Starting Off Survival With A Small Treehouse

Ji Chaoyang seemed a bit tired. He glanced out the window, a trace of worry flashing in his eyes, then took an orange out of his backpack and started peeling it.

"A prophet?!" Li Wenxi exclaimed in surprise, then turned to the Silver King lying on the ground next to her, "Silver King, if he dares to claim he's a prophet, we'll take him out tonight!"

"Oh?" Silver King tilted his head, not understanding what Li Wenxi was saying.

"Be careful, the Silver King might take it seriously." Xu Xin teased.

"Oh?" Li Wenxi was taken aback, quickly telling Silver King, "I was joking, don't really do it, Silver King!"

"Awoo?" Silver King was clueless.

The other three burst into laughter.

"Ah, you're teasing me again!" Li Wenxi was a bit annoyed and wanted to give Keke a good rub, but she found that Keke had already dozed off in her lap, so she gently stroked its fur instead.

"Eep…" Keke made a comfortable sound in its sleep, turned over, and continued sleeping.

"So, can your prophet really predict the future?" Xu Xin asked, looking at Ji Chaoyang.

Ji Chaoyang was carefully peeling the orange in his hand into a flower shape, each orange peel nearly the same size.

"Rather than predicting, it's more like I can see the future." Ji Chaoyang put a slice of orange into his mouth and explained.

"See the future?" Xu Xin and the others expressed their amazement. This was even stronger than simple prediction!

"Exactly." As he ate slice by slice of the orange, his spirits improved, "I can see a scene from the future through my future self's eyes. The duration is at most about fifteen seconds; any longer and my Spiritual Power can't handle it."

"Hiss—" Xu Xin took a sharp breath, predicting the future, seeing the scenes of the future.

This world is becoming more and more mystical.

Qi Xuefei and Li Wenxi were both so stunned that they didn't know what to say.

"So, can you choose the specific future time?" Xu Xin asked.

Ji Chaoyang finished the last slice of the orange, took a deep breath, and shook his head: "I can't. I can only see images from some random future time, and I can only deduce when that time might be. But from what I've seen, the scenes usually happen within a day or two."

"How many times can you predict in a day? Are they different each time?" Xu Xin continued to ask.

"If my Spiritual Power is sufficient, I can keep on predicting, but…" Ji Chaoyang glanced out at the desolate scene beyond the window, "As long as the scene I've envisioned hasn't played out, there won't be a new prophecy. No matter how many times I predict, it's just that same scene repeating. I can only get more details each time. Only once I've seen that future come true will a new prophecy emerge."

"That's still amazing!" Li Wenxi marveled, "Being able to know what's going to happen is way too strong! Speaking of, can the future you predict be changed? For example, if you predict someone's death, can it be prevented?"

"I'm not sure," Ji Chaoyang shook his head, "My recent predictions have all been ones that revealed some information to me, so I haven't had to fight against them."

"You previously said finding the gold treasure chest was related to your ability, did you predict its location?" Xu Xin recalled Ji Chaoyang mentioning something on their way to find Li Wenxi and asked.

"Yes, that prediction showed me a ground full of plant debris and a cave entrance leading underground." Ji Chaoyang nodded, "I predicted multiple times and carefully observed the surrounding scenes, ultimately finding the location and encountering the guardian beast of the gold chest. You know the rest."

"Seems like your predictions come at pretty crucial moments as well." Xu Xin mused, stroking his chin.

"Indeed…" Ji Chaoyang looked out the window again, still with a worried expression, "The treehouse defense battle, I also predicted when I saw the heart of the plant. I concluded that this big heart was related to resolving the defense battle, so I chose to go out immediately."

"No wonder," Qi Xuefei realized, "I thought it was a bit reckless of you to go out at that stage, turns out you knew beforehand."

"That recent prophecy of yours…" Xu Xin noticed Ji Chaoyang kept looking out the window with a strange expression and immediately asked.

"It's a new prophecy, a new scene." Ji Chaoyang finally withdrew his gaze, his voice turning grave as he addressed the matter seriously, "My last prophecy was about the four of us meeting, and now that's happened. So, a new prophecy appeared."

"What did you see?"

All three were very curious about what future scene he had witnessed.

"I saw…the morning sun just rising on the horizon, but the ground was completely covered with snow. Every tree had silver-white snow hanging on its branches, even the crown of my treehouse was completely white with snow." Ji Chaoyang described the scene he had just seen, "The river had also frozen over, a truly icy world."

Xu Xin's pupils contracted.

An icy world?

Is the cold winter really coming?

"You mentioned before that your prophecies usually come true within one or two days?" Xu Xin immediately asked.

"Yes." Ji Chaoyang looked at Xu Xin and nodded, "So far, none of my prophecies have dragged beyond the third day."

"Tomorrow, or the day after…" Xu Xin's heart sank.

Xu Xin didn't doubt Ji Chaoyang's stated abilities or the scenes he had seen.

A world of ice and snow, with the river frozen over, would definitely be a disaster for most people!

The temperature over the past two days has reached seven or eight degrees, which has made it inconvenient for many people to go out. Just like when they encountered Li Yajun before, she shivered from the cold wind just seconds after stepping out of the treehouse.

At present, the blue-level suits have some warming effect, but the actual warmth is not very strong. Ji Chaoyang mentioned that he didn't feel particularly comfortable wearing a blue-level leather armor suit in the wind.

However, when Li Wenxi rode with him, she never mentioned feeling cold or uncomfortable. It seems the warmth effect of the blue-level steel armor is stronger. After all, the steel armor suit is the highest grade within the blue level. Xu Xin, wearing a purple-level scale armor suit, also didn't feel cold.

This shows that the higher the suit level, the better the warmth effect.

But this is under the current condition of seven or eight degrees. At this temperature, the warmth effect of the blue-level leather armor is just barely enough.

The flowing river surface can freeze completely; this temperature must be at least minus twenty degrees. At this temperature, let alone the blue-level leather armor suit, even his purple-level scale armor suit might not withstand it, as it's not specifically designed as a warming suit.

Moreover, current survivors have not cultivated cotton on a large scale, nor does anyone have the ability to raise wool-gathering animals like sheep. Survivors don't have the materials to make thick clothes, nor do they have thick clothes to wear.

Which means, when this icy world arrives, most survivors probably won't even be able to leave their homes, having to stay in the treehouse by the fireplace to endure the freezing cold.

"Is it going to snow in the next two days?" Qi Xuefei seemed slightly excited.

As someone who has lived for over twenty years without actually seeing snow, she has a strong yearning for a world covered in ice and snow.

Unexpectedly, she is about to see a real snow scene in this world.

"It's really cold when it snows, and we don't have thick clothes. Isn't the only option to stay in the treehouse?" Li Wenxi frowned slightly, "Wouldn't that mean we can't go outside at all?"

"Hopefully, it won't come until the day after tomorrow." Xu Xin sighed. "At least give us a day to prepare. If the cold comes tomorrow, the plan to meet Ma Hongwei will have to be temporarily put on hold."

He and Ma Hongwei plan to "discuss" how to take down the treehouse to the north, but who can possibly act in such icy conditions!

"According to my predictions, it should be the day after tomorrow." Ji Chaoyang's words reassured Xu Xin, "The interval between the realization of my predictions is usually one to two days. The scene I just predicted was at sunrise; if it were tomorrow morning, the interval from when four of us met would be less than a day, which goes against the previous pattern."

"If that's the case, it couldn't be better." Xu Xin relaxed a bit. With nearly two days, they have enough time to prepare many things.

"However, it's not certain; this is just one of my predictions. So we have to be prepared for the worst," Ji Chaoyang showed a serious expression, "Be ready for the world to be covered in ice and snow when we wake up tomorrow morning!"

Xu Xin immediately swiped his watch and opened the regional channel: "We must inform the others in Zone 188 now, and ensure they make fireplaces today... Damn it! The total number of people in the area has decreased again!"

The three of them also swiped open their watches. The number of people in Zone 188 was three fewer than before.

This is after Ji Chaoyang brought the woman over from the east, adding one person to Zone 188.

In fact, at least four more treehouses have been destroyed.

Xu Xin clenched his teeth. Most people are too far away from them now; they can only provide support with heavy crossbows and armor.

Ji Chaoyang frowned as well, immediately speaking up in the regional channel.

"Everyone, when you encounter other people, first confirm whether they are from this region. At present, the probability of people from this region appearing is small. You must be vigilant.

Those capable of crossing the protective zone to reach you are strong; do not leave the treehouse. Everyone should have a treehouse heavy crossbow. If something seems off, fire the heavy crossbow!"

Xu Xin also spoke in the regional channel.

"Don't trust anyone. If we find you, we'll use the watch to privately chat and confirm identities on the spot, so ensure you are wary of everyone.

Several people died again this morning; we've struggled to survive disasters and events. We can't die at the hands of other survivors. Everyone must stay alert!"

Their statements caused the regional channel to boil over.

"Understood, big-shot; I won't leave the treehouse!"

"Won't trust anyone unless the big-shot sends me a private message!"

"Someone really died again; oh my god, why must survivors fight each other? Aren't we all pitiful people dragged into this world?"

"The person above, it's much faster to directly rob than painstakingly gathering resources! Don't be naive!"

"Haha, I'm smart; someone came just now, and I shot him away with the heavy crossbow. He isn't from our region. Get lost!"

Xu Xin noticed the last person's remarks.

He encountered someone from another region?

Currently, not many can cross the safe zone to find other treehouses; the person he encountered is likely a strong neighbor they need to focus on!

Xu Xin noted his name, planning to privately message him later.

However, seeing their message had caught the attention of the survivors in the regional channel, all four of them sighed in relief.

They certainly don't want any more problems for the survivors they've managed to save from the same region.