Cave Refuge

Just as he came to his senses and wanted to refuse venturing out alone for exploration, he suddenly felt a force behind him, pushing his body down from the city wall.

Although his mind was still muddled and not fully responsive at the moment, being able to join the Guard Squad as a Martial Artist meant that even if his consciousness was not there, his body instinctively began to adjust its balance when it was in an uncontrollable state.

By the time he fully regained his consciousness, he had already arrived at the foot of the city wall. Looking up at his teammates on the wall, his face revealed a deeply resentful look.

Members of the Guard Squad on the wall, who looked like they were playing a prank by sending their teammate outside the city, appeared to be standing on the wall, laughing at the other. Yet in reality, they were firmly gripping the safety ropes in their hands, ready to pull their teammate back to safety at a moment's notice should any danger arise.

While that member of the Guard Squad was exploring the area outside the camp, the Thompson family had just left Zachary's Companion Spiritual Treasure. Since the misty spring rain had already cleared up, they naturally missed out on the blessings the rain brought.

Zachary, who was spreading his Divine Sense to survey inside the camp, suddenly realized that all the survivors had left their Companion Spiritual Treasures. The Companion Spiritual Treasures, which had been summoned by the survivors and crowded the streets, were now all retracted back into their Seas of Consciousness.

From the conversation among other survivors, Zachary learned that they got up a bit late and seemed to have missed a significant opportunity.

Understanding the specifics of the opportunity, he couldn't help but feel envious. Still, it was just a slight regret and not something he dwelled on too much.

After confirming that there were no dangers outside, Father Thompson and Mother Thompson returned inside the villa and began to clean it.

Regarding the actions of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, Zachary didn't quite understand. Whether considering the decoration style of their villa, or those rooms with not a single piece of furniture set up, Zachary felt their villa was essentially a bare house.

Since it was already a bare house, he wondered why they insisted on keeping it so clean. In Zachary's view, since they weren't planning on living there permanently, as long as they cleaned out a space for a bed to rest, it should be fine.

This thought of Zachary might resonate with many young people of his generation, but for the older generation, any house that belongs to them, even if they might not live there often, must always be kept clean and tidy.

The behavior of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson indeed confirmed the old belief that even a house that is not regularly occupied still needs to remain clean and tidy.

Watching his parents cleaning the villa, Zachary directly controlled his Flying Swords to ascend and check the situation outside. Having just heard from other campers about their feelings after the rain baptism, Zachary immediately felt that things couldn't be that simple.

As Zachary ascended on his Flying Swords, he soon had a panoramic view of the scenery outside the camp. He was surprised to find that what was previously a barren stretch outside the camp, occasionally dotted with plants that originally lived underwater, had transformed.

Now, the view that met his eyes was a lush, almost primeval forest scenery. The newly grown green plants were clearly not those that once lived under the sea.

He didn't know whether the newly grown trees were still young or if they would only ever grow that tall even at maturity.

Compared to the towering giants that used to reach hundreds of meters, obscuring the sky, the trees in the forest outside the camp now stood just over ten meters tall, similar to the typical trees that used to grow in deep forests before the Natural Disaster.

Observing the situation from above the camp wasn't in Zachary's nature, so he arbitrarily chose a direction and immediately left the camp, flying to the edge of the forest.

As Zachary descended from his Flying Swords and stepped onto the ground, he suddenly felt dozens of gazes watching him as he approached the edge of the forest.

Using his Divine Sense to trace back the origins of these gazes, he didn't know if the others had detected his Divine Sense or if they were just extremely cautious; his Divine Sense found nothing but plants all around, with no sign of any other living beings.

Facing this situation, Zachary didn't feel any fear. Instead, he was quite intrigued and began to walk toward the depths of the forest.

At this moment, although Zachary seemed to be leisurely strolling in the forest, he remained highly vigilant, closely monitoring his surroundings with his Divine Sense to alert him at the first sign of anything unusual.

Zachary now felt like a tourist walking in a forest before the Natural Disaster. Although the surrounding scenery was quite nicely, it wasn't the outcome he desired.

Contrasting with Zachary's leisurely stroll, the Guard Squad member who had been pushed outside the camp was now lying on the city wall, being bandaged up by his teammates.