.

By now, night had fallen. Once he had finished sorting his supplies, Qin Fei lay down at the cave entrance to sleep.

It was only the second day, and with the two who had been killed by millipedes in the cave, the known death toll had reached four.

In other words, the number of survivors left on the island was now eighteen, or perhaps fewer.

The night passed uneventfully.

At dawn, a torrential rain began to fall outside.

Before sunrise, Qin Fei was roused from sleep, nudged awake by Big Nose’s snout.

“What is it?”
Qin Fei grumbled, unhappily shoving Big Nose aside, but the creature pressed forward and nudged him again.

Well, that was it—there was no more sleep to be had.

Qin Fei got up from the ground.

He discovered that two large ducks had appeared deeper inside the cave, shivering in the corner.

Looking closer… were those dodos?

Dodos were the weakest creatures in the Ark world, resembling oversized ducks. Each dodo was about the size of three ducks.

The two dodos, seeing Qin Fei watching them, seemed frightened. They flapped their wings, trying to escape.

But whenever they approached the cave entrance, Big Nose would block their path with his body, preventing them from leaving.

Qin Fei found it amusing.

How had these two dodos ended up in the cave? More importantly, Big Nose actually knew to keep them from escaping.

“Good job!”
Qin Fei patted Big Nose’s head, giving him an encouraging look. “Later, we’ll roast these two birds, and I’ll give you two drumsticks.”

Dodos couldn’t fly and moved slowly.

Qin Fei walked over and easily picked up one of them.

He decided to roast it first...

In the spot where the dodo had been standing, there was now an egg.

Qin Fei was surprised, not expecting these creatures to lay eggs just like in the game.

He picked up the egg, weighing it in his hand.

He changed his mind about eating the two dodos.

With the supplies dropped by those dead survivors, he wasn’t short on food at the moment.

Since the dodos could lay eggs...

Qin Fei stared at the two birds, pondering for a moment.

Rather than roasting them for meat, it would be more worthwhile to keep them for their eggs.