Chapter 57: Welcome to the Animal Kingdom

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Welcome to the Animal Kingdom

"Welcome to the animal kingdom?" Miles Yates muttered in confusion, looking at Renee Morgan.

Renee Morgan stared at that sign, lost in thought for a moment. Suddenly she recalled that big guy’s warning last night—was the scariest thing in the forest not people, but animals?

What kind of animal would make them say something like that?

Surely it’s not a Siberian tiger, right?

Zayed had already come down from the stone wall and walked over to Renee Morgan, bluntly saying, "There are animals in the forest, very dangerous ones."

Kyle Beckett and Miles Yates glanced at each other, panic flashing in their eyes. They were ordinary people; their understanding of animals was limited to pet cats and dogs, chickens, ducks, and fish to eat. Cockroaches, rats, and snakes made them freak out, not to mention anything else.

The group one members, however, were calm. Having plenty of outdoor survival experience, they knew these animals would hide as long as you didn’t mess with them, and wouldn’t attack humans without reason.

Everyone relaxed after hearing the group one members’ explanations. After all, they’d been in the woods for a day and night without encountering anything dangerous. It seemed these animals wouldn’t deliberately attack people—but they still needed to be careful. If they spotted traces of animal activity, they should avoid them.

Kyle Beckett’s eyes lit up as he spoke, "If we catch a rabbit, can we roast it and eat it?"

The others all turned to look at him.

Wendy Aldridge fixed him with a pitiful gaze, "Kyle, we can’t eat little animals."

Kyle Beckett’s eyes widened in embarrassment.

Wendy Aldridge’s eyes reddened as she continued, "Little bunnies are so cute, how could we possibly eat them?"

Kyle Beckett: "..."

Wendy Aldridge wiped her tears, "Bunnies are friends of humans, could we hurt our friends?"

Kyle Beckett couldn’t take it anymore, looking to Renee Morgan for help, shouting, "Morgan!" Save me!

Renee Morgan was just thinking about what she’d do if they actually encountered a Siberian tiger—how to avoid danger and escape with her life—so she hadn’t really heard what they were saying.

"Hmm?" Renee Morgan looked at Kyle Beckett, her eyes questioning.

Kyle Beckett, teary-eyed, pleaded, "Morgan, if we catch a rabbit, can we eat it?"

The kid looked so hungry he might cry. Renee Morgan replied in a crisp, decisive voice, "Of course you can eat it—you can stew it, roast it, slice it, whatever you like."

"..."

"Haha, haha..." Julian Prescott and Lynn Miller couldn’t hold in their laughter, bursting out with thunderous guffaws.

The group one members all slapped their shoulders, exchanging knowing looks—see, that’s my goddess, so badass.

Kyle Beckett’s face was glowing, his eyes shining with stars as he looked at Renee Morgan.

Wendy Aldridge, with her reddened eyes, stared at Renee Morgan in disbelief, her gaze silently accusing: How could you be so ruthless?

Renee Morgan didn’t notice Wendy Aldridge’s sneaky gestures at all.

Seeing Julian Prescott and Lynn Miller laughing so wildly, she assumed they were amused by Kyle Beckett, so she glanced away unconcerned and turned to Zayed: "Let’s not venture too far. We camped by the river last night and it was safe, so this area is relatively secure."

Zayed nodded in agreement, "Alright, should we keep looking for food?"

Renee Morgan: "We can look nearby. If we really can’t find anything, we’ll figure something out."

They still had two more days in the forest. If they didn’t find food, even if they wouldn’t starve, it would be tough to endure.

"Is there food anywhere nearby?" Zara Chapman didn’t want to walk anymore.

The sun in the forest was scorching; there was water by the river but no trees for shade, and they were being roasted until they felt sleepy.

"Let’s just look as we walk." Wendy Aldridge didn’t want to move either, but she was more subtle about it, occasionally raising her slender arm to block out the blazing sun, posing for various sunlight selfies, with stubborn fragility deep in her eyes.

After yesterday’s blast from Renee Morgan’s looks, netizens still hadn’t recovered, and now all their screensavers featured her sunlight photos.

Not only that, whenever they picked up their phones, every platform pushed those photos. Even if they’d already seen them countless times, they couldn’t resist clicking and silently enjoying them again.

Now, looking at the delicate, flower-like Wendy Aldridge, she couldn’t inspire that sense of awe.

The trouble-making media even took hi-res samples of the two girls’ sunlight photos and wrote a comparison article titled: "#Both are showbiz newbies—why did Renee Morgan become an overnight global sensation, while Wendy Aldridge faded into anonymity?#"

The big group walked slow, until Zayed finally suggested splitting into smaller groups to search for food, and regrouping at the tents in the afternoon.

Kyle Beckett raised both hands in support, "I want to be in Morgan’s group!"

Lynn Miller and Miles Yates also joined Renee Morgan’s team.

Finally, it was settled: four people per team, sixteen people in total split into four groups. Group one divided into two teams, group two divided into two teams.

Zara Chapman, Wendy Aldridge, Julian Prescott, Lionel Lincoln formed one group, and Renee Morgan, Kyle Beckett, Miles Yates, Lynn Miller formed another.

The four teams split up, each heading in a different direction. Wendy Aldridge followed her group, then looked back at Renee Morgan, clenching her fists in secret—she was determined to find food and make Kyle Beckett and Miles Yates regret following Renee Morgan.

In truth, Renee Morgan didn’t have any wilderness survival skills. She’d just often gone foraging for wild greens with her grandmother as a child. Later, when she moved with her family to the city, her grandma refused to go, so Renee would return every school break. Grandma was getting old, and the grandkids fought to help her with farm work; Renee was no exception. Her favorite activity was picking wild greens with her grandma, then coming home to enjoy all kinds of treats. Those were some of her happiest times.

Renee Morgan didn’t know if the climate here was suitable for those wild greens. Now, all she could do was use her old foraging tricks—searching for damp soil.

On the way, they encountered a patch of wildflowers. Lynn Miller’s delighted voice rang out: "I thought there were only trees in the forest—didn’t expect to find wildflowers too."

It was understandable that Lynn Miller was so surprised; earlier, they’d been guessing if the base’s forest had set rules: everyone could only bring in one compressed biscuit, enough for three days’ survival.

Turns out, people kept trying to steal their food, and in the end, it was snatched away. Was it possible that the forest only had trees, and every other species had been deliberately eliminated? Then they wouldn’t need to look—they’d never find anything edible.

Now that they saw the wildflowers apparently left alone, maybe it meant there could be other wild edibles here after all.

Renee Morgan walked over at Lynn Miller’s excited call, and asked, "Do you know how to recognize wild vegetables?"

She didn’t bother asking Kyle Beckett and Miles Yates—one grew up well-off, the other was a rich kid. Knowing their grains would already be impressive, let alone identifying wild veggies.